Summer squash in low tunnels, potato choices, we need more greenhouse space

Friday was a marathon planting day. We planted the first planting of summer squash in the morning and then planted the potatoes in the afternoon.

Planting the summer squash under slitted row cover.

We planted the summer squash on the raised beds Enrique & I made Thursday. On the left side you can see the squash planted through the black plastic. The crew is assembling the low tunnels of clear plastic over wire hoops. The plastic has slits for ventilation, but does significantly raise the temperature inside. In the photo the crew is soil on the edges of the clear plastic to hold it in place.

Last year we grew three excellent summer squash varieties. Nutty tasting and firm textured, the Romanesco zucchini is better in every way than the common insipid zucchini except that the yield is only about half. This is one case where taste overrules economics. The yellow crookneck is an old-time standard. Last year we tried Zephyr, a yellow squash with a green tip. An excellent squash, we have added it to our list of favorites. This year we are trying two additional varieties. On request we have added a yellow zucchini. I chose the variety Sebring to try. For a change of pace I also added a Mid-East Cousa-type squash called Magda

In the afternoon we planted our potatoes. I was a bit disappointed that we had to substitute Red Pontiac for Purple Viking, Mountain Rose for All Red, and Russet Nugget for Russet Norkota, but maybe we’ll find some new favorites. This year I gave up on Yukon Gold, which has never grown well for me at our farm. German Butterball and Yellow Finn are two similar varieties that have done very well for us, so I’ve increased plantings in both. Our standard red-skin potatoes have been Sangre and Purple Viking, We are growing Sangre, and we’ll see how the Red Pontiac does for us this year. The All Blue is always a hit. This year our fingerling potatoes are French Fingerling, Rose Finn Apple, and La Ratte.

We received rain Saturday morning, so I won’t have to drag sprinklers around to finish watering in the potatoes.

The starts greenhouse continues to fill up.

On the shelves to the right you can see the flats of melons and watermelons covered with rowcover. The melons and watermelons are all started on the heat pads. In the front left you can see the tomatoes John transplanted on Thursday. We start them in flats of 200 and then transplant them to flats of 24. I’m told that tomatoes respond well to this transplanting, as long as the timing is right. You can see our styrofoam 200 flats on the second table.

Friday John started our distinctive pumpkins: Rouge Vif D’Etamps, Jarrahdale, Red Warty Thing, Marina Di Chioggia, Galeux D’Eysines, and Lumina. These were our favorites from last year. Saturday he started more broccoli, pak choi, Napa cabbage, lettuce, chard, and spinach. When I stopped by I noticed the watermelon seedlings are starting to pop up.

At this point the starts greenhouse is nearly full. All the repeat plantings to replace the rodent losses are taking up unplanned space. We will be planting out a number of flats next week, but we will have to move some flats elsewhere.

The Kubota tiller is repaired and ready at the shop. Rob will pick it up Monday morning. As soon as it gets here, we’ll start tilling in the hoophouses. I want to get the landscape fabric down so we can start moving tomato, pepper, and eggplant flats out of the starts greenhouse to make room for next week’s pumpkin flats.

Rob is working on getting the corn & pumpkin seed planter ready to go. I expect to start planting sweet corn towards the end of May and the corn maze corn about the first of June.

What’s playing today in the Jeep CD player?  Evelyn Glennie – Wind in the Bamboo Grove