Root Crops in February

 

Large Smooth Prague celeriac. (Currently sold out Feb 2021)
Photo Southern Exposure Seed Exchange

Root Crops to Plant in Central Virginia in February

We sow no root crops in our hoophouse in February. It’s too late for radishes or turnips. If you are in a place colder or darker than winter-hardiness subzone Zone 7a, with an average minimum temperature of 0° to 5° F (-18°C to -15°C), see Root Crops in January.

If the soil outdoors is dry enough and not frozen, we spread compost on the raised beds we plan to plant in February and March, and till in the compost. Root crops that we sow outdoors here in February include carrots #1 and turnips in mid-February, and carrots #2 and radishes in late February. It’s true not much growing happens in February, but it helps us if we are able to get some crops planted early, leaving us more capacity for other crops once those are in the ground. And if the soil isn’t dry enough, we just do those jobs as soon as we can. We would hate to miss an opportunity!

Carrot Bed Prep

One of our many carrot beds, looking good.
Photo Kathryn Simmons

Carrots do very poorly with competition from weeds or too many other carrots. You can make use of the Stale Seedbed Technique, preparing the bed ahead of time, and flaming or hoeing one or more flushes of weeds as they germinate. I’ll do a separate blogpost on flame-weeding soon, as I have too much info to squeeze in here. It works so well, it feels like cheating!

Carrots are small seeds, needing a fine tilth (small soil particle size and good texture – not likely to crust or blow away).  Good information on crop spacing for maximum yields, or biggest vegetables is in an out of print book, The Complete Know and Grow Vegetables by JKA Bleasdale, PJ Salter, and others. For maximum total yield of carrots, they recommend 1.5” x 6” (4 x 15cm). You get medium sized carrots. For early carrots go with 4 x 6” (10 x 15cm) to minimize competition and get rapid growth. If you want to have rows more than 6” (15cm) apart, calculate the area of these optimum spacings, then divide by your chosen row space. For example, if your rows are 12” (30cm) apart, the carrots can be as close as 0.75’ (2cm) if total yield is more important than individual size, or 2” (5cm) for fast early carrots. We do five rows in a 4 ft (1.2m) bed, so the rows are about 10” apart, with the outer rows 4” (10cm) from the bed edge.

Young Carrot Plants After Thinning. Photo Kathryn Simmons

Carrot Thinning and Weeding

Remember to thin carrots as soon as you can see them well enough to do so. We usually hoe between the rows first, then crawl along thinning and weeding. It does take time! But you won’t get good carrots without thinning, unless you either have a precision-seeder that drops one seed per inch, or pelleted seed which you can sow at one per inch. Precision seeders like the Jang are expensive, but worthwhile if you need to use it every week. Pelleted seed costs more than raw seed, and its big advantage is traded off for two other disadvantages: The soil has to be kept well-watered until germination or else the clay coating will imprison the seed forever, and the seed does not store for long – don’t keep any over for next year.

Greenhouse Root Crop Sowings for Transplants

The only root crops we ever transplant are celeriac and kohlrabi (a stem vegetable really, not a root). I have transplanted many things and I am skeptical of books saying this or that can’t be transplanted, but not beets or rutabagas, which I hear people transplant as soil blocks or plugs. So try it if you think it will help.

Celeriac

Flats of celeriac seedlings.
Photo Kathryn Simmons

We have grown both Diamante (100 days from transplanting) and Large Smooth Prague (110d), and strongly prefer Diamante, as it seems to us to be more tolerant of warm weather, less prone to rot, and easier to clean. Several growers say that Diamante and Brilliant are virtually indistinguishable.

This crop likes rich soil with lots of organic matter, some shade from mid-day and afternoon sun, and ample water without sitting in waterlogged soil. We make sure to choose beds in a shadier part of the garden. Celeriac can rot if too damp, so keep it weeded and remove some of the lower leaves to improve airflow. A pH 5.8-6.7 is ideal. Celeriac can benefit from seaweed as a foliar spray, or side-dressing with compost during the long growing season.

Celeriac requires long steady growth, and the challenge is to prevent checks to growth. The Virginia climate is on the warm side for celeriac, it prefers cooler areas, but we have good success if we pay attention at a few critical times. Celeriac can tolerate frost quite well, so there is no hurry to harvest in the fall.

Sow seeds 1/8″(3mm) deep, and keep the soil surface moist. The minimum germination temperature is 40°F/5°C, and the optimal range 59–70°F/15-21°C. Germination is slow, typically 14 to 21 days, and it takes 10-12 weeks to grow to transplant size, so start in plenty of time. We sow in open flats, then spot out (prick out) into deeper flats. We sow February 10, which is about 10 weeks before our last frost date. Celeriac can be sown from 67 days before the last frost date to 184 days before the first fall frost date, but you don’t get large roots unless you have plenty of growing time.. If your climate includes long chilly springs, I’d suggest starting 12 weeks before the last frost date.

Emergence takes at least 12 days at 59°F/15°C and 7 days at 68°F/20°C. The ideal temperature is 68°F/20°C day, and 59°F/15°C at night. The fluctuating temperatures, with nights cooler than days by 9°F/5°C, help speed germination. Another factor when choosing germination temperature to aim for, is that at 59°F/15°C, only 40% of the seeds produce seedlings, compared to 97% at 68°F/20°C.

Celeriac should not be hardened off by reducing temperatures, as that can cause them to bolt. More than about 9 night temperatures below 55°F/12°C will cause bolting. Plants can have their watering reduced to help them get ready for the big outdoors. Use rowcovers if a cold spell arrives after you have planted them out, or if you know cold weather is likely to return. Falling apple blossom is a phenology sign that conditions are suitable.

See Root Crops in May for transplant info

See SESE’s Celery & Celeriac Growing Guide for growing information.

Kohlrabi

Harvested kohlrabi, Early White Vienna and Early Purple Vienna.
Photo McCune Porter

Kohlrabi is very easy to grow, treat it just like cabbage or kale.

It can be direct-seeded, but for an early crop, especially if you live in a climate like ours where spring turns into summer very quickly, use transplants. We don’t grow a lot, only 180 feet (55m) in total for 100 people. We also grow kohlrabi in the fall, transplanting bare root transplants from nursery seedbeds around August 3. We grow twice as much in fall as spring, because we can store them for winter.

We have grown both Early White Vienna and Early Purple Vienna. Growing both provides for pretty harvests. We sow February 8 at 4 seeds/inch (0.5 cm apart) in open seed flats, aiming to have the plants spotted out, hardened off and transplanted outdoors with rowcover on March 13. Fast work!

Root Crops to Harvest in Central Virginia in February

Hakurei turnips harvested late January.
Photo Pam Dawling

As for January, in central Virginia, there are normally no roots that we could be harvesting outdoors in February except parsnips, Jerusalem artichokes and horseradish.  We do have horseradish, but not the others. Of course, you can only dig up root crops if the ground is not frozen!

We have had outdoor night temperatures of 16°F/-9°C and 12°F/-11°C. This winter we have some carrots “growing” in the fresh air and some late-sown beets under rowcover. I don’t think we’ll get roots from the beets, but the leaves might make a nice change from brassicas as cooking greens.

In the hoophouse our radishes #3 (sown October 30) will come to an end by 2/1. Our #4 radishes will get harvested this month. Our #5 radishes, sown 12/23, will feed us from then until around April 7

We still have some of our first turnips (sown around October 13) until mid-February, and they have reached a really good size, thanks to early thinning. This month we can harvest the second sowing (October 25). We thinned turnips #2 in early January. They are looking good too.

Red Round turnips in our hoophouse in late January.
Photo Pam Dawling

We have not yet needed to unroll our inner rowcovers in the hoophouse. We wait until we expect it to get down to 8°F (-13°C) outdoors, as we like to avoid extra work!

Other Root Crop Tasks in Central Virginia in February

Potatoes stored in crates in our root cellar.
Photo Nina Gentle

Check stored vegetables

Stored crops need to be checked for decay at least once a month, preferably once a week now the days are getting longer and the temperatures will get warmer. From storage, we can eat beets, carrots, celeriac, kohlrabi, parsnips, potatoes, rutabagas, sweet potatoes, and turnips, if we grew them.

Special Root Crop Topic for February in Central Virginia

Wrap up the winter planning

Our garden planning wraps up by mid-February, with all the budgets, crew selection and shift decisions (afternoons in cold weather, mornings in hot weather –  we’re mostly half-day gardeners, with one or two stalwart all-day workers)

Order summer cover crop seeds

Buckwheat cover crop in flower.
Photo Pam Dawling

For early spring, if we find an area without a winter cover crop and we realize we won’t plant it with a vegetable crop for at least 8 weeks, we sow oats. They will smother weeds and add organic matter to the soil when you till them in.

If you have not already ordered summer cover crop seeds, this would be a good time to do so. Cover crops suppress weeds, add organic matter, feed the organisms in the soil and attract beneficial insects, birds and amphibians to feed and reproduce. Biodiversity encourages ecological balance that can help reduce plant diseases and pest attacks. Have a goal of No Bare Soil. Seek out odd spaces to fill with cover crops.

Once frosts are past, buckwheat is an easy cover crop. Its flowers attract beneficial insects, and it is a very manageable (not too tall) fast-growing crop. Buckwheat can be in and under in a month.

Just as fast is mustard, but we don’t grow that because it’s a brassica and we grow a lot of brassica food crops. Keeping a good crop rotation is important to us. Also we have harlequin bugs and we don’t want to feed them year round.

Sorghum-sudangrass hybrid is a fantastic, huge warm weather grass type cover crop, but don’t grow it if you have only a lawnmower, a scythe or a nylon line weed whip to cut it down! For smaller scale gardens, choose Japanese millet.

Soybeans, southern peas and sunn hemp are easy legume cover crops for warm weather, providing nitrogen for the next crop.

Cover cropping is a big topic. See my book Sustainable Market Farming for more. Here I’m just pointing you in the right direction enough to order seeds soon. You can read up more later.

Root Crops in May

A tidy bed of young carrots in May. Photo Kathryn Simmons

Root Crops to Plant in Central Virginia in May

Potatoes: It’s OK to plant any time in May: See my post on planting potatoes

Sweet potatoes: We generally plant sweet potatoes around May 10, 16″ (40 cm) apart, with 4-4.5′ (1.2-1.4 m) between ridges, allowing 5’ (1.5 m) space at the edges of patch. We install drip irrigation on the ridges when using plastic mulch. It is ideal if the soil temperature is 65°F (18°C) for four consecutive days before planting.  Plant 2-3” (5-7 cm) deep, with at least 2 nodes in ground, and at least 2 leaves above ground.  If the slips are long, plant them diagonally or horizontally, rather than going into a deep vertical hole, where the soil will still be cold. See my post on sweet potato planting

Carrots: We direct sow our sixth bed of carrots in mid-May. We sow our first carrots in mid-February, and then sow every 2-3 weeks after that. Our soils are cold in February, but the seed comes to no harm in the ground, and it’s a job we can get done early. May is our last month for sowing carrots that we know will be sweet. If we need to, we also sow once a month in June and July, but the hot weather impairs the flavor. Our big storage carrot sowing in early August will taste good, because the weather cools as they grow.

Here in central Virginia, zone 7, on a sandy clay loam, we grow Danvers 126, a sturdy open pollinated variety suited to high production of bulk carrots. In the past I have grown Chantenay Red Core (65 days), a blocky variety with a blunt tip, 5″ (13 cm) long and 2″ (5 cm) at the shoulder. It resists splitting, and can deal with clay.

Any decent soil will grow some carrots, but the best ones grow in deep, loose, and fertile sandy loams with good moisture-holding capacity. Old books warn against using manure before carrots as it will make them fork. This refers to uncomposted manure, not to compost. Compost will increase yields, and even reduce the culls with some varieties. (Research by Daniel Brainard at Michigan State University.) Compost not only increases the organic matter in the soil, but also suppresses some diseases and nematodes (which can cause forked carrots).

Thin carrots promptly to get good yields.
Photo Bridget Aleshire

Sow carrots whenever the soil is below 95°F (35°C), so long as you can keep the surface damp. Aim to sow 30 seeds/ft (1/cm), 0.25-0.5″ (0.6-1.2 cm) deep. Some people sow in single rows 8-10” (20-25cm) apart. Others sow in bands 2″ (5 cm) wide, at 8” (20cm) apart, with one length of drip-tape serving two bands in one 16-24″ (40-60 cm) bed. Carrots do well on raised beds, because the soil stays loose and the roots can easily grow deep. Hard rain in the first 3 or 4 days after planting can dry to a crust which could stymie the emergence. To prevent this, if you get heavy rain, irrigate for half an hour each day afterwards until the carrots emerge. Some people use shade cloth to help keep the soil surface moist. There are precision seeders which save you from thinning, but most growers I know use an EarthWay seeder, and then thin. Some people mix inert materials with the seed to help get a spaced stand. Sand at 1 quart (1 liter) to 0.5 teaspoon (2.5 ml) seed per 25’ (8 m) of row, is one recipe, although I worry that sand will destroy the plastic parts of the Earthway seeder before long.  Some people bake old carrot seed to dilute the good new seed.

Carrots do very poorly with competition, so try to start early carrots in a bed that had only light weeds the year before. Later sowings can make use of the Stale Seedbed Technique, where the bed is prepared ahead of time, and one or more flushes of weeds are germinated and flamed or hoed off. We flame weed our carrot beds before the carrots emerge. See the Special Topic below.

Carrots thinned to 1″
Photo Kathryn Simmons

Get to the initial thinning as soon as you can, spacing to about 1” (2.5 cm) apart, weeding at the same time. We usually have someone with good eyesight and hand-eye co-ordination hoe between the rows the day before the hand-weeding. If you are in an area with Carrot Rust Fly (Carrot Root Fly), you will want to remove all thinnings and broken foliage from the field, so you don’t lure the low-flying pest with the wonderful smell of the broken leaves. We do a second thinning, to 3” (8cm) at the stage when the baby carrots can be used for salads. If we get more weeds, we might do another round of weeding before harvesting the full size carrots. If carrots are spaced too widely, they will be more likely to split, and the overall yield will be reduced.

Flats of celeriac seedlings.
Photo Kathryn Simmons

Celeriac: An eye-catching winter storage root vegetable. Celeriac is sometimes called “turnip-rooted celery”. Its flavor is starchier and sweeter than celery, with hints of parsley, and a nutty taste. Celeriac is slow growing, but easy to care for once established.

If you have a long growing season, you could direct sow celeriac 6-7 months before the first fall frost date, for a late fall harvest. Perhaps put a board over the seed row to keep the soil damp and cool until the seedlings emerge. For most of us, we don’t have that much time. So if you didn’t already start some celeriac plants, May is too late for this year. Plan to order seed next winter.

Transplant celeriac when plants are 2.5-3″/6-7.5 cm tall, once the weather seems settled and warm, after your last frost date. If the weather is cold, just wait. Falling apple blossom is a phenology sign that conditions are suitable. We transplant celeriac around May 7 (our last frost is expected April 28). Use rowcover if a cold spell arrives after you have planted them out, or if you know cold weather is likely to return.

Celeriac gets 12”/30 cm spacing, with 4 rows to a 4’/120 cm bed –  that’s about 10”/25 cm between rows. We found closer spacing doesn’t work in our humid climate, as poor air-flow encourages rot. The Virginia climate is actually on the warm side for this crop, it prefers cooler areas, but we have good success if we pay attention at a few critical times. Celeriac requires long steady growth, so the task of the grower is to prevent checks to growth (such as weeds!). It can tolerate frost quite well, so there is no hurry to harvest in the fall. It can benefit from side-dressing with compost during the growing season, or giving seaweed as a foliar spray. A pH of 5.8-6.7 is ideal.

Root Parsley: A less well-known member of the umbelliferae family, also known as Parsley root, Hamburg parsley, Dutch parsley and turnip-rooted parsley. The flavor is a cross between carrot, celery and parsnip.  Like celeriac, it is slow to germinate and slow to grow. 70-90 days to maturity from direct sown seed.

Root Crops to Harvest in Central Virginia in May

Young beet plants
Photo Wren Vile

Beets: We like the long Cylindra/Formanova/Forono ones which are 6’’ (15 cm) long, very tender and are easily cut into regular slices, for pickles or cooking (55 days to maturity, OP). Among round ones we like Ace (50 days to maturity, F1 hybrid), and Detroit Dark Red (60 days, OP). Detroit Crimson Globe is said to maintain better flavor in hot weather than most others, which can develop off-flavors.

Young bunched beets can be stored for 10 days at 32°F (0°C) and 95% humidity. Mature beets can be stored for 6 months or more at 32°F (0°C) and 95% humidity. Trimmed beets keep well in perforated plastic bags under refrigeration.

Carrots: Our first carrots (sown in mid-February) will be ready to harvest in early May. Harvesting carrots barely needs describing. You need to loosen the soil to the depth of the carrots, pull them out, trim and wash. Some growers remove the tops first, but then it can be harder to remove the roots from the ground. Some people store them without washing, but then cleaning them is harder than if done before the soil dries on them. Carrots store very well in a refrigerator, in a perforated plastic bag. If you have lots to store, it is best to sort them, ensuring no scrawny ones or damaged ones get stored. Don’t store with apples or other fruit, or large amounts of cut flowers, or sprouting crops. The ethylene these crops give off can spoil the taste of carrots, removing the sweetness and leaving them tasting a bit soapy.

Harvested kohlrabi.
Photo McCune Porter

Kohlrabi: An unusual vegetable, sure to attract attention and be a discussion piece. It is tender with a flavor between a cabbage and a turnip. This tasty, crunchy root-like vegetable is easy to grow and doesn’t wilt as soon as you harvest it. It is actually the swollen stem, rather than a genuine root, but it behaves like a root vegetable. It can be eaten raw (sliced or grated) or cooked. The kind most commonly grown is a pale green or purple globe with long-stemmed leaves. When the leaves are cut off leaving stubs it resembles a sputnik. In addition, the leaves are also edible.

Conditions for growing kohlrabi are much the same as for other brassicas. It does best in cool weather. In our zone 7 climate, kohlrabi, like other brassicas, can be grown in spring or fall.

Harvest when the kohlrabi are 2-3” (5-7.5 cm) in diameter or even up to softball size. If left growing for too long the swollen stem becomes woody. Cut them from the ground with a sturdy knife. The base of the globe can be quite fibrous, so cut either the wiry root just below the soil surface, or cut higher, leaving a small disc of the globe behind, attached to the root. Snip or lop off the leaves, perhaps leaving a small top-knot if the kohlrabi will be sold immediately. We harvest in spring from around May 10 to June 30, and in the fall from October 20 to November 15.

Kohlrabi stores well in perforated plastic bags in a walk-in cooler, offering flexibility about when it is used, which is always an advantage.

Radishes: Early May brings an end to our spring radishes. Our last sowing is April 10. After then it is too hot for radishes where we are. In July or early August we sow winter storage radishes, including daikon.

Turnips ready for harvest.
Photo Wren Vile

Turnips:  A reliable root vegetable in the brassica family. They are among the fastest growing crops other than leafy greens. In zone 7, we sow a small crop of turnips outdoors under rowcover March 15, or earlier if spring is mild. Although they grow best in cool weather, turnips have no trouble germinating at high temperatures, as when grown for a winter storage crop.

Turnips are also available in gourmet varieties, to be eaten small, young and tender, 35-50 days after sowing, up to 2” (5 cm) in diameter. The delicious F1 hybrid Hakurei, 38 days, a smooth white flat-round shape, with crisp sweet flesh, and hairless leaves, is the most famous of the gourmet varieties. Although best harvested small, they do retain quality for a short storage period.

Young turnips can be pulled, banded, washed and sold with tops intact. Prompt cooling is important to keep the leaves from wilting. Small spring turnips can be pulled by hand, without digging – ours are ready May 20, and we clear the last of them in early June, refrigerating them till mid-July if we have enough.

For manual harvest, loosen the roots with a digging fork as needed, then pull. Trim tops and tails in the field (or move to the shade if it’s hot). All foliage should be removed for successful long term storage. Cut cleanly between the leaves and the root. Then wash, drain and store. Prompt washing before the soil dries on the roots will make them easier to clean.

Storage in perforated plastic bags under refrigeration works well for us. Turnips will keep for about 4 months at temperatures close to freezing and humidity of 90-95%. Higher humidity will make them rot.

Cut and damaged roots do not store well. If you haven’t enough humans to feed them to, but you have milking animals, you could chop them (to prevent choking) and feed them to your livestock. Even moderate quantities will not flavor the milk.

Other Root Crops Tasks in Central Virginia in May

See my post next week on growing and hilling potatoes, including alternatives to hilling for wet conditions. Flamers are intended to kill small weeds, not big ones, but we successfully used our wand-type flamer to kill weeds in the potato patch one spring when it was too wet to hill the potatoes.

Special Root Crop Topic for May in Central Virginia: Flame-weeding

When we sow carrots, we sow about 12″ (30 cm) of beet seeds at one end of the bed – these are “Indicator Beets”. When the beets germinate, we know the carrots will be up the next day and today is the time to flame weed the carrot beds. Flame-weeding is a great way to get rid of millions of fast-growing weeds and leave the field free for the slow-growing carrots. We still have to weed and thin once or twice as the carrots (and weeds) grow, but it is much easier to see the carrots, and they grow better if the first flush of weeds has been flamed off.

Soil thermometer in a beet bed.
Photo Bridget Aleshire

As well as beets, I use a soil thermometer and a chart of days to germination of carrots and beets at various soil temperatures. The table shows that beets are always a bit quicker than carrots in germinating. This information is in Sustainable Market Farming, Knott’s Vegetable Growers’ Handbook and Nancy Bubel’s New Seed Starter’s Handbook.

Days to Germinate 50°F (10°C) 59°F (15°C) 68°F (20°C) 77°F (25°C) 86°F (30°C) 95°F (35°C)
Carrots 17.3 10.1 6.9 6.2 6.0 8.6
Beets 16.7 9.7 6.2 5.0 4.5 4.6

Figure out which day you will probably need to flame. As soon as you see the red loops of the indicator   beet seedlings breaking the surface, flame the carrots. (But look for carrots too, just in case). In summer we flame carrots on day 4 after sowing, because we have found that carrots can emerge on day 5 in summer temperatures. One snag we hit once was that the carrots were mistakenly sowed an inch deep, instead of near the surface. Of course, this delays emergence, so by the time the carrots made it through that inch of soil, many new weeds had sprung up too.

Once you get over the hesitation about using a fiercely hot propane burner, flame weeding is quick and easy. And boy, it saves so much hand weeding! We use a Red Dragon backpack flame weeder (without the backpack frame).  We use the hand-held flamer attached to a propane cylinder that is in a wheelbarrow pushed by a second person behind the first. This person also acts as a safety monitor, looking out for unwanted things (like hay mulch burning). Some growers mount the propane on a backpack frame, and work solo, but we prefer to include a second person (and in this picture, a third!).

Flame weeding a carrot bed.
Photo Kati Falger

The operator walks along the aisle between beds, and wafts the wand diagonally back and forth across the bed. It takes about 10 minutes for a 100’ (30 m) bed. Flame weeding can reduce hand-weeding to one hour/100’ (30 m). Flame weeding plus stale beds 3 or 4 times can reduce hand weeding to 6 minutes/100’ (30 m).

Recent garden work

The heart of a Chinese Cabbage in our hoophouse. Photo Ethan Hirsh
The heart of a Chinese Cabbage in our hoophouse.
Photo Ethan Hirsh

Today we have a snowstorm again. Tonight is forecast to be much colder than usual for this time of year – 0-4F. I’ve been out in the hoophouse bouncing snow off the roof with the bristle end of a broom. I did harvest a bucket of salad mix and two buckets of Chinese cabbage, which was starting to bolt. I set the buckets of produce outside for a short while and the veg started to freeze! I was busy rolling out rowcover over the beds. This is the first winter we have needed rowcover for winter crops, sigh.

Meanwhile, over in the greenhouse we have thousands of small seedlings. I covered all those with rowcover too, and put the potted-up tomatoes back in the germinator-fridge cabinet, where they can get some warmth (if the power doesn’t go out). I plugged in an electric heater set at 45F. I have never ever needed to do this before. Climate change does add stress to the farmer’s life, and more possibility of losing crops. Sigh again.

Before this snow though, we managed to make good progress outdoors. While the soil was still really wet from the last snow-melt we pruned blueberries and grapes.

Our grape rows from the north.  Photo Kathryn Simmons
Our grape rows from the north.
Photo Kathryn Simmons

This photo of our grapes was taken a couple of years ago, slightly later in the year. You can see the vines are budding out, and the rhubarb is coming up. Our grapes are mostly Concord, a variety good for juice and jelly, which is disease-resistant (important on the East Coast). We use the Geneva Double Curtain training style, which lets more sunlight and air in, a distinct advantage in our humid summers.

Our older blueberry patch in the spring. Photo Kathryn Simmons
Our older blueberry patch in the spring.
Photo Kathryn Simmons

As soon as the soil dried out, we tilled all the beds we’d spread compost on, and started prepping them for planting. Because of the cold weather forecast, I didn’t want us to start transplanting spinach or onions, even though we are later than most years with those. We did sow two beds of carrots, so we’ve made a start! It felt good to make so much progress, even though I knew we’d have to sit indoors again today and probably tomorrow too. The only other thing we’ve planted outside this year is a small patch of shallots. But we’re on our way!

Goodbye winter, hello summer!

Rhubarb season is almost here. Credit Kathryn Simmons
Rhubarb season is almost here.
Credit Kathryn Simmons

Spring in Virginia is so variable in temperature! But this year is more so than usual. We’ve just had three days with high temperatures of 90F (31C) or more. Not so long ago we had night-time lows of 20F (-6.5C). Late February and all of March was full of snow and rain.

The only thing we managed to plant in the garden for the whole of March was a small amount of shallot bulbs. We’ve been doing an impressive amount of scrambling in the first ten days of April, to make up for lost time. Some crops we had to cut back on, because it got too late to plant. We only have a quarter of the onions we planned, half of the peas, a fifth of the spinach, and no fava beans this year. I realize it would be useful to have “last worthwhile planting dates” for all our spring crops, to help decision-making.

To add insult to injury, a Beast ate half of our early broccoli transplants in the cold-frame one night. Because there were big surface tunnels, I think it was Eastern Moles. They are insectivorous, not vegetarian, but they do use leaves to line their nests, which they make at this time of year. I bought a trap – no luck. I covered the remaining broccoli and lettuce flats as best I could with rat wire “lids” and clear plastic domed food covers – things I had handy from previous depredations. What seems to have worked is to line the coldframes with landscape fabric and set the flats on that, tightly up against the edges, leaving no wiggle room. Wisely, we do a later, third, sowing of broccoli to cover emergencies, so we spotted those out into bigger flats. We’re going to need them this year.

Chitting seed potatoes ready for planting. Credit Kati Folger
Chitting seed potatoes ready for planting.
Credit Kati Falger
Newly emerging potato plant in the spring Credit Kathryn Simmons
Newly emerging potato plant in the spring
Credit Kathryn Simmons

We have at last got our potatoes in the ground, three weeks later than ideal. On the positive side, they had been chitting (green-sprouting) in crates under lights in the basement since the beginning of March, so I could console myself that they were growing anyway. And probably they will come up quicker in the (suddenly!) warmer soil. We cut them for planting once the area was disked for planting and we were pretty sure we could get them in the ground in a few days.

We’ve busily transplanted spinach, kale, lettuce and scallions, and sowed carrots, more scallions and the third bed of beets. We used the Earthway seeder for the beets, and found the radish plate worked better than the beet plate for Cylindra seed, which were smaller than the Detroit Dark Red. We also tried the popcorn plate with some success, when the beet plate jammed.

We flamed one of our first two beds of beets, to kill the weeds that didn’t die properly with our hasty delayed rototilling. We would have flamed both, but the Cylindra popped up overnight earlier than I expected (going by soil temperature), so we’ll have to hoe those really soon, maybe this afternoon.

Spring bed of cabbages planted into rolled hay mulch. Credit Kathryn Simmons
Spring bed of cabbages planted into rolled hay mulch.
Credit Kathryn Simmons

Next we’ll be prepping our cabbage and broccoli beds. We make temporary raised beds, roll out round hay bales over them, then transplant into the mulch. We do this by first measuring and making “nests”, using our hands to open up the mulch down to the soil. The brassicas appreciate the mulch to moderate the soil temperature and keep some moisture in the soil.

Our big weeding projects have been the raspberries and the garlic.(Goodbye, henbit!)

 

Mar 2013 Growing for Market
Mar 2013 Growing for Market

Today we might sow our parsnips. I just wrote an article about them in the March issue of  Growing for Market. This issue also contains articles about increasing hoophouse tomato production, adding solar panels, equipment for tracking the weather, food safety and new interesting cut flowers.

Florence bulb fennel. Credit Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
Florence bulb fennel.
Credit Southern Exposure Seed Exchange

The April issue is also out. For that, I wrote about fennel – bulbs, leaves, seeds and pollen. Other articles include one about Johnny’s Salanova lettuce, others about training cucumbers and tomatoes up strings in the hoophouse, a tractor implement for rolling out round hay bales (which is only fun to do by hand the first ten times, max), more on food safety, and an interview/field trip to Texas Specialty Cut Flowers. 

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