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.

January 25, 2018

Good morning, how surprised I was to see some of my second sowing of peas to be emerging.  These seeds were sown just before a pretty strong cold front. Once I had set these seeds to soak, there was no turning back.

I had miss read the forecast or it evolved, needless to say it was not what I expected. So I sowed and crossed my fingers but did not hold my breath.

I have found that germinated seeds will grow in less desirable conditions than what they can germinate in. Different seeds have internal clocks that are set into motion for germination only when all the conditions for that seed are met.

Peas have a fairly low germination temperature. A chart that I have shows peas will not germinate at 32 degrees. If damp they would most likely rot. At 41 degrees 89% will germinate but it would take 36 days to do it. Then at 50 degrees 94 % will germinate in only 14 days. The optimum temperature of 72 degrees 94% germinate in 6 days. These are all dry seeds kept moist once sown.

Soaking the seeds starts the germination clock but if sown into too cool of soil they will more than likely rot. But seeds that have germinated, the survival mechanisms are set into motion.

This could very easily happen when seeds are sown during a warm period  and then once the seeds have germinated but not emerged, there is an intense chill down, The survival mechanism is triggered. This is what soaking and germinating the seeds does. It must be said that there are limitations to these inferior conditions. This became abundantly clear last spring when I tried to force okra in too cool of soil. The germinated seed just rotted.

Back to my peas and strong cold fronts, this bed of peas after being sown were exposed to below freezing conditions longer than 24 hours. I was thinking seeds are cheep. But low and behold there were some emerging pea plants.And now for the patience to see how many of them do emerge.

These seeds were really tortured with such impossible growing conditions but the need to survive so that it can reproduce is much stronger. It just might not be a bad idea to save seeds form this bed.

I am easily entertained but I find this facinating. 

Recently our over night humidity has been very low. This means there is very little moisture to help keep over night low temperatures from sinking into the teens.

I have my garden thermometer located about 1 foot off the ground and another thermometer at 4.5 feet (this is the normal height). The last several nights the garden thermometer has been recording temps in the high teens and the higher thermometer has been recording 6 to 10 degrees warmer. With there not being much moisture in the air, day time heating is causing temperature swings in the opposite direction. And the veggies are caught in the middle.

This winter has frustrated me because of these swings. I must say if it were not for the fabric the garden would have become a has been. Every garden year has been different and this one is no different but this too will pass.

So with these large swings from day to night and back again, greens are having a time of it. I am seeing some growth but it is very slow.  January is historically our coldest month. Meaning that the whole month can be chilly. February can have some very cold weather but usually it is confined to the first two weeks then there begins to be a consistent but gradual warming. Mother Nature does have the final word on all this. Let's hope the historical  pattern continues this year with the worst of the real cold weather being finished by the middle of February. Which is around 3 weeks away.

Wednesday is my usual harvest day. There really were no greens to speak of. Just a couple of bundles worth of Asian greens.There is a bundle or two of radishes. I am entering a new carrot bed and it looks like they are of size. In storage I have plenty of butternuts and sweet potatoes. In the garden there are turnips, kohlrabi,  and cabbage.

Because of the lack of greens, I will not be taking bag orders this week but I would be glad to do line item sales for any of the items mentioned above.  Please refer to the bottom of the email for prices.

 

I can be reached at markdirtfarmer@gmail.com , Red Wagon Farm on Facebook, or go tohttp://redwagonfarm.blogspot.com/

Happy gardening!!!

I would like to phase out of the use of plastic bags. I know how difficult it is to change habits. Please bring a cloth bag with your name on it when you pick up your veggies. Ideally you will need two so that we can trade out.  Together I think we can do this. And maybe I too can remember to take my cloth bags to the store too. I find that they do not wear out hanging on the wall. I appreciate the response to this request. Thank you!

I thought that I would include my Friday delivery times and places. Life has a way of happening. I have no problem with folks picking up on Friday who normally pick up on Saturday or vice avers. Just let know so I will have your goodies at the right place. Hate giving veggies a road trip if they do not need it.

11:30AM until 12 PM at the a Alpine Farmers Market location

12:15to 12:45 behind the Sul Ross UC by the loading dock . The loading dock is near Sul Ross entrance #4.

and of course at the Saturday Market from 9AM until 12ish

This week from the garden:

We are offering Value Variety Packs.
For $20.00, we will give you at least $24.00 worth of vegetables.
For $10.00, we will give you at least $12 worth of vegetables.
We choose the veggies, and you save!

Please see priced items below for currently available veggies.

Of course, if you prefer, you may order individual items. Some items are very limited . They will be sold first come first served.

This week we are offering:

Radishes, Asian greens, and carrots for $2.00 per bundle

Turnips, cabbage and Kohlrabi,   for $4.00 per pound

Sweet potatoes $2.00 per pound

Butternut squash for $3.00 per pound

Habanero hot sauce, peachy heat sauce and West Indian hot sauce for $3.00 per ¼ pint.

Zucchini relish, peppered mustard, red tomato chutney, curried squash relish, German mustard, salsa,  and bar-b-que sauce,  for $5.00 per 1/2 pint.

Ginger marmalade and jezebel jam for $7.00 per 1//2 pint

Dill pickles, bread and butter pickles, sweet heat (habanero bread and butter), devil dills (habanero pepper), pickled bean, pickled sun chokes, and three bean salad for $7.00 a pint

Please respond by 10 AM  Friday