Lots of wind as direct seeding begins soon

The sun has continued to be out over the past week however the wind that started early last week continued all week long until it died down yesterday.

It is never much fun to be working on the farm when it is very windy and especially when it last for multiple days in a row.

With all the sun lots of work is needed to be done in the field which don’t have that much protection from the wind and have to make sure we don’t leave anything laying around that could be swept away in the wind.

Two summers ago they pulled out the walnut orchard directly north of us which acted as a small windbreak when we got a strong north wind so the winds feel stronger now that there are just row crops there.

When we get the consistent 30+ mph wind like we got on Monday it is not enjoyable for us or the veggies. The veggies have to use more energy to deal with the stress the wind causes and we are limited in what we can do.

With all the wind and sunny days we have had it means that we are starting to irrigate the veggies as the soil is getting pretty dry.

Ideally we get enough rain all winter long that we don’t have to irrigate at all other than when we are first transplanting or direct seeding a crop but usually there is a point in the winter when we go through a long enough stretch of dry weather.

Hopefully we only have to irrigate each crop once or twice before there is more rain but the forecast doest show any rain for the rest of the month.

The days have been flying by as we already are halfway through January which means that in just under two weeks we will be direct seeding our first spring veggies in the field.

The areas where those seeds will be going are currently in cover crop which needs to get mowed and then spread with compost before we prep the soil for direct seeding.

Getting a good soil for direct seeded crops is very crucial for the seeds to germinate and be able to thrive early on.

In the spring direct seeded crops take longer to germinate and grow at first but also have a time when the weather gets too hot for them so we plant lots of them early on. Almost all of what we will harvest through March will be what we transplanted and seeded in the fall.

While we get closer to direct seeding we are also continuing to seed in the greenhouse and what we seeded on January 1 is growing well.

The parsley is the slowest to germinate and just started in the last few days but everything else germinated within a week and has multiple small leaves on it.

We have a small heat mat for a few trays to go on which depends on what needs it but the tomatoes we seeded always are on it.

With the cold nights there are, especially with the dip in temperature yesterday, the tomato seedlings need all the help to keep their focus on growing.

The tomatoes are looking good and in a few weeks we will be potting them up into larger cells where they will grow until they get transplanted in the field in two months.