Winter Update

It looks like we will be getting a winter season after all. Although our rainfall totals are still far below the seasonal average here, things are looking promising. There are storms lined up through next week and it may even be cool enough by Friday to bring snow to the surrounding peaks. The drought-stricken cover crops– which in places were stunted and overgrown by weeds, many of which are better adapted to dry conditions– have nearly doubled in size since the last round of rainfall. My decision to refrain from planting out every square inch of open ground around here—always a temptation when the ground is dry and temperatures are warm in December—is looking a little more wise now. The dangers of planting too early are many. If the weather turns wet and cold, directly sown seeds will often rot before they ever emerge from our heavy clay soils, resulting in poor “stands”. Even when we do get a good stand, heavy rains after emergence can deprive the plants of oxygen which can stunt or even kill them outright. And then there is the danger of frost. Although most of the crops that we plant early are fairly hearty, it is common for leafy crops to get burned back when temperatures dip below freezing, and on the rare occasion when it drops into the 20’s or lower, crops can be killed outright.

That isn’t to say that we haven’t done any planting at all, though. The larger of our two greenhouses  is 2/3rds full of transplant trays, the first of which will be ready to plant out in another month or so. If we time things right, the tender transplants will ride out the coolest, wettest weather in the relative warmth of the greenhouse and be ready to set out in the field when the days are a little longer and warmer. We have also direct-seeded fairly large blocks of green onions and carrots. Carrots can be tricky to plant at this time of year. When the days are short and temperatures are cold, the plants have a tendency to go to seed (or “bolt”) prematurely—before the roots have fully developed. The Red-Cored Chantenay variety that is our mainstay, we have found to be less susceptible to prematurely bolting, but it is still a bit of a gamble.

The most exciting news so far this year is that the strawberry crop looks fantastic. Never have we had such large, uniformly vigorous plants at this time of year. This week we are going through and trimming off the first flowering branches—at this point in the season we want the plants to focus all of their energy on growing vegetatively rather than trying to produce fruit. It’s really too early to say for sure, but it looks like we are going to have an excellent—and early—strawberry season!