December 29, 2016

Good morning, How surprising after this last bit of “chilly” weather to find a tomato seedling in one of my temporary greenhouses. This was observed after a 17 degree morning. They are about 3 inches tall. This is one of the beds that is covered with Agribon 70, the heavy stuff. These plants do not look leggy or yellowing, two signs of not enough light.

On the other hand where I have used 3 layers of 19, I am seeing some signs of legginess. These beds have lettuce and beets, two crops that I would think would not have a problem with reduced light.

I have not figured out the light matrix under the fabric with greenhouse film.

A few years back I had the opportunity to use a light meter during winter under both the 70 and the 19. I did readings with both 1 layer of each and 2 layers each and the light reduction was a calculated reduction by reducing the amount of light by the number of layers. The agribon number is the indication of how much light is reduced with each layer. So with the 19 roughly 80% of the light gets through where as with the 70 only 30% gets through. On a sunny winter day when I took the my readings the direct sun was 10,000 lumins and under the fabric the 19 was about 7900 lumins and the 70 read around 3300. Pretty close to spot on.

These reading were made before I thought about the temporary greenhouses. There does seem to be something different about the light with greenhouse film under a single layer of 70 and 3 layers of 19. It would be interesting to take a reading under both of these configurations. The light seems to get “distracted” under the three layers. This is a little confusing because the temperature under 3 layers of 19 is a few degrees warmer than under the single layer of 70. These are some puzzling things.

This observation of a tomato germinating and growing under the greenhouse gives me some new thoughts about using 70

I have thought that the reason greens do so well is because the greens have larger leaves. I have felt this is due to most greens are from the higher latitudes where there is less light. The larger leaves help these plants collect more solar radiation. Where as Tomatoes and the other Solanaceae varieties are more tropical in nature. With more solar radiation the leaves tend to be smaller.

I have always thought that the 70 would not work as a permanent cover for these plants. This observation gives me pause.

I have been extensively using fabric for many years now and it still surprises me. I am going to use 70 on one of my tomato beds and just see what happens.

Being able to use the 70 on all of my beds would be more expensive but the 70 last about 3 times as long as the 19.

Some advantages would be that I would not have to make a mad dash to cover with a forecast of either hail or an impending cold spell. I also would not need to make sure that there are enough rocks on the fabric to anchor the fabric before a wind storm.

There is only one family of veggies that I remove the covers for and this is the cucurbits. These plants have to be pollinated by insects and must be uncovered for this purpose. They could easily be started under 70.

One of the observations that I made when I crawled underneath the covers, I noticed that the fabric acts like a prism and the light is reflected all around underneath the cover. The light meter reading was the same if it was under a plant or not. I feel the light is superior under the fabric. It also is an indication that we have more light than what plants need to grow.

This all plays into the fact as you take a walk across our desert landscape, where some shrub allows for shade. As this plant has been able to grow and increases in size, the soil is cooler under this shrub. Because of this cooling many other plants find an environment that they can germinate and grow also. These “mother” shrubs have become to be called nurse plants because they have created a much less harsh micro climate around their base, Much of which the fabric does.

I have said that I could garden with out fabric but with it, there is a much more level playing field.

I hope to be listing greens soon. There is a steady increase of productivity. I hate to list something and immediately say I am sold out. Please ask about availability.

Presently there are turnips, and sweets in abundance.

December 26, 2016

Avalanche column

Dec 1, 2016

Recently a gentleman asked me how high are my hoops over my beds. These hoops support the fabric that covers my plants.

I aim for 18 to 24 inches.

There are several ways that you can support the fabric and all of them work quite well.

The most common hoop materials are 9 gauge wire, 1/2 inch metal conduit and 3/4 inch schedule 40 PVC pipe.

The biggest thing that influences the height is the width of your fabric. Agribon fabric comes in several different widths. I like the 10 foot wide width. This allows for a lot of versatility. If you use narrower fabric you need to be very careful that your hoops do not exceed the width of your fabric.

Unless you bury some of your hoop in the ground, the hoop needs to be narrower than the fabric. I like to have 12 inches of fabric on either side of the hoops. This is needed to anchor the fabric to the ground. Besides the width of your fabric , the width of your bed will also determine the finished height of your hoops. This is where using the 10 foot fabric helps.

The folks who use the more rigid hoops can either bury the hoops on either side of the bed or drive pieces of re-bar at your preferred spacing along either side of the bed

If your bed is wide enough the PVC will easily bend and slip over your re-bar.

If you use metal conduit, a pipe bender is required.

The use of the rigid hoops does give a very nice profile to your beds.

I prefer the use of the 9 gauge wire. Once your hoops are cut it is very easy to install and remove to only be used on the next bed. Granted the profile isn't as nice looking but it protects the plants very well.

In less windy areas the fabric can be just laid over the plants and the plants will raise the fabric as they grow. In West Texas as the wind beats the fabric, the un-hooped fabric would destroy your plants. The fabric protects your plants from the wind along with frost and/or heat.

To anchor the fabric, the edge can be waited down or buried. Unless your hoops are high enough to walk under, burying would hamper doing bed work. I like to use rocks, they are very available. Sand bags would work, but the bags would need to be UV resistant. Besides this is just another expense and the rocks are accessible.

I have found by gradually raising the fabric I can create a better growing environment for seeds and or plants. This can keep the seeds and or plants moister and warmer for more rapid growth. Placing the wire diagonally across the bed varying heights can be achieved . This can not be done with the rigid hoops.

December 22, 2016

Good morning, yes we are having a bit of that Far West Texas Sine Curve winter weather. 80's one day only to be followed by the teens. This is difficult for critters and especially veggies. At least for the most part critters can get out of the weather and into “protected” locations. That is except for the ducks, they seem to enjoy that inclement weather although they did not much care for the wind. Who does?

f it were not for using agriculture fabric in the garden, winter gardening and even in some occasions summer gardening, would be very difficult to pull off.

Most unprotected veggies “bite the bullet” at 20 degrees. In the best of outcomes they are very severely frost burned. It can be questionable if it would be worth while to nurse them back to health.

Like with so many weather events I thank my lucky stars that I discovered Agribon fabric. It almost makes gardening easy. Of course after one learns how to use this invaluable tool.

If I make sure that all of the fabric is tight to the ground and is not touching any leaves, I can survive some intense events. This proved true a few years back when we had a late May freeze. My only mortality or plant burn was from these two”infractions”. The prevention of air gaps under the fabric is easier to deal with than the fabric touching plants. To correct for the touching of the fabric, the fabric needs to be pulled back and hoops straightened. This can be difficult during a wind storm that precedes a freezing event. O f these two problems the air gaps are the most lethal. The plants usually can grow out of tip burn.

I look forward to harvest this week. I am sure, like so many times after such an event, I will be amazed at what looks to be light shear fabric can protect everything underneath it so well. Who would of thought what this stuff can do, be it hot or cold.

As expected those plants that were touching the fabric got burned. This was the case inside my temporary greenhouses too. My boc choy with two layers of 19 seemed to be the hardest hit. A note to self would be to add at least one more layer. My broccoli is starting to head but was not hurt although that leaf touch thing clobbered them.

With a week or two of nicer weather some of my greens beds will allow larger harvest. This will also help with the broccoli florets and my kohlrabi. I also see that the beets are getting close to being a nice size too. And yes I have started the Jerusalem artichoke harvest. Funny how I like to wait until the middle of winter to star this harvest that I am noticing they are trying to start to grow.

What a strange year this has been!!!

December 19, 2016

Avalanche column

November 24, 2016

Selecting garden seeds can be fun but it can also be overwhelming.

Do you want bush varieties or vine types, early ripening or latter varieties, large storage types or single serve types.

These are just some of the questions a gardener may want to answer as they are selecting seeds.

My seeds “bible”, “The Garden Seed Inventory” 6^th edition and printed by the Seed Savers Exchange has been very helpful with this . This book was printed in 2004 and at that time it listed all of the open pollinated and heirloom seeds that were available in the US and Canada. The listings describe the veggie and then also where you can purchase your selections.

I have found this book to be extremely valuable to me.

One of my big selection criteria is short season. Short season crops tend to be more cold tolerant and ripen very quickly. Even though they may have been propagated for northern states they work very well in the south too.

There are some very good reasons that I like to do this.

Short season veggies ripen quicker and can be easily forced so that summer veggies can be harvested much quicker than you would expect. Starting veggies early allows me to have well established plants going into the angry months of May and June. One more very good reason helps me cope with a pest that I have in the garden.

Root Knot Nematodes (RKN) are very very tiny worm like creatures that burrow into the roots of most all vegetable varieties. In the process of feeding and reproducing they cause the roots to form galls. In worst the cases the roots no longer look like roots but a mass of convoluted and swollen root material. RKN become active once the soil reaches 65 degrees.

Plants can grow in cooler or warmer soil than what they will germinate in. This is fundamental to one of my RKN management practices.

Starting seedlings very early and out planting the plants before the RKN become active, I can get good harvests before they succumb to the galling. In some cases the roots can grow outside infected areas and survive all season.

This book allows a gardener to make seed selections that are very pertinent to their needs and can be quite fun to do. For example there are over 60 pages of tomatoes with 20 plus varieties to the page. Of course this covers every color of tomato that you can imagine. This can be overwhelming but I like to think of it as an adventure to see what wonderful varieties are available. Monsanto eat your heart out!! By and large most of these seeds are available through small “Mom and Pop” seed houses. Most likely Front Street Books can get you a copy. ALL of the veggies available in this book can be saved for future gardens and how cool is that!!!!!

December 15, 2016

Good morning, I do not have a chipper / shredder, something that would be useful for pulverizing dead okra and pepper stems. Some of these can resemble small trees and their biomass takes some effort to decompose. For the most part these plants are piled up at the end of the season and during some distant century they will break down. As for the bean straw and any other of the less woody material I have found just throwing it into the chicken coop and let the ladies have at it.

Chickens have a need to scratch and peck and they are relentless. With 50 +/- hens most all of this debris is broken down into smaller pieces rather quickly. All the while they are pooping and in a very short while this bedding is ready for the compost heap. This method makes it fairly easy to get a good carbon to nitrogen mix. This material heats up very nicely. Most heatings there is that distinct smell of what I like to call fertility. Not having close neighbors, this is not a problem.

When it comes time to turn the pile, I take the covers off and let the ladies at it. The pile does get spread out pretty good but it does get things mixed up nicely. Once they have turned it, I add more water if needed and re pile it for a finishing heat. And of course the ladies are excluded at this time.

This all takes time but it sure does cut down on some of the labor.

I subscribe to a 14 day composting. Using the chickens does extend this process but not by much.

At the end of the heating, all of the material is in an advanced state of decomposition. This material can be used as a mulch or incorporated into the soil without any ill effects to seeds or plants.

Since I garden year round, the use of compost is very important. It allows for continuous cultivation. If I were to use fresh manure or to turn under green manures there would be a given amount of time that would be needed to allow all of this material to become “non lethal” to seeds or plants. Depending on the time of year this resting period would be a minimum of 2 weeks.

With compost this all becomes mute. A bed can be cleaned tilled and planted in the same day. A very nice turn around time.

One of my difficulties with compost is not having a way to exclude the hens from the compost area. Left to the hens vices the compost heaps would never heat because they would always be turning the pile. This is one of the draw backs of free range hens. A small one but a problem none the less. A pile of compost is a calling card to chickens like a fire hydrant is to dogs.

I do have some ideas how to exclude them and the selectively allow them to different piles, it is just finding that “roundtuit”. Chickens can be quite obsessive about something if they see it and crave it. If there is a way they will discover it and have access. So much for “Just dumb chickens”. On some levels they are quite intelligent. Ah yes life with fowl!!

The garden continues to become a little more productive. What kohlrabi I have is beginning to mature. I plan to have a little more lettuce this week along with chard and kale. My Asian greens are recovering from the flea beetles along with the poc choy. I have temporary greenhouses on several beds and this seems to be helping these beds mature. I expect to have beets and radishes soon. Next week I will start the Jerusalem artichoke harvest. I have my second planting of peas starting to germinate and my first sowing is about 12 inches high with a very nicely stocked bed. The parsnips harvest will start soon too. Next year I am going to attempt germinating the parsnip seeds for a better stocked bed. It is so funny but last August was a perfect temperature for parsnips but I neglected to keep them moist between the rainstorms. Carrots and parsnips need to remain consistently moist up to the development of secondary leaves or they will have a large mortality. Ah yes this fall my attention was a little scattered. Deb would say “and what else is new?” Life in the fast lane!!!

December 12, 2016

Avalanche column

November 24, 2016

Selecting garden seeds can be fun but it can also be overwhelming.

Do you want bush varieties or vine types, early ripening or latter varieties, large storage types or single serve types.

These are just some of the questions a gardener may want to answer as they are selecting seeds.

My seeds “bible”, “The Garden Seed Inventory” 6^th edition and printed by the Seed Savers Exchange has been very helpful with this . This book was printed in 2004 and at that time it listed all of the open pollinated and heirloom seeds that were available in the US and Canada. The listings describe the veggie and then also where you can purchase your selections.

I have found this book to be extremely valuable to me.

One of my big selection criteria is short season. Short season crops tend to be more cold tolerant and ripen very quickly. Even though they may have been propagated for northern states they work very well in the south too.

There are some very good reasons that I like to do this.

Short season veggies ripen quicker and can be easily forced so that summer veggies can be harvested much quicker than you would expect. Starting veggies early allows me to have well established plants going into the angry months of May and June. One more very good reason helps me cope with a pest that I have in the garden.

Root Knot Nematodes (RKN) are very very tiny worm like creatures that burrow into the roots of most all vegetable varieties. In the process of feeding and reproducing they cause the roots to form galls. In worst the cases the roots no longer look like roots but a mass of convoluted and swollen root material. RKN become active once the soil reaches 65 degrees.

Plants can grow in cooler or warmer soil than what they will germinate in. This is fundamental to one of my RKN management practices.

Starting seedlings very early and out planting the plants before the RKN become active, I can get good harvests before they succumb to the galling. In some cases the roots can grow outside infected areas and survive all season.

This book allows a gardener to make seed selections that are very pertinent to their needs and can be quite fun to do. For example there are over 60 pages of tomatoes with 20 plus varieties to the page. Of course this covers every color of tomato that you can imagine. This can be overwhelming but I like to think of it as an adventure to see what wonderful varieties are available. Monsanto eat your heart out!! By and large most of these seeds are available through small “Mom and Pop” seed houses. Most likely Front Street Books can get you a copy. ALL of the veggies available in this book can be saved for future gardens and how cool is that!!!!!

December 8, 2016

Good morning, recently market day was forecast to be rainy and just plain nasty. Because Deb and I have veggie orders for folks to pick up at market, we were obligated to go. We really expected there to be only us and the Roberts. They too have orders to be delivered.

Because we did not expect very many patrons we did not bring any can goods.

Boy were we surprised when over 11 vendors showed and there also was a pretty good showing of patrons.

This is really warming to the heart both that folks showed for market, but is also an indication how much the market is a part of their lives. And they do this rain or shine!!

I do remember when we were at the Ritchey on nasty days were nonexistent patroon days too! I think because we are so visible at the new location that folks are beginning to believe we are an “all weather” event and come to market.

This is a mazing stuff. Next time, the can goods will make it into the truck, just in case I don’t have veggies besides what are in the bag sales. This market thingy is really coming together.

After this last nasty market I sent a question out to the vendors what they thought about procuring a patio heater with the donations that everyone so generously give to the market. A resounding YES came back. So Deb ordered one and hopefully will be here for Saturday market. How funny no sooner had Deb ordered a heater Bennett Jones got permission from a rental property to let the market use a patio heater through the winter. How Cool is this!!! I hope everyone thanks Bennett for his generosity! I have plans to construct a temporary wind brake area so these heaters will be even more effective. I am so totally gob smacked at how the market is coming together!!!

After a blast of Arctic air the wind is predicted to come from the SW and warm the day. A sunny but cool start with a high around 60, so compared to last Saturday this coming Saturday looks to be a fine market day. Hope to see everyone there!!!!!

I did manage to harvest before the storm. Today is forecast to not get much above freezing with chances of rain/ snow/ sleet/ and freezing rain, in other words a nasty day. And tomorrow is forecast to improve but will most likely be unable to harvest due to the fabric being “welded” to the ground. I hope to have harvested enough for all orders.

If I am unable to fill all orders I will only charge for the portion I fill. Follows is a list of the harvest.

Chard, kale, spinach, boc choy, lettuce, carrots, green onions, turnips with greens, sweet potatoes, and butternut squash.

Save for the sweets and butternuts quantities are limited.

I can be reached at markdirtfarmer@gmail.com or go to http://redwagonfarm.blogspot.com/ Happy gardening!!!

December 5, 2026

Avalanche column 

november 17, 2016

When gardening or even landscaping, transplanting veggie seedlings, woody shrubs or trees are easy ways to get a “jump start” on a more productive garden or a mature landscape.

These transplants are available as bare root or containerized material. There are advantages and disadvantages to both of theses methods, especially if you are purchasing them.

Let us start with bare root material. This is exactly as it implies, the transplant's roots are exposed to the air. I frequently do seed beds for transplants. The advantage is the amount of space that is used to start the seedlings. As for landscaped bare root material most folks are familiar with fruit trees taking this form. It is a whole lot less expensive to ship plant material without soil. Any plant that is transplanted from one location to another needs to be treated as bare root Any time that you transplant a plant there is a substantial amount of root loss. This is where you can get into trouble with bare root. Only CONTAINER GROWN material can be treated differently.

I am very particular as to when I transplant bare root veggies. I like to do it just as cooler or cloudy weather is forecast. After transplanting, I lay fabric right on top of the transplants so that a nice humidity layer helps with their healing. I usually leave them this way for a week or so before raising the fabric. This allows the roots to heal enough so that all the plant functions can resume.

As for landscape plants, purchased bare root fruit trees are only available during the winter. During this milder time they can become established and continue to grow. It would be impossible to do a bare root plant in July and have a reasonable expectation of it's survival.

This is true with transplanting trees and shrubs in your yard, it is best to do this once the tree or shrub becomes dormant during the winter. This is not saying they will survive but they have a better chance.

As for watering you need to keep them moist but not saturated.

As for containerized plant material, you can plant them any time you like. I still like to do this going into a cooling period. This may not be necessary, but why not give your plant the best opportunity to survive and thrive. Probably the biggest difference between bare root and container material is the weight and the cost.

December 1, 2016

Good morning, I hope all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, Deb and I sure did!

It looks like it is finally cooling down a little bit. NOAA is predicting a warm dry winter although rain predictions continue to be popping up in the forecasts. This is always good. In the winter I do prefer snow to ice. As if I had a say as to what happens.

I finally put up my temporary greenhouses. Temperatures above 70 tend to make the greenhouses too warm and they need to be vented. The frequent changes from warm to cold or cold to warm usually entails wind. It can be difficult working large sheets of greenhouse film or fabric in such conditions. So I like to see a cooling before I erect them. It makes life easier. With the drip system there is only the need to pull the covers to harvest and perform bed work. I am hoping for sun this winter, cloudy days don't work with passive greenhouses or at least not as well.

It is a work in progress as to which veggies that I will grow in these greenhouses. I do know that my brassica (broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower...) crops will not. I want them to have the full effects of any cold so that they can develop their flavors. I will cover the broccoli and cauliflower with heavy fabric in the advent that there is a deep freeze and their heads are forming. Like with peas the foliage can take freezes but the florets and pea pods are destroyed by freezes.

Presently I have chard, kale, and lettuce covered. I am contemplating beets, green onions, Asian greens and the boc choy.

It is good to see that the transition from summer veggies to winter veggies has gone well. Even though my butternut stash is not what I wanted to see but I do have a nice stash of sweets. They are not as big as they have been in the past but they are still tasty. The first hard freeze really did shut growth down. I think growth is starting to resume. Quite a shock from the upper 80's to the lower 20's within 24 hours!!

My peas are doing quite well and were not effected by the chill down along with all my cole crops. This chilling is what makes them tasty. It also causes the spinach to become sweet along with the parsnips and carrots. I plan to do a second sowing of peas the first week or two in December. The second sowing last year sure did extend the pea harvest. My mid summer peas only had a few pods, I think there was too much competition with the sweet potatoes. For funzies I do have a July sowing planned. They will be germinated and covered with the heavy fabric, then maybe in September, peas. We can only hope!!! Some things ya just gotta try.

Stocking levels are improving but it is slow.

November 28, 2016

Avalanche column

November 10, 2016

As we become more urban, we are losing our agriculture roots. Also with international commerce, we as a society are losing the concept of what is “in season vegetables”.

I have frequently talked about this subject. As a grower of local in season veggies, this is a very important subject to me.

Just the concept of grapes shipped from South America and still be under the cost of what it can be produced in this country baffles me. Some body is getting the short end of the stick and I would lay odds it is not the distributor. This same thought occurs to me with growers in California.

I just do not feel that the real true cost of producing and distributing these veggies is realized.

This is but just one aspect to take into consideration when purchasing veggies from “away”.

Most of these veggies have to be picked ,sorted, washed, (international may need to be fumigated for “hitchhikers”), then shipped to distributors followed with delivery to their final destinations. This is not a harvest one day and on the table the next operation.

Even with chilling the veggies immediately after harvest, the nutritional values begin to decline. Time is of the essence for produce.

It has been a few years back that a customer at the farmers remarked about some green beans they had purchased. They had put them in their refrigerator, “some how “ these beans got lost in their refrigerator and were discovered two weeks later. They were gob smacked that they were still edible and really quite delicious. Would shipped produce still be good?

I have had conversations with various folks and they just don't like vegetables. They don't “taste good”. There is a very good chance that these folks never have had local or home grown veggies. It is no wonder that children do not want to eat their vegetables. I grew up with a summer kitchen garden so this is not a new discovery for me. Homegrown/local veggies are picked at perfect ripeness and flavor.

As a purveyor of local in season veggies I can really see how folks could be very confused when they travel down the veggie isle during the winter. Any veggie is available regardless of the season.

Patrons give no thought of having corn, asparagus, or even chilies to name a few offerings in December.

At a bare minimum these would have to be grown in a greenhouse.

Asparagus is a spring crop and the other two need warm soils and temperatures to grow and produce. More than likely these veggies are international travelers where the seasons are appropriate.

Why embrace local in season veggies? They are tastier, by far more nutritious and there is the seasonal anticipation!

Don't know what is in season? Your friendly farmer at the Farmers Market would be glad to tell you or even sell you some of these “Local, In Season Veggies”.

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

November 24, 2016

Good morning, Since it is Thanksgiving there will not be any deliveries on Friday.

Boy howdy the first freeze was a real dozy. I had everything covered and figured that the ground warmth would help with preventing frost damage. The overnight low was 23.8. This effectively ended the harvest of any of my remaining summer veggies. The okra being at 6 to 8 feet was on its own. I did find where I did have 2 layers of 70 there still was green right at ground level. I do have one tomato plant that was under a heavy quilt that came through with flying colors.

This cold snap really slowed the garden but with warming this will change. Now that we have had a freeze I do not think it will shock the plants as much. Or at least let's hope so!!

t was a good run. As strange as this year has been, having the first freeze being a very hard freeze just fits in with the rest of the year.

Looking forward to winter weather. NOAA is showing a strengthening La Nina. This will make a warmer and dryer winter. I can live without Ice. Although I do want to try an experiment sometime and place greenhouse film down before an ice or snow storm. The moisture is good but my thoughts are can I keep the soil warmer by not having ice melt that penetrates deeply into the soil. In my mind this would work. The use of well water would be what ever temperature it is in the ground. Not 32 degrees.

Next week I will do the next application of Promax. This is the thyme oil extract that I hope to help me combat root knot nematode. This next application will be followed with soil microorganism booster. Then just before spring planting there will be another double application of promax followed by the soil booster. This will be interesting.

Last year I applied Azagaurd every two weeks up until the rains started. The new product should be less intense. I did not see as many very galled roots this year and I hope to see even fewer next year. This new product is supposed to not only kill the nematodes but also encourage new roots to replace infected ones. Proof will be in the pudding!!

Be sure to place your orders and I will have your veggies at market. I wish everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!!

November 21, 2016

Avalanche column

November 3, 2016

This past gardening season I planted two different yellow summer squash varieties. My normal tried and true and a new one from High Mowing seeds (Organic Success PM Straight neck).

There was one really big reason why. In the name of the squash there is a PM. This abbreviation stands for Powdery Mildew (PM) resistant.

I planted this variety because around the end of July and towards the middle of August this mold becomes prevalent on most of the cucurbit family (cucumber, melon, squash...).

This is a slow death to the plant. It starts as little whitish spots and then soon completely engulfs the plant. It shuts the plant down from being able to photosynthesize, the plant dies because it cannot produce its own food.

PM starts to raise its head when we have high humidity with warm days and cool nights (lower 60's). There are a number of treatments that one can do but these treatments only slow the demise of the plant.

I was very curious as to how resistant this variety was. It gob smacked me in a couple ways. Not only was it EXTREMELY resistant it is a very heavy producer.

I could very easily plant half the plants I normally grow and this variety would still surpass my other varieties production.

Other than spraying for cucumber beetles a couple of times (they were nasty garden wide this year), there was very little pest control that I did for this squash.

When the zucchini I planted near this squash was destroyed by PM, the worst this squash got was a few sporadic infections on a few plants. They soon grew past these infections.

This is not a bush variety, it is a vine, which took me some getting used to but it had a trait (I really like) that is only briefly exhibited with my other summer squash varieties.

When my other varieties start to bloom they put on a huge flush of male flowers and only a few female flowers. This assures that the females get pollinated.

This new variety continues this big flush of male flowers along side a huge flush of females.

I have noticed with my other varieties that individual plants would rotate between producing male and female flowers. This caused the various plants that were in the male bloom cycle to be “out of production” until it started to produce females once again. This NEVER happened with this variety.

Another interesting thing when this squash was slowing down surprised me. I thought the harvest was finished until we got a warming trend,was I ever surprised to see this squash flush back into production.

This is an amazing squash, I plan this to be my only yellow squash variety.

Oh and one last trait, it's OP and the seeds can be saved. More on saving squash seeds at a latter date.

November 17, 2016

 Good morning, for the folks who have Friday veggie orders, I will be in a red Ford pickup instead of the white Aztec.

Yes the garden is responding to my presence quite nicely. I have brought most of the caterpillars under control. Instead of fattening caterpillars, the plants are growing. I have had some flea beetles munching on the Asian greens. They were looking rather Swiss cheese like and most all of these predations compound upon themselves when they are “growing” slowly in cloudy and cool weather. A lot of the time veggies can outgrow the predations when it is more favorable for them to grow. I am hoping to be at the very bottom of my greens production. This week is warmer and sunnier than what it has been of late. I am very grateful for this cloudy and cool weather when my pump went out. If it had happened in July, the garden would have been toast!!! I think it may have been slowly going out because seeing how quickly the pressure comes up with the new pump.

The broccoli and cauliflower are about 12 to 15 inches tall, what kohlrabi I have are starting to bulb, the cabbage are looking nice (these were hit real hard with the cutworms so there are only a few).

I wanted to reseed both the kohlrabi and cabbage but I have found that when these fall planted plants are not harvested within a short time after the winter solstice they begin to bolt. In the case of cabbage they are very loose open heads and with kohlrabi the bulbs become woody. Parsnips can also become woody if they resume growth once winter passes.

I have completed the first application of my new nematode control potion. It is interesting that thyme oil is the biggest part of this solution. So I need to wait a couple weeks and then reapply followed with a soil micro fauna /flora booster. This is supposed to kill 70 percent of the eggs and juvenile root knot nematodes. This has the potential to really boost the gardens production.

Some of my beds are heavily infected but most have some infection.  This is exciting!!! I hope it works.

It is nice that the distractions have quieted down and the garden is getting a little TLC and it appears to like it!!

November 14, 2016

Avalanche column

October 27, 2016

By trial and error I have discovered two sowing dates that provide me with great success.

The first is with snow peas. Sowing peas in the middle of October provides ample harvests starting in March and if mother nature behaves herself the harvest continues into May. Because the soil can be too warm I germinate the seeds before sowing. A second sowing of germinated seeds in December (soil is too cool for seeds to germinate) will extend the harvest even further. Spring harvest duration depends solely on how hot our spring is. Peas become very unhappy when temperatures get above 85 degrees.

When the soil is too warm the seeds rot before they can germinate. I have mentioned that germinated seeds will grow in warmer or cooler soil than what they will germinate in. Different seeds have preset temperatures at which they easily germinate. Once the seeds have germinated these preset temperatures no longer apply. The genetics of survival kicks in and the plant grows. Of course this does have it limitations.

This sowing date came about when I would try to make a late summer sowing. Observations pointed out that two things happened : terrible germination and the peas would start to flower just as the winter freezes hit. Covered pea vines do not mind freezing but the flowers will drop like flies. Hence the later sow date (October) allows the peas to over winter as seedlings and explode into growth around the middle of February, of course if mother nature behaves.

The next sow date is the first of November, this is when I plant garlic cloves and sow my bulb onion seeds. The garlic can be planted earlier but I just like to plant my allium's all at one time. It helps concentrate the harvest.

This sow date is critical for the onions. The goal is to have the onion seedlings remain less than 1/4 inch. A 1/4 inch seedling or larger will bolt when warm weather returns. The seedling thinks it has gone through 2 years and will try to flower. Harvested early enough these guys can be eaten as green onions.

I grow the onions in a dense seed bed until early March when they are transplanted to their maturing bed and then harvested in June.

One last note on onions / garlic, during the winter are extremely hardy and can take the coldest of weather. Once they begin to grow in the spring, one of our notorious cold snaps can freeze some of the lower leaves. I like to cover my allium's with a single layer of fabric to protect them for the duration of the cold snap , then I quickly remove it.

Each leaf that freezes is either a clove or a onion ring. This can very easily effect the size of your onions or garlic

November 10, 2016

Good morning, This year started out nice enough but sure has had its moments. Both good and bad. But in reality I would have to say mostly good.. But there have been those moments that one has had to wonder about.

This year has been one of my most busiest years ever. I felt like I had to juggle several balls all at the same time and keep most of them airborne until I could deal with them.

This really is not about me complaining but really about me being fortunate and having the health an fortitude to assist and accomplish all that this year has provided.

My seedling starts were perfect and I was able to grow enough seedlings with the first sowing to have a fully stocked garden from the get go. This did lull me into thinking that this year was going to be a cake walk!!

Everything seemed to be a “stroll in the park” until July. I have never experienced anything quite like it where the heat and dryness completely shut down the garden. Looking back I have read about this happening elsewhere. I suspect in South County this is a yearly seasonal occurrence where you just don't do a garden in the hot months. I so hope this does not happen again. Although now that I know about this, I will not be so knocked off balance. Probably the biggest thing that happened was my tomatoes. They were finishing up their first flush of toms and it became too hot for them to regrow. So because they needed to flush new growth while the older growth withered, there was a high percentage of plants that just gave up the ghost. Hind sight tells me that I should have collected seeds from these survivors.

But July was just the beginning, then came the insect hordes. This was an undertaking in its own right.

August then arrived and proceeded to be the wettest and coolest August in a long time. This cloudy an rainy weather was a help to the garden but it did appear to become a 180 degree problem with too much moisture. Here again just an observation.

It is worth to note that between gardening, selling veggies, Deb and I managing the market (doesn't take a lot of time but it does take some time), building a house, trying to find a replacement for my truck that died and then the moving of the market to its new home was almost a full plate.

The market move was the result of one of those “bitter /sweet” things. Deb's Mom after many many years of declining health along with her ever deteriorating quality of life passed away. Yes a very sad thing. It is with her passing and the the inheritance that Deb received that Mary may live on. We owe everything to Mary for the purchase of the New home of the Alpine Farmers Market.

Ah yes busy became an understatement. I felt very fortunate to have assisted all of the work crews that helped make the new property home to the farmers market.

The cleanup was a job: moving pipe and railroad ties, knocking down the weed growth. The moving of the shade structure from the hotel and adding on 20 more feet, connecting rain catchment, putting down caliche, moving the storage container, erecting a chain link fence and planting trees. All of this from August to the end of October. Whew!!

Needless to say I was somewhat keeping an eye on the garden, but should have had kept a little more of a focused one. I had gotten all of my fall seedlings started in the beds where they would be transplant to. I just didn't keep an eye out for cutworms. That hindsight thingy. Some of my stocking will be lower than I like but the veggies I could reseed I have. Things are not perfect but they will be manageable.

How silly of me thinking with the planting of the market trees, that finally I would get back to the back burner items. HA!!!

So this feeling lasted until I went to make coffee Sunday a week ago when the well / pump decided to have different thoughts about my complacency.

Even though Sunday, Monday and Tuesday were hot the forecast was calling for “Yuge “ chances of rain and cloudy weather, I could live with .05 inches and cloudy weather because the garden came through Quite fine and by Friday 1 PM the well / pump was all back up and running.

I must say all of this gives me a LOT to be very grateful for, especially indoor plumbing, also to be extremely grateful for all the folks who took time out of their busy lives to help MOVE and BUILD the market. To still have a wonderful garden and last but not least a very patient and understanding best friend and wife, I have got to be one of the luckiest persons on the planet!!!!

November 7, 2016

Avalanche column

October 20, 2016

Something to keep in mind as you plan your next garden is to save seeds. There are a number of reasons to do this but I like the idea of food independence the most.

Not all seeds you find in seed packets are the same. It is important to learn how to read a seed packet.

Let us take a look at a Johnny's Selected Seed 's package. We will look at Hybrid specialty Melons.

After the Johnny's logo is the type of veggie, Hybrid specialty melon, followed by the variety, Savior, followed with a F-1, followed by the scientific name, Cucumis melo, followed by the lot number, then comes the number of seeds in the packet, the days to maturity, the germination percent and the date of this test. On the back of the packet is a description of the veggie and full details of the culture for this veggie including harvest and likely pests.

Two things are very important on the front of the packet that are very important when you decide to save seed.

The first is the F-1 after the seed name. There are three possibilities of letters or numbers that can be located here. They are F-1, OP or even a blank spot. In order to save seed you need to have a blank or the OP, NOT F-1. This number depicts that it is a hybrid and seeds saved from this veggie WILL NOT be true to the parent. The blank and OP means that this veggie is open pollinated and WILL be true to the parents.

NOTE: All seed packets will have this notation, any packet that has an F followed by a number means it is a hybrid.

The scientific name is important so that you do not plant veggie varieties that easily cross pollinate. Just the common name will not work for this.

It would be helpful to acquire a book about seed saving. This will help you to cultivate this skill. My go to “dog eared” book is “Seed to Seed” by Suzanne Ashworth published by Seed Savers Exchange.

For beginning seed savers, I would suggest to go with the “low hanging fruit” to begin with. Because seed saving can be very complicated. We wont go into this here. Low hanging fruit would include ALL of the veggies that are self fertile. Your seed saving book will help with this important detail. This means they pollinate themselves and are not easily cross pollinated. A short list would be peas, beans, tomatoes, peppers and okra.

Of this short list probably the strongest self fertile veggie is okra. There is a great number of times that I have observed okra blossoms dropping off before the petals are even open. These pods continue to grow until they are harvested or cut for next years seed crop.

There is an independence that one achieves through seed saving. Happy gardening!!!

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

alanche column

November 3, 2016

Good morning, this week the ghost in the closet raised its ugly head.

I had not watered before market on Saturday so when I got home I fired up a normal setting of beds to water.

It was a bit surprising to find that there was no water pressure to make coffee when I woke up in the morning. Not conducive for the thinking that needed to follow!

Well off to the fuse box to see if fuses were blown (nope) and then out to the well house to see if a hose was running (nope), then to check the filter (plum full of sediment) very puzzled?

Changed the filter and the flow was back.

Once it got light and the fowl were all set to their daily routines, I headed to the garden to do some further watering. The pump was still running and the pressure was sitting a little more than 30 psi. Humm. First thoughts was worn impellers on the pump. So filled the pressure tank as well as it could, turned pump off, and then recharged as needed. It was also back to hose end watering for short duration's.

Sunday evening I did a google search on trouble shooting a submersible pump. Besides there being worn impellers under the heading of “not coming to pressure” was a faulty pressure switch. Even though I had very recently replaced it, I felt this would be cheaper than a well service. Replaced it. The pump still would only build up to 30 +/- psi. I believe there may have been some enhanced vocabulary at this point!!

Not having a sounder I did not know what water levels were in the well. I will be very interested what the static water level is. The last time I sounded the well it was 75 feet. Some other observations when I the well has been drawn down the fuses blow and I find sand in the filter. With this episode the sediment is very fine, it completely covers the filter and the pump still runs.

It is my hope that the well has not failed. And what I hope I am seeing (with my very very limited submersible pump knowledge) is the pump is stirring up sediment because of faulty impellers. It is my hope fthat it is this fine sediment that is is being sucked up into the pressure tank. I intend to call Coleman Well Service for an appointment. Contacted Mr. Coleman he will be by Wednesday afternoon.

Pump died Wednesday morning and Mr. Coleman got hung up on a job and was unable to come by on Wednesday. He will try to come by a t noon Thursday. Luckily there is supposed to be a rain event happening the next few days

Am I anxious yet?

It does seem that from late summer to present there have been an abundance of distractions. My stocking of beds is not what I hoped it would be. 2016 has been a good year on some fronts but by an large I am ready for it to be over so that maybe 2017 will start with a clean slate!

So far so good with garden produce. Please email with your desires.