Say Colin King . . . .

[Monomechanical]

How are the veggies going? I put my giant pumpkins under a plastic tent and, as per Bruce Va's advice, buried some buckets for watering/fertilizer. Going great guns.

Are you harvesting tomatoes yet?

mono

 

[Colin King]

Hey, Mono, Glad to hear those pumpkins are turning out well! Did you direct seed them, or use starts?

Oh, no, tomatoes are a long way off in the Steppes of the Canadian Wastes... If my memory is serving me correctly, the starts went into their tunnels about 3 weeks ago. We've had an unseasonably hot (and dry) June, so that's pushing those plants along nicely, but even still we'll be lucky to see tomatoes earlier than the 1st week of August.

Other than winter squash, tomatoes are the last major crop out of the field.

Right now we have strawberries and greens. Soon blueberries and raspberries. In a month we'll start getting chard, cucumbers, and melons.

Colin

 

[Monomechanical]

I planted seeds (the prevalent Atlantic Giant) into small pots, then transplanted at about six inch stems.

I thought you all planted in May. What's the last frost day up there? Can you plant a month early if you transplant under cloth and/or plastic? (You call them "tunnels"?)

mono.

 

[Colin King]

We call it a row tunnel. It's a raised bed either with straw or black plastic as mulch, then a synthetic fabric called remay.

Yup, we planted in May - but that was about 3 weeks ago ;-) Usually the last risk of frost is about now ... the solstice.

It is an interesting area to grow hot summer crops. The summer is very hot and humid, but it's just so short. Having lived here in Minneapolis now for 4 years, and watched the seasons change, I figure that the season is 2 weeks shorter on either end up at the farm as compared to here in SE Minnesota. And the farm is only 2.5 hours NW of the Cities. Last fall, the leaves had fallen before they had even started to change in the Cities.

Colin