The season for salads and vegetables in Ukraine has been described as atypical, both in greenhouse production and in open field cultivation. Cold and prolonged spring conditions delayed seedling planting by nearly a month, resulting in later-than-usual harvests, according to agronews.ua.
Roman Pasichnyk, co-founder of LLC "Podillia Ovochi" in the Ternopil region and head of "Fresh Garden" in the Kyiv region, said, "In the five years that I have been observing, this was a very atypical vegetable season. We planned to plant Iceberg lettuce seedlings for the second crop in open ground at the beginning of August, but many plants were planted later. If there is an early autumn, and night temperatures drop below 5–10°C, and daytime temperatures drop below 15°C, there is a risk that we will not have time to harvest the crop from the last plantings."
He added that peppers were also affected. Seedlings remained longer in nurseries because of cold conditions in May, and transplanting into the ground only began at the start of June. This was particularly the case in the western Ternopil region.
"In recent years, the harvest of Bell peppers in Bilozirka usually started to be collected in the third decade of July; this year, in the third decade of August. The peak of the harvest usually falls in August, but only now, in September, are we starting to collect the volume," Pasichnyk explained.
The harvest of blocky and conical red and yellow peppers on the Ternopil farm was also delayed. Instead of the planned start in mid to late August, harvesting only began on September 10.
Source: AgroNews