You cannot stop what you cannot control, so the next best thing is to plan as best as you can and brace yourself. But how do you plan for something you haven’t done before? Research, lots of it.
Along with learning the farming aspects of the nopal, I learned of its’ anatomy, benefits, species, and uses. I was pleasantly surprised that there are so many studies of the nopal but shocked that I could not find any nopal farms in Texas. There are some in Arizona and California, but not many. The difficulty for me was that neither of these regions experience the type of winter Muleshoe does, and there are no studies or guidance for this phenomenon. Muleshoe, has cold windy winters with occasional snowfall. Aside from the below freezing temperatures, the area is flat, and there is no stopping 40 mile winds from freezing everything in its path. So how do you keep a plant that is mostly water from freezing? That is the question I am still trying to answer.
One of the first things I had to learn was the direction from which the cold winds come from. In Muleshoe, usually the direction from which the cold arrives from is the North or West. The reason that is important is because there needed to be a wind barrier protecting the nopales from the full force of the wind. Keep in mind that wind in freezing temperatures actually drops the temperature by many degrees. Second, I needed to find an option for coverage of the weaker, most newly planted nopales. Understanding the difference between fabrics and what they do when encountered with moisture (snow) was something else I had to research and understand. I wanted something that would protect the nopales, wasn’t too expensive, was biodegradable or recyclable and could withstand wind. I ultimately selected burlap.
I am sure there are other methods of protecting the nopales during the winter other than individually wrapping in burlap, but I am also certain it is more costly and not sure I want to go that route at the moment. The burlap method is very time consuming and like everything else is incredibly manual. If purchasing a roll of burlap, it has to be cut into the sizes needed. It is a lot of measuring and cutting. Unfortunately for me, I am not good at this task but was lucky that my mom volunteered to do most of it (she enjoyed it and is a million times better). Once the burlap is cut, it is time to wrap the nopales up. For this task, it is important that the person(s) doing it have good knees since there is a lot of squatting involved. Yeah you get a great leg workout!
This method worked well for the first winter, and it was nice to see that under the burlap, the nopales had been growing new sprouts during the cold weather. I am not sure that this method will continue to work since winters can vary in temperature. The weaker/younger nopales are once again protected this winter (November 2022). The older stronger nopales are unprotected and it is painful to see the forecasted nights in the 20’s, but so far so good. I will keep my fingers crossed and see what happens.
One reply on “Can’t Stop It, But You Can Plan For It”
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