Sustainable Farm Journal

As the month of June comes to a close, about 3 inches of rain has fallen from Sunday to Wednesday of this week. Supplemental watering has been unnecessary.

A crop duster is spraying nearby fields again, upwind at 1:30 PM. The wind speed is 15 mph with 20 mph gusts. Wind speed over just 3 - 5 mph causes drift that can affect land downwind for miles and miles. The fact that there is no oversight of the crop duster is frustrating. There's no one that I know of to call and register a complaint. The industry is free to do whatever it, whenever.

Only a mile south and upwind, a crop duster was spotted applying chemicals on a crop today. The wind speed was 16-20 mph, too windy for such a practice. Drift from the application was certainly traveling miles away from the target.

I planted four varieties of pumpkins on June 11. The next day, 1/8 inch of rain fell. The following day, a little more rainfall brought the total of to 1/4 inch. I planted the pumpkins by mid June this year so that they will be ready for harvest at the beginning of October and therefore suitable for market. Last year, I planted pumpkins on July 4, and they were not ready to pick until a few days before Halloween. More became ready in November, which was too late for seasonal pumpkin buyers. The varieties in 70 basins are: Cinderella, Big Max, Howden, and Halloween, all from Willhite Seed Company. To prepare each basin, I added Texas green sand, Sul-Po-Mag, soft rock phosphate, and Agronomic Partner's 14-0-0 sustainable nitrogen from soy.

By the second week of June, the raised bed garden and the row section nearby have yielded more produce than we can eat. Harvests so far include: Squash - scallop, yellow, crookneck, zucchini and lemon Tomatoes Eggplant - the soil crop yielded before the hydroponic crop Swiss chard Kale Collard greens Carrots Beets Onions Garlic Cucumbers Chamomile Basil Cilantro Chives

On Monday morning, June 9, 2014, 3 inches of rain fell over the course of a few hours. Standing water around the raised garden bed eventually percolated into the soil, charging the soil with a healthy water content. All crops thrived in the days after the rain, except for tomatoes. The row of tomatoes planted in the row area near the raised garden beds show a sort of curling in the leaves and stems that I usually associate with herbicides. In the week prior, a crop duster was spotted upwind, and drift may have indeed affected the tomatoes.

I've now harvested the first zucchini, squash and tomatoes (Punta Banda and Texas Wild), along with continuing yields of kale, Swiss chard, collard greens, carrots and beets. From the hydroponic Dutch buckets, I've harvested several bell peppers, banana peppers and a tender squash. So far, the crops grown in soil yield more abundantly than the hydroponic crops. I will increase the nutrient concentration in the Dutch buckets to see if I can improve the yield of the soilless crops.