Week 9 on the Farm: Frost & Fall Festival

 A Little Frost Couldn't Stop the Fall Fest!

As November progressed, our incubator farm underwent its most dramatic transformation of the semester. Weeks 8-9 featured two significant events, one planned and one surprise, that defined this stage of the project. An unseasonable frost swept through on November 11-12, and the following week, on the 20th, we joined our classmates in showcasing our work at the Plant Science Fall Festival. Although this period brought its challenges, it also highlighted the resilience of certain crops, the importance of seasonal transitions, and the excitement of sharing organic and sustainable agriculture with the wider campus community.

A Sudden Freeze Transforms the Farm

The most surprising development during this period was the sharp drop in temperatures on November 11th and 12th, reaching as low as 29°F. Knowing how vulnerable many of our warm-season crops would be, we spent the afternoon before the frost harvesting everything we could. We collected approximately 70 oz of beans, over 20 oz of flowers, 5 oz of peppers, 4 oz of tomatoes, and 9 oz of the last summer squash of the season.

We tried to protect our trellised cucumbers with cloth, but the freeze was too severe. By morning, the cucumbers and most of our other warm-season crops had collapsed. The farm looked almost unrecognizable. Nearly all of our flowers, beans, corn, peppers, and squash had taken significant frost damage, leaving behind a scene of wilted vines, shriveled leaves, and blackened stems.

However, not everything was lost. The frost taught us an important lesson about the resilience of seasonal crops. Our brassicas thrived, with broccoli responding especially well to the colder temperatures. The carrots also endured, and our tomatoes were surprisingly among the few warm-season crops that somewhat weathered the cold. Even our previously stressed eggplants began pushing out new growth once we trimmed back the damaged foliage.

With the cucumbers gone, we took the opportunity to transition into cool-season production. We removed the frost-killed vines from the trellis and planted lettuce, which is far more tolerant of cold weather and fits perfectly into the late-fall crop plan.

Sharing Our Work With the UF Community

The week after the freeze, our team participated in the Plant Science Fall Festival, an annual event where students from across the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences come together to celebrate the end of the growing season. Our group tabled alongside the other incubator farm teams in a long row of displays featuring produce, flowers, and demonstrations of organic growing practices.

Due to the frost damage, our offerings were more modest than we had hoped. We displayed a small amount of lettuce that we had planted the previous week after the cold weather. Even so, festival visitors were eager to see what we had grown. Many students enjoyed picking flowers, carrots, and tomatoes that survived from our class's incubator farms, creating a lively and festive atmosphere.

One of the highlights was getting to talk with visitors from completely different majors who were genuinely excited about organic farming, sustainability, and what we had been learning in the course. We discussed some of our practices, like intercropping, the role of insectary plants like marigolds and sweet alyssum, and the importance of biodiversity in organic systems. Sharing the story of our farm, our challenges, and the agroecological principles behind our choices felt rewarding and reaffirmed why this hands-on project has been such a meaningful part of the semester.