July 28, 2016

Good morning, I have been looking back at some of my old emails from 2011 to compare to this year. The summers are quite similar but the winter and springs could not be any different.

The winter of 2011 had some of the coldest weather seen in West Texas for many years. Two freezing events got down to single digits with one really snuggling up close to zero. It also was pretty dry. Whereas this year was coolish and with a little moisture early on and then turned mostly dry.

2011 spring brought with it some very strong winds that fanned some very large fires then turned real hot. Quite a contrast in just a few months from coldest weather to some of the hottest seen in years. Funny how I hose end watered throughout that whole summer and into the next summer before I saw the light and went to a drip system. I did enjoy the nightly sorties with the water hose but it got real tedious starting to water at 2 AM and then finish watering at 2 PM only to start it over again that night. It did beat me up.

I feel 2016 is a lot hotter than 2011 because the veggies are showing it. I did not have enough compost to mulch all of the beds. These unmulched beds are the plants that are showing the stress from our extreme evaporation / transpiration rates the most. This will be rectified going forward. Something that has never happened before is sun scald through the fabric. Kind of lets me know how intense it has been out side.

This year is the first year that I have lived in West Texas that I have witnessed complete shut down of growth due to heat. There is one exception besides the usual hot weather plants (okra and sweet potatoes). Swiss chard has just thrived. I keep expecting it to slow but I can not harvest it fast enough. I believe this is due to the drip system and being able to really deep water it.

One huge difference between these years are the numbers of bugs. Since there was no rain to speak of in 2011, 2011 was a bug free year. 2O12 made up for this because we got rain.

This year it has been one bug right after the other with two taking the crown. Thrips that started on my onions and cucumber beetles which are everywhere. I have found multiple organic sprays that I can use and my approach to both of these bugs will be different. I will monitor for them and on first sighting go after them full scale.

I have thought in the past that if you have an infestation in your garden that your soil fertility is off. I have grown to think that sometimes the conditions are such that you have a full”bloom” so to speak. All you can do is lessen their impact. Of course always striving for soil fertility because healthy soil means healthy plants and healthy plants can out grow an infestation.

So 2011 and 2016 are very similar but also very different. And YESSS this too will pass.

Today I will harvest chard, kale, lettuce, carrots green onions, cucumbers, okra, summer squash, butternut squash, and tomatoes. Please email for quantities.

July 25, 2016

Avalanche column 

July 21 2016

Yes it has been nice to get the recent rain but it is not a time to be complacent in the garden. Many other things are enjoying the moisture too!

For starters it is nice to see a little greening of the hill sides and one just might start to see a little greening in the garden besides the preferred veggies. Weeds at a 1/16 of an inch do not look imposing but they will not stay small for long.

I have frequently heard “I sure have a weed problem in my garden” Oh but the question should be; did you notice the problem when the weeds were 1/16 of an inch or when they became much much bigger?

Myself, I like to use what is called a hula hoe. It is also called a stirrup hoe or even a swivel hoe. Any way they cut in a push and pull motion. I go through the paths and beds, preferably of an afternoon  when the sun is out and the soil surface is dry. The cut tiny weeds desiccate in minutes and die. To do this when it is overcast and the soil is moist, a large portion of these weeds will reroot.  Don’t worry about getting 100%, the next day you can quickly go through and do a cleanup. This is very important for a couple reasons.

After spending effort to build soil fertility in your beds, allowing weeds to use this fertility is not a good thing. By keeping your paths clear of weeds, makes a clear zone that potential insects must cross to get to your veggies. With weeds, bugs have no problem making it to the “dinner table”.

It is very important to notice insects when they first hatch, this is especially so with grasshoppers. The smaller they are the easier they are to control. There are a lot of organic controls to use on grasshoppers. I must say the fear that I once had with the sight of grasshoppers hoards is a thing of the past.

Some of these controls are: Nolo bait, fabric covers over veggies, a solid fence around the garden, 10 foot clear zone outside the fence, then as a last resort the use of cold pressed neem oil.

 I make a 1% solution by adding 1 1/3 tablespoons of cold pressed neem (not clarified hydrophobic neem) to ½ teaspoon of liquid soap mixed with ½ cup water. Shake vigorously then mix with 1 gallon of water. To prevent leaf burn, spaying is done of an evening when the sun is not as high or hot and the beneficial insects are less active. Always read the label and WEAR appropriate clothing.

Cold pressed neem oil can control a lot of harmful insects. Good luck and happy gardening!!!

July 21, 2016

Good morning, I start this week with a recent comment from the NOAA weather service in Midland. It really helps explain plant issues.

 

.CLIMATE...
How hot has it been this month? When we considered the average
monthly temperature (average of daily high/daily lows) Midland
Intl is on track to be the hottest on record. As of yesterday
morning the average daily temperature was 89.5, about 7.6 above
normal. So far the average high temp for July is 103.1 and in
2011 the average high for July was 99.8 and July of 1998 was
100.2. The record of data goes back to 1930.

 

(this was written during last weeks “warmth”) I am so grateful for my drip system! Keeping the garden hydrated through the summer in 2011 when there was maybe 5 inches of rain really beat the tar out of me. I do not think I could do that again (this is where we stand with precipitation this year).

We normally do not get too many days of triple digits but we do seem to be getting our fair share this year. I have not recorded any 100 degree days yet but 99.5 is only splitting hairs. Try telling Deb's dogs or the chickens its not just flat out hot.

Strange as it would seem I have not noticed any slow down in the garden. This could be due to most everything being covered with fabric. This week may be the week when slow down occurs. (yes the brick wall arrived and harvest quantities have diminished)

The cucumbers do not seem to be slowing much either but I am sure they will be bitter due to the heat. Cutting off the stem end and peeling them should rectify this. Bitterness is not genetic, it is in the skin.

(with the heat it has been difficult keeping the cukes hydrated and yes even though it has cooled, the cuke harvest has diminished)

Confusion with a number of my solenacea continues. I am thinking this is all heat related and once there is long term cooler, the unexpected moralities will stop.

This year is another extreme lesson in what is called the evaporation / transpiration rate. Evaporation is soil moisture loss due to solar radiation and heat. Transpiration is the amount of water that is pulled through the plant by capillary action. This is the water that is used for all plant processes.

Depending on the readily available water, this will determine plant size. If a plant is used to more water and the plant is of size and then this water availability declines: the plant may die back to compensate for this discrepancy or it could just die.

As the evaporation / transpiration rate increases by heat, wind and solar radiation, water MUST be increased or decreased evaporation with mulch. With luck this will maintain the size of a plant until more favorable growing conditions return.(this does not mean you are watering less, it means you have to water more. I have bumped my drip run time from 4 hours up to 5 3/4 hours. It seems to be working)

There is a lady in South County that emailed me last week and briefly described what she is doing to be able to grow veggies in her area. By trial and error she is learning how to adapt to her environment. She will be able to teach us some very important ways to adapt to adverse conditions. I look forward to future emails from her.

One last note, NOAA and Weather Underground are predicting that the conditions in the Atlantic will soon become more favorable for storms to develop. Not that I wish it on the coast but oh what I would give for some hurricane moisture not to mention cloud cover!!!.

Anticipated harvest:chard, kale, carrots, lettuce, chilies,squash (yellow and green), cukes and toms. Please ask about quantities.

July 18, 2016

avalanche column

JULY 14, 2016

The season from July until freezing can be the easiest time of year to grow veggies in West Texas. Especially if we get summer rains. I do remember the summer of 2011 and it was an extension of June and was just plain hot and dry. If I had not gotten my garden well established before the normal angry months, I may have been up the creek with outa paddle.

In a normal year this time of year can grow anything. It just about makes gardening look easy. Cooler temps below triple digits, very little wind, afternoon clouds and rain. What more could you want.

For the folks that have not started a garden there still is plenty of time. If you haven’t started your own plants you will need to purchase seedlings.

July is when I like to do a number of succession crops such as green beans and summer squash. This helps to extend these veggies into the fall, with luck up to freeze. July squash plants are more vigorous and can fend off powdery mildew which will soon raise its head around the middle of August.

Usually by the end of august there is some cooling and some of the fall crops can be started. These would include the brassica’s, parsnips, fall lettuce, carrots, beets and green onions. Last year the end of august was quite warm and a number of these crops did not do well whether they were direct seeded or planted to a seed bed for latter transplanting.

This year I plan to germinate and or grow seedlings inside to be transplanted. Carrots and green onions do not mind the heat and can be direct seeded to their beds. Extreme care must be made to keep them moist.

Parsnips if they could be sown at the beginning of August would make larger roots but they seem not to like temps above the mid-eighties. Last August this was the case too and I had a very poor germination. I plan to germinate and sow them around the end of August. Much latter than this and they will not get any size. The brassicas are transplanted to their finishing beds around the end of September.

I have attempted to sow peas and spinach at the end of August with very poor results. Both of these crops like it cooler. I wait until the middle of October to sow them.  Last year the middle of October was still too warm and there was not a very good take on these veggies. Depending how warm it is, this fall, I will germinate and then sow. I have frequently mentioned that veggies will grow in warmer or cooler conditions than what they will germinate.

July 14, 2016

Good morning, Root knot nematodes can very easily cause a gardens demise. Once you get them, you will always have them, with luck in a somewhat controlled state.

I have tried a number of “controls” with different degrees of success.

This year , I have mentioned on several occasions that I am using Azagaurd and administer it through my drip system. I have pulled some plants to examine the roots. I have not noticed the huge galls that I have gotten in the past. Also there are only 3 beds where I have noticed plant mortality. One plant did not show galling and is a point of confusion for me as to what caused its demise. As for the other beds RKN was the cause.

I have noticed in some of the beds that I know are infected with RKN wilt on these hot sunny days . But with the drip system they can be rehydrated. These areas do produce veggies but at a much reduced rate. It will be interesting to inspect these roots come this fall.

It has been documented that cereal rye (not annual rye) is a trap crop. What information I have gleamed is, the females enter the roots and the young can not leave. I would be glad to hear from anyone that may have heard different. Cereal rye is most often used as a winter cover crop and seems to be planted at that time for a trap crop too.

Now there are a lot of tasks that I do in the garden that do not fully occupy my mind, so I find myself getting into some serious dissecting of subjects and this cereal rye trap crop is one of them.

This winter planting of cereal rye to trap nematodes does not seem logical and the best you would do is build biomass in the garden. Building organic matter in the soil is also one of the control methods for RKN. The decomposing organic matter reeks havoc on RKN ( actually it is the bacteria decomposing the rye) but would not trap them.

So back to the cereal rye trap crop. During the winter RKN either go dormant, die or for any rate do not pose a problem to plants. RKN are active in soils above 60 degrees. RKN do not move deeper into the soil horizon because they are very slow movers. It is mechanical means that they do most of their traveling and not on their own. Studies have shown they move less than a foot per year on their own.

I have nothing to back this up with but I suspect that the adult RKN die when the soil gets cool. It is the eggs that hatch in the spring that infect the bed (eggs are a very secure and safe for pests, it is when they are least vulnerable). This is why when removing infected plants, removing as many of the galls is a very good thing.

So as all this is bouncing around in my brain, I think why not plant the cereal rye during their active time of year and then bake the rye with clear greenhouse film. If my premise that the females enter the plants, lay eggs and the young cannot leave this would have a potential to reduce their populations.

Of course this sounds good on paper. I have a squash bed that is in maturity decline (of course hastened by the RKN) and a portion of a cucumber bed that has a replacement already in place. Soooo we will give this a whirl. There will not be anyway to quantify this until next year. Of course as if I need any inspiration to look forward to the next season. Anyone with RKN experience with cereal rye trap crops, I would most certainly like to hear from you. Thanks in advance!!

There are a number of resistant crops and most are in the mustard family. These crops I grow in the cooler months when RKN is not active. Most of these mustard crops do not grow as well in our summer heat. I have grown Idaho Gold Mustard that has been reported to have nemacidal properties. Here again, I have grown this in the winter and have turned it in well before the RKN are active. So it is hard for me to quantify the effectiveness of these crops resistance or nemacidal properties they may have. Here again I do have some Idaho Gold Mustard that I need to see if it will grow in our summer heat.

This week I will harvest chard, kale, lettuce, carrots, green beans, summer squash, butternut squash, cucumbers and tomatoes. Please ask about quantities.

Iam experiencing some problems in my chili and eggplant beds. I have no idea if there are any to harvest. Likewise with my tomatoes, although I have noticed the toms have started to regrow. I should not run out of them but there will be a diminished supply for a while. It has been a strange growing year with some anomalies that have been confusing. I am hoping to rectify this in the near future.

July 11,2016

avalanche column

July 7, 2016

The angry months can very easily discourage new arid land gardeners. April, May, and June are the months that are hardwired into the majority of folks to start their gardens. Yes I have seen April showers but more common there are only winds storms with the only precipitation being dust!

Having started the majority of my seedlings early for late winter planting along with sowing the remainder of the garden by the middle of March, these plants are well rooted and loaded with fruit to ripen through theses months. They can do this because they have deep well established roots.

There are a couple veggies that seem to prefer hot weather. These are okra and sweet potatoes.

Okra can be sown by the middle of April straight from the seed packet. If you soak and sow or even soak germinate and sow, you can very easily hasten your okra harvest.

Sweet potatoes are grown from slips which are rooted cuttings. Once the sweets are established and sending out runners, cuttings can be made and planted. I grow Beauregard’s and they are a 90 to 100 day crop. A crop planted the middle of April can potentially start to be harvested in August. Cuttings rooted in June / July can be harvested October to November before any freeze. Sweets hate being cool. Soil below 50 degrees and the tubers begin to rapidly degrade.

The cuttings do not need to be rooted to grow. Make a hole with a 1/2 inch dowel eight or so inches deep and place a cutting from your sweet bed that has at least 3 leaf nodes. The big leaves are clipped off and the cutting is placed in the hole with the tip only being exposed. Collapse the hole and water thoroughly.

With okra and sweets it is a good thing to mulch the beds to help retain moisture and then covered with fabric (flat on the ground). At least 2 layers of 19 for the okra and 2 layers of the heavy fabric over the sweets. Once the seeds sprout and the sweets resume growth, the fabric can start to be raised. Once these crops have a little size to them the covers are removed.

As for all the other crops they have been covered with at least 2 layers of 19 and there is extra fabric on the side in case of freezing weather or “hard water” (hail). The only exception is with the cucurbits (squash, cucumbers, melons…), they need to be uncovered to allow bees to pollinate.

This season is our hail season and covers need to be ALWAYS at the ready in case of an event. It is a lot easier on the plants for them to be covered all day if you will be “away” than to have them run through a meat grinder. It does make covering easier by having all but the cucurbits covered.

July 7, 2016

Good morning, I figured this could very easily be a very buggy year. One of the first clues was when I first took off the summer squash covers. It seemed it wasn't even an hour and striped cucumber beetles were on the flowers. What with the rain I have noticed lots of very young grasshoppers. Not to forget squash bugs too. This combined with root knot nematodes (RKN) could make one pause,

It has been a couple years since I put in a drip system. This has worked beyond my wildest dreams.

Last fall I installed an injector on this drip system. I wanted to try a refined neem oil product to combat the RKN. With the drip system I can deliver this product down into the entire root system of my veggies. I will be curious to see what the root balls look like when I pull the plants at the end of the season. There have been a few plants that I have pulled and looked at their roots. So far I have not seen the massive galling that I have found in years past. I have only found one plant that has died from this infection. I am also curious to see what happens with the second year of Azaguard use.

Since starting to use Azaguard on a by-weekly basis, I have noticed that all of the above mentioned insects have been somewhat subdued but their populations are swelling. Albeit much slower than in years past. I do find a few adult squash bugs, some egg cases and a few colonies of nymphs. But not the invasion of years past.

A friend gave me some seeds for a Japanese winter squash. Normally I have no room to put “given” seeds so late in the year, because my garden is planned in October. I had a bed of lettuce bolt and thought what the heck so this squash was sown.

Funny when I took the covers off it when the squash started to bloom, every cucumber beetle in the garden flocked to it. I did not realize I had so many. You could barely see some of the leaves from the feasting. It is to be noted all of the feeding on any other cucurbit halted when the covers came off this squash. I was concerned. I used a pyrethrum spray on the plants because it is a very effective contact spray. This worked and the feeding was halted or at least slowed immensely. This pyrethrum is intended to be rotated with other sprays so that bugs do not build up an immunity to it. At this spraying I had not found another spray to use. So off to the internet.

I like how neem oil works where it is a contact and can also be ingested. Then within eight hours of sunlight is broken down. But neem oil alone will not touch cucumber beetles.

One of my frequented sustainable ag sites recommended the combination of cold pressed neem and karanja oil at a 50 / 50 mix. A note: last year I tried this combo and wither it was the time of evening or I had not made proper proportions, but I burned the foliage very badly. I did not like the results and stopped using the combo and went back to using just neem.

Because I had not found a secondary spray for cucumber beetles, I decided to try it again at much reduced mix levels. In a 3 gallon sprayer I used 2 Tbs each. I then sprayed at 4 o'clock in the morning. This was to let it dry before sunrise and hopefully not burn the leaves.

Well it worked and the two together do appear to work better together than just the neem oil. The pyrethrum spray collapsed the population and the mix is continuing the decline of the beetles. We still have a good amount of cucumber beetle “season” ahead of us.

My research also brought up the use of a natural soil born fungus that is a contact spray but acts very much like Bt works on caterpillars. It is recommended to be used on soft bodied insects and weevils. Johnny's Selected Seeds also lists it for use on cucumber beetles. I have not used it yet, but another insect that it is suggested to be used on are aphids. This spray supposedly will not harm beneficial insects and is not photo toxic to plants. This could be useful on spinach and brassicas in the winter along with my chili plants. Neem oil on chili's will make the flowers and fruit drop like rocks. This is why I have left my chili's uncovered to minimize aphid populations. There has been a steady increase if lady bugs but it has been slow. Uncovered chili's with the intense sun and heat mean sun scaled fruits. Ah yes this interconnectedness of everything. Trial and error and hopefully something works.

I do feel positive about the cold pressed neem oil / karanja oil mix. Time will tell.

This week I will harvest chard, kale, carrots, lettuce, beans, tomatoes, chilies, eggplant and summer squash. Please ask about quantities.

July 4, 2016

Avalanche column June 30, 2016

It is at the beginning of the winter/spring season that I start my Alliums (onions and garlic). This is a perfect time to sow onion seed so they maintain a small size for March transplanting. This is also a good time to plant garlic. The garlic gets well rooted and the tops are not too tall. This keeps them from becoming vulnerable to potential hard winter freezes. These are long season crops and I keep a single layer of 19 (on the side) to help protect their tender growth when they start growing in earnest. Late freezes can kill leaves that will limit the size of both these crops and the single layer of 19 prevents this. It is only used for cold snaps. Left on it could prematurely ripen these crops.

The middle of December is the beginning of my spring. How could this be? This is when I start my first tomato seedlings and the bulk of my other Solanaceae seedlings to be set out the 15^th of February and the first week of March (weather permitting).

Besides the tomatoes there are my chili’s (poblano, New Mex Big Jim, New Mex Joe parker,…) and eggplants. Starting them at this date they become nice sized seedlings to be set out at their designated times.

Most folks may think this is a foolish time to set frost sensitive plants out, but with the use of agriculture fabric, this is not so. I always plant into a warming phase. These plantings were delayed a year or so ago when there was ice and snow up until the middle of March. I have found by the middle of February there is a constant and steady warming so that agriculture fabric can harvest this warmth for overnight use. There have been many 20 degree nights that are easily survived with the fabric.

The big reason for pushing these plantings is to have well established plants going into April, May, and June aka the angry months. I find it easier to protect plants from freezing than to try growing plants that want to go dormant due to high temperatures, low humidity and wind.

Around the middle of February succession crops of chard and kale are sown. In recent years these crops have gotten enough winter chill and forces them to bolt once they resume vigorous spring growth.

Beets, carrots green onions, radishes, summer squash, winter squash, beans, and cucumbers are sown at this time too. Everything is grown under fabric. At least four layers of 19 for the squash, beans and cucumbers.

Yes there is the great chance that I could lose all of these plantings, but I am OK with that. There is a greater chance that I will succeed than to lose these crops. I continue to be increasingly confident with the wise use of fabric through many years of trial and error.