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 .