I have to say that this season has been one of the most challenging farm seasons I can recall, mostly because I don’t really remember past seasons much. But if I had a good memory I believe this would still be one of the most challenging (wait, there can only be one most challenging. Maybe I mean more challenging). There have been a lot more have to work outside days than get to work outside days. Plants are the same. They’ve had a lot more have to grow outside days than get to grow outside days (not counting the indoor tomatoes). Maybe this is a good time for the annual cool season/warm season vegetable talk to explain how the plants have been challenged.
There are some crops that grow well during the cool times of the year and others that grow well during the warm times of the year. Cool season crops typically are frost tolerant. Warm season crop are typically frost sensitive. With the hot weather this season there hasn’t been much of a cool season. At the same time we had a very late frost so the warm season crops were set back from the very beginning. The hot weather impacted the cool season crops and the late frost impacted the warm season crops. So it hasn’t been a good season for any crops. But wait, some are doing surprisingly well! Let’s take a look.
The warm season crops winter and summer squash (and their cousin the pumpkin) got a double hit this spring with the late frost killing a few and the hoards of cucumber beetles digesting many of the rest. This onslaught of cucumber beetles isn’t specific to our farm. Farms across Minnesota have experienced far greater numbers of beetles than are typical. So we really aren’t that special when it comes to beetle pests. While trying to survive the beetles the survivors got hit by hail. Big leaves and hail are a bad combination. But wait, except for some holes in the rows from the lost plants they are persevering and looking really good — especially the winter squash! How is this even possible? I suppose being a plant that grows quite large it can outgrow a lot of the problems it encounters, as long as it survives them when it is young.
The tomatoes — a warm season crop — are also looking quite good — both the indoor and outdoor tomatoes. A few indoor tomatoes will probably be ready this week with an increasing amount over the next several weeks. The outdoor tomatoes are covered in flowers and a few are producing fruits! The hail was too early in the season to affect the tomato fruits. Yay!
Another crop that is looking surprisingly well is the cauliflower. Cauliflower is a cool season crop so you’d expect it to do about as well as the broccoli, which is to say horrible. But the plants are looking large, green and leafy. The flea beetles can’t keep up with the growth and we’ve been fairly effective controlling the cabbage loopers. (I always chuckle to myself when I write or say cabbage loopers. The word looper is funny enough but thinking about caddies schlepping around a bag of cabbages just tickles my funny bone). Now we need them to start heading up.
Cabbage is another cool season crop that is doing well. We grow five or six different varieties and they all seem to be doing well and in different stages of development. We considered harvesting some this week but decided giving it more time will allow it to grow bigger. Fennel is another cool season crops that seems to be doing well. Like the cabbage, we’re giving it a bit more time to grow larger.
Our third and fourth planting of lettuce is doing about as well as we could expect. Lettuce is a cool season crop that tends to bolt in hot weather and so far these last two plantings have only a few heads that bolted. But once one bolts the others aren’t far behind. We felt it was better to harvest a bunch of smaller heads of lettuce rather than risk losing it all to bolting. So the heads you’ll get this week and in the future will most likely be smaller than usual. But getting lettuce with the weather we’ve had is certainly surprising to me!
Watermelons are warm season crops and are looking great. They seem to be loving this weather. The fruits are just starting to form so we started putting the crow deterrents on in the hope that we can keep a few fruits for our members. Sweet potatoes also love the hot weather and are doing well. Speaking of potatoes, our potato plants — a warm season crop — look great thanks to all of you who helped plant them this past spring! They are flowering which means they are starting to form the tubers. We are giving them as much water as we can so we get as many tubers as possible.
Other warm season crops like eggplants, okra and peppers are doing quite well. The deer are eating a few of the okra but they seem to be growing faster than the deer are eating. You can say the same about the eggplant but replace deer with potato beetles. The sweet corn is looking good. The first variety is silking and the ears are forming. We could use some rain to make the ears plumper. The second variety is looking good as well. The third is getting thirsty. We may have to setup the sprinklers on this planting if we don’t get much rain.
The carrots are doing well. We are watering them quite a bit but are probably still a few weeks off. The peas being a cool season crop are doing surprisingly well. I thought we wouldn’t have any this year with the heat but the plants are producing though less than we planned. The herbs are looking great. Any idea what to do with lemon balm? And how much does one need to do this idea?
So overall the plants are doing better than I would expect given the late frost and the oppressive heat. With the forecast of cooler weather this week I think the plants will get a much needed break as will us farm workers.
What will we have this week?
We have a little of a lot of things. We have the last of the bok choi this week (don’t worry, we are planting a few more for later this summer/fall). We have plenty of green onions. We have some lettuce, some kale, some zucchini, some eggplants, some okra, some snap peas, some snow peas, a small amounts of chard, some salad mix, some basil, some kohlrabi and I’m sure some other things I’ve forgotten.
This is a Flower, Egg, ‘Shroom and Fruit week! Please plan accordingly.
That is all for now. Send in questions and comments. I’m running out of things to write about!