20% chance of thunder storms
Wind: 5/15 mph
Saturday, June 8 temperatures reach 106 degrees
Sunday, June 9 temperatures reach 79 degrees
Sunday, June 9 winds 5/22 mph
Monday 2:30 a.m. thunderstorms with little or no rain
Over the past week there has been a lot of damage done to the greenhouse plastic and not all due to wind. As expected after viewing the greenhouse plastic starting to rip last week there were several more tears in the plastic this morning. The question now is should we add more plastic to keep it warmer in the greenhouses or just leave them as is and wait it out until transplanting?
There are two trains of thought here. The rice is past the germination stages and the birds won't really be bothering the plants at this point. As long as the weather stays mild and the wind keeps between five to 10 miles per hour the plants should stay in good shape. There is still enough of the sheet plastic to give some protection to the plants inside.
Although all that is true, the weather in the next week or show is going to go through several high low fluctuations. Extended forecasts are showing days from high 70s to low-to-mid 80s. Then into the 90s again and then dropping down again. The days where the 70s may drop down into the low 50s at night are of the most concern. There are some days that are expected to have winds moving into the 20 mph range as well, which will add to cooling the temperatures on the rice even more.
Transplant of the rice should take place on either Saturday, June 22 or Saturday, June 29. Once we get to this point the rice will have to handle whatever weather mother nature hands us. Any experienced farmers who have any ideas or recommendations would be appreciated.
As you might have guessed we aren't farmers, however, for the sake of these experiments have been thrust into this project of growing the rice. It has definitely been an interesting experience and one we have learned a lot of lessons from.
Our hope for next year, (this is a three year grant), is to build a different type of greenhouse all together. What we can build will depend on what kind of funds we can raise for the project between now and then, as the Learning Lab was never part of our original grant.
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| This is the one in need of most repair. Originally I thought to just put a sheet of plastic horizontally over the top in hopes of keeping the wind out for another week, however now we are debating if we should just leave it. |
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| This is greenhouse number 6. We have totally given up on this one and there is no rice growing inside. |
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