Winter Farm Update
Jan. 5th, 2019 11:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
unicorndukeSo over Christmas break from work, I went to PA to see family. As much as I wanted snow on the ground, I actually wanted to see what my field looked like. I hadn't seen it since the end of October since there was snow cover over Thanksgiving.
Things are alive! Mostly.
The experiment I've got going over the winter is whether peas can survive our cold and produce a crop in the early spring. I read Carol Deppe's How to Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties and The Resilient Gardener and she overwinters peas for an early spring crop of snap peas. However, she's in Oregon. Much milder winters.
But I checked my peas and the bush peas are alive! They normally only get to two feet tall and don't need staking. This variety is a shell pea, it's called Maestro. I think I'm going to save seed from it separately for winter hardiness. But look at them go! They're very small right now and that's what you want to see I think.
The pole peas didn't make it. Oh well.
I also have garlic nubbins, which are cute. I think whatever was pulling them up got bored or realized they weren't that good because I didn't find any others pulled up. Note to self: garlic mulched with straw next year.
My small grains are mixed. The stuff I broadcast is doing much better than the ones I tapped into the ground with the pole, probably because they were able to get out of the ground easier. But the stuff planted in are still there. Just tiny nubbins. This year was cold early and I think my planting was off because I hadn't anticipated it being so cold so fast. If this were last year or just a different year, they would have put on a lot more growth before the cold arrived.
The barley is doing as barley does in cold weather and it's getting pale. I'm not sure they have enough growth to get through the winter but they always seem to do okay.
in comparison to the wheat, which I think is what is in this picture. I uploaded them to flickr but didn't pay attention to which ones I grabbed so they're out of order. Could be rye.
Not too bad. We'll see when spring gets here.
Overhead view.
I'm not pleased with my cover crop growth. I think because the lever on the drill was stuck, I planted a lot of my cover crop in the same spots. The other issue was that I was working with such small amounts of seed that the drill had some issues. The last section looks so good in comparison because I dumped all the random seed bags into it and made like three passes over the whole thing. I have seen some erosion in areas of the field, but it's mostly a flat field. The dirt isn't really going anywhere. So I'm lucky.
The winter just came on fast. The other issue might be a lack of fertility. I haven't applied any types of fertilizers to the field and it was fallow last year so there might be some issues there. I planted the crops in the hope there would be some nitrogen fixation. I suspect it will just be a few years until I can get some good fertility from cover crops. I could go get some manure. I might if I ever spend more than a weekend in PA. The right section will be in cover crop all next year until the fall so with luck, I'll get some organic matter and fertility into it.
I'll be keeping an eye on things, maybe head that way at the end of February/beginning of March. I'm thinking about my transplants right now and how I'm going to set them up. Have I ordered all my seed yet? No. Shhhhh. It's fine.
Flyover drone video here
Things are alive! Mostly.
The experiment I've got going over the winter is whether peas can survive our cold and produce a crop in the early spring. I read Carol Deppe's How to Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties and The Resilient Gardener and she overwinters peas for an early spring crop of snap peas. However, she's in Oregon. Much milder winters.
But I checked my peas and the bush peas are alive! They normally only get to two feet tall and don't need staking. This variety is a shell pea, it's called Maestro. I think I'm going to save seed from it separately for winter hardiness. But look at them go! They're very small right now and that's what you want to see I think.
The pole peas didn't make it. Oh well.
I also have garlic nubbins, which are cute. I think whatever was pulling them up got bored or realized they weren't that good because I didn't find any others pulled up. Note to self: garlic mulched with straw next year.
My small grains are mixed. The stuff I broadcast is doing much better than the ones I tapped into the ground with the pole, probably because they were able to get out of the ground easier. But the stuff planted in are still there. Just tiny nubbins. This year was cold early and I think my planting was off because I hadn't anticipated it being so cold so fast. If this were last year or just a different year, they would have put on a lot more growth before the cold arrived.
The barley is doing as barley does in cold weather and it's getting pale. I'm not sure they have enough growth to get through the winter but they always seem to do okay.
in comparison to the wheat, which I think is what is in this picture. I uploaded them to flickr but didn't pay attention to which ones I grabbed so they're out of order. Could be rye.
Not too bad. We'll see when spring gets here.
Overhead view.
I'm not pleased with my cover crop growth. I think because the lever on the drill was stuck, I planted a lot of my cover crop in the same spots. The other issue was that I was working with such small amounts of seed that the drill had some issues. The last section looks so good in comparison because I dumped all the random seed bags into it and made like three passes over the whole thing. I have seen some erosion in areas of the field, but it's mostly a flat field. The dirt isn't really going anywhere. So I'm lucky.
The winter just came on fast. The other issue might be a lack of fertility. I haven't applied any types of fertilizers to the field and it was fallow last year so there might be some issues there. I planted the crops in the hope there would be some nitrogen fixation. I suspect it will just be a few years until I can get some good fertility from cover crops. I could go get some manure. I might if I ever spend more than a weekend in PA. The right section will be in cover crop all next year until the fall so with luck, I'll get some organic matter and fertility into it.
I'll be keeping an eye on things, maybe head that way at the end of February/beginning of March. I'm thinking about my transplants right now and how I'm going to set them up. Have I ordered all my seed yet? No. Shhhhh. It's fine.
Flyover drone video here
