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Post by littleminnie on Apr 25, 2015 21:37:21 GMT -5
I need to get to bed ASAP but have to start this rolling so I can ask questions. Since 2008 I have rented a field to farm. Husband refused to buy our own farm and wanted to stay in our little but neat house. I am just about finalized for the NRCS high tunnel and had to sign a 4 year lease and do all this work to get approved. Husband knows this but doesn't get farming stuff. Yesterday we did errands and went to lunch and he told me he wants to move so I can have land of my own. BUT he wants just a couple acres, still must bike to work, doesn't want an actual farm, doesn't understand he should have told me before the high tunnel application and so on!
I planted 1 bed of asparagus last year and have raspberries and asparagus plants coming in May. Should I cancel the asparagus but plan to transplant the raspberries along with the strawberries? Or should I cancel both the asparagus and raspberries?
More questions later...
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Apr 25, 2015 23:31:47 GMT -5
littleminnie: Ha! Congratulations... I suppose that I am a bit more flighty and fickle than most... And I go off on journeys of imagination about what might happen. In regards to planting, the best course of action for me has always been to fall back to a normalcy bias: The idea that things next year will be the same as they were last year. Then if something actually changes I adjust accordingly. I'm still planting perennials into the field belonging to my landlady that died 3 growing seasons ago. Perhaps her estate will be settled some day... Playing the what-if game with a garden is crazy making for me... Best to trudge along the same as I did last year. Speaking of crazy making... This year I have use of a glorious greenhouse. I'm growing plants for the farmer's market. I've never grown plants for market before. I don't know what to expect... How many tomatillos will people actually buy? So much uncertainty for me doing something new. There is a lot of comfort in weeding fields that I have been weeding for years.
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Post by littleminnie on Apr 26, 2015 6:45:25 GMT -5
Thanks Joseph. The answer to what sells is 1. Anything not growing well for you will be in demand 2. Whatever you are short on. If you have lots of something no one will buy it. I don't sell tomatillos or eggplant well but often run short on ground cherries. I sell a lot of plants off a nice Craig's List ad.
So asparagus doesn't transplant though right?
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Post by taihaku on Apr 26, 2015 10:04:40 GMT -5
I would get the asparagus and move it if and when you need to. You will most likely end up with bigger crowns to transplant than you would otherwise which, as far as I know, should be a good thing. My dad moved his asparagus bed of established plants (admittedly only moved it a few yards) with no real issues.
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Post by Walk on Apr 26, 2015 15:03:58 GMT -5
I've moved old asparagus plants with mixed success, some plants dying after the trauma. It was a bear of a job as the roots get quite large. I think the setback from transplanting asparagus after it's been in the ground for a year would put them at about the same stage as fresh plants a year younger. If starting plants from seed this spring, they would be ready to transplant next year and would cost much less as well. But if you're going for the male plants only (like Jersey Giant?), I don't know how that works. We started out many years ago with Purple Passion seed that we got from Peters Research and have started new plants from our own seed when we needed more plants. Sorry to say I didn't harvest any seed last fall so none to share now.
Many years ago we had an elderly neighbor who moved his old asparagus patch with his backhoe. That patch did well as he moved big clumps of soil and all.
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Post by steev on Apr 26, 2015 21:34:17 GMT -5
Yes; lift the asparagus ASAP; pot/bag it to keep it portable until you can re-plant it; if it takes long, resist the urge to cut any, as you want your plants to conserve as much strength as possible. I was really anticipating a small, but decent, harvest from my plants this year, but weather hasn't allowed, so rather than eating ~a dozen spears, I'm letting the plants grow.
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Post by littleminnie on Apr 26, 2015 22:26:35 GMT -5
The asparagus is coming around May 10. I just want to cancel it. Maybe that wasn't clear. If I plant it I will have to move it by next spring probably. Actually it may happen that I still farm at the field in 2016 too because I would want to prep my own soil plus I don't know if garlic could be planted at the new house this fall. Possibly. So far no real interesting properties on Zillow. We have to stay in a 7 mile radius of my husbands work so he can still bike.
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Post by reed on Apr 27, 2015 5:27:05 GMT -5
I don't think I would want try to move asparagus, that's for sure but raspberries are easy, you could even pot them up and make it easy when time to move.
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Post by flowerweaver on Apr 27, 2015 6:48:34 GMT -5
We let our asparagus go about a decade before we dug it up, and as Walk says, it's a bear to separate the roots. We only dug up two of the 25 original crowns, which took an entire weekend, and in the end we had something like 80 new crowns to untangle. We transplanted a few of those without ill effect. But we did not take on the remaining ones. If I had known I would have separated them much sooner. |
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Post by 12540dumont on Apr 27, 2015 11:26:17 GMT -5
Minny, if it's not too late to cancel, go ahead. Won't you still have to farm for 4 years at the leased place?
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Post by littleminnie on Apr 27, 2015 12:34:18 GMT -5
The lease was just to get the tunnel but not holding for either of us.
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Post by littleminnie on Apr 27, 2015 20:05:34 GMT -5
I cancelled the asparagus but the berries are coming next week. I have 50 asparagus planted last year. I like Joseph's idea of just rolling along. We haven't seen any real perfect properties and I would probably garden at that field next year regardless. I hate the idea of having the high tunnel assembled this year only to move it next year. I wish I knew more about that program. I will find all the paperwork and see if there are details.
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Post by philagardener on Apr 27, 2015 20:32:13 GMT -5
Depending on how quickly the program moves, it might be Fall before you are ready to assemble the tunnel anyway. Good luck with your search!
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Post by littleminnie on May 10, 2015 18:06:44 GMT -5
I am going to talk with the NRCS office tomorrow and see what their rules are. I still like the idea of continuing as if things won't change. We are not immediately finding anything just right. It is such a narrow window that we aren't sure if we should take the best we can get, wait and hope, or just not move at all. I first want to find out what they consider "existing cropland" to put in a new application if we buy a home. Next I want to know the details of cancelled, changing or possibly putting up the high tunnel and then moving it. A 7 mile radius of Corey's job is limiting. At least all the soil is the same as I am used to. I also have the added predicament of trying to move somewhere where CSA members will still want to pick up at farm, which is what I would like. I want to continue to work in that method. Here are the sort of properties we are actually looking at per his not wanting a big, old farm. house 1house 2You can switch to birds eye to view the land. The second one is 1 mile from the farm I am at now. Very close to one of my landlords' house. Good location but funny split in 2 land. Nice barn. House 1 is further away and no barn but real open land. Corey loves the windows in house 1 and just won't give up on it. |
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Post by philagardener on May 10, 2015 19:42:26 GMT -5
Good location but funny split in 2 land. Interesting. Is the lot on both sides of the street? |
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