Field scenarios in pictures
Three situations members keep running into: picking a variety for a windy limestone slope, spreading out cutting dates so the heat does not win, and drying bundles in a shaded barn after a rough spring. Each one comes with the plot details that made the difference.
Next step
Most scenarios here started as a single question: which variety holds on a windy limestone slope, when to stagger cutting so the bundles dry before the heat peaks, how a late frost changes the oil yield on a small still. Post your own season results, planting spacing, or beetle sightings, and other growers in your region will answer with what actually worked on their rows.
Registration is free and open to nursery operators, smallholders, and anyone running a few beds behind the house. If you would rather read first, the journal notes and shared resources are open without an account.
Why growers stay here
Most lavender advice online is written for a climate nobody actually farms in. Here, a nursery operator on a windy limestone slope and a smallholder drying bundles in a shaded barn compare the same season side by side. You get cutting dates from your region, spacing that survived a late frost, and honest notes on what failed.
Threads stay tied to a plot, a variety, and a date. When someone reports beetle pressure or a moldy batch, the reply usually comes from a grower who already lost that week.
Angustifolia on a frost-prone slope behaves nothing like x intermedia in a warmer row. Members post their soil, drainage, and spacing so comparisons hold up.
First-cut dates shift by zone and by year. Instead of one calendar, you read what neighbors actually cut and when the stems snapped clean.
Yield per hectare gets discussed with the still, the batch size, and the drying method attached, not as a single headline number.
Swaps of esquejes and coordinated visits to flowering fields happen between members who already traded notes on the same variety.
New to the forum? Start with the community background or browse field resources before posting your first seasonal report.
