I want to tell you some of what I’ve done at this field since last summer.
This spring has mostly been installing water for the field and preparing the soil for sowing. In June we were finally done with the main strip and could start sowing like crazy.
Here I’m pulling 40 mm pipes to the field. I haven’t done this kind of water work before so I had to learn a lot.
Here’s a rough early sketch of one of the strips and how water will get there.
Drip lines installed
And a handful of modules of micro-sprinklers. I move these around when I’ve sown a bed so they will get evenly moist. Otherwise watering will just be with drip
The field is filled with crazy amounts of stones. Here you see the amounts on the strip next to it where we will irrigate with overhead sprinklers. Didn’t have time to collect stones here this year, so I just broad-sowed different mixes of seed I have a lot of. (Yes I am panting because I just raked those seed in on the whole 1000 m2 strip).
Preparing the soil is a lot of work. This is how one block looked like after collecting stones, raking turf, collecting stones again, then raking a last time (and collecting a bit more stones). I was lucky I had two classes of students to come help with some of the work (farmer fitness it very fun when you’re 25 people doing it!) and have an assistant with me this season.
Finally in June we could sow and plant and have done so the last month. I’ll post some random pictures to get up to date:
Using a rake as a dippler to sow beans
3rd July. Voluntary tomatillo from a small test patch last year that set seed. These are bigger than the plants I’ve sown or planted another place in the field.
Self-sown sunflower. I love plants that come on their own.
Tomato project underway. Genetics are a mix of wild (habrocaites, pimpinellifolium), crosses from @mare.silba @ThomasPicard and @Bruno as well as the panamorous swarms from @Joseph_Lofthouse. These tomatoes have been sitting like small plant in a cold bench for two months just waiting to be planted out, kind of struggling in their tiny cells. Interplanted with Celtuce/ Chinese stalk lettuce / Lactuca sativa that have suffered for even longer and immediately went to seed - I need them mostly for seed this year, so I don’t mind.
Only two weeks later and most tomatoes are growing like bonkers. Looking so much forward to grow these next year when I can plant them out 50 days earlier.
Cucurbits were sown mid-June. Three weeks later pretty good germination. This is the biggest Maxima of that batch.
Here’s some that were sown by the students two weeks earlier in beginning of June (1 month old)
I gave watermelons a chance too, sown 12th of June. Germination was kind of bad. Also a bit overtaken by weeds. Cleaned up that bed today and sowed beets so we’ll get a crop there. A few plants made it and I’m not keeping my hopes up for fruit. Next year I’ll give it a shot 2-3 weeks earlier. I have a rule on this field that I will not use black plastic to grow in.
They were sown perhaps 20 cm apart and here there’s only two plants left
Here’s one of the larger watermelons:
