Intercropping: an Underutilized Tool

 

After nearly two decades of vegetable and fruit production, I have come to the conclusion that one of the most under-used tools in a farmer's toolbox is intercropping.  It doesn't seem to matter how big the farm is, whether it is certified organic, or if the main focus is on perennial or annual plants.  If intercropping techniques are used at all, they are rarely prioritized and are often discarded if they fail to meet unrealistic expectations the first time a grower tries them.

My own experience tells me that intercropping is just like any other potentially effective tool.  You need to expend a little effort on becoming proficient before you fully understand what it can do for you.  It was only when we fully embraced intercropping for our melons and watermelons that we unlocked the potential for vine crops on our own farm.

What is intercropping?

A brief, and simple, explanation is that intercropping is the intentional use of plant diversity within a growing system.  And, I offer up the example at the top of this article as exhibit A.  In that picture you will see melons surrounded by zinnias and borage.  Not easily seen in the photo are two additional types of melon, watermelons, buckwheat, calendula, and sunn hemp.  All of this diversity was fully intentional on our part - and very successful in terms of our production for the season.

A grower, whether they are a large-scale row cropper or a small-scale vegetable producer, can effectively introduce diversity several ways.  Some of that diversity can come in the form of different cash crops (crops that we intend to harvest).  In the example above, the melons and watermelons were our targeted cash crops.  The rest of the plant diversity we identified as support crops because we did not intend to harvest them.

We introduced diversity within our cash crops by growing three types of melons and two types of watermelon in this plot.  We enhanced the diversity in the field further by introducing several types of flowering crops as well as some things that are considered to be cover crops (buckwheat and sunn hemp).  The flowering crops help to support pollinator services and the cover crops help to improve soil health.

How might a grower introduce intercropping?

Every farm has different needs and different strengths, so intercropping may not be entirely the same from location to location and farm to farm.  Row crop farms could add diversity to their fields by using "strip intercropping."  I noticed a couple of farms on a recent drive that integrated corn and soybeans into the same field along with grassy terraces in some of the steeper areas.  Each cash crop strip was twice as wide as their planting equipment.  I also was pleased to see another farm who added perennial prairie strips into their fields to support pollinators and add diversity to their land.

On my own farm, we have always implemented row intercropping.  Each row or bed in our fields is intentionally paired with other rows in hopes that we can introduce positive interactions between crops.  Row intercropping keeps it simple so the increase in necessary labor is minimal.  And, the positive interactions can take many forms.  We typically have planted our carrots between our peas.  There is not a specific interaction between the plants, but we do trellis our peas.  That fencing keeps the deer out of our carrots.

I like to call it functional on-farm diversity.

Over time, we've taken our intentional diversity further by doing more with mixed intercropping (putting different plant types in the same row or bed) and relay intercropping (having two crops in different stages of development in the same bed).  This can be as simple as putting in a few flowers as crop markers to tell us when a crop variety changes to starting lettuce in the tomato rows and harvesting that lettuce as the tomatoes grow and the lettuce matures.

It seems complicated, why do it?

Research in ecology has shown us that biological systems are healthiest and most productive when there is more, not less, diversity.  So, it stands to reason that the closer we get to a single plant type for large areas of land, the less healthy it is because the natural services of the ecosystem are hindered.

But, if you need an argument from the standpoint of farm productivity, consider the natural crop insurance a farm can enjoy when it raises multiple crops.  Some years favor one crop, some years favor other crops.  A diversified cropping system is more likely to provide consistent returns from year to year without external support.  Perhaps you have heard the phrase, "don't put all of your eggs in one basket?"  That's exactly what our reliance on huge agricultural fields with one plant species is like.  It is less robust and far more likely to break when stress is put on it.

There is research that shows us that intentional diversity in cropping systems can provide natural pest control, improve soil health, decrease weed biomass, attract beneficial organisms and - believe it or not - improve overall production.

This brings me back to our cover photo for this article.  That field was a "grand experiment" for the farm that season.  We made the intentional choice to plant 33% fewer melon and watermelon plants that season and we replaced them with more support crops to increase our intentional diversity in that plot.   We were fully prepared to harvest fewer melons and watermelons as a result.  Instead, we harvested 33% more melons and watermelons than we had in prior years.  And we replicated that same thing the next year - and the year after that - and the year after that. 

Not So Marigolds - Another Faux Real Story

 After yesterday's story, I received some feedback that I thought would be worth sharing here.

First - there was a question about how Maurice took the story I told in yesterday's blog.  My direct reply was that Maurice was getting pretty sleepy.  Perhaps this was a bedtime story for him?  Though, if it were, I would have selected something a little less frightening from the tree perspective.  Our Weeping Willow's response was just a long, drawn out, "hmmmmmmmm."   

I was worried that, perhaps, he was upset with me, so I went out today.  Upon seeing me, he asked for another story.  And, it just so happens, a comment in yesterdays' blog ALSO asked for another story.

So, here you go!

Our desire to grow our gardens without chemicals has become stronger over the years, but we held this conviction even with our first garden in Burke, Wisconsin.  Tammy and I probably had a tendency to think this way already, but Tammy likes to point to the moment when we read the label for a popular pest control dust that was commonly used by gardeners.  It said something about NOT eating anything treated with the product for 48 hours (or something like that) and we both asked the question, "What sort of magic happens between hour 48 and 49?"

The answer?  Nothing special... the product would not just simply disappear because it was following label directions.  

Anyway, I tell you that little tidbit so I can tell you THIS story!

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Our landlords were kind and had a section of ground tilled up for our garden. We already knew that there were many rabbits in our area and we had nightmarish visions of our entire garden being mowed over by the 'evil' little critters. We didn't really have the money for fencing and we weren't anxious to spray a repellent or kill the bunnies. So, what to do?

Thus begins our first foray into companion planting. We had heard from somewhere (or someone) that marigolds were a good companion plant for vegetable crops. Why? We didn't know. But, when we also heard that rabbits did NOT like marigolds and would tend to avoid them, we formulated a plan.

It was a simple plan that would be the master stroke. It would solve all of our rodent problems! Let's go buy enough marigolds to circle our garden. Surely it would provide us with a natural fence that would keep the critters out, be a friend to our vegetables, AND look pretty as well!

 

In went the garden. Around it went the marigolds.  As we stood back to look at our handiwork, we came to realize that the were not all that big - now that you saw them in the ground. They were only 2 inches tall - most with a single marigold flower.  We had spread them out evenly on the border and watered them in well. 

 

In one day, we had planted our first garden, complete with a natural fence.  Even if that fence looked a little... well... inadequate.

 

But, hey!  Rabbits do NOT like marigolds!  We were sure we had put enough of them around the garden to do the job.  So we went inside, feeling quite pleased with ourselves.

Our first morning foray into the garden revealed our first gardening tragedy. The tiny peppers were fine. The little tomato plants were fine. The broccoli plants? Well, we lost a couple. The marigolds?

Every last marigold plant had been nipped just above ground level. And, the rest of the plants (with now wilted flowers) were neatly lying next to the stem. It was true. Rabbits do not like marigolds.

And they had just seen to their removal.

Pollinator Support in the Nooks & Crannies

This year's Practical Farmers of Iowa conference was held virtually at the end of January and it went as well as any event that is normally geared to face to face interaction can go when it must be done at a distance.  Both Tammy and I presented as part of a 'Lightning Talks' series of presentations where each individual got about 8 minutes of time to cover a topic.  Tammy presented on turkeys and I covered planting to support pollinators and beneficial organisms on the farm.

PFI will put at least some of the sessions out for public consumption as time goes on, but I suspect the Lightning Talks won't make the cut.  It's just the nature of the beast.  However, I thought that people might enjoy a blog version.  It won't be exactly the same, of course - but perhaps it will have value on its own merits.

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One of the things Tammy and I have committed ourselves to over the years at the Genuine Faux Farm is providing a diverse and healthy habitat for beneficial critters on our farm.  We delight in seeing all kinds of bees and toads and snakes and ladybugs and...  Well, you get the idea.  There are even some creatures that are welcomed with less joy on a vegetable farm, but are nonetheless part of the diversity that makes for a healthy ecology.

Every year, as we design our planting plan for the season, we identify the edges and the corners that could be turned into opportunities.  Here are some of the opportunities we try to take advantage of every season as we are able.

1. Let Some Areas Go

A healthy farm is not necessarily one where everything is completely tidy and there are no wild areas.  In fact, it is important that there be some truly wild areas on every farm, in my opinion.  Places that you just don't get to when you look at 'cleaning things up.'  

Of course, you would be correct if you point out that there might be 'good wild' and 'bad wild' as far as our farms are concerned.  One example of a 'wild' that I am not terribly pleased to keep are the stands of Giant Ragweed that we've battled from "Year One" at our farm.  These plants tend to choke everything else out and they don't really seem to support much diverse wildlife.  So, we've worked to control those areas and encourage other 'wildness' that harbors more diversity.  

On the other hand, we had some strong patches of asters this year and we were happy to let them go so our pollinators would have a reliable food source late in the season.

2. There Are Plenty of Corners Outside

If you plant as many crops as we do at the Genuine Faux Farm, then you have plenty of little nooks and crannies where you can slap some interesting and attractive flowers.  And, we are NOT above being opportunists.  We planted these chleome at the end of a bed in 2019 and found a significant number of volunteers popping up in that area again this season.

We ended up transplanting some, cultivating others out and leaving a few in the same spot this year.  While I do not acknowledge chleome as a highly attractive pollinator plant, they lend color and a diverse landscape for all sorts of critters.  We also tend to go with some of the more traditional, old varieties rather than the highly hybridized versions because they often do seem to support wildlife better.  This decision is based only on our own anecdotal evidence - but it is enough for us to feel comfortable with this decision.

3. And Opportunities Inside!

Most vegetable/hort growers around our size of farm have at least one high tunnel for production.  The tendency is to recite the mantra that the space inside a high tunnel is "Prime Real Estate."  Thou shalt not waste the "P.R.E.!"  As a result, too many farms put a single crop in their buildings to optimize production.  This tends to eliminate diversity and the grower commits the same sin so many of us like to blame row cropping systems for doing.

Perhaps we go quite a bit further than many growers by having anywhere from eight to twelve different crops in each of our buildings.  All that does is illustrate either the level or our commitment or the extent of our insanity.  But, I do think many growers miss an important opportunity when they fail to do anything to diversify in the high tunnel.  For example, we plant sweet alyssum at the base of our trellised heirloom tomatoes.  

The biggest issues?  Well, the sweet alyssum is a strong volunteer plant the next season that will need to be controlled in crops that don't get as tall as tomatoes.  And, I suppose you could argue that they get into the walking path and try to trip you up as you harvest.  I think I can tolerate that.

My biggest concern about attracting pollinators and other wildlife to the high tunnel is that these buildings can be a death trap to some of our worker friends.  Sometimes birds and butterflies don't figure out how to get back OUT of the building and we find their bodies later on.  In the end, I just have to trust that by creating more habitat, we encourage more robust populations - even if we lose some in this fashion.

4. Lawns and Pastures are Opportunities

Our farm has lawn areas closer to the farm house and pasture areas for our poultry.  In both cases, we are happy to let dandelions grow so the pollinators have early season food sources and we encourage clover in all of these areas.

We have even gone so far as to allow a couple of areas in our 'lawn' to become overwhelmed by clover that we cut once the first peak bloom finishes so it will be encouraged to produce a late bloom.  The presence of bumblebees and butterflies confirms for us we are doing a good thing.  I was tempted to say we are doing the 'right thing,' but I wonder if that is too presumptuous of me to say.  Nature is far too complex for me to ever be completely certain what the 'right thing' might be.  

Maybe I should say we are doing a 'better thing' - as in - 'better than other things we could be doing.'

5. Plant Those Borders with Pollinator Support Crops

We are fully aware that many of our crops are highly reliant on the presence of pollinators for production.  Melons, squash and cucumbers are all more likely to do better if you encourage pollinators to be present.  Even crops that do not rely on pollinators, such as broccoli and cauliflower, will benefit from the presence of predators you encourage by providing shelter and diverse habitat.

About the easiest nook or cranny any farm might have would be the edges of plots, rows and fields.  Give up that outer row that never produces all that well anyway and put in some annual flowering plants.  Or, better yet, put in some perennial pollinator habitat there.  The endangered Monarch will thank you for your efforts.

You do not have to go right to the end of each row with your cash crops either.  Put a few flowering plants at the end of row.  It's still in the row so your cultivation practices won't have to change.  Planting a few things on the edges is a simple task that you could even ask a volunteer to do.  

6. Intercrop Rows of Pollinator or Habitat Support

You can always go to the next level and dedicate some of your beds to plants that do not directly provide you with crop production.  Several years ago, we decided to reduce the number of rows that had melons and replaced them with borage, zinnia, calendula, basil and other flowering plants.  We planted 1/3 fewer melon plants and expected a corresponding drop.

Let me be perfectly clear here.  We removed cash crop plants from our plan.  We put in flowering crops that would have no harvest value to us.  We treated these flowering crops as well as we did our cash crops by cultivating and even running a drip line during a dry season.

The result?  We got 1/3 MORE saleable melons that year.  And we had similar results in the years that followed.  

We got a positive result that was directly attributable to this change in this instance.  But, we do NOT expect such a return for every one of our projects at our farm.  Typically, we will call these efforts a success if our production stays close to what it was.

Why?  Well, if we can do things that do not actually hurt our bottom line for production AND we see evidence that it helps provide useful habitat - why wouldn't we? 

And, of course, we are more likely to reach our goal of creating a field that we like to be in.  That is a successful field!

7. Intercrop In Row

Take it up one more notch.  It really isn't all that hard to do - even if you use a waterwheel or other, similar, transplanter. 

We will often use marigolds, calendulas, zinnias, or other flowers to mark a change from one variety of a crop to another.  For example, we have typically grown three to four varieties of broccoli to extend the harvest period and handle variability in seasonal conditions.

We also use flowers as dividers when we do on-farm research.  If you look closely at the picture above, you will see some color here and there in our broccoli and cauliflower rows.  

Sometimes, the selection of a flower to intercrop in row has a very specific purpose.  We have found that nasturtium can reduce the incidence of vine borers in squash.  Now, that's a pretty good incentive to slap a few nasturtiums in between plants in our cucurbit rows! 

8. Leave That Spent Cash Crop

The picture below shows a field where we have some arugula and mustard flowering at the right side of the picture.  As the season got warmer, these plants bolted and wanted to flower and set seed - all part of the natural process.  These crops often flower when flowering plants are not at their peak to be available for our worker friends, so we left the crops to bloom for a time before we took them out.  These plants were BUZZING with activity.

The obvious downside?  Well, we aren't growing anything for farm production there while we let the plants bloom.  But, we have found that perhaps we don't need to make every square inch be productive in that way for every day of the growing season.  And - if we have healthier pollinators at this time of year, they will be there for our crops that need them later in the season.

The next obvious downside would be the volunteer plants we are bound to see in future seasons in addition to some weeds that get more established than they would have otherwise (the flower stalks make it hard to cultivate near those rows).  Frankly, these are not insurmountable problems, so I am willing to deal with them.  Once again, I think the benefit outweighs the cost.

9. Some Cash Crops Work for Habitat Too

We made the choice to grow several 200 foot rows of basil every season because we liked how it worked with our tomato field.  There was no way we would have demand for that much basil.  And, even if we DID get that much demand, we did not have a processing system in place to handle that much of the crop and get it to the proper markets. 

We still grew that much basil because we could target sections of it for the basil we wanted to give to our CSA customers or sell and the rest could be allowed to bloom.  Basil, especially Lemon Basil, really does provide an excellent food source for many of our smaller pollinators.  And, those same critters increase the pollination levels in our tomatoes.  

In short, you need to remember to pay your workers well.  If you do, they will work better for you.  Sometimes, that means giving up a little production space so the workers have a 'break room.' 

10. Grow to Leave Some Food Sources in Winter

With the snow pack this year and the extreme cold we have had recently, I have found myself feeling even more grateful that we planted and then left many row feet of sunflowers standing on our farm.  

The Cardinals and Goldfinches love the seeds and we hope this has helped some of them survive so we can see them again this Spring.  If you feed the birds, that's great.  But, why not feed them AND provide places for them to perch.  Places that might have more shelter from predator birds or the farm cat?  

The woody remains of basil plants provide shelter for the smaller creatures - including mice - that you might like to have predating on weed seeds (and basil seeds).  They help hold soil in place and capture some of that snow that would otherwise keep on blowing until it sits in the ditches.  

Certainly, growers know enough to point out some of the shortcomings of these practices.  The more variety you plant, the harder it is to be efficient in your labor.  But, while it might be harder, it is not impossible.  Every tool - and I consider this approach one such tool - has its learning curve and every tool has its plusses and minuses.  But, it is my belief - once again - that the issues created by planting pollinator and beneficial population support in the nooks and crannies are nothing compared to the potential benefits that might be accrued when more people do this habitually, rather than haphazardly.

Are you a grower?  I challenge you to use those nooks and crannies well.

Do you have a yard or a small garden?  You too have your opportunities!  The scale is different, but you can still take some of the thoughts here and make them your own.  I also challenge you to find those nooks and crannies in your life and fill them with flowers and worthwhile habitat.

I am looking forward to a beautiful growing season for all of us.  Let's make it happen.  Let's create a pollinator paradise.

Sustainability by Planning on Doing

There are times when you embark on a project and you make headway - and then something happens and all progress stops.  Once example of such a situation is the series of three blog posts I undertook to write in May 2019.  

I succeeded in publishing Sustainability By NOT Doing and the follow-up Sustainability by Doing - but I failed to get the Sustainability by Planning on Doing post out there!  So, here we are in February, 2021 and I looked at the stub for this post and realized just how forlorn it looked.  Sitting there all by itself!  Let's see if we can make it feel better by giving it a little love!

The Sustainability Triangle

I like the analogy of the three-legged stool to talk about sustainable farming, but some people prefer the "Sustainability Triangle." 

From our perspective, a sustainable farming operation needs to take care of all three points (or sides if you prefer) of the triangle.  There must be care for the environment, for the financial viability of the farm, and for the farm's place in the community of people that interact with it (which includes our own well-being as the caretakers of this farm).  

It is not too terribly hard to see how too much emphasis on any one of these aspects can short-change the others.  For example, if profit is my primary motivation, I will likely exchange some of my well-being in the community or my own personal well-being for more profit.  Or perhaps, I will take short-cuts that deplete the soil and reduce the pollinator population to ensure my profit making venture.  On the other hand, if I make every farming decision based only on environmental or social concerns, I may find that I am rapidly out of business - which means I can no longer make progress on the other two parts because I can no longer operate the farm!

Things We Don't Do Review

In the first post of our series, we highlighted some of the things we have chosen specifically NOT to do at the Genuine Faux Farm and the logic that drove us to those decisions.  

The three things we highlighted in that post were:

1. No plastic mulch
2. No pesticides
3. We do not pre-pack CSA shares

We won't revisit the logic for each here as you can go to the original post to see that.  But, I will tell you that we continue to stand by our decisions to avoid using plastic mulch and to eschew (ah! what a fun word!) pesticides.  On the other hand, we no longer do CSA shares - so that one is now a moot point.  But, I am pretty sure if we did CSA shares, we would still adhere to that as it was a sound decision for our farm.

Review of Some Things We Do

The second post of the series focused on things we do at the Genuine Faux Farm and the logic behind those decisions.  Again, you can go to the post for the background and logic behind those decisions.

1. Re-using and re-purposing what we can
2. Using renewable and natural resources when possible
3. Balancing farm use of our land with natural spaces
4. Local sales and connections
5. Charging what food is worth
6. Always seeking to improve

The first of this set is the one with the most tension because there are many times when re-use and re-purposing takes a great deal of time and effort.  And, as we just mentioned in yesterday's installment - time is our most valuable resource.   We do our best to re-use and re-purpose, but there are times when that is the wrong answer. 

The others also require fine distinctions - which is unlike our first list where we just say we are not doing something... period.  For example, nature would probably be happiest if we did our best to put it back into a natural state and left it to itself, but then there would be no farm.  So we work to find that proper ratio of wild and tamed areas at the Genuine Faux Farm.

And then there are...

The Things We Planned To Do - and Did!

 Solar Panels

The interesting thing about this that some of the things we were planning on writing about in 2019 have a different status now.  For example, we actually managed to get the solar project completed on our farm that we had been dreaming about even before the Genuine Faux Farm was a real thing.  

Putting up the solar panels is, in our mind, a net "win" for the environment.  We are certainly aware that solar panels require natural resources to build, etc.  But, overall, our research seemed to indicate this was going to be a good thing.  From a financial standpoint for our farm, it will likely be a net loss in the short term with it slowly balancing out over time.  So, we had to consider the cost on the economic corner of the triangle and whether it could justify the gain on the environmental corner.  But, we also considered that there is also a gain on the "social" corner as well, which helped to sway our decision.

After over one year of production, the solar panels are more than covering the farm's electrical use and we continue to find ways to convert other power uses to the electric power this system generates.

Honey Bees

We were also going to talk about a foray into bee keeping.  The plan was to maintain a hive in 2019 and then expand to two in 2020.  Believe it or not, we actually succeeded in that project as well.  Now - we have yet to see if our bees survived this Winter.  But, we intend to continue with this project in 2021.

The key components for this decision were primarily economic and environmental.  We were not intending to gather and sell honey, so there was not going to be a direct income to offset the expense the honeybees were going to incur for our farm.  We were looking at some economic offset by hoping the pollinator services would help offset the decline of natural populations of pollinators in our area.  

We were concerned the introduction of non-native bees to our landscape might hurt those native populations further.  So, we did a fair amount of reading on how honey bees may impact the workers we already had on the farm.  Once we were fairly certain that we had plenty of habitat for all interested pollinator workers, we went ahead with the project.

It turns out that there was a social aspect because it drew even more positive attention to the farm and set some examples we think were good ones for those we know sometimes look at what we do here.  But, even more important is the social aspect that covers the health and well-being of the farmers themselves.  We enjoyed having the bees around and they reinvigorated our interest and enjoyment of the farm itself.  And, as it turns out, we did gather some honey for ourselves simply as a part of hive maintenance.  I know we'll be sad when we consume the last jar in the next few weeks.  But, wow!  It has been so good!

Other Projects

We also planned on reintroducing the use of grass mulch and increasing the use of cover crops on the farm.  The grass mulch idea also came to fruition in 2019 with good success in a wet year and decent success last year as well.  We did better with cover crops last year, but that one is an ongoing battle because every season is just different enough that we have to keep adjusting.  Case in point, our late attempt at lentils showed a good deal of promise in 2020, so we expect to do more with them in 2021.

What's Next?

It's great to be able to look at some of our past decisions and be able to still say that we think we're doing a decent job of supporting our farm's Sustainability Triangle.  This is supposed to be a positive post, so I won't go into things that I am not as happy about.  But, that's the whole point.  The triangle requires continuous maintenance to keep it balanced.  

During this off-season Tammy and I have been working very hard to plan for things that deal with an imbalance in the "Social" corner of the triangle.  It should be no surprise that some of the social things actually stem from doing an even better job with environmental balances on the farm - while still maintaining a healthy financial outlook (both for our farm individually and how our farm balances with the larger economy).  The biggest issue continues to be how we maintain our own personal mental and physical health so we can continue to make the Genuine Faux Farm go.

 Perhaps our plans for 2021 will cause us to write a 4th installment to this series?  Odds are pretty good that will happen.  But, like this post, you just never know when!

Interplanting in Tomatoes

A while back someone asked me some questions about the types of intercropping we have done on our farm over the years.  Apparently, we have developed a bit of a reputation for looking at ways to add diversity into our food crops - even while we try to grow efficiently for a commercial sales.

As with so many things on our farm over the years, change has happened... and we will no longer grow field tomatoes, moving them all to the high tunnels.  The reasons for that are threefold: 1. wet years have made field tomatoes difficult for us to grow, 2. herbicide drift have made field tomatoes difficult to grow, and 3. our demand has decreased.

But, that should not, and will not, prevent us from sharing what we have learned over the years on our farm.

The Layout of the Field

For several years in a row, the layout of our field followed a consistent theme.  One of our seven plots in the East, measuring roughly 200 feet by 60 feet.  We ran our rows the long direction (of course) in these plots to reduce turn-around time with our equipment.  This is more important with the tractor, but it still applies if you are using walk behind tractors and even wheel hoes.  The more time you spend turning, the less time you are actually doing the work!

Rows were five feet apart on center, which allowed us to run our tractor over these rows without infringing on the growing space.  This also gave us an easier time laying out drip tape for irrigation.  We also found that once trellising (usually cages) were in place there was still decent paths for walking and/or running a wheel hoe without much problem.  Remember - we're hoping to harvest lots of tomatoes and we need to be able to get them out of the field quickly and easily!

The picture above shows the field in the process of cultivation and in row weeding which tended to happen prior to the application of straw mulch under the tomato plants.  The row in the center is basil and we were just finishing wheel hoe passes on either side.  Yes, it had been wet so the weeds were bigger than we wanted.  But, it worked out fine.

Depending on the tomato type, our spacing was either 24, 30 or 36 inches.  Large varieties, such as Dr Wyche's Yellow tended to need the three foot spacing, while smaller varieties, such as Cosmonaut Volkov could be put closer.  But, in all cases, we preferred to provide a bit more space to allow for air circulation as we got later in the season.  Failure to do so could easily lead to powdery mildew and other problems.  Blight diseases also spread more easily with proximity.

What is in the Field?

Most years, we had twelve rows (or beds) in the plot:

• 1 row of larger flowers
• 2 rows of tomatoes
• 1 row of basil
• 2 rows of tomatoes
• 1 row of basil
• 2 rows of tomatoes
• 1 row of basil
• 1 row of tomatoes or eggplant or peppers
• 1 row of tall flowers

At our peak of tomato production, this field would hold somewhere from 400 to 500 tomato plants, 500 to 600 basil plants and lots of flowers.  We had a preference for heirloom and heritage seeds and usually had 20-30 different tomato varieties and as many as six basil varieties.  

A young Dark Opal Basil plant is shown above (about two weeks after transplant).  

We gave a significant part of the load to the Italian Heirloom variety and had blocks of 20 to 25 plants for other, important types such as German Pink, Nebraska Wedding, Black Krim, Wisconsin 55 and others.  To improve access, we left breaks in all of our rows at the 1/3 and 2/3 mark so we could walk into the center from the paths that separated each of our plots.

What does it look like when all is Right in the Plot?

The picture below shows me a field that I liked being in (at least until heavy fall rains made it less of all that!).  The zinnias are blooming on the right and the Dark Opal basil is of a size that harvests can be made.  The straw mulch is down to prevent soil splash on the tomatoes (which can spread disease) and the tomatoes are all caged.  

Each row has a line of drip tape under the mulch - including the flowers.  The only area that is not straw mulched is the area closest to the basil.

But, as you can see with the picture below, the straw has migrated closer to the basil plants over time, so it looks as if we had mulched them as well.  Between the mulch and the canopy in row, there won't be much problem from weeds in this field for the rest of the season.

You might be able to see our breaks at the 1/3 mark in these pictures (sort of).  And if you look carefully, you'll notice the basil variety changes at that point. 

Over time, we invested in the square, collapsible cages (some 3 foot height, some 4 foot height) and do not regret that addition.  We found the stake and weave trellising method did not fit our available labor and we prefer to let the tomatoes spread out naturally with the cage reining them in.  As with any trellising method, there were periodic 'training sessions' required to remind the plants that we would like them to restrain themselves at least a little.

There's Always More to it!

As I worked on this post, I began to realize that there are many, MANY additional things I could add about how we did things with this planting.  For example, some years I would use a single point chisel plow to break the center of each row open where we would plant the tomatoes.  

Nearly every year we did not have enough demand for basil to justify all of the plants we put in - but that was ok because we wanted sections of it to bloom for habitat purposes.  If you like this layout, pick sections that will be maintained for harvest and sections that will be allowed to be habitat. You won't regret it. 

We selected tall flowers because we wanted them to help provide additional leaf cover later in the year for some  of our smaller heirlooms that didn't have a great canopy.  This was a natural way to reduce sun scald on some of the fruit.  We often would choose taller varieties with strong leaf cover to be south of another variety that did not for the same reason.

Sometimes we would throw flowers into rows to mark the change from one variety to the other and we almost always had flowers on the ends of the rows.  We even looked into planting basil in between tomatoes in their row (not a good idea) and we wanted to consider alyssum in the same capacity.

More Variations on a Theme

Over time, we came to the realization that spreading straw mulch was a time sync that our labor situation was not handling well.  The combination of initial pruning, cultivation, mulching and caging simply took to long.  Thus, we moved to using paper mulch in the tomato rows with good success.  While paper mulch may cost money, it cost less than the labor and we dealt with a bottleneck that caused us problems every year.  When all was said and done, we saved money (we had to buy in the straw).  But, it is also true that we weren't adding as much organic matter to our soils - but that's what cover crops and compost are for!

Speaking of which, we did try to put in a Dutch White Clover in between the paper rows one year, but the weather did not cooperate, failing to rain to aid in the cover's germination.  Well, that was true until September - then it rained like nobody's business!  It drowned the tomato and basil crops, but the clover started germinating just fine once the puddles when away - alas!  I suspect if we established the clover in the paths earlier it might have worked out pretty well.  My only concern would be having to trim non-clover weeds in the row.  But, we never did get to that point in our experimentation.

Now that we've reduced the number of tomato plants we will grow (and the number of varieties) we will move them all inside our high tunnels.  We can control the amount of water they get (for the most part, unless the water table rises like it has some years) and we can provide some protection from herbicide drift.  

Actually, there were several years where we grew the outdoor plot AND a couple rows of tomatoes in the high tunnels.  So, we have had some experience with interplanting inside as well.

We refuse to grow only one crop in a high tunnel because we believe deliberately choosing to promote a 'controlled diversity' inside the building will help us with pests and diseases over the long run.  The picture at the right shows our two tomato rows in Eden (our smaller high tunnel) with the walking path between.

The tomatoes are stake and weave trellised and there are sweet alyssum growing at the base of the plants. I don't recall, but there may be some marigolds on the ends.  

Earlier in the season, the north sides of the tomato rows were the home of lettuce plants that enjoyed the shade the tomatoes provided until we rudely cut them off at the base and gave them to customers!  Other adjacent beds had crops such as carrots and beets or green beans.

I wonder how we'll do things in 2021.  I can tell you one thing is certain, there will be some sort of intercropping with the tomatoes.

Have a good day and I hope you got an idea or two for your own growing!

The Joys of Being Different

 

When we moved to the farm in 2004, we had already lived in a couple of 'work-in-progress' houses.  While it is true that every building requires maintenance and home ownership implies work to be done, I suspect that not everyone is as willing as we have been to take some of these properties on.  For example, our farm house had all of one.... count it... one plug-in for the entire upstairs floor.  

Tammy and I do not pretend that we are the best at fixing up old houses, but we can hold our own.  Over time we have recognized that we will just be too slow at some projects and it is better to hire some help once we build up the funds.  And, other projects just go.... slow... because that's the way it is when you do it yourself.

In any event, one thing that has not been completed is the light for the back entry of the house.  To be perfectly clear, there never was a working light for this back entry that we know of... so it's not that we took one down and never replaced it.  Our solution has been a couple of battery powered lights that hang on the railing of the back deck.  They look pretty nice and give a little bit of light on the darkest nights.

And they also look pretty cool when they get covered in frost!

We are also, apparently, a bit odd in our choices for how we grow things.  You see, we have this tendency to want to add diversity to our plantings even though we have been trying to grow commercially since 2005.  

Simply put, adding diversity adds complexity.  Added complexity usually adds labor or introduces inefficiency.  And when labor is your premium resource, that would often be considered a poor choice.

Yet, we make that choice year after year, growing season after growing season.  

Why?  Because we believe that there are ways we can efficiently incorporate a diverse set of crops without completely giving up a reasonably efficient operation.  In fact, we have been willing to try things because we want to find some of those approaches and encourage others to do them as well.

One example of this is shown in the picture at the left.  This is in Eden (our smaller high tunnel), showing a path between two tomato rows.  If you look towards the base of the plants you will see sweet alyssum flowering.   This actually seemed to be a fairly good way to get a little diversity into the high tunnel's ecosystem without creating direct competition for the cash crop.

In fact, once these flowering plants were established, they actually helped to hold down any additional weeds that might want to get started later in the year.  There was more pollinator activity in the area and we kind of liked the fragrance as we harvested tomatoes.

The downsides?  Well, once they got into the path, they did have a tendency to try to trip us up.  But, that was handled by cutting them out of the way - or even pulling a plant or two if necessary.  The real issue was the following season when all of the volunteer sweet alyssum came up and competed with the non-tomato crops that went into these beds.  That was our fault because we suddenly had even less time this summer to do work on the farm.  A normal year and we would have handled it just fine.

Sometimes it is good to be different.  And in our case, I don't think we would have it any other way.

More or Less

 

It is not really all that big of a plot for our farm.  Maybe 30 feet by 100 feet in size, more or less.  There are three rows of green beans, two rows of potatoes and one row of flowers.   

The potato plants are done for the year, more or less.  There are few that have some greenery on them, but for the most part, the stems and leaves are brown and it is time for us to dig the potatoes.  Once again, the Colorado Potato Beetles were tough this season.  The early wet weather did not allow the beans to really flourish early, which meant any protection they might have given was pretty much a moot point by the time the beetles found the plants.  We got some much needed help picking the beetles off the plants, but that task can get mighty tedious!

Even so, the Adirondack Blue potatoes seemed to have less difficulty and early sampling shows that we'll have a decent crop of those, more or less.  The Adirondack Reds are likely to be less than more because the plants terminated before the tubers really bulked up.  Even so, we have some of those too.

After a slow start, the Provider green beans have done us proud.  Unlike most years where Providers give us one big harvest, this batch is behaving more like the Jades, giving us moderate sized picks nearly continuously.  We don't mind - until we can't manage to keep up with the harvest.  When that happens, more becomes less.

And, of course, we're happy to have flowers in this planting.  Perhaps the cosmos were the wrong choice for their location and the volunteer chleome required a little extra work.  So, we'll remember to put the cosmos at the ends of rows rather than the middles and we'll also remember that chleome actually seem to germinate better later and don't particularly care for us to try to start them early in trays.

And there you are - a blog post about one of our garden plots on the farm - more or less.

Sustainability by Doing

In our prior post, we talked about how we try to maintain the three pillars of sustainability by NOT doing certain things.  Quick!  What are the three pillars of sustainable farming?  What?!?  You forgot them?  Good thing we're here to remind you:  Environment, Community and Financial (or Economic)

Some folks seem to equate sustainability with only environmental matters, which we understand.  After all, it feels like the environmental cost is too often the one humans are most willing to ignore.  And, of course, the financial costs are the one we are most likely to pay attention to.  The Genuine Faux Farm, if anything, tends to make the mistake of placing the economic factors lowest on the list simply because we ARE trying to make a point.  But, that doesn't mean it doesn't come into play.

In any event, we discussed things we have opted (or are opting) NOT to do and here we thought we'd mention the things we are consciously doing to make our farm more sustainable.

Re-Using and Re-Purposing
The idea of re-using and re-purposing has never been foreign to farming.  The old saw about on the fly farm repairs relying on chewing gum and baling wire is simply a reflection on the necessity of innovating when things break.  On the other hand, there are other ways we can planfully re-use and re-purpose - such as the intentional purchase of seed starting trays that are sturdier and able to last several years.

I know some home gardeners will act like this is a simple thing, but it is not so simple when you are talking about many hundreds of trays being used every season.  We can't spend time being gentle with every tray as we remove plants to be put into the field.  That means they start to show wear as we work with them.  And then there is the matter of cleaning them to prevent the potential spread of pathogens from one planting to the next.  When you have ten to twenty trays, that's no big deal.

Still, we would prefer not to fill our landfill up with single use plastic every season, so we opt for these trays - and they work well for us.  We could move to soil blocks, but our starting system does not support that at this time.  We really need a dedicated seed starting building and then we could move that far.

We also find ourselves re-purposing many items on the farm as our operations changes.  The building at the left was initially purchased several years ago as a semi-portable chicken building  After five or six years of service, the wood frame we put on the bottom started to fall apart and a wind storm bent a couple things up.  We put it in a stationary position and covered it in plastic so it could help with seedling production, but it was a short roof and we had to squat to get in and out of it.

So, now we are working to make it a small seedling building by making it a bit taller and putting semi-permanent sides on it.  This should have been done a month ago - but, that's how things go sometimes.  We still have our hearts in the right place - right? 

We've re-used windows and wood others have discarded.  Useful lumber from old farm buildings that have come down has shown up on hayracks, poultry rooms and other projects.  The hardest part is usually trying to find a balance between working with previously used resources (that take more time and effort) with new resources (when time is short) - all the while having to consider the money factor.  You can argue that time is money all you want, but saving two hours of time on a project doesn't actually result in a check arriving in your mailbox to compensate you directly for that time - no matter how much you might want it to.

Natural Resources
On our farm, we usually get our fair of sunshine and our fair share of wind.  So, we use both.  We like to line dry our laundry so our reliable electric dryer gets a rest through most of the months from April to November.  This is actually a big deal simply because we generate a great deal of laundry for two people.  Farmers sweat.  Farmers get mud and other things on their clothing.  It's normal.  But, we do like to clean up at least a little bit - I am sure you appreciate that.  After all, you all look more attractive when you aren't wrinkling your noses at that smell that seems to be accompanying the farmer today - so I appreciate it too!

We rely on poultry netting that is charged using a solar panels connected to batteries.  We also use shorter netting to protect young plants from rabbits and woodchucks (it works much of the time - but is not foolproof).  We're thrilled with the staying power of the Premiere One fencing as most of our fencing sections have multiple years of use.  We are starting to see some wear on the chargers that is needing more attention and we have been rotating out batteries as they end their useful life.  It's things like this that cause us to keep asking if we are doing the best thing.  Solar sure sounds good, doesn't it?  Yep.  But, how much does this need for new batteries reduce the positives?  Thus far, we'd say it's an overall positive, but we are always watching to see if there is an improvement to be made.


And then there is drip tape.  We like it and we hate it.  It reduces our irrigation water use significantly over delivery systems that spray water over the top of the field.  The water is placed right at the root zones of the plants we are growing and doesn't waste water through evaporation and application to areas where we don't want the water.  But, it only lasts for one season in the field and then we have to throw it away.  In our minds, the net effect is still a positive, but we are looking for alternatives as well.

And, of course, there is the soil.  We compost weeds and cash crop residue along with the manure and bedding from our poultry.  This is the ultimate in re-use and re-purposing - since all of that becomes nutrients we can put back into our soil.   But, that's not all we do for our soil.  We incorporate cover crops into our growing plan and we use a power harrow for most of our tillage instead of a roto-tiller.  We limit our deep tillage to very specific situations where more of our plots might have a deep tillage process once every three or four years if needed.

Balancing Farm Use with Natural Use
We remind ourselves that we need Mother Nature more than she needs us on a daily basis.  So, we do things to invite Mother Nature to be kind and provide us with workers who help us in the long run.  We do not graze or till every square inch of our fifteen acres.  Instead, we try to leave some areas alone to provide habitat for snakes, toads, frogs and other critters that control populations that would like to decimate our vegetables crops.  We want our native bees to have good places to live so they might come and work for us by pollinating our melons and squash. 

We do mow a decent part of the farm, but we actually try to time our mowing to avoid disrupting pollinators and we often leave clover patches un-mowed until they are past peak bloom.  Then, we mow them to encourage another, later bloom.  We leave clover/grass paths between each of our plots and we are happy to have dandelions on the farm.

In the end, we find that nature is supporting our decisions to never use pesticides, herbicides and fungicides by providing some of those services without the help of synthetic chemicals.  It doesn't always work perfectly (from our perspective) but it works better than relying on the chemicals.

We are also big proponents of intercropping and planting annual pollinator crops as part of the intercropping plan.  Not only does it make parts of the farm look nicer, but it provides habitat for beneficial critters that end up working for us. 

Local Sales and Local Connections
Once again, you can see that much of our focus might seem to be on the environmental side of things - even though each has a component for the other two pillars.  That doesn't mean we don't expend effort elsewhere as well.  For example, we have opted for local sales of our product so that we can maintain a positive connection with the surrounding community.  We host visiting groups from area schools, colleges and universities and go to speak to classes about some of the things we try to do.  We do our best to source the things our farm needs from sources closer to home.  For example, we purchase our poultry feed from the Canfield family by Dunkerton and our hen and turkey chicks come from Hoover's Hatchery by Rudd. 

As always, there is more to say on this, but perhaps more words won't make the point any better than spending more time doing.

Charging What Food Is Worth
All of these things are probably worthy of their own post, but sometimes we just do what we have time for! 

The economic factors still come into play because our farm cannot be sustainable if it doesn't make enough money for us to keep doing what we are doing.  One way we work towards sustainability is to be very mindful of what production of the food costs us in terms of time, money and resources so we can charge a fair price that gives the purchaser a good value without requiring a complete sacrifice on our part.  This actually leads us to an interesting result for our farm.  We are certified organic, so we could potentially charge more because we are certified organic assuming we could connect ourselves to the proper markets.  But, we don't do that.  We simply charge what we need to charge.  Sometimes our price is higher, sometimes it is not.

The other components of the financial side of things are producing the product for sale and then making sales (of course).  Neither of us is particularly fond of promoting ourselves, so the latter can be difficult sometimes.  Assuming the weather goes back to something approximating the old 'normal' we think we have a history that shows we can do the former.

Always Looking to Improve
At the end of the day, we feel like we are doing a reasonably good job at maintaining the three pillars of sustainable farming. But, perhaps the most important thing of all is this:

We do not believe we have all of the answers.  We have no illusions that we have found the perfect balance.  Instead, we are still seeking more complete answers and a better balance.  And, perhaps that is how you can identify a truly sustainable operation.

Reasons for Optimism

I had a conversation this Winter with an individual who was very aware of our weather struggles last year and is also aware that changes will likely result in difficult conditions on a fairly frequent basis in the future.  After some discussion, they asked me, "So what makes you think this coming year will be any different from last year for you?"

The easy first answer is that we have to believe this coming growing season WILL be different than the last.  Otherwise, what would be the point of even trying?  Even if the weather gives us a similar level of challenge to last season, our farm WILL change how it does things in an effort to persevere regardless of those conditions.

In other words, if we focus on what we can control, rather than the things we cannot, there should be plenty of reason to be optimistic for the 2019 growing season.  Now that I have your interest, shall I give you some examples?

Vince Knows His Place
A full season with a tool that responds to a bottle neck in our labor stream.  That alone should be enough to provide a reason for optimism.  The power harrow (which we have named Vince) will be with us the entire season and that alone is reason for some celebration.

Our windows for soil preparation have always been on the smaller side, but they have gotten smaller over the past several years.  Vince gets rid of some extra steps and actually will result in less tillage (which is better for healthier soil) despite the fact that it is a bit of a beast.  In the past, we have found ourselves using a combination of tools to prepare beds for planting.  The tool depended on the crop, the location, the soil conditions and a few other variables.  In the end, while we didn't want to, we often found ourselves over-using Barty with his roto-tiller attachment.  That's not great for the soil, but if you get backed into a corner, you sometimes find yourself doing the less than optimal thing.

Here we are with the very first FULL growing season with Vince at the farm.  We have enough experience to now know how he works and what he is best at.  Knowing your tools and feeling confident about how best to use them is one good reason to feel some optimism.

Happier Plantlings
Last year featured a disastrous foray into a soil starting medium that caused us no end of problems.  The medium itself was probably fine in other circumstances, but it did not fit our operational procedures at all well.  The net result was that we had some poor quality plant starts for some of our key crops.  The onions, for example, just didn't put on bulk.  In fact, very few of the onions we started made it to harvest.  But, we were lucky enough to be able to pick up extras from our friends at Grinnell Heritage Farm last Spring.

The photo at left shows one of our onion beds just after it was weeded by our flex tine weeder.  The bed looks pretty clean and the plants look fine, even after they got beat up by the weeder.  We had a decent onion crop - even if we had half of the plants we were planning on putting in.  Many did not store as well as they normally did because of the late, wet conditions.  But, we still had high quality onions in reasonable numbers.  If this years starts are anywhere near our normal quality and conditions are the same or better than they were last season, those onions are going to be great!

Yes, I know it is dangerous to count chickens before they hatch, onion starts before they germinate and season results in March.  But, this blog post IS titled "Reasons for Optimism."  We need some optimism so we can get into this year with a good will to make our hopes reality.  This does not mean we fully expect everything to go exactly as we planned, nor does it mean our mental pictures of success will align perfectly with the reality that will be the 2019 growing season.  It would be foolish to expect the Winter time mental picture of perfection to be a daily reality for us in June (or pick a month).  We are realistic enough to have a picture of 'reasonable success' that resides super-imposed over both the 'perfect success' and 'imminent failure' that are in our mental files.

Raised (Bed) Expectations
There are other techniques we have used in the past that have had some success to combat very wet weather and we expect to use them even more going foward.

Last season, we raised the planting area for more of our crops than ever before.  However, if you will recall, we mentioned that planting bed preparation has been a labor bottleneck that we needed to address.  That leaves us in a bit of a quandry.  Many of our crops survived the wet simply because we DID raise the planting area.  So, you could argue that we're adding time back onto that bottleneck and we won't have made any real progress.

Well, argue all you want.  We're still going to raise all of the beds on our farm for next years crops.  You could argue some of our shorter season crops might not need it, but we can't predict when (or if) we will get excess rains that could cause us problems.  Heavy rain events are not just for Spring anymore, so we need to be prepared with all of our annual crops.  The great news is that Vince can help us with this by preparing the soil a bit more evenly for hilling.  And, our other processes have been adapted fairly well to these raised planting areas.  It should work out just fine!

Keeping Up With the Weeds
The last couple of wet seasons have shown us that we cannot keep up with the weeds with things the way we are.  We've got good cultivation tools now and we know how to use them.  But, if it stays too wet to use them, the weeds don't wait for you to cultivate.

We've been trying paper mulch (Weedguard Plus) at some level or another for several seasons now.  The product has shown marked improvement and we are getting better with adapting our systems to the use of paper mulch.

Last year, we focused on paper mulch in the field tomatoes and were were duly impressed with the results.  We have used straw mulch every season prior to this and found the amount of labor to be significantly less with the paper mulch.  In fact, our workers generally do not care for spreading the straw anyway, so they aren't crying about this change.

This season, we expect to go back to paper mulch in the vine crops since that was our Achilles last year when it came to keeping crops clean.  The tomatoes will get the same treatment as last year and the peppers will likely join them.  This is not to say that paper mulch solves all of the weed problems, nor is it without risks.  But, we think this is one of the correct responses we can provide that will result in a better season.

Better Blooms
There will be flowers.  Lots of them.

There will be zinnias.
There will be borage.
There will be sunflowers.
There will be marigolds.
There will be nasturtium.
There will be 4 O'Clocks.
There will be calendula.
There will be alyssum.
Lots and lots and lots of flowers.

How can you not have some optimism when you see flowers in your future?  Even last year, there were flowers.  Perhaps they weren't what we were hoping for when the season started, but they were present.  The zinnias bloomed until it got so wet that they drowned.  But, this year, they will be in raised beds.  That should help them.

And, our reasons for optimism are often linked.  If we increase the number of vegetable rows with paper mulch in them, there will be more time to keep the flowers weeded.  Yes, there is still a great deal of work involved, but we are talking about reasons for optimism, not reasons to ignore reality. 

When the Lettuce Was Good It Was Really Good
It felt like everything was a failure at times during the 2018 season.  But, that is actually a long ways from the truth.

Our CSA customers had a pretty good season until we got to the end of October.  We had to pull back from several potential sales to make sure they had product, but that's not the point.  The point is - we had some pretty darned nice produce last year.  It just wasn't what we wanted or needed.

The point here is that we still produced some quality veggies in a year that was among our most difficult.  If I can show you pictures like the one to the left from a year we both feel was a tremendous struggle, then imagine what a year with adjustments (and hopefully less weather extremes) could provide!

Another example of success in a difficult season would be the poultry.  The turkeys and broiler chickens were good sized and high quality all season long.  Other than our first broiler batch, we did not lose very many young birds.  Our laying hens continued to lay consistently all year long despite poor pasture conditions starting in September and cold weather this Winter. 

Despite 2018 being what it was, the Genuine Faux Farm produced some quality food for some wonderful people.  Now, the Genuine Faux Farm farmers have ideas about how to address some of the biggest issues that raised their heads during a difficult year.  They have more tools, even more experience and energy to make it happen.

Will some things go wrong?  Of course they will.  But, we intend on making MORE things go right.

Here's to a positive attitude going in to the 2019 growing season! 

On Time for Taters

Considering we have been dealing with the Winter that would never end, it seems odd to be able to report that we actually put our potato crop into the ground when we scheduled them to go in.  In fact, we put them in on the front EDGE of the scheduled time slot.

Realities of a Farm Schedule

Given the multiple variables that can impact any schedule we might develop for any growing season, it is remarkable to us when we actually hit something *right on schedule*.  In fact, our schedules actually reflect our own recognition that we rarely hit the optimal date.  For example, my schedule for potato planting says "April 28-May 5 is optimal."  April 15 to May 30 are the outside edges.

Beds with the initial tilling complete (April 30)

Frankly, we were expecting that the fields would not quite be ready to go during the optimal period this year.  But, we had warm, sunny and breezy days that helped dry out the fields.  Usually, we are later putting in potatoes than nearly any other veggie grower we know in Iowa.  That has to do with weather and the heavier, wetter soil we have here.  The physical nature of potato planting may also play into it a bit.

Hard, But Not As Hard

Last year, Tammy and I needed two days to put in our potato crop.  That doesn't necessarily mean two FULL days, mind you.  But, there has usually been at least two planting sessions to get all of the planned beds put in for the season.  

Further proof that Rob DID fix Barty up properly.

What was so different this year?  After all, Tammy was only involved in the whole process for a few hours, instead of full days.  How could we possibly get things done faster with fewer person hours?

First, let me make something perfectly clear.  Many growers have tools that are specialized to help speed potato planting.  It just happens that we have never really targeted equipment specifically help us with this process.  And, in some cases, we actually HAD the equipment, but we didn't have a system that worked with that equipment.  Let's also not ignore the benefits of experience with some of these tools.

And, there IS one more thing.  We decided to drop back from 12 beds of potatoes to nine (but more intensively planted).  We haven't been terribly happy with our potato crops in recent years, so it is time to revamp the process so we can see more success.  One of our strategies for crops like this is to reduce how much we plant so we can improve the quality of what we do have.  If we need to, we scale back up once we feel we have a better approach for our farm.

Not Quite What We Wanted

Sadly, the seed potatoes for many of the varieties we prefer were not available this year.  At least they weren't available through the supplier we have relied on for the past several years.  We could possibly have gotten the varieties we wanted from other suppliers, but the seed might not have been certified organic or, more likely, the seed would have cost multiples of what we had been paying.  If you are trying to improve crop results through technique changes it may not behoove you to spend that extra money until you feel you have solved those problems.
 

Trenches ready in the beds for the seed potatoes

That means we don't get to harvest Purple Majesty, Carola, Rio Grande, Sangre or German Butterball this year.  Actually, German Butterball has under performed, so it was due to be removed anyway.  We thought Purple Majesty and Rio Grande might re-appear after their disappearance last year.  Sadly, that did not happen.  But, we had no clue that Carola and Sangre would go away this year.  Now what?

The good news is that Mountain Rose does return to the farm.  Canela will be our russet potato again as it has replaced Rio Grande in our grow list.  We don't like it quite as much, but it has been fine.  We're trying Red Norland for our earlier potatoes and Kennebec comes back to the farm after being away for nearly ten years.  We had some Carola potatoes left over in storage that we put in the ground and we are trying a bed of Harvest Moon again this year.

New Tools and Approaches

We added an attachment to Barty, our BCS walk-behind tractor that we might call a hiller/trencher.  We used it to make the trenches for the potatoes.  Unfortunately for Rob, he actually tilled the beds first and he probably should not have done that.  Or, better yet, he could have turned off the tiller while he was trenching.  It would have wore him out a little bit less if he had.

Even so, the trenches were made much more quickly and with less effort than previous years.  And, the even better news is that we expect it to be even easier next year (and years thereafter) now that we are a bit more used to the tool.  I think I can be forgiven for thinking I had to till more because we DID just replace the tines on Barty.  We were used to a certain amount of tillage in one pass last year.  (a hint - it wasn't very good)  So, it was a bit of a shock to get a beautifully prepared bed in one pass.

We understand that a middle buster on the back of Rosie, our tractor, would have done a fine job as well.  But, we don't have a middle buster at this time AND we're trying for a little more precision within the bed for intercropping reasons.  The smaller equipment gives us a bit more precision, so we'll go with that for now.

Once trenches were placed in the beds, we just needed to drop the potatoes in.  We just load up 5 gallon buckets and walk the row, dropping in the seed potatoes.  Yes, there are potato planters and other mechanized ways to do this.  But, we really don't mind walking 200 feet and dropping in some taters.  It's the simplest part of the process and it encourages us to observe what is going on with the seed and the field.  Clearly, I would have a different viewpoint if I planted much more than 1800-2000 row feet of potatoes.  But, I don't - so there you have it. 

Potatoes dropped in the trenches

The last step is to cover the potatoes.  The old method?  Rake the trenches in.  Usually it happened at the end of  long day.  We were tired and we really didn't enjoy raking that much dirt in.  This is where Rosie came out to play with the simple 2 disk hiller that we have.  The potatoes were covered (maybe a tad bit deep, but the soil is lose and will flatten out just fine) in about five minutes.  Celebration (and dinner) followed.

Why haven't we used this hiller before?  Well, we originally got this implement when Durnik (Ford 8n/2n) was our primary tractor.  Sadly, the hydraulic lift on Durnik couldn't be set to a desired height/depth on that tractor.  So, the result was that the disks would either be pushed in all the way (resulting in ridiculously high hills) or they would float out of the dirt - hilling nothing.  We tried to make the darn thing work two seasons in a row with no success.  I guess we rake it in, eh?

Picture added May 12 - rows hilled.

Frankly, those results soured us on using the hiller and we actually forgot we even had it in our arsenal until last year, when we hilled potatoes mid-year.  Ok, we sort of forgot it.  We also had trouble getting to it when we wanted it a couple of years ago.  That was one of the events that encouraged us to do a major farm 'cleaning' that corresponded with finally building our walk-in cooler.

We may not be the fastest at adapting, but we do get there eventually.  Here's to what we hope is a fantastic potato crop in 2018.