October, 29, 2015

Good morning, critters in the garden has been a constant since I have started the garden. Plant a garden and they will come.

It does seem like there is an escalation of defense mechanisms. We first started with a two foot tall fence to keep rabbits out. Then it progressed to an electric fence to keep the deer out. If we had of had a battery backup system this may have worked. But with two nights in a row the power went off and the deer realized they could jump over. And jump over they did. We found a less expensive deer fence alternative to metal and it has worked quite well for several years now.

When we got chickens there became a need to cross fence with more deer fencing because there were a few good fliers. Soon we discovered there were a few feathered bulldozers and so the bottom was secured. We had one especially good entry artist and she discovered all the chinks in my fence.

Before the garden got of size I used hand picking to control bugs. I think the last time I hand controlled an outbreak in the garden was when we had an invasion of mulberry caterpillars. I had not given them much concern until they denuded our two large mulberry trees and then proceeded towards the garden. They gave me the impression of a huge advancing army with total destruction in their path. This was probably the first time I had used an organic spray. Bt is very effective against caterpillars but I had to order it on line because there was no outlet in Alpine. While waiting for the Bt's arrival I spent some long days hand picking and filling gallon containers of caterpillars. By the time the Bt arrived it merely cleaned up the remainders. A valuable lesson about pest potential. Luckily there have not been those critters again.

Then there was the great grasshopper outbreak and the fortification continued. double layers of fabric on the veggies, a fabric covered fence, ten foot clear zone around the garden, nolo bait, hand picking at night with finally releasing our guinea flock that has controlled the hoppers for several years now. The guineas are now quite geriatric but the chickens seem to be keeping the control.

Then the year after our big drought in 2011, it seems that the squash bugs discovered us. There was enough of them to completely cover pumpkins and not be able to see the pumpkins. Squash bugs are hard to control and with several hundred cucurbit plants, hand picking was merely a dream for control. This is when I discovered cold pressed neem oil. This organic pesticide, that has been used in India for a very long time, was given a trial drive in my garden at the first sight of squash bugs. After three spraying s spaced 7 days apart they were controlled and have not been an epidemic kind of problem since. I may have the need to spray only a few times each year. This oil works well on many feeding insects.

Since the squash bug outbreak I have had some cucumber beetles and the neem oil seemed to control them. Not so this year. I would neem them and they would thank me for the shower and continue with their handy work. I soon found a pyrethrin organic spray that knocked them down to manageable levels.

Then with infinite amazement on my part I left a gate unsecured and a lone javelina found it's way into the garden. Luckily it only browsed on the sweets and rooted in the orchard area. Well this did set up the next step of armoring the garden with a 4 foot wide chicken wire skirting along the outside of the garden. This extends up the deer fence 2 feet and on the ground 2 feet. Along with lots of rocks, I am hoping this takes care of the pigs.

And just as you think the coast is clear, enter stage right a ground squirrel. I have had pocket gophers but they eat roots under ground. This critter has gotten into my sweet beds and eating the tops off of any tuber that projects above the ground. To date I do not know how many pounds it has eaten but 43 pounds have been browsed to severely eaten. Either it has climbed the fence but more likely burrowed into the garden. The cat and I have discussed this job slacking and she says she does pocket gophers and not ground squirrels. I am developing ideas but I sure wish the cat would take on the task.

Oh yes what an interesting journey, I wonder what the next attraction will be.

All I can say is , I sure do like the fabric. Last Saturday night there was a light convection frost and on Sunday night there was a zinger. Everything that was uncovered and under 3 feet got zapped.. There was a little leaf nipping where foliage touched the fabric, other than that everything came through fine.

So there still will be toms, chiles, and eggplants. The tops of the okra are fine but the foliage by the ground is fried. So long to the butternuts, beans and summer squash although I do have a couple zukes that might have a fruit or two to harvest. It was a nice run from the middle of March to the end of October.

October 26, 2015

avalanche column

October 8, 2015

Local veggies are thousands of miles fresher. I read this in a brochure that was promoting eating local. This statement got me to thinking about a recent study about comparing organic veggies to traditional culture veggies. I can’t remember who sponsored the study but it did seem suspect to me. Their finding was that there is no difference. HUH?

They did not disclose who supplied the veggies for the study. If I had to guess it was industrial traditional and industrial organic. Even with refrigeration, Nutrition begins its decline from the day of harvest.  This loss continues all the way to its final destination. These veggies may be many days if not weeks from harvest. Shipping veggies from California to the East Coast and the veggies are only days from harvest are logistically impossible.

What I would have liked to have seen is a study comparing local veggies (organic and traditional culture) to industrial veggies (organic and traditional culture).

I think that local veggies produced by any means are a lot more tasty, nutritious, and healthy than anything that is shipped in on a semi-truck. The time from harvest to consumer is at most only a few days. Most likely these veggies will have been handled more gently. Also most likely the grower knows his customers.

Of course I do not have data to back up this opinion, but there is always the taste test. This test is very easy. Have a friend purchase the same veggies from both of these sources, local and from away. It may be also worth the trouble to have a blind fold on. Sometimes visual can bias your opinion. Smell can too but we won’t go that far. Then as you go through the samples say what you think the veggie source is. My money is on that the local veggies winning the taste test.

One of the big problems with shipped in veggies is that they are bred for shipping and taste is secondary.

A book about the Florida winter tomato harvest made this point clear. The author starts off the book about driving down a rural road in Florida following behind a farm truck that is loaded with something green clean up to its gunwales. I might add both were traveling in excess of 50 MPH when one of the green things falls out and bounces down the road past the author. Curiosity got the better of the author so he stopped to see what it was. Close observation revealed (as the tomato industry calls them) a green ripe? (My question mark) tomato and undamaged!!!. The tomatoes are harvested “green ripe” so that they can be packaged and shipped to their destination where they are then exposed to ethaline gas to give the appearance of being red ripe. One has to be suspect of taste and nutritional value.

Local veggies are 1000’s of miles fresher!!

 

Questions? I can be contacted at markdirtfarmer@gmail.com. Or more garden notes at redwagonfarm.blogsot.com 

October 22, 2015

Good morning, it is so fun to watch the chicks grow up. The store bought chicks are nearly full sized. I notice some of their combs to be brightening. I have found this to be a good indication that a hen is laying. Egg production should be picking up soon.

As for the cider bucket gang, they are about 2/3 the size of mom and mom is tiny. That is if you compare her to a full sized hen. Mom has decided they are old enough to be on their own. This transition was a little more dramatic for these guys than the other babies.

There are at least two roosters in the cider gang. Full sized chickens are hilarious when the roosters start to learn to crow, but bantams are like they are inhaling nitrogen as they learn to crow. Hard not to crack a smile.

The silky mom did a great job raising her babies. I think this is the first bunch of hen raised chicks that the young birds don't freak out and run away when I approach. They are relatively calm around me. Nothing like hand raised chicks. On the other hand the cider gang are scared spit less. I think as much as anything, they are picked on by the full sized hens. I find this true with all the bantams. Such is life with a mixed flock.

It does seem that a lot of the molting is over. Or at least not as big of a feather pillow fight is in the works.

It is really quite hilarious to spy into the various wild bird nests. It is like they are in technicolor. Poka dotted, red, black, yellow, black and white , and white feathers. Quite the impact on bird nest building. At least they are comfy.

The ducks got their own little area in the orchard. We did this for a couple reasons. They really do make a dirty mess of the bird drinking water. So they have their own water. And to boot a pool for them to swim in. We were concerned with the chicken flock having to drink “fowled” water. The chicken water is staying much cleaner now. With corralling the ducks I am hoping it will not be the same Easter egg hunt to find their eggs. Or at least it will be a smaller area to search. Sadly the white guineas do not pal around with the ducks now. But poka dot continues to hang with a barred rock. Gotta love fowl!!! 

The greens harvest is increasing and I soon hope to be listing greens. This could happen next week. The fall tomato harvest is still in full swing and I will continue the 5 plus pounds for $2.00 per pound. Up to 5 pounds will be $4 per pound. While supplies last.

October 18, 2015

avalanche column

October 1, 2015

It seems strange but the end of summer veggies is rapidly coming upon us. This coincides with freezing temperature.

This year has been a very buggy year. It seemed like that no sooner one bug as controlled another bug sticks up its head. 

Once your summer veggies are killed due to frost it is not a time to sit back and relax. It is paramount that all of the debris in your garden is removed.

Any dead material needs to be removed from the garden. This debris is the perfect environment to over winter bugs.

If you have a shredder this would be great to chip up and make compost. If nothing else, just getting it out of the garden will do.

If you do not compost or winter garden, this the prime time to dig in fresh manure, so that you will be ready for next year’s summer garden. This would also be a good time to do any garden expansion so that manure can be added to the new beds. To facilitate incorporating or the removal of vegetation in the new beds, wetting the soil will greatly help with this project.

I like to rake out all my beds so that they are ready for planting.  All of my beds have a berm on the north side. This is because my garden slopes downhill to the north. The berm helps catch any precipitation. It is always nice to see after a frog choking rain standing water in the bed. Within the hour after a heavy rainfall this has all soaked into the bed.

You will appreciate not having to do anything but plant come spring after tucking your garden in for the winter.

If you plan to winter garden you will need to add compost or well-rotted manure. Fresh manure will burn plants and seeds. It would be a bit late to start seeds now for the brassicas (cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower…) so you will need to procure plants. As for radishes, chard, kale, spinach and other greens seeds will work fine. It is also a good time to sow carrots and green onions. I wait to sow peas the middle of October so that they over-winter as seedlings and ready to burst into growth as the weather warms in the spring.  Garlic cloves and bulb onion seed can be sown the first of November. This sowing date insures that onion plants are less than a ¼ inch going through the winter. Any larger and they will bolt come spring instead of bulbing.

I like to cover all my beds with at least two layers of agribon 19 and I also keep some of the heavy stuff (agribon 70 this is mainly for broccoli and cauliflower florets) for the cold spells that are sure to come during the winter. The covers are just a little insurance to help get through the winter

Happy gardening!!!!.

Questions? I can be contacted at markdirtfarmer@gmail.com. Or more garden notes at redwagonfarm.blogsot.com 

October 15, 2015

Good morning, Sometimes my timing can be spot on. Transplanting and seeding just before last weeks rain was one of them. I was hoping the forecast-ed moisture was not another one of those teaser forecasts that slipped off to our North or South. It really did rain!! two and one half inches over 4 days!!! Save for one event it was not a dramatic storm but a lovely quenching one. But that one event had all the sound and electronics plugged in and then proceeded to drop almost an inch in about 20 minutes. The craziest thing it also brought along some hail. This is October ? Right?. It was brief and only pea sized. Once again I am very lucky, I have heard other areas in West Texas got quarter sized and larger that made the ground white. I can handle the heat, cold, rain, dry, wind and most of what ever else mother nature brings us but hail brings a chill to my spine. It all has to do with duration and intensity but it can level anything in a matter of minutes and all you can do is watch. Yesss dodged that bullet!!

This week has ben warm and sunny. What with the recent rains, we could be close to greens season. Only the Brussels sprouts and broccoli raab are small seedlings. It really looks like the transition will work quite well in fact there still are a number summer veggies producing. The second blooming of my toms was perfectly timed and most will ripen this month and not have to be picked green to ripen inside. I hope the only ones that I store will be the long keepers. I have been able to store them up to 2 months and they still are good. I have found that the last ones get a little pruned by the end. If there are no other defects apparent on the toms, these “pruned” toms are just about as good as a fresh picked tom because all the goodies are concentrated inside with less water.

Because of the warm sunny weather a whole lot of toms are ripening. Enough so that we will be running a bulk purchase price. With the purchase of 5 or more pounds they will be $2.00 a pound. Anything less and the price is $4.00 a pound.

My garden is planned for next year. I still have time to add a forth okra bed. I would reserve it for pickled okra. This year pickled okra seems to be as popular as fresh. Okra is not my choice of veggies but it is very popular and I am more than glad to provide it. Okra and sweet potatoes seem to be the best veggies suited for far west Texas. Sure the cucumber beetles chew on the okra leaves and grasshoppers make sky lights in the sweets leaves but these bugs just do not seem to phase these veggies.

I started harvesting one of the sweet beds that I used the unrooted cuttings and I am very pleased with the quantities. Three linear feet yielded around 23 pounds or 7 pounds per linear foot. This bed and the last bed were planted after the weather got hot. I am wondering if the cool spring may have affected the early sweets. Granted I started harvesting earlier but both of these two beds yielded around 2 pounds per foot. Also the first two beds had some of the sets died. Usually this causes the plants around the hole to be 3 to 4 pound lunkers. This was not the case. This observation adds to my thoughts that the cool spring may have permanently affected the sweets adversely. None the less it is looking like a good over all harvest. I hope to have sweets into January.

On Wednesday I harvested an assortment of small quantities of greens. Bags will have more in the way of greens this week. This also does depend on the number of orders too. Most of the greens are small plants that were raised for transplants. I transplanted just before last weeks rains and found myself with lots of little plants that I needed to thin out so the dominant plant can grow. For a number of years I have cut and bundled single leaves in bunches. This has been mainly chard, kale, and the Asian greens. A few years back I started doing the same with spinach. The reason I started doing this is that I have found it is a lot easier for a plant to regrow a leaf in the dead of winter as opposed to me starting a whole new plant. Spinach traditionally is a harvested plant. When I started doing this, I was able to provide a more reliable supply of spinach. I started doing the same with green onions and will again if I can figure out what is munching the seedlings as they germinate. Using the same logic with boc choy, another one of those traditional harvest as a plant, I will go to a leaf harvest this year. Boc choy is a popular green and when I grow for plant harvest getting succession crops seeded can be tricky during the winter. This is especially tricky from the middle of November to the middle of February, our usual coldest months. I hope this works out.

A list of the the greens I harvested are Kale, Chard, Asian greens, Kohlrabi, and Boc Choy. Normally Kohlrabi is harvested for its bulb but these are tender little plants. I looked under the spinach covers and it looks like I should begin its harvest next week. The broccoli raab is a long ways out. I hope to be harvesting carrots through the winter. They are the sweetest at that time of year. I also see beets starting to size up.

Yes! I love it when a plan comes together.

October 12, 2015

avalanche column

September 24, 2015

Oh yes it is that time of year again and my favorite run on sentence. “My tomato plants are loaded and they are not ripening, what can I do and will they ripen before winter.”

There is a very good chance that most of them will. Normally our first killing freeze is in November but we do get a few “tail nipper” frosts before then. What to do to ripen those lovely little orbs.

I suggest watering them normally for the rest of September, but around the first week in October start holding back water. If they begin to wilt, water them but not heavily. The idea is to stress them. You can also thin the foliage so more sun hits the fruit. Careful not to remove too much, it is the leaves that sustain the toms and make them tasty.

Stressing causes the plant to start doing defensive things. All plants are wired to reproduce (even though they have been reproducing all summer). Stressing causes them to go into survival mode and to put most of their energy into the fruit.

In October keep a watchful eye on weather forecasts. Temperatures in the thirties you need to cover the plants with a sheet or quilt. The covering needs to extend to the ground. This has two effects: one is to keep the frost off the plants and to also hold soil heat in.

I find keeping them covered throughout the fall with 2 layers of agribon 19 helps them warm up in the day and to also keep them warmer during the night. These two things are magical and hasten the ripening of your toms.

Ah you are done with the cover game.

There are two completion ripening plans and one I prefer over the other (because I know myself I can be very lazy).  Both start with the complete harvest of the toms. Plan “A” is for very limited space. Wrap the toms in paper and stack into a box. They will need to be occasionally taken out to remove the ripe toms or the nasty ones. This to me is wayyyyyyyy to much work. I like to lay newspaper out on the floor and then spread the toms out on the paper. A daily check and “gooduns” can be collected and rotten ones can be composted or fed to your favorite biped friends (chickens). Something else for limited space is to use stackable boxes like the local hot house toms come in. Put a single layer of toms in one of the boxes and stack the boxes. It is easy to spy in on these boxes or to lift and check for ripe/rotten toms.

Oh and two last things with the paper wrapped toms, the rotten one is always the last one you unwrap and the room for tom storage should be cool and dark so they slowly ripen.

Here’s to the last little taste of summer. Enjoy!!!

Questions? I can be contacted at markdirtfarmer@gmail.com. Or more garden notes at redwagonfarm.blogsot.com 

 

October 8, 2015

Good morning, Yes!!!! Sunday was just a little piece of heaven! What a wonderful day. Nice cool overcast and might I say at the end of the day over 1/2 inch in the rain gauge. Wednesday morning brought another .56 inches. This is the first time since the winter rains that the garden is too soggy to work in. Thursday morning harvest will most likely be slow do to mud.

I harvested the toms so they would not split and the okra so that I wouldn't have javelin spearheads. Then spent the rest of the day transplanting and seeding. Things are looking pretty peachy.

My only concern is with the Asian greens. When I harvested the sweets out of this bed that I found it was infected with nematodes. The first that I knew of that!! (for this bed) The Asian greens seem to be susceptible to them. With the soils cooling maybe the nematodes will become inactive. We can hope. I plan to use some Azaguard on the nematodes, but with as wet as the soil is it would most likely leach on through. I will wait for some drying.

Next week I will be sowing the peas. I am going to do two beds and see how they do. Last years crop was to die for. It was hard to believe they lasted into May. Global weirding weather. Then at the end of this month I will seed my bulb onions and garlic.

Long term forecasts are for another wet and cool winter. I am contemplating about my mid-December tom and pepper sowing. I felt my plants got a little root bound because out planting was delayed do to ice and snow. Decision, decisions. I have lots of time to decide.

What with the rain that is expected to last a good part of the week, I will get a very welcome change of pace. I have harvests and a couple things to seed but other than that the garden is in good shape. The garden will not need me to be helicoptering. Yes what a wonderful change. The first since from way back towards the end of June. Very much appreciated!!!

The summer veggies are fading but the winter ones are ever so close to production. As always I hope this transition goes smoothly.

Woke up Thursday morning to thunder, lightning, and driving rain. The rain is forecast to let off on Saturday. I hope it does, I so look forward to Saturday market.

October 5, 2015

Avalanche September 17, 2015 column

I hadn’t lived here in Far West Texas long that I soon realized the growing seasons here are a bit different than the rest of the country.

Just as though I had good sense I tried for the first couple of years to grow the usual spring crops in the spring here in west Texas. My successes were really less than desirable.

Springs start out nice enough but they develop “attitude” very quickly. Heat and wind are not the best conditions to mature all of the usual spring crops. These crops develop their best flavors when it is cool. What to do?

I frequently have mentioned that our winters are perfect for winter gardening. So why not try growing these spring crops through the winter to have them mature while the weather is much more favorable towards these crops.

There are a few “spring crops” that I grow year round and reseeded as need be. These are carrots, green onions, chard, kale, and beets. These are the hard core veggies in the garden and do not mind what kind of weather they are given.

Now for some of the other “spring crops”, I like to sow them to a seed bed and then transplanted a month later. These crops are sown around the end of August. They are broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Brussel sprouts: in other words the brassicas. Spinach is also sown to seed bed at this time too.

Once these guys are transplanted they are harvested February until completion or are eaten up by aphids.

There is another spring crop that takes a little more finesse. This would be the snow peas. These are curious in their likes and dislikes. The foliage does not mind much about freezing weather   (as long as it is not too severe). The blossoms and pea pods are a different story, they abhor below 32 degrees. I used to start these guys at the end of August but soon modified my planting schedule. Peas do not care for soils in the 80’s, the seeds rot before they germinate. The peas that did grow matured just as we get our winter freezing weather so no peas.

I changed this veggies sow date to the middle of October and over winter the plants as small well rooted seedlings. Once the weather starts to warm in February, the peas take off and peas are harvested the month of March. This past year with our cool spring I harvested them up into May. This truly gobsmacked me!!!

Yes it is much easier to grow veggies if you can adapt to their needs instead of trying to adapt them to our needs. It makes for a much more rewarding experience.

October 1, 2015

Good morning, it seems like we are in that transition time again. Moving from summer veggies into winter veggies. Fall sowing was delayed due to the soil being too warm. The only sowing that did not come up was the kohlrabi. I was really surprised because it was a 100% failure. It just did not like the hot soil. A second sowing and a few overcast days latter and I see nearly a 100% germination. Somethings you just can't force.

Funny how quickly the temps fell. It became somewhat difficult adjusting moisture levels with the amount of fabric covering the seedlings and the sudden temperature drops along with cloud cover. This caused a little dampening off of seedlings. I seeded heavy so I should have a full plant grid under the fabric.

I hope to begin harvesting chard and kale from the new bed within the month. This will coincide with boc choy, Asian greens and spinach to soon follow. There will be lettuce soon especially since I seem to have thwarted the lettuce”mower”. It really has been one bug after another this year.

The tomato pin worms arrived late this year but I am being diligent and keeping their population down. I am getting a few toms with damage but most of the crop is clean. The long keepers were a little slow to begin re-blooming and setting fruit but I am still optimistic to have some lat winter toms. Time will tell. The sweet harvest is progressing and I am almost done with the second bed. I am curious to see how the beds that I just stuck unrooted cuttings in the ground do in comparison to the purchased rooted cuttings. Save where I know there are root knot nematodes, the beds look lovely. I even saw some sweet potato blooms.

I mentioned that a javelina was visiting the garden I finally got chicken wire around the whole garden. I hope this remedies this potentially disastrous situation. I think it is a lone “wolf”. Otherwise I think the garden would be thrashed and trashed. All options are on the table to deal with it.

Funny thing with the Kohlrabi, some how I messed up with the sowing notes. It was the cabbage that did not come up, so now I have 4 - 40 foot rows of Kohlrabi. I hope it is popular again this year. There will not be any cabbage this year. My experience with cabbage seeded at this date do not mature until the new year and are in the first phases of bolting. The heads are no longer dense and energy is being put into flower preparations instead of storage. Such is agriculture.