Week 20, Season 2015 - 16

Things are heating up in the field and the weeds are taking over the row middles again.  This is when growing produce organically starts to get even harder than it already is in west central Florida. Our transition time should be better than last year and we will have a few lean weeks of produce.  Squash and zucchini are looking good and should start to harvest next week.  Cherry tomatoes are also looking good except for a few plants out in the field.  There are a few small green tomatoes already on the vines.  Green beans are almost ready to flower and cucumbers in the greenhouse are starting to produce the first stages of fruit.  Potatoes harvested last week for the first time this season and taste great.  Two varieties of corn had to get replanted for poor germination.  The southern peas also had poor germination and will not produce a crop as I had no more seeds and it will be too late in the season to order and plant them. We might get a crop of eggplants from the same plants that we had from the fall.  I pruned them back and see some flowers since it has warmed up.

Our strawberries are being eaten again over the last few weeks. I hate to keep loosing them each week as these are super popular in the share baskets.  I put another strand of hot wire next to the ground last week thinking that the animal that was eating them was going under the electric fence.  Things looked good all the way up to Wednesday and I thought we were on track to harvest for Saturday with nothing being eaten.   Until I checked them today (Friday) and again everything that was ripe was eaten again.  Now I think that it might be coyotes going over the fence.  I found what look like dog tracks on the watermelon rows and around the area right next door to the strawberries.  I honestly  have no clue what is eating them.  We caught two possums and the problems stopped for a while and I thought we solved the issue.  I am thinking about changing the layout of the fence to protect the fruiting plants instead of the growing area.  Maybe if I run strands directly over the plants this might deter the animals.  I have spent a bunch of time and effort on this issue with minimal payback and I hate to waste more time taking down the fence and rearranging it again but I am almost at that point.

Here are some pictures from the farm and beyond.

Guatemalan orchid no bigger than my finger tip. Amazingly these flowers get pollinated.

A broken pipe flood irrigates the field.

Planes practice over the farm for airshow

A pre-vermin picture of our strawberries!