July 30, 2015

Good morning, Boy Howdy!!! if you haven’t been to market lately, I suggest you come down. The last three weeks of July has been it has hit critical mass and has been a real happening place.

It seems like every week we are getting new vendors and the patron attendance is way up too. The Market opens at 9 AM and it is a steady stream of folks all the way up to closing at noon. It is sooooo cool how we now have 4 vendors that are growing veggies. This has made it so we do not sell out of veggies in the first hour. This is AWESOME.!!! Imagine a farmers' market that has plenty of veggies. I like it!!!

This past week end was Viva Big Bend and the market lived up to the expectations from years past numbers for market visitors.

It also is real cool how Tom Curry got a bunch of friends to drop by the market and jam. The live music was to die for. Having music at market really does add a hole new dimension to the market. It invites folks to just come and hang out.

Deb and I have been doing the farmers market since 2004 and it is soooo cool to see the vision of a fun robust and growing market come true. This “train” has been a long time coming!!!! It is like we are all one huge family. I like it!!!

Last week before we cleaned up the back part of the court yard, we filled up the court yard with vendors and the place looked a bit crowded. There was around 20 vendors. This week we added another canopy on the east side of the market and it made for a ton of extra space for vendors. Last count on Saturday we had 27 vendors with room for more!! I look forward to getting all the spaces in the courtyard filled so that when we make the move and close off east Murphy Street there are several vendors out front.

These are exciting times!!!

The cucurbits are hanging in there. I had ordered some of the Pyganic pyrethrin spray and it just was not coming. So I went back to the order receipt to see what was up. Well hidden under the order status , I might say in very small obscure letters was a link to click where it said back ordered in large letters with no time given when it would be shipped. Their price (which may be why it is back ordered) was too good to pass up. So I went to Johnny's and ordered it. I will ,eventually, have two bottles of the stuff and hope it lives up to its billing. Really do not need hype. The cloud of cucumber beetles grow and they are moving into less desirable munching. Patience.

Even with the hoard of beetles the garden is producing quite well. I did dig up a sweet that looked like the ground was beginning to crack from tubers expansion. When I harvested them, they were much smaller than what I had hoped for. I may try part of the bed towards the back and see if that makes a deference.

Welllll what with the surplus of veggies especially the toms I am adding two items to the canned good offerings. The first offering is a salsa. I think it has a pretty good balance of heat to flavor but then again it has been said my tastes are suspect. I stand by it tastes pretty good. Secondly I have canned tomatoes. These are organic culture toms with no salt added to the processing. Salt (sodium) free is difficult to find on the open market.

Lastly it was a wonderful surprise to get .37 in the rain gauge during the early ours of the morn and it was equally surprising to get another .32 in the afternoon. I went ahead and watered none the less and feel I got some real nice deep watering for the roots. Sigh life is good!

July 27, 2015

 

Once the critter is ID’d and you know its life history you will find out how quickly it can reproduce. This can give you a clue as to how quickly you need to respond. Spider mites are tiny little guys that like to suck the fluids out of plants. An ID book shows a picture (of a spider mite) that is roughly 3/16 of an inch in size ( 1 /16 of an inch is one inch broken into 16 equal parts) and by the picture it states that the 3/16 inch picture is 10 times the actual size. These guys are miniscule. Spider mites do not like water and spraying the foliage with water can help control them, careful you can drown your plants.  Spider mites are a very formative predator. Their reproduction capabilities: 60 degrees, egg to adult is 30 days. This would provide a bit of a buffer to get them under control. At 90 degrees the egg to adult period is a mere 3.5 days. If you know that you have a spider mite problem at this time, most likely there is nothing you can do. Signs of spider mites are leaves that are dull in color with lighter spots on the leaves, a general dull desiccated look. As the population increases webbing shows on the leaves, hence their name sake. Spider mites colonize the tops of plants. The driest location of the plant.

Plant predation can happen quickly.

Your bug is ID’d and you have learned all you can about it, you are ready to control them. I must emphasize Control. Control is what it imply s, one does not want to eradicate ALL of your would be diners. If you did then there would be nothing for the beneficial insects to be attracted to your garden.

Most of the following defenses should be in affect before the diner guests arrive. These have the potential of alleviating or even preventing an outbreak.

First line of defense: create a very diverse environment in your garden. This could be just a wide variety of veggies, collection of flowering herbs or even a wild flower garden to draw in predator Predators. Has a nice ring to it.

Secondly: exclusion is the least lethal but also one of the most affective controls. If a critter can't get to it, it won't be eaten. I must relate a grasshopper story. The outbreak of 2004 there were so many that they were literally eating through the fabric. This was a very hopeless situation. This is why you need many different approaches to your control practices! Control solution later.

Thirdly: hand control, not for the squeamish but very affective. At least you have 100 percent certainty that that bug will not see your garden ever again. For small gardens this may be the only control that is needed. It becomes more difficult when a garden has several hundred plants.

Fourthly: repellents, can move would be diners out of the garden. This could be a garlic spray for flea beetles.

Fifth: Traps can be effective but they must be monitored daily. A trap can be as simple as a board in the garden to lure pill bugs, squash bugs or any pest that likes to hide in the day. Lift the board in the morning and pour boiling water on these guys. Organic control can be ruthless.

Sixth: fowl, will clean a buffer around your garden, but be very  very  very careful if they enter the garden proper!!! They will thrash anything green!!!.It was my guinea fowl that finally brought the grasshoppers that ate their way through my fabric under control. They are awesome!!

Lastly one would move onto sprays. One has to be very careful because YOU can very easily destroy all of your patiently created biodiversity in one swoop.

There are a number of Organic pesticides on the market. Not screaming but being very adamant!. JUST BECAUSE THE SPRAY IS ORGANIC APPROVED DOES NOT MEAN IT CAN NOT BE DETRIMENTAL TO HUMANS TOO!

That said one must research their pesticide use. READ THE LABEL! Be careful of over spray onto non target areas, wear appropriate attire, use proper timing and follow up spraying.

I have said on many occasions that I am a reluctant sprayer. But sometimes push comes to shove. I will list some of the sprays I have used and the results I have achieved with them. Johnny's Selected Seeds, Peaceful Valley Farm Supply and most other seed houses sell organic pesticides.

I have used soap spray. A very effective spray on aphids and spider mites along with most other soft bodied pest, but a huge drawback of soap spray is that not only is it a broad spectrum pesticide but also it causes a photo and phyto toxicity to your pants. Simply it burns the foliage even if it is washed off after a few minutes. It must be noted the only killing power is right at the time of spraying, no residual affect.

Bt, Bacillus thuringiensis is very effective on caterpillars. It can kill any of the Lepidoptera family (moths and butterflies). This is where it is EXTREMELY important to know your target and be very careful with over spray. This will kill non targets just as easy. One must be very careful of over using Bt because it can cause insects to build up an immunity to it. Bt works on contact but also can be ingested.

Clarified hydrophobic neem oil is very good for aphids and spider mites. This is a neem oil that has had most of the growth hormones removed and is just a contact pesticide like soap sprays. It does have a smell to it that works as a repellent too. There is no residual affect from clarified neem oil.

Probably my biggest cannon in my arsenal is Cold Pressed Neem oil. A very impressive pesticide! I have not found any scientific data showing any contradictory info on cold pressed neem. Neem has been used in India for a very long time and India seems to be thriving. It is used for hair wash, gingivitis, along with other hygiene uses. Dosages would be small but none the less, it is not the same as spraying yourself with DDT to remove body lice.

Cold pressed neem, other than its oil properties, does not kill on contact. The oil suffocates the pest. Care must be taken that there are no beneficial insects around when it is sprayed. This contact property of the oil WILL kill lady bugs and honey bees as well. The best time to spray is in the evening.

Growth hormones within the neem once eaten, cause the pest to either stop feeding and / or stop molting. Death is certain but not directly from the neem. It is for this reason that insects have not been able to build up a resistance to neem oil. It is affective on over 100 garden pests. The oil does exhibit systemic properties and is taken up by the plant roots. There is a neem oil smell that has repelling properties too. Used as a foliar spray, it breaks down in 8 hours of sunlight. As a systemic there is a 14 day period that it remains active within the plant. Do not expose freshly sprayed foliage to sunlight it WILL burn the plants.

 For me this is a last resort remedy. Whenever a pesticide is used there usually are secondary casualties that may not be evident right away.

 Those hormones removed from Clarified hydrophobic neem, are sold on the market in concentrated forms. Like so many things I feel that the whole of something is much more than the parts. Take the simple tomato, grown in the ground taking up all those soil goodies coupled with warmth and sunshine and then bite into a vine ripe tomato it is a bit of ecstasy. On the other hand take a hydroponic grown tomato that is “getting all it needs” with a chemical solution of NPK. Granted there is warmth and sunshine too but there just is not that same moment of bliss when you bite into a hothouse tomato. The whole is greater than the parts!!

 I still search for scientific data against Cold Pressed Neem Oil. I may not be asking the right questions!

If the neem oil container Does Not specifically say “Cold Pressed Neem Oil”, it is Clarified Hydrophobic Neem Oil, the refined one without the hormones.

One last important note: if the veggies need to have insects washed off at preparation time, this is not a bad thing. This could be considered as a proof of purchase sticker. If insects can eat the veggie and not die, it can be consumed by humans!!

 

 

July 23, 2015

Good morning, Yes I have been moaning and groaning about the bugs this year. It has been an intense one. I have noticed with the cucumber beetles that they disappear the day after spraying but the next day they are back just has intense. I think the neem oil smell may be a repellant until it is neutralized by the sun.

Soooooo it was back to the drawing board. Web searches and looking through the Johnny's Seed catalog, I feel I may have found something that may work. I have it ordered and should be here by the weekend. What I am going to give a whirl is called Pyganic. It is a pyrethrin based pesticide, derived from the pyrethrum flower. It is organic approved. Best of all there is no withholding of the fruit. It is supposed to have rapid knockdown. We will soon find out.

In an earlier email I had noted how I was going to give Actinovate a whirl with powdery mildew. I had purchased it to stop dampening off of seedlings on my light table. After one use the mold on the walls of my seedling trays was gone over night. Why I did not equate using it on powdery mildew is beyond me. I may be slow but I usually do arrive.

I did have the chance to use it on some mildew that I found on my butternuts. Finding mildew on the butternuts first was also a puzzle, it usually forms on yellow crooknecks first. I made one spraying and 90% vanished. I have made a second spraying and patiently wait to see the results.

I am impressed with these results, because in years past baking soda sprays and oil sprays just seem to slow the spread. This stuff seems to have killed it and cleaned the leaves of any presence.

In normal years I find that powdery mildew raises its ugly head around the middle of August. Two things happen at that time. We have cool humid nights with warm humid days. The perfect recipe. Another “usual” with powdery mildew is that it forms mostly on the cucurbit family (cucumber, melons,squash...), but last year I had it on the toms and peppers too. The Actinovate will be a well received tool. Besides using the baking soda and oil sprays I would clip off the leaves to deposit in a trashcan to rot, thinking the composting might kill the spores. Nope! This can was very near to the butternut bed, and more than likely the cause of the infection. It got Actinovated as I sprayed the bed. I some times can be my own worst enemy.

I hope that once I can spray the cucumber beetles that my cucumber and summer squash vines make a come back. I did reseed some summer squash. This will be interesting because they will be coming on line very early fall. Cool nights and hot days are not the best for squash production. This has been a very weird year so why not do something weird.

Save for the cukes and summer squash the garden is doing well. I am patiently waiting for the peppers to start ripening in earnest. The beans have slowed but they may be good for the year with more modest harvests. Save for those darn spotted and striped beetles things are pretty good.

July 20. 2015

A recent question is "why my spinach seedling only get so tall then disappear".

 

I have experienced this with several seedlings also. The strange thing I discovered this bug on my Boc Choy roots that I had brought into the house to clean for dinner. An odd response from Deb when she was going to wipe some soil off of the stove when she realized it was crawling, got my curiosity. Luckily Deb is not timid. I sprayed neem oil that I used as a soil drench. It didn't touch them. Although I did not see them adversely affecting the boc choy, I was concerned. 

 

It wasn't until I noticed these same critters wreaking havoc on my carrot, radish, spinach, and beet seedlings that they really got my attention. There were hundreds if not thousands of them. I could not ID them but they looked like they belonged to the Lepidoptera family. My best shot, so I brought out the Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) [a bacterium that is highly effective against moths and butterflies] and soil drenched them. Not all butterflies are adorable Monarchs. This  took care of them.

 

So if you are having this problem look very close in the soil around your seedlings and this may be your problem. They are very dirt colored and you need to watch for motion. It may take some patience.

 

On a lighter note I am having a bumper crop harvest of Sun Cokes or sometimes called Jerusalem artichokes. They are neither an artichoke or from Jerusalem.  They are the root of a North American sun flower. Very productive (35 pound from 6 feet). I should be harvesting them for a while.

 

One may ask “sun choke?”.  These are tasty little roots that can be boiled and mashed like smashed potatoes, chopped and cooked for a hash, roasted with other veggies, eaten raw or use them as a substitute for water chestnuts.

 

To the untrained eye they can be confused with ginger which also is a root. Oh how I wish I were that good to have this kind of harvest with ginger, ohhh maybe someday!

 

Yes the feel of spring is in the air. I have heard the Curved bill thrasher’s in spring chorus along with the cactus wrens doing their so familiar rattle. So spring planting is on the way. Of course all the fabric is out and ready for those chilly nights to come. I had some setbacks with my early tomato seedlings but I should be good to go by the first of March. 

 

Transplanted my bulb onion seedlings and I must say they are some very nice transplants.

 

The recent sunny weather has the peas blooming, beets and cabbages are sizing up, new seedlings of carrots, green onions, beets and radishes are up.

 

What a lovely time of year before our usual spring weather kicks into gear.  Happy gardening.

 

 

 

 

It sometimes is considered that if you grow organic that you are at the mercy of the elements. Veggies are scrawny, undernourished, bug ridden and generally unsellable. I can say from over several decades (since the 70’s) of organic gardening that none of these descriptions of organic gardening are true.

 

I will terminate a crop before I resort to ANY nonorganic practice.  There are a number of steps to proceed through in order to protect your garden from pests. Last Earth Day I printed out a cheat sheet that went through these steps. I am going to break this list into segments and reprint in this column. There will be four articles.

Organic pest control requires many fronts to achieve success. The very most important is soil fertility. Unhealthy plants from malnutrition will not be able to fend off any pest attach. Fend off means that it can outgrow any predation. “Feeding the soil and the soil feeds the plants”, THIS is the focus of organic culture, unlike traditional agriculture where everything is supplied with a complete fertilizer “pill”. The long term problem with traditional agriculture is soil fertility depletion which leaves the plants to fend for themselves as they might!

Building soil fertility is the long term requirement for organic culture. It is done by adding compost, green manures, cover crops, turning under the residuals of a crop or even just as simple as crop rotations. The idea is to build organic matter within the plant bed. Compost is an amazing substance that has been broken down by bacteria, fungus, and microbes. Compost can inoculate the garden with these pathogen fighting bacteria, microbes and fungus when it is added to the garden soil. The stuff is literally alive and always gives the garden a positive boost.

When you plant a “veritable dinner plate” for the world, even if you do not want them, guests will come. Once you notice “dinner guests” it pays to identify them and learn what you can about your “guests”. The idea is to find their weakest link.

This is why pest ID is so important. Most folks have hover flies in their garden and see them hovering about. The adults are pollinators but their young are a different story. The traditional name for fly larvae is maggots. This has a tendency to drive the YUCK factor. Hover fly maggots are incredible devourers of aphids and crawl around on the under sides of leaves (first thought they are bad guys) where the aphids are. Oblivious killing will help the aphids into a position of domination. They are not as attractive as a “lady bug” kind of friend but worth their weight in gold, that biodiversity thingy.

Determining whether the damage is cosmetic or detrimental (personal decision) is important. Cosmetic (no action needed) may be some chewing on leaves, whereas detrimental (immediate action) may be girdling of young seedlings by cut worms.

 

July 16, 2015

Good morning, last year I noticed that the drip system was boosting my harvests over hose end watering. I knew that I would need to make planting adjustments but I really wanted to have a whole year to base the changes on.

I will more than likely plant the same total of beds to each crop, they just won't be as densely planted.

In some cases this density thingy might make it easier to harvest. It can be frustrating to pick a 45 foot long bean bed that is spaced 6 inch by 6 inch. I am thinking of going to 12” by 6” instead. Then I will have to note if this really is a 50% drop in production or if the bean plants will be bigger and the harvest remains the same. This will be interesting.

One crop that is for certain to be reduced is the cucumber bed. Two rows spaced 1 foot by 1 foot is driving me crazy. Close to 30 pounds of cukes each week and some times closer to 40. The cukes will be reduced to 1 row spaced 1 foot apart within the row. Similarly with the summer squash but I will favor the crooknecks. Instead of 2 rows spaced 18 inches apart and 18 inches within the row to just one row spaced to 18 inches within the row.

As each of the crops come into full production their planting for next year will be evaluated.

I will be interested to see how okra does. Like last year I planted 3 beds. Each bed has 2 rows 18” apart and in row spacing of 1 foot. All three beds are in production now and this past weekend was the first time that we brought some home from market. This is not a problem because we will pickle them ( there have been numerous requests for them in the pickled form) .

It never ceases to amaze me but each of the previous years going back to 2004 have been more productive than the year before and this year is no different. What I am realizing is that my 6000 square feet of cultivated space is more productive than what I have market for. Presently I have four beds that are fallow that were planted last year. Since the crops matured, I am finding that I have more than enough produce to fill my present demand. I have always thought that my restraint was square footage and that I was near capacity for production. The drip system has made all the difference. I have a lot of room for growth!

This is all to be noted that I still have root knot nematodes, and cucumber beetles that are about to drive me to distraction; and the garden is still out producing. I feel that I do have the squash bugs and the grasshoppers under control. I have gone to spraying every other night, maybe the cucumber beetles attach has leveled off. I t will take a week or too to tell.

Yes it is always good to have a project to work on.

I plan to take a look at the sweets around the first of August to see if they can be harvested. Chile's have recovered from the aphids earlier and I may be harvesting them for market. The habanero peppers are loaded with green peppers. Did have some lettuce but appears that a rodent got into it and worked them over pretty good. What with harvesting, putting food by, watering, and trying to stay ahead of the bugs, it just is not a priority. Once the “noise “ quiets down then maybe.

July13, 2015

Ooops almost forgot. I am posting the first two columns that I saved. I will continue with 2 until I get caught up to the present. Hope these are helpful.  mark

A recent question is "why my spinach seedling only get so tall then disappear".

I have experienced this with several seedlings also. The strange thing I discovered this bug on my Boc Choy roots that I had brought into the house to clean for dinner. An odd response from Deb when she was going to wipe some soil off of the stove when she realized it was crawling, got my curiosity. Luckily Deb is not timid. I sprayed neem oil that I used as a soil drench. It didn't touch them. Although I did not see them adversely affecting the boc choy, I was concerned. 

 It wasn't until I noticed these same critters wreaking havoc on my carrot, radish, spinach, and beet seedlings that they really got my attention. There were hundreds if not thousands of them. I could not ID them but they looked like they belonged to the Lepidoptera family. My best shot, so I brought out the Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) [a bacterium that is highly effective against moths and butterflies] and soil drenched them. Not all butterflies are adorable Monarchs. This  took care of them.

So if you are having this problem look very close in the soil around your seedlings and this may be your problem. They are very dirt colored and you need to watch for motion. It may take some patience.

 On a lighter note I am having a bumper crop harvest of Sun Cokes or sometimes called Jerusalem artichokes. They are neither an artichoke or from Jerusalem.  They are the root of a North American sun flower. Very productive (35 pound from 6 feet). I should be harvesting them for a while.

 One may ask “sun choke?”.  These are tasty little roots that can be boiled and mashed like smashed potatoes, chopped and cooked for a hash, roasted with other veggies, eaten raw or use them as a substitute for water chestnuts.

 To the untrained eye they can be confused with ginger which also is a root. Oh how I wish I were that good to have this kind of harvest with ginger, ohhh maybe someday!

 Yes the feel of spring is in the air. I have heard the Curved bill thrasher’s in spring chorus along with the cactus wrens doing their so familiar rattle. So spring planting is on the way. Of course all the fabric is out and ready for those chilly nights to come. I had some setbacks with my early tomato seedlings but I should be good to go by the first of March. 

 Transplanted my bulb onion seedlings and I must say they are some very nice transplants.

 The recent sunny weather has the peas blooming, beets and cabbages are sizing up, new seedlings of carrots, green onions, beets and radishes are up.

 What a lovely time of year before our usual spring weather kicks into gear.  Happy gardening.

 

This week will highlight some answers to recent questions. These questions are all interconnected.

 A compost heap would not heat up. Ideally to build a compost heap you need to have a 1 part nitrogen (green veggie matter or manure) to 30 parts carbon (any dead plant mater, sticks, paper….)

These are best mixed before making a heap but subsequent turnings will deal with this. Also the smaller and more even sized your compost material is the quicker it will heat up and break down. As you make your layers (a layer is about 3 inches),  I water the layer thoroughly.  Continue making your pile and wetting it as you go. I free form my heaps (a mound) but anything can be used for a compost bin. Chicken wire, hay bales, pallets…. to name a few ways. For a home owner a 4’ X 4’ x 4’ pile is a good size to retain moisture and generate heat.  If your pile is not heating up it is because there is not enough moisture, too much carbon and not enough nitrogen.  Myself I like to go heavy on the nitrogen and this heats things up nicely although the pile will generate an aroma. I like to call it the smell of fertility. It has happened to me but a well-balanced 30 to 1 pile will not smell. If the pile is dry then there needs to be more moisture but do not saturate because this will cause its own problems.

I subscribe to a 14 day compost pile and the pile is turned and moistened as needed. The compost is not totally broke down but is quite usable. Most folks let it go a year and it becomes almost like dirt. Either way is good for plants.

What to do with heavy clay soil and poor drainage? These folks wanted to plant some perennial plants. This added a twist to it the problem. With veggies you could improve drainage easily by adding compost after each crop. It is difficult to dig up a permanent plant to add compost to the root zone. It would be best to dig compost into a bed like area that the plant will be placed.  Transplant the plant at the same level as the prevailing soil level and use any remaining soil from planting to make a water retention berm around your plant. Then place compost over the surface within in the berm (an inch or so and add as the compost decomposes)

 How to prepare your garden for the growing season? In the fall and if you do not intend to have a winter garden, dig in 2 to 3 inches of fresh manure and your garden will be ready for spring planting. NEVER use fresh manure and then plant. This will kill your plantings!! If it is planting time and you have not done the fall manure thingy, you can always use compost. A layer of 2 to 3 inches tilled in should do you quite nicely.

This is the beauty of compost you can use it anytime in the garden with NO ill effects. Happy gardening!!

 

July 9, 2015

A little note before the post. I have been writing weekly columns for a local paper and though I would start posting them next Monday (if I don't forget). It more info on gardening so I feel it is appropriate.  mark

 

Good morning, This year has been a real buggy one. Starting with the caterpillars that ravaged my winter seed beds all the way up to the present with cucumber beetles. Most of the bugs have been relatively easy to control save for the cucumber beetles. They are beginning to get me a bit worried.

In years past I have used cold pressed neem oil and thought it worked rather well. Maybe it was a smaller infestation and the oil properties of the neem oil suffocated them. This year it is like they give me an obscene gesture after spraying them with the cold pressed and continue eating away. I used spinosad once on the cukes and the butternut squash but I have a huge reluctance. This is because the spray directions are to wait 1 day to harvest for cucumbers and 3 for the other cucurbits. Just having to hold gives me pause, because how safe can it be. Another reason is, it appears insects can build immunity to the stuff fairly quickly and suggest not to use spinosad more than a few times a year. And the last big reason is after 3 days of no harvest in the summer squash the squash would be huge. Chickens say yum!!!

The spinosad slowed them down but in quick haste were back to pre-spray levels. I do not think a few spraying s would control these guys. Besides after one day of no harvest, I had small logs that I could either cut into lumber or build a raft. So I do not think spinosad will become a permanent part of my pest arsenal.

A web search mentions a number of cultural controls. These all sound good but they would be most affective before the cucumber beetles population are what they are in the garden. The cultural controls are a trap crop, spraying the leaves with surround (kaolin clay), Sticky yellow tape with cucumber beetle attractant, vacuuming or netting the beetles and the use of row covers.

Of these cultural controls I do the row covers. Exclusion is probably the best “pesticide” and is very effective on most crops. The cucurbit family adds a twist, they need to be pollinated by hand or bees. In which both cases the covers need to be removed in order to be pollinated. Needless to say the beetles say “coooool”. I had some cosmetic clay (made from kaolin) and spayed my cucumber vines. This is to supposedly make it less palatable to the bugs. I do not think it would hurt, will evaluate. Did spray didn't work

With a trap crop, the use of spinosad or any other wait to harvest sprays would not be a problem because this crop would be the “sacrificial lamb” so to speak and would not be harvested. At this time it would be like putting the cart before the horse.

Sticky yellow tape and trapping would help but I am looking for something to give me a little advantage now. There does not seem to be many organic approved sprays for cucumber beetles. Pyrethrin sprays are listed. This is made from a flower and is a very powerful insecticide. It appears to degrade very quickly and there is no holding be fore harvest. I hope to find some in town otherwise to the internet I go. Ah yess just when ya think the learning curve is mellowing along comes the next wake up call. Gotta love a challenge.

I leave the above notes as recorded to relate my thinking process. When I get quite confused and frustrated I revert back to my fail safe position, operator error. What am I doing wrong? This is the easiest thing to change. Once I did this the solution jumped out at me. I checked into back emails written at the time I first started to use cold pressed neem oil, and yes it was a formidable population of cucumber beetles and the neem oil worked spectacularly. What was I doing wrong?

It was simple, taking the advice of the folks that sell me my cold pressed neem oil, I purchased some karanja oil that is supposed to enhance the cold pressed and is also an extender. It is supposed to make a gallon of neem oil go further.

Besides not getting the cucumber beetle knock down, I was also getting foliage burn (I thought this could be due to warm evening temps). Well I decided to skip using the kranja and go straight cold pressed. With one spraying I can see a definite thinning of the horde. I expect one or two more applications and I can calm down. Along with no leaf burn!!Oh yes, breath deep and count to ten works, every time!!!!

The garden is producing beyond my wildest dreams. We are taking a huge abundance to market, sell a whole lot and bring bunches home to process into canned and dried goods. Does make for some long days. I was a bit afraid to cut back on plantings last fall when I did my yearly garden planning, because I did not have a feel for what to cut back to. This fall will be different. The drip is making all the difference in the world.!!

July 2, 2015

Good morning, Deb and I have been doing the farmers market in alpine for quite a few years now. The venue has changed but it always has been an enjoyable event for us. It has been about three years that we have been at our latest venue. Hands down Deb and I think it is the best.

At the previous venues there never was any one person in charge so that important market decisions could be made. So there never was a central focus or  a path forward to grow.

 

Shortly after we had moved to Murphy Street, Deb and I entered into a lease with the owner of the Hotel Ritchie courtyard and then became the managers of the market. We do feel that it takes all of the vendors to make a spectacular market. Yes we are the leaders but are always very interested to hear what anyone has to say. We feel this helps everyone have a vested interest in the operations of the market.

 

One of the things Deb and I felt was very important was to develop a means to make improvements to the market, help pay for advertising, and also to help pay the monthly rent. We settled on an approach to encourage vendors to grow by only requesting a donation of $10 dollars after a vendor has procured $100 dollars in sales. This really has worked exceptionally well. To date we have built a shade structure, purchased several EZ up canopies, sand box with toys,  cloth sign for Saturday display, a yearlong ad in the Alpine Chamber of Commerce magazine and also have been paying a portion of the rent.

 

It is always so rewarding to see donations made knowing that the market is growing and each vendor is growing too.

 

Since moving to Murphy Street one of the things that we have cultivated is helping each other to set up and take down after the market. This helpfulness has really enhanced the “family” feel of the market.  This really showed on a recent Saturday when I was ill and could not make it to market. Everyone pitched in to put up canopies and all the other little things that need doing before our customers began to show. It also was especially nice how folks stuck around to help Deb close the market for the week. This is such joy as to how We All do make the market. It really is a joy!!

We continue to grow. Most weeks we have at least 20 vendors. I think if all of us were to show, we would be zeroing in on 25 to 30 vendors. It is real cool how we are getting more veggie producers. This will help immensely with growing our customer base. We are not selling out of veggies at market within the first hour of market. This is real cool stuff.

 

Recently a customer was wondering what one of our competitors was selling. I did ever so kindly say that they are not competitors but are complementary to what we sell. After all WE are a market.

This is why I really look forward to opening the gate each and every Saturday year round. What Fun!!!

 

The garden continues to mature. I am finally harvesting out of the last okra bed. The first butternuts are ripe. I am curing them and then they will be ready for market. I am starting to get a few chilis and the eggplants are starting to mature.

 

The squash bugs have been beaten back but I still seem to be pestered by cucumber beetles. Just not quite as bad. Started to get “skylights” in the sweet greens and have applied son cold pressed neem oil. Another spraying in a week and hopefully that should take care of the grasshoppers until we start to get regular rain.

 

It is nice to have a mature garden!!