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The Crop Report | Dahlia Dancing in the Rain

The rain dance worked and now we are singing in it! The heavens finally opened and drenched our sweet spot of Mother Earth with a few days of long, continuous rain. We even got the added perk of a few cloudy and overcast days on the front and the same expected on the back side of this weather front. This, coupled with the seasonal shift of cooler evenings/ mornings and tolerable daytime highs, is just what the flowers ordered.

The summer heat stresses us all out, flowers included. While we can hydrate ourselves and the fields, the dry scorching air cannot be changed. This means that even with good watering practices, we have to modify our farming methods. Harvest has to be limited to just the earliest (coolest) hours and the more delicate crops might have to skip a week or two because they just can’t tolerate the heat stress. Plantings have to be babied longer to prevent die out from transplant shock and we are too timid to fertilize for fear of burn.

This means that when we get a wet pattern we have to take advantage to get the crops back on track. With rain in the forecast, we prepared inside projects in our drying barn and ran sprinklers and heavily watered our field before the storm set in. With a few strong soaks before the rain showers hit we knew we would have the plants hydrated to the perfect level to do a full farm fertilization. We sprinkled granular slow release on every planting and watched as nature did the hard work of getting it soaked in. We pulled easier to remove weeds and crammed as many final babies in the ground as we could while the mud puddles began to form around us. We caught up on dried inventory and spring crop plans as the rain cleared the dust on the farm and pinged on the metal roof. After a couple of days the showers slowed to a stop and we sprayed a foliage fertilizer of Neptune’s Harvest on our key crops like the dahlias and mums. This added little boost will have them in all-star shape in no time.

The dahlias have been one of the quickest to show signs of happiness. After a scorching summer and a battle with Japanese Beatles, the dahlias looked pretty rough. We deadheaded the field and pampered the heck out of them and man, do they look grateful now! The growth looks strong and healthy and the buds of new flowers are popping up in gobs. They are going to put on one heck of a show and you won’t want to miss it as we host Dahlias and Desserts in September! With rich, dreamy deserts and boujee blooms, we will give you an evening of sheer floral romance. Make sure you snag tickets soon as spots will be limited and who would want to miss this sweet treat of an experience!

 

XOXO, Jess

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