Blog Post #8
Poly (culture) Pocket coming back at you with another blog post!
Week 8 has brought the team both challenges and triumphs as we continue to nurture our garden.
First off, the most disappointing news: our bunching onions didn’t sprout. We suspect this might be due to old seeds, but regardless, we quickly got to work replanting. Fortunately, Dr. Merchant had some ready-to-go seedlings in the greenhouse, making the transplanting process smooth. This approach should yield quicker results—hopefully by the end of the semester we'll see growth! In addition to the onions, we also decided to experiment by planting spinach seeds at the front of the garden. We’re eager to see what happens and continue playing around with these new crops!
With the onion problem sorted, the team had to bulk up on fertilizer, especially for our tomatoes which are still looking kinda wimpy. We applied a slow-release fertilizer across most of the plot, excluding the newly transplanted onions and spinach. We’re optimistic this will give our crops the boost they need, especially our pumpkins, which seem to be struggling as they’re overshadowed by their neighbors. While we embraced the Three Sisters planting method, the close spacing might be hindering growth more than helping for some of our more sensitive crops.
On a brighter note, our crop cover (hay) has effectively kept the weeds under control! Although hand weeding has become a bit trickier due to the cover, we’re glad we laid it down when we did. Our trellis structure is also thriving; while the tomatoes aren’t producing an abundance of fruit just yet, they’re growing stronger and more upright. We’re hopeful that the slow-release fertilizer will help them flourish soon.
Insects are something we talked a lot about last week, these critters are still abundant, but they're still not causing too many problems besides a few bitten leaves. The team is overjoyed we didn't have to face any infestations.
As the weather warms up and the rainfall from the recent hurricanes subsides, the Poly (culture) Pocket team is excited about what lies ahead for our plot. We can’t wait to see what next week brings and are thrilled to have you along for the journey!
Thanks for reading and see you next week!
Photo captions (left to right, down to up):
1. In this photo, team member Daniel Ohana can be seen spreading fertilizer throughout the plot, specifically on the corn crops. During the week, we noticed our plants looking a bit weak, so we decided to give them a boost with some fertilizer. Fertilizer was applied most heavily on the corn and tomato crops in the hopes of giving them a head start so we could harvest sooner.
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