Just like folks who wish for rain or look for irrigation during dry times, growers experiencing more than optimal rainfall look for ways to handle soggy conditions.
Rain is obviously good but too much of it can be a huge headache or worse. While rainfall in some areas has been just about right in recent weeks, rainfall in other pockets of Ohio vegetable production has become troublesome lately.
Open field growers can prepare only so much for excess rain, especially when it falls in large amounts over short periods of time. However, predictions indicate that doing what is possible to prepare for deluges will be useful. Five steps familiar to most experienced growers because they always support positive production outcomes – not just during wet periods or seasons — can help.
- Use a set of varieties ranging in maturity and seed/transplant multiple times (stagger plantings). This helps manage workloads, blanket market opportunities, and distribute risk since individual plantings will be at different stages in development when dry, wet, or other unwelcome conditions occur and, therefore, possibly be less affected by them.
Source: osu.edu
Photo Credit: istock-fotokostic
Categories: Wisconsin, Crops