Tag Archives: tomatoes

Summer Crops Update: August 4

Posted on August 4, 2016 by Staff

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Rain!
Hooray! The light rain this past weekend amounted to only 0.1 inches in Lincoln, so Monday morning’s steady rain was a welcome sight. It appears the rain has worked its way below the soil surface. We had been watering via bucket brigade and by raising the transplanter above crops and driving over the plants with the water streaming down. We’ll see how the crops hold up this week!

Bucket Brigades Brought To You By
Volunteers helped us water beans and chard last Tuesday between harvesting potatoes. Food and Farm Educator Emma led groups of campers in hand-watering flowers and string beans in the front field. The whole team, with help from many volunteers, has been working hard to water melons, strawberries, eggplant, and peppers during the drought and heat wave. Thanks to all of them for their dedication and good cheer during this stretch of extreme weather!

Living with New England Wildlife
Now it’s time to catch up on other pressing jobs like stringing tomatoes and battling pests. We installed an electric fence around our watermelon patch to keep the coyotes out. Last year, they damaged almost every watermelon! The deer have been swiftly eating sweet potato vines, too, so we’ve sprayed garlic oil on the leaves to keep them away.

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Flower Harvest
Farmer Jessica has been doing a fabulous job leading the Friday flower harvest and making beautiful bouquets at the Union Square Farmers Market. Many thanks to last year’s CSA coordinator Katerina for taking the time to give Jessica pointers in flower arranging. For those who remember Katerina, she is now the head flower grower at Allandale Farm.

Drumlin Farm on WBUR
Reporter Andrea Shea of WBUR is a fan of our produce and frequents the Union Square Farmers Market. It was there that she made a connection with us and reported on the effects of the drought in Massachusetts. It’s a great story to read and hear, and paints a picture of how farmers across the state are handling the dry weather.

The Farm Stand: Designed by Farmer Katie
Farmer Katie has been responsible for setting up an attractive veggie display at the farm stand, and today you can find white corn, melons, and heirloom tomatoes. Note the impressive size of the corn and tomatoes! We were never able to water these crops by hand, so all that growth is the result of minimal rain and healthy soil maintained by our sustainable growing practices.

See you in the field,
Your Farmers

 

Summer Crops Update: July 6

Posted on July 6, 2016 by Staff
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Cauliflower from the greenhouse ready for transplant!

Weed-Out #1: In the Books
Camp Weed-Out #1 was in full swing on Tuesday! Campers are whisking weeds out of beds of broccoli, leeks, and fennel. Food and Farm Educator, Emma Scudder, and crops team members Cara and Katie are working with the counselors to direct the hundreds of kids. Fantastic job, all! Now that we’ve had about an inch of rain over the past ten days, weeds and crops will be growing faster, and the Weed-Out comes at just the right time.

The Importance of Hand-Weeding
We’re engaged in a long-term effort to reduce the size of the weed seed-bank in the soil. The bigger the seed-bank, the more difficult it is to establish direct-seeded crops like beets, carrots, and mesclun mix: You prepare a bed and seed it, only to find that weeds are germinating in a carpet ahead of your crop! This sometimes happens at Drumlin Farm, but the problem would be much worse if we didn’t devote lots of time to hand-weeding, hoeing, and tractor cultivation.

Straw: It Does a Tomato Good
Last week, volunteer groups helped us spread straw in the tomato patch, which will suppress weeds, help keep moisture in the soil, and prevent mud from splashing onto the lower leaves during heavy rain. The mud can spread plant pathogens into the tomato canopy. Straw is also an important part of our soil management practices. We’re always looking for ways to build soil organic matter, and plowing in straw at the end of the season is one way to do that. It’s the organic matter in the soil that traps moisture and helps our crops survive droughts.

Until Next Year, Peas and Strawberries (and Hello, Potatoes!)
Peas and strawberries are finished for the season. The spinosad spray for Colorado potato beetle, which we applied last week, was only minimally effective, so we’ll see reduction in the harvest as a result of foliar damage to the plants. On Monday, the crops team mowed a few beds of potatoes to prepare them for harvest. “New” potatoes come early in the season, often from plants that haven’t reached full maturity. The skin on these potatoes is very delicate, and sometimes flaky, because it hasn’t had time to toughen in the period between when the plant dies back and harvest occurs. We’ll have potatoes at the stand by the weekend!

See you in the field,

Your Farmers