Green Gators

     December 5th, The tomato plants are getting mature. The crops are beginning to show senescence and die off.  December 7th There is another squash! its incredible that these crops have still been growing well into December! December 5th Beautiful tomatoes, I have heard that tomatoes like this will continue to ripen if I put them near my window and they have been! this is because the tomatoes still have chlorophyll. December 7th  The lettuce that we inter cropped with our lettuce looks great. The lettuce has been able to compete effectively with the surrounding weeds and has grown very well.

  November 21st To take advantage of our corn post-harvest, we planted snow peas next to them, so they could use the stalks as a trellis after the corn dies off. We thought this would be a good way to reuse the corn and reduce the materials and labor that would have been required if we tore down the corn and made our own trellis. as a trellis after the corn dies off.   November 28th  Here you can see our mixed buckwheat and mustard plot. Both have fully grown and flowered, attracting many beneficial insects to our farm. In the background you can see some of our other crops showing the biodiversity that we have developed throughout the season. November 28th Our harvest of the day. We had more cherry tomatoes ready for harvest than expected, some bigger ones were ready, but we are letting them mature for a little longer. We also picked 4 eggplants, 3 okra, and 4 jalapenos. The cherry tomatoes were very juicy and satisfying to eat, so we’re hoping they’re a top seller out ...

  November 9th This photo depicts a tobacco Hornworm found on one of our tomato plants. The Hornworm larvae are cause for concern when found on tomato plants because they are known to feed on the unripe fruit, which depletes our overall crop yield. Hornworm pest control is often conducted through parasitoid wasps, who act as a biological control agent. In attempts to alleviate the pressure of this pest, we also will hand pick them off of the plants. Novmeber 9th The plot in the photo was once occupied by buckwheat, which we used as a cover crop. After we harvested and mowed the buckwheat, Kiara spread rye grass in the same plot as a second cover crop. We chose rye grass as it has many benefits acting as a cover crop such as erosion reduction, soil organic matter build up, and it can increase the rooting depth of crops such as soybean or corn.  November 9th This photo depicts the cocoons of the parasitoid wasp on a hornworm. The wasp will lay her eggs under the skin of the horn...

   October 19th Great yield of cucumbers today! exiting to see that the weather and conditions are right for our cucumbers to produce high yields. October 21st zach and Ryan tilled most of the mustard cover crop area. We used this small tilling device because the mustard we planted was not able to compete with the wild mustard and became overrun with weeds. October 21st more cucumbers! October 27th our veggies and flowers are growing well. The cover crops to the right of our vegetables will be trimmed soon since they compete with our crops for sunlight

We are harvesting more cucumbers today! They are seemingly flourishing and producing cucumbers at a faster rate than anticipated. The trellis is having a positive effect by supporting the weight of the cucumbers.  We are now seeing the development of our first tomatoes! The tomato plants are very bushy, and we noticed that there are a lot of tomatoes growing throughout the entire area of the plant. They are small at this point however, as they get closer to harvest there will be some hefty sizes due to the cultivar.   Our marigold cover crops are starting to flower! We have marigold flowers that are this red with a yellow undertone flower and a pure yellow flower. Our marigold flowers will be used as a cover crop to attract beneficial insects. We are hoping to use our marigold flowers as an example of our marketing as well. Here is an example of our farm plot exhibiting biological control. Within the younger leaves of our cucumber our group noticed these larvae nesting. These ...

  Today we trellised some the cucumber plants with bamboo sticks and twine. We are attempting to wrap the plants up the poles to encourage the vines to attach to the poles. This will provide more structure to the plants are prevent the growing cucumbers from laying strictly on the ground. This also makes it easier to pick the cucumbers when they are ready for harvest. We used zip ties at the top of the bamboo tepees to keep the bamboo sticks together. This provides support for the bamboo and prevent the added weight of the growing cucumbers dislodging the bamboo tepees.  We now have our first harvest of cucumbers! The cucumbers are growing at a fast rate, and we suspect a high number of cucumbers to become available to harvest. The plant is very healthy with a large number of flowers growing on it.     We are noticing plant growth of the mustard and buckwheat seeds that we planted. However, we have noticed that there are still weed seeds that are growing wi...