With all seeds ordered and in hand, pepper seeds were germinated and potted up into flats during the second and third weeks of February respectively. Tomato seeds have started to germinate and will be potted up by the end of this last week of February. It has been our experience with the greenhouse system on site that pepper transplants generally take 8 weeks and tomato transplants only need about 6 weeks before they have developed enough root system to be transplanted out into production areas. Generally, cucurbit crops only need about 2 to 3 weeks from germination to transplanting and those crops will be started accordingly based on the planned planting date within our high tunnels.
Production supplies for the upcoming season arrived this past week and include fertilizers of various blends, perlite, pesticides, injectors for fertigation, irrigation components, and more. We order supplies now that we know we will need or anticipate needing during the growing season. If a situation comes up during the growing season and we already have a product on hand or the means to fix the situation, we can avoid delays that could impact crop quality and yield.
The newest Extension publication from our colleagues at Purdue, Water Management for Vegetable Crops on Small Farms, is now available as a free download from the Purdue Extension Education Store. Water management is critical in vegetable farming. In this publication, Purdue researchers aim to help small-scale and diversified vegetable farms improve their water management practices for open-field and high-tunnel production. It should be noted that the new Purdue Extension store requires users to create an account to download publications, even if they are free.
Cover crops in the high tunnel have stayed green all winter and are starting to increase in biomass. This last week of February we covered half of the plots with clear plastic to look at cover crop termination via solarization. The other half of the cover crop plots will be terminated mechanically about a week before transplanting tomatoes and peppers into the high tunnel, which is anticipated to be the first week of April. Hopefully the spring oats and annual rye grass will be at flowering stage the last week of March so mechanical termination is effective, and regrowth does not occur. The plan is to keep the tunnel warm and push the growing degree days.
A portion of southern Illinois received several inches of dry snow the third week of February, with totals ranging from 4 to 10 inches depending on the location. The snow began melting over the weekend when temperatures finally climbed above freezing. The ground is beyond saturated and a muddy mess for any outside chores. Temperatures this last week of February are above freezing and will be reaching into the 60s at times.