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News and Notes | The Anchor Run Blog

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July 5, 2020
That Summer Feeling For Sure
by Farmer Derek
A test haul of some of our very favorite orange crops coming to shares soon! We asked Finch to show us his sad puppy face.
You know it's July when the 10-day forecast shows temperatures reaching 90 degrees daily. And it's early July when the spring-sown carrots and fall-planted garlic need to be harvested. And there's a chance of a thunderstorm every day. And when the sun wakes you up at 5:30am on a day when you don't need/don't want to set the alarm. But at least those afternoon moisture events bring clouds and cooling rainfall. Another 1/2-inch of nice rain was received this past Friday evening following the planting of 4,000 of the 7,000 strawberry plants (3,000 were damaged/destroyed/lost by FedEx but will be re-sent this week). We've been lucky so far this season with just about enough rain with no major deluges. We're much happier when things are on the dry side though our nerves do fray when it doesn't rain at all and temperatures soar. At least with this heat wave there's a chance of daily rain though that could mean you receive 3" and I receive .25". It'll be a challenge working in the heat but we must.
Besides planting 4/7ths of our 2021 strawberries last week we were of course busy doing many other things. Another round of cilantro, dill, and lettuces went in. Cherry tomatoes were pruned and trellised. Pea trellising was removed. Beet roots and cabbages were harvested. Crops were cultivated and weeded. Aisles were push mowed. Thousands of seeds were sown into trays (fall kale, chard, beets, fennel, lettuce, basil). Unused fields were flail mowed and chisel plowed. Raised beds were fertilized and reshaped for the 4,000 feet of fall broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage. Each pass with the shaper takes place after a rain event and removes germinating weeds and lowers the weed seed bank. Rain also stimulates microbial action in the soil and helps break down organic matter making for some nicer planting conditions. In a perfect world I'll chisel plow once, primary shape twice, and finish shape twice, with a rain event between each action. I typically begin preparing ground a month in advance. We've now opened up ground for our entire 2020 planting footprint. Areas I just chisel plowed will be planted in August and September.
Upcoming this week will be planting the rest of the strawberries as well as lettuces. Aforementioned broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower may also go in. Speaking of those, they were attacked by flea beetles in our hoop house. What was a few beetles became an onslaught of perhaps the entire spring colony. Today I went out with our vacuum and spent an hour sucking thousands of them off the plants and from the roof. I'm curious to see if it will be effective but I do believe I put a serious dent in their population. I'm pretty sure vacuuming is an organic approved pest control. I will save our fall brassicas!
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That Summer Feeling For Sure | Anchor Run CSA
 
title title title title title title title
title title title
News and Notes | The Anchor Run Blog

Displaying a Single Post |
Show Recent Posts

July 5, 2020
That Summer Feeling For Sure
by Farmer Derek
A test haul of some of our very favorite orange crops coming to shares soon! We asked Finch to show us his sad puppy face.
You know it's July when the 10-day forecast shows temperatures reaching 90 degrees daily. And it's early July when the spring-sown carrots and fall-planted garlic need to be harvested. And there's a chance of a thunderstorm every day. And when the sun wakes you up at 5:30am on a day when you don't need/don't want to set the alarm. But at least those afternoon moisture events bring clouds and cooling rainfall. Another 1/2-inch of nice rain was received this past Friday evening following the planting of 4,000 of the 7,000 strawberry plants (3,000 were damaged/destroyed/lost by FedEx but will be re-sent this week). We've been lucky so far this season with just about enough rain with no major deluges. We're much happier when things are on the dry side though our nerves do fray when it doesn't rain at all and temperatures soar. At least with this heat wave there's a chance of daily rain though that could mean you receive 3" and I receive .25". It'll be a challenge working in the heat but we must.
Besides planting 4/7ths of our 2021 strawberries last week we were of course busy doing many other things. Another round of cilantro, dill, and lettuces went in. Cherry tomatoes were pruned and trellised. Pea trellising was removed. Beet roots and cabbages were harvested. Crops were cultivated and weeded. Aisles were push mowed. Thousands of seeds were sown into trays (fall kale, chard, beets, fennel, lettuce, basil). Unused fields were flail mowed and chisel plowed. Raised beds were fertilized and reshaped for the 4,000 feet of fall broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage. Each pass with the shaper takes place after a rain event and removes germinating weeds and lowers the weed seed bank. Rain also stimulates microbial action in the soil and helps break down organic matter making for some nicer planting conditions. In a perfect world I'll chisel plow once, primary shape twice, and finish shape twice, with a rain event between each action. I typically begin preparing ground a month in advance. We've now opened up ground for our entire 2020 planting footprint. Areas I just chisel plowed will be planted in August and September.
Upcoming this week will be planting the rest of the strawberries as well as lettuces. Aforementioned broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower may also go in. Speaking of those, they were attacked by flea beetles in our hoop house. What was a few beetles became an onslaught of perhaps the entire spring colony. Today I went out with our vacuum and spent an hour sucking thousands of them off the plants and from the roof. I'm curious to see if it will be effective but I do believe I put a serious dent in their population. I'm pretty sure vacuuming is an organic approved pest control. I will save our fall brassicas!
share on Facebook share on Twitter link
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