Transplanting the Last of the Cool Season Greens

We transplanted the last round of cool season greens this week that will get us through spring and potentially early summer. Overall, greens like kale, bok choy, and chard prefer cooler temperatures. While these greens may grow during the summer in cooler climates, they struggle during our lengthy hot and humid summer months. In the case of kale, temperature affects not only the growth but the flavor as well. Prolonged exposure to hot temperatures can produce a more bitter flavor.

As the weather warms up it is common to begin seeing certain pests return to the farm. Last week, we noticed an aphid issue among some of our kale and bok choy. Aphids are sap-sucking insects that can be incredibly destructive to certain crops. With sustainable farming, sometimes the best option is to wait and see if natural aphid predators like ladybugs and parasitic wasps show up to help control the population before resorting to organic pesticides. It wasn’t long before we noticed our resident ladybugs hard at work! We caught this one taking a well-deserved rest in our bok choy.

Seeding in the greenhouse has officially shifted focus to warm-weather plants. We seeded more peppers, squash, cucumbers, and eggplant over the past week. You might be wondering why we’re seeding more of these crops when we just transplanted them into our beds. Staggering multiple different plantings is called succession planting or successionalization and it has many advantages on the farm with regards to harvest windows and yields. By staggering our planting, we can lengthen our harvest window and maintain more of a steady supply of crops throughout the season.