Transplanting Broccoli and Trellising Tomatoes
September 22nd, 2021
Remember the Monty broccoli variety we started in the greenhouse a few weeks back? This new-to-us variety is purported as being heat tolerant so we decided to use it for our first succession of broccoli. We’re happy to report that it is doing very well! We transplanted it into the field last week and it has already put on more growth. We’re keeping it under a row cover for now to try to reduce the pest pressure from rabbits. If all goes well, we should be harvesting the first broccoli of the season in mid to late October.
We direct-seeded melons in the high tunnel in the “green manure” created by our mowed down cowpea crop. We planted both the Arava and Sugar Baby varieties and they are doing well thus far. We will also be transplanting more fall tomatoes in the high tunnel, focusing on larger slicing varieties. As the weather eventually starts to cool down, the high tunnel will keep these crops nice and warm, giving us one last harvest of these summer crops until next year.
The fall tomatoes were trellised just in time for the cool front to blow in and give us a little taste of fall weather this week. While trellising we noticed that our tomatoes are not only flowering, but some of our Sungolds are already setting fruit! Not to be outdone by the tomatoes, our eggplants are flowering and setting fruit as well. These long and slender eggplants are an Asian variety with thinner skin and a sweeter, less bitter flavor than their Italian counterparts.
