Tasks:
Blocked sunflowers, brussels sprouts, and nasturtiums
Mulched potatoes (we will try and get a chrop out of them, even though they were planted wrong)
Weeded perennial flowerbed and rain garden
Built A Frame for cherry tomatoes
Tied lines for grapes and pruned to central stalk (the idea being that we want more root establishment and vine height)
Cultivate
Sharpen hoes
Moved clay to bramble patch
Filled water tanks
Sprayed BT
Gave tours to perspectives, College for Kids students, and an incoming freshman named Clayton
Watered heavily
Put up and took down posters
Mowed
Mulched chard, raspberries, and tomatoes
Notes:
Pruning tomatoes- This year we have decided to prune the sucker shoots on the tomatoes. These are the shoots that grow from the joint of the preexisting leaf stem. They are distinguishable form the fruiting structures because the fruiting structures form above the leaf axle as appose to in it.
For the cherry tomatoes we have prune all of the sucker shoots and will continue to do so. We support them by two methods: 1) slowly letting them grow up the tall cages 2) rapping them around a string that is secures both to the ground and to a structure six or more feet above the ground. This season we are trying an A frame structure made from old pipe.
For the determinate tomatoes, we will prune the plants until any suckers on the plant are above the cage. Hopefully this will give us a strong trunk with a lush top, similar to the shape of a mushroom.
Row signs- Use have pieces of lathing, approximately 2 ½ feet long. Label with a permanent marker in bold, clear letters and hammer into the ground with a rubber mallet. Reuse next year, or paint over and start again.
Water and watering schedule- When you water, water for the entire week (one inch per plant). This will provide the plant with lasting moisture, as apposed to daily light watering, which tends to just dry up. This method will also make cultivating easier.
As we have had a dry spring, we have been forced to use Monmouth water. Under the instruction of Watson we pumped the water into the 550-gallon barrel and will let the sun neutralize the chlorine for at least two days before we use it.
BT- We just started using Bt, a natural bacteria, to try and deter the cabbage moths. The recipe is one gallon of water- two tablespoons of BT- one dab of dish soap (to help the solution stick). I sprayed the top of the foliage along with the length of the stem.
Watering in seedlings- This information will surely follow in my amendments to John Curtis’ notes, but ohwell. When planting seedlings first dig a hole the necessary depth but an extraordinary width (the width of the seed block on all sides). Place the seed block in the center, fill in the hole up to half the height of the block, and water around it twice, waiting the first time for the water to seep in. Then fill the hole and cover the block, making sure only the green plant is exposed.
Greens- Our greens have gone to shit. They are bitter and bolting (but our chard is not… mmmm…). We should just know that come middle of June the greens will not be worth the effort. But plant for a late crop! This means mid July in the greenhouse!