Equinox dates used in planning

Back in the day when farmers were up before the sun every day of the year, it was easy to know what the seasons were because they lived them. I know there are still many farmers, including myself, who are up in the dark hours of the morning many days and work late in the day as the summer sun sets on the horizon. Those are some very long 14 hour days. I won’t lie to you, there are sometimes long breaks in the middle or frequent trips to the flower cooler to get some relief from the heat, otherwise we would be puddles out there in the field — melted from the heat.

We have passed the Summer Solstice with the longest day (most hours of sunlight) and are approaching the Fall Equinox where sunlight and nighttime are both 12 hours long. That happens on Sept. 22 which happens to be a Saturday this year. Winter Solstice is the day where we have the fewest hours of sunlight and then we mark off the days till Spring Equinox which again gives us 12 hours of sunlight and 12 hours of nighttime. The root of the word “equinox” is: aequinoctium which in Latin means “equal night.” So, understanding that it happens every six months explains whey there is a spring equinox and fall equinox.

That’s all interesting, but why is it important, other than planning when to plant and harvest? Well, that’s exactly the point! Seeds and plants require a certain number of hours of sunlight to grow and produce so knowing that helps a gardener or farmer decide if there is enough time for a plant to grow fully mature before the fall equinox when the days begin to drop below the 12 hours of sunlight mark. Here on our farm, we have planted the second season of flowers and need to mark that equinox as the target date for finishing up the harvest. If a plant can’t bloom before then, there’s no point in planting it. Did I mention there is a lot of math and scheduling in farming?

Also when one looks at the orbit of the earth around the sun, it is the equinox points that put earth closest to the sun with those equal days and nights and the solstice is when earth is furthest away in her orbit from the sun. There were a few days this summer that I just knew if we were any closer to the sun, we might have experienced spontaneous combustion. It was so, so, so hot. I’m sure there will be days this winter that I wish we could snuggle up a little closer to the sun for warmth but that’s just the way it is.

Enjoy the last half of your summer solstice!

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Editor’s note: Mechel Wall is owner and operator of both The Cottage Flower Shop and Wallflower Farm. She can be contacted at blooms@wallflowerfarm.net.