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