The end of November marks five weeks since the tomato crop was planted at the MicroFarm. Key challenges include rabbits (which chew the top of the plant off) and soil moisture, particularly for the regenerative treatment.
At planting, the regenerative treatment soil was much drier than the other two treatments. While both conventional and hybrid plots were sprayed out early, the regenerative oats/lupin/vetch cover crop was actively growing until just before planting and will have been sucking moisture out of the soil. The seedlings in this treatment have been stressed, which we have tried to address this through a foliar application two weeks after planting. Following recent rain, the plants are now actively growing, however are 10-14 days behind the other two treatments. The agronomy team prefers to avoid irrigation in the first weeks to encourage root growth. Perhaps in this case, water would have enabled root growth?
At the moment, all treatments are reasonably weed free within the beds, albeit a bit weedy in the interrow which will be picked up with a mechanical pass early December (Rototiller). After a week of wet weather last week, and some sunny days this week, weeds are just starting to strike within the beds. We are looking at doing a mechanical pass between the rows of tomatoes to pick these newly germinated weeds up before they get too big – targeting weeds including black nightshade, hairy nightshade, thorn apple, redroot, and wire weed.
We are starting to see some insects in the plots; a few aphids, and thrips. We have started trapping for Tomato Potato Psyllid. We are seeking information on threshold levels for our main pest insects.
Come and visit on Wednesday at 1pm – see for yourself, add to the debate.