December, 25, 2014

Good morning, Merry Christmas everyone. We almost had a whiteish Christmas. I was hoping to do my weekly harvest Wednesday, but that just didn't happen. I hope to get it done today some how and have veggies for market on Saturday. There will not be any Friday deliveries this week. Next week's long range weather forecast is looking a bit sketchy at this time but that is a whole week away. Any way Merry Christmas and I hope to see everyone at market Saturday, If not in the New Year.

It is a nice feeling to have most of my open beds ready for spring planting. With all of the fall rains the beds have remained moist and easy to turn. If I were to use a rototiller, this garden task would not take as long.

There are many reasons why I don't use mechanized tillers in the garden. This is not to say I do not use lawn mowers and weed eaters. I have used a reel push mower with little success and there really is not enough room for a swing blade to knock down grass and weeds. Thus is why I resort to these two power tools.

I turn in compost after each crop is finished. There is a movement towards no till. I believe the reason behind it is that by turning the soil it oxygenates the soil and causes it to become over active and deplete the soil of its organic mater. Yes I do stimulate the soil but I also feed it after each crop too.

Using a shovel is not even as “intrusive” as a mechanized tiller because I make one turn of the soil. Unlike a rototiller which would be more like an egg beater in a bowl. Because I use a shovel to turn the soil in order to be able to plant the next crop, I find pockets of compost that were not fully incorporated into the soil. I think that this method could be called minimum till.

With no till any compost would be only incorporated in the very surface when planting seeds or seedlings and soil organisms along with precipitation would move these goodies into the soil horizon. A much slower process. Especially since we do not get abundant year round rains.

So I prefer to use my shovel and minimally turn the soil. Yes this is a lot of work but there are a lot of benefits that I can reap from this exercise besides getting exercise.

There is nothing like the quite of a no stroke engine!

I can be aware of all that is going on around me. Like the quiet that over comes the barnyard when a hawk flies over head. Or when some hen is taking wayyyy to long to egg and there are hens stacked up like cord wood to use THAT!! nest box.

I can inspect the soil as I go, Something that is very difficult with a tiller. I can remove root knot nematode galls. Since this is where the eggs are, this may help reduce their populations. Something else that is difficult to do with a tiller. This allows me to get an idea how big of a wire worm population I have. As I have noted in an earlier email they were almost non existent this year. Again this would be difficult with a tiller.

When I use a shovel I can begin to till a lot sooner after a rain than what I could with a tiller. I do get some soil sticking to the shovel but a spatula resolves this. And of course there are times when it is too wet for a shovel.

My garden is home to a lot of spade foot toads (at least 10 to 15 in most beds). They burrow down 3 to 6 inches. A tiller would hit virtually every one of them. With a shovel I still hit a few but not very many. I like to think of them as another piece of my biological control.

For many years I was a landscaper up in Oregon and by necessity I had to use internal combustion engines daily. It really is nice not having to any more.

When I first moved to Alpine I had a rototiller and used it all the time. It also was the early years of the garden that I had a “real” job working for the Texas Forest Service. We would easily drive 1500 miles a week and some weeks more than that. Because we were doing brush surveys on ranch land, the roads , shall we say were not pristine supper highways. I started to use a shovel at this time. It did wonders for me to get that exercise to loosen up my back. I worked for the Forest Service for 4 years and really got to like that kind of solitude one can have with a shovel and a whole garden of soil to turn.

December 18, 2014

Good morning, I love talking about gardening! A recent conversation with a fellow gardener and the subject of companion planting was brought up. I must say the first thing that came into my mind was the inter-planting of plants to help thwart pests. It reminded me of the book “Carrots Love Tomatoes”.A book about companion planting to fight garden pests. This is not what my friend had in mind.

My friend like myself grows plants on a mature plant size grid pattern. An example would be tomatoes. I grow determinate tomatoes and the mature spacing of 18 inches(indeterminate s are a 36 inch spacing). As one can see when you set the plants out, say a 12 inch tall tomato that is buried so that only the top 3 or 4 leaves are above ground, there is a lot of open space to grow weeds.

What my friend was talking about was planting companion plants that would be harvested as the primary crop matures and fills in the open spaces. I was more familiar with the term inter-cropping. This is a very good way to boost crop production and use already prepared bed space along with holding weeds down.

I have done this on a very small scale in a very hit or miss way. Usually only because I remember to think about it. This has potential to increase production with a minimum of extra effort. Just needs a little bit of extra planning.

The kinds of crops that would work best would be greens such as lettuce, boc choy, spinach and not to forget radishes. These fast maturing crops would be harvested as the tomatoes fill in the space. What I have done is usually plant blocks of these various plants in their own designated beds. With additional planning I could get this companion planting to work for me. This could open designated bed space to other crops.

When I was only hose end watering, I would water the whole bed and could inter-crop all of the open space. Since converting to a drip system, there would be 1 foot wide strips of bed that would get regular water. In the case of the tomatoes there would be two strips of tomatoes per bed. This still is a lot of open watered bed space growing weeds until the toms fill in.

But this kind of planting does not need to only be a main crop and a sub crop that is harvested and the main crop fills in. There is the long noted planting that the Native Americans have done. It is referred to as the Three Sisters, corn, beans and squash. The corn would provide the trellis for the beans to grow and the squash would cover the ground.

Expanding on this would be planting two main crops that would also last all season but would grow in different soil depths. This could be okra and cucumbers or any other like combo of plants like this.

Since I am spending less time watering, I am going to see if I can plan out my garden successions and do some compatible inter-plantings. Thank you Kevin for putting the be in my bonnet.

It is really amazing what a year can make. I have my temporary greenhouses in place but have not had to use them but once. Last year I found that 60's was the warmest I wanted the temperature to be. That translates into the upper 80's under the film. We will have to see what the middle of January brings.

I am cringing a bit since I planted some seed potatoes and noticed some are emerging (last year they emerged the 1^st of March). This could be a catastrophic failure or a bumper crop. The Agribon 70 is at stand by. Also noticed that my globe artichoke is peaking its head up too. This is the middle of December??? Started my first tom seeds for February out planting. Who knows if the season continues I may have a fully planted garden in February?? How strange is this weather, but it has been a very pleasant fall and winter starts this Sunday. I think I will jump on board and see where this ride goes, it should be interesting.                   

 

December 11, 2014

Good morning, very interesting observations in the garden this year, there seems to be an increase of beneficial insects over last year. It was real comforting to know that there were lady bugs through out the growing season. This is a first since the hard drought of 2011.

I was really afraid with the use of Cold pressed neem oil that beneficial insects just might be collateral damage, and become scarce in the garden. I think I may have done a total of 5 or 6 garden wide spraying s this year. There was a pretty good flush of squash bugs along with cucumber beetles, but the grasshopper hatch was a bit over the top. Most of the above mentioned sprayings were to control the hoppers. A total of 3 spraying s every seven days were used to control them. After the second spraying you could pluck most of the hoppers off the leaves easily at mid day. The third spraying cleaned them up. Very few if any got to be adults, so I am hoping the hopper egg density will be non existent for next year. The spraying of neem oil was only done of an evening when most of the beneficial insects are less active.

Very interesting thing happened one harvest day when I found a large horn worm underneath the bell peppers. Silly me, I went into auto pilot and squashed him. It was cool to see it had been totally infected with parasites. Sad that they did not get to mature. I did find 5 or 6 horn worms under the tomatillos that were like empty sacks. So maybe I did not inadvertently kill all of this valuable asset. Such was not the case with the horn worms found in the sweet potatoes. No parasites in them, maybe next year.

It was interesting to note that I encountered very few wire worms this year while harvesting the sweet potatoes. Here again I was finding a lot of grubs and feeding them to my chickens, who went yummm. Sloooowly I began to take notice of these two observations and found a connection. Ground beetles of which most of the larvae were from these beetles, eat wire worms. Needless to say I have some unhappy chickens.

This year I cannot remember there ever being so many spiders to spin webs across paths only for me to walk through them in the morning. There were ground beetles, toads, praying mantis', garter snakes and the list goes on. I hope this is a sign of a happy little ecosystem that has become my garden.

I was afraid that by using a pesticide such as neem , I would throw the whole thing out of wack. This does not seem to be the case, it could be due to my reluctance to spray and only spraying when a pest population gets out of control. It is nice to know that I am a help as opposed to a hindrance to all my garden helpers.

As for my root knot nematodes, with the use of my drip system and very fertile beds, garden production did not seem to be impacted severely. It was interesting to see in two infected sweet potato beds I harvested a total of 252 pound of sweets. Not a great harvest but a good one. Now for the last bed that does not have nematodes, I have harvested well over 120 pounds out of only half the bed. I finally finished the sweet harvest. Total poundage was 531 with 279 being out of the last bed. A real awesome harvest!!

Next year because the drip system has worked so well I intend to not plant as many duplicate beds. This will allow me to solaraize more beds and get a very good handle on my root knot nematodes.

The fall / winter veggies are looking pretty good. It looks like I have some lettuce to list this week. Within the next couple of weeks I will start the Jerusalem artichoke harvest. I am going to be interested to see how well this crop did with a drip line. I may be able to harvest spinach soon also. One of my favorite greens Hon Tsai Tai pronounced Asian green is starting to put up flower stems. The leave stems and flower stems have a nice crunch to them, the leaves have a very mild mustard taste, and the flowers add a nice little touch to any tossed salad. They can be eaten raw, steamed, sauteed, added to soups or stir fries. A wonderful versatile green.

I can be reached at markdirtfarmer@gmail.com

December 4, 2014

Good morning, This fall, has taught me that being complacent is not a good place to be, that is if one intends to be a gardener. I had gotten just a tad to much so this past September with fall sowing. I will have decent stocking levels for winter veggies, even though there are a number of holes in the planting grids. Not paying attention to the extended moist and cloudy conditions kinda bit me in the rear.

Not really wanting to repeat this folly with my temporary “greenhouses” I have been monitoring them pretty close. Some things that I have noticed: following the last freezing period, the greenhouse chard did not get frozen stems like the traditional covered chard. Although on a recent warm sunny day there was no wind and the green house did heat up a bit higher than I would have liked to see. I have only the fabric as a cover to prevent the plants from scalding. With all new practices there is a learning curve and this greenhouse thingy is no different.

Instead of removing the green house film all together, it has only been pulled back underneath the fabric. The next freeze. I will replace it. I am sure that it will be very beneficial during the months of December and January. I intend to get an older model of indoor / outdoor thermometers that has the sensor on the end of a wire (I can bury the probe 4 to four inches). With this I can record the difference of soil temp and air temp inside the cover. It will be some neat information. Last year the sunny days seemed to be more windy. It is wonderful to have sunny calm days but I do need to pay attention to details.

A couple of observations from last winters use of the film /fabric combo: last fall was much cooler with few days after the 3^rd week of November getting much above the mid 60's. This year we have had temps in the high 60's to almost the low 80's. Last year was more windy and this year has been very mild in that respect. I also noticed from last year, that when outside temps were in the 70's and 80's and sunny, the temperature inside the covers was pushing the century mark. I did notice some leaf scalding this year before I pealed back the film under the fabric on one of our recent warm days. It will be interesting to see what December and January hold in regards to warmth and sunshine.

I have been using fabric for many years and with “trial and error” I have learned what kind of protection to expect with different weather events. I expect to gain this kind of knowledge about the use of these greenhouses over time too. I hope that I do not have any catastrophic events with this film like I did learning the best time to plant early toms. As I have said when pushing the seasons, if you are not willing to buy the farm only to start over, then it is best not to do it. The only way to see if it can be done is to just do it. I think the odds are better than playing the lottery!

The winter fall veggies are coming along. The kohlrabi, and cauliflower are looking pretty nice. Same goes for the parsnips and the early broccoli raab. Because of some seeding issues with the cabbage and broccoli, time will tell how these do. Peas are looking real nice. Except for a couple crops all is looking pretty good.

I can be reached at markdirtfarmer @gmail.com

November 26, 2014

Good morning, it is real neat that we have just passed our second anniversary for the Alpine Farmers Market on Murphy Street. How time flies when having fun. It continues to be the high point of my week. It is such a treat to get to visit with everyone. The market also continues to grow and we are averaging 15 to 20 vendors on many occasions. I still envision the market spilling out from the courtyard and proceed to fill Murphy street. This happened last Earth Day when we had more than 50 vendors present. Talk about a party.

We always welcome new vendors. I feel some times when a patron comes to market they come up with ideas for things to sell at market and they come join us.

Deb and I sat down one Saturday and brainstormed for some potential vendor products that would be real good additions to all of our wonderful vendors. What follows is by no means a complete list.

Artisan bread maker, Commercial mobile kitchen, Tortillas, Homemade soap, Gifts in a jar, hand made toys, COFFEE, Frozen meals, Plants and seedlings (mainly veggies), Fruit and of course more Growers.........

I think it is appropriate to mention that we do not have a set up fee but we do very much appreciate any donation. We do ask that any vendor that makes $100 dollars or more to give a donation of $10 to the market.

Why do we ask this? These funds are used to advertise, and to build improvements for the market. Donation dollars have built our wonderful permanent shade structure, chalk boards, sand box and toys, crayons and coloring books, table top toys and a fabric Alpine Farmers Market sign. 

Soon we hope to have a rain catchment system and then we can plant some trees. Some caliche under the structure would be nice along with the driveway into the courtyard. We do have a donation jar on a table along with a wish list of projects that these donations would fund. There also is a blank space on this wish list for anyone to add their own ideas. All ideas are welcome!!

The market has come such a long way since there were only three or four vendors. I look forward to what the future holds for the market.

If you would like to join our vendor family or know someone who would, please call Mark or Debbie at 432-837-0118.

I can be reached at markdirtfarmer @gmail.com

November 20, 2014

Good morning, as we slip into fall and move towards winter it is getting close to when I start sowing my next years Solanaceae crops. Some of those wonderful new world veggies that I can not imagine how Europe lived with out them until the discovery of the new world. Myself, I would be hard pressed to decide between the two major ones (my opinion), in fact if I could only grow one, I really could not decide. These are hands down my favorite veggies, Tomatoes and Chilis. Nothing like the taste of a red ripe tom chomped down on in the garden as the juice runs down your chin. Or peeling a fresh roasted chili and devouring it as the smell of roasting chilis fill the autumn air. Who really could choose between the two.

There are some reasons why I like to grow these veggies from seed. Mainly I like to grow open pollinated (OP) veggies as opposed to hybrids.

OP seed can be saved and you do not have to purchase seed every year. Hybrids curried favor after world war two. Who hasn't heard the words hybrid vigor. They have been passed off as superior to OP. Maybe in some aspects. If you are looking for even sized, even ripening, resistant to various garden pests, these would be your veggies. But YOU would never be able to save the seed. Something that large corporation seed companies would like to see. One little note these are all qualities that are found in OP seeds but not all in the same seed.

Like hybrids you can select veggie seeds with desired qualities. There is one book that I refer to as my seed bible. This is none other than the Garden Seed Inventory sixth edition printed by the Seed Savers Exchange. This is a book that lists all of the OP and heirloom seed that was available in 2004 for North America. This book, besides listing veggie varieties and descriptions also list sources for these seeds. For me it can be spell binding, but then again I am geeky that way. Looking through the book you can find traits like the hybrids. Of course where else did hybrids get their traits but from none other than OP's. A little note all heirlooms are OP but not all OP's are heirlooms.

I have mentioned on several occasions that I start the above mentioned Solanacae around the middle to the end of December. This is a time of year you would be lucky to find a cabbage plant for sale let alone a tomato. This is my numero uno reason for starting my own Solanaceae from seed. Not to mention because I grow a few hundred solanacae plants, the cost to stock my garden would be huge. They also would not be my favorites.

Another good reason to grow your own plants is that you will not inadvertently bring some critter or pathogen into your garden. Seed just do not have hitchhikers.

One of the other real cool things about seed, is they are by far one of the best food bargains out there. They are incredibly inexpensive when you consider your potential return. One can experiment with new varieties and if the new choice does not work out, you have only your time as the big expense. Of course growing from seed takes more time than just buying a plant.

Even though towards the end of December I have winter veggies that are ever so close to harvest I like to think the sowing of my Solanacae crops as the beginning of my garden year or for me spring has sprung

One last little note: take a look at a local seed rack, there may be a dozen toms to choose from. On the other hand in my seed bible there are over 65 pages of tomato varieties and around 25 varieties to the page. So many to choose from but think of all that diversity. This is exciting stuff!!!

Sadly last weeks freeze finished off the last of the summer veggies. Summer veggies from the first of March to the Second week of November, not a bad run! Of course there were some “interesting” moments to get here. But hey, the middle of to the end of December (just a few weeks away) and next years crops will be started. How cool is that!!

I did have some challenges this fall with getting my fall and winter veggies growing. Some of them were operator error and others were dealing with critters. I think the most amazing critter was the harvester ants. They were actually going into the seed beds and digging up the germinating seed only to haul them back to their nests. I solved this by burying fabric covers around the edges of the seed bed. No more problems. I have so much more to learn!!

November 13, 2014

Good morning, on a recent Sunday, Deb roasted a bunch of veggies to go with dinner. Seems like there were garlic, onions, sweet potatoes, tomatillos and beets. It has only been in the recent past that I have learned that I like beets.

No wonder so many people do not care for some veggies, so many of their memories are from their childhood and these memories are almost set in concrete. Right up top on the “no fly” list for me were canned asparagus, canned spinach and canned beets. I remember the use of vinegar to help the flavor of the beets and spinach but the asparagus was left to stand a lone.

It wasn't until my family moved to Kentucky that we harvested wild asparagus that grew up in fence rows. This was the first chance I had ever had to really taste this wonderful veggie. It would be many years latter after I had “flown the coop” before I was able to really taste spinach or beets.

Spinach was first and I found how wonderful it was lightly sauteed or even just raw. What truly a waste when canned.

Beets probably would never have passed my lips if it were not for my Alpine, TX. garden and a request for me to grow gourmet beets (slicing red beets, gold beets, chiogga and white beets). Well I grew these beets and when it came time to harvest I tried to contact this person and she would not return my call. What to do??

Deb found a recipe that called for roasting the beets. We roasted them until the sugars caramelized on them and then quickly devoured them while raving how wonderful they were. Neither one of us knew what a wonderful treat they can be.

It has given me pause to revisit some of my more unfavorable veggie experiences. For the most part the revisiting has been favorable but I must say neither okra or spaghetti squash have made it onto my menu. I have recently tried them with the same appeal as before. Guess that leaves more for other folks to eat.

I guess where I am going with this is that childhood memories can be quite powerful and hard to overcome but who knows what wonderful tasty things you might be missing if you were to try them once again from a fresh harvested and prepared perspective. It could very easily knock your socks off.

Well it does look like winter has come again what with the recent chill down. Sadly summer veggies are gone for another year. This week has been a bit of a challenge trying to prepare for the cold, harvest and take care of civic duties. Lucky for me I was called to jury duty and with 30 as my number I won the lottery so to speak. Needless to say I have not gotten as much harvested as I would like. The fore cast low for Thursday is in the teens and the high is only expected to reach 39. As I write this it is 25. If the high is 39, the fabric will remain frozen to the ground. If this happens I will not be able to have Friday deliveries because I will be harvesting and preping for market. In the event that I am unable to harvest, I will send out an updated veggie list latter today for those folks that would like to place orders for Saturday market pick up.

 

November 6, 2014

Good morning, Funny how folks can have such strong feeling about a group of incredibly nutritious and downright healthy veggies. Responses from “I can’t live without them” to “nothing green is going to pass my lips”

Greens are incredibly easy to grow and depending how you grow them, they do not take up a lot of room. If you harvest leaves instead of plants, you can harvests for months. The main reason I plant new seedlings of kale and chard is the kale gets to looking like 2 foot tall palm trees and the chard begin to look like leafy baobab trees. This makes them hard to keep covered.

Besides their ease of growing they are very high in vitamin C. I suspect why everyone thinks of oranges first for vitamin C is most likely advertising or maybe the story of how the English got one of their most noted nick names of “Limy”. They would pack citrus on their ships to help prevent scurvy due to vitamin C deficiencies. It just may have been a bit difficult to pack peppers and leafy greens on a long voyage pre refrigeration days. But take a look at this list of goodies that have more Vitamin C than the advertised King of “C”.

http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20745689,00.html 

Who hasn’t purchased a wonderful looking orange, pealed it to eat, only to find the interior to be not to dissimilar to packing material. This is really quite disappointing. Pithiness is not a problem with greens because you eat the whole thing and you do get to see what eat.

Besides vitamins greens are loaded with antioxidants. If I understand these things properly, they help heal aging or damaged cells. These cells left untreated can morph into a bunch of nasty’s of which cancer is one of them. Not saying by eating greens you will avoid these nasty’s, but they may go a long way towards preventing them.

I might add a very good friend was diagnosed with one of the gender specific cancers. One of the treatments that were suggested to her was to eat lots of greens. This put the cancer into remission and we look forward to hearing from her next checkup. Follows is a link to many of the wonderful attributes of greens.

 http://www2.ca.uky.edu/agc/pubs/FCS3/FCS3567/FCS3567.pdf  

One can eat greens raw or cooked.  Deb says whenever a recipe calls for greens, she will use what green she has on hand. Each green has just a little different taste and can change a recipe just by changing the green.

Something we have done is to dehydrate greens and add them to any recipe. In a crumbled up state you get the goodness but not necessarily the look of greens in a food dish.

Also for lots of wonderful green recipes, check out the Chard Cornicles on facebook. 

 

Besides if you are serious about local produce, greens are a very good choice. As noted above how I grow greens, they are quite different from other winter veggies that I grow. Carrots, onions, kohlrabi, beets, parsnips… you have to grow a whole new plant to get a harvest. This can be difficult during the colder parts of the winter, but greens will keep producing all winter long.

And leave the oranges on the rack and eat yourself a bunch of greens. Your health will thank you for it!!!

What a wonderful rain this week. As of Wednesday afternoon we had received 2.4 inches with a yearly total of 14.9 inches. Just about average. Nice and slow so a real soaker although I did notice a little overland flow but nothing like a cloud burst rainstorm.

Summer vegies are fading real quickly now, what with the cooling and lower light levels.  It is only 5 months until I replant them for next year.

Greens are coming on (Asian, chard, kale, broccoli raab) Kohlrabi are continuing to bulb, maybe a small harvest of spinach next week.  After a few complications with the boc choy, I should be transplanting soon. My peas are up for over wintering and an early spring harvest.  Things are looking pretty good. Oh and one last note, the sweet harvest is done and poundage was pretty good considering 2 beds had RKN. Final tally of 531 pounds so we should have sweets for awhile.

I can be reached at markdirtfarmer@gmail.com

November 3, 2014 potential frost / freeze

Hate to admit it but it looks like the season is about to change. This wind and clowd cover are ushering in a cold front. Wednesday nights low is predicted to be 35 and depending how calm we are we could have a good freeze. Thursday night is 41. Precaution is needed for freeze sensitive plants.     Good luck mark

October 30, 2014

Good morning, Deb recently forwarded this blog site to me.

http://commonsensehome.com/my-favorite-seeds-sources-seed-storage-and-germination/

It does have some very good information pertaining to veggie seeds. I especially like the germination chart that lists most of the veggies that are commonly grown. This particular chart is immensely beneficial to anyone who may want to get into season extension or even winter gardening. I have mentioned that the lower the minimal germination temp is the better the chance that that veggie is a good candidate for winter gardening

We are getting towards the end of the “gravy” time of fall where seeds germinate very easily and plants can get well established very quickly. Through trial and error I have found sowing seed much past the first week of November doesn’t work very well. I do sow my bulb onion seed during this week. This allows for well rooted seedlings that will stay under ¼ inch and make wonderful transplants for the end of February.

It is getting very close to the time when I will erect my temporary greenhouses that will have the film covered with fabric. This worked very well with my heavy Agribon 70 fabric through last winter. Because I will need to keep an extra heavy blanket available for any deep freeze that could damage my cauliflower and broccoli crops, I will not have enough 70 to cover all of my temporary greenhouses. I intend to see how two or three layers of 19 will work. There will be a total of 6 of these green houses. I hope that this works very well. Time will tell.

I would like to share some interesting viewings from my blog site. The very surprising thing is that most of the views within the last week were from Poland and Turkey. There were a total of 31 viewings, with the US being a distant third. I have noticed Poland and Russia are the most common viewing countries but there has been Canada, France, Denmark, and Great Britain too. To date there have been over 1000 viewings. I guess I am easily entertained.

It is nice to see my fall greens are starting to come on. This will be the first week to list radishes, Asian greens and broccoli raab greens. Broccoli raab florets are still a couple months out. The green kohlrabi is starting to bulb up and the fall peas are up too. This weekend I plan to plant my garlic bed and seed my bulb onion bed. It is nice to see the change of seasons!!

October 23, 2014

This is the last week that I will be posting to the Yahoo group site. You will be able to read my weekly email at my blog site or to receive an email that you can order veggies from, please look at the addresses that follow later in this email.

Last week was a real wild ride The Little Brown Dog got rolled by the truck and received some cuts and a very sore body for a day or two and then acted like nothing happened. Myself five stitches an immensely swollen hand a week of healing and I am almost where I was week ago Tuesday. Oh this too will pass. I appreciated every ones kind words for the both of us.

Good morning, I have used soil solarization several times. This organic treatment is very labor intensive to do but the benefits are well worth the effort. Here in West Texas there is only one time period during the year when it is most effective and that is during the months of May and June. These are our most sunny and hottest months.

What soil solarization does is heat the top 6 to 8 inches of soil to 120 - 130 degrees. This affectively sterilizes this portion of the soil horizon. It kills everything or causes critters to move out. Once the treatment is completed this soil is quickly recolonized with beneficial soil microbes and this really boosts soil fertility. This also can boost a farm’s production quantities.

The main reason I have done it is to combat root knot nematodes (RKN).  RKN females enter the roots of plants and cause galls or root knots to form. The galls are the results of egg laying and feeding on the roots. Fortunately RKN are very slow movers in the soil, by their own mobility they will move less than three feet a year. Man is probably the biggest transporter of RKN. Contaminated farming equipment can transport them miles away. Just hosing off farm equipment can slow their spread immensely.

When I was unaware of my “little garden friends”, I inadvertently spread them to more beds. This has slowed with my awareness. I have observed RKN in 13 of my 32 beds. I have not noticed any new contamination in a year. This has been achieved by washing off tools in the bed I just finished preparing for planting.

I have also slowed the spread by mapping the contamination sites within a bed. When I prep a bed, I work from clean areas toward contaminated. The use of compost has helped too. This introduces into the soil bacteria that are unfriendly to RKN. The planting of certain crops can also slow their colonization.  The mustard family that includes broccoli and friends, produce natural nemicides when they decompose. Garlic and onions also are unfriendly to them. I planted a very infected bed to garlic last fall and this summer was then planted to summer squash. When I pulled and examined the roots, I did notice a fair amount of root galling. Even so this bed did produce squash quite nicely.

These are a lot of different means to combat RKN but soil solarization smokes all these techniques hands down. Like I said it is very labor intensive or I would do it more.

How it is done; the bed is prepped just like it is going to be planted. This is done so the soil will not be disturbed after the process. The bed needs to be well watered so that heat will be transported down into the soil. Once the bed is prepped, a six inch trench is dug around the bed. This is the big labor thing because my beds are up to 4.5 feet wide and 46 feet long. It is very important that the bed is extremely flat. Clear plastic is laid down over the bed. It is then stretched tight and the edge of the plastic is covered by the refilling of the trench. This is important so that the day time heat is not lost. Once the plastic is in place sit back and let it cook, the longer the better. I try for 8 weeks during May and June.

Once the process is completed the plastic is taken off, trench refilled. You then need to be very careful not to disturb the bed more than you have to when you plant it. Disturbance could bring RKN back to the surface.

I think it is important to note that not all plastics are equal. I would not use off the shelf  store bought plastic. THIS product will start to disintegrate into small pieces before the process is done. (Experience!). You need to use greenhouse film. Available at G & M Ag Supply, Johnny’s selected seeds, and Peaceful Valley Farm Supply to name a few suppliers.

Of my 13 infected beds I have solarized 5 or 6. Of these beds only one I have noticed an influx of RKN. The others seem to be RKN free but the positions where the RKN were are still noted so that I can check to see if the RKN are making a resurrection.

This is soil solarization in a nut shell; check out the site listed below for more information on solarization.

http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn74145.html

The summer veggies are just about gone. There are jalapenos, some chili’s, eggplant, beans and okra. The toms are all but finished, first the root knot nematodes then the western yellowing disease (transmitted by white flies), pin worms, powdery mildew.

It is interesting to note that this is the first year ever that I have had mildew on the toms and some chili’s. I think this is an indication that we have experienced very high humidity this year with a very stubborn high pressure that did not allow thunder storms to develop except when we had disturbances in the atmosphere to allow for convection to develop.  

Anyway with the white flies and pin worms covering with fabric is the best prevention but not having the covers on is the best prevention of mildew.

Research has shown me that pin worm moths fly at night. I have not seen for white flies if they have a less active time.

Systemically administered Neem products would protect for the pin worms. It would also control the white flies too but… if my logic is correct it is the feeding that transmits the virus similar to mosquitoes and malaria. The bug is dead but it has passed on its “care package”. So covering is the best prevention. Baking soda and neem oil (either one cold pressed or clarified) works very well at controlling mildew but I have also noticed that neem oil on peppers will cause flowers to abort. It is always something!!!

On an interesting note here is a link to a site about a documentary movie on urban agriculture. It fits very nicely into my thoughts that everyone should grow some food even if it is just one container with a tomato. The article also notes that the movie will be on PBS later this fall. Have a look.     http://ecowatch.com/2014/10/20/urban-farming-revitalize-america/?utm_source=EcoWatch+List&utm_campaign=c1bb8ac3e2-Top_News_10_21_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_49c7d43dc9-c1bb8ac3e2-85338065

october 15, 2014

Good morning,

Everybody's okay, but my little dog Missy got hit by a car, and when I tried to pick her up, she bit me. I have stitches, a giant bandage and a lot of pain. And, Debbie says I have to stay inside and take it easy. So, I won't be taking any orders this week. We will be down at the market, so come on down and pick up some goodies.

I'm sending this out early just to let everyone know.

This years garden plan is taking a little bit more time to complete. The reason for it is having to consider the the drip system and how it has boosted my production.

I did expect to have a reasonable production boost but I feel it exceeded my expectations immensely. It is nice to know that I have not tapped out the production capacity of the garden.

My garden plans of the past have used extra beds of veggies to increase quantities. This was when I only hose end watered. This time period of the garden I had learned by trial and pure accident that there were some crops that can become full season crops with extra care. A short list of these would be determinate toms, summer squash, butternut squash, pumpkins and cucumbers. I used to think that to continue season long harvests for these crops, I needed to plan for these crops to have successive plantings . Successions take added bed space and time for the crops to mature.

Different things happened and I noticed that these crops could be full season crops and get repeated blooms off of mature plants. It is a lot easier to use existing plant material than to completely regrow from seed. So I adapted watering techniques to encourage this.

In years past the pumpkins and butternuts would die back to finish ripening the fruit and then would put on new growth and provide a second harvest.

This year for all five of these crops, because of the drip system, never stopped blooming and there was a continual cropping until I realized I was at my limits for storage. This is only a problem with the pumpkins and butternuts because of limited storage space. Toms, cukes and summer squash are perishable and are sold weekly or are preserved by one method or another. The canned goods are then stored for latter sales.

My plans are to plant one bed of butternuts and one bed of acorn squash. Because I have been unable to sell pumpkins except during the fall, I will discontinue them. My storage space is limited and I like to sell inventory as opposed to holding it until there is a demand. The one bed each of the above mentioned squash may need to be adjusted in the future depending on how productive they are.

For my cukes and tomatoes I really did not get to see their full blown production potential because both of these crops had other issues. The cukes and one of the tom beds had root knot nematodes. One of the other tom beds also got what I feel was yellow curling disease and they just faded away. I did have one tom bed that did well. Production for this bed was very tolerable and we did have enough toms to preserve from all three beds, so I will keep these number of beds (3 tomato and 1 cuke) . Maybe revisit this plan next fall.

Soooo, If my garden plan finds itself inadequate I can always plant a succession or make adjustments in next years garden plan. It is looking like that I will have four beds open during May and June. This is significant in the fact that I will plan for my 4 worst root knot nematode beds to be solarized. This will be a good thing. I hope to regularly schedule beds to be solarized. Solarizing will also help control any other pathogens that may be harboring in the beds. It is one of the neat tools that comes with my garden planner program, it keeps track of how frequently I am planting similar veggies in the same bed.

It is good to have a 3 year rotation before replanting a bed with a similar plant family. A short list of plants that are either related or have similar pests would be beets, chard an spinach but the real hard group to plan for are the eggplant, tom, potato, chile, bell pepper, jalapeno and sweet potato group. Many in this second group have multiple beds and with only 31 beds to rotate these around in makes it very difficult to not replant with a similar plant every 3 years. I am hoping solarization will help with this.

Oh yes it would be such an easy process if all there was to do is just bury seeds in the ground. It is nice though that with some planning I can do some major organic control on a yearly basis. I do wish the garden plan I use had a icon for bed solarization. This would be a very useful prompt.

The garden plan I use has some cheesy graphics but is very good to show you how the garden planting proceeds through the year. It is offered by Mother Earth News and here is the link

http://gardenplanner.motherearthnews.com/gardenplanner/gardenplanner.html

it does offer a trial period and has a $25 dollar a year fee. It sure beats having paper copies laying around and then trying to find them to plan your next garden.

It will be interesting to see how next years garden plan works. The drip has been a major game changer and it may take a few years of trial and error to figure out garden plans. Never a dull moment!

Something that may be of interest to folks will be held at CDRI on the 23^rd of October. I have been invited to talk about row covers and garden tasks.

Writer: Steve Byrns, 325-653-4576, s-byrns@tamu.edu

Contacts: Jesse Lea Schneider, 432-295-0342, jlschneider@ag.tamu.edu

Logan Boswell, 432-249-0265, l-boswell@tamu.edu

 

FORT DAVIS – The Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service offices in Presidio and Brewster/Jeff Davis counties and the Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center are collaborating on a Nature Appreciation Workshop set from 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Oct. 23 at the nature center located at 43869 State Highway 118 at Fort Davis.

“This is going to be a goody,” said Jesse Lea Schneider, AgriLife Extension agent in Presidio County. “If being in the Davis Mountains during the fall doesn’t make you really appreciate nature, then gosh, I just don’t know what will.

“To optimize this high country fall experience, we’ve tailored this program to be as meaningful as possible by putting together quite a potpourri of topics that should pique just about any nature afficionado’s interest.”

The morning session’s first topics will include talks on pollinators and butterfly gardening.

Following a 10:20 a.m. break, workshop participants will embark on a 30-minute walking tour of the center before returning for a live demonstration featuring cooking with native plants, according to Schneider.

Schneider said participants are encouraged to bring a sack lunch and enjoy the beauty of the nature center’s grounds during the noon-1:15 p.m. lunch break.

Afternoon topics will include talks and demonstrations on Gardening with Row Covers, Fall Garden Tasks, Using Gray Water, Getting to Know Your Soil, and Geology of the Davis Mountains.

Individual registration is $10 due upon arrival.

RSVP by Oct. 20 to Schneider at 432-295-0342, jlschneider@ag.tamu.edu, or Logan Boswell, AgriLife Extension agent in Brewster/Jeff Davis counties, at 432-249-0265, l-boswell@tamu.edu .

Potential convection freeze

A strong cold front is predicted to move into the Big Bend on Monday along with strong winds like on Sunday. Mondays over night low is predicted to be 41. If Tuesday morning is dead calm there is a very good chance of a convection freeze. It would be prudent to cover any veggies and tender plants and weight the covers down with rocks due to the wind.   Good luck!!!  mark

october 9, 2014

Good morning, I was thinking what with the cloudy days and all the rain of late that I was getting a bit behind on my fall transition schedule. So I decided to see where I stood. Just to make sure I had a complete list of fall veggies I decided to look through my Johnny's Seed catalog and write down all of my fall / winter veggies and then checked them off as to whether I had planted them.

It has been slow work in the garden and I do not think I would not be as far along if I used a rototiller. Rototillers and wet soils do not mix. They make the soil clod up and very difficult to rake out. I have come to find turning soil with a shovel and using a scrapper to clean the shovel blade, I can work wetter soils and not destroy the soil texture. So only a day or two after some of our heavy rains and I was able to turn composted beds.

It really was a wonderful surprise to find how well I was on schedule. Save for some broccoli raab that got devoured by pill bugs, the cabbage seed that got dug up by harvester ants and hauled back to their nest, and the boc choy that needed to be resown because of dampening off disease, I am sitting pretty peachy. The late broccoli raab, kohlrabi, broccoli, chard, kale, spinach, parsnips, lettuce, cauliflower... are either up and growing nicely or are just about ready to be transplanted. What a nice feeling. I will start my transplanting any day.

I think what made me feel I was not well situated is all the summer veggies that are still tooling right along. The summer squash got covered with powdery mildew. They stopped blooming so I pulled them out. The drier weather of late has helped with the sweets harvest. It really has turned out to be a decent harvest even though I had some bad root knot nematode areas in my sweet beds. The last bed I have been harvesting about 8 pounds for every linear foot of bed. Here again I think the drip system is the culprit. The best I have ever done is 4 or 5 pounds per foot. The root knot beds were closer to 3 pounds per foot. The eggplants recuperated very nicely from the grasshoppers that just about nailed them. Their foliage is looking real nice and are blooming again. This is their fourth flush of blooms. I have one bed of toms that is doing well the other two are not doing so well. One of these two is the results of root knot nematodes and the other is still a puzzle. I am suspecting western yellow curling disease and was contracted from white flies last spring. The decline started with the toms that were not very well covered. But my long keeper toms are doing quite nicely so tomatoes will keep coming. Long keepers have yellow skins and red interiors. They also have firmer flesh and I have had them stay good in a cool dark room for 2 to 3 months. Truly a long keeper.

The progression from summer veggies to winter veggies is coming along quite nicely. As always I hope the transition continues without veggie interruptions. It is a nice time of year and it is also nice to know I am not behind too.

Something that may be of interest to folks will be held at CDRI on the 23^rd of October. I have been invited to talk about row covers and garden tasks.

Writer: Steve Byrns, 325-653-4576, s-byrns@tamu.edu

Contacts: Jesse Lea Schneider, 432-295-0342, jlschneider@ag.tamu.edu

Logan Boswell, 432-249-0265, l-boswell@tamu.edu

 
FORT DAVIS – The Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service offices in Presidio and Brewster/Jeff Davis counties and the Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center are collaborating on a Nature Appreciation Workshop set from 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Oct. 23 at the nature center located at 43869 State Highway 118 at Fort Davis.

“This is going to be a goody,” said Jesse Lea Schneider, AgriLife Extension agent in Presidio County. “If being in the Davis Mountains during the fall doesn’t make you really appreciate nature, then gosh, I just don’t know what will.

“To optimize this high country fall experience, we’ve tailored this program to be as meaningful as possible by putting together quite a potpourri of topics that should pique just about any nature afficionado’s interest.”

The morning session’s first topics will include talks on pollinators and butterfly gardening.

Following a 10:20 a.m. break, workshop participants will embark on a 30-minute walking tour of the center before returning for a live demonstration featuring cooking with native plants, according to Schneider.

Schneider said participants are encouraged to bring a sack lunch and enjoy the beauty of the nature center’s grounds during the noon-1:15 p.m. lunch break.

Afternoon topics will include talks and demonstrations on Gardening with Row Covers, Fall Garden Tasks, Using Gray Water, Getting to Know Your Soil, and Geology of the Davis Mountains.

Individual registration is $10 due upon arrival.

RSVP by Oct. 20 to Schneider at 432-295-0342, jlschneider@ag.tamu.edu, or Logan Boswell, AgriLife Extension agent in Brewster/Jeff Davis counties, at 432-249-0265, l-boswell@tamu.edu .