Planting Winding Down

Peanut and cotton planting is beginning to wind down here on our farm.  I finished planting peanuts on Thursday.  All things considered, planting has gone rather smoothly with only a couple of significant break-downs.  About 60 acres of our peanuts are probably going to have to be replanted, however, due to poor germination during a cool snap in late April.  As far as cotton goes, Jon expects to get through early next week.  All of our cotton has come up with good stands thus far.

Cotton leaning to catch morning sun

Daddy and Jeffrey, a cousin and most-of-the-time worker for us, are continuing to spray herbicides this week on the peanuts and cotton.  Roundup resistant pigweed is our main nemesis, and we wage a constant battle to keep it under control.  This is our second year of planting cotton on which we can spray Ignite herbicide, which really helps with the pigweeds.

It's also time to begin applying landplaster, or gypsum, to our peanut fields.  This is a form of calcium.  After a peanut blooms, the pollinated bloom forms a peg, which enters the soil to form the peanut underground.  The calcium is necessary to ensure that a nut forms inside the hull.  If the peg doesn't move through calcium in the "pegging zone," then it will make a "pop" - a hull with nothing inside.

Peanuts looking good!

We planted our last watermelons on Monday and Tuesday.  These will be ready mid-late July.  Our early melons are beginning to get ripe.  Harvesting will likely begin next week.  Christy and Jennifer, Jon's wife, have been working on getting our watermelon shed all spic and span.  We're also purchasing a utility building to place at the shed that we will convert into an office.

What a full shed of melons looks like!

The weather has really warmed up this week, with highs of 96 today.  This will make the melons ripen faster.  Cotton also loves hot weather, as long as there is sufficient moisture.  Although it hasn't rained any this week, a tropical system is predicted to move in early next week.  Our sandy soils require lots of rain.  As the oldtimers say around here, we're always only 10 days removed from a drought!  Hopefully we will get some more much needed rain.

Happy Memorial Day, and may God continue to bless America!