Transplanting Peppers & Scuffle Hoeing

Village Farm Team,

We were able to transplant all of our peppers last week. We have a diverse mix of sweet and hot peppers including Shishito, Jalapeño, Hatch, Hungarian Wax, and Picnic. Since peppers are a summer crop, they are settling in nicely with the warmer temperatures we’ve had over the past few days. While planting the last of the peppers, we spotted the first tomato fruits of the season! We’ll make sure to keep you updated on the growth progress of this quintessential summer staple.

Now that we have the majority of our beds adjacent to the animal pens are planted, we’ve been focusing on weed control and plant health. Our main method for removing weeds in our beds is with a scuffle hoe. The scuffle hoe, sometimes referred to as a stirrup hoe, works by removing the weeds at the soil level. Staying on top of weeding is important as weeds can grow out of control very quickly making the job to remove them exponentially harder. In addition to scuffle hoeing, we’ve been applying a foliar spray to our plants made primarily from compost tea, seaweed, molasses, and apple cider vinegar. This spray will benefit the health of our plants by providing vital nutrients and deterring damaging pests.

If you’ve walked past the orchard in the last couple of weeks, you might have noticed a divine scent wafting from a few of our citrus trees. They are just beginning to set their fragrant and beautiful blooms. In order to ensure the healthy growth of our trees and an abundant citrus harvest, we've established a cover crop of clover, which keeps the soil protected from direct sunlight, conserves water and works with Rhizobium bacteria to fix nitrogen (an important plant nutrient) out of the air and into the soil where the trees can access it.