Join the New Entry Open Farms Tour on August 2nd

The New Entry Sustainable Farming Project is having their 5th Open Farms Tour.  It will tour the farms, hear from some of the farmers and provide refreshments. 
Information about the Open Farms Tour on August 2nd

The Weekly Chore - Trellising the Tomatoes

The tomatoes leaning into each other

This season, I spend at least a couple days every week trellising the tomatoes. It gives the vines structure by keeping them upright, which helps with air circulation. Tomatoes are susceptible to many diseases. Trellising, pruning, and mulching makes for less contact with the soil to help prevent soil-borne diseases.  All of these are good things which I try to remember while the string is wrapped around my foot, or my belt or caught on another plant.

"Wrestling" the tomatoes

"Hugging" the tomatoes to wrap the twine around them

The hot, muggy weather and warm nights have been great for the tomatoes.  They have been growing a foot a week.  The cherry tomatoes are already very close to the top of the six-foot stakes.  Soon, I will have to let them flop onto themselves.  By then, I will be heavily into harvest mode.

A little less unruly?

Final Hilling of the Potatoes

French Fingerling or Russian Banana flowering

Over the weekend, we hilled and mulched the potatoes.  They are starting to flower now and with luck, we won't have to do anything else until harvest in September. 

The potato greens were growing tall so we hilled them a third time.  The hilling keeps them cooler, can improve the yield and keeps them in the dark to prevent greening. 

Here's Kamal shoveling dirt around the potatoes.

My job was to make the mounds to support the greens.

Mulching
We searched close by for straw and bought some down the street.  In the end, I used nine bales.  The straw keeps moisture in, keeps the weeds down and makes it harder for the Colorado Potato Beetle to get around.  As we found out last year, it makes some voles happy too.  We'll see.

Here I am putting the straw down

Here's what the potato beds look like now.

 

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