Crossing Fingers

This spring has proven to be a very cold one. I am hoping that linen flax has the stamina of the woodland ephemerals, which are holding their own in my back woods, even with nighttime temperatures in the near-to-freezing level. Linen flax seedlings are known to be able to handle a frost, and even a freeze, although only for a short amount of time (a few hours).

 The Gale Woods Farm linen flax seedlings on April 28th.

 A closer look at the Gale Woods Farm linen flax seedlings five days later—May 2nd.

Gale Woods Farm Plot

The Gale Woods Farm crop has seen temperatures that produce a frost overnight. The first night of these temperatures seemed to not affect the little seedlings that began to emerge on April 28^th, 12 days after sowing. The emergence has been slow (7–10 days is typical), which makes me think the colder evenings and days are playing a factor in their growth pace. They are smart little seedlings! Even five days later, they are still at about the same height. That's OK. Take your time little seedlings! Warmer days and nights are coming!

Riverbend Farm Plot

The crop at Greg’s Riverbend Farm, which, as my previous post described, was planted later, and started to emerge around the first of May—again, 12 days after sowing. I haven’t gone out to Greg's place yet to note the progress. I truly hope it is making a very slow emergence since there have been some quite low temperatures in his location, and a slow emergence should protect the seedlings from freeze damage. I say this with hope in my eyes. Perhaps the false hope that farmers feel when there might be a real danger of a crop failure. For me, a crop failure will affect my ability to use my own flax stalks for teaching and demonstrations. That’s not as problematic as a linen crop failure in past centuries, where a crop failure meant a survival issue—both economically and physically—but I will personally feel the loss! Crossing fingers I can still rely on the Bloodroot plant to tell me when true spring has begun in this area! (see my previous post) Don't fail me now, Bloodroot!

If the seedlings make it through this difficult time, we will also need more rain. It is already terribly dry in the fields! Oh, this is a real-life example of the challenges and joys of what it means to live around the whims of nature!