Monday June 11

Production from the beds is ramping up.  The weather up until this weekend has provided the best of both worlds – cool enough to sustain the lettuce, snap peas and cole crops, and sufficiently warm for the hot weather plants, and lots of clear skies.  But every day the highs have been going up a little, from the 70’s to the 80’s last week and yesterday 90 degrees.  Now the lettuce is showing signs of bolting and and the pea buds are burning. 

The area is also going through drought.  I can water the beds from the well, and the pond is subsiding fast for this time of year.  I'm thinking about getting a pump and using pond water to water the beds, but they actually don't use that much water.   Soybean fields in these parts are looking stressed.

I picked this broccoli this morning (Major).   It has a very round dense head nestled in the plant.  Scroll down to the previous post for a picture of a Pakman broccoli.  Very different look.  They're both good.

And also another summer squash (Cocozelle).  These squash are delicious.  That makes two of them this week, very early this year.  I also picked a very small cucumber (Picolino).

The potatoes are well up into the cages now.  They keep sending shoots outside the cages.  I try to push them back in every few days but some always find their way out. The beans between two cages are reaching for light.  I’m interested to see if they can produce well with the potatoes shading them.

The peppers are also way ahead of normal. 

So far there has been virtually no insect pressure except for cabbage butterflies around the brassicas, and their larva have been controlled completely with a weekly spraying of Bt.  With the warm spring the plants have really gotten a head start on the bugs.    

For the week:  Sugar snap peas 19 oz, lettuce 9 oz, summer squash 19 oz, cucumber 2 oz, broccoli 13 oz.  Here's a snapshot of the totals for the year: