Monitoring Luffa Growth & the End of Tomato Season

Village Farm Team,

Remember our luffa experiment? Though germination and growth was much slower initially when compared to our cucumbers, our trellis is currently loaded with luffas in various states of maturation. We’ve noticed that they produce much larger blooms than our cucumbers which our pollinators are loving. Unlike our cucumbers, the luffas will be left on the trellis to fully ripen and dry out before they are harvested. If all goes well, expect to see some luffa “sponges” at the veggie wagon soon!

The seasonal transition continues this week as our tomatoes finally reached the end of their season. Despite tomatoes making their exit, our second succession of butternut squash is moving closer to opening its first blossoms. This transitional period means we’ll be devoting more time to seeding in the greenhouse, taking care of general maintenance around the farm (hello weeding!), and keeping up with harvesting our hardy summer crops like okra and eggplant. So far, we’ve been able to seed peppers and cucumbers in the greenhouse along with our fall succession of tomatoes.

You might have heard mention that Houston has a “year-round growing season”. What this means is that there are specific crops that can be grown in each of our seasons throughout the year without the threat of the ground freezing as typically happens up north. The misconception we’ve run into with this term is that some think it means all crops can be grown year-round. Each fruit and veggie we grow has specific temperature requirements for both germination and maturation. Thus, fruits and veggies will only be available during the season that allows for these specific conditions. Members of the brassica family for instance like cabbage, kale, and broccoli, are winter/spring crops because they prefer cooler temperatures. This means you won’t see them during our summer or fall because it’s simply too warm for them to produce.