June 29, 2017

Good morning, I am so hoping that the hottest weather is behind us. As a gardener I have never experienced that kind of heat. I am grateful that I had managed to get everything mulched this year, otherwise I am not too sure how I would have coped. 

It was interesting to see how the veggies reacted to the heat. The results began to show shortly after the second bout. All of the larger leaved plants such as the cucumbers and summer squash started to drop all of their older leaves. Even though a lot of these leaves looked perfectly healthy only a day or two before. This leaf drop was a means to help the plants to partially control leaf transpiration. Plant transpiration is the means that plants suck up water through the roots and then vacated through the the leaf stomata. Small holes on the lower sides of the leaf that evolved for this purpose. This water flow is what is necessary for all the plants biological functions. 

With increased temperatures there is an increased flow. Once the heat gets to great the leaves begin to wilt, because the water flow is greater than what the plants can provide. This is a means that the plant can control water flow.  With out the crown cover provided for by the foliage, the plants and soil around the plants begin to heat up. As the temperature rises the wilt increases. Without the crown closure the leaf stems and the trunks of the plants can become sun scalded. In the worst cases the sun scalding can kill leaves or plants. This is where the bed mulch at least lowers the soil evaporation. By capillary action, without mulch to inhibit the soil water flow to atmosphere, there would be even less water available to the plants. 

This wilting puts a great stress on the older leaves and they soon expire. This in its self helps the plant to conserve water.

It was very interesting one year up in Oregon during a drought, the trees experienced an early fall color change at the end of August and early September. Here again it was a means that the trees were limiting water loss. Once the color change of the leaves there was an early falling of the leaves. Thus the only transpiration was through the bark. Much lower rates but there none the less.

Sooo with this said, I tried to help these plants through this past heat thingy. I covered all of the plants that I could with fabric. The okra was the exception, although it seemed to enjoy the heat by continuing to grow where everything else was shutting down. The drip system was turned on during the heat of the day to help augment this increased water demand. Even so the older leaves are giving up the ghost.

For me, some of this heat induced leaf drop could be caused by my root knot nematodes. These vermin can and do cause the plant to not be able to take up this ever so valuable moisture. There also has been an heat induced Chlorosis (yellowing of the leaves). Seeing this, some fish emulsion with iron chelate has been given to the plants. There has been a very rewarding response to this with abundant new bright green growth. Hopefully flowering will follow.

Ah yes all things must pass!!

This week I harvested chard, kale, green onions, carrots, cucumbers, and beets. In storage there is garlic and bulb onions. Please ask for about availability.

June 26, 2017

This week I am going to push the theory that germinated seeds will grow in warmer soils than what they will germinate in. Specifically I am referring to snow peas. Last year during July I planted some sweet sets through some pea straw. I had let the last of the peas mature so that I could harvest pea seeds. I soon found my pea seed harvest was not very complete.

After planting the sweetsI I covered them with two layers of agribon 70 so the sets could be kept moist. It was surprising to see that several of the uncollected pea seeds were growing and looked quite healthy when I raised the fabric to check on the sweets progress.

Of course this set me to thinking. my thoughts was to germinate a beds worth of peas, plant them in July for September harvest. With any luck there would be a month or two of harvest, That is if I can get the peas to grow through July and August. This could be one of those experiments where energy input greatly exceeds the rewards. Some things you just have to try.

The reason for the July sowing is to allow the peas to mature well ahead of any early freeze. Peas sown at the end of August mature just as the late fall freezes happen. This does not hurt the pea plants but kills any flowers and thus no peas. 

This is why I delay my fall sowing until October for a mid to late winter maturing.

I have soaked the seeds, rinsed them with Actinovate ( an organic fungicide), then layered them between paper and  kept moist until they germinate.

Peas do not like to germinate in soils warmer than 85 degrees. With the recent heat I am afraid to see what the soil temps are. We are just going to run with this.

Once the seeds have sprouted, they will be planted and covered with 2 layers of 70. I'll step back keep them moist and cross my fingers. In reality the success probability is very low. But I think of those volunteers last July ( July was a very warm month). There have been added precautions with these peas. So stay tuned this could be interesting!!

June 19, 2017

With the recent heatwave the expected has happened, the garden has shut down. Afternoon highs have reached near or above the century mark.

When I harvested on Friday There was a single zucchini. I am seeing many female flowers either not maturing or just aborting and falling off the plants.

The cucumbers and okra, so far, have not been effected but Friday’s high was just a little over 106. It was brief but it hovered around 105 for some time. It is like splitting hairs 105 /106, once over one hundred it is just plain Hot!! Saturdays high was not much better at 104.

My tomatoes have set fruit and are of mature sizes, so the heat should only hasten their ripening. On Thursday, I noticed that the first bed of toms had started to sprout new foliage. This happens on determinate tomatoes when the fruit are almost completely harvested. Last year the fruit ripening and “regrowth” happened a month later and last July was an extremely hot dry month. Instead of the regrowth, most of my tomato plants just faded away and died. I am hoping that the first bed has enough new foliage to make it through this heat wave. This year I do have a beds worth of replacement tomatoes for “just in case” reasons. When I harvested this Sunday not only did I see new growth but also flowers. With any luck, these flowers will take. I will know when I harvest the next time (this coming Thursday)

I am grateful that I did manage to get all my beds mulched and this has helped me to keep everything hydrated a lot easier. Last July because of “nude” beds it was very difficult to keep everything hydrated.  

June 15, 2017

Good morning, ah yes as I sit here “enjoying” this fine typical June day with the mercury around 95 degrees with a high predicted to be around 97. NOAA has this trend continuing through weekend with a “cool down” to the lower 90’s nest week. And of course, marginal chances of rain. Weather Underground paints a similar picture but only hotter with Friday and Saturday hitting the century mark!!! Oh Boy!!! Hold me back!!

Well on a good note the Okra is loving this weather along with the sweet potatoes and the cucumbers.

It is so amazing how eating a cucumber can be so refreshing on a hot day, that is if the day time temperatures don’t get much above 90. Mid to upper 90’s is when Mother Nature plays a terrible trick on the innocent cucumber. It is with these higher temperatures that cucumbers become bitter. Ah but there is a solution to this dilemma. The bitterness is only in the skin. In most cases just cutting off a ¼ to ½ inch off the end that was attached to the vine (not the flower end) will remedy this. With these excessively warm days, the whole cuke will need to be peeled. So, then these little jewels can be thoroughly enjoyed. More work but worth the effort. And of course, there is no special tasks needed when canning cucumbers, since vinegar is already bitter.

Let us hope that this nonsense does not last too long. This too will pass.

This week I will be making the first steps for planting peas in July. That sentence sounds rather nonsensical for West Texas and summer time. I will make a 15 day presowing application of my nematode product. If I can find enough quilts I will lay them over the bed during the day and remove them at night for the next 15 days. Hopefully this will cool the soil. The peas will be germinated but when I set the seeds to soak I will use some Actinovate (an organic fungicide). It is my hope that this will help the peas germinate instead of rotting. Once the seeds have germinated I will plant them and cover with 2 layers of agribon 70.  Then with any luck within 70 days there will be a sustained pea harvest for the fall. Some things you have to try. The worst that can happen is it doesn’t work. It may be like my spinach experiment, where I grew spinach into the summer. I succeeded, but the energy in put was greater than the return.  This could be the same thing that happens with the peas.

This does remind me of the first year I gardened down here in Alpine. One of the crops I planted was peas. Amazingly I did get a good germination but all the pea plants were maybe 2 inches tall and all produced 1 pea and abruptly expired. This was pre Agribon days. The only thing that gives me hope is what happened with volunteer peas in a sweet potato bed last year in July.

I had let some peas go to seed so that I could collect the peas for future crops. There was a lot of peas that were not collected. I discovered this when I planted sweet potatoes through the pea straw. Like always I covered them with 2 layers of Agribon 70 and kept the sweets damp. It was quite surprising to see several peas had germinated when I was checking on my sweet potatoes. These peas got around 2 feet tall and had fruit. Of course, before they got ripe, the guineas did a through quality control tasting. Vocabulary deleted! But this surprise gave me pause that it could very easily happen, a fall pea harvest. Here again there are some thing you just gotta try! I hope we will all enjoy the fruit from the labors of this experiment.

This week I Harvested chard, kale, carrots, green onions, squash, cucumbers, beans, and tomatoes. Please email for availability

June 12, 2017

Why extend the growing season? The short answer would be “take a stroll down the local grocery store veggie isle”. 

We do have an abundant growing season. It is roughly 180 days long. Most years it is from the middle of April to November. Of course, this does not take into consideration those “sneaker freezes “at either end of this time line. For easy math, we will call it 180 days. There are all kinds of veggies you can grow with this growing season. This is twice as long as the growing season that I had in Central Oregon. In central Oregon, they also had sneaker cold fronts too. You always remember the worst years. The worst year the last freeze was July 4^th and the first freeze was August 15^th. It did finally settle down and we had (for central Oregon) “warm” weather with no more freezes until the middle of October. I think I had a couple Tomatoes that survived the “gauntlet”. It was a one shot growing season.

Comparing Central Oregon to Alpine is like apples and oranges. Up there once it got cold it stayed col, none of the sine curve weather that we experience down here.

Our springs can be quite unsettled with occasional freezes and then the prewet (May / June) season warm up with the chance of devastating hail. It is for this reason a number of folks start their gardens at the end of June to avoid all the “springy” nonsense. Starting a garden in July affords a decent growing season that can mature most long season veggies (veggies with 120 + maturity dates)

Soooo with such an abundant growing season why extend it. For me it is a real challenge to see how far I can push the envelope. This might be my biggest reason but there are others.

A constant supply of local in season veggies, having a well-established garden going into the hot dry months of May and June. Planting early also allows multiple crops of veggies that if grown elsewhere (like Central Oregon)there would be only one crop. An example is butternut squash. I seeded the beds in early February and my first harvest will start shortly, then it will have a second harvest a couple of months later. This year there very easily could be a third harvest. We will have to see how big the first 2 harvests are and if I have room for more squash. There is also another reason I like to push the seasons and it is because of root knot nematodes. They become active around 60 to 65 degrees. Most veggies if they are seedlings or germinated seeds can grow in soils that are 50 to 60 degrees. The exceptions are okra and sweet potatoes. Having well rooted plants before the nematodes become active: the plants are strong enough to fend off their attach or I can get at least one crop before the nematodes kill them.

These are but a few reasons to extend the season. It is a challenge that has great potential for great rewards. I have said it many times if you are not ready to lose everything only to start over from scratch then I would wait for the traditional growing season.

June 8, 2017

Good morning, it sure is nice to be getting the rain of late. IN the garden, we are a little under 3 inches for the year. Both NOAA and Weather Underground keep having rain chances daily, we can only hope that more rain is in the future. This time of year, there is also the prospect of hard water falling from the sky with the more severe storms. I have been covering even it if the chances are low. This is prudent. Like with any hail storm it is not necessarily the size of the hail but the duration. So far, we have not seen any hail this year. We do have the rest of this month to go yet.

In any event the paths and borders are starting to get a “greening look” to them. With the use of a hoe this is the best time to reduce what WILL be a real problem in very short time. I like to use a Hula hoe. This hoe has a double edge and cuts both pushing and pulling. Warm dry afternoons are the best time to do this. This “greening” disappears and no follow up like discarding the debris is needed.

Last August was a wet month and there never was a chance to hula hoe. With no drying in the afternoons any hoeing would always reroot. This meant that hand pulling was the only weed abatement. Needless to say, I did not get ahead of the weeds and this year the bill is coming due. Weed seed can remain viable for many years.

So, with any luck and we do not have another very extended wet period, I plan to keep ahead of the weed thingy this year.

This is important for no other reason than to have disrupted spaces to help thwart insects. Tall weeds give great habitat and protection. If anything, I am noticing this to be a “good” bug year since we had no real extended cold periods. I have seen several large adult grasshoppers that over wintered.

As for that weed thingy, the sooner you realize that you have a  “weed problem”, the easier it will be to keep them in control. Once they get much past 6 inches there becomes the added labor of raking and disposing. This is why I like to nuke them at the greening stage.

This week I harvested chard, kale, green onions, carrots, lettuce, cucumbers, squash, and tomatoes. Please email for availability and quantities

June 5, 2017

Funny how I recently mentioned that I never get decent potato harvests. This was before I looked under the covers and noted I had several of browned potato plants. This the indication it is time to harvest. The planting technique I use spreads the harvest over a long period. I was surprised to see the quantity of potatoes that I had amassed. It was about 17 pounds or about 17.7 ounces of spuds per plant. Usually my harvests are around 5 to 6 ounces per plant.

Some of the spuds were around 12 ounces apiece. This is a very nice baking size.

This set me to wondering; “what have I done different”. Since putting in the drip system I have been able to get larger spuds on a regular basis, but there was no quantity.

The only thing that I can think of that is different is the use of Promax. This is the thyme oil concoction that I am trying out this year to combat root knot nematodes (RKN).

Our season has been rather flippant and I was not seeing much effect from the use of this. There were many veggies that were in decline from RKN infections. My distributer suggested that I start applying every 15 to 20 days. This product is billed at being able to help RKN infected plants to regrow roots while the thyme kills the juveniles and eggs. The adults expire after their 20 to 30 day lifecycle without having reproduced. Because we have had some chilly weather, growing conditions have been something to desire. But finally, it got to be decent growing conditions for the beans. Half of the bean bed was RKN free and the other portion was really showing it’s ugly head in bean growth or the lack there of. With the last application, the stunted beans began to actively grow and are nearly as tall and bushy as the uninfected plants. Best of all bean production nearly doubled. The okra was starting to perk up too but the growing conditions for RKN have been better than growing conditions for okra. We recently have had a few better okra growing days and I think with improved weather this potion will work on the okra too.  I am very optimistic about this stuff, it looks like it is living up to its billing. Another benefit that is mentioned is that Promax also attacks harmful soil fungi. 

When I dug my potatoes, the skins looked much more blemish free and as I mentioned more of the spuds had sized up very well. By all appearances this is to do with this potion. I am interested to see how the rest of the spuds look.

In regard to another veggie I will be interested to see how it turns out as well. Some of sweet potatoes have had a “russeted” skin from soil fungi in years past. This does not affect the eating quality but does affect the storing quality. It allows them to dry and become quite wrinkled which makes them unsellable. I am hoping to see such favorable results with my sweets as well. We will know once the harvest begins in August.

I will patiently wait, to see if the overall garden harvest will be up this year. Time will tell.

June 1, 2017

Good morning, this spring with my greens I was trying to do a catch and release with beneficial insects to combat Aphids. Combating aphids will be easier once my three guineas have kicked the bucket. Two of them must be 10 to 12 years old. Leaving the covers off would afford for more good guys to come to the rescue. But leaving the covers off is like a huge magnet to pull in the guineas. They have no problem flying over the fence that keeps the chickens out.

Catch and release and inspecting leaves to make sure there are no pupating beneficial s or egg cases of beneficial insects does add to the harvest time. It already takes some time to harvest 10 # of chard. The use of beneficial insects is so much easier on the veggies where the fruits are harvested instead of the greens.

For most of the year I cuss out the English house sparrows for enhancing my chicken pellet bill. But during the spring if I leave the covers off they will get into the infested plants and glean them clean quickly especially if they are a sizable flock, which they usually are.

Before I started covering my toms there were a pair of guinea’s that would cruse for horn worms, but with covering the tomatoes there is also the elimination of curve billed thrashers, tomato boring worms, horn worms, pin worms, sun scald and better moisture retention. There is a down side with fabric, it makes a great aphid habitat.

The nice thing about the fabric and greens, it protects it from the brutal sun, the cold (when we have some), the wind and any other weather events. I would have been toast with the last freeze if it wasn’t for fabric.

It would be nice to re-home the guineas to someone that does not have chickens (these guys just harass the chickens) but would like to have a “doorbell” so to speak to alert for any company. They do have the savvy to deal with snakes and have killed them on an occasion.

It will be nice to experiment with passive aphid control on the greens. I can only leave the covers off when I will be in the garden. As dry and brown as it is the guineas can spot an unprotected and unsupervised green from a mile away.

One may ask why do we have guineas? These guys I have great respect for. It was several years back when we were having a major grasshopper outbreak and we got the guineas. It was amazing but within a month of their release the grasshoppers ceased being a problem. So, if I cannot find a new home for them, they will have a retirement home here. Of course, there will be a few choice words toward them on occasion.

This week I harvested chard, kale, lettuce, green onions, carrots, beets, summer squash, cucumbers, and tomatoes. Please email for quantities and availability.