March 30, 2017

Good morning, yes it is getting back to that time of year when the weatherman starts mentioning the dry line. It is because of this dry line that I prefer to be on the west side, even though being on the west side of the dry line means we will be without precipitation. Don't get me wrong I would love to have a decent rainfall event.It is all the other baggage that comes with being on the east side of the dry line that I don't want.

It would be nice if it were only water of the wet kind that precipitated from storms that are formed along this line. Hail is the biggest demon that comes to mind from these dry line storms. Fortunately for us we do not or at least very often get tornado's that can also develop along these lines.

Personally I would settle for just watering by hand until the spring weather settles out and the above mentioned demons no longer raise their ugly heads.

I can handle all the other weather that West Texas throws my way, but the sound of a freight train coming my way and I do not see a train on the rail road tracks just to the north of me that just gives me a real sense of fear and unknowing.

Fortunately for me I have not had a hail storm that meat grinds the garden back to bare earth.

I have seen the leavings from one of these storms in Alpine. It was not pretty!!

It is because of hail that I am experimenting with using my heavy fabric full term on my tomato crop. At this time I have not seen any signs of light depraved plants. This was true even when I planted them on the 25th of January. For over a month there was the single layer of 70 and 2 layers of 19,with no signs of "not enough light".

Through trial and error I have found that 2 layers of 19 can deflect most quarter inch hail. There are only bruised plants. Where as a single layer of 19, most any size of hail will rip through.When this happens, leaves and stems are pulverized from the plants and immediate cleanup is required so that any and all pests are not called to the garden.

The reasons for wanting to see if I can go full term with 70 with the tomatoes are: superior hail protection and a better pest barrier for the whole season. Depending how windy or hail prone the year has been, even 2 layers of 19 can get pretty ratty by the middle of August.

The middle of August brings another pest to the tomatoes.This pest is very easily prevented access to the toms with the use of an intact cover. Tomato pin worms will destroy a crop and all the time it just looks like the tomato plants are tired. Tomato plants fade from the inside out and not from outside in. 

Tomato pin worms attack the growing points of the plant. This effectively prevents any replacement of the older parts of the plant and thus the tomato slowly dies.

So any way I am hoping that the heavy fabric is a success and will make it very easy to minimize the effects of two "pests" at one time.

This week I harvested chard, kale , spinach, Asian greens, green onions, beets and turnips.

Sadly the turnips are finished after this week, and the spinach is seriously beginning to bolt. I am making some pea harvests.

The summer crops continue to grow. I have seen some small flower buds on the okra. These first ones usually abort. Although the beans will be in full bloom soon. There are dozens of set tomatoes. All in all everything is looking good for an early harvest in the near future. It is my hope that the veggie transition goes smoothly. So far so good. There may need to be duplicates in the bags. Or if I am unable to completely fill orders I will bill for the portion I do.

Silly me last night I felt that distinct chill to the air that it would get colder than the weather man predicted so I did put extra covers on everything but neglected to drain the drip system. 

As usual the first thing I did after awakening was to check the temp. 37 degrees,convection freeze temps.

So it was out to the garden to drain the system, All is well. 

March 23, 2017

Good morning, Trial and error is most likely the best way to learn. I remember as a landscaper with a landscaping company I would try and save crew members the grief of failure.

Since this time I have come to redefine failure. Traditionally failure is considered any time you do not succeed. Failure and success go hand in hand. Failure is anytime that you make a mistake, you A: do not learn from this mistake or B: you decide success is not attainable and you give up.

When I moved to Alpine from Central Oregon I tried some of the techniques I used there and soon found that I was not having as good of success as I had there. It also soon dawned me that the gardening seasons in West Texas are quite different from anywhere else that I have gardened.

I set out to define the seasons and what veggies to plant at those times. I found there to be 3 distinct seasons. This changed everything.

With this new season description I was then able to match veggies with the times that they would grow best for me. Broccoli and other Cole crops would over wintered crops. This allowed them to mature during the coolest time of year and thus develop the best flavor. When these crops are grown in the spring ( which is very short) they became aphid magnets and harvests were dismal. Peas I tried also in the spring and found it to be a non starter, so I tried them as a fall crop. Sowing in late August early September (if you could get them to germinate in very warm soils) would start to bloom just as the freezes hit. Pea foliage is more forgiving of freezes but the blossoms would just drop. So I thought why not sow in late fall (a time of year more favorable to cool loving peas) over winter as small seedlings and mature just as things are warming up. This has worked 2 years in a row, the third year the peas are now enlarging and the harvest will start any day. Bulb onions also had their trial and error. I always thought having a nice sized onion plant going through the winter would make larger onions in the Spring. I would start the plants in September only to get few if any to bulb up. Most would bolt. I just could not figure out what was going wrong.

I like gardening books. I especially like to find out the tricks that the various authors have discovered and then relate to their readers. One such book had my “bingo” moment. Onion seedling over 1/4 inch is big enough to be a mature onion. This means when the temperature drops below 50 degrees the seedling will go through vernalization. Which means when the soil warms the onion plant thinks it has gone through its second year and begins to flower and thus no bulb. I start the seedlings on the first of November, over winter as seedlings less than 1/4 inch, transplant in early March for bulbs in June.

I have always thought that if something is not working, I like to default to operator error!! All the solutions above took time to trial and error, evaluate and then try something different until success came. The operator error default worked.

I remember a few years back that a gardening class took a garden tour in my garden. The instructor was “gob smacked” to see that I was growing snow peas successfully in West Texas. The instructor recently had discouraged the students of growing peas in Far West Texas. Having defined the seasons in West Texas then allowed me to pair up veggies with the best time of the year to grow them. This makes for less stressed plant and more likely harvests. Trial and error combined with patience ha paid off. I am still working on Irish potatoes!

March 20, 2017

Flea beetles are one of those bugs in small numbers are not a problem in the garden. With severe outbreaks, they can impact the plants ability to make food. Their calling cards are obvious even if you do not see these guys. What folks see first are tinny little “skylights” in the leaves. As their populations grow, there will be a movement that you notice as you walk up to the effected plants. It is only when you study the plant closely that you see tiny (<1/16 inch) beetles. They are darkish in color.

One thing that is important to know about flea beetles, they abhor shade. They especially like single rows of plants that have been mulched. This arrangement gives them lots of sun an a nursery (the mulch) to hatch the next generations.

Last fall I had left some dead plant material in place (thinking it would be a good mulch) and then seeded a turnip bed. Wellll this really made the flea beetles happy.

There are a few things you can do to thwart these guys. I must say for the most part flea beetle invasions are cosmetic and do not harm the plant. I have not read where their feeding can cause mosaic virus like with cucumber beetles and larvae. I like to say that the presence of their “skylights” is a proof of purchase. Meaning that they are organic and quite safe for people to eat. Like I said only in big outbreaks do they need to be controlled.

Ah yes what to do? For starters do not plant into an existing mulch. Sowing the seed and then immediately covering with fabric. Bed culture works well because as the plants achieve crown closure (where the whole bed is covered with foliage) any flea beetles are driven away.

Say you have flea beetles and they are a problem with you (each person has their own tolerance levels) there is a very easy cure. Pulverize a garlic bulb and then let it ferment a few days in a qt. of water. After it has fermented , strain out the garlic pulp. It needs to be a fairly fine strainer because a portion of this liquid will then be put in a sprayer. Fill the spray bottle with water , then spray you effected plants. This will immediately chase off the beetles away. Then secure the bed by immediately covering your plants.

Because I cover most all of my plants I rarely have a problem with them. That is unless I do something stupid and sow a very vulnerable flea beetle crop right into the flea beetle nursery.

There are a few crops that tend to be more vulnerable than others. Eggplants and potatoes are hands down the most favored followed by beans and then the veggies that are close allies of turnips and radishes.

Good luck and happy gardening.

March 16, 2017

Good morning, Yes it does look like the extra early planting may work out. I do see a little cool weather induced Chlorosis in the chilies and eggplants. This should change as the weather warms. The okra is really growing slowly. I am curious to see if this cooler soil sowing will just stunt the okra's growth and force me to resow. This is new territory. The soil thermometer is creeping up to 70.

t has been a few years back that I tried to over winter a few chilies, eggplants, and okra. It also happened to be a winter that we got a fair amount of winter precipitation too. Normally our soils do not drop below the forties but with ice and snow melt, the soil several inches down dropped into the 30,s. Not very good for these over wintered veggies.

I had trimmed all these plants back to the very lowest leaves and covered them during the coldest days with 6 or so inches of compost. This all could have very easily worked if it was not for the snow and ice melt. Most everything did not survive but the eggplants. All of the leaves I had carefully left, expired. It was sprouts from below the ground that grew and really did quite well. They ended up being behind my transplants but 7 of the 8 eggplants had survived. I think it was the chilled soil that did the other plants in. It is strange that most literature about eggplants says it does not like cool to cold conditions. Maybe it is the variety I grow or because it is from saved seeds but I have not noticed this temperament from the eggplants that I grow. Although I have not been pleased with the small size of fruit from my eggplants I decided to use the same variety but with fresh seed form a seed house on line. We will see if it is a weather thing or a genetic thing.

Anyway back to the over wintered Solanaceae. I am going to give it another whirl. This time I will do everything I did in the past but I think I will cover with plastic film if there is going to be an ice event. This may help keep the soil warmer. I think if these plants could regrow from the overwintered branches they possibly could out perform fresh seedlings for no other reason than they would have mature root systems with very small tops. All of these plants are perennial in their native countries.

It really is not a lot of extra work and the time of year is slower in the garden. What the hey a little mind candy. If eggplants can overwinter in a nasty year, who's to say what it will do in a warmer year.

This really does fit quite nicely into what a think permaculture really is, long lived plants on a grid pattern.

Traditional permaculture would not work for me, because it is a totally random spacing because everything sprouts from seeds that landed where they fell last fall. This would work for someone's kitchen garden. I just like the production that one can achieve with a grid planting pattern.

Anyway it would be interesting to have non traditional perennial plants.  

This week I harvested chard , kale, spinach, Asian greens, lettuce, beets, and turnips. Please email as to availability. My Card and kale are beginning to grow nicely. I hope to list them soon. 

March 13, 2017

The other day out In the garden and low and behold I noticed the first carrot rust fly swarming. For some reason they seem to be attracted to the the white row cover fabric. Usually these guys (their larvae really) cause cosmetic damage to carrots. The larvae will eat into the carrots. Except in major out breaks the damage is minimal. Their mating frenzy only lasts a week or two. They are not very big, less than a 1/4 inch and dark colored.

These guys will have several hatches through out the year. In bad years I have had 4 hatches.

A lot of the control is making sure that after harvesting a bed that all the remaining carrots are removed so that there is no food for any larvae. I find that the use of row covers prevents any access to the carrots. An important fact that also helps with their control is that they are active for a very short time each day. From around 9 AM until early afternoon. So if your beds are covered you can briefly work them in the morning and longer in the evening..

They are not strong fliers so they are less active on windy days. They also do not fly very far off the ground, maybe 2 feet. So solid barriers can also help with their control.

So really just paying attention that they are around and few cultural practices their damage can be minimized or eliminated.

The next swarming will be in June followed by August with the last in the fall. So by not doing anything by the last mating a person could have a dandy population to over winter and be really pummeled in the spring. There are lots of good pictures on line. So as they say forewarned is forearmed!

Good luck and happy gardening.

March 9, 2017

Good morning, This week The YT Ranch will be to market. I was asked if the brisket will be cooked. It will be frozen uncooked. I forgot to ask Rob as to how big they will be. So I do not know. Be sure to come down and get some grass fed beef.

It has been a number of years now that I have been posting garden stuff on my Red Wagon Farm Blog. It really amazes me the number of countries that have come to the site. There have been over 25 different countries including the US. I have had viewers from every continent save Antarctica. From the tropics to the Arctic circle there have been views. I have always hoped that I would get a comment back from one of these places.

Recently this has come true. A fellow from the Kingdom of Bhutan and I are in conversation pretty regularly. And of course the subject is gardening.

My friend lives in a very unique area in the Himalayas. He can be considered high elevation at about 9600 feet (2900 meters). There still is a lot of mountain to climb behind him. One would think that this would be a bone chilling climate to garden. This could not be further from the truth. It is a cool temperate plant zone. A note must be made like most of the world Bhutan is metric and I have been having to brush up on the metric system. Winter lows are cold but not as cold as you would think 32 (0 c) with summer highs in the 70's (22 c) . With the use of micro climates tomatoes and other Solanaceae can be grown otherwise it is a perfect climate to grow the cool weather veggies.. I was curious as to what time zone that Bhutan is in and they are smack dab exactly on the opposite side of the earth and merely 3 degrees latitude south of us, we are very close to 30 degrees north.

This has been a very fun adventure!!

So far knock on wood the early plantings are making it, in fact I am beginning to see tomato flowers to develop. There even are a number of okra up. This will be a validation of my premise that plants will grow in conditions that they cannot germinate in. A soil thermometer is recording around 65 degrees. A chart that I have shows that okra will germinate in soils that are around 60 degrees, with pretty good numbers too. At 60 it would take 27 days to germinate with 74 percent of the seed doing so. With germinating the seed before out planting, this emergence should be greater, since they have already started to grow before making it to the garden. But I will be curious to see if these cooler temps will stunt the growth. I love experiments! The peas have gone into full blossom with a number of little peas starting to grow. There will be peas soon! Just waiting on Mother Nature, she does have the final say in all of this. Beans are up about 3 inches. Butternuts, cukes, zucchini, and yellow squash are pushing their secondary leaves. The peppers and eggplants are sitting but this should change with warmer weather. My green onions are bolting but a new sowing is coming up. This is all exciting stuff!!

On another note the winter veggie plantings are being harvested down. I suspect this week will be the last of the sweets. There is another week or two of sun chokes. Some of the turnips are starting to bolt. But on the up side : I have entered a new carrot bed, the beets are sizing up and the weekly harvest of greens are increasing. Soooo I am optimistic that I will be able to fill all veggie orders but if not I will bill for only the portion I do fill.

This week I harvested: chard, kale, spinach, Asian greens, green onions, carrots, lettuceSpinach and turnips. Please email for availability.

March 6, 2017

It could be said if you don’t have aphids in your garden you are very lucky or have not been gardening very long. Gardening and aphids go hand in hand. They can very quickly wear out their welcome if they ever were welcome.

Female aphids are born pregnant and are soon ready to give birth to the next generation, which are also born pregnant. Each of these females can produce 5 offspring a day for 20 days, all without ever a male entering the picture. Once the population gets too dense, wings are developed and a new colony is ready to start. Also aphids are farmed by ants to harvest the honeydew that aphids produce. The ants will move the aphids around.

A little factoid from Good Deals .com

Cabbage Aphids - Ever noticed aphids on your vegetable plants? Aphids are the fastest reproducers of the insect world.  Each female will have approximately 41 offspring in her lifetime. During the summer (April through October) there can be as many as 16 generations of aphids. Assuming that all of the aphids lived and reproduced normally, that adds up to be 1,560,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 aphids in one season.

Aphids are the one drawback of using agriculture fabric. It creates a perfect habitat for aphids.

All is not lost! One good thing about fabric it does have the ability of “corralling” beneficial insects that are released underneath the covers. Most folks think of lady beetles as the “cat’s meow” for beneficial insects. There is a small (aphidius) wasp that actually smokes lady beetles, and can be quite effective in low populations of aphids.

These wasps will seek out individual aphids and lay an egg in the aphid. Shortly the aphid is paralyzed and a cocoon covers the aphid then it appears as a little ball attached to the bottom of the leaf. These soon hatch and continue the predation of aphids.

I remember a winter or so back where one week I thought I was going to have to spray for aphids and the next week they were gone!!! They can be rather quick to control aphid populations. They had arrived on their own. These wasps can be purchased over the net too.

Usually if the beds are covered, just uncovering for a day or two will allow beneficial insects to have access. Even house sparrows will clean up the plants. Uncovering for me has another drawback. We have guinea fowl and they will fly over the fence for chance to “browse” on the greens. They can in short order wreak havoc. So I usually keep them covered and use cold pressed neem. After a couple of applications a week apart, they are cleaned up.

Most of the time after harvesting I have to wash the greens to remove the rest of the aphids, a little vinegar to the wash water and the aphids will easily release.

Like with organic gardening a few bites out of leaves or even a few Aphids could easily  called a “proof of purchase”  and that the veggies are safe to eat.

March 2, 2017

Good morning, first off a date for your calendar! I would like to mention that The YT ranch with their grass fed beef will be to market on March 11. Rob told me he would be bringing extra brisket too.

This winter has been exceptionally warm. Since I have all my transplants ready to go into the garden, they have been hardened off and for the last couple of weeks I have been planting them into the garden. For a lot of the plants I am over a month ahead of last year. My first toms went out the 23^rd of January. Well protected but have already been through an 18 degree morning. A thermometer in this bed has constantly staid 45 or higher.

Last year I saved a lot of okra seeds so “just because” I germinated enough seed to plant my first okra bed. I have placed a temporary greenhouse over this bed and I noticed the first seedlings raising their heads. I really think this is a very long shot but if I can keep them warm, who knows!! For the okra lovers, May okra? Cucumbers and beans are also up.

It never ceases to amaze me how irregular all of our weather thingies are: rain, hail, frosts.... This past Saturday we “enjoyed” a 26 degree morning. The day before was a very windy day and this made adding extra covers a real challenge to say the least. I knew there were potatoes emerging, along with the cukes and beans. By time I got the toms, eggplants, okra and chilies extra carefully tucked in, the gusts were picking up. The potatoes had no covers, the cukes and beans had 2 layers of 19. I did not think I could get a piece of fabric 45 feet long and 10 feet wide into place over the potatoes without first recovering it from Terrel County. Raising the fabric on the other two beds seemed a challenge I did not want to take. Potatoes easily resprout and there was plenty of seed to replant the cukes and beans. So I just crossed my fingers.

I felt a distinct chill to the air on Friday afternoon while I was checking to make sure there was enough rocks on the fabric. NOAA and Underground were predicting a low of 33? Our humidity is very low and a clear calm morning was predicted. They got that right and this ushered in a convection freeze of 26 degrees.

As I mentioned above the oddities of our weather thingies keep me in awe. Most all the potatoes got burnt but 3 or 4 had no signs of freezing, the cuke bed came through unscathed, and the beans there were a handful that got froze. I think the difference between the beans and cukes is that the beans that got froze were touching the fabric. As for the potatoes who knows. This freeze seemed to be only at ground level because both mulberry trees have no freeze damage. I have a thermometer in the garden at ground level, I wish I had one at 4.5 feet (the recommended height for thermometers) It may not have registered a freeze.

On Sunday when removing some of the covers on the toms, eggplants... there was distinctly frozen fabric that clung together scattered around the garden. My thermometer registered 43 degrees. Crazy stuff, just like it will be raining cats and dogs on Ave I and be bone dry on Mountainside. Never a dull moment!!

Need less to say I will be finished with planting most of my veggies real soon. I feel pretty confident that this will be pulled off. That is as long as I do not do anything stupid. By the by the covers have been raised on the cukes and beans, along with covers over the potatoes. Ground thermometer is registering nearly 60 so there is plenty of warmth in the ground. This will be interesting!!!

This week I harvested chard, kale, Spinach, Asian greens, lettuce, carrots, green onions and turnips. Please email for availability.

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