Fall Heatwave And Its Effects

We’re in the midst of a fall heatwave here on the farm and basically everywhere in the upper Midwest. Highs today and tomorrow are forecast to be in the low 90s and it’s the first week of October. That’s around 20-25 degrees above the average. This kind of heat has an effect on our crops here on the farm and it’s a bit of a mixed bag. Some crops benefit from this heat while others suffer. Let’s break it down.

Crops That Benefit

Our summer-loving crops like green beans & peppers benefit from this heat. The green beans continue to produce as do the peppers. In fact, this heat is a bit of a blessing for the peppers. Our peppers were a bit delayed this season in ripening and since our average first frost is around October 1 (but could come sooner!), this heat has really moved along our peppers in terms of ripening. We’re picking pecks of perfect peppers weekly and they are just stunning this season!

Crops That Suffer

In particular the crop that we’re having the hardest time with during the heatwave is our winter spinach. We seed spinach from roughly late August through early October with the intention of having spinach available for CSAs, online orders, and our farmers market stand from Early October all the way through winter into early next spring. Our first planting of spinach didn’t germinate well at all. So much so that we had to terminate that planting. This is because spinach is very sensitive to soil temperate: it prefers cool soils for optimal germination. Our second planting from early September came in a bit better but we needed to interseed additional spinach to justify the space in our winter tunnel. Our late September planting of spinach came in much better and we’re excited about that planting.

Our 3rd planting of spinach came in well!