Always Learning……

Transplanting Watermelon's 
on a sunny spring day!

By Andrea Yoder

Winter is our time to reflect on the previous year as we ask ourselves many questions.  What challenges did we face last year?  Where were we able to overcome and where can we make improvements for better outcomes in the future?  What worked really well last year?  What important lessons did we learn?  As farmers, we have many things to manage including weather, soil and plant nutrition, plant disease and pest pressure, weather (oh, sorry that is already on the list), time, resources, and the list goes on.  In the course of any given day, we collectively make hundreds of decisions, pivoting as needed so we can continue moving towards our end goal.  What is that end goal?  To produce high quality food and maximize the overall genetic potential of our crops, i.e. we hope to have high yields so we can feed more people and so our farm may remain sustainable.

Winter is also the time of year when we attempt to catch up on some reading, which recently led me to the stack of articles from the Acres U.S.A publication that I had been accumulating since last summer.  There were two articles in particular that caught my attention.  One was written by Gary Zimmer, a Wisconsin farmer, farmer educator, hands-on agricultural researcher, author, and longtime friend of Harmony Valley Farm.  The article he wrote was entitled “Managing Change:  Soil health management is a farm management decision.”  The other article of interest was an excerpt from a presentation by Dr. Don Huber, Professor Emeritus of Plant Pathology at Purdue University.  The article was entitled “Distressing the Stressors:  We can manage plant disease by managing plant nutrition.”

Cover crop planting in between rows of melon 
plants, a management technique to add
fertility and prevent erosion.

Both of these gentlemen emphasized the need for management, often requiring change, on the farm.  As much as we’d like everything to stay the same, the world around us is constantly changing and this impacts all aspects of our lives, including our farming decisions.  In these two articles, the focus was on nutrient management, both in the soil and in the plants, in order to maximize the genetic potential of a crop.  But Gary made an important observation: “Forty years ago, when I was teaching agriculture and was introduced to biological farming, we didn’t seem to have these extreme weather events we’re experiencing today.  …But these extreme weather events we see today have allowed us to change our management practices as a necessity.”  Dr. Huber stated “So, what we’re doing when we’re farming is managing an ecology.  It’s an ecology that involves the plant and also the chemical and physical environments, and especially the dynamic, biological environment of the soil, which then impacts both the plant and the pathogens and pests.  As we’re trying to make the conditions as favorable for the plant as possible, and we’re trying to reduce the opportunity for those pests and diseases to have an impact and to diminish the plant’s genetic potential.”  

Temperature probe in a 
compost windrow....a delicate
balance of temperature, time & 
microbial activity!

As farmers, we fully realize we are lifelong learners.  We will never “figure it out,” for just when we think we’ve mastered farming, something in this dynamic system will change.  Temperature, moisture and heat impact the bioavailability of nutrients in the soil as well as the ability of a plant to take them in and utilize them.  The presence or absence of one nutrient can impact the balance of other nutrients and biochemical pathways in the plant’s metabolism, either enhancing or impeding the genetic potential.  And then, as if things weren’t complicated enough, the nutrient needs of a plant change depending on the stage of growth.  So, what is a farmer to do?  

Well, I think it boils down to the fact that our job of being observant, humble problem solvers will never end.  For instance, as we move forward into a new year, we will be looking back at last year’s sap analysis results to guide us in making decisions and choices for how we’re going to manage crops this year.  Sap analysis is kind of like a blood test for plants.  We collect leaves from the plants and send them to a lab so they can measure the nutrient levels in the plant at that stage of growth.  The results help us better support the plant when we understand what the plant needs at that time.  For example, we’ve had problems with our zucchini plants in the past few years.  The plants are gorgeous with dark green leaves and a strong, healthy appearance.  Production is strong, harvest yields are high, and then they start to yellow, production drops off and within a few days the appearance of the field makes a dramatic change.  We’ve learned that at this stage in the plant’s growth we need to support it with additional iron and manganese. The yellowing leaves are the outward symptom of nutrient deficiencies that we can correct by delivering nutrients to the roots of the plant through drip irrigation, a process called fertigation.  This is where I’m reminded of my love of biochemistry and nutrition as I find it so rewarding to understand the “why” behind a symptom and then be able to intervene in a way that is beneficial to the plant, but also to the human being that eats the fruit or vegetable produced by that plant.  We support the plants, and the plants support us.

A field of healthy zucchini plants, the result of 
sufficient nutrition!

Changes in the climate and our environment can also impact pest populations, migration patterns, etc. which in turn can have a huge impact on our crops in some years.  As an example, we’ve seen a dramatic increase in Japanese beetles over the past few years.  In fact, they have become so much of a problem that within the last two years we invested in over 100 Japanese beetle traps that we placed on the perimeters of fields that contained plants the Japanese beetles seem to prefer.  In 2022, our worst year, we collected over 500# of beetles!  Somewhere along the way, there was a change in the ecology of the system which allowed these beetles to thrive and increase their populations.  As farmers, we had to respond, or we faced the reality that these little beetles would defoliate acres of plants that would certainly affect the quality and yields of these crops.

Rafael, checking the germination
of newly planted seeds.

So, as we go into another growing season, we do so with the confidence that we have a lot of experience and lessons learned from past growing seasons that we will take with us into a new year.  But we are also embarking on a new growing season with an open mind, observant eyes, and a desire to continue to learn and try new things.  Rafael experiments with and research better ways to manage weed pressure.  Richard is brainstorming more efficient ways we can stimulate and build healthy populations of important soil microbes that will help our plants better defend themselves against pests and plant disease.  And every year our observant crew members continue to contribute valuable observations that they make every day in the course of their work that led to improved systems, greater efficiency, and ultimately a more sustainable Harmony Valley Farm.  We know we have our work cut out for us this year but be reassured that we will do the best we can to manage the ecology of our farm with the intention to provide you with the highest quality, most delicious vegetables we can grow!