August 31, 2017

Good morning, this year has been an odd year to say the least but all the oddity has not been all bad. There have been some pleasant surprises too.

I have grown sweet potatoes for several years and a few years back I contracted a fungus called scurf. As far as sell ability goes, the sweets that contract this fungus are perfectly sell able. This fungus does not effect flavor just the appearance. It gives them a rough russet look. Not an appearance that most folks are used to seeing in sweet potatoes and thus are picked over. There also is another down side to this russet. it severely effects the store ability of the sweets. For example we had a few of our fingerling sweets that had been "lost" . They were found in mid July. These had blemish free skins and these fingerlings were in pristine shape. The last of my last years sweets were harvested around the first of October (roughly 10 months of storage). On the other hand the russet enhances the moisture loss through the skin. Fingerlings do not store well and the larger sweets last only a month or two. This russet was increasingly effecting the sweet harvest garden wide.

This year two things changed: first I soaked the sweet sets in Actinovate (an organic fungicide) before I planted them and I have been administering a thyme oil solution that has helped with my root knot nematodes but is also a fungicide. This product is called Promax and I have found it also enhances growth and production numbers garden wide.

The use of both of these products has completely eliminated the russet (so far) from my sweet harvest. So far ALL of the tubers have been a pretty pink color. The most severe RKN effected have the nematode induced cracking but the rest of the tuber has good color. By and large the tubers have been larger with fewer fingerlings. I feel the harvest is going very well. Even with selling them at market and with 1 and 3/4 beds  harvested  there is over 250 pounds in storage (2 beds to go). It will be interesting to see if my earlier fingerling discovery was a fluke or that I may have sweet potatoes nearly year round. This amazes me!!

The other surprise is with my Irish potatoes. Normally I could only grow a few spuds that are 4 or 5 ounces and occasionally one that was 8 ounces. This year there were quite a number that were 8 ounces and a few that were 15 ounces or better. There are not a lot of spuds per plant but the weight is up. Previous years I have gotten 2 pounds or less (mostly less) per plant. with the use of promax I have harvested the first crop (around 20 pounds) and second crop of volunteers that are just now blooming and will be harvested when they die. I had some seed potatoes that were sprouting so I decided this week to see If there is enough time to get another crop of potatoes before winter. Most of my potatoes are early potatoes (60 to 90 days). Unless we get a sneaker of a freeze,on paper it looks like it is doable.

Potatoes are grown as a commercial crop in the state so I do not see why I shouldn't be able to get sell able quantities of decent 6 to 8 ounce spuds..I suspect that the larger potatoes would be like any of the other extra large veggie at market, there is little interest in them. The only exception is around the Holidays when folks have guests or family over for dinner, this is when there are sales of the larger sweets and butternut squash.

So like I said it has been an interesting year with surprises both bitter and sweet.

This week I harvested chard, green onions, carrots, lettuce,beets, chilies, eggplants, summer squash, cucumbers, and in storage sweets, bulb onions, garlic and butternuts. Please email as to availability.

 h

August 28, 2017

What says fall is upon us more than the wonderful smell of chilies roasting. Martha and Mike Latta will be roasting chilies again at the market this Saturday.

Ah yes the summer is coming to a close and fall is zooming into view.  It is also the time of year where I look back at the year to see how it went and how I can change anything. Mother Nature was ruthless with us this past June. It took some time but it did eventually shut the garden down from the heat. It really did surprise me how it took several weeks to get veggies back into a full bloom mode. When things do not work out I first like to evaluate what I can change. 

This year I am trying a new soil treatment for root knot nematodes. By and large I am pleased as to how it has performed. After several plants were finished I pulled them so I could inspect the roots. There were some huge galls and these plants still pulled of harvests. This treatment worked well on most veggies but it does appear that okra is extremely susceptible to root knot nematodes.

I attempted an extra early planting of okra. Okra does not force. Okra likes to grow at the same soil temperatures that RKN are active. One of the ways I combat RKN is by early plantings so I get a harvest before they get real active. Something I will experiment with is the use of a cold pressed neem oil  soil drench. Possibly only on a portion of a bed so that I can compare results. These drenching s would need to be done every other week for the term of the plants.

I do plan to do a modified solarization where I cover the plastics edges with soil as opposed to burying the edge. This would be much easier than than burying and I could include this in My RKN routine if it works. 

Tomatoes seem to be another crop that RKN wreak havoc with. Tomatoes have other options that can be used to combat RKN. There are known RKN resistant toms (usually hybrids) and then there is  root stock that is very resistant to RKN that has a very vigorous root systems. With the root stock I can graft my favorite toms on. They would become resistant to RKN and with a vigorous root system could also boost harvests. These root stock seeds are somewhat expensive. I have grafted fruit trees in the past with success. So I am going to give this a shot with the toms. I am growing some toms that I will cut the tops off of and then graft them back together to practice. This sounds like a lot of work but if it allows me to have tomatoes for the whole season It will be worth it.

Another means to attack RKN that I saw a few years back that I saw was the use of predatory nematodes that will attack RKN. With having a drip system and an injector this may be doable. More research is needed. 

This is all interesting stuff and who knows what will work or won't.

August 24, 2017

Good morning, first things first, pass the word Martha and Mike Latta will be roasting chilies at market this Saturday. Nothing like the wonderful smell of roasting chilies says fall is on the way.

This year has been a weird one to say the least. I find it odd that tomatoes that I had survive the June heat are just now starting to bloom again. Why this delay is baffling to say the least. I am not seeing any fruit set but blooming is a first step. My replacement toms are starting to bloom also. Maybe there will be fall tomatoes.

Another thing that I find equally puzzling is happening to my new plantings of zucchini. It is a phenomenon that happens in the spring when there is an absence of bees. The female flowers abort unless I personally fertilize them. There may be 25% of the female flowers that get up to size so that their flower petals open. If they make it to this size, they usually get pollinated. The vast majority don't even get very big before they drop off. What is odd the yellow squash in this same bed do not seem to have this problem. I am leaning towards a fertility thing but the old squash bed is experiencing the same thing. Maybe zukes are more finicky than yellow squash. 

It is funny because I never experienced this bloom thingy  both with the toms and the zukes. I guess there is a first thing for everything.

this past Sunday I harvested a handful of peas. they were wonderful in a stir fry. the plants are blooming quite profusely and I hope to be making harvests soon. The pea vines are not as vigorous as winter peas but I am really quite surprised that they are doing as well as they are.

The germinated parsnips are starting to raise their heads above the soil. With luck I will get a well stocked bed. The turnip seedlings are a little unhappy with all the rain and have turned yellow with a shot of iron and nitrogen this should change. I was noticing the same thing in my beans. I think the difference between the turnips and beans is the size of the plants. the turnips are tiny seedlings where as the beans are mature plants and have larger root systems than the turnips.

The first harvest off of the last okra bed has started. this should insure okra way into fall. This variety, Lee, seems to tolerate cooler air temps as long as the soil stays warm. 

All of the fall / winter seedlings are up and will bee transplanted  to the garden soon.

Ah yes exciting times in the garden.

This week I harvested chard, lettuce, kale, green onions, beets, cucumbers, squash. okra, egg plants, and chilies,  In storage there are garlic, onions, butternuts, and sweet potatoes. Please email as to availability. 

August 21, 2017

Quite frequently I get into gardening conversations at the market on Saturday mornings. This past Saturday was no different.

The person was being over run with bugs on her veggies. I never did get an ID of the critter. I usually suggest the use of cold pressed Neem oil. Cold pressed neem oil works on huge number of bugs. Cold pressed is only a broad spectrum insecticide when it is being applied. It is the oil properties that suffocates insects. Once it is applied it is only detrimental to insects that are feeding on the plant. 

Something that is really amazing about cold pressed neem oil, it is not the product that kills the insects, it is hormones within the oil that does the bugs in. These hormones cause the insects to stop feeding and molting with death following. It is because of these hormones that insects cannot build up immunity to cold pressed neem oil. This is very unique for pesticides. it is an organic approved insecticide and can be used up to an including the day of harvest. There is a smell to neem oil that is offensive to some folks but it is a short lived thing. Cold pressed neem oil breaks down with 8 hours of sun light.

Back to our conversation. This person did not want to get into a spray regime. At which time I mentioned that since I have started using cold pressed neem oil that I have noticed an increase of beneficial insects in the garden. The person was taken aback with this statement. but it is a phenomenon that I have observed. Something that I have not given much thought to but only an observation. The comment got me to thinking.

Using the above information has given me some ideas as to why this could be so. We will focus on: 1, it is only an broad spectrum insecticide when it is being applied :  2, it needs to be ingested for the hormones to work: 3, it breaks down in 8 hours of sunlight.

Most beneficial insects are active of a morning and less so of the evening. There always is some activity but less. By spraying of an evening you get the benefit of darkness for the pests to feed and then 8 hour of day before it breaks down. There are a lot of pests that feed through the night.

I have also noticed with a number of pests that 3 sprays 7 days apart controls most pests. The only exception I have found is with cucumber beetles (These need their own special missive).

Why is there an increase of beneficial insects with the use of cold pressed neem oil? b

By being very selective of when you spray (when beneficial  insects are least active), the pests are specifically targeted and allows the beneficial insects to go forth and multiply. Once there is a more even balance of good guys / bad guys, the increase of good guys diminish the need for further applications. Of course there always needs to be a watchful eye for potential problems.

Some interesting factoids of  cold pressed neem oil follows. If the bottle DOES NOT SPECIALLY SAY cold pressed neem oil it is clarified hydrophobic neem oil and ALL of the above mentioned  hormones have been removed. Using this product does not render very good results. Cold pressed neem oil is hydrophobic. This means it does not easily mix with water. This is easily remedied. for a one gallon solution first fill the spray bottle half full of water. You will need a pint sized seal able jar.  Measure 1 and 1/3 Tbs of cold pressed and put it in the pint jar. next add 1/2 tsp of liquid soap (I use ivory). Place this in the pint also. then fill the jar half full of water, seal and shake vigorously. Add this to the spray bottle, shake and fill the sprayer the rest of the way full. You are set to go..And one last note NEVER mix more cold pressed that what you will use during that spray, as noted above it will break down in 8 hours. I get Neem Pro from Amazon.

good luck and happy gardening.

August 17, 2017

Good morning, I find it interesting how a lot of folks need to be distracted all the time. Whether it is constantly on the phone, listening to music or any other distraction. It seems they can never be alone.

Myself I prefer just observing everything around me. For me this is the best kind of distraction.

As I work in the garden I can tell what time of day it is by the fussiness of the hens. As the morning progresses and the hens are getting into an egging way, if a hen appears to be taking too long to lay her egg she is ever increasingly harassed by the hens that NEED to lay an egg RIGHT NOW!!!. Some how there are only a few PREFERRED nest boxes and depending on the size of the nest box, there may be hens stacked up like cord wood   laying their cargo. This peaks  around one PM and then gradually diminishes. I am glad they have only a few nest areas, it helps when collecting eggs.

We have several mockingbirds that are regular visitors to the garden. Most days the cat is shadowing me as I do garden stuff. For what ever reason mockingbirds get a "thrill" at taunting the cat. I have not seen any mockingbird nests in the garden so it is not like they are defending a nest. None the less they seem to get close to the cat to catch her attention. They then seem to play a game of catch me if you can. All the time just being out of reach. Oh but the cat just knows she will get lucky.

When I lived in Kentucky we had a cat that was also relentlessly taunted by the mockingbirds. They would always be just out of reach. This really ticked the cat off. One day the cat was in a tree and a mockingbird landed a few branches down.The cat thought this was the moment and leaped. Well the cat missed  except he did manage to get a mouth full of tail feathers. This seemed to only enhance the mockingbirds duties. It was hilarious seeing the tailless bird harass the cat.

One day I was giving a garden tour and all of a sudden the ducks were dead quiet and beating cheeks for cover. My guests were perplexed and wondered what was happening. I told them it was a hawk. Sure enough and when the roosters saw it, they let out their calls and ALL of the girls headed for cover. Shortly the roosters let everyone know the coast was clear and all the usual barnyard conversations started anew.

One last interesting note and it is like the question, "what came first the chicken or the egg". A good rooster not only keeps an eye towards the sky but will always be looking for tasty treats that the girls would enjoy. Once found he lets out a cackle that all of the girls know there is a treat and start runnnig towards the rooster. This is exactly the same noise that a hen makes when she is teaching her chicks what to eat.

Yes there is too much good  stuff going on to to distracted by "noise".!!

This week I harvested: char, kale, green onions, lettuce,  beets, chilies, eggplant, cucumbers,  summer squash (yellow and green), okra, and in storage garlic, bulb onions, butternuts and sweet potatoes. Please email for availability.

The new bean bed is starting to bloom, peas are blooming and finally I am seeing blossoms on the tomatoes.

All of the fall crop seedlings are up. I am hoping that I can get fully stocked beds this year. My experiment with germinating appears to be working. the first seeds to germinate have been sown. They are being directly planted, tap rooted plants do not transplant very well as seedlings ( makes for very strange roots). Like peas they seem to be better adapted to more northern climates. I think one of the problems with parsnips is the length of time it takes for them to germinate. Directly seeded it takes 2+ weeks to germinate and very much like carrots the have to remain constantly moist. The more wet and dry cycles and the number of sprouting seeds is greatly diminished. it is my hope that germinated seed will emerge much quicker.

August 14, 2917

It is very strange even though there were a number of insects that were raising their heads early on, there just does not seem to be the population explosion that I expected. Save for a couple of the plants in my cucumber  succession bed there just have not been the swarms I have expected.

I am not sure if this is due to the soil treatments I have been doing for the root knot nematodes, but it is nice not to be constantly having to put out "fires".

It might be the periodic spraying s of cold pressed neem for grasshoppers. I just do not feel Armageddon is at my door step. Probably my biggest pest problem has been aphids on the greens. I keep trying to do control with beneficial insects but it is very hard to maintain a population when it is the leaves that they lay their eggs on that are harvested and thus the beneficial s are harvested too.

Recently I had a chicken that was jumping the fence and getting into the garden. Noting where she was getting in, I have blocked this entry. I am seeing if this may be where the guineas have been getting into the garden as well. I do not see the guineas flying very much, this could be due to their age ( they  have got to be at least 10 years old) It would be nice so that maybe i can remove the covers on my greens. Being able to remove the covers of a night or mornings would make for a less desirable place for aphids to thrive. Even with only two guineas five minutes of free access would be all it would take to destroy the greens.

Having some insect  damage can be  a "proof of purchase" that it is organic but like with all proof of purchase symbols they should be a small symbol on the "box" and not cover the whole side of the box.

august 10, 2017

Good morning, the joys and tribulations of owning fowl can be hilarious but also can be quite disquieting too.

It was interesting when we first got chickens there was some literature that said guinea's don't get along with chickens. The first hens we kept separated as best we could.

During the he early years with the guineas, they spent most of their days foraging and not in the barnyard very much except to drink and partake in afternoon scratch . Now that they are old birds, the stay in the barnyard. These white guineas will posture chase and in some cases pull a few tail feathers but nothing really violent. 

It was a few years back while washing dishes I noticed two new guineas in the back yard. They seemed to like our dinner table and so they stayed. These new birds were the traditional colored guineas with black and white plumage. 

For the first two months they all roosted together but soon they no longer mingled together. It got to be where the new birds attempted to roost in our mulberry tree instead of in the coop. This lasted for a few nights until a hoot owl took one out. The remaining one needed no more persuasion to come to coop at night. Instead of roosting with the other guineas he roosted in the other coop. This bird soon paired up with a barred rock and they became foraging buddies. This went well for several years until one day while harvesting tomatoes I was hearing a commotion behind one of the coops. Curiosity got the best of me so I checked out what was going on.

The black and white guinea had a barred rock cornered and was wailing on it's neck with its beak. It was not pretty. 

To make a long story shorter we will say the guinea met his Maker. In the second round of commotion the traumatized hen disappeared. I figured she just went off and died. It was a real surprise when I found her later that afternoon hiding in a shed. 

I took a look at her wound. It was nasty. There was a hole that was leaking air that shouldn't be there. A very small one but a hole none the less. I will say that I do not have a very good track record of nursing hens back to health so I was thinking this would be another exercise in futility, but we were going to give it a go. Most of the other hens that I have attempted to mend were off their feed, this hen never lost her appetite. This was her saving grace.

After a couple weeks the wound was one huge scar (no more"blowhole"). Hence her new name "scar neck". Scar neck continues to mend and her scar is not very noticeable, in fact has disappeared from plumage either regrowing or "dome wrapping " over the scar.

If it were not for a floppy comb and her terror to be around other birds she would look just like the other hens. There is a pen in the garden  she spends the day in and then roosts with the other birds at night.. I think she is calming down. time is always the healer. Maybe she will be egging soon.

Back to our Maker Meeter, I was absolutely disturbed to see this bird wailing on Scar Neck. What frightened me even more, would be if he started to show this "affection" toward other birds. This had to be stopped so that it wouldn't.

What I find to be a very curious behavior of mine is that when I am in flock protection mode I do not have a problem of taking out the perpetrator. But on the other hand culling hens is a very wide river that some how I can not cross. Even though culling would help increase flock health, it is a place I cannot go. 

Life's many mysteries!!!

This week I have harvested chard, kale, green onions, lettuce, beets, chilies, eggplant, yellow squash , zucchini and from storage onions, garlic and butternuts. Please email for availability.

 

August 7, 2017

 It is that time of year where serious thoughts about the winter garden is needed. Almost seems strange what with it being the first of August.

I am going to do some things different this year. Instead of starting my winter seedlings in the garden I will start them in the house. The last couple of years I have either harvester ants "harvest" the germinating seeds, caterpillars clear cut overnight,  or any number of other challenges. Germination to transplant-able is the stage that  veggies seem to be most vulnerable, besides they do not have very much foliage and loosing any of it will compromise the young seedlings. So in the interest of fully stocked beds the seedlings will be grown inside.

This could be the first year in a number that I hope to have cabbage.

Another veggie that I have not had great success with are parsnips. Parsnips are one of the most cold hardy veggies there is. It also does not like to germinate in soils much above 80 degrees. like with my summer peas (which are doing nicely) will grow in warmer soil than what they will germinate in. The last couple of years my parsnip bed has been maybe 25 to 30% stocked. Almost not worth the trouble. Parsnips are a larger seed and it is with great hope I will germinate them and then plant the seeds. Not sure how this will work but save for okra this has worked well. Parsnips are a very long crop to grow (120+ days). So to have decent sized roots they need to be started early. Up north these guys are sown in May and June for fall harvest. May and June are our hottest months and I would not think to start them then. We will see with an August planting with germinated seed. Another interesting thing about this crop, they are best harvested in the dead of winter when they are their sweetest. They need to be harvested before they begin new growth at which point they become tough as wood.

This change of seasons is really quite tricky (for filling veggie orders). First making sure there are beds available for the crops and then keep the summer crops going until the winter crops begin to be harvested. Usually fall is much easier than spring because there are a number of veggies in storage.

There have been some years where I have a nice mix of summer and winter veggies. It makes for a nice display at market.

So here is to the "ballet" of the changing of seasons!

August 3, 2017

Good morning,  Ah yes the best laid plans of mice and men.I modified my tomato planting schedule with hopes that there would be a continuous harvest of tomatoes. It does appear Mother Nature 2 and dirt farmer 0. So back to the drawing board and lots of contemplation.

Of course this is a multiplayer happening (heat, dry, RKN...) and I just need to do some trial and error. This is nothing new to me, although it may be a bit harder of a puzzle to figure out.

Last year with my tomato planting I did my usual main crop planting with the first harvest being one month ahead of the second.I was hoping that the first would finish as the second was coming on. Well it seemed like they all ripened at the same time. July was a real baker for heat and the second bloom for both of these plantings were delayed until it cooled down. By this time most of the tomatoes had died. the second bloom for both plantings never really materialized.

This year I went with a two month delay between plantings. June was the scorcher this year and forced both plantings to do the same thing again this year.

I did not so much notice it last year but this year My "pet" RKN was the main culprit for the majority of my tomato plant mortality. Some of the plants were very knotted. I feel with planting early I at least got one crop.

Sooooo it is back to the drawing board. I have 31 beds and I am sure to some extent there is RKN in most of them. The tomatoes, yellow squash and the okra I plant are the most susceptible to RKN. Or at least they appear to be the most effected. My beans did exceptionally well with the use of the Pro max treatment. We will see how well  the other crops perform.  

I have noted on several occasions that I prefer not to use Hybrids. I have come around to the idea that the use of RKN resistant hybrids is not a bad idea. 

Maybe because it has been such a hot year is why the RKN is so pronounced. It just might be that the population has finally grown to where it is becoming a real problem garden wide. 

As with all organic controls the more layers one can add to their treatment regime, success is more likely. I have no "pie in the sky" dreams that I will ever be with out these guys.

A short list of organic RKN control. Lots of organic mater incorporated into the soil, washing tools between beds, allowing beds to be weed free fallow with frequent cultivation's, solarization, the use of nematode resistant varieties of veggies, grafted tomatoes, soil drench of cold pressed neem oil, drip system injection of Azaguard and Promax, and the use of beneficial nematodes. 

Once you have nematodes you have them for ever, it is a mater of controlling them to manageable levels.

This week I harvested chard, green onions, beets, zucchini, eggplant, okra, cucumbers, chilies and from storage butternut squash, bulb onions and garlic. Pleas email for availability.

Sadly the tomatoes succumbed  to RKN and tomato mosaic virus. I hope to have tomatoes later this fall. I am letting the sweets size up a little more. I found as I was harvesting the bed they were getting smaller. I have 3 other beds to harvest.