Is Rain a Good Thing?

Is Rain a Good Thing?

We’ve dried out now, but we got a lot of rain last week.  Some things like the rain.  Native plants are adapted to our relatively wet climate, so rain is good for the whole ecosystem.  The pasture needs rain to grow and be healthy.  Our cover crop of cowpeas and sunflowers is happy for the rain.  And lets not forget the weeds.  The weeds really love the rain!

What doesn’t like the rain?  Vegetables.  Yes, vegetables need water to grow.  But most vegetables don’t like having wet leaves.  Wet weather and high humidity are perfect conditions for fungal disease to spread.  The reason we grow peppers and heirloom tomatoes and cucumbers in the high tunnel is primarily to keep them out of the rain.  Most of the vegetables grown in the United States are grown in the arid west where disease pressure is significantly lower than what we humid climate farmers face.  Of course we don’t have to dig hundreds or thousands or tens of thousands of feet to reach groundwater for irrigation.  Every region has its own challenges.

Too much water in the soil can be bad news, too.  Plants that take up water too quickly can split.  We had about 50 cabbages explode in the field from excessive rain.  Healthy soil naturally contains empty space between soil particles.  Ideally, about 50% of that space is filled with air, and 50% is filled with water.  Plant roots suffocate when the soil is saturated with water.  Warm, wet soil is especially bad news for root crops like carrots.  We were fortunate not to have gotten as much rain as what fell south of here.  I have heard from more than one farmer friend further south in Mississippi that they’ve lost all the carrots they had in the ground – the roots rotted in the saturated soil.

Rain is definitely a good thing when the ground is dry and the crops need water.  But too much rain can do a lot of damage.  All things in moderation.  That is one of the reasons I love farming a wide variety of crops.  Even if there are failures in some crops, something else might do really well.  That is what growing a diverse portfolio of crops is all about.

Meet your Farm Workers: Anna

Anna has been working at Tubby Creek Farm for the past three summers.  In a couple of months, she will be starting her senior year at the University of Mississippi in Oxford studying Economics.  She is interested in how the public’s understanding of economics influences discourse about public policy.  One of Anna’s favorite jobs on the farm is trellising tomatoes.  Anna loves composting because it is the “original recycling”.   She has been known to try to get her coworkers to eat bugs.  A big thanks to Anna for being part of our team!

Small Shares

• Carrots
• Onions
• Beets
• Assorted Squash
• Fingerling Potatoes
• Cucumber

Full Shares

• Carrots
• Onions
• Fingerling Potatoes
• Cucumber
• Kale
• Collards