By Andrew Haupt
The summer crops have come and gone, and we find ourselves in the midst of Autumn, and as usual praying for rain. It’s a good time to reflect on how things went this year, and how we can improve next year.
Seed Starting
We devised a new system in an upstairs closet for starting seeds, with racks and some basic shop lights and warming mats. We tried Eliot Coleman’s style of soil blocks. Results were mixed overall, as we lost a lot of plants to damping off and fungus. I think fungus was problematic partially due to inadequate airflow in that room (it’s windowless and a bit stagnant) and initial contamination by the compost we used in the mix, from San Pasqual Valley soils. I’m a fan of soil blocks, and plan to use that again next year. Hopefully we can find a better location to start seeds, ie an outside greenhouse setup potentially.
The Meadow Garden
We had to wade through a learning curve with the new garden location we established in the meadow, which seems to get more extreme climate fluctuations. The frosts down there are more intense than the garden near the house, and it regularly surpassed 100 degrees during the day in June. We lost most of our seed grown starts to a couple very late frosts. Next year I’d be more cognizant of potentially damaging frosts, and would use row cover on anything sensitive. This would also protect against a lot of the damage we saw from squirrels before seedlings get established.
The Crops
Potatoes
Potatoes were our biggest success this year, as we grew nearly 300 pounds. The yield could have been quite a bit larger, as we accidentally left the water on one row, so many rotted instead of drying out, and animals burrowed holes in quite a few too. Adirondack Red and Satina taters were the best yielders, while the only real disappointment was the Magic Molly purple fingerlings. I think next year I’d scale back a bit, as storage has been a challenge, and I plan to work some sweet potatoes into the mix.
Corn
We grew some Triple Play sweet corn from Siskiyou Seeds, as well as Riverspirit Rainbow and Wapsie Valley flour corns. The Riverspirit Rainbow plants grew huge, over 10’ tall, and all the plants seemed very healthy and thrived. Crows got probably 85% of the crop unfortunately. Next year we need to figure out a way to deter them.
Tomatoes
Most of our tomatoes were a random mix of varieties from Page’s Organics in Ramona after ours froze. Success was moderate -- next year we need to do a better job of trellising, as we were a bit late on that. The San Marzanos were the largest and most consistent yielders. One interesting experiment was the Chiapas Wild tomatoes from Native Seed Search Southwest, a wild variety from the Sonoran Desert. These were prolific beyond belief, but tiny and a major pain to harvest. It was a fun test run, but I don’t think I’d bother again.
Peppers
Again, a random mix of varieties from Page’s Organics in Ramona after ours froze, including Anaheim, Poblano, Purple Jalapeño, little Thai chilis, and more. These were all prolific and fairly hands off, and no pests bothered them. I was both surprised and pleased by the outcome there, and we’re now rolling in hot sauce.
Summer Squash
All we grew this year was Lebanese Summer Squash, which yielded a bunch in the beginning than kind of petered out. Not sure why, but I never find myself all that excited about summer squash. Next year I’d probably grow a couple plants of the classic Costata Romanesca.
Cucumbers
We grew both a pickling variety and a fresh variety from Page’s after our Lemon Cukes froze. The pickling variety yielded a bunch for a short time, and the fresh not so much. These faced a lot of animal pressure and many had bites out of them.
Beans
We grew both Dragon’s Tongue and Provider bush beans, which both did really well, especially the Dragon’s Tongue. I saved seeds from both for next year. The pole beans that I tried to grow up corn stalks never really got going, and all the teparies we tried in various nooks and crannies got absolutely wrecked by squirrels and rabbits. Row covers seem to be a must for these to protect them. Ditto for the scarlet runner beans.
Winter Squash
Likely the biggest disappointment of the year. I tried Carol Deppe’s Sweetmeat Oregon Homestead squash all over, in the meadow, the backyard, and the orchard. Some of them took off for awhile, but all were eventually destroyed by animals (even plants that made it to maturity). Not sure how you’re supposed to protect them when they sprawl like they do. We grew Rancho Marquez and Walthum Butternut in the meadow garden. The plants for both grew like crazy, but the yield was effectively zero. I think I planted too many close together, and the animals got after the few fruits that grew. Again, not sure how to approach this next year.