ICE COLD!

Its like an old sepia toned tin-type photo....

Welcome back to a snow dappled edition of Lost in the Farmer’s Market, this is our first episode of February. Now as you know, these episodes used to be posted on Saturdays hence the actual post date for this would have been February first. Because we’ve got a booth at the Fayetteville farmer’s Market the episodes are released early, so you can see what we’ll have in advance. With that said today’s topic is the first of a two part series defining the terms Genetically Modified Organism and Hybrid. Next week we will cover the terms Heritage, Heirloom and Open Pollenated.

So let’s get started with the term GMO, this is a abbreviation for Genetically Modified Organism. There is a lot of hype about this one and in truth a lot of it is justified. The corporations most mentioned for being involved with these creations act as though they are accountable to no one. Monsanto in particular is willing to do anything to loosen the restraints on its activities to make a buck. But what is a GMO? Well by definition I believe there are five types of GMO, each with a level of risk.

GMO Type I

Type 1 GMOs are genetically altered specifically using their own existing genetics. No foreign genetics are introduced and the goal is to get say a redder tomato or a carrot that has more beta carotene. This would be a much more expensive equal to say open pollination and selection of plants for traits.

Characteristics:

-The individual specimen’s own genes are used.

-Genetic clones are common.

-Pollen cross contamination is noticeable but not a significant risk.

-Low risk.

GMO Type II

Type II GMOs are a lot like Type I in that the selected organism’s own genetics are used. Genes from closely related members of the same family are also used.

Characteristics:

-Genetics from plants in same family, and are generally directly related.

-Original genetics are still being used.

-Pollen cross contamination is a possible problem.

-Intermediate risk.

GMO Type III

Type III GMOs are where the weird science comes in. Type three’s will often have something extra added in. Perhaps making a redder tomato was not enough, now the labs want to make a redder tomato that is perfectly shaped…so they unlock a gene for redness, borrow a gene from another tomato to make the tomato’s skin more lustrous and then they borrow a gene from say an eggplant to make the flesh firmer. Ok so all plants in the example were from the night shade family. The problem is Eggplant and Tomato are highly unlikely to cross in nature so that eggplant gene, would never have crossed so then have a unnatural plant that may manifest unexpected results later on.

Characteristics:

-May use genes from plants in the same family.

-Gene sources may bear unforeseen effects.

-Pollen contamination is likely especially if source genetics are not carefully selected.

-Moderate Risk.

GMO Type IV

Type IV GMOs are where the real problems begin because now the labs want to cross families entirely. They want to sell you a blue rose, so they use a petunia gene to make the rose produce shades of blue otherwise impossible. They want your corn to be pest resistant, so they use a natural pesticide gene from a potato so the corn produces its own pesticide. The list goes on but basically at this level the crossings of genetic material is all impossible in nature so these plants must be lab cultured and then grown on and in theory should be field tested (for 5-10 years which never happens) and FDA trial tested for 20 years (also never happens).

Characteristics:

-Genetics cross plant families.

-Pollen cross contamination is a constant issue.

-Mutation risk is present.

-Potential Acute Toxicity if used as food product.

-Moderate-High Risk.

GMO Type V

The final type of GMO is type V, which refers to the genetic structuring of an organism to do things that otherwise would not be normal in nature. Prime examples are pesticide immune strains of corn which otherwise would not have such protections, another example can be seen with the ‘terminator seeds’.

Characteristics:

-Uses genetic material from differing families of plant.

-May also use genetic material from non-plant species.

-Has high risk of cross-contamination via pollen.

-Has high risk of counter adaptation by ‘weed’ species.

-Can be bred to force financial servitude to company.

-Long term health effects suggested by independent study to be negative.

-High Risk.

The next term to discuss is ‘Hybrid’, which has gotten a bad rap in recent days as it is often lumped in with genetically modified organism as a bad thing. In truth a hybrid is generally any sexual cross between two compatible organisms. If we were talking humans we might call that ‘Mixed’ or for a dog ‘Mutt’. Genetically it’s the same thing, however for the purposes of agriculture it’s really little more than an observation of fact. Hybrid plants are not inherently bad as long as their documentation clearly indicates what plants were crossed to get the resulting offspring. That would be the real curve ball in the term hybrid.  If one crosses two heirlooms they still get a heirloom-hybrid, likewise if one crosses a successful hybrid with an heirloom you still get a hybrid-heirloom of another sort. However if you cross a heirloom with a compatible GMO variety, then you get a GMO-hybrid. In short as long as you can verify the parentage of a species then hybrids are not a problem and in fact are a normal part of agriculture. A good case in point is can be found with some of the more famous herbs as of late.

Mentha x piperita f. citrata ‘Chocolate Mint’ – a clear genetic cross between upwards of three mint types.  Plain old mint was crossed with a hybrid of Pepper mint and Citrus mint and then was selected for scent and flavor.

Basilicum kilimandscharicum x Basilicum ‘Dark Opal’  or Blue African Basil – A genetic cross between Camphor Basil and a cultivated variety of sweet basil.

Ocimum x citriodorum ‘Pesto Purpetuo’ – A flowerless sterile basil expressly intended for use in pesto. It is a cross of sweet basil and a variety of Lemon Basil.

As you can see the term hybrid isn’t so scary as long as you can figure out your plant’s history. You want to seek out clean non-GMO organic certified seeds to verify what you are growing is not coming with an unwanted genetic guest. Due to the size of this topic we will have to continue next week with the terms Heirloom, Heritage and Open pollenated.  With all that covered in detail we move onto the market information for this weekend.

The BL2 mascot is out enjoying the winter splendor.

The Fayetteville City/Farmer’s Market occurs every Saturday from 9:00 AM through 1:00 PM. The market is located at 325 Franklin Street in the parking lot of the Fayetteville Transportation museum. Since we are a year-round operation you can expect there will be fresh foods of some type available at the market and as always yours truly is always prepared with garden advice and great plants. Here is a list of what will be coming to the market this week.

Southward Skies: A northern guide to southern Gardening

This is the second edition of my book, which was published using data compiled from several years of test garden operations. It’s written to aid gardeners of all skill levels in successful garden methods that are targeted for the south east but had proven to be a valued resource for gardens across the weather coast. It’s certainly a good gift for that gardener you know or for yourself if you’d like to have a reliable field guide. The book costs $25.00 and we do take checks for this item, you can even have it signed.

Black Magic Fertilizer

That’s right you’ve heard about it in trials all summer. This specially formulated liquid fertilizer was made and tested at the test gardens using natural ingredients and no chemicals. The result explosive growth, great harvests and of course no environmental side effects! We’re making batches of this stuff to order, at $6.00 per gallon of fertilizer. You can either order it at the market and pick it up the next week or have it delivered to your home in the Fayetteville area for a delivery charge of an additional $2.00.

Fresh Cut Herbs

Bundles of Fresh Rosemary, short stem ($1.00)

Bagged Lavender ($2.00)

House Plants

8x Holiday Cactus ($3.00)

Garden Plants

2x Morris-Heading Cabbage Collards 0.5 gal pot ($3.00)

2x Georgia Collards, 0.5 gal pot ($3.00)

 

So this concludes the first LITFM Episode of February, we came in with snow which as the pictures posted will attest was quite lovely. For note we received 1” of snow, which translates to 0.5” of actual precipitation. I’d say we’re coming into the New Year just right for precipitation. I hope to see some of you down at the market, and as always keep ‘em growing!

It's so cold and quiet all I could hear when I took this picture was the delicate crinkling of the snow falling and the rare sound of a vehicle engine very distant. No aircraft...no music nothing else dared break winters imposed silence. It was glorious!

P.S.

Original Title: "Take Off! To the Great White South!"

 -Author's note:The title came to mind because of the above picture and then we dropped it because it simply sounded wrong.

Keeping out the cold!

Welcome back to a belated episode of Lost in the Farmer’s Market, As this post was intended for last week some editing has been done to shorten the entire thing and you the reader will get two episodes this week. For note no market information will be in this post, only the straight facts about cold frames. The GMO-Hybrid-Open Pollenated topic will be covered in this week’s normal post and will include the market information for this weekends (Feb 1) farmer’s market. Without any further delay we present this week’s topic.

The cold frame is a simplistic device used in gardening, though the models as seen through seed catalogs and garden suppliers has made things a bit confused because their models often make interesting claims.  For reference a cold frame is essentially defined as an auxiliary structure typically used in tandem with or as a supporting element for a greenhouse. Cold frames often take form as a low structure typically no taller than three feet that bears a transparent roof that is removable or that can be raised on hinges to allow access. The purpose of a cold frame is to protect plants from adverse weather (cold or wet) and provide additional growing space allowing for an earlier or later growing season. In some cases cold frames are used for storage of dormant potted plants such as amaryllis, tulips and certain types or root vegetable.  Typically a cold frame is not heated, and thus its heated version is appropriately called a ‘Hot Box’.

This model falls under one of the more ornate home gardener types. While perfectly affordable it’s obviously not intended for mass production use, even so it’s design is very practical. (Jung Seed)

With all that said cold frames come in a slew of styles and materials but also these propagation units serve as a critical point in gardening use because they can be built from almost anything. Commercial models make use of aluminum fittings and polycarbonate panels to allow full entry of light whereas units marketed to home gardeners may be comprised of rot-resistant wood fittings and polycarbonate, Plexiglas or glass fittings depending on cost level. With that said the ones you buy are as varied as your willingness to spend.  With that said it is not expensive to build a cold frame yourself nor do you need those fancy parts and pieces to do so.

This type of cold frame comes in single (pictured) and double-sided models and is composed of polycarbonate panels and aluminum fittings. It is clearly intended for both home gardeners and semi-professionals. The price range is good and its size allows for numerous units to be placed in rows. (Park seed)

Of course it bears mentioning that when one is building their own cold frames one might not build them entirely above ground. In-Ground Cold frames typically are no more then 6-8” above ground level and may be upwards of two to three feet below ground. Such units may be walled with brick, or some sort of edging or more commonly cinder block. The advantage to this sort of cold frame is that the soil itself is a great insulator, you require a minimum of materials, weed encroachment is limited and barring major weather they rarely have water issues.

 This in-ground unit is constructed into a hill with an eastern facing to maximize light exposure for the plants inside. Notice the coverings up top are hinged and effectively permanent. The interior is lined also to prevent root encroachment.

Now when one is talking about building their own cold the options for how and with what are quite open. At the ranch we’ve constructed two working models thus far pending the installation of a third. Let’s start with the one I like to call the “Prairie Deluxe”. It’s called that because as the pictures show the walls are mainly made of wood planks and the main support are brick struts. Wood by the way unless actively burning has a poor thermal efficiency and therefore this unit is only good at short term storage of larger plants. Even with the lack of efficiency, the use of a blue tarp allows might to pass through and thus, the plants still get some light and transfer of air and moisture can occur albeit at a reduced rate.

As you can see it's very simply designed. We literally turned one of the low-tech growing benches into a cold frame by moving the wooden planks to the sides.

The original supports act as the only hard structure in the design, broken or irregular bricks hold the planks in place. The  brighter blue tarp in the background serves as the cover.

The second model is more in line with the principles of a basic cold frame. Nicknamed the “Brick****haus” (insert humorous expletive after brick). This tiny cold frame makes use of albedo, location and refraction to prevent cold damage to the plants inside. The bricks are faced so that the smooth side is facing in while the rough decorative side is facing out. This is because the decorative size is darker, and tends to trap more heat from solar exposure; the smooth sides tend to reflect it more. The inside thus never fully freezes. The glass on top is made of two panes of tempered glass for outdoor use. Both panes were salvaged from the wrecked door after the break in. Inside this unit right now are several Cilantro plants which can withstand freezing and cold weather anyway but benefit from the wind protection and protection from the recent temperature fluctuations. Ironically I guess you could say that some of that cilantro is likely to be the first herbs at the booth in the market in 2014.

Very simple by design, the brick cold frame is portable and very efficient by cost and material standards.

In short, cold frames are a useful tool to the home gardener as well as the producer, in a way they are the step before one considers the installation of a true greenhouse. Given the strange weather as of late; cold frames may become quite important to the sustainability movement because of their versatility and variety of styles to meet every gardener’s preference and budget. Of course the final decision rests with all of you out there what is it that you would like to see?  This brings to a close a belated episode of LITFM, Stay tuned for our next episode which discusses in brief the issues of GMO, Hybrids and Open Pollenated plants.

As always folks, Keep em Growin!

Graft!

"Hes a Bad Mutha...

Shut your Mouth!

But I'm just talkin' 'bout Graft!

We can dig it!"

Welcome back to the second of forty-six episodes of the 2014 edition of Lost In The Farmers Market. For those of you just tuning into this web log LITFM discusses the ongoing trials of the test gardens, the horticultural trends and other associated stuff about sustainability and organic gardening practices. With that said we have a rather interesting topic for today’s post as we will be talking about the new trend in mail order catalogs and garden centers. Today’s topic is a look at grafted vegetable plants, including a cost comparison against conventional plants. As always the Farmer’s Market Information will be posted with a plant list so you can check out the winter goods.

The commercial sale of grated vegetables is a relatively new thing first appearing in mail order seed catalogs about three years ago. At first it only appeared in the catalogs we at LITFM didn’t order but has finally appeared in the ones we intentionally order so of course someone must be making a buck off it. A grafted vegetable is either a tomato, eggplant or pepper plant where the top half of the plant (scion) is attached to a rootstock of the same species. Basically you have one specific variety of say tomato rootstock with a brandywine type tomato growing top. The variety of scion stock is limited at this time as most sources indicate twenty varieties of tomato scion, three of peppers and two of eggplant. The scion varieties are pretty common and can be bought as seed anywhere and grown relatively easy from seed. For reference the varieties as see are as follows.

1. Tomato – Amish Paste, Big Beef Hybrid, Big Zac Hybrid, Blush Tiger, Brandywine, Celebrity Hybrid, Cherokee Purple, Defiant Hybrid, Delicious, Early Girl Hybrid, Goliath Hybrid, Indigo Apple, Indigo Rose, Jet Setter Hybrid, Juliet Hybrid, Momotaro Hybrid, Mortgage Lifter, Pink Berkeley Tie Die, Sun Sugar Hybrid and Sweet Aperitif.
2. Peppers – Big Bertha Hybrid, Golden Bell, Jalapeno and, King Arthur Hybrid.
3. Eggplant – Epic Hybrid (aka dusky) and, Ping Tung.

So as you can see all the varieties are not much to write home about, they’re well proven, well known and of course fairly safe. This selection is a good marketing strategy, because it does create some name recognition so the option reaches a bigger target audience. However when you really look into the nature of these grafts you notice a trend. For instance in the three seed catalogs that arrived at the test gardens this year the advertisements for the grafted plants are word-for word nearly identical event he page layout is identical which suggests the sellers had to make certain agreements to carry the plants as a distributor. This sort of thing is common with trademarked, patented or copywrite materials and is no real surprise. With more examination you find the prices, all of them sell at the same rate, two plants of your choice for $16.95, with additional plants selling at $7.50.  Also the plants are shipped in 2” containers with specific growing instructions included. Often the seed catalogs will offer a mix of grafted and starter plants as well urging gardeners to compare the two for $14.95 per group of plants. This move is also well played, but one has to ask, have they treated the normal starter plants they sell this way with anything as Bonnie plants tends to do? All one really clever business would have to do here is to treat the starters with a slow release growth retardant and suddenly of course the grafts are going to do better. For the sake of argument we’ll assume no funny business and continue on to where these plants originate.

If you notice on each such advertisement there is a black and white logo that has a big ‘S’ and says Super Naturals. Super naturals is the company that does all the grafting and growing. That said I cannot find a locationfor where Super Naturals is based out of other then that they are the result of the collaborative effort of Plug connection, Garden Life and Log House Plants. Their source for seed is A.P. Whaley, and the source for their Root Stock is territorial Seed Company. The links for all three are below in order of mentions.

http://graftedvegetables.com/wp/

https://awhaley.com/

http://www.territorialseed.com/category/Tomatoes_Rootstock_seeds

A extended search of A.P. Whaley reveals they are largely about selling seed, but are not in any way organic, and have no mentions of if or if not their plant and seed stock is G.M.O. modified or contaminated. Likewise Territorial Seed company sells organic plants but seems to possess no organic certification nor any assurance of using clean plant or seed stock. In fact this leads to another question the specific root stock sold by Territorial is called ‘Super natural’ and is protected by law. I called Territorial to ask about where there root stock originated and they could not tell me. I asked if the rootstock was G.M.O. free or organic and gain no real solid answer. So we don’t know where the rootstock came from. In the same way it is not clear if the seed from A.P. Whaley is clean since they did not indicate either way and Super Naturals proper has no contact number so we can’t call and ask what practices were used to grow their grafted crops.

However, on a trip like this we must see how far the rabbit hole goes and such a trip leads up to the next two points of reference. The instructions for taking care of these grafted plants are a little bit odd. For instance; the instructions say that the tomato must be planted with the graft point above the soil line. This means that depending on where the graft is, you may not be able to use the old plant it an inch deep on the stem method to promote an additional layer of roots. The pictures of the graft are all identical and it seems to demonstrate that the graft is about an inch or so above the soil line, though admittedly there is no object in the picture of comparison to verify this. The logic noted behind this is sound, if the scion (top) is in contact with moisture for any long period it will try and create roots which will negate the value of the graft. More so you apparently have to worry about the root stock trying to create leaves so additional pruning care and once the plant is tall enough Supernaturals suggests  that once the plant is big enough you remove all leaves on the lower 10-12 inches of the plant’s stem and keep it that way. There are other growing suggestions like being careful not to bend the graft point when transplanting, and to avoid over fertilization and use a 15-gallon ‘wine barrel’ type planter. Honestly, the only things in the entire growing instructions worth of note is not to damage the graft, and not to plant too deeply.

This leads to a discussion of the economics of grafted ‘annual’ plants. Now on a perennial plant such as a rose or cherry tree the benefits of a graft are very clear, the long term productivity is very much worth the added cost of the graft. Twenty or so years of harvests will pay for the cost many times over. On a tomato in general use most people grow it as an annual; this may be due to a lack of skill, knowledge or indoor space to overwinter their tomatoes. For that we cannot fault the majority of growers in the case of farms, the cost of obtaining these plants is likely prohibitive so they too must get a pass. For the rest of you out there the problem economically with grafted plants is the cost. You get two plants in 2” pots for $16.95, not counting shipping which is often about $5.00 for just those two plants. So per plant you are talking $10.98 give or take a fraction of a cent. To get the right amount of soil it’s going to cost about $2.12 per plant and the cost of your pot may range from $7.49 for a 14” plastic pot to $32.08 for a wooden whiskey barrel planter. So the minimum total per plant is now $20.59 not counting your choice of fertilizer, tomato cage and any other additional materials you may decide to buy. At most the total is $45.18 and none of this includes the cost of fuel to get to the store to buy the pot, soil and other items.  In short you are putting out a lot of your hard-earned cash for a ‘maybe’.  Now to compare, if you simply bought tomatoes of the same variety from a store like say bLowes,  an individual plant  in a 2”-3” pot might cost about $3.20,  and then the pot and soil would be the same so the total cost would range from $12.81 to $37.40 which is pretty significant. For the cost of potting one grafted plant up the cheapest way possible you can almost pot up two normal plants. For the cost of potting one grafted plant up with a barrel planter you can do the same thing with a grafted plant and still have enough left over to cover your gas to get to the store without going over the cost of the grafted plant.

In short while grafted plants seem to be very good and such from a cost perspective there is no evidence to support their legitimacy. All other aspects must be tested in field conditions against a duplicate plant of the same type as the scion. The successful comparison of plants must be done with equal exposure, feeding and care. To the point, we at LITFM will be testing this under field conditions as a part of a triple study. The three comparisons will be 1 grafted plant versus 1 non-grafted scion plant versus 1 wild study plant. The results should be available later in the year and you will get an update posted here when we start. That said we must shift over to the market information. As some of you may know the Fayetteville City/Farmer’s Market occurs every Saturday from 9:00 AM through 1:00 PM. The market is located at 325 Franklin Street in the parking lot of the Fayetteville Transportation museum and there is no shortage of parking in the area. Here is what will be coming to the Market this week.

Southward Skies: A northern guide to southern Gardening

This is the second edition of my book, which was published using data compiled from several years of test garden operations. It’s written to aid gardeners of all skill levels in successful garden methods that are targeted for the southeast but had proven to be a valued resource for gardens across the eastern coast. It’s certainly a good gift for that gardener you know or for yourself if you’d like to have a reliable field guide. The book costs $25.00 and we do take checks for this item, you can even have it signed.

Black Magic Fertilizer

That’s right you’ve heard about it in trials all summer. This specially formulated liquid fertilizer was made and tested at the test gardens using natural ingredients and no chemicals. The result explosive growth, great harvests and of course no environmental side effects! We’re making batches of this stuff to order, at $6.00 per gallon of fertilizer. You can either order it at the market and pick it up the next week or have it delivered to your home in the Fayetteville area for a delivery charge of an additional $2.00.

Fresh Cut Herbs

Bundles of Fresh Rosemary, short stem

House Plants

9x Holiday Cactus (Deep Pink bloom)

Garden Plants

4x Morris-Heading Cabbage Collards

3x Georgia Collards

1x Stonehead Cabbage

1x Savoy Cabbage

This concludes a surprisingly long episode of Lost in the Farmer’s Market We hope you found the information as presented useful in deciding some of your garden plans for 2014. I hope you check back in next week when the discussion heads towards the nature of what Genetically Modified Organism actually means. Thank you for reading, and as always Keep ‘em Growing!

P.S.

Toe-may-toe or Toe-mah-toe, it doesn’t matter just as long as you’re not getting ripped off when you buy ‘em!


Update: Something I forgot!
Precipitation for the last Week was spread across three days, Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday. A averaged total of 4.65" of rain fell during these events.
 

Firmly in winter's court

Happy New Years!

LITFM is on hiatus pending an operating system upgrade and maintenance to the computer on which these blog posts tend to be composed. Hopefully all will be back to normal next week and LITFM will break in the New Year with gardening mayhem. That said you can bet that we will still be appearing at the Fayetteville farmer’s market which despite the deep freeze we experienced in the last few days is still going on.

The Fayetteville City/Farmer’s Market occurs every Saturday from 9:00 AM through 1:00 PM. The market is located at 325 Franklin Street in the parking lot of the Fayetteville Transportation museum and there is no shortage of parking in the area. Here is what will be coming to the Market this week.

Southward Skies: A northern guide to southern Gardening

This is the second edition of my book, which was published using data compiled from several years of test garden operations. It’s written to aid gardeners of all skill levels in successful garden methods that are targeted for the south east but had proven to be a valued resource for gardens across the weather coast. It’s certainly a good gift for that gardener you know or for yourself if you’d like to have a reliable field guide. The book costs $25.00 and we do take checks for this item, you can even have it signed.

Black Magic Fertilizer

That’s right you’ve heard about it in trials all summer. This specially formulated liquid fertilizer was made and tested at the test gardens using natural ingredients and no chemicals. The result explosive growth, great harvests and of course no environmental side effects! We’re making batches of this stuff to order, at $6.00 per gallon of fertilizer. You can either order it at the market and pick it up the next week or have it delivered to your home in the Fayetteville area for a delivery charge of an additional $2.00.

Fresh Cut Herbs

Bundles of Fresh Rosemary, short stem

House Plants

6x Holiday Cactus (Deep Pink bloom)

Garden Plants

2x Spineless Prickly Pear

4x Morris-Heading Cabbage Collards

3x Georgia Collards

1x Stonehead Cabbage

1x Savoy Cabbage

This concludes a very, short LITFM post, hopefully by this time next week we will have completed all maintenance and the next post will include more than just a status update. I might add if there is something you’d like to see at the booth this year feel freen to contact LITFM, or post a response up here.