Spinella Farm

We have been getting a warm rain for the last two days in the Delaware Valley. Fortunately at the farm, it has been raining sparingly. Warm rain makes every thing grow. And that includes the fungus and the weeds. 

I expected the worst when I walked the fields after supper last night. But I was surprised to see that the fields were in decent shape. It had rained about .2 of an inch early yesterday morning which was just enough to help pull out the root system of the crab grass. Nut grass is the first invader of the season; it is followed by crab grass. It is funny to look out and see how the seed for the crab grass has been distributed. In some spots, it is like a doormat. In other spots, barely a plant here and there. But if you let it get too big it is impossible to pull out unlike nut grass which is a rooted system that continues to pop up rather than establish a dense network.

The rabbit was at work again in the pea patch. I'm afraid we'll have to put him out of commission. In all the years that I have worked on that farm, I've never had a rabbit create havoc as much as this little fellow has done.

The blight situation in the potato turned out to be some stress attributed to the hilling we did two weeks ago according to our ag agent. He also took some samples from the pole limas but I think that condition came about because of stress of the transplanting and colder temperatures. Those plants have righted themselves and seem to be doing fine as they trellis up the netting.

I weeded and put deer spray on the string beans. I hesitated to spray but I noticed that some of the tops were nibbled, so I went ahead and did it.