September At Last!

 Welcome back to another episode of Lost In the Farmers Market, as you may have heard, the Governor of North Carolina Roy Cooper has moved us to stage 2.5 in terms of easing COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. This of course means we are getting closer to normalcy, and this is a good thing. It does not however mean that we should relax too much as a disease as easily spread as Covid-19 can just as easily resurge. It has been proven that there are differing strains around and there is the possibility of getting the virus more than once. However in terms of gardening now is the time to get your fall seeds started. You want to sow the things that take the longest to mature right now so that they are up and developed so that they can withstand frost and the cooling fall weather without damage.  I always start with some Swiss Chard and the oddball species of Kale, then Collards and move on to everything else. This year I will be offering things I have never offered as saleable cool-season crops before and you should stay tuned to find out what’s going on.

 

In different gardening news the Autumn Botanical Test Garden tour is coming up. I am shooting for the 18^th of October between the hours of 2pm and 5pm. It is hoped that by then we will have seen another reduction in the Covid-19 restrictions and the weather will cooperate. If not, expect to bring masks, and the Rain Date for the event will be the 25^th of October, just before Halloween. By then I can assure you there will be plenty of fall delights for your gardening fancy and you get to see what’s going on in the test gardens. I can tell you this, 2020 despite politics and other crazy things that happened has been an amazing harvest year, so you can expect some impressive information and some ideas that flip the script when it comes to gardening. But let’s move on from the shameless promotions to talk some crazy-good garden stuff.

 

Before I get into this week’s garden photographs I do need to talk about two interesting garden conversations that I had this week with a few Sustainable Neighbors members. Firstly, I sent out a note telling folks that now was the time to begin sowing fall seeds. One of the replies was essentially ‘What are you sowing?’ and I didn’t specifically answer the question there. Later on the same day I was talking about it to a different Sustainable Neighbors member and the answer I gave was ‘I don’t like to tell folks what is being sown before it’s germinated.’ At the time I followed up with ‘it creates production problems when some folks try to reserve or order entire trays of seedlings.’ You would think that isn’t a bad thing but, it really isn’t good for business and here is why. When you have a horticultural production system you accept that there is a certain amount of loss, seedlings die, cuttings fail, somethings simply never grow and that’s an accepted part of the industry. I am a small grower who has limited margins and can’t afford to pull the same kind of stunts that someone like Metrolina Greenhouses or Bonnie Plants does. It isn’t plausible to reserve an entire flat of Rainbow Lacinato Kale because I know that 100% germination rates are rare, and even if I got 100% germination I would still likely lose 20% to after-germination causes like ‘failure to thrive’ and pathogens. Even after that some plants don’t survive transplanting to larger pots and some don’t survive ‘sunning’.  For the estimated 60% that do survive they make up smaller more vigorous batches of crops that are almost artisan in the way they are cultivated and cared for. The quality you the customer sees at the Tour or on the table at the Farmers market is leaps and bounds above the majority of my competition and I am certainly crushing big box left and right in that department.  There is one other ugly part of the industry that needs to be mentioned here. Customers are fickle, no not all of you, just the ones who want to order large numbers of things generally speaking. Historically I cannot count the number of times I’ve been approached and a customer has ordered a large number of something didn’t want to put down a deposit and never showed up when the product was ready. This is despite being told said product was ready they don’t tend to turn up. In business you do take risks, but you never take on stupid-risk, because it tends to burn you in the end. A case in point, several years back I started selling Fig bushes. They were being sold because the person who ordered them and promised up and down that he would come and get his order never turned up so I was stuck with sixteen figs (White Ischia, Brown Turkey, LSU Gold) that the buyer by all accounts had bailed on. I held the plants for several months and then when I stopped getting any replies I put them up for open sale. The plants sold rapidly, and the risk paid for itself so I could buy badly needed equipment for the lab. Ironically who do you think turned up as if a year hadn’t passed late the next spring asking for sixteen plants he hadn’t paid one red cent for?

 

I know what some of you might be thinking, ‘why didn’t I make him sign a contract or agreement?’ Simple, that’s a bit more corporate and hard-edged than I like BRN to be. I’m a local grower, who also now sells locally grown fruit and vegetables in-season. If I am in a situation where I need to make a customer sign a written agreement; then my image as the local alternative to big box suffers. I become like them and that is not how BRN is run. BRN is local, part of the community, and we are both accessible and accountable. This means that I never count my seedlings before they germinate and of course reserving entire trays of things is not an option. The economics of it aren’t good for the consumer and they aren’t good for BRN either. As some of the visitors to the Market might have noticed, I keep a seasonal rotation of things so that customers are treated with new and interesting things year-round. This is why reserving trays of stuff or specific tray orders aren’t a thing…well that and the production facilities are not that large. But anyway let’s get on to the garden pictures.

 

 Here we have a evening shot over the roof of the house with some great cloud formations. Technically not a garden picture, but some times the skies steal the show.

Giant Bugleweed (Ajuga reptans 'Caitlan's Giant'), this larger than normal variety of Bugleweed has much larger leaves and presumably bigger blue flowers. I've got it in a 8" p[ot until I can figure out where to plant this one. It seems to not care about full sun, though I imagine care is identical to normal bugle weed.

The bottom of a fully ripe Kadota fig. These are the figs used to make Fig Newtons and they're purple-red on the base almost like Brown Turkey but lighter than Black Mission.

The top of a Kadota fig is green-yellow and this picture doesn't quite do it justice.

From the side you can see the real color transition on a Kadota fig, they are very pretty. Shame this one is getting eaten!

Here we have the difference in coloration between 'Zanzibar' and 'Impala' Castor Beans. The Zanzibar Castor beans in the ground have reached a height of eight feet tall as of this writing. They are almost trees, maybe they can survive winter in our climate, wouldn't that be something?

After growign the plants and harvesting the seed I can see why one would proclaim 'Open Sesame' in regards to the at times troublesome seed pods of Sesame plants. I harvested dozens of pods from two plants and for my efforts all I got was maybe a quarter ounce of seed. Still it was fun to grow it and the Sesame seed plant's flowers were pretty.

 

Lastly, here is a LITFM video that talks all about Figs, it's the longest one I've produced at nearly 19 minutes but is totally worth it.

 

With all that garden goodness covered this is the part of the blog where I have to advertise for the Fayetteville City Market. Now I know you readers probably don’t much like advertisements, but by booth at the City Market helps to cover the costs of running the test garden and literally maintains the Research & Development budget that is used to bring you the information that has made up the backbone of this blog. Also, as of the start of 2019, my booth can now process credit or debit cards thanks to the acquisition of s a Square reader so your payment options have doubled. With that said, if you want to get some GMO-free, Organic vegetables, herbs and fruiting shrubs come on down to the Fayetteville City Market on 325 Maxwell Street in downtown Fayetteville between the Hours of 9:00 am and 1:00 pm on Saturdays. Even in bad weather the market goes on though you might have to look for me under the ‘arches’ of the Transportation Museum’s front entryway.

Food Plants:
Mustard, Red Giant: $3.00
Kale, Lacinato: $3.00
Celery, Tango: $3.00


Herbs: (3” pots)
Black Fennel: $3.00
Oregano: $3.00


Herbs: (5” pots)
Oregano, Bristol Cross: $4.00
Oregano, Italian: $4.00


Herbs: Special Offer
Rosemary, Prostrate: $8.00


Ornamental Plants:
Coneflower, ‘Pow Wow Wild Berry: $4.00
Milkweed, ‘Milk Maid’: $3.00
Milkweed, ‘Passionate’: $3.00

 

Due to the current Covid-19 situation and the state’s requirement that all citizens are not to gather in groups of more than ten, the weekly Sustainable neighbors meeting is online. Please check the sustainable neighbors Meetup.com page for more info about how to attend our online meeting.

https://www.meetup.com/SustainableNeighbors/

Since our meetings have an open-door policy you don’t need to sign up for anything or join anything, you can come on in and join the meetings. If not, you can always send me questions through this blog or visit the farmer’s market. This brings to a close the seventeenth LITFM post of 2020; stay tuned the next episode which should be posted on the 18^th of September. There will be more garden updates and other cool stuff.

...And now for something completely different!

Welcome back to another edition of LITFM, today is our mother’s day edition, and we will be featuring new and unique ways to celebrate the Mothers in your life by talking about ways to color coordinate your sock drawer!  Ah, who am I kidding, actually the article intended for today was about the origins of the tomato however I thought it more appropriate for the day to delay that to next week to cover a different angle of urban farming.

But first, I would like to thank all of you intrepid gardeners, farmers and sustainable neighbors who came out to the Urban Farm Day event and stopped by the booth. It was a great pleasure to talk to all of you and you really made the day great. As some of you know I had the fortune to be sharing a tent with Marsha from Sustainable neighbors and we formed an ultimate tag-team for sustainable organic awesome. Heck even Local Food Fred made his first public debut and was a hit! In all seriousness, all you urban farmers out there deserve special thanks, you made the event possible, also Sustainable Sandhills deserves special credit, they somehow make this event more awesome every year they run it. If any of you out there don’t have a membership with this group I advice you get one to support their cool local initiatives below is a link to their website.

http://www.sustainablesandhills.org/

Also here is a link to the Sustainable Neighbors Meetup group:

http://www.meetup.com/SustainableNeighbors/

Now beyond that, if you missed UFD 2012, you know that every year I sell horticultural surplus, that is plants that were not used in my crop production usually because more seeds germinated then I had space for.  The link below goes to a list of remaining plant stock still available for sale, and keep in mind you can arrange to pick up an order or it can be delivered for a small additional charge to the greater Fayetteville area and surrounding towns.

http://www.meetup.com/SustainableNeighbors/messages/boards/thread/23260882

As promised in prior articles here is a brief plant spotlight and a picture of a few plants sold at the UFD at my booth in mature form.

The Primrose Orchid, Primula vialii.

The Orchid Primrose is an oddball that as it's latin name states is an actual primrose, that is named for it's blooms that resemble the blooms of certain types of Orchids. This particular primrose tends to prefer partial shade especially in the southern states. It does best in enriched soil that receives annual additions of compost. Most references say it is a short-lived perennial and it is unclear if it will resow itself like the Yellow Fumewort does. However as seen above paired with darker foliage such as columbines it can be quite attractive even when not in bloom. This plant has been appearing a lot in Home Despot and Lowes and I expect it may be a new perennial sensation.

This is an example of the Rainbow Bell Peppers I sold at UFD, the color of their fruit is entirely random. Each plant might be green, yellow, orange, red, white, purple, brown or black fruited. This one in my high production bed seems to be purple.

This is the plant used in the Epsom salt trials, based on the color and size of the fruit I imagine it's Brown Berry one of the tomato varieties sold at UFD. The fruit are about 3/4" to 1" wide  like most dark colored tomatoes the shoulders or tops of the fruit are darker even when unripe and color up first.

 Red Malabar Spinach or Basella alba 'Rubra'; These specimens are planted in the Reinforced mound bed with full sun exposure and have a five foot trellis above to climb on. Malabar spinach is a hot-season replacement for spinach that grows rapidly and can form living edible walls to cast shade for more sun-shy plants. The berries can be used to make intensely purple or dark red dye.

This is one of the crops that did not make it past the seed stage for the most part, the crop of Black Krim Tomatoes simply refused to cooperate this year with only three seedlings emerging. I think next year I'll go back to Paul Robeson Tomatoes. Black Krim is a traditional heirloom tomato with irregular fruit and decent heat tolerance as long as you can maintain good soil quality and regular watering.

Flaming Hot container garden action! For note, the blue-green plant in the upper right is Dinosaur Kale, The large plant in the lower center is a Striped Togo eggplant, and the plant on the left edge is a Turkish-Italian Orange Eggplant. Only one 'TIO' eggplant was sold this year due to poor germination. In the ground Striped togo is tall and columnar, in a pot it's bushier and large leaved.

In the center pot: Tobago Seasoning Pepper(rear-left of pot), African Marigold, Siam Thai Queen Basil, Turkish Italian Orange Eggplant. This picture was taken to show the height and habit of the Tobago Seasoning Peppers sold at UFD. What you cant see is that the Pepper has several flower buds on it most of which are big enough to open soon.

Mindless salesmanship aside, we move onward to today’s topic of interest the culture of figs. Why figs and why on mother’s day? Well according to recent archaeological digs, sponsored in part by Rutgers University, the remains of figs found in an 11,400 year old house in Gilgal 1 an early Neolithic village in the Jordan valley have proven to be of parthenocarpic type. What this means is that figs now are officially one of the oldest cultivated crops as a parthenocarpic plant produces fruit that is effectively seedless or otherwise sterile and thus must rely on other means to propagate itself in this case us.

Why is this important much less what does it have to do with mother’s day?

Well this afternoon I was out planting two fig bushes, a Chicago Hardy and a Ischia, both of which are common varieties of figs but each was adapted differently. Keep in mind at ‘the Ranch’ as I like to call my property, the driveway has a row of robust figs on one side of the driveway already. As I was planting the new bushes on the opposite side of the driveway I got to thinking, what fruiting plant has done more for mankind and yet gets so little credit? I mean the grape gets a lot of credit, then there’s citrus famous for it’s anti-scurvy properties, and the apple which apparently is doctor-repellant… the list goes on…but no credit for the first fruit-bearing plant mankind is likely to have cultivated. In that light the fig is a little like a mother who never gets the praise deserved for an incredibly difficult task. Analogies aside, after planting the new figs one of which was a generous donation by a classmate to the Skye Project (Ischia) I got to thinking further, I hadn’t ever bothered to cover in this blog a darn thing about the culture of figs, the very fruiting bush that I had the most varieties of on premises. With oversight on that level I could work for the government!

Jokes aside, first and foremost the fig sold in stores is typically known as Common Fig and its scientific name is Ficus carica.  The first thing you should know about fig is that for all intents and purposes figs have a root system that possesses relatively few primary roots, a few secondary anchor roots but a whole lot of fibrous feeder roots. The greater number of fibrous feeder roots means that figs can be easily damaged by disturbances to the soil surface and can be easily affected by surface applications of extended control herbicides. The good news is that due to the extensive fibrous feeder root system figs also recover from wilting rapidly and respond to fertilizers with surprising speed. A careful fertilization program with excellent soil quality and generous mulch can improve fruit size and quality greatly deep but infrequent watering to compensate for drought can improve fruit quality and strengthen resistance to root damage by encouraging roots to dig deeper.

It needs to be said that the leaf morphology of a fig is variable, even on a single fig bush you may encounter several leaf shapes. Most commonly figs will bear a 3-5 lobed leaf with an irregular crenate margin. The leaf’s lobes may be greatly pronounces almost appearing maple-like in shape or entirely absent. The variability of leaf shape is often a source of identification nightmares which leaves the fruit as the only reasonable identification feature. Physically most figs unless trained into a specific shape will take a loosely upright form eventually resembling a particularly loosely branched tree with age. To date the largest figs I’ve personally seen have been about 15-20 feet tall and and in both cases they were the Brown Turkey type and were growing in swampy areas with a high water table. That last bit leads me to another important observation, the common fig grows best in a riparian setting that is an area with a high water table, near a body of water or that is subject to annual flooding in which sediment is deposited near or on its feeder roots.

The fruit of figs are interesting as they technically are not fruit but a Syconium which is a flower but turned inside out technically the seeds are the actual fruit.  In the case of caprifigs and figs such as calimyrna type a pollinator is required however for most home enthusiasts  the figs you will grow are self-fertile or more likely are parthenocarpic and thus no pollinator is needed. Further more the fruit themselves are ripe when soft to the touch, have full color for their variety and, lastly have begun to droop at the stem.

In droughty periods one has to watch out for fire ant damage to fruit and bird damage. A common trick is to protect fruit with bits of news paper so the birds cannot get at them or to apply a product such as Amdro to fend off fire ants before they can find the fruit. One other trick is to grow light skinned figs to make it harder for birds to spot the ripe fruit. Obviously there are far more figs out there then the list below, but these particular varieties are not hard to get in the Fayetteville North Carolina area and are quite reliable in general.

Light Skinned Fruit

Ischia

Kadota

Dark Skinned Fruit

Black Mission

Brown Turkey

Celeste

Chicago Hardy

As a final note for this episode of LITFM, I might add one last thought to the culture of figs, cuttings root easily, they generally will bear the first year installed if cared for well, also most varieities fruit on last year’s wood; though Chicago Hardy will fruit on new growth readily. In conclusion to quote the Agricultural extension agent from Alamance county in North Carolina ‘Figs are the great unexplored fruit for our region, we have the right soil, climate and all the space needed, someone just needs to have a little initiative.’