Add the end of the season report

ETOOMUCHDATA

_posts/2014-07-20-croy-family-farms-midseason-report.md

@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ layout: post
 title: "Croy Family Farms: Mid-season Report"
 tags:
 - garden
-- croyfamilyarms
+- croyfamilyfarms
 ---
 
 Followers of mine [on Twitter](https://twitter.com/agentdero) have no doubt

_posts/2014-11-09-croy-family-farms-end-of-season-report.md

@@ -0,0 +1,279 @@
+---
+layout: post
+title: "Croy Family Farms: End of Season Report"
+tags: 
+- garden
+- croyfamilyfarms
+---
+
+Earlier on this year I wrote [this
+post](/2014/07/20/croy-family-farms-midseason-report.html) as a "mid-season"
+report on how the little backyard farm (named [Croy Family
+Farms](https://twitter.com/croyfamilyfarms)) of mine has been doing. Since that
+time, in July, I've been eagerly waiting to write this post and somewhat
+"conclude" the 2014 growing season.
+
+<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/agentdero/15511365150" title="Freshly harvested and grilled corn from @croyfamilyfarms by R. Tyler Croy, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3956/15511365150_a578d1f102_n.jpg" width="240" height="320" alt="Freshly harvested and grilled corn from @croyfamilyfarms" align="right"></a>
+
+The past couple of summers we have had a moderately active backyard garden, but
+this year I wratcheted up the seriousness by keeping a spreadsheet with harvest
+yields from specific dates, taking [numerous
+photos](https://www.flickr.com/photos/agentdero/sets/72157644378992989/) and
+towards the end of the season, a "lab notebook" with dated observations and
+book-keeping of notable events (plantings, fertilizing, etc). If you're
+interested in the layout of the farm, please consult my poorly laid out
+documentation from the [previous
+post](/2014/07/20/croy-family-farms-midseason-report.html#layout).
+
+Jump ahead to:
+
+ * [The Score Card](#scorecard)
+ * [Tomatoes](#tomatoes)
+ * [Cucumbers](#cucumbers)
+ * [Corn](#corn)
+ * [General Notes](#notes)
+ * [Final Thoughts](#thoughts)
+ * [Links](#links)
+
+<center>
+<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/agentdero/15697764805" title="Harvest
+Potluck Grill station by R. Tyler Croy, on Flickr"><img
+src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3940/15697764805_226e3aab1d_z.jpg"
+width="640" height="480" alt="Harvest Potluck Grill station"></a>
+</center>
+
+<a name="scorecard"></a>
+## The Score Card
+
+Here's a breakdown of the total yield from the season:
+
+* Cucumbers: **58 count, 45.3lbs**
+* Tomatoes
+ * Bush Beefsteak: **101 count, 11.2lbs**
+ * Cherokee Purple Heirloom: **41 count, 10.85lbs**
+ * Sun Gold: **1047 count**
+ * Early Girls: **523 count, 85.9lbs**
+* Corn: **41 ears**
+* Apricots: **23.8lbs**
+* Basil: **12 baskets**
+* Parsley: **4 baskets**
+
+
+<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/agentdero/14772914870" title="It&#x27;s been a bountiful morning at Croy Family Farms by R. Tyler Croy, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3912/14772914870_a0ba63a848_n.jpg" width="320" height="240" alt="It&#x27;s been a bountiful morning at Croy Family Farms" align="right"></a>
+
+The tomatoes, cucumbers and the corn had the most impressive yield to me
+personally, the **523** Early Girl tomatoes were created by **two** plants. The
+45lbs of cucumbers were created by **three** plants, one of which died halfway
+through their harvest period. The 41 ears of corn were grown from 17 plants
+that reached maturity and were properly pollinated. More details on all of
+these below.
+
+<a name="tomatoes"></a>
+### Tomatoes
+
+The amount of tomatoes produced, and not produced, from this season is mind
+boggling to me. In the "Underproducer Hall of Shame" we have: 1 Bush Beefsteak
+plant and *2* Cherokee Purple plants. Despite my optimism for both of these
+varieties of tomato, they both produced around 11lbs of tomatoes.
+
+While heirloom tomatoes are generally not as productive as varieties like Early
+Girls, I had no idea that the two Cherokee Purple plants would be so immensely
+underwhelming.
+
+I do not expect to plant either variety again, the cost-per-tasty-tomato ratio
+is way out of my error bars.
+
+<center><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/agentdero/14794508819" title="Early bird gets the fruit (no worms) at @Lookout by R. Tyler Croy, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5573/14794508819_447425e44c.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Early bird gets the fruit (no worms) at @Lookout"></a>
+</center>
+
+*Meanwhile*, over in the "Hall of Obscene Productivity", we have: 1 Sun Gold
+plant, and 2 Early Girl plants.
+
+Many of my coworkers at [Lookout](https://www.lookout.com) grew to appreciate
+my [weekly](https://www.flickr.com/photos/agentdero/15128729972/)
+[basketfuls](https://www.flickr.com/photos/agentdero/14846459420/) of
+[tomatoes](https://www.flickr.com/photos/agentdero/15370576729/), that were
+largely from these two varieties of tomato plants. I still find it nuts that
+**a thousand** little Sun Gold tomatoes came from one plant, and that
+**85lbs** of Early Girls came from the two other plants. I'm a slender man and
+those two plants produced about half my weight in tomatoes over a single growing season (harvesting from early August to late October).
+
+Last season I had a more crowded tomato patch, with eight plants, so the
+decrease to six plants in the box I believe led to the more productive season.
+
+Similar to last season however, all of these plants were purchased at a local
+nursery, ain't nobody got time to grow tomatoes from seed.
+
+
+<a name="cucumbers"></a>
+### Cucumbers
+
+For the 2013 season I had planted cucumbers in Box #2 without much structure or
+anything around them. I had a couple lines of 4-5 plants going across the
+narrow part of the rectangle, and the resulting crawling cucumber chaos meant
+the plants were so intertwined that I would sometimes miss ripe cucumbers until
+past their prime.
+
+<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/agentdero/14836701996" title="Today&#x27;s mega harvest at Croy Family Farms by R. Tyler Croy, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3890/14836701996_3c95d28ec9_n.jpg" width="320" height="240" alt="Today&#x27;s mega harvest at Croy Family Farms" align="right"></a>
+
+For this season I attempted more science, I planted [two plants inside of
+tomato cages](https://www.flickr.com/photos/agentdero/14057842758) and one
+without. Over the course of the summer I would guide the growing vines of
+the cucumber plants up and around the different levels of the cages. In the
+case of one plant, it shot out a crawling vine to the side which I ended up
+stabilizing with two garden stakes to make sure it didn't hurt the plant.
+
+For some unknown reason the third plant, outside of a cage, died halfway
+through the harvest period. While I don't want to draw a direct conclusion from
+this one event, the leaves and plants in the cages appeared much more green and
+healthy than last year's. I believe the separation of the leaves and the plants
+themselves helped stem the spread of mildew and other pests that attack the
+plents.
+
+I did also identify a number of [cucumber
+beetles](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cucumber_beetle) this season, but I
+neglected to rid the garden of them.
+
+<a name="corn"></a>
+### Corn
+
+[Last time around](/2014/07/20/croy-family-farms-midseason-report.html) I
+remarked at how much fun growing corn was. When I had written the mid-season
+report, I had only begun harvesting from the first corn crop. By the end of
+July that crop had been fully harvested and removed, so I planted *another*
+crop of corn. Both times the crops were grown entirely from seed.
+
+For the second crop of corn I did a few things:
+
+ 1. I planted dried seeds from the first crop, my own seed!
+ 1. I planted a larger number of seeds.
+ 1. I worked almost an entire cubic foot of cow manure into the soil
+ 1. Wrapped the box in a [home made
+    greenhouse](https://www.flickr.com/photos/agentdero/14827989308/in/set-72157644378992989).
+
+To the uninituated, corn does not self-pollinate, and therefore it much be
+planted in rows to allow the wind to blow pollen from the male part of one
+plant onto the female part of another plant. The fact that corn gets pollinated
+at all might seem amazing until you shake a flowering corn stalk and see the
+plume of pollen that they generate.
+
+When I planned the second crop, I figured if I had a more dense "field" of
+corn, then I would see a higher yield since there would be more pollen to go
+around.
+
+<center><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/agentdero/15360765465"
+title="The second @croyfamilyfarms corn crop is tall! by R. Tyler Croy, on
+Flickr"><img
+src="https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2944/15360765465_5417a5743f.jpg"
+width="500" height="375" alt="The second @croyfamilyfarms corn crop is
+tall!"></a></center>
+
+**WRONG**.
+
+The first crop had 7 matured plants that produced 24 ears of corn,
+approximately **3.5 ears per stalk**. With the second crop, there were 10
+matured plants, with 18 immature plants taking up space, and only 17 ears produced: **1.7 ears per stalk**.
+
+
+I have a couple of potential explanations for this, but without further
+experimentation I would not be able to be certain which had the greater effect:
+
+ * The "field" laid fallow for only about a week before I worked lots of manure
+   in and planted again. Corn is notoriously hard on the soil, so I may have
+   just depleted too many nutrients from the soil.
+ *  The corn plants were simply too numerous and too close together. The strong
+    competetion for soil and sunlight may have caused the plants to devote too
+    much energy to survival and not enough to making me tasty corn to eat.
+    Considering this corn crop was almost a half foot taller, reaching 7 feet,
+    than the previous crop gives this theory some weight.
+
+With the next crop of corn I plant, I will be certain to rectify both potential
+causes.
+
+
+<a name="notes"></a>
+
+## General Notes
+
+Below is a collection of notes and observations from my lab notebook:
+
+ * Creating a [home made
+   greenhouse](https://www.flickr.com/photos/agentdero/14827989308/in/set-72157644378992989)
+   for the corn sprouts *appears* to have accelerated their growth by keeping the
+   soil warm and moist.
+ * Pill Bugs (also known as rolly pollies) *will* eat baby leafy greens, such
+   as kale or spinach started from seed.
+ * Planting little red radishes in between the rows of the corn stalks did not
+   work. THe resulting radishes were all very small. Apparently due to overly
+   compacted dirt or competition with corn roots for space.
+ * Lacinto kale requires far more sun than box #4 has available to it in order
+   to grow effectively.
+ * Planting snap peas (or beans) adjacent to corn, a la the [three sisters
+   method](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Sisters\_(agriculture)) requires
+   planting the snap pea seeds immediately after corn sprouts appear. By waiting
+   until the corn shoots are at least 6" tall allowed them to overshadow and
+   impact the growth of the snap peas.
+ * Plants that aren't producing or contributing might as well be cut down to
+   the soil level. Letting the plant die without disrupting potentially
+   intertwined root systems. In the case of the dead cucumber plant, I believe
+   this also prevented adjacent plants from being affected by mildewing leaves.
+ * Spraying a soapy water mixture on an ant-aphid colony that had set up shop
+   on one corn blossom **worked** and took care of the aphid problem in the
+   corn for the rest of the season.
+ * Black garden matting appears to work better as a soil insulator and
+   protector than redwood mulch. The latter absords much more moisture than the
+   former which allows some water to pool on the surface before being absorbed
+   through the mesh.
+ * Some combination of the low-sunlight and proximity to other bushes appears
+   to cause a large number of caterpillars to munch on whatever is growing in
+   box #4.
+ * Squirrels *are* a pest that will steal and eat avocados and apricots. We did
+   not witness them stealing tomatoes fortunately. A simple Daisy BB gun
+   hanging by the back door has been sufficient to ward them off. Whenever they
+   hear the BBs rolling in the barrel they flee into the trees.
+
+<a name="thoughts"></a>
+## Final Thoughts
+
+This growing season started late for me, I don't believe I put anything into
+the ground until late April. Fortunately the bay area has a growing season of
+almost 9-10 months, or even year round if you can protect your crops from the
+frosts which hit in late November. Despite only six or seven months of growing
+and harvesting, the entire endeavour was highly rewarding, even the parts where
+a crop didn't work out (looking at you broccoli).
+
+This year also had a fun social aspect to it as well. Last season I would bring
+in tomatoes and basil for a few folks in the office, but with **more** this
+year, I started sharing with the entire company. What better thing to share
+with the people in your life than fresh, healthy *food*?  As a result of
+sharing my regular bounties, I know the other gardeners in the office much
+better, some of which who also started bringing in their bounties. I think I've
+also helped show some how accessible gardening can be. Whenever conversations
+would turn to "wow, you must be a good gardener, what do you do?" I would
+always reply frankly "well, I put plants in the ground and then I water them
+regularly, that's about it."
+
+Truth be told, that's the majority of the work involved in gardening. It's a
+great hobby for patience and diligence. Plants **will** grow, sometimes the
+wrong ones (weeds) and sometimes not, but the important thing is to constantly
+tend to the plot and make sure that your plants have every opportunity to
+succeed.
+
+
+While I didn't make any money from the farming this year, I can definitely see
+myself visiting a farmer market with a crop somewhere in the next few years.
+Of course, not from this little backyard garden but from a bigger parcel of
+land that may be in our future. I wouldn't consider myself a genuine farmer by
+any means, there's a lot more I have to learn, but owning more land means that
+there is more space and opportunity to experiment with growing different crops
+in different configurations.
+
+I cannot recommend gardening highly enough.
+
+
+<a name="links"></a>
+## Links
+
+ * **[View the full Flickr album](https://www.flickr.com/photos/agentdero/sets/72157644378992989/)**
+ * **[Harvest spreadsheet (.xslx)](/files/2014-harvest.xlsx)**
+ * **[Harvest spreadsheet (.ods)](/files/2014-harvest.ods)**