Thank you to all the volunteers who helped plant the potatoes! We got them all in with the drip tape installed and already in use!
We still have shares available. Spread the word far and wide — well, around the Twin Cities and suburban area. No real need to tell your friends in Cambodia, unless they are planning on moving here soon, then tell them!
Still selling most of our other shares. We have 10 EggShares left and three FlowerShares. The fruit, ‘shrooms, coffee, winter and cheese are still in abundance. Order them from our online farmstand!
We found an Eagan drop site! Yay! Tell all your Eagan friends!
The six-packs are ready but I haven’t been able to acclimate them to outdoor growing due to recent issues (see “Farm News” below). So, if you really want your plants now contact me and I can set them out for you. Be sure to acclimate them to the outdoors for a few days prior to planting them out. Otherwise, you can leave them with me for another week and perhaps we can solve our latest problem.
Farm News
Every year we run into new problems and this year is no different. This year’s new problem that recently arose and is becoming quite vexing is that something or someone is eating our plants once we transfer them to the cold frame. It started a couple of weeks ago and has gotten increasingly more problematic. This creature is also eating the plants when we transfer them outside to the acclimation benches next to the greenhouse. We’ve tried propping up plastic mesh over the plants and it was somewhat successful but but not successful enough.
We can’t figure out what the culprit is though we have a few suspicions. Our first thought is it could be birds. The main reason for this is that the plants don’t get trampled — just eaten. With birds and their skinny legs I wouldn’t expect them to smash the plants. Plus, the plants are eaten from the tops down and this is how I would think birds eat though I am not an ornithologist. Finally, some of the plants get pulled out of the tray which would happen with the bird biting and pulling up like a robin pulling a worm out of the ground. But, we do not find bird poop on anything. And if there is one thing us non-ornithologists know about birds is that they are indiscriminate poopers.
Our second thought is rabbits. They like veggies. They eat a lot. They have the strength to pull up plants. They may be too big to squeeze into the greenhouse which may explain why there is no damage (so far) to the indoor plants. We do see some rabbit poop on the ground in the cold frame but we’ve seen it there all winter and it doesn’t look new. Also the plants aren’t trampled and I would expect a rabbit to not be that careful.
Our third thought is squirrels or chipmunks. They have the dexterity to get under a plastic mesh. They can certainly jump up onto a table. They aren’t too big so any trampling by them could go unnoticed. I think they like veggies. I suspect they have the strength to pull plants out of the trays. And their poop may not be noticeable. But I think they could also get into the greenhouse so if it is squirrels or chipmunks why are they not going inside where it is warm to eat? Probably shouldn’t say this out loud and give them ideas.
I don’t think it is mice or voles. We’ve seen them in the greenhouse in the past and they don’t seem to eat plants. They dig up freshly planted seeds but not the plants themselves. Plus we set out a couple of traps baited with peanut butter and didn’t catch anything — then the ants ate the peanut butter. I would expect a squirrel or chipmunk would have gone for the peanut butter before hitting the plants which is a another strike against them.
One random thought is that we didn’t have this problem before we got the new cats. Could the cats be eating our veggie plants? I doubt it. They aren’t necessarily careful about where they step. Yet we can’t rule out anything yet.
Our next step is to setup a camera. We don’t have a camera that can do this but we’ll find one somewhere, hopefully. Anyone have something that can motion-detect smallish critters? We have a greenhouse full of plants and we need to solve this like yesterday. Otherwise I have no idea how we can move forward. Maybe take shifts watching over the plants? Who’s in?
Joke of the Week
What do you call a tomato that says it’s a potato?
An imitater.
As always, do not hesitate to send in questions, comments, suggestions, share orders or anything else you think would be helpful!