Lots of crops, lots of weeds...

 With recent exams, our team has been unable to assemble at the garden at the same time so weed control has been slow going. We did not put down enough hay initially to sufficiently stifle weed growth so we’ve had to spend more time manually weeding. Additionally, after adding fertilizer most of our crops are doing well, but of course, so are the weeds.
There is a variety of weeds right now, most of which are in bloom. We’ve been contending with the sharp blades of nutsedge, small and prolific florida pusley and radiating spurge. Wild radish grows very large with long irregular, deeply lobed leaves and tall, plain flowers. Horse-nettle is not very obvious until you carelessly grab its spiny stem… Ouch! And then there’s oxalis which has pretty purple flowers and a mound of bulbous roots which are difficult to get completely out.
We’re getting pods on the first planting of beans. The newest planting of beans don’t seem to be growing as vigorously as the first, possibly because of the recent colder weather. Our carrots are growing steadily despite the competition with the surrounding weeds. The tomatoes, eggplant and pepper are doing well, we even have some small green tomatoes and one large pepper already. The squash is having an issue with some kind of pest. One leaf has been completely chewed away. While no caterpillar could be found, I did see some butterflies around… Also, the tiny black ants are a serious pain and care must be taken to leave the area for a while if a nest is disturbed. 

CSA Update

Carrots beginning to emerge

In addition to your usual weed suppression and watering, Thursday, the majority of our team met to plant more seed! All of our crops are coming up nicely (Though the carrots are quite slow) so it was time to add more. We are experimenting with succession planting, or planting a single crop at intervals to create a continuous harvest. We planted our first round several weeks ago when it was very hot. Now that it is a bit cooler we have planted another round. Not only will we have a longer time to harvest, but we can also see if the change in temperature affects the germination rate or vegetable quality.

We are also experimenting with intercropping, or planting two different crops in close proximity to maximize yield. Because our plot is fairly small, we planted rows of carrots between our tomato plants. We still considered spacing though so that the tomato roots would not affect growth. We also mixed cultivars among our crop species. 

We also checked on our transplants and seeded the rest of our tray. However, it is obvious by the yellowing leaves that we need to start a fertilizing plan. When they look a little better and have another pair of true leaves we intend to move them to the field.

Newly planted carrots between tomato plants