A Half Year Past

Welcome back to another episode of lost in the farmer’s market where we look into the ways and means of successful organic gardening with just a dash of comedic content to keep the topics from going to seed. As you may know with next week’s post we are heading into the second half of the year. This of course means the fruits of your labor for the summer harvest should be starting to produce results or are very close so now is a good time to talk about protecting your hard work and how to keep the produce coming. Before we get into that lets talk precipitation, this week the test gardens have received at least 1.1” of precipitation on average which has been supported by a number of brief showers. This comes on the heels of last week’s significant rainfall which is a good thing. Since the major rains in the area tend to be by way of thunderstorms this also means gardens in the area have been receiving atmospheric nitrogen. Adequate water is essential to the success of any garden that is designed to produce food for a house hold or for sale.

The discussion of production isn’t complete without a bit on fertilizer. Now as you might figure if your vegetable crops have been in place for a few months they might need a little boost in preparation for the difficulties of August. July is right around the corner and with it the oppressive heat and common drought of August. This basically sets the stage for a possible case of nutrient deficiency, or a soil fertility issue. Usually in the context of a garden it’s a localized problem take for instance the issue of blossom end rot in tomatoes which in truth is a calcium deficiency.  Most problems can be resolved or prevented with regular applications of water-soluble slow release organic fertilizers which when used in the right measure put back what you remove. It also has to be said that mono-cropping and not making use of crop rotation will only make the issue of nutrient deficiency worse in the long run. On a local note, at the Test gardens one of the tomatoes involved in the trials this year has already exhibited a case of blossom end rot. The real twist to this is that it’s a potted plant that is being grown in fresh soil and thus I have to point out that even with good potting soil you can have nutrient issues. I’ve resolved the issue with hydrated lime suspended in slightly acidic water from the rain barrels and the problem has not recurred but it does highlight that gardeners should always be wary. The link below goes to a document published regarding the varied symptoms of various nutrient deficiencies and is a rather informative read or reference.

http://www.mgofmc.org/docs/nutrientdeficiency.pdf

Keep in mind in the case of the tomato that suffered blossom end rot even when potted, it was the San Marzano paste tomatoes. They might have been the first large tomato harvested had the entire first batch not suffered end rot. I suspect pate tomatoes just need more calcium in general as this happened last year also.  This is the life of the test garden; you react to whatever situations happen as they come about with the information at hand.

But this leads to the second topic of the week, how does one handle losses to birds and squirrels and such? A lot of visitors at the booth have stated that they often find their tomatoes with bites out of them in the middle of the yard (squirrels). Others have mentioned the birds getting them and basically leaving them still on the vine half eaten/pecked to death. At the test gardens I have problems with critters in both cases and have found a decent way to solve the problem at little or no cost. Some folks get decoy owls, or those weird inflatable balls that have bright colors, some get fox urine, of dangle old CD’s up or foil strips. The problem is birds and squirrels quickly adapt to these things, and let’s face it netting over your crops is a massive pain in the rear end. Admittedly I’ve never used a single one as the frustrations with these methods that are voiced at the booth at the farmer’s market as well as when I’m out doing landscaping have ruled out these options. So many people could not be so dissatisfied if it was effective. With that said this is how I handle it, instead of fancy and expensive stuff I will often ‘jacket’ the fruit of crops that are vulnerable to birds and squirrels.

Before you ask no, this is not a micro-greenhouse technique.

The use of plastic zip lock type sandwich bags protects tomatoes because for some reason the birds cannot quite tell they are ripe and the squirrels tend to leave them alone probably because of the plastic. I should say that in the bottom of each bag I cut three 1” slits to allow the fruit inside to breathe and to prevent water from collecting inside. The alternative means of ‘Jacketing’ a crop can be seen in the below picture.

Figs require a different method as they will not tolerate plastic.

For the White Ischia figs that ripened within the last few days (this is early, I think) it posed the problem of dealing with the bird population. Last year I field tested the use of muslin bags over the fruits that were gently tied to the branches of the fig bushes with great success. This year the process was repeated and for the early harvest I only lost two ripe figs to birds out of 23 which is a remarkable success rate. Basically this version allows the fruit to breathe but also removes the ripening fruit from sight so it’s not as much of a target. This method has only been tested with the figs, because of their slow ripening habits. Unlike other fruits figs generally are ripe when the fruit are very swollen, have a slight gloss to their skin and are very soft to the touch. I might add figs sag when ripe as if too heavy for their stems to support. The end result of all this  effort can be seen in the next picture.

Last week’s Mexico midget and Cherokee purple tomato harvest plus the first five figs of the year.

It does payoff to be vigilant, but it also pays off to be wise about how you manage your crops. As a final note for this post before we get to the market stuff, someone last week asked about caterpillars and the “eggs” they leave on the soil. Catapillars have this biological mechanism that allows them to fling their feces a distance away to prevent wasps from finding them. And so you get what I found in the house this week a caterpillar on one of my rhipsalis that seeming came from nowhere the following occurred right after.

Why Hi Mr. caterpillar, have seen you in a while.

What the hell? Did you just crap all over the living room?

Needless to say I don’t know how he got on that plant as it’s never been outside but he had to go and there was a cleanup after the fact. For note this is probably the first time we've resorted to toilet humor at LITFM, it was a barrier that needed breaking anyway.

But now I must move on to the Farmers Market stuff and indeed we appear to have a decent weekend coming up. Thought eh weather has a chance to throw a thunderstorm like it has had every day for the last two weeks that should not prevent you from hitting up the market. For those who have not heard the Fayettville Farmer’s Market is located at 325 Franklin Street, in downtown Fayetteville in the front parking lot and lawn area of the Fayetteville Transportation Museum. The market runs on both Wednesdays between 2pm and 6pm and on Saturdays between 9am and 1pm. This gives all of you two chances to get the freshest foods in Fayetteville and to hit up my booth for information and  GMO-Free, organic plants for your garden. Without further ado here is this Saturday’s Plant list.

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 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.

Vegetables

2x Amaranth, Tricolor, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Cucumber, Armenian, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Cucumber, Poona Kheera, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

3x Eggplant, Casper , 3.5” pot ($3.00)

3x Eggplant, Louisiana Long Green, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Pepper, Jalapeno, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Pepper, Habenero, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Pepper, Sweet Banana , 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Pepper, Carolina Wonder, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Tomato, Brown Berry, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

3x Tomato, Martino’s Roma, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

1x Tomato, Rainbow Cherry Mix, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Tomato, Red & Yellow Currant, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Tomato, Reisotomate, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

1x Tomato, Underground Railroad, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Fruits

2x Cape Gooseberry, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Ground Cherry, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Horned Melon, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Vine Peaches, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Herbs

4x Basil, Sweet, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Basil, Thai, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Basil, Cinnamon, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Basil, Red Rubin, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Artemesia, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

3x Chives, Common, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Fennel, Black, 7” pot ($6.00)

2x Lavender, Hidcote, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

3x Oregano, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Parsley, Italian, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Rosemary, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

3x Sage, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

3x Thyme, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Ornamental:

1x Passion Vine, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Coneflower, White Swan, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

3x Coneflower, Cheyenne Spirit, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

1x Coneflower, Magnus, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

3x Rudbeckia, Golden, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

1x Rudbeckia, Irish Eyes, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Rudbeckia, Summer Sun, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Coming Soon:

Black Hungarian Pepper

Potatoleaf Hillbilly Tomato

Japanese Black Trifele Tomato

Muscadine, Copper

I admit this episode was a tad wordy however it is now at it's end, and I hope you enjoyed it. Next week caps off the real summer series, as we document things like the pepper trials and other stuff going on around the gardens. As always folks watch for lighting, carry an umbrella and never ever allow a caterpillar as a house guest they  seriously think the world is toilet paper. As always folks keep 'em growing!

The sun and the Sandhills

Welcome back to a belated episode of lost in the farmer’s market, For those of you hardcore fresh food fans out there who came out to the Fayetteville farmers market this past weekend you no doubt know why this episode was delayed. For those of you, who didn’t make it, lets just say I was having a bit of a hard time getting out to do field work and leave it at that. Today’s topic is about soil and its effect on the need to water your plants. Of course we also have a lovely group of test garden pictures including one such picture that is probably the most awesome thing this year so far.

As some of you long-time readers of this blog might know I often talk about how important soil quality is. In fact I cannot stress enough how greatly it effects the margins of success or failure you will experience in the endeavor to have a productive garden. I have to state that ornamental gardens do better with improved soil as well but, in their case it’s not as much an issue because often it does not matter if ornamentals set fruit. So lets start with the region we live in; we are in the sand hills of North Carolina, an area that is composed of coarse to medium grit sand that is often of golden or gray coloration. There are areas of clay too often composed of mottled gray or bright tones of red but generally the rules of engagement remain about the same in either instance. A soil dominated by anything absolutely is bound to be a bad soil for productivity of the things you like. An overly loamy soil can be called muck if wet, an overly clay soil can compact to a hardness similar to concrete, a overly sandy soil has the nutrient and moisture retention abilities of a desert. Silt-heavy soils tend to be light and fluffy and thus are what blew away during the great dustbowl.

With that said no one expects you to perform a miracle and convert a soil in a single growing year. Admittedly it is possible to do the expense is insane, and thus we have today’s topic. As you may know Organic matter is often called loam and a bunch of things, but as with the old roman maxim ‘Nothing to excess’, loam itself does best in the right proportions to the mineral aspects of the soil usually about 30% to 50%. The reason you don’t want to get more then that is that the minerals in the soil tend not to wash off or blow away if the loam and sufficient anti-erosion measures are in place. This all relates to watering directly because it has now been established that clay and silt tend to repel water where as sand tends not to hold water. The quality of your soil is relative to it’s ability to hold onto water and nutrient long enough for your plants to make use of it. Mulch is your first line of defense for maintaining soil moisture as it disallows weed competition, wind and water erosion and eventually decays into a new layer of organic matter to add to your layers of loam. The real key is the actual amount of organic matter present in the first few inches of soil where all of your plant’s feet roots will be. Those feeder roots bring nutrients and water into your plants and they are quite important because relative to taproots and buttress roots they have more surface area with which to seek nutrients and absorb more of the water that is applied. The feeder roots are also what take up the fertilizers you apply and often are what find the manure or compost products you apply and thus are directly responsible for your increased yield.

To put it mildly, good soil quality, that is a presence but not overabundance of organic matter will aid your soil in retaining nutrients and moisture which in turn translates to greater heat, disease, pest and, drought resistance per cultivated plant. A case in point can be seen with the opuntia cactus shown later in this article which was given excellent soil quality and a dose of poultry manure last year. It responded by blooming several years early indicating early onset of plant maturity and exceptionally fast growth. As I always say, feed the soil, feed yourself, this is not a catch phrase, it’s a fact. 

One of the easiest and least expensive ways to improve your soil is to use low-cost indoor potting soil as it basically is a bag of perlite, vermiculite  possibly some bark fines and maybe some soil material with a dash of peat moss. The effect of this addition is that you get a basic topsoil going from which you can aspire to greater things without going broke. I do not advice the use of fertilizer or chemically enhanced soils because their performance and the side effects of the chemicals are uncertain. As soon as you can I advise setting up a composting bin or acquiring compost on a yearly basis to top dress your beds to further add nutrient and fertility. As you get further in you should also consider the use of a composted manure product to add additional fertility so chemical fertilizers are not needed. Barring all of the aforementioned, if instant gratification is the goal then you can always go for a truck load of compost from a reliable garden center or supplier. The effect of this method is that you get the fertile cropland you sought instantly without much more effort then it took to move and spread the stuff. The effect is the same, the more in balance the soil is, the better it will hold moisture, and the less frequently you will have to water barring extreme weather. With all that said lets move onto the pictures for this episode.

Opuntia humifusa - Spineless Prickly Pear

This is the showcase of the year so far. As some of you may know prickly pears take some time to get to a mature state and thus don’t bloom for a while. This one, decided to prove the normal wrong and bloom its third year and it seems to be ready to produce fruit as well. In fact the pair of cactus are so vigorous I may snap off a few pads and have them at the market in fall.

Physalis sp. - Ground Cherry ‘Cossack Pineapple’

For those of you in the know, I find ground cherries to be the most underused fruit in America and yet they are  both native to this climate and incredibly delicious. What makes these plants great is the fruits protective covering which means bird and critter damage is minimized. The harvesting method means you have to be a decent gardener and the plants sheer durability means it really does not ask for much but produces heavily when amply provided for.  I managed to snap a shot of a maturing ground cherry, as you can see the husk is enclosed. Later on I’ll take a picture of the fruit when ready and with the husk peeled back.

Ricinus communis – Castor Bean ‘Red Weed’

The stand of Castors at the test garden are growing on, pushing about a foot tall with leaves between 6-8” depending on how you measure. These guys are doing good in the blinding hot sun with absolute full exposure! Some of the more adventurous visitors to the booth bought some of the castors and I am sure you wont be let down by them either. For note, mine are planted the way they are to see if I can get them to bleach out their red and partially they do, this is not how one would normally plant a castor bean as the best color comes from providing some partial shade.

Coreopsis pubescens – Star Tickseed

As per request here is a picture of the dense clump of star tickseed in the shady rock garden section at the test gardens. As you can see it’s consumed its section and hungers for more. The soil below is barely enriched soil with appropriate amounts of pine straw. The plant is virtually never watered and more often then not other perennials have to be rescued from it. More of this plant will be available at the market next week.

Leptoglossus sp. – Leaf-footed Bug

These guys are a yearly feature in the garden. They are neither problematic nor beneficial but are a welcome site just the same. They started hanging out the year I grew a Wonderberry plant, and have appeared in groups in the garden every year ever since. For note these guys are true bugs as evidenced by the diamond shape seen on their backs when their wings are folded, and by the piercing/sucking mouthparts they possess. This year tons of them were just hanging out in the blooms of the Yucca I photographed last week.

Well this brings to a close a delayed edition of Lost in the farmer’s market, in the next episode which I hope to have posted on Thursday or Friday with a plant list, we will be covering plant selection and its effect on your need to water. I thank all of you who braved the weather to come out to the market and hope to see you this upcoming Saturday. As always folks be wary of the weather and keep ‘em growin!