February 26, 2018

 Sometimes I think in far west Texas hardening off veggie seedlings is as much about acclimating seedlings to our light levels as it is about the temperature thing. This time of year, it is both but by far most of the year it is the light thingy.

My cold frame is a rube Goldberg sort of thing. It is a couple pairs of windows leaning up against the south side of my house. A sheet of Agribon 70 over the face and boards and blankets over the ends. This has worked quite well for me. Save for 2011 I do not think it has ever frozen in this contraption. In 2011 I was growing an Arkansas Traveler tomato that was beginning to bloom (in February) when the big freezes that year burst my daydreams of extra early tomatoes.

Like I said this is not any high security sort of contraption. Frequently the cat likes to crawl inside for dappled light, winter warmth and no wind. So just about anything with a drive could get inside. Some how though I have foiled the chickens. Greens, chickens and winter, the veggies would be destroyed in a Nano second.

Having gotten my veggies of size on my light table, it was time to harden them off. The first bunch of tomatoes were hardened and out planted. As I was planting I noticed one appeared to have a chunk out of the stem right at the base. Made some comment about cursed rodents and planted it so that roots would grow above the browsing. 

Once the toms were out of the cold frame I put in my jalapenos. This past Sunday I went to bury them and how taken aback I was, when over half of them were gone, save for a few leaves. These were 12-inch-tall plants and all that was left was a stump maybe ¼ inch tall. Boy howdy did the cat drop the ball?

I have more seedlings to set out, but unless I can catch the perpetrator, not in the cold frame. Maybe having the chickens in the front yard kept the rodents at bay too. Just not sure.

So back to the drawing board. I have erected a bit of a shelter out in the garden with lots of covers in case we have one of our infamous temperature swings.  This should work and also be away from that rodent.

We are doing some work on the house and one of the plans is to build a more secure cold frame.

In the meantime, one rube Goldberg follows the other. I have also started some more jalapenos to fill out that bed.

Gotta love agriculture!!

February 22, 2018

Good morning, how disconcerting it is when you wake up in the morning and you turn the faucet on only to get a cup full of air. Not my chosen way to become fully awake. Hind sight would have told me to go online for well trouble shooting steps.

Instead we got Skinners well services out.  The solution was way too simple, but I did get to ask them how much it would cost to solarize the well. The ball park quote looks like this could be very doable. It has been a desire of both Deb and I to take the well off grid.

There are a number of reasons for wanting to do this. The main reason is if the power goes down we will still have water. In the winter having a slow run is our front-line defense to keep pipes from freezing. In 2011 when it got to 1.5 degrees and was freezing for several days, fortunately we never lost power or had frozen pipes. In the summer time especially, the last couple of summers where it has been beastly hot, to lose power would spell the demise of the garden. Besides it would just be nice to be our own power source for the one thing that allows us to live where we live. No water, there would be nothing.

So, it looks like we will get the well off- grid soon.

As for the reason for the power outage to the well, I am not sure if the bug was electrocuted or squished but none the less he was dead. How funny that a ¼ inch contact and a bug passing over that contact at the exact time that the pump clicked on was the reason. No idea what the chances of that happening are but truly very slim.

Spring planting is in full swing and yes, the fabric is why this is all possible. I hope that we do not get any more of the bone chilling over night lows. I do see a number of weeds and Bermuda grass sprouting, so there is soil warmth to be harvested and the fabric can do this quite nicely.

This week will be the last week for kohlrabi and cabbage. This bed needs to be prepped for cucumbers. The soil may be too cool for cucumbers but germinated seeds have worked well in the past. My purple green beans are in the ground to be followed by other spring veggies soon. I looked under the first sowing of peas and they are just about in full bloom. Keep your fingers crossed there are no hard freezes to zap the young pea pods.

Thursday morning will be interesting when I get out in the garden. Wednesday's over night low when I first looked was 21. I hope it does not drift lower. Time will tell. I cross my fingers that enough warmth has been harvested. 

 Planting early is always risky but the rewards can be amazing!

February 15, 2018

Good morning,  Why prune? There are many reasons for pruning and if done properly can enhance the plant. Depending on what your goal is will determine how you prune and when you prune.

The vast majority of pruning is done in the winter. I feel a big reason for this is the pruner can get a very good view of the subject especially if it is a deciduous tree. It is to be noted that winter pruning invigorates the growth of the plant. This is easy to see why. When a tree has grown all year, there is a lot energy in the leaves that is stored in the roots. When a tree is pruned in the winter there is an important rule that not over a third of the crown be removed. To not do this, the tree once actively growing again will have rank uncontrolled growth.

Summer pruning, usually done towards the end of August, is a very good way to control growth and in the case of fruiting trees will create more fruiting wood. This is especially true with apples and pears. Dwarfing of the subject is caused by just the exact opposite of winter pruning. Top growth is eliminated before the energy can be stored in the roots.

There are several different cuts that the pruner can make. Probably the most common that most people have seen and sadly is also the most replicated would be called the heading cut. It could also be called a butcher cut.  There is no other purpose for this cut than to reduce the size of the tree. These trees often look like ‘totem” poles. It always amazes me that by and large most of these trees survive but any branch structure is gone. Branches that develop will only be attached to the tree by the outside layer of cambium. It will take many years for this wood to be able to carry a fruit load let alone ice in winter. I understand why pecan orchards are hacked back like this so that the trees can be shaken to remove the nuts as opposed to having to use cherry pickers. Worker safety would be a concern.

It really is quite easy in the summer or the winter to thin a tree by means of drop crotching. This is where branches are removed to a lower crotch. This can have several benefits; it can open the tree to more light, it lowers the canopies’ height, direct the trees growth, and it also maintains the trees structure / appearance. 

When pruning a tree being aware of how the tree grows and in the case of a fruit tree knowing what its fruiting wood looks like. Look at apples and peaches. Apples bloom on the same wood for many years on what are called fruiting spurs. These can be very short and very convoluted branches. To the untrained eye, one might see this as diseased wood and remove them. A very bad move. In the case of peaches, they bloom on what is called red wood. This is last year’s growth and once winter chill hours are met, will bear fruit. A peach tree that is not pruned will continuously produce fruit further from the ground. Heading cuts and thinning the canopy will force branches closer to the ground.

Heading cuts used judiciously can help a tree to develop structure so that it can bear a fruiting load.

Here in west Texas fruit trees that are grown in the open do not produce very often because of our “sine curve” winter weather where we have hot and cold running weather. It really makes a lot of sense to container grow a lot of fruit trees. With proper pruning these trees could be kept small and not outgrow their pots, induced to have a very evenly placed fruit crop on the tree, be moved to shady place in the winter to get chill hours or would be much easier to protect from hail.

With container grown fruit trees the varieties of fruit could be unlimited. For example, there are semi dwarf avocado and mangos on the market. A standard size of either one of these trees can easily be 20 plus feet tall. These semi dwarfs can be kept 10 feet or less. Knowing that both of these trees bloom on one year old wood can help with how to prune them.  Both of these trees bloom n the winter and can be pruned after they finish blooming. At this time their height could be controlled and depending how heavy of a fruit load this could also thin the fruit.

Pruning trees is something that I find very rewarding. Whether it is for attractiveness or producing fruit, there really is no reason why they cannot be attractive with or without their” clothes” on.

February 12, 2018

 I have tried growing grapes on my property. It seems that more years than not I notice the buds start swelling in February. Bad news since the middle of April is our “last” freeze. Or at least,” historically” it is supposed to be.

I have pulled off grape harvests maybe twice since I planted them well over 10 years ago. Not a very good return. So, I have decided to nuke the vines and try something altogether different.

My game plan is to container grow grapes.  I will grow a staked grape in a container and will develop the scaffold on this staked grape. Then each year once freezing is past move it out to a fixed scaffold. As the grape grows it would be wired to the outdoor scaffold. In the fall after freezes have taken the leaves and the vine has gotten chilling (some time in January or early February) the vine would be pruned back and placed in the well house for protection.

This would by no means be for major production but there is the potential, enough fruit for Deb and my use.

I am planning to do something similar with kiwifruit. These are also like grapes in the fact that they quickly get their chill hours and frequently break bud before the last freeze.

I have grown figs in containers and have been very successful. Never producing a lot of fruit but a regular supply.

This does bring up the frequent question that all these plants are very hardy and can takes severe freezing, right?

Yes, this is very true, but it must e mentioned When they are in a dormant state. Once they break dormancy they are as tender as a tomato in freezing weather.

A fellow gardener and I have discussed this subject on many occasion. It has everything to do with our severe temperature swings during the winter. Most places where these fruits are grown go dormant and stay dormant until the spring thaw.

Where Our problem lies is that these plants especially figs and kiwifruit never get into a deep dormant state. Even though the freezes have made the leaves drop they never go into full blown dormancy. This is because (for an example this year) one day we are in the 70’s and the next day it was 18.

It is my thought that the latent and semi dormant buds are activated and frozen during these cycles. These freezes do not kill these plants, but it does burn it back to the ground. Since these fruits all bear on two-year-old wood they always remain in a vegetative state and never developed two year old fruiting wood.

My desire to have fruit gives me the drive to see if this will work. Won’t know until I try. Could be more work than what it is worth, unless I try I will never know.

February 8, 2018

It has been a few years now that our strawberry bed bit the dust. They just couldn’t handle the extremes that the year 2011 brought their way.

I suspect it was a number of things that year that brought their demise. January started off with the typical sine curves weather (warm and cold fronts) but nothing very extreme. This all changed when February arrived. 

The first week of February brought some severe cold (down to 1.5 degrees) with a warm up into the 40’s then another dive the second week down to 4 degrees. Once this was out of the weather’s system the mercury was soring with triple digit temperatures within 3 to 4 months. To add insult to injury it was a very dry year with only a little over 4 inches recorded that year (this fell during one week). This was also a very windy year and due to the dryness, there were a lot of fires. It felt like Alpine was under siege. There were two very large fires one to the east of town and then the one to the west.

All this combined together made for a very challenging year. One good thing due to the dryness there were no bugs that year. Eggs just could not hatch (2012 made up for this)

2011 was the last year that I exclusively hose end watered. Watering would start at 2:30 AM and be completed by early afternoon only to start over again that night.

With the freeze, severe wind, heat, abnormal dryness and me (more than likely) not able to deliver adequate hydration, the strawberries gave up the ghost. At the time it meant just one less bed to water (this was a relief)

Needless to say, I was not sad to see 2011 in my rear-view mirror. Because of the duress 2011 was a huge learning year. More on that at another time.

My strawberries were given to me and most likely they had been given to that person too, so there was no way of knowing what variety they were. What I do remember they were a day-neutral variety. This means they were everbearing. Everbearing tend to be a smaller fruit but produce longer through the year. Unlike the June bearing which tend to produce larger fruit over a shorter period of time. Personally, I think the everbearing varieties tend to be more flavorful than their June bearing cousins. Maybe because they are not as hybridized?

Needless to say, in warmer years I was able to harvest berries year-round. What a wonderful addition to my morning cereal. This ended in 2011.

Now that I have a drip system to water, I am going to give strawberries another whirl.

I am switching things up in the garden. Because the beds on the east side of the garden have a shallow soil horizon I have transplanted my asparagus to these locations. I will be interested to see how it does. At least I will not have to attempt digging these beds and I can always mulch with more compost. Moving the asparagus has opened a bed and yes this will become the new strawberry bed. These too like their predecessors will be ever bearing. With luck their might be some for sale, that is if they are not all quality control tested.

It is nice to be able to get back out in the garden. It almost felt like I had to get reacquainted with an old friend. What with the severe cold that we had, the garden just was not growing. It really deserved having a little time to regrow.  My newest chard bed still hasn’t recuperated but from it next week. Luckily, I have an older bed to harvest from. This bed will be later this spring transitioned into a winter squash bed.

Tomatoes are hardening off and will be out planted next week. Yes, there are blossoms on the peas. Maybe peas soon. I am contemplating if I want to sow an early bed of beans, this would be two to three weeks early.

Anyway, it is nice to see some warmer weather sans the huge temperature swings. I hope this trend will continue.

February 5, 2018

Wow!!! what a wild ride last week was. I am glad all I got was a real bad head cold and not the Flu. Caught that once up in Oregon and have gotten flu shots ever sense. Knock on wood THAT has been the only time I have ever gotten the flu. Way more than a life times worth of memories from that one time. It is nice to be rejoining the living.

My seeds from my December sowing are all looking real nice. First batch of toms are hardening off for a middle of February planting. Of course I will be ever watchful of any severe freezing weather that may change these plans.

Chilies, eggplants and the rest of the garden will go in the first week of March. Tried forcing okra and it is adamant about cool soil , It does not like it. Sweet slips are set to arrive the middle of April. The same time I sow the okra.

This year I plan to continue the use of Promax, the thyme oil concoction for my pet RKN (root knot nematodes). This is injected about every 14 days. Too this oil I am going to add Azaguard (a nemacide) and Actinovate ( a natural fungicide that studies have shown to inhibit RKN). When I set out the seedlings I will do a soil drench with cold pressed neem oil.

Last year the Promax did wonders on the RKN but both the toms and okra seemed to be most effected. I looked for RKN resistant okra to no avail. This is why I tried sowing germinated seed early so that there could be bigger healthy plants but it seems RKN gets activated is soils that Okra like to germinate and grow in. As for the toms I have found some hybrids that are resistant. to RKN. I am planting both determinate and indeterminate toms to see how they perform. If the hybrids do well against the RKN I may go forward with grafting my favorite toms to RKN resistant root stock.

So lots of interesting things coming down the pike.