This is our farm column from farmer Casey O’Neill. O’Neill is the owner operator of HappyDay Farms north of Laytonville, and a long time advocate for the cannabis community in Mendocino Co; more of his writing can be found here. The opinions expressed in this column are those of the writer. If you would like to submit a letter to the editor feel free to write to [email protected].
Oh how glorious was the sun! We’re back in the cold and wet, but for a brief moment I reveled in the joy of warm rays caressing my face and bringing the abundance of growth to farm and landscape. Our daffodils are finally in full bloom, along with hyacinth and the tail end of the daphne make for incredible smells and bright delights for the eyes. We plant a hundred daffodils or so each year, and both sides of the driveway are now resplendent with their bright splashes of color, making me happy each time I drive in or out.
With the brief sunshine I managed to get enough bed prep done outside that it will accommodate the burgeoning trays of salad mixes, Asian greens and beets that will soon be ready to go. I had some help from friends in clearing hoophouse rows of old lettuce and chinese cabbage stumps to make way for scallions, and we up-planted cabbages, cauliflower and broccoli into 3” pots so they can size up well before being planted out in a couple of weeks.
It felt good to get the BCS out of the shed and run the flail mower over the lush cover crop, chopping the green biomass into tiny pieces that I then incorporated into the top 2” of the soil layer with the power harrow. This was the first time all winter that the ground had been dry enough to do this work without negatively impacting the soil structure, and with the current forecast I’m not sure when the next time will be.
I prepped two of the big cannabis terraces, one of which had a winter crop of pea shoots that got killed off by the hard freezes so that the bed surface was mostly ready for prepping without much green matter to deal with. The other bed had thick cover crop and grass, so after mowing and harrowing I’ll cover it with panda plastic with the black side up to warm the soil and stop the root balls from regenerating. In a few weeks time I’ll have a bed free of plants, with most of the green biomass decomposed and turned into soil by the worms and other organisms working busily in the darkness under the tarp.
On Thursday I finally got around to planting hot crops, sowing tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, summer squash and cannabis while Amber sowed seeds for cut flowers. We had to employ both old chest refrigerators and the double compartment standup fridge to hold all of the trays, and with a heat mat in each of the four spaces it’s a bit more draw on the power system than it can handle without a couple of hours each day of backup generator usage to charge the batteries.
I was delighted to find that the big chest fridge will hold the square trays of 4” pots so that I can germinate cannabis and summer squash in the chamber. All in all, it was somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 trays of starts, the biggest bump in our crop plan that happens in a year. I try to start 10-15 trays every 10-14 days to keep a steady supply of the quick crops coming in throughout the year, along with plantings of cool weather brassica in late winter, hot crops in early spring, second successions of hot crops in late spring, fall brassica in early summer and all of the winter crops in late summer and early fall.
The rotations are constant, but it’s so much easier to do a smaller amount regularly than a huge amount once in a while, and it means that we always have fresh things coming in and beds being cleared so that new seedlings can go out. When I stay with the rhythm of these cycles the farm flows smoothly and I don’t feel the stress of build up and overwork.
I can’t speak highly enough of the germination chamber and how much it has changed my farming practices, especially for such low-tech as an old fridge with a 17 watt heat mat. Having consistent, even germination has become the cornerstone of my practices, whereas in the past I could never count on the timing or quality of my seed starting. Like anything else, the more I practice it the better the results, but creating the consistency of the germ chamber means that I know how long it takes to get seeds going no matter the season. The growth rates vary after coming out of the chamber, but that’s much easier to account for than the unknown of “will they sprout or will they rot/damp off in cold weather?”
With the big plantings this past week and another upcoming of all the quick crops and the last round of heavy brassica, we’re fully underway heading into the frenetic pace of spring. The cold, wet weather gives me a chance to finish some projects like clearing out the second rabbit compartment and getting the space ready for the does to birth their upcoming litters, and also to catch up on the ever-threatening paperwork. Though it’s cold and dark still, spring has sprung, and for that I am grateful. As always, much love and great success to you on your journey!
Casey O’Neill owns and runs HappyDay Farms, a small vegetable and cannabis farm north of Laytonville. He is a long time cannabis policy advocate, and was born and raised in the Bell Springs area. The preceding has been an editorial column. The Mendocino Voice has not necessarily fact-checked or copyedited this work, and it should be interpreted as the words of the author, not necessarily reflecting the opinions of The Mendocino Voice.
