End of summer, fall, and winter updates because I’m lazy
I have not been posting any updates July, at least. Things got a bit crazy.
- Laid off from my day job
- Found out wife is pregnant, so a daughter on the way in February
At the same time, my tomatoes did well in one tunnel but not in anovther. Per the last post I destroyed everything in that one. I’ve since replanted for the fall and winter. This is the first test for winter growing in the new tunnels. I planted a bit late, but spinach particularly comes up fast.
The carrots are doing well despite being planted late. I’m hoping they will be ready by New Year’s. Last year I was able to harvest carrots from a low tunnel on New Year’s day. I expect the same, unless we get an extreme cold snap.
Speaking of cold, here is a picture of tomato blossoms taken on November 13th. They finally died during the last few days of sub-freezing temperatures. And even then I had to leave the tunnel sides up to encourage frost.
While the spinach has been doing well, its not enough to be worth selling based on the labor it takes to harvest it. I fill a 5 gallon bucket easily and it only weighs a couple pounds. Most we eat in smoothies and some is frozen. I did look into canning spinach. It takes about 30 pounds to get 7 quarts, which is a huge volume of spinach leaves. Hakurei turnips are also growing. I’m not sure if they’ll make it before bitter cold bites them.
In general, trying to plant the fall crops is a conundrum. Its always warm through September, and partially into October. For winter growing you want to plant as early as August. But if the tunnel is full of tomatoes still producing, when do I tear them out ? Its a big loss. Flipping the beds immediately also causes problems with weeds. The tens of thousands of tomato seeds create a fine carpet of plants. And as shown above the earliest ones got about a foot tall and bloomed.
Normally, its best to let the beds sit and water them for a couple weeks to let the weeds come up then kill them in some way – either a tarp or just cultivating them out.
Despite the lack of actual sales this year, I definitely learned whats going to grow best and be more popular. I’ll be detailing next year’s plan soon.