The end of June 2015

Welcome back to another episode of Lost In The Farmers Market. I have to open this post with a bit about weather safety. As you may realize, the recent weather has brought us a lot of rain, but also with it comes a bit of danger. As those of you who live in Fayetteville might have noticed, the thunderstorms while excellent at providing much needed rain, are also perfect conditions for high winds, potential tornadoes, flash floods and or hail. There is also the risk of downed trees, and flying debris to consider. In our last storm we received 1.6” of rain and the one before that 2” and the mega storm two weeks ago 3”, this poses several problems. The fertilizer you applied in your fields may have washed out, yet you’re getting a mega-dose of atmospheric nitrogen. Likewise with all the water flowing through you may have lost some topsoil. These storm cycles are excellent for certain crops such as figs but terrible for more delicate fruits. In the end I advise that all of you who read this remember to take caution during storms, the severe weather advisories seen on TV and the Radio are no joke even if the weird sound effects on the radio ones make them seem so.

With that in mind I did not attend the Saturday market this week because of the weather, we had a line of ugly storms come through on Friday evening and they persisted into the early morning hours of Saturday. Honestly, with the high daytime temperatures and the thunderstorm activity, I think we can officially call it Monsoon season. Despite this, as you know, we are in the middle of transfer season, the spring veggies are nearing their end, but the summer herbs, and perennials are just about to begin. I’ll keep a variety of peppers tomatoes and a few other odds and ends available, but expect more of the fine summer specials, and of course aloe vera plants in three sizes for your medicinal enjoyment. The new plant list should be available and posted up here later in the week.  In the next post I’m going to show you some tricks to help keep your garden irrigated in these difficult weather conditions. For this week I finish this post with a photo or two.

Aloe barbadensis/vera – Medicinal Aloe

This is ‘Big Mother’ the oldest aloe in the collection and the largest potted house plant I own. I’ve had this plant for about five years, and for most of that time it has been in an small 6” pot. The aloe plant was so heavy that it used to top over its old pot so I had to put it in a large thick-walled container made out of terra cotta and weigh it down with stones so it would not tip over. Earlier this year ‘Big Mother’ was repotted finally to a much larger 12” pot as seen in the picture. All the little aloes I’m selling came from this one plant and as you can see, this aloe is now free of pups.  Grown 100% organically, you will have a hard time finding healthier plants.

Adenium obesum – Desert Rose

The desert Rose is one of those plants that a plant enthusiast seeks out for the reward of its blooms. Sort of like a Holiday cactus in use, the Desert rose validates the effort to find one by blooming once a year with stunning blooms that are pink, red or some shade in-between. A well cared for Desert rose will bloom twice a year or in the case of mine twice a year and on every stem. The blooms can be so heavy that the stems bend and desert roses can get so large that they resemble a small shrub with corky bark. As for care, you barely water or fertilize this succulent and treat it like a true tropical. This puts a cork in the bottle for this weeks post, check back for another post later detailing the current plant selection and DIY irrigation tricks.

Riders On the Storm!

Welcome back to another Thunderstorm-Straddling episode of Lost in the Farmer’s Market. As you can tell the heat is on and summer officially begins on Saturday, More so the 4^th of July occurs the following Saturday so I hope all of you are prepared for a super-happy Fun time week because between those two events it’s going to be off the charts. For today’s topic first I have this image as taken through my office window at the headquarters.

This thunderstorm was an on and off affair lasting a little over an hour and was full of the expected thunder and lightning. But some of you may be wondering what the fuss over a thunderstorm is and that is a simple question to answer. From a basic perspective thunderstorms occur when a mass of cold air meats a mass of warm air causing the fronts to mix and respond with precipitation and of course thunder and lightning. But one other advantage is that the Atmospheric pressure creates both wind and extracts nitrogen from the atmosphere which is delivered to the fields and garden in a soluble form in rain. This alone makes thunderstorms important because they basically both water and fertilize the land. After a series of thunderstorms everything looks super green because all the plants have gotten a nitrogen boost and nitrogen causes a growth spurt and intense greening in plants. Too much nitrogen can cause a plant’s cells to burn out, where as too little causes most plants to become pale and lack vigor. The problem is that nitrogen is capricious, in that it never stays in the soil and thus even the USDA doesn’t bother testing soil samples for it because they know there will be no accuracy in the readings.

Typically we apply nitrogen in a water-soluble form known as Urea nitrogen, which is called urea because we first identified it as a chemical in *drum roll* urine. Fish in a fish tank exchange their urea through their gills which is why when you change the water in your aquariums the water makes for a decent fertilizer. Other creatures exude urea through the skin (amphibians) and in their bodily wastes (birds). If you’ve ever been to a place like Flow & Grow in town, you might see some of the Sunleaves brand bird guano and bat guano fertilizer products. In this case both often have high nitrogen levels but also respectable potassium and phosphorous content. This is because of those two animal’s particular diets. Sea birds eat fish, and fish inherently have a fair amount of urea in their systems. Likewise bats often eat insects and from their chitin exoskeletons calcium, phosphorous and potassium can be extracted through digestion.  In order for these wastes to be processed into fertilizers often they are dried and sterilized so that no pathogens are passed to the user. This leads to one thing that has to be said.

I do not recommend any of you out there using your own bodily wastes as fertilizer or compost due to the risk of transmitting communicable diseases such as typhoid and cholera and or parasites. There are systems like the Bio-toilet out there that allow you to compost your own bodily wastes but if you are going to embark on this I really, suggest you do thorough research first. Oh and make sure you wash your hands…seriously it’s gross.  Moving along there is one happy side effect of having a thunderstorm and that is that frequent but non-drenching rains promotes what I like to call advantageous volunteers. In the new bed that is still under construction a bumper crop of crab grass has appeared and is helping hold the soil in place but in between it a number of edibles have emerged.

This is red Calaloo or a type of amaranth. It volunteered in the new bed from last years seed no doubt. Some see amaranth as a weed, I see it as an edible forage plant with many native edible relatives plus it’s a useful drought tolerant garden plant with an interesting color.

Check this out, of all the rotted sweet potatoes, one somehow survived the winter to sprout in the new bed from the compost I used to build this bed up. I doubt I’ll get anything out of it but it’s still cool to see a success story.

  

I don’t know the species but I like that some form of squash or gourd is creeping out of the new bed purely on a volunteer basis, this is the most developed out of several examples of volunteering squash in the bed.

This wraps up this week’s post, the market report for this Saturday’s market is on the prior post and this Saturday marks the first Saturday that I am offering Medicinal Aloes for sale. So stop on by and get your instant herbal burn relief.

August! What are you doing to me here?!

Welcome back to a slightly compressed edition of Lost In the Farmer’s Market where we unravel the tangled mess of hype, terminology and concepts in the field of Horticulture and Permaculture. Today we have a short topic that is related to this crazy weather and the plant list for the Saturday farmer’s market but before we get into that, a warning. The weather has been acting odd folks popup thunderstorms have dumped all sorts of precipitation and the lightning activity while beautiful is still dangerous. I know it’s summer and I know you all want to soak up the cool breezes of those summer storms as well as that nice ionized air but remember, it’s not worth the risk of being struck be it by lightning bolt, fallen branch or tree. Please stay safe and be wary of flooded roads as local flash floods are always a risk in weather like this.

All the rain is a good thing, the grass is growing, irrigation is optional broadcast sown seed is doing alright but little do you know there is a killer on the loose. Yes, that’s right I said a killer, it could be anywhere, but its favorite victims all have some things in common. For all you know it could be out in your backyard right now, waiting to strike. This killer you see likes the rain; the moisture the weather right now is fine for such an evil creature!  The killer to which I refer has a common name of Root rot, the sneaky blight of succulents and cacti during wet weather.

http://www.cactiguide.com/forum/userpix/2_002_columnar_rot_1.jpg

Root rot is one of a number of pathogens that attack the roots of a target plant first cutting off the planet’s ability to draw up nutrients and water from the soil as well as expire through the root system. For plants it’s like getting a hybrid of Pneumonia and Ebola. Symptoms frequently include a sudden and prolonged lack of growth, yellowing at the base of a succulent or cacti or in plants with leaves sudden heavy leaf yellowing and drop. The yellowing near the base if not caught early is often followed by a gradual darkening of the affected areas as they expand from the bottom of the plant upward. Eventually the plant is so softened at the base it may fall over. In other cases the rot progresses far enough to make a plant cave in on itself into a pile of brown sludge with green caps.  Needless to say Root Rot is pretty disgusting on all fronts.

http://www.kadasgarden.com/images/stemrot5.jpg

Now the biology of why it is so bad is because plants breathe as much with their roots as they do with the parts you see above the ground. When root rot turns the root system into sludge the plant is basically asphyxiating and dehydrating at the same time. Worse yet pots and soil that have had a root rot outbreak are considered contaminated and must be dumped. Plastic pots can be sterilized with bleach solution (1:10) while clay pots if cleaned thoroughly and allowed to completely dry (up to one month) can be reused.  

http://www.extension.umn.edu/projects/yardandgarden/yglnews/images2/Nov12008/art3-4_600px.jpg

Plants that are caught in the early stages of root rot can be saved simply by refraining from watering them and allowing the soil to completely dry out before you water again. If such a plant is in a position here rainfall is the source of the excess moisture moving the pot to a less wet location could solve the problem.

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Moderate root rot problems can be alleviated by using a small razor or sharp pocket knife to cut away the affected portions then following the aforementioned procedure for an early case of root rot.

http://www.cactusmuseum.com/images/rot1.jpg

Anything worse than the first two situation is an extreme case and one should be prepared to take cuttings from firm green flesh only and discard the parent plant as it is likely too far along to help. A good but gross looking reference for when it’s too late can be found below.

http://pics.davesgarden.com/pics/2004/07/22/Xenomorf/077c63.jpg

There are anti-fungal products on the market and a few things for bacterial rot, but their price limits the validity of using them except on rare specimen plants.

On to happier topics, as you all might know I am still at the Fayetteville City/Farmer’s market every weekend and this weekend is no exception. The market is at 325 Franklin Street at the Fayetteville Transportation Museum. The market’s hours are from 9:00 AM through 1:00 PM. As with very weekend I’ll have copies of Southward Skies and the following cool plants for your gardening delight!

House Plants:

3x Aloe barbadensis – Medicinal Aloe

2x Peperomia verticilliata – Rotary Peperomia

5x Aloe barbadensis – Medicinal Aloe

5x Aloe ??? – Silver Ridge Aloe

6x Rhipsalis salicornoides – Dancing Bones/Drunkards Dream Cactus

Vegetables:

4x Sweet Banana Peppers

5x Habenaro Peppers (Hot!)

2x Tumbling Tom Cherry Tomatoes (yellow fruit)

2x Beefsteak Tomato (Slicing tomato, On sale!)

1x Japanese Long Eggplant

4x Cayenne Pepper

4x Yellow Banana Pepper

1x Sweet Ghost Pepper

Herbs:

5x Egyptian Onion (Allium prolificum, good stuff!)

1x Italian Parsley (garnishes your dishes and clears out bad breath!)

1x Greek Oregano

1x Common Sage

2x Horehound  (Marribum vulgare, natural cold remedy!)

Available Soon:

Cabbage Collards

Cabbage, Green

Red Giant Mustard

Dino Kale

Remember folks the Laura’s Plant Swap is on Sunday! And I’ll be there brining some odd stuff that is for that event only so if you’re not signed up do it, do it now!  The signup is on sustainable neighbors so go check it out!

http://www.meetup.com/SustainableNeighbors/events/131220442/

With all that said watch the T-storms and as always keep ‘em growing!