January 24, 2015

Good morning, NOAA is predicting wintry conditions today and until Friday noon as well. There is a 90% chance of snow fall with 2 to 4 inches being a starter. The over night low is predicted to be 19 with a high on Friday around 44. The snow showers are predicted to last until noon Friday. With snow on the ground and a high of 44, there will not be much melting. I have harvested and will take orders for Saturday pick up. Mattie has given us permission to use the Hotel for inclement weather. I am hoping that the roads at least will melt in the afternoon Friday and the market can happen. This has the potential for being a big winter event I suggest if you can hunker down once the snow comes to do so and stay put. We really do not need any one getting hurt over this. Good Luck!! Soon this nonsense will pass and soon April will be here!!!

It happened last year and it is doing it again this year, we get a run of cold weather and the night time temp on the light table drops to 60 /70 instead of 65 /75. I am not getting the dampening off that I got last year when we left the door open to the room with the light table. The temp dropped to 55 /65 and this is prime dampening off temps, instead I am getting zero growth.

Any time that I have a situation that is not performing up to expectations, I always like to fall back to operator error as the cause. My reasoning is that changing cultural practices is easier to do than to say the seed is bad or even that the potting soil is bad.

So I have been studying this problem and reviewing my observations. The facts that I see are; seed germination is very good (around 90 percent), the seedlings after germination are getting a little leggy but actively growing, but when I pot them on all growth stops. Survival has dropped to below 50 percent.

There are some differences with the germination and potting on. Germination is expedited with a heating pad. Where as the potted on plants do not have any heating other than the air temp.

I a m thinking that the night time room temp may be lower than I think. Day time heat is boosted by the lights being on along with the computer. So I am thinking the above temps may be off for the night time. I do not need encouragement to get up early so I will place a thermometer on the light table to see what the minimum temp is at night.

I am thinking that even though the temperature appears to be in a decent range (60/70) that if I could boost this to 65 /75 or even a little warmer, this mortality will diminish.

I plan to get a plant heating mat that will keep the roots 10 to 20 degrees warmer than what they are at present. This I feel will correct this problem. I was reluctant to use one because I thought it might over tax the electric circuit. So I decided to see what a heating pad and a vacuum cleaner would draw. We have used both of these appliances with the light table and computer on. The heating pad is a little lower than the 20 by 48 inch heating mat which would use 100 watts. The heating pad uses 65 and the vacuum cleaner uses 650 so I think we would be OK. I may not be able to purchase one this year but by next seedling season I surely will.

I have noticed that seedlings do better in February than January, because usually February is a warmer month ( that is unless you do not exclude February of 2011, 1.5 degrees and the furnace struggled). It will be interesting to see if this will rectify my plant survival. We can always hope!!

Check out these greens that give kale a run for the money

http://www.alternet.org/food/10-leafy-greens-are-healthier-kale

There a number of veggies that are on hold waiting for continued warmer and sunny weather. I have also noticed there are a couple crop losses for one reason or the other. It has been a bit of a challenging winter. Sadly there will not be broccoli or the early broccoli raab. I am optimistic for a latter crop of broccoli raab. I hope to have cabbages soon along with cauliflower. Jerusalem artichokes are ready but it has been too muddy to lift the roots. Peas are returning to growth and peas can not be too far out along with turnips. Successions of carrots, green onions, lettuce, beets and radishes are doing fine. There still is an abundance of butternuts, pumpkins and some sweet potatoes. I do not anticipate there being any problem of filling orders.

A really nice period of warm sunny weather could really help the garden and so many “quite ready for nicer weather folks”. This will happen soon enough.

January 15, 2015

Good morning, Mother Nature sure does seem to be having a hissy fit here of late. In years past when nasty weather would hit the weekend, at least there would have been an enjoyable week preceding it.

Since before Christmas, it seems like there has been one day a week that has been nice and rest of the week is spent in hunkered down mode.

Well it is about time it looks like this next weekend shall be a pleasant one. I for one am going to enjoy it by being at the market Saturday. I can only imagine that everyone else is biting at the bit to get out on a Saturday. Especially a Saturday where the entire landmass of West Texas is not a huge skating rink.

There was a little bit of freezing rain on Tuesday and Wednesday but will be dry the rest of the week. Maybe the ground will be a little drier and a lot less muddy. Now that statement is really a bit odd to say in West Texas where usually this time of year you might need a dust mask.

This really has the potential to be a real dynamite wild flower year not to mention forage for cattle and wildlife alike. Yes even though it has been a real wild ride from before Christmas to the present, there are things to be thankful for: the winter time precipitation (even though this caused some grief of its own), the upcoming (hopefully not jinxing myself) mild weather weekend, but especially all those line men that got the power back on under such wacked weather conditions.

YESSS grab a friend and come down to market on Saturday. It should be a real good one. I don't get out very much during the week and this has been especially true of late, I think I am needing some domestication /socialization before I really do turn into some feral critter!!!

See you there!!

Today is supposed to be clear and warmer than it has been in quite awhile. I am going to harvest today, but I really am clueless as to what is harvest able. I will list what I think may be ready. If what you order is unavailable I will let you know. It has been a strange winter. Since before Christmas, I think I have been able to spot check the garden maybe 5 or 6 times. It has either been too wet and muddy or frozen solid to the ground. But NOAA and Underground are both saying the rest of January may have above average temps with SUNSHINE!!!!! I for one am more than ready!!! So place your orders and I will see what I can do. It is soooo muddy and the progress will be slow, but for nothing else I want to see how things are out there. It will almost be like visiting some long lost friend.

January 9, 2015

this not does not pertain to gardening but /the Alpine Farmer Market. I f you are a patron please pass this info on. Thank you very much.  mark foster


I send this note out to let all know that the market will be closed due to a sleet/ freezing rain/snow and generally other nasty weather kind of event. the last storm there were a number of patrons that didn't bounce so well on the ice and were on the receiving end of bruises, cracked, and broken bones. We would like everyone to remain warm and safe so that we can enjoy each others company with out too many "war " stories..

This is only the third time we have done this in 10 years.

Please mark on you calendars for next Saturday Low in the forties  highs in sixties partly sunny slight breeze Sooooo put on your party pants and come to market next week. Should be a grand time for all!!!!! 

Janurary 8, 2015

Good morning, I am going to take orders today and I encourage you to place them today. It looks like there could be a chance of wintery weather NOAA has the chances of 20% and 30% chance of rain on Saturday. But Sunday is predicted to be nice. The percentages are low enough that it may not happen and just be cold. This is what I am hoping for. Best guess it will not be a repeat of last weekend. Anyone that orders please keep posted Mother Nature has a way of dictating will happen.

Boy Howdy what a wild ride last week was. I have lived in Alpine since June of 2003 and I do not remember there being such a long period of winter precipitation. I will say by New Years Eve, I was getting a little bit of a caged rat feeling. The nice thing is we did not get any supper extra special cold. Although the cold we got sure was damp and seemed to cut to the bone. Funny how the cold part of this past week was typical winter weather in central Oregon. How soon does the blood thin.

Up until this recent cool down, I did not think I was going to put the temporary greenhouses to a test. I had covered them. I had hoped to keep them on through the winter. Mother nature had other designs and we ended up having some near 80 degree days. I feared that the veggies would be scorched and pulled back the film. Monday a week ago I reinstalled the film under the fabric. I also put another layer of 70 over the existing layer of 70. There was plenty of the lighter fabric to cover the other beds with more layers also. I felt I was ready for what ever came our way with this approaching cold.. Luckily we never dropped into the teens.

It seems the stormy week had a 1, 2 punch. Arctic air came in on Tuesday and really chilled things down. It did provide some winter precip but not a lot. Although it was enough to freeze all the fabric to the ground. Monday night was the last time it was above freezing until Saturday. Then for funnzies on Thursday an upper level Pacific Low moved in with lots of moisture and proceeded to start fattening up the tree branches with ice and thoroughly glazing the ground.

It was nasty enough that Ike, Sally, Deb and I decided that it would be prudent to not have market on Saturday. This is only the second time that the market has been closed due to weather. It was a very wise decision!!!

It looked like the worst was over on Saturday morning until the wind picked up and soon brought down the power lines. I have to say that the AEP line men and all the folks that are helping them are beyond AWSOME. We were very fortunate to have our electricity back on shortly after dark on Saturday. Can't thank them enough!!! So for Saturday instead of hearing our hair grow we got some action packed viewing of ice melting out of the trees. Exciting stuff!!!

Well by afternoon a good portion of the ice on the ground and trees had melted. But now instead of the ice sheet there was probably to my recollection, the biggest mud pie I have had the luck to experience since moving to Alpine. And I wasn't going to see how the garden fared.

Sunday I did manage to gaze under some of the fabric and all looked pretty good. I fear that I may have a bit of an aphid problem in the Asian greens. This is one of the beds that got a little frost bitten from the Christmas week storm.

I finally got to look under all the fabric and all of the beds came through with flying colors. One thing that I have noticed with the fabric slow trickles like melting ice or very light rains have a tendency to wick down the fabric and not go through and water the beds. Soo it is kinda funny that the paths and uncovered beds are still wearing gills but the covered beds are dry!!! Plants that were uncovered are showing the signs of exposed duress.

I send this email out on Thursday morn and NOAA is predicting another chance of wintery precipitation for Friday and keeps himing and hawing about it doing the same on Saturday.

I am going to be optimistic that this weather will not be a “show stoper” event and will take orders this week. Kinda feels like I am flying blind but hey this is agriculture!

Janurary !, 2015

Good morning, Happy New year!!!!

Long range forecasts are showing next week to be getting back towards seasonal temps. We can only hope. As of this morning I have been unable to harvest. One of those rare occurrences. Monday has been the only day this week I could harvest, and I spent it getting the garden prepared for what we are experiencing. It is forecast to finally get above freezing today and to freeze again tonight. But there is more winter precipitation forecast for today also. I hope to harvest this afternoon or tomorrow. The near term forecast keeps changing and wintry prcip has been extended into Saturday. I will not take orders this week because of all this uncertainty. I do plan on having veggies at market. It is forecast to be in the 40's and clearing It will be very very nice to get outside again. I am beginning to feel like a caged rat. I hope to see everyone at market, I am hoping that it will  be a very nice day to visit!!!

It was a couple of years ago that I discovered a new Chili. It really is a unique one. From what I have read it is one of the most popular chili's in Central and South America. It has been cultivated at least since the time of the Inca and maybe longer. There are no known wild species. It is the only one of it's species in the Capsicum genus. There are a number of characteristics that are unique to this chili and its species name notes one of them, pubescens. The leaves and stems are fuzzy, flowers are purple, and the seeds are black. This chili will not cross pollinate with any other chili. Where it grows best, it will take on a tree form, up to 12 feet and live 15 years. The fruit has a similar shape to an apple, hence its name manzano. It comes in three colors: red, orange, and yellow and has a bit of a fruity taste to it. It does not like the heat of the low land tropics and grows best at a higher elevation in the Andes (it prefers the mid to upper 80's). Cool weather does not bother this chili but it will not take a freeze. It is the tastiest chili I have ever eaten.

Having all this information I set out to try and grow this puppy. The first year I tried to grow it out in my vineyard where several grape vines had died from the 2011 drought (full sun all day). I got it to produce all kinds of blossoms but none would ever set. Apparently in West Texas it does not like full sun all day. A lady that I had given some plants to, managed to get her plants to bloom and bear fruit, thus how I learned that I liked them. This ladies plants were growing in the higher elevations south of Alpine.

This past year I put the plant that I managed to over winter from last year out in my front yard. It was well off the ground. I was able to give it only morning and afternoon sun. Mid day sun and heat was remedied with the shade of a mulberry tree. This plant went to blooming quite profusely. Then the chickens and English house sparrows proceeded to puck off all the blooms. After counting to ten many many times, I managed to protect the plant and was rewarded with several chili's before the house sparrows found another way in to the plant.

Next spring I plan to put the plant into an enclosure with rigid wire. I hope this works. I think that other folks would find these guys to be quite tasty too. I intend to have them for market once I have all the logistics worked out. Oh and two last factoids about these guys: a mature plant can produce up to 1000 pounds of chiles ( I do not think I will be able to grow a 12 foot plant). As for heat, it is hotter than a jalapeno but way cooler than our native chiltepin or the infamous habanero. In scoville heat units it is a 12,000 to 30,000. Jalapeno 3500 to 8000, chiltepin 100,000 to 250,000, habanero 200,000 to 350,000.

This puppy makes a killer quesadilla!!

It is no surprise that the garden came through Christmas weeks freeze / snow shower, but I am surprised to see the amount of frost bite scattered in the garden. The mercury dropped to 21 but the damage I am seeing is what I would expect for temps in the teens. This freeze was a associated with one heck of a blow. My broccoli bed was covered with Agribon 70 that was weighted down with 5 to 10 pound rocks spread every 4 feet along the northern edge of the fabric. The day after the storm, a 15 foot section had been lifted up and placed on the south side of the bed. The plants did not look like they were squashed by the rocks and fabric moving over them, they only looked like the wind had pushed them over. The Fabric seemed to have been lifted up and over the plants along with the rocks. Pretty nice gust of wind. Two other beds had some frostbite, my asian greens and beets. There was no damage that couldn't be trimmed off once there gets to be a less windy and warmer day.

We have had a very mellow fall / winter so far, save for a couple recent episodes. A very pleasant thought is, that it is only 7 weeks until the mid February warming starts and spring planting! Let us all hope for a wonderful New Year with a great growing season along with bountiful moisture. No flooding just pleasant. Or at least we can always hope.