Spring is fast approaching, and the student farm is in full swing! With warm, sunny skies this week and no freezing temperatures expected for the next two weeks, we are full steam ahead with preparations for this year’s CSA.
Congratulations and great work to Jada (right photo) in her role as our first student Farm Manager this week! During the Advanced Crop Production course, each student will take turns filling the role as Farm Manager. Each student Farm Manager will do a walk through of the farm with Farrell and Cheryl and will come up with a task list for all the students in the class. Jada did a wonderful job keeping the students on task while being safe, and was able to pivot well when she encountered an obstacle…such as when the string weeder went out of commission!
Several things needed to be done in this hoophouse which grew lettuce and salad greens over the winter. Old plastic was removed from the outer border of the hoophouse to prevent the plastic from breaking down any further. One bed is already planted in onions (photo right) and continues to do well . The overgrown arugula was cut and laid down to provide organic matter to the bed. The remaining two rows were forked to loosen the hard, compacted soil and chopped with a bed-forming hoe to break down clumps and loosely reshape the beds (photo below). The final step is to cover the beds with finally chopped leaf mould and soak with water to let Mother Nature do her thing until this hoophouse is put into production with brassicas.
Mikaela was busy thinning and fertilizing brassicas in their seed trays (photo below). After thinning to one plant per cell, trays that had true leaves were dipped in fish emulsion at a rate of ½ cup per gallon of water. Additionally, Mikaela misted the sweet potatoes until the leaf mould was thoroughly soaked and removed any rotting potatoes.
In HHA & B, Randall used the BCS to till beds before cover cropping in oats (photo below). It will remain in cover crop until the winter to add valuable organic matter.
What a busy week! The warm weather really got things moving on the student farm. With a little effort towards thoughtful preparation, you may be “saving your bacon” when things are slammed in a few short weeks! Happy Spring y’all!
– Danielle V.
The Student Farm at CCCC 