Here at Sunrise Farm Project, our conversations center around what we learned and how we can grow from the things we learned. This spring and summer, we took on a few projects that were new to us. Not all of them were as successful as we had hoped, and others we will improve next year and as we continue to grow.
Sprouts
Building indoor grow shelves and sprouting plants early produced mixed results. I have never grown tomatoes and peppers from seed, but in order to have heirloom plants, it was something I needed to try. Seeds grew, but the moving outside process (hardening off) and planting in the grow proved challenging. There didn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to the plants that survived and the plants that didn’t. As I continue to do more research, I will be trying a few different things next year, and hopefully build a better system.
Peppers and Tomatoes
My peppers almost seemed like a bust, and my tomatoes did almost too well. Somewhere in the middle summer weeks, with the heat and the rain, nearly all of my tomato plants took off, and I was never able to get them back under control. This led to an uneven tomato harvest, with huge plants, but less fruit than expected. Some of my plants were getting to be bigger and taller than some of my children, and required lots of extra staking. My one surprise tomato plant was the Chernobyl tomato. Producing a yellow tomato the size of a Roma, these tomatoes are prolific, still bearing into September.
The peppers were slow to take root outside, and for a brief time, I thought they weren’t going to survive. The Hungarian wax pepper was the first to recover, with a nice yellow-green fruit, and strong tall plants. My middle child was very excited to eat peppers fresh from the garden, and had quite a few for snack. My miniature bell peppers did finally start producing, and I watched them like a hawk, waiting for the first tiny fruit to come along. They are such a cute little pepper, great for little kid snacking or adding sliced into salads. Our orange ones did the best, though I think there’s a rogue purple one in the bunch. At the encouragement of some friends, I will be attempting to transplant and winter my miniature peppers indoors—stay tuned for that experiment.
Beans
Planted four different varieties this year—one was a dry bean variety that was poorly labeled in the seed catalog. I was attempting to create some color and variety in the earlier vegetables, and my varieties delivered. A classic green bean, a sunny soft yellow, and a funny purple striped variety called Dragon Tongue filled the garden from mid July into September. Once the school year started, it was a challenge to keep up, and had I planned better, we may have had better late harvests. I’m saving seed, and will try these varieties and a few more next year as well. Having fresh green beans to eat has always been a summer expectation of mine, and I want the little ones to grow up with that experience too.
Pumpkins and Squash
Two words: squash bugs. Destroyed all of my seedlings and made for a disappointing pumpkin patch this year. However, I did spend some time researching and planning, and with the vegetable garden move that we plan for next spring, I’m hoping I can keep the pests at bay.
We learned a variety from this year’s garden projects, and I’m looking forward to trying again next year. Next year’s vegetable garden will be relocated and enlarged to accommodate a greater variety of vegetables. I’m hoping to intentionally succession plant some of the faster producing vegetables to prolong the harvest. And we have a few surprises up our sleeves as well.
Stay tuned for the fall harvest and cleanup!