May Crop Preview
One of the areas we excel at is having a good selection of produce available early in the season (think May and the 1st half of June). There’s a lot of planning and a good bit of luck that go into our ability to produce crops so early in the season. Today we’re going to go over our May crop plan and what goes into having these crops ready so early in the season.
May Crop List
Lettuce
Radish
Salad Turnips
Scallions
Cilantro
Spinach
Beets
Broccolini
Carrots
Snap Peas?
Step One: Grow In Tunnels
When we began investing in season extension infrastructure like caterpillar tunnels and high tunnels (referred to as “tunnels” henceforth) we knew that we wanted to do things a little different. At the time there were plenty of other vendors selling early tomatoes and cucumbers which are quite commonly grown in a tunnel. We wanted to focus on other popular crops that make sense in a tunnel. We landed on lettuce as our main focus crop but also wanted to have more available than lettuce. We added beets and carrots to our spring tunnel lineup as well as the others listed above.
Step Two: Think Ahead
We use software to aid in our crop planning so we know at a glance when certain tasks need to be done. Still, early in the season it can take a long time for soil conditions to be right for bed prep. In February we’re closely monitoring soil moisture levels inside the tunnels so when bed prep time comes around we are ready.
Step Three: Account For Cold Weather and Limited Sun
It can take a crop as much as 2-3 weeks extra to reach maturity early in the season. This is due mostly to colder temperatures but also due partly to decreased sunlight. This pushes our plant dates as early as March 1st for carrots and beets. With day to maturity ratings of around 60 days you would think they would be ready by May 1st. Instead, it’s more like May 15 for beets and May 22nd for carrots!
Step Four: Tunnel Management
The nice thing about the tunnels is we can achieve much warmer soil & air temperatures much earlier than we can outside. This also means on really sunny and warm days we can hit temperatures that are too hot for our crops. So we ventilate our tunnels to make sure we keep our crops in ideal growing temps. Since weather fluctuates wildly in the spring we also try to conserve heat on cooler and cloudy days. The compounded effect of this is earlier crop maturities!
When will we see these crops on the market stand/online store?
Early May: Lettuce, Spinach, Radish, Salad Turnips
Mid May: All of the above plus: Beets, Cilantro, Scallions
Late May: All of the above plus: Carrots, Snap Peas, Broccolini
Carrots with first true leaves showing!