Market Farming

["Liz Pike" <liz AT laughingbrookfarm.com>]

Courtney, I had this happen every year during hurricanes. It's amazing how
resilient all crops are.  As long as roots are not torn out of the ground,
and even then if not completely, the crop will survive--don't think it a
loss yet...keep harvesting.

One year two back-to-back hurricanes laid down my 8' tall okra, for which I
was thankful, didn't need a step stool to harvest anymore ; )) .

I kept a supply of tomato stakes around for just such emergencies to stake
everything, and then I'd mulch heavily down near the roots in case some were
exposed.

If I had enough warning I'd go out ahead of the hurricane and carefully
remove trellis systems and lay everything down, worked best with beans.  If
the plants were not trellised, I use a pitch fork to dig around, loosen
plant, then encourage towards the direction of the wind (no matter which
direction the wind came, the plants always ended up facing south/southeast).
I never lost a crop completely to hurricane damage.  The plants looked like
hell, but kept producing. After noticing how trees and other plants were
reinvigorated by the stresses of the storm, producing new spring growth even
when the calendar said Sept, my garden did the same so production wasn't
hurt near as much as I always expected.

Liz Pike
Laughingbrook Farm
Westfield NC
http://www.marketfarming.com
http://www.laughingbrookfarm.com