Wow! It has been a very busy week at the Willits Energy Farm. We have used this week (April 16-21) to seed and transplant most of our cool season crops. It has been quite a bit of work to transplant onions and lettuce and it takes a lot of time! I love to see the beds when all the transplants are in because it really gives a sense of how intensively they are planted. We used the Three-Wide Earthway seeder to seed more onions, beets, radish, and spinach. Carrots and parsnips were seeded using a bar to make a furrow and then carefully seeded. A local master gardener had the following suggestion for planting carrots:

“Go ahead and mix the carrot seeds with sand. When you sprinkle the seeds into the seedbed the sand will allow the seeds to easily fall into the furrow and they will not be planted too close to each other.”

Our totals for this week are:

Transplanted

Lettuce: 88 Sq Ft at 8 inch space on center

Onions: 25 Sq Ft at 4 inch spacing on center

Kale: 20 Sq Ft at 15 inch spacing

Seeded

60 Sq Ft of Carrots

52 Sq Ft of Radish

164 Sq Ft Onion

88 Sq Ft Spinach

200 Sq Feet Parsnip

We have installed an improved trellis system for the peas this week, and just in time. At the cost of style points we had to install the new trellis among the already growing peas. Luckily no peas were injured in the installation of this new system. It was, however, a stressful job to install the new wire because we did not want to smash and damage the pea plants. Jason and I were able to salvage the pea trellis and will opt for a more proven design next time in lieu of the immense style points for use of the manzinita branches.

Jason Using The Three-Wide Earthway to Seed Onions

Chris Seeding Spinach

The Tedious Work of Transplanting Onions on 4-inch Centers

(From Left to Right) Example of Intensive Transplants of Lettuce, Onions, and Spinach

The Improved Pea Trellis

When working the land to grow food and energy crops our first priority and greatest resource is the soil. It has been said if humans take care of the soil then the sun and water will care for the plants. At the Willits Energy Farm we are developing a mini-farm template that factors in crop rotation systems, bed preparation, and a multi-faceted compost center designed to preserve and grow soil. As is evident by the abundance of earthworms that fill almost every scoop of soil, the site at Brookside Elementary has a nutrient rich soil high in organic matter. A soil analysis from December 2005 indicates that the percentage organic matter is 6% and there exists large reserves of exchangeable nutrients.

The same report shows that the soil is rich in microbial life including fungi, protozoa, and especially bacteria. Micro organisms are important aspect of the soil because they participate in the process of nutrient cycling and nutrient retention. Nutrient cycling is the conversion of organic matter and the exchangeable nutrients within the soil into plant available “foods”. Cycling occurs when bacteria and fungi decompose and metabolize organic matter in the soil. These microbes store the nutrients in their bodies (retention) and are themselves eaten in the processes and interactions within the natural food web of the soil. When a diverse set of microbes are interacting in the soil the nutrients are less susceptible to leeching out and the fungal threads and bacterial glues help form soil aggregates that resist compaction. As you might expect, healthy compost is a primary inoculum soil based micro organisms.

Given what has been said about the value of healthy soil, we have begun to plant out and seed spring annuals. These vegetables are transplanted in closely spaced sets and seeded densely in order to grow the greatest amount of food in the smallest space possible. On marginal soil this sort of approach may not produce desired yields as the plants struggle to find the nutrients in land that has been depleted or lacks the nutrient cycling provided by diverse microbial life. Although we have excellent soil to begin this project with we need to be careful not to deplete the reserves that have been stored up through the years. The Grow Biointensive method that we are pattering some of our crop spacing after admits that in order to produce large crops yields in a small space you will need to replenish the land and soil to make up for the nutrients used in the processes of growth. It is clear that we will need to amend the soil with compost after each section of annuals is finished.

Example of Intensive Planting of Onions and Lettuce

Intensive Planting of Peas, Beets, Cabbage, and Swiss Chard

Jason and I picked up a 150 pound order of seed potatoes toward the end of last week. Willits local, Michael Stewart, bought these seeds for us because he has a particular interest in discovering the actual yields that can be expected in this area. Michael mentioned that he is willing to buy potatoes for other interested farm sites, and I think there will be at least two additional sites growing similar varieties of potatoes in the Little Lake Valley. For our part, we will plant 1800 Sq Ft with 5 different varieties of spuds. We feel comfortable planting potatoes after the last hard frost date which is typically April 15th.

There is a good deal of work to do as we prepare the beds for potatoes. The bed preparation techniques for this section will not be as rigorous as the methods employed for the other spring and summer annuals. Potatoes will be sown about 18 inches apart in three rows down the length of the 5Ft wide by 66Ft long beds. The process is as follows:

- Remove the top layer of sod with the Glaser Hoe.

- Rake loose sod away from the bed and transport it in a wheelbarrow to the compost area

- Broadfork the length of the bed to loosen the soil about 10 inches deep and form rows

- Use a spade to dig out the furrows and pile soil that will be used to cover the potatoes as they grow

Potatoes have been selected because they are a food crop that yields a large amount of calories in a relatively small area. High-calorie foods include potatoes, grains, Jerusalem artichokes, and parsnips, and corn. Potatoes, Jerusalem artichokes, and parsnips are considered high-calorie, area-efficient crops; while corn and grains are no doubt high calorie crops but take considerably more room to grow for the same caloric yield.

Vegetable crops are high in vitamins and diverse in flavor; however, they are low in energy (calories). When growing energy crops as a human food, potatoes and grains have more energy and can potentially be stored longer than fresh vegetables. Keeping this consideration in mind may influence the amount of area that one dedicates to the cultivation of vegetables vs. high-calorie foods.

Potato Section Ready to Be Prepared (1800 Sq Feet)

Six Beds For Potatoes (A bed is 5x66Ft)

The Potato Seeds in a Cellar

The Other Portion of the Seed Potatoes

I would like to thank Jason Bradford for sharing the following chart with me. As you can see it outlines planting dates for various crops in Willits, California. Tools like these are very useful when trying to coordinate plantings. Check and see if you can find such a graph for your location. Perhaps local farmers have generated the charts for themselves. State or Regional University Extension Programs might also be able to provide such information.