The WaterBlog

Microclimate in the market garden – practices

By Francesco Sambalino October 18, 2021 A lot is said about climate change. It is too hot. It will become too hot. Higher rainfall intensity will make flooding more likely. Sad enough, the practical know-how on how small farmers can navigate these situations is not center stage. We think it should be. What tools do we have to adapt to soaring temperatures? In this blog, we explain a couple of strategies we are experimenting with on our vegetable farm. Producing vegetables in the Spanish Meseta central can be difficult. High temperatures are averaging about 33 degrees Celsius, with peaks touching and surpassing 40 degrees being more and more frequent. Lettuce is a good example: with excessive heat, its natural response is to switch from vegetative to flowering too early. From crunchy sweet leaves to bitter and unsellable greens. Yet we are stubborn, and we wanted to make our customers happy with some crispy head lettuces. There are several strategies when… Continued