Monday, October 19, 2015

First frost

We had our first frost last night and a couple blasts of snow yesterday, but today the temperatures are back in the high 50's and the low tonight is expect to be 50 deg F. I covered all of the frames except the tomatoes with one layer of plastic.

I was able to fill the sixth frame with soil and transplant lettuce, chard and parsley that have been growing in overcrowded conditions. I picked choi and some beets and carrots that were planted way back in May. A couple of beets were almost baseball size, but most were only slightly larger than golf balls. I will try giving them more space to grow next year since I have not been good about thinning them as they grow. Similarly with the carrots, one very wide but short, while most were small, and one "frankencarrot" with 8 tapers.

EDIT: I did a little research on how long you can leave beets in the ground and found that they are most tender when allowed to grow 40-50 days (that would have been late July), and that they are best when picked small (1-1/2" to 2"). So I guess I was wrong to disparage the size of my beets. I am just accustomed to purchasing larger beets at the grocery store.

Friday, October 16, 2015

Autumn update

Two weeks ago, we harvested the rest of the basil. This amounted to about 9 cups of leaves and several more pints of pesto. We have been enjoying choi in stir fry and salads, making tabouli with the parsley, and continue to harvest kale from the spring planting. The second to last tomato harvest occurred yesterday... about 7 small tomatoes.

The lettuce that was planted in mid-August is now ready for selective harvesting. One more frame will be setup before the winter for a total of six frames. We will transplant more lettuce and parsley into that frame.

Temperatures are forecast to get into the low 30's for the first time. It is time to cover all of the frames with ag-cloth to encourage the last bit of growth before it gets really cold.