August 4, 2011
Dear 2011 CSA Members,
Well the scorching heat continues with no end in sight. Our ponds are getting low, but we haven't run out of irrigation water yet. This searing heat has destroyed 1/2 of the fall tomato seedlings. They just can't survive the 110 degree heat day after day even with the irrigation every day. The heat has killed 8 of the laying hens and we have been misting them every day with cool water--now 2 times a day. The squash seedlings we planted 2 weeks ago are surviving, but are not really growing much because of the heat and drought. The eggplant has pretty much stopped producing, but will produce again if we could just get daytime temps in the 90's and night time temps in the 70's. The poor pepper plants are surviving, but not producing any peppers that are worth harvesting. The scorching sun just sears the peppers so we pull them and leave them in the rows. One exception is the Jalapenos---they have continued to produce some peppers.
The sweet potatoes, cantaloupe, watermelons, and okra are doing pretty well. They are growing and the cantaloupe have lots of small to medium cantaloupes on the vines. I burned 2 more fields in spite of the strict burn ban (they have an exception for burning for agricultural purposes), but we have been very careful. A neighbor brings his huge water tank equipped with a 5 horsepower pump and a 2 inch hose for putting out any fires that might get started. A fire started on a fence line yesterday, and I saw it just in time to kill our tractor and propane burner and run to the truck and pull the tank within reach of the fire and extinguish it. I quit burning after that--it was scary to say the least.
We are busy also weeding the good sweet potato crop. There is a gourd that grows among the vines and literally smothers the sweet potato vines. We have tons more rows to weed and are working daily to try to save the crop. If anyone would like to volunteer to help weed them we would welcome your help--we know everyone is busy with their own schedules though. We will weed as many rows as we can with the help we have.
This Saturday I will bring onions and potatoes. We have a little garlic left and I will bring it. If this triple digit weather continues into next week I don't think the squash or peppers will be ready to harvest--we'll just have to see how they progress this week and next. We have fertilized all the cantaloupe, squash, peppers, and okra plants by hand with the organic fertilizer that we mix, and have also applied an organic foliar fertilizer to all the crops, but the crops have not responded very well due to the extreme heat and drought.
We will continue working diligently as long as we have irrigation water all the time praying for rain and a break in this scorching heat. My wife finished planting the 5,000 squash seedlings last week and they are up and growing for the fall crop. There are several varieties---yellow crooked neck, yellow straight neck, zucchini, acorn, butternut, sunbeam, etc. It is still too hot to plant the cucumbers as they wouldn't survive the heat. Hopefully the weather will break soon and we can get them planted. I finished burning the weeds off a field where we will plant the cream peas and purple hull peas. Still need to disc and plow the field, make the rows and then plant the seeds.
Try to keep cool and I will see you Saturday,
Gene
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