December 26, 2010

A Christmas snow has come to help us end the season with a flair. Although it's only an inch or two, it is the first on Christmas since 1989.

The collards and cabbage, our last products of the season, are covered with snow and probably done for the season. Our last sale was on December 23rd this year and I'm happy to say that we exceeded last year's sales by a modest amount.

Overall the season has been challenging with the cold and wet spring followed by the dry and very hot summer. We are taking a few steps to help us with the weather variations next year. For the high tunnel a shade cover has been purchased. This will moderate the temps by about 8 degrees. In addition we will be installing some vents on the end panels. In the spirit of sustainable agriculture, the vents will be non-powered and vent by convection. Additionally a new tomato variety more suited to high tunnels will be used.

The seeds for next year have been ordered and are starting to arrive. I plan to start the pepper seeds in mid January and the tomatoes shortly after that. If all goes according to plan, the tomato transplants will be planted in the high tunnel mid March.

We have ordered 1800 onion plants for arrival mid February. This year I plan to cover them with a low tunnel frame covered with vented plastic. Last year the first onions planted died from the cold wet spring. The long range forecast is for similar weather so next year we'll cover them for the first two months.

Now it's time to take a few weeks off and get ready for next season. Hope everyone has a great new year.

October 16, 2010

Had a nice visit from my sister Eleanor and her husband Ralph. Ralph and I worked on the farm while Eleanor and Debbie went shopping. Here is our project protecting us from the frost we had last night.


Our fall crops are coming in slowly and we are starting to sell collards and turnip greens. We even had a few red tomatoes. For now we are selling green tomatoes, a southern favorite. The squash is doing well and it is a big seller at the Rockmart Farmer's Market.

The high tunnel continues to frustrate us. Temperature control is an issue and that is affecting the ripening of the tomatoes. Red tomatoes are peeking thru here and there though.

The low tunnel is rocking with nice size green tomatoes. Should be ready (red) by month end. So far the three light frosts have caused only minor damage to the tomatoes.

The farm stand continues to operate three days a week. Squash, tomatoes, pickles and muscadine jelly are the main attractions for now.


Here are the collards and cabbage. The cabbage will be a while yet.

September 13, 2010

Where did the time go? The summer has flown by and most of our vegetable production went with it. Now it's time for the Fall crop. Here are a few pictures of the garden now and the latest on the high tunnel.

The frame on the left will function as a low tunnel to protect the fall tomatoes. I plan to use row covers drapped over the frame to protect the plants from frost. Usually we get a series of frosts around Oct 25th that last for three days and then it turns nice again. This is my attempt at protecting the plants. The squash on the right will just have row covers over it without a frame. The squash is almost ready to pick now so we should get a minimum of 6 weeks production before a frost.

This is a closeup of the squash plants.They are very healthy now. They seem to like the raised beds with cypress mulch and drip irrigation.

This is a longer view of the low tunnel. These tomato plants and the ones in the high tunnel were all propagated at the same time. The low tunnel plants are about 32"-36" high with 1/2" stalks and were planted on August 4th. The high tunnel plants are up to 6 feet tall with 1/4" stalks and were planted on July 4th.

This is the collard and cabbage patch. When it cools a bit we'll plant the broccoli.

In the background below is the turnip patch, a local favorite. We will harvest the tops for greens and then the roots later on for purple top turnips.

The tomato plants in the high tunnel are looking kind of spindly. The heat in the high tunnel has been a big problem. At times it reached 118 even with the ends open and sides rolled up. As I found out this year, tomato plants will not set fruit when the temperature is over 90 degrees. The blooms form and then they die. We have had record heat this year. During July the daily temperature was 4.6 degrees higher than the historical average. We had so many days over 90 during June, July and August I quit counting. I recently found a new weapon I'm trying - Purshade. It is a chemical coating of a calcium product that is harmless to humans and provides an SPF 45 when sprayed on tomato plants (and others). You can see the coating in the pictures below. It washes off easily.

The eggplant is doing well in the tunnel. In a few weeks it'll be ready.

Our recent activities have included canning Muscadine jelly and pickled okra. Both are quick sellers at our farm stand. If the cucumbers hold up in the tunnel, we'll be making bread and butter pickles real soon. Right now the cucumbers are fighting off powdery mildew. I hope they make it. Today I'm going to remove some old squash plants from the tunnnel and plant more cucumbers. These cucumbers are in high demand.

We are hopeful that by October 1st we will be selling tomatoes again. The weather is starting to cool down but it will still hit 93 today. Tomatoes are a definite draw for the farm stand. By next week we will be covered up in squash as the 80 or so plants we have start producing heavy yields.

June Report

I'm running a little late with my updates but it has been very busy! The high tunnel arrived and is now in place.

The farm stand is open 6 days a week now. Here are a few pictures taken on June 30, 2010.

Tomato sales are very brisk. This year we have 5 main varieties for sale and they are all producing excellent size tomatoes. Green beans are producing but not for long. They suffered from the wet weather we had earlier. We have volumes of squash this year. I finally found the secret of getting rid of squash bugs. They can be a big problem.

Currently we are also selling sweet corn, cucumbers, pole beans, okra, onions, zuchinni, and potatoes. Coming soon will be cantalopes, October beans, and butter beans. August will bring watermelons and we will have sweet potatoes in September.

Debbie's canned pickles, squash, and salsa round out the list. Sales have been very brisk.

Hi Tunnel Update

I told my salesman that my tractor could lift 1500lbs. He said not to worry because there would be lots of boxes. The tunnel arrived in 14 boxes. Box number 1 weighed 1468 lbs. Holy smokes! When I tried to lift it off the truck at a height of 5', it lifted the back tire of the tractor off the ground. Plan B was to off load it piece by piece.

Here is the base unit before the covers we installed. At this point we were 3 days into construction.

Below is the final product. Planting will happen soon. I have about 200 Rutger tomato plants ready to plant in it and then I'll probably plant some beans and other veggies for the late season.

Elaspsed time for construction was 6 days for three people. This job was bigger than I anticipated but I think the tunnel will serve my needs for a long time. It is a very sturdy unit.

My next post will cover the hi tunnel.

May 15, 2010

Well, Things are rolling along. The onions are selling well even though we haven't started fixed hours. The tomatoes are looking GREAT! I'm so relieved that we haven't suffered any maladies yet. We expect red tomatoes by the first or second week in June. We will have five varieties of tomatoes: Celebrity (my favorite), Better Boys, Mountain Fresh, Rutgers, and Plum.










Pictured here are our early squash and cucumbers. Since I took this picture two days ago they have almost doubled in size. I had three plants fall victim to squash vine borers but a quick spray should stop that.


Here are some more pictures for those interested.

Broccoli and Cabbage on the right, Celebrities on the left

Bush Beans and Onions

Hilled Potatoes

And finally Corn. Hope the rain holds up. We need some now!

Stay tuned for new news regarding High Tunnels. It needs a post of it's own :)

Updates April 24, 2010

The garden is starting to come together. The squash and cucumbers are coming up! These two are usually our first crop after spring onions.

The onions will be ready May 1. We have a limited supply of spring onions so shop early.

Some of you may remember the saga of the frozen cabbage plants. Freezing weather and 6" of snow seemed to doom them for sure. Well, fear not, here they are in late April.

The potatoes have finally started to come up. The cold rainy weather in March slowed them down. We are hoping for a good outcome in July.

April Showers

Well, we haven't had any rain for a while so it's time to catch up on my paperwork (digital also). We finally finished planting phase I of our garden during this dry spell. The light rain all day today will be just what the doctor ordered.

The tomatoes are in and adjusting to their new surroundings. In about a week they should perk up and get over the transplant shock. I need to get busy with the cages for the Better Boys and strings for the rest. This year we will have four major varieties of tomatoes from acidic to sweet. We should start getting tomatoes in early June.

The tomatoes in the foreground will have cages so that is why there is no plastic around them. This increases our weed control problem but it is necessary because the fruit of this variety is too heavy for the Florida weave. They will also produce up to the frost under ideal conditions. Last year almost everyone's tomatoes succummed to the late blight in the late season. Hopefully it will be different this year.

In the past two weeks we have planted okra, black diamond and congo watermelons, rocky ford and ambrosia cantalopes, and all of our tomato and pepper plants. The squash, green beans, and cucumbers are up and looking pretty good. They should be ready to pick at the end of May.

The cabbage and brocolli and looking very tasty. They should be ready for picking in late May.

We lost about 500 onions to the cold damp weather but the replacements are looking good. We expect a few to be ready in early June and the bulk to be ready by July 4th.

In a few weeks we'll be planting purple hull peas, October beans, and round two of cucumbers, squash, and green beans. That will do it until the fall planting. Until then it's weed, weed and weed.

We will open the farm stand about the third week in May on Tuesdays and Saturdays with cucumbers, cabbage, broccoli, and our very popular summer squash. Stop by to see us and get some authentic Home Grown Vegetables. They are always fresh and tasty.

p.s. I almost forgot about the corn. We cranked up the two row planter and did 8 long rows of sweet corn last Sunday. We are keeping our fingers crossed. Last year's corn was a total flop but with the addition of a ton and a half of lime we are expecting good things.

Spring is Here! March 28, 2010

One sure sign of spring are the 'Yellow Bells' in the south. Our new bed in front looks very spring like today. It won't be long before we start planting the frost sensitive veggies.

Last Saturday we put the remaining potatoes in the ground. Pictured is the chief potato planter hard at work.

Yesterday and today we planted more onions to supplement our struggling onions planted in February. Five inches of snow and multiple freezes took their toll. I took this opportunity to add 28 more feet of raised beds. Over time I'll fill the beds with more soil but for now it's sufficient to grow onions. On Saturday I added 1500 pounds of top soil as well as a 1/2 yard of goodies from the compost pile just to create the new beds.

Now if I just had a little more room :-)

Here are the latest pictures of the transplants. So far all the plants are healthy and doing well. For the moment I am caught up with the process. Now we need some dry and warm weather. Last week we had over 4 inches of rain in two days. I'm a little worried about the two rows of seed potatoes I planted. They may rot from all the rain. Time will tell. The rows are 250' long and I have four more to plant when it dries out. The deer have come out of the woods and are looking around. Sweet Pea keeps them moving but they just wait until dark when no one can see them. When the crops come up I'll spray them with a liquid that is harmless to humans but distasteful to deer and rabbits.


Here is our deer protector, all 42 pounds of her.

I forgot to post these pictures last month to show that Georgia really does have snow. The good news is that contrary to our experience in the Annapolis area, the snow was gone in 1 day.

March Update

Here are some of the graduating class participants. Most of the tomato plants are now 8" tall. They will be transplanted to 4" pots and then later this month they will go to 6" pots if they grow enough. By the time they go in the ground in late April, they may be 24"-32" tall. I'm, going to try to leave the peppers in 2" pots and see how that affects the maturing process. They take a long time to mature in the garden since they need the summer heat so I think a good root structure is better than verticle growth.


This picture show the stages of transplanting. I'm going from 2" rectangular pots to 4" round. From left to right in the foreground - an 8" tomato plant in original 2" pot; a plant trimmed of lower leaves; a plant re-poted in a 4" pot with a bamboo stick and name tag. Name tags are very important as we will have 6 different tomato varieties, each with a different purpose.


I've laid out the potatoes so they can start to produce eyes. The plan is to plant them by St Patrick's day (Mar 17). Shown here are 50 pounds of red and white. They can yield up to 10x their weight. I'm getting 50 more pounds today so I'm hoping for a big potato crop :-)


In the front are the new Broccoli plants. They are still rather small. but are starting to get their true leaves. They will be ready to transplant in about 2 weeks.