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.
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