Vegetable growing

Date: 2001-12-01 20:38:36 PST

All,

Here's the final conclusions from 2001 for us for vegetables.

DRIP IRRIGATION AND PLASTIC MULCH

We tried this for the first time this year, putting down 1000
feet for tomatoes, peppers, melons, brassicas, and zucchini. Generally
we were pleased but took some lessons. Without a machine
there is a great deal of labor placing and removing the plastic.
We used a tractor and plow to make the furrows then raked
back the dirt on the edges of the plastic, which worked OK,
but we did it too deep which complicated removal. Removal
was manual and took one person about 15 hours.

We also had problems with weed control between rows. We
had understood that weed control between rows was purely
a cosmetic matter. This is not true. One row was especially
bad and got so weedy that the cabbages in that row rotted
because of no air movement. We mowed some which helped,
but melon areas can't be mowed and the vines were so weedy
that we couldn't find the melons. Next year we'll have to do
something - cultivation, Roundup, Dual or Treflan, cover crop,
or a combination of these. Advice welcomed.

We are not expanding our drip and plastic until we get better
results.

TOMATOES

Tomatoes produced very well on the plastic with yields
much higher than we are accustomed to on straw mulch.
We grew the Sun Sugar hybrid, which we see as an improvement
in sweetness over the Sungold hybrid that others have mentioned
and that we grew previously. Sun Sugar produced well and
sold well.

Early girl produced well and early and sold well.

Better boy harvest was mostly lost due to cracking despite
the very even water provided by the drip. We are going
to switch to a smaller-fruited main season variety next year,
and also pick one that has determinate plants for less labor.

We also grew Roma for our own use, which also did well.

PEPPERS

We grew more bell and chili peppers than we could sell
with only about 40 plants. Yields and fruit sizes were very
high. Fruits were blemish free. Customers would comment
on the size and appearance of our peppers. If only
they would have bought more.

CABBAGE

We grew Krautman for our own use and were pleased
with the typically 8-9 pound heads, small core, and
uniform maturity. We use these for sauerkraut.

BROCOLLI

We grew comet, which we think was a mistake. Heads
were not tight and flowered early and without warning,
and side shoots were virtually nonexistent.

MELONS

We had a damping off problem in the greenhouse that
cost us over half the plants. We are making some cultural
changes to fix this. We think it was caused by overwatering
and poor air drainage.

Cool spring weather stressed the plants further. The vines
did nothing -- declined in vigor if anything -- for the first 3 weeks
after transplanting due to unseasonably cool, cloudy weather.
What vines did survive produced poorly, with only a few
Earlydew and Ambrosia fruits per vine. Watermelons were
killed by frost before reaching maturity.

Growing melons in Minnesota is always a crap shoot because
of the weather and this year we got boxcars on the first roll.
We don't think there's anything we could have done, culturally,
to overcome this.

Next year we're going to include some Minnesota Midget and
a couple other extreme early season varieties as a hedge against
another short season. A neighboring farm grew some Minnesota
Midgets and had good results.

ZUCCHINI

Grew these on the drip and as with other vegetables had high
yields of high quality fruit. These produced until we got sick
of picking them. We planted the variety.

SWEET CORN

Cannery sweet corn yields were reportedly a little better
than half of typical years, as were field corn yields, due to
dry weather. We do not irrigate our corn and had poor
results, with small ears and uneven kernel fill.

SQUASH

These did well. We planted one on the drip as an experiment
and it did perform better, but the difference was not enough
to justify the extra labor.

ARTICHOKES

As I had stated earlier, these Imperial Stars produced well.
The second and subsequent pickings were of smaller fruit and
we missed one harvest because the flowers were too mature.
Despite their small size the 'chokes were flavorful. We didn't
try to sell any. Highly recommended to anyone who likes
these for the table or has a market for them.

OTHER STUFF

I'll leave out the easy-to-grow direct-seeded annuals because
there isn't much to say. They pretty much did fine.

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