Fresh News
2010, straight from the strawberry patch.
Monday March 8th, 2010 ---- We finally got the covers off the Strawberries and have had a good look at the progress of the crop underneath them. Overall the berry crop is definately behind, but perhaps not dimenished. The Strawberry plants do not have a set number of berries they will produce, instead they generate berries as long as the weather is favorable to them. Starting the season late sometimes means a reduction in the total crop but in this case it looks like the early blooms are there but waiting for better growing conditions. I guess what I am trying to say is that I think we will still have the same amount of berries, just way more concentrated in ripening. So, please call all of your relatives and friends and get them lined up to come pick berries in mid April. The early varieties are covered in blooms now and the Chandler (which represents 90% of the plants) have tons of blooms just about to emerge.
I know lots of folks want to come out for Spring Break and we are oh so close but I just can't see us having enough berries to open up. There is a very slim outside chance that we could have some berries to pick by the end of that week (March 20) but I really think it will be the following week before we will feel comfortable opening. We will try to keep the Fresh News updated more frequently as we get closer to the actual opening day. Well, it appears there is a line of storms coming so I better run out and feed the goats before the rain sets in.
Wednesday March 3rd, 2010 --- Beautiful! The weather today is outstanding! We still have the covers on the Strawberries because we are GUN SHY. We started to pull them off last Friday because the forecast was 38 degrees Saturday morning, good thing we didn't because it frooze pretty good. So we are now officially gun shy, anytime the temps are forecast 39 degrees or lower we are worried about a freeze. It does not help that we are in a low spot which will be colder than anywhere around us, our temps are very similiar to ABIA to give you an idea of what to watch for.
Wednesday February 24, 2010 ----- It snowed here yesterday and it sure was pretty. Last time I remember it snowing any significant amout here in Marble Falls was 30 years ago and all us boys ended up on the football field playing in it. I sure was tempted to drive over to the field and see if there was any action going on, then I rembered that it would be hard for me to outrun the cones marking the field much less some high school kid.
It is good the Strawberry plants are covered up as we had a hard freeze this morning. We will leave the covers on for a couple of days and make sure these freezes are over for awhile before we pull them off. To put it in 'Home Depot' terms for this time of the year, leaving the covers on for a couple of weeks is 'good', a couple of days is 'better', and none at all 'best'. Even though the increased temperatures under the covers encourages plant growth, the reduction in light henders it.
Hold on you blackberries! The Blackberry buds are starting to swell. I used to think that Blackberry blooms hardly ever get frozen but after several wipe outs I have changed my opinion. We have not had a really good Blackberry crop here for several years so I want them to wait a little longer before coming out. Even though they might break bud now they won't bloom till the later part of March. Those late March/ early April freezes are the ones we have to watch for.
Monday February 22, 2010 ---- The weather has been the big story around here lately (come to think of it - it almost always is ....... I feel so shallow, all we talk about is the weather). Last week we did get a small reprieve from the rain and were able to get most of the frost covers taken off the Strawberry plants. As expected, the Festival and Sweet Charlie plants have a good many nice blooms on them. The Chandler plants had only a few blooms showing but more yet to show themselves down deep in the crown. We were hoping they would be a little farther along but the winter has been cold around here and they plants are a little behind. It sounds like we are going to get more freezing weather over the next few days so we are going to cover the plants back up today. It looks like we might have some berries to pick mid to late March. To early to tell if we will have berries for Spring Break (March 15 - 20), we will try but the weather has to cooperate.
Thursday January 21, 2010 ---- Wow! what a beautiful couple
of days! Lots of sunshine and mid 70's temperatures have kept me in a
pretty good mood lately. We don't want to get carried away though, since
we still have some winter to go we don't want the plants to be fooled that
spring is here. it looks like we will be cooling off soon so I don't think
there is too much to worry about. I was in the Strawberry patch today and
noticed a good many live blooms amongst the 'Festival' and
'Sweet Charlie' plants. We will probably try to protect these blooms just
to give us a few berries to put in the freezer before we officially open for
picking. For sure we will be covering the entire Strawberry field with
every impending freeze after February 1st. Hopefully the plants will begin
blooming by mid February and we will start picking berries mid March. As
every year before, the task at hand is to keep from being surprised
by freezing weather. Covering the plants two weeks ago was good
practice and prepares us to mobilize pretty quickly when needed. Barring
mishaps, we should be able to cover the fields in about six or seven hours (it
is not too hard to get the wife and kids to help when they understand their
quality of life is at stake).
The great peach tree replant has
begun here. If you did not see it here before, almost all of the trees we
planted last year died. Why? is stupidity a good excuse? I did not
take care of the trees when they arrived - might have let them dry out before
planting - planted them into the field too late - over fertilized them in mid
summer - what was left by late summer was taken care of by the deer and
drought. So, since my german wife is so stubborn and I just went along
with her to keep from making waves (you believe me right?), we have started
replanting the trees.
Spring is just around the
corner - get ready!
Friday January 15, 2010
---- Looks like we made it through the 'big freeze' with
minimal damage. We have two early Strawberry varieties that had blooms
showing or about to show - those blooms were killed. Those blooms would
have represented ripe berries in mid to late February which is a little
earlier than we would like to start picking. When we have berries
that early it is hard to keep them protected from freezes, in past years we
have picked during the day and had to cover at night - which gets old pretty
fast. Anyway those early varieties only account for 5,000 of the 90,000 we
have planted. We took off the frost covers earlier this week in
preparation for the rain we are getting now. The warmer weather
forcast for next week will be a tremendous help in getting the Strawberry plants
moving. We want them to be actively growing and blooming about three
weeks from now so now is the time to get them moving. If we have another
cold spell we will cover up the plants again and leave it down for
awhile.
About 3000 of our recently planted
onions froze. They will be easily replanted and in fact are half
done.
I don't think the older Blackberry canes
were hurt but it looks like we might have some tip damage on the plants we
planted last year. It should not be enough to kill the entire
plant so that is good.
Overall we feel extremely blessed
and are looking forward to a great upcoming Spring
season.
Wednesday January 6, 2010
----- Sounds like we have some cold weather coming. You might
have heard on the news about the Florida Strawberry Growers being in a panic
about the impending cold snap. We are not overly concerned here, so why
the difference? The Florida growers are actively producing berries and we
don't even have any blooms showing. Remember, at this time of the year,
the plant of our main variety Chandler will withstand temperatures in the low
teens without much damage. Just to be safe, we don't like them to see
temps under 15. While the plant is fairly hardy, the blooms are not and
will die at temps below freezing. Oddly enough we have noticed that
the further along the actual berry is to being ripe, the lower the temps it can
handle. Many times we have seen the blossoms get frozen while the berries
did not. Regardless, for the Florida growers with blooms and berries
alike, a few hours below 28 would be a huge hit to production. Since it
takes about 30 days from bloom to fruit, they are looking at a month of little
to no production if they cannot somehow protect their plants. We have
covered most of our 6 acres with Frost Covers that should give us an added 5 to
8 degrees of protection. 6 acres is one thing but hundreds of acres is
another, we wish the best to them. Of course there is nothing we
can do about the weather, let's hope that it doesn't get down to 10 or
lower.
I've always heard that very
low temps will kill some of the pests waiting to attack us in the
Spring, that would be a good thing for sure. The Blackberry
canes are very dormant so I would not expect any damage on
them.
Since we have slowed down abit
lately I have been able to spend some quality time in the goat pen.
In late November we had 71 kids born and in December we had 11 from a embryo
transfer 'flush' between our doe 'Purdy' and a buck named 'Status
Quo'. Two of the eleven died upon arrival giving us nine live kids.
Since we are striving to build the quality of our herd, we were after mostly
females. Would'nt you know it, we ended up with seven bucks and two
does. Oh well, two of the bucks are outstanding and might have a bright
future. The herd has been grazing in the 'Texas Maze' field for
awhile now and have most of it eaten/trampled down. Back when the
Maze was still tall, we put feed out one day and went out to call the goats
up to the barn. After a call or two, all of the goats appeared suddenly,
running out of the Maze. It looked like 'Goats of the
Corn!'.
For Fresh News from previous
years, just click the link below:
Fresh News 2009
Fresh News 2008
Somewhere along the way we lost Fresh News 2000. I have some old pc's in the barn, maybe I can find it there.