This morning at the garden I met a guy named Oscar from Sunset Park. He was sitting on beside the corn drinking his morning coffee. He's originally from El Salvador where he lived on a farm and he has experience with the three sisters plantings. I really wish I spoke Spanish to have been able to understand everything he wanted to tell me. But what we managed to discuss was that in his opinion it was too hot on the corner. That the relentless sun from morning to night along with the stones and sidewalk which retain and radiate heat made it hard on the plants. He said something I didn't fully understand about the soil being too strong and the corn grew too fast (there was a word he couldn't find in English). He has been watching it this summer and how fast it grew. I showed him the beans and squash and how they just seemed to stop growing at a certain point. Again he said it was too hot. This has been a really hot, dry summer. By contrast in Canarsie the plot is verdant and crawling with squash and beans. The corn, though short is still dark green. One big difference is that Canarsie plot is shaded for part of the morning. It's also watered in the early morning (5am - on a timer). And because the sun comes over the garden around 11am, the ground stays damp after a water and the moisture doesn't evaporate. Anyway, I'm still learning with each garden and these are simply the things I've observed. But even so we are getting some nice ears of corn on Bergen St. I harvested a couple more ears today and there are about seven or eight really fat ones still on the stalks.
Oscar is exactly right. All that concrete holds the heat and continually radiates it. It's too much on the plants. The soil being too strong probably means it is too rich, high in nitrogen, forcing it to grow real fast at first.
ReplyDeleteIt has been an exceptionally hot and dry summer. However, this location would have been tough even on a normal summer!
P.S. I found you through Marie's 66 sq ft.