I'm so bad. I intended to continue journaling this entire process. Here it is 10 months later, and I never got the necessary pictures. I am going to publish this anyway, and if I happen to get pictures to complete the story, I will add them. Otherwise, this will be "it."
The whole strawberry planting process has been fascinating to us. Here's how I described it previously in this blog, and following are the pictures to correspond.
The last few weeks they have been preparing acres and acres to be planted with strawberries. It has been interesting to watch. You cannot believe how many times they go over the ground with various equipment. Just when you think they must be done, you see them going over it again. Then they lay out watering pipes and water it really good, then remove the watering pipes. Then they make deep furrows with a flat surface between. White plastic is laid on top of the long flat rows. Much of the land has been left at this point for several weeks; I'm not sure why unless they get all the little starts at the same time. Then a machine comes along and pokes holes in the plastic. The strawberries are hand planted in each of the little holes in the plastic. Then the water pipes are laid again to water them. When we first arrived here, the white plastic was completely covered with strawberry plants, and the pickers were in the fields every day. Now the workers help with all this process. I'll keep an eye on how long it takes the plants to get to the producing stage again. We drive by these fields every day on our way to the office.
One field's progress
July 30, a view of the flat rows and furrows
July 30, laying the plastic
Aug. 6. The plastic has been laid.
The fields lay covered in plastic for a full two months before the next step took place on October 8:
The holes are being made so the young plants can be planted.
The hole-making machine
Wouldn't you know, they planted on transfer day, October 16. There was no way I had time to go picture taking! Dang! But I did get the fields snapped the next day after they were planted. Here are those pictures. The new tender plants are being watered in these pictures.
You can hardly even see the little plants, but they are there in neat little rows. I feel bad I didn't get a picture of the field workers as they planted. Sigh.
If you look carefully, you can see that the back portion of this field, which was planted a few days previously, is already growing and has a green tint.
See how much they've grown in two weeks. Pics taken Halloween Day, October 31:
One week later, November 7:
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