Farm Report: May 2004

A series of unusually moist weather patterns have swept through northern New Mexico throughout the last month. The fields here at the Seeds of Change Research Farm are like a rolling sea of green, as the cover crops have flourished from the generous rainfall. However, spring precipitation can seem both a blessing and a curse to the gardener and the farmer, who may resent having to delay working the ground for planting.

Other than a minor setback in field preparation, business is carrying on as usual here. Emily Skelton, our Greenhouse Specialist, has been hard at work planting eggplant, pepper (134 varieties this year!), tomato, flower, and herb seed in the greenhouse. This year, she has taken full advantage of our cold storage units by utilizing the ample space to cold stratify a number of flower and herb varieties that require the pre-treatment for germination. Emily has been doing extensive research on the topic of germination techniques for species that require special pre-germination treatments, in order to extend this valuable information to our customers. Her article in this month's eNewsletter, entitled "Germination Techniques for Herbs and Flowers" is a helpful and practical reference that captures some of the information she has gathered thus far.

The two new, 2,700-square-foot pollination/isolation tents are now up and ready to plant into. Bringing our total number of tents to three, these additions will enable us to grow four varieties of carrots for seed at the farm this year. We will be growing a different variety in each tent, as well as one outside. Carrot flowers require an insect pollinator to set seed. As the enclosed tents isolate native pollinators from entering, we will be purchasing and releasing thousands of pupae of the Blue Bottle Fly (Musca domestica) into each pollination/isolation tent throughout the carrot bloom period. The pupae hatch and use the carrot umbels as nectar sources, simultaneously pollinating the flowers. The adult Blue Bottle Fly's life cycle is approximately two weeks, so several consecutive releases of the pupae are necessary to ensure that all of the carrot flowers, which open in about three stages, are pollinated. We will also be growing one chile pepper variety per tent for seed production, as well as conducting our bean trials to isolate the plants from the Mexican bean beetle. Drip irrigation will be used inside the tents to help moderate the internal humidity level.

The parsnip roots that we dug up and selected last month have successfully survived transplanting. We will be collecting seed from this crop with the intention of offering it next year in the catalog. It is a very uniform, open pollinated strain with a strong, archtypical parsnip shape and delicious flavor. It's bound to be a reliable producer!

Greenhouse renovations are still in progress. We are having a bottom water bench installed in the north greenhouse, and a bottom heat bench put in the south greenhouse. The idea behind these additions is to expand our ability to meet the wide variety of plant needs that we face growing such a diversity of germplasm. The bottom heat bench will accelerate germination time for crops that need warm soil to germ, such as pepper, eggplant, and tomato. The bottom water bench will accommodate seedlings of crops that are susceptible to stem and foliar diseases (i.e., damping off), such as yacon, pepper, brassicas, and numerous flowers and herbs. The remaining greenhouse benches have an overhead mist system to ensure the surface of the potting trays doesn't dry out during the critical germination time.

We look forward to this growing season with great anticipation. We will be growing just less than 1,000 different seed strains, which we will be collecting data on and recording pertinent observations. We will be saving seed from eleven varieties this summer, including four carrots, one parsnip, three chile peppers, two flowers, and one herb. That should keep us busy for awhile!

Greetings from the farm,
Jordan Rainwater, Research Associate
and the entire crew at the Seeds of Change Research Farm

Photo captions: (top) Apple trees in bloom at the New Mexico Research Farm. (middle) Emily planting starts in our greenhouse. (bottom) Our new pollination tent ready to receive plants.