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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] Winter's coming -- Hoophouses

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  • From: Richard Stewart <rstewart AT zoomtown.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Winter's coming -- Hoophouses
  • Date: Sun, 25 Sep 2011 20:28:19 -0400

Richard

We are planting both the French Breakfast and Round Reds right now.  We sell about 20 to 30# weekly between chefs and markets.  We continue to direct seed till the end of October.  We are harvesting at just over three weeks usually.  25 to 29 days is the magic window and unless you get a hard freeze during this time they'll do fine.  Right now we have sequential beds that we re planted 1 week apart for the past 5 weeks.  One is over mature, the left overs from 2 weeks of harvesting and will be "dumped" for cheap to a local artisan producer.  The next bed is just coming into maturity and the other is in "baby" mode.  The others are either setting the next batch of true leaves with color in the root stem and the rest are either germinating or setting the first set of true leaves.

Other root crops including large radishes, like daikons become risky after the first of October.  A lot has to do with available day light.  It may set enough leaf but once they do is there enough daylight to push that root into a bulb that is harvestable?  If you do not freeze until the end of November, maybe.  We plant knowing we may loose it all.

We've stopped planting carrots and beets.

No plastic being used though we may use floating row cover.  

Mulching works but you need to decide whether its worth the effort or cost.

Richard Stewart
Carriage House Farm
North Bend, Ohio

An Ohio Century Farm Est. 1855

(513) 967-1106



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