Farming is full of ups and downs. There are so many factors that play into the success of a crop. It can be a roller coaster of emotions before plants get anywhere near producing. In the struggle to nurture and grow, there is always some level of worry involved.
Right now is the early spring planting window, and so this is a risky planting time for some crops. This is also actually the final window for planting onions here in Arkansas if the intention is to grow full-sized bulbs.
So we went for it on at the school farm. Our transplants were ready a bit early and so we decided to roll the dice and put them in the ground knowing that there was going to be a few more cold days this season.
With an impending cold front coming in, we covered everything with frost cloth and tried to barricade the young onion plants in a way that would allow them to endure temperatures in the 20s.
Unfortunately, the low temperatures was not the only challenge of that weekend. High winds and hail also played into the weather picture, so despite our best efforts many plants were still lost. The winds ripped the frost cloth off and then the hail and cold killed most of the plants.
It is heartbreaking to put so much effort into prepping beds, growing transplants, and hand planting everything, only to have it all undone by one unseasonably cold snap. However, that is the lot of the farmer. Sometimes you can do all the right things, and then an unexpected weather event resets you back to start.
After that happens, the only thing there was to do was clean up the bed and do it all over again with the hope that our preparations will be more effective against that last expected frost during the third week of April.
Leave a Reply