May 30, 2016

Avalanche column

May 26, 2016

Why extend our growing season? Our season is long. Most years it is from the middle of April until the middle of November or about 210 days. These are the frost free days. It could be said that is season enough!! That is unless you prefer your veggies to be fresh and untraveled!!!

There is no way to compare store bought veggies to home grown veggies. These are two very different things.

We do get some zingers during the winter but we have a very mellow climate. Ask the folks in Minnesota what a real winter is like.

We reside on the 30^th Parallel. This is unique. From the 30^th and south, daylight never gets below 10 hours in the dead of winter. Plants go dormant with less than 10 hours of light or at least have very diminished growth. Most winters our coldest days are in the 20’s. There is the occasional upper teen’s mornings but few and far between. When we do have 24 hours of freezing, seldom does it last more than 3 days. Cold spells are short and are followed by 60 degree temperatures. And then the cycle is repeated.

Most years it is only on the North side of my house where any soil is frozen, maybe the top inch or so. I have taken winter soil temperature readings (in the garden) at 5 inches and the soil is in the mid to lower 50’s. During the coldest part of the winter this temperature will drop into the forty’s.

This is significant. With temperatures below 50 degrees plant growth halts or is reduced immensely.

When I lived in central Oregon, most winter days the highs were in the mid to upper 30’s with overnight lows in the teens. The ground would freeze down 6 plus inches. Winter day length was less than 9 hours. The growing season was around 90 days. Finding or creating microclimates was essential in order to have a growing season. Besides during the growing season there always was the potential of a frost!

Learning to grow a garden in central Oregon was a very good teacher so that I can easily grow a year round garden in west Texas.

So the key is to find or create your own microclimates: this can be a greenhouse, some old glass windows propped up on the sunny south side of your house (walls on the ends are needed), cloche’s (miniature individual plant greenhouse), sunny courtyard, agriculture fabric, or even greenhouse film covered with fabric. These are but a few ideas to grow through the winter.

As for summer, the search would be for cooler locals. These could be the north side of your home, the use of agriculture fabric, or even a shaded patio. I would be surprised with all the abundant sun we have that there would be too much shade.

There are always new things to explore when you garden!

May 26, 2016

Good morning, reading about snow pea culture and it is frequently said “not to plant successions” because “they all catch up”. Meaning, there would not be any extension of the harvest.

Last fall I direct seeded my peas around the middle of October. I really should have taken a temperature reading of the soil because it turned out to be Way to warm. The seeds I planted were 2015 germination tested for 80%. I may have gotten 20% to germinate and grow.. I reseeded a week or two later with not much better results. I pondered for some time and finally decided to order some more seed to sow. This time I chose to germinate them and then plant. There was 100% that emerged because I only planted seed that had roots.

This sowing was made well into the zone where I normally do not like to sow seed. It was a warm fall except for the Thanksgiving hissy fit. I planted this germinated seed the week of Christmas. It was slow to come up but it did emerge.

This sowing filled out the holes from the October sowing.

As expected these plants over wintered and began to grow robustly by the middle of February. The first planting began to bloom at this time too. Towards the end of February there were a number of overnight lows in the teens. This knocked the pea blossoms in the dirt. It wasn't until the middle to latter part of March that the first bed began to produce. The second planting was not producing. It was not until the third week of April that this bed came into its own and actually out produced the first bed. The first bed had peaked in harvest, where as the second bed peaked the fourth week of April.

So maybe successions that are planted a week or two apart will “catch up” but with planting a month or better apart there is an extension to the harvest.

Peas are a heat sensitive plant so it really all depends on Mother Nature. Ah yes more things to ponder for next year. Some times these culture changes are just stumbled upon by accident!

Yes what a wonderful bought of precipitation last week. All told a little over an inch. Save for the drip line on the house there was no signs of water flowing. And save for one very brief moment of hail there was no“hard” water. I can handle everything else that Far West Texas throws at me but Hail brings chills to my spine. I can cover and hope for the best. It is all about intensity and duration. I have been very fortunate not to have been on the receiving end of very many of theses events.

This time of year if I am going to be away in the afternoon and there is prospects of precipitation, the garden is covered. Hopefully instead of the the garden being chewed up and left for dead that the plants are just bruised. With bruised plants there still is foliage that can be pruned. Where as with uncovered plants, there may only be bare stems and hopefully the growing points were not nuked by the hail.

Today I anticipate there will be chard, kale, green onions, carrots, beans, and squash. The garlic harvest is nearly completed. I want to select the bulbs for next years crop before I start to sell. The bulb onion harvest will be begin soon. The onion tops are starting to fall over. A big dust devil in the garden really helped with this. A large piece of fabric with several rocks were dragged across the bed. I am glad it was at this time instead of a month ago. The sweets have really started to grow with lots of nice runners. Hopefully by the middle of June I can get the last sweet bed planted.

That succession thingy, timing is everything. I reseeded my lettuce with hopes of having a continuous harvest. But I see the last of the lettuce bolting before the lettuce seedlings are transplant able. There is some lettuce this week but there will be a dry spell before the summer crisp (summer variety of lettuce) harvest can begin.

I see the chances of rain starting to show up more frequently with each passing day. It would be nice to have some regular rain. We can only hope.

May 23, 2016

Avalanche  column

May 19, 2016

Got to love, live and learn. Before moving to west Texas I would soak seeds especially bean seeds before planting. Most places this hastens their germination. With legumes (peas, beans, fava beans….) this is not a good thing to do in far west Texas. Usually soaked seeds will just rot in the soil. Whereas if you soak, germinate and then plant: this will give you a dramatic jump start to the growing season. My thoughts as to why the soaked legumes don’t work for me: the seed walls are fairly ridged which protects the seed, this seed wall prevents bacteria from entering the seed and rotting it. When these seeds are soaked all of these protections are rinsed off in the soaking water. Whereas sown seed keep theses protections around them in the ground and do not appear to be washed away. Now take these soaked seeds and germinate them, they will grow!!

Another seed that does quite well when soaked in water is Okra. It also performs quite well when germinated. Okra can be slow to germinate and these processes hastens okra’s soil emergence.

Noted when dealing with tender roots, SPECIAL care must be made not to break off any of the roots. This is probably the biggest draw back with germinated seed.

I like to germinate seed because it gives me a huge jump start on the growing season.

Summer squash does not germinate well if the soil temperature is below 60 degrees. This spring when the soil in my squash bed was 55 degrees, I planted germinated squash seeds in the cool soil. I cover all my beds with 2 layers of agribon 19. This helps to warm the soil. The squash emerged within the week. Germinated seed will grow in cooler soils than what they can germinate in. Once the seed is germinated the temperature lock is broken and the plant has a genetic disposition to survive and reproduce.

Another advantage of germinating seed is you do not have to sow so much. Since there are roots there soon will be a plant. So there is one seed where each intended plant will grow. I hate thinning seedlings and this eliminates the need to thin.

With small seed it is much more difficult to germinate and plant. I do know of a lady who spaces carrot seed on paper towels. She places one paper towel layer under the seed and one layer over the seed. She then keeps the seed moist to germinate. Once the seed germinates she just places seed and towels in the garden. The seed is perfectly spaced and the towels disintegrate in the garden. A very good reason to germinate carrot seed is that this seed needs to stay consistently moist for up to two weeks to germinate. In our climate it is easier to keep things more evenly moist in a controlled environment.

 

May 19, 2016

Good morning, HOW SWEET IS THE RAIN!!!!!!

Recently my normal supplier of Iron chelate was out of iron chelate so I bought another formulation. It wasn't a powder like my regular kind so I thought I would dissolve the iron granules first before mixing with some nitrogen fertilizer. It didn't dissolve. When all else fails read the directions. It seems that it is a time release formula. Not very applicable to how I normally use it. I like to use it on beans. They get a bit chloritic when they are germinating' especially when I resow “holes” in the bean bed. This would most likely not be a problem if I were to wait and sow in warmer soils. What can I say, I like to push seasons. Anyway I was trying to think what to do with this new iron formulation.

My gray cells reminded me that when I grew soy beans that they were intolerant of our alkaline soils. They would hardly get the first set of secondary leaves and proceed to turn yellow (iron chlorosis) and I would need to medicate them with iron on a weekly schedule to get a harvest. This has been several years ago. I have used a lot of compost since then. This may have moved the PH toward neutral (5.5 to 6.5). My PH was 7+. So I have found a soy bean that is 'broadly” adaptable (wide PH range) and after I sowed these seeds they were top dressed with this time release Iron. Time will tell. The variety is for edamame which could be a nice addition to the rest of my veggie selections.

More than likely if this works it will be quickly evident. I hope that this new soybean is as widely adaptable as it proclaims. As they say proof will be in the pudding!!!

By this writing the seeds are up and have a wonderful green color to them. They also have at least 2 sets of secondary leaves. They are looking good!! We will see if this continues!!

ritters in the garden are always an on going thing. Last year I had a problem ground squirrel in the sweet beds. It managed to ruin 40+ ponds of sweets. This spring it was thinning my cucumber plants. This was happening unbeknownst to me until I noticed some of the larger plants with chewed of leaves. I just thought the cukes were not germinating. I have weighted down the fabric around the edge, this appears to be working. This is only a stop gape measure, the cukes will have to be uncovered. I was hoping that the cat rectified this situation. I am in search of its active hole. If there gets to be a colony this could be a problem.

The sweets are coming along they have been weeded and chelated with nitrogen. They should really start to grow now. Plans are to succession plant another bed of sweets into the blub onion bed.. When I weeded the onion bed it looked like the tops are just about ready to start falling over. Scapes are forming on the garlic. The garlic harvest is on. I do plan to harvest the scapes separately. Scapes can be used instead of garlic in any of your favorite dishes or as one customer suggested used to make pesto. She froze it to use at a latter time and to knock down some of the garlic “attitude”.

There are some eggplant fruits enlarging and both my Nu Mex Big Jim and NuMex Joe Parker chili's have set fruit. Not sure if I will have any peas this week, but the beans are doing fine. The summer squash were planted into a known root knot nematode bed. I may not have started my Azagaurd treatments in this bed soon enough. Harvest quantities seem to be low and some of the yellow squash plants are on the small size. A pulled plant revealed that there was RKN, but not as highly infected as the last crop in this bed. The next squash succession will go into one of the pea beds.

There are blooms starting to develop on the okra. Since the first ripe tom, I have not seen anymore, but they are soooooo close! I just might get my July garden the first of June.

This week I anticipate to harvest chard, kale, green onions, carrots, lettuce, green beans and summer squash. Please email for quantities.

May 16, 2016

May 12, 2016 Avalanche column

When Deb and I moved to town in 2003 we never expected to grow veggies for market let alone grow veggies year round. It was not long before the local bookstore owner asked us to give a couple presentations and garden tours explaining to folks what we do and how we managed to grow year round. It has become one of our goals to encourage more veggie gardeners. Over the years since living in Alpine I have been asked to write columns in various publications. This has then led to giving presentations for Agrilife (county extension agents) twice a year. This is all helpful in getting the gardening word out there.

At the same time I was doing this, a lady associated with the West Texas food bank had her sights on creating a community garden for the community to use. There were a few fits and starts but finally a site behind the West Texas Food Bank was developed. This has been a community effort. A fellow broke up the ground with a plow. Then with a grant, a secure game fence was erected around the garden. Then permanent 8’ X 16’ cinderblock lined beds were made. With the help of future plot adoptees and other volunteers a water distribution system was installed. A tool shed with ample tools for gardeners to use was located just outside the garden proper.

So it has come to pass that there IS a community garden for Alpine

Martha Latta the manager of the community garden has informed me that they currently have 7 plots available. These plots can be adopted for $36 for12 months or $20 for six months.

When you realize what this fee provides you, you can see what a bargain it is!

The fee provides for seeds, water, organic fertilizers, organic pest control, on site compost, fully stocked toolshed, garden classes and workshops along with ample garden advice. Not to forget it is also a great place to visit and meet new friends.

If you feel that you would like to try out your green thumb and to meet new friends contact Martha Latta at mjlattala@gmail.com or call/text at (432)386-2452.

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

May 12, 2016

Good morning, it has been several years ago now, I am thinking it was around 2009 that we had a huge grasshopper outbreak .My eyes were not calibrated to notice the tiny hoppers so by this fault I did not notice the hoppers until they had grown in size. Like so many things the earlier you rectify the problem, the smaller the impact. They were eating through two layers of agribon 19 fabric to get to the veggies. The veggies were not visible through the fabric. I was getting frantic!

 

We did a 10 foot bare earth zone around the garden, handpicked hoppers by flashlight, put fabric over the chicken wire varmint fence (about a 3 foot high obstruction), and set nolo bait cans around the perimeter of the garden. It was about a couple months into this assault that Deb read about guinea fowl being “grasshopper eating machines”. This was in June and we found that Johnson feed had 8 keets (guinea chicks) for sale. Sadly it would not be until the end of August before we could release them to attack the vermin.

 

We were banking on all the other grasshopper abatements to slow the onslaught until the guineas could be released. It was a long couple of months. I would catch quart jar quantities of hoppers to feed to the guineas daily. Devouring them is too moderate of a word to describe their feeding frenzy.

Once they were released they would flank out in lines and set to devastating the population. Not only on our 7 acres but also on the properties that abutted up to ours. By the middle of September the hoppers were no longer a threat!!! We are forever grateful to these birds.

 

Fast forwarding to 2016 we still have 2 of the white guineas left, along with a dark colored one that adopted us over the years. Sadly it has been a couple of years now that a neighbor’s dog slaughtered our 2 remaining hens. So all we have left are a couple of geriatric frustrated male guineas. They seem to be angry old men and chase the chickens relentlessly. They no longer really patrol much either. Although they do seem to annoy me and get into the garden and devour greens that either get uncovered or they peck holes through the fabric. I would like to remove the covers so that beneficial insects or the house sparrows could help control the aphids but not until we do not have guineas.

 

Some would say why not get rid of them, like with the Mormons on the shores of the Great Salt Lake who are forever indebted to sea gulls I too am with my guineas. They still do the spring mating races even though there are no females. Someday I expect they will keel over from a heart attack doing “the race”. Until then they have a place to stay but this is not to say I don’t have a few choice words for them too.

 

The garden continues to mature. Chilies are blooming and there are a few green chilies, the eggplants are starting to bloom, first blooms are showing on the okra, the cukes are starting to bloom. The cucumbers were being particularly difficult this year until I realized a ground squirell was grazing the cukes. Most were eaten as they were emerging. The clue was noticed when a larger plant started to grow in reverse and revealed the severed leaves. I am in negotiations with the cat. She seems to think controlling pocket goffers is enough to satisfy her contract. Last year ground squirrels spoiled over 40 pounds of sweet potatoes. I am willing to share to a point.

 

This year I am seeing how using azaguard on a regular schedule will control my root knot nematodes (RKN). If I do not see plants slowly withering or production numbers drop, this will give me a clue as to how well it is working. Real proof will be when I examine roots after a crop is finished. Favorable signs were revealed when I pulled some bolting lettuce and did not see any root galls. The lettuce is growing in a known RKN bed. Another side benefit is that I am not seeing flea beetles eating on the potatoes. After killing a couple adult squash bugs and crushing 3 or 4 egg clusters, I have not seen either eggs or squash bugs. Almost immediately after uncovering the squash I was seeing striped cucumber beetles and then some spotted ones too. Both of these critters have not increased in numbers but might be declining. I have not seen the azaguard affecting the aphids though. It has been somewhat difficult timing cold pressed neem oil sprayings with the wind. Aphids may become a pest in the past once I can uncover and not worry that the guineas come through and make Swiss cheese out of the Swiss chard.

 

This week I anticipate harvesting: chard, kale, lettuce, green onions, carrots, summer squash, green beans and snow peas. Please email for quantities.

May 9, 2016

avalanche column

May 5, 2016

Recently when I gave a presentation I was discussing the use of cold pressed neem oil. I talked about that it breaks down in eight hours of day light. The hormones within the neem oil cause pests to stop molting and then stop eating with death of the pest soon thereafter.

A comment that I made resonated with the participants, to only mix enough spray mix to use at that time. The unused mixed oil soon starts to degrade (eight hours) and becomes useless.

I have frequently commented on the effectiveness of this pesticide to control bugs. A participant commented on how they would mix up a spray bottle and use this mix all season with no positive results. This may be why I have felt my ears burning. Ah yes, so going forward this person will have better results.

Ah Ha moments are always such great things to happen.

It has been a few years back that I had one in regards to growing bulb onions.

I grew bulb onions with no problem up in Oregon but for the life of me, I could not get anything but green onions that would bolt before a decent bulb would form.

I like to push seasons. I always thought a larger over wintered onion plant would work better for bulb onions. How very mislead I was.

First I learned that there are onions that are adapted to different latitudes. This was news to me. I found that short day onions are best suited for us. In Oregon things stayed cool until spring arrived. Down here it is hot and cold running winters most years. Sixties one day and freezing the next. This was the source of my problem.

I constantly search and glean information out of gardening books and sometimes I hit the jackpot. I found one gardening book that was written for growing onions in the South.

I had heard that you did not want to start onion plants too early but never read a plausible reason to do so (my folly). This gentleman commented that when growing onion seedlings, they MUST remain less than ¼ inch going through the winter, onions ¼ inch or larger have developed hormones that can trigger the flowering process once they resume growth in the spring. Here lied my big problem. I would start my onions at the end of September and would grow seedlings that were ¼ plus inches in size to transplant in the spring.

Now I start them at the beginning of November and have the right sized seedlings to transplant in March. Bulbs follow in June!!!

Good luck and happy gardening!!! Questions? I can be contacted at markdirtfarmer@gmail.com. Or more garden notes at redwagonfarm.blogsot.com 

May 5, 2016

Good morning, this week I would like to mention that the Community Garden on the West side of town behind the West Texas Food Bank has garden plots available. Whether you are a novice or an experienced gardener this is a great deal. It is fully enclosed with a deer fence and there is water available too. Please contact Martha Latta  at mjlattala@gmail.com or call/text at (432)386-2452 and have a great gardening experience.

Say you had a very limited space but you wanted to grow veggies year round..You also wanted easy to care for veggies. Since moving to Alpine I have found such a list. Granted it would become quite boring but it can be done.

These veggies I have sown every month of the year. Although I have found that winter sown seed does get stunted and seed sown the second week of February will out grow any seed that is sown between the middle of November and the first week of February. These veggies will grow in anything that west Texas can throw at them. If these veggies are mulched well, they may not need to be covered with fabric. The covering of fabric does make the leaves much more tender.

This list includes Swiss chard, Toscana (dinosaur) kale, green onions, carrots and beets. Save for the carrots and beets these plants can be cut and let regrow. With chard and kale the lowest oldest leaves are taken and with the green onion the whole plant is cut at ground level and then regrows. A quick way to get green onions going is to purchase some green onions at the store. Cut off about 1/2 inch of onion with roots attached and plant. You will be enjoying green onions soon. Of course eat the onion tops that you cut off.

With two of the above mentioned veggies two are very closely related they are (I love scientific names). These are Beta vulgaris and Beta vulgaris subsps. Vulgaris, cicla group, flavescens group. Ah yes quite a mouth full. Beta is Greek for beet and vulgaris is Latin for common. It seems one of these guys is extra special common.

Beta vulgaris is the common garden beet that comes in red, gold, chioggia (beet with red and white circles), and white

Beta vulgaris subsp. Vulgaris, cicla group, flavescens group is non other that Swiss chard. The group designation that the flavescens group has broad stems and the cila group has wide leaves.

There are a very large number of kale varieties. A number of years back the Toscana kale was suggested to me because it is nutrient dense. It is also quite hardy to boot.

The same with carrots there are a huge number to choose from. I have settled with Amsterdam II. They were bred to be a baby carrot, they are coreless , and quite sweet (especially during the winter).

Growing up I remember having disgustingly terrible canned red beets and fresh boiled Swiss chard (to smithereens) during the summer months. I am not sure why we did not grow carrots but mom was not a kale fan, end of argument.

After leaving home I discovered kale and like it quite a lot. Deb has made kale chips where she strips the leaves from the stem, tosses in flavorings of choice and then the leaves are dried in a food dehydrator until crisp. A very healthy choice to potato chips. Of course it can be eaten raw, juiced, stir fried, dehydrated and used as a soup thickener. A versatile veggie.

Having the fond memories of youth, it was not until moving here that I tried fresh beets. I was growing veggies for sale and a customer requested the specialty beets (note above list) and for some reason never returned my messages when they were ready for harvest. There was a little enhanced vocabulary and then we set out to figure what to do with several square feet of beets. We found the very best way to cook them besides making them into a borsch was to roast them. Hands down roasting is my favorite. Especially if they are caramelized a little and the sweetness is concentrated.

As for chard it is very adaptable. It can be eaten raw, stir fried, steamed, sauteed, added to soups eaten raw. An interesting note from a snow bird that was staying in Alpine for the winter, he commented how he really liked the salty flavor that our chard has. He said that their chard in Wisconsin did not taste the same. I think this is due to our alkaline soils.

As for carrots and green onions they can be eaten raw cooked with roasts or even flavor soups. Just what ever your heart desires.

So these veggies can be grown year round uncovered although if we were to have one of those chilly winters of our recent past it wouldn't hurt to throw a blanket over them for the duration. Just like an insurance policy to keep these veggies coming.

The garden keeps cruising along. The recent cool snap will keep the peas around a bit longer. This past Sunday I picked the first harvest of green beans. I hope to be listing them soon. O f course the cool spell will slow down everything but I am sure the warmth will soon return. Even though it is April I have seeded another bed of carrots. I am hoping the cooler weather will play into my favor. Carrots can take 2 weeks to germinate and need to remain constantly moist for that time. With wind storms and low humidity, this can be a challenge. It pays too have beds waiting in case opportunity knocks.

It has been a umber of years back that I tried growing soy beans. At that time I found that our alkaline soils did not work well with soybeans. They stayed small and were always fighting iron chlorosis. I have found an Iron chelate that is time released so I am going to give soy beans a whirl again. This could be interesting. The variety is specificity grown for edamame. The soy beans will fill out the rest of my beds, I will have 32 of 32 beds in production. A first in a number of years. I am usuing Azaguard to help combat root knot nematodes instead of solarizing. Time will tell how well this works if mortality is minimal and then buy root observation when I pull the plants this fall. I am very hopeful for this approach. Trenching around beds and burying plastic is more work than what I really care to do.

This week I anicipate harvesting chard, kale, green onions, carrots, lettuce, summer squash and beans. Beets are finished until the next bed is mature.

May 2, 2016

avalanche column

April 28, 2016

Oh yes it does seem like it is that time of year when gale force winds and hail storms are around the corner.

Without the use of row covers this time of year can be quite difficult for gardeners. Hopefully this year we do not get late season freezes like we have gotten in the past.

Those adventurous gardeners who their gardens have already planted it is of the highest importance to keep an eye on weather forecasts. This can give you a clue as to what the weather may do that day.

It is important that with row covers / fabric that you keep it off of the plants by using hoops. There are two reasons. Freezing temperatures will translocate right through the fabric and burn leaves that are touching the fabric. Windy days can abrade young seedlings to the ground while mature plants can be bruised. With a daylong wind storm there will be some plant contact but nothing like if the fabric was left to “float” over the plants.

With hail storms duration and intensity are all important. Forty five minutes of pea sized hail that turns the ground white can do more damage than 5 minutes of golf ball hail. These storms are all the “luck of the draw”

I use two thicknesses of fabric. The light one is almost like sheer cloth (ag 19) and the other is like denim (ag 70).  Of course the 70 gives the best protection but to cover all the beds would be extremely expensive. I reserve this for my more valuable crops. The use of 2 layers of 19 is really good hail protection. During one golf ball sized storm: uncovered beds were sent through a meat grinder; single layer of 19, the hail was slowed but went through but with the 2 layers most just bounced off.

There are only a few crops that I do not leave covered for the full season; these are in the cucurbit family (squash, melons, cucumbers…). These crops need to be pollinated. The rest of the veggies that have flowers are (for the most part) self-fertile and can be kept covered. This is an immense help going into hail season.

Sooo if you will be gone all day, especially mid to late afternoon, it would do no harm to your cucurbits to leave them covered all day. This would be much preferred than coming home to confetti.

If by chance you are unfortunate and get clobbered by a hail storm, it is absolutely imperative to clean up all of the shredded foliage immediately! For the cucurbits, all of the shredded foliage is a calling card to cucumber beetles and the party will be on. Once when I worked away from home and was side slapped with hail mid-week, I was overrun with cucumber beetles by the weekend. Time is of the essence.

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