Organiculture

 At last we have arrived to the final official day of the semester. To celebrate, team member Nicole took some cuttings from the cosmos to make a lovely bouquet. Other team members also did the same throughout the semester. Overall we are thankful that our project turned out to mostly be a success, besides the poor Bok Choy that didn’t make it. Lastly, we would like to thank Dr.Zhao for making this project and class such a great experience! 

 We are now in the final countdown of our incubator farm project. We have come a long way from the beginning of the semester. We are still waiting on a few crops to harvest, like the broccoli and tomatoes, but so far almost everything else is harvestable. It was an educational project and journey that we all on the Organiculture team will always appreciate. Now we can sit back and wait for the rest of the crops to produce. 

 Pictured here are the broccoli which we have not been able to harvest yet. This is one of the few crops we have left that we have not been able to harvest at all. We are glad it is at least looking great. Since it’s planting, it has not shown any issues. Unlike the other half of the lane, which is comprised of the Bok Choy that is completely damaged by insects. We are not sure why that section specifically got more damage than this side of the lane. 

 As we come to a close on our incubator farm, we are grateful for the fruits of our teamwork. We were able to harvest a good amount of eggplant, with even more to still spare. The strawberries are also looking great and we were able to harvest some of them too. Although we still have some crops that we are waiting on, but are happy with how our farm is currently looking. 

Out of all the crops, our Bok Choy has suffered the most. Essentially all of the Bok Choy is completely eaten through and doing terrible. They also have insects all inside the leaves. Team member Lauren put diatomaceous earth on them but has a suspicion that the coming rain will wash it away. We have come to the conclusion that this will be one of the only crops that will we will not be able to harvest. 

 The nasturtiums are looking better than ever. There are plenty of blooms and it looks very healthy, as shown in the close up and far away images. The rest of the crops are also gaining great progress. The lane farthest to the left looks luscious and healthy. Besides weeding and mild Maintenence, now we can wait for the rest of our crops to be produced so we can harvest. 

As we suspected at the beginning of our farm journey. The tomatoes are now too big to be held up by one bamboo stick. The team decided it was best to modify the way the tomatoes are being held, as can be shown in the images. This mechanism provides much more support to the plant. It does not seem that we will have to redo the support the rest of the semester.  

 Pictured above is team member Lauren holding some okra and peppers. They seem to be growing very well, especially the okra. We decided not to get the smaller sized ones to give them some time for growth. We have been doing this for the majority of the crops in our farm. We prefer to let them grow an optimum size before quickly harvesting them. 

 Pictured here is team member Lauren. She is spreading some sunflower seeds to the top of the intercropped snap peas/bush beans row. We decided not to complete the entire row as intercropped crops, so we went with filling the end with sunflowers. We hope it acts as a good beneficial for the surrounding crops. 

 Pictured in the hay is the delicious broccoli. We can already see tiny pieces of the brocoli beginning to form. As can be seen from the close up to the far away photo, weeding was just done around the broccoli.  The lane to the left can be seen to have significant progress and growth compared to the first few blog posts. Overall the farm is improving one day at a time. 

 This image is a continuation from the previous post. After the new lane was finished by Lauren and Destany, team member Joshua immediately worked at spreading some seeds to the new lane. He intercropped bush beans and snap peas. This is also the first time we use this seed spreader device for on our farm. The beautiful bloomed cosmos can be seen on the left of Joshua. 

Pictured here are team members Destany, Lauren, and Joshua.  Destany and Lauren are working on pouring and spreading the compost for the new lane. Lauren is also getting assisted by one of the kind employees. Joshua, the one in the far end with the blue shirt, is doing some weeding for our farm. This image shows a great balance of the teamwork within our group. 

 The cosmos look absolutely stunning on our farm plot. They were the talking piece of many that would walk by. Team member Destany was the one who planted these. She made two rows next to two separate lanes. We have also seen countless pollinators in this area since the cosmos have been blooming. 

We were happy to see that there is finally some decent sized corn. Two team members were able to harvest 3 corn cobs.   We did note that there were some leaves that appeared as if an insect had eaten it. In this area of the farm we did not see any other plants with slight or significant insect issues. Thankfully it was very minor in the corn and did not seem to pose any issues with the corn itself. 

 After just one week, the growth is extremely visible with the eggplants in comparison to last week. They are gaining some height along with the tomatoes. There have fortunately been no negative signs with these plants, such as deficiency, virus , or disease. Thankfully they are looking very healthy and should produce some elegant eggplants soon. Most of the team is excited to harvest these soon. 

 The tomatoes are finally beginning to gain some height. We suspect that potential issues may be faced in the future with the rapid growth of these plants. We have already had to retie multiple times as the growth has continued. The team may have to think of another way to support the plant as the growth rises to new levels. Some of them are also starting to show tomatoes growing. 

 The strawberries are visibly showing growth. Although some top necrosis has been spotted with a few of the strawberry plants. We are not sure what this could potentially be but we have few assumptions. This crop is one of the few that the entire team is extremely excited about. They shall be ready soon and we will be waiting in excitement. 

  This is one of the only plants so far that has shown a potential issue. The tips of the leaves from a few tomato plants have a black color. At the moment we have no idea what it is , just educated guesses and assumptions. We have taken the next step and asked to get our plant tested. Only a few of the tomato plants in a certain area are showing these signs, not all of the tomato plants.

 The basil is the top plant flourishing in our farm. It is absolutely thriving and producing more than we can eat. Some of us have taken some to propagate at home, while others have taken it to eat. Most of us have more basil than we can handle, so we keep having to give more away.  

 As stated in previous post, this is the lane to the right of the lane farthest to the left. Pictured here is team member Lauren planting some bok choy. We did broccoli by itself on one side, with kale and bok choy intercropped at the other end . In the middle is a tall weed that we did not want to remove since we grew fond of it. 

As can be seen on the bamboo sticks, the tomato’s have barely begun to ascend. As for the basil, it is growing at a rapid rate. We have had to give away to classmates already, since we cannot all finish it ourselves. On the right is also a recently new lane. More info regarding the right lane will be in the next posting.   

The nasturtiums have been growing wonderfully. Some of the flowers have even been used for salads, although a very small number of the flowers have been picked. The flowers will more than likely stay, as not many in the group are fond of taking them. Gladly they do not look as if they have any particular issues like deficiencies or the latter.