Category: Uncategorized

 

This week I had the pleasure of working with Beth, the co-manager at Evergreen’s organic farm. We escaped the tempestuous weather by working in the heated greenhouse, starting seeds in flats and gearing up for the upcoming spring class.

I used this nifty seeding trowel, it helps control the amount of seeds dispersed in the trays, some of the heirloom tomato seeds cost $1.00 each! I had not realized a packet of seeds could be so costly. I thought back to last summer, remembering the bountiful harvest of tomatoes we had on the farm, it is amazing that each tiny seed  is capable of bearing  big beautiful tomatoes in the span of six months.

 

 

 

Butch the cat enjoys the seed heated seed mats the help facilitate germination rates.

 

The hardy kiwi plants on the farm are tangled and overgrown because they were not properly trained their first year of planting. It is imperative to develop a single straight trunk at planting by choosing one strong shoot to grow upward as the trunk. The shoot should be loosely tied, and not allowed to wrap or twist itself around a support stake, all suckers and shoots must be removed. During the second growing season cordons are established by choosing two shoots and training them to grow in opposite direction along the main support wire, allow shoots to remain every foot and secure to outer trellis wire. It is important to stay on top of pruning task during the summer, all unwanted shoots and suckers should be removed to establish a good structure that will allow air flow and sunlight penetration. During the third year the leaders should be trained and tied off at an angle to the right of where they come off from the cordon to reduce sunlight competition. Do not allow the cordon to twist or wrap around the support wires, doing so will cut off the flow of sap. Once a good framework is established it is much easier to maintain and prune our kiwi vines.

The kiwi vines on Evergreens’ farm do not have a good structure, the vines have intertwined and there is a great amount of unchecked growth, especially in the upper canopy which make harvesting the fruit very difficult ant time consuming. The best course of action would be a heavy winter prune while the vine is still dormant, waiting too long will result in heavy sap flow that weaken the vine.

• Do not allow male vines to get entangled with the female vines, male plants should be pruned after they bloom.
• Female vines should be pruned while dormant, nearly 70 percent of older wood can be removed, second year wood will often still have last years fruit stems, which should be pruned.
• Space replacement canes along the leaders about 12 inches.
• Remove all dead, twisted, tangled, and crossing shoots.
• The male vine should be pruned more lightly to allow for an abundance of flowers for spring pollination, after flowering the male plant should be pruned more heavily to maintain structure and order.

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This has been a very busy week, I attended my first Enterprise for Equity class on Tuesday evening, which makes for a very long day in the classroom! The course is fast paced and there is a lot of information to absorb, I’m glad I have some familiarity with writing a business plan. Our instructor Joanne takes a no nonsense approach which helps raise the bar when defining goals or making projections. During our first session we focused on defining our strengths and weakness, building a plan with achievable steps, and the four phases of learning something new.     Learning phases:

1. Unconscious Incompetence

2. Conscious Incompetence

3. Conscious Competence

4. Unconscious Competence

Joanne used the example of learning to drive a car, at the first level we imagine we can easily drive a car until we actually get behind the wheel and realize how much we don’t know and the skills lacking. Conscious competence is the phase of a newly licensed driver who is aware of every maneuver and action. Unconscious Competence is finally achieving to drive safely without thinking and plotting every action, this is where we feel immersed in our comfort zone. I am definitely in the conscious incompetence phase!

Sunset  at Delphi

On Thursday I started my internship on the organic farm at Evergreen, it was great to work with Connor and Beth again! My first project was to finish some of the pruning that we had started on Tuesday, I felt much more confident in my pruning abilities and the knowledge that trees can be very forgiving of our mistakes. Later I helped farm aid and former classmate Jarod with a fence post project that involved cementing the post above ground level to discourage water collecting at the base and rotting the post. I was pleased to start my internship working on projects that involved skills I wanted to gain through my internship.

This was a very busy week for me, on Tuesday morning we met at the farm house on campus to go over our projects and talk about upcoming assignments and review pruning practices with Dave. I feel I have a much better understanding of the art and science that is involved with the winter pruning of apple trees. Dave led us in an hands on work-shop on the farm’s orchard, where we enjoyed the nice weather while pruning and removing diseased branches. After class I came home and pruned started pruning my young pear and apple trees. The review in class gave me a better grasp of my readings of Michael Phillips and Cass Turnbull, two authors who have written excellent texts on orchard management and pruning.

Fruiting buds

 

I plan to get to work pruning this old apple tree on my property, it has produced delicous fuit every year but needs some serious pruning done to open it up and maintain fruit production. Last fall Michael Dolan of Burnt Ridge Nursery identified it as King of Tomkins County while visiting my place for an onsite consultation, he recommended that I graft cuttings from this tree to dwarf rootstock.

Doug Hock a former POF student and the owner of Thistlehook, a flower farm located on the eastside of Olympia graciously agreed to let me interveiw him about his experience as a beginning flower farmer and former POF student. While touring his farm Doug patiently answered a long list of interview questions I had prepared for my upcoming interview with Beth Henriquez, training director for Enterprise for Equity. I appreciate Doug’s forthright advice and insight he offered about the reality of starting a flower farm business and working in the wholesale flower market.

The following Monday Doug brought his interns and my fellow classmates Anika and Allie to my farm to collect willow branches to make batch of willow water rooting hormone.

 

 

 

Home Made Plant Rooting Hormone – Willow Water

Tuesday January 9th was my first day back to school after a very long break over the holidays. Our first day of the SOS classroom time took place on the main campus where we were introduced to wordpress and went over the syllabus and program expectations and requirements. Sarah Williams inspired me to break my stance against social media, I opened my first instagram account for my e portfolio assignment. I realize that social media plays a large part in being connected and having a presence in the business world. On Wednesday and Thursday I spent eight hours each day sitting in a classroom taking an excel 2016 workshop at the Lacey campus of SPSCC. Last fall while learning crop planning in Practice of Organic Farm program, (POF) I realized my lack of tech and computer skills are a stumbling block toward my educational and business goals.While the class didn’t meet my expectations of learning the basics of excel, it did reaffirm my passion for pursuing my goals for a career spent in the out of doors!