Ohio weather smiles on 2015 vegetables
Ohio weather smiles on 2015 vegetables
Growers in Ohio indicate that this has been an ideal spring for vegetable production.
“We have cabbage in the ground and the cukes are seeded,” Kirk Holthouse, a partner and sales manager for Holthouse Farms of Ohio Inc., which is based in Willard, OH, said May 5. “The first squash will be seeded this week. The plastic is down and the first Bell peppers will go out [into the field] on May 10.”
He explained that Bell pepper planting trails cabbage because cabbage is more cold-resistant. “The moisture has been right,” he noted.
A field of eggplant (left) and a field of lettuce (right) show good progress amid the favorable weather that Ohio has received this spring. Recent years saw an overabundance of rain in the region, but 2015 has growers looking forward to high-quality vegetable crops. (Photo courtesy of Wiers Farms)Holthouse said some portion of the many varieties of greens grown by Holthouse were in the ground in early May. The first greens harvest will begin in late May.
This year, Holthouse “will be up slightly on zucchini because demand continues to grow.” The firm is also producing more chili peppers because of demand trends.
Loren Buurma, a partner in Buurma Farms Inc., said April 30 that “everything is looking good.” The last few years were too wet for ideal growing conditions, but that has not been the case in 2015.
“We are on schedule and ahead of last year,” said Buurma. “We have good stands. The fields are clean.”
In late April some rain was needed “but we irrigate almost all our acreage,” Buurma said.
Buurma added that Buurma Farms, Holthouse Farms and other growers are partners in a 77-acre reservoir that was built for agricultural irrigation and holds a half-billion gallons of water.
