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].
In the month of April, all through the farm, plants begin growing, sun tender and warm. Exhausted at night, asleep in my bed, visions of crop plans dance in my head. For real though, the full crush of spring planting is upon us and it’s boomboomjamjamgotime.
Crop planning is one of the greatest joys and greatest puzzles of my life, a multidimensional process that involves space, time, effort, and the magic of seeds. As the rotations grow tighter, I try to squeeze extra space by clearing crops as soon after harvest as possible and by having my starts big and strong in the propagation house when it’s time for them to be planted.
After a full year of working with the paperpot transplanter and the drop seeder I feel like I’m starting to get the hang of things. High quality potting soil is one of the most important pieces of the puzzle because the paperpot cells hold such a tiny amount of soil and it needs to get the plants up to plantable size. After a number of missteps in the last year that left me transplanting tiny seedlings, I’m now focused on high-nutrient potting soil that can deliver strong, healthy starts.
The germination chamber is a crucial step in the chain after sowing into trays, and I’ve learned a hard lesson there about making sure I don’t sow the seeds too deep. I use a dibbling board to press a hole into each of the 264 cells in the paperpot tray, and I came to realize that I was pressing too hard in the area closest to me where my weight had more effect on the depth of planting, so I was getting much faster germination on most of the tray except for the edge closest to me when I dibbled it.
I’m coming to realize how much precision is required in order to maintain the consistency of output that I’m asking from seed to soil to harvest. Seeds must be fresh and vital, soil must be rich and fertile, bed prep excellent, water abundant, and care exercised in planting. All rapid rotation crops are covered, either by being inside the hoophouse or with insect netting for rows outside, and frost blanket is deployed as needed during cold snaps.
I try to sow every 10-14 days, each time with Salanova lettuce, a salad mix blend of Tokyo Bekana, arugula, mizuna and tatsoi, beets, scallions and salad turnips. In late winter I add large heading brassica, and in early spring the hot crops; cannabis, tomatoes, cukes, summer squash, peppers. This coming week I’m starting the aforementioned regulars, along with basil and cilantro. Soon the Asiain greens salad mix will go by wayside in favor of heavier plantings of Salanova lettuce which does well in the summer heat so long as I run plenty of overhead irrigation.
This coming week will see the large, heading brassica go out to their final beds, 200 cabbage, 75 each of cauliflower and broccoli. It’s tough to keep up with bed prep this time of year, so I’ve been experimenting with different strategies for getting some rows ready without use of machinery while the ground is still very wet. Space is always at a premium so I’m only doing one round of brassica, and I prepped their beds weeks ago and laid cardboard, compost and straw to hold them weed-free and in stasis until the brassica were ready to go out.
As we get into May I’ll sow winter squash, pumpkins and melons, while the earlier hot crop sowings will be transplanted out. We always see a hard frost at the very end of May so the squash and tomatoes that go outside will get both insect netting and frost blanket coverings until we get into June, while the hoophouse hot crops take off once they get in the ground.
Yesterday I planted a row of cucumbers down the center of a hoophouse bed, with a row of salad turnips down each shoulder of the bed. We use vertical nylon netting to trellis the cukes, which I lowered from where it was tied up along a cable that runs the length of the hoophouse attached to each hoop. Having these kinds of systems in place makes the work so much easier than if I had to put up the netting anew, and being able to maximize the use of the bed with a run of turnips on the edges means that I don’t have to wait until the cukes are ready weeks from now to see a return on the planting space. This need is partially economic and partially about having enough production coming in each week to fill the demands of market channels, and it has become one of the most important methodologies for us to make it through the seasonal transitions when new crops take time to arrive at harvestable size.
I read an article recently that described this idea as using “squeeze crops” to fill space in beds that will be taken up by larger crops like tomatoes or cukes once they grow out to full size. We do basil with peppers, turnips with cukes, basil, lettuce or scallions with tomatoes, and bok choy or scallions with summer squash. I’m also looking to fill any extra space by making a pass with the seeder to sow radishes anytime I’m planting out other crops.
At best, the farm is an elegant choreography of puzzle pieces working in concert as the season moves along, although sometimes it’s more of a chaotic jumble, and that’s life. As always, much love and great success to you on your journey!
