Where is the rain? I think the Lebanon Valley is prone to some sort of precipitation shadow. It's dry and dusty down almost a foot I would expect, and the storms just keep missing us, much like the snow usually piles up in the counties all around us in the winter. The corn is looking pretty parched even.
Speaking of corn, it looks like ours is over. Thank the groundhogs, deer, and racoons for that. As is all the years prior, their bad behavior has led to a near total loss in all of the stands of sweet, indian, and pop corn. We got a few dozen of an early yellow variety off, but I don't think there will be any more. There goes a good chunk of money lost on seed, and the loss of a lot of space that could have been used to grow something productive. I know I should stay away from corn, but I can't help that it's all everyone wants, and most people won't even stop if there's no corn.
The watermelons are piling in following a good two weeks of harvesting cantaloupes. The icebox types are good, though the Golden Midgets turned out to be interesting but utterly flavorless and bland. They've become compost in the field. But the other types are sweet and some are over ten pounds. The cantaloupes will soldier on for at least another month I expect as other sections ripen and the French melons start to bear. The French melons are slow as usual, but well worth the wait. The honeydews set extremely well and should provide a great harvest of delicious fruit in about 2-3 weeks.
Tomatoes are slowly rolling in, with perhaps enough to fill boxes on Wednesday. Red, yellow, and orange will be the first varieties, with the heirlooms at least a month away. The pepper plants have some small fruit, but are being attacked by the deer, so it's anyone's guess as to how they will turn out. Down in the potato patch, things look pretty poor, with something killing off the plants and no sign of edible potatoes this season.
Near the potatoes is the disastrous carrot jungle. Should have used plastic mulch and I knew it, but was worried about the seeding rate (I had problems in the onion patch on plastic where they all went to one side). Well, some carrots would have been better than no carrots. There will be some orange carrots, but only a small fraction of what we really planted. A huge loss that probably could have been minimized.
Onions on the plastic look great. So do the kohlrabi. The squash patches might actually turn out this year. The zucchini are finally running out of steam along with the cucumbers. The lack of water isn't helping matters.
Despite the loss of some big revenue items (carrots, green beans, peas) and sales outlets, we're on track to eclipse last year in earnings. And despite being a larger operation than last year, the whole farm has been within my ability to handle for the most part. That's a big improvement over last year. Many of successes this year are a result of taking knowledge earned last year and applying it to this year. All of the failures are a result of not sticking to the lessons learned last year, and, in many cases, repeating failures from last year.
Unfortunately, despite my desire to sow some fall crops, I'm prevented by a lack of precipitation. Another problem carried over from last year, and one not able to be solved at this location. I had hoped for more rain, but what can I do? At least we picked a fair amount of drought-tolerant crops.
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