Rejuvenating The Soil For Fall - Biofumigation - Option 1 of 3

Hey Everyone,

Well hard to believe the calendar says it's almost September but coupled along with a few of the chiller evenings and we have a sound reminder that fall is just around the corner.  Many are starting to pull the diseased plant material from their gardens and are taking the necessary steps to prepare the soil for a healthier fall harvest.  With the amount of pests and disease, we experienced over the summer, it is more important than ever to take sound steps now for a healthy fall garden.

This is some nice looking soil!

The easiest way to enhance the health and productivity from your garden is to improve the growing medium or your soil.  Whenever disease and pests have been present, it is important to take steps that break the cycle of the problem for future seasons to come. There are actually three options for re-building your bed and putting pests and soil-borne pathogens at bay.  Each of these options have their own pros and cons so decisions should be made on what works the best for you and what you feel the most comfortable with.  As you see the terms in the next few posts to come, please take the time to educate yourself in order to make informed decisions for a healthier garden.

Option Number One:  BIOFUMIGATION

Biofumication is a process whereby commercial farmers use a synthetic chemical fumigant to kill certain types of soil-borne pathogens.  For the organic home gardener this process is adapted with an all-natural alternative called biofumigation.  Biofumigation utilizes the cover crop of Mighty Mustard to release natural glucosinolates into the soil.  The high levels of glucosinolates found in Mighty Mustard are the chemical properties of the plant that make certain members of the brassica family spicy.  These chemical properties are known to mimic synthetic commercial fungicide treatments and destroy several soil borne pathogens. The glucosinolates are also the basis of many commercial pesticides available to large-scale growers.  In addition, cover crops are of great benefit for adding pure organic matter to the soil.

Pros:  When it comes to using cover crops, the pros are plentiful and live up to the claims they tout if kept healthy and disease free.  For small home gardeners cover crops provide a solution in areas where it is difficult to incorporate long-term crop rotation strategies.  By utilizing the different types of cover crops based on your specific needs and keeping the levels of beneficial microorganisms high and productive, your garden will have a chance to flourish even with pathogenic fungi and bacteria present in the soil.  If you choose to forgo the planting of a fall and winter vegetable garden, this may be an excellent option to re-build your soil.

Cons:  The cons are only a few.  The amount of time it takes to grow a cover crop ties up the planting site for an extended time, which can interfere with planting schedules.  Cover crops can turn a garden into a weedy field if ignored, so do expect extra pests for dinner if neglecting your bed.  For example, the Mighty Mustard mentioned above is known to attract flea beetles.  If you do not currently have flea beetles in your bed, this particular cover crop would introduce them to you.  However, it can work to your advantage as a trap crop if using cover crops on one side of a bed only.  Lastly, would be choosing the wrong type of cover crop based on your particular needs.  For example, if you needed a crop to fix nitrogen into the soil and instead choose one that is nutrient scavenging, it may not accomplish what you set out to do.

As a special note, Mighty Mustard is excellent at destroying pathogens & pests from the soil; however, I cannot find the pathogen that causes early blight on any of its lists of diseases kept at bay.

For those that would like to do some additional reading on biofumigation and cover crops, the links below are for your convenience.

http://www.thegrower.com/issues/the-grower/118501009.html - excellent article on biofumigation.

http://www.mightymustard.com/varieties - A link to the line-up of Mighty Mustard varieties.
http://www.mightymustard.com/uses - link to specific uses for each variety.

http://www.organicgardening.com/learn-and-grow/cover-crop-basics - link to general cover crop information and types.


Johnny's Selected Seeds Company carries a full line of cover crop seeds under the sub-heading of Farm Seed on their website.

Option Two & Three to follow.................

Happy Gardening,

Denise, Beds 25 & 29

Weekly Calendar August 26 - August 31

Tuesday August 27
6:30 pm - 8:30 pm
Tonight's Bed Time Talk:
Integrated Pest Management (aka IPM) will start at 7:00 pm sharp
Learn how to find and smack down those pesky bugs quickly.
 
Master Gardener's and Gardeners will also be available for advice and help before and after the talk.

Thursday August 29
8:30 am - 9:30 am
Master Gardeners in the Garden

Tomorrow night, Tuesday the 27th at 6:30 we have another great program planned for our Bed Time Talk/Walk. Denise and Vicki will be telling you all about IPM or Integrated Pest Management.  If you have had problems with insects or disease this year, you will want to hear this program.  They will go over strategies for a successful Fall gardening season as it is time to get your bed ready for Fall. Hope to see at the garden. 

Weekly calendar Aug 19 - Aug 25

Tuesday August 20
6:30 pm - 8:30 pm
Tonight's Bed Time Talk Solarizing Your Soil will start at 7:00 pm sharp

Following the talk, Carol will be presenting the upcoming changes in garden practices to achieve our goal of having an organic and healthy environment to grow vegetables and herbs.

Master Gardener's and Gardeners will also be available for advice and help before and after the talk.

Thursday August 22
8:30 am - 9:30 am
Master Gardeners in the Garden

Saturday August 24
9:30 am - 10:30 am
If you missed the Tuesday talk, Carol will be presenting the upcoming changes in garden practices to achieve our goal of having an organic and healthy environment to grow vegetables and herbs.

Cosmos - a bright, airy cottage style plant that attracts pollinators

Cosmos is one of the current stars in the Pollinator Border  in front of Bed #15. Last year it was deliberately planted, this year it came up from seed.  This is a plant that loves benign neglect. Benign neglect does require you to water but other than that, it does fine on its own. It doesn't get diseased, attract pests, etc.

You very seldom find the plants  for sale at the big box stores but seeds are easy to find at most stores or you can order them.  Sizes range from dwarf (1 - 2 foot tall) up to huge heights of 6-8 feet tall. They also come in a wide variety of colors - whites, pinks, purples, yellows, oranges and bicolors. I love them all because no matter which color you have, they are a fun plant.

When I was looking at the cosmos in the border on Thursday morning I noticed 4 or 5 different kinds of bees were using it as well as a variety of small butterflies. This particular butterfly is a skipper but I don't know what kind it is.

 

One reason this flower is such a good one to have in a pollinator border is because it is flat which allows more species to easily land on it. Another reason to grow it is because it blooms continuously.

 

If you aren't trying to collect seeds, just clip off the spent flower heads to make the plant devote its energies into making more flowers. But I do recommend you collect and dry some of the seeds so you can grow more  cosmos next year. The seeds are very easy to store and very easy to start next year. You can start new plants inside or just sprinkle them on the ground (after pulling the mulch away from the area you want them to grow.)

 

Spent flower head, almost spent flower, seeds ready to harvest

Brown Marmorated Stink Bug

During our first Bed Time Walk and Talk on August 6, we found this little critter on a tomato plant. (Yes, another tomato problem. Sigh......) Denise knew it was a nymph but we didn't know what it was a nymph of.

Last night, I was looking at a blog I follow and what do you know...they had a picture of this exact same bug - Brown Marmorated Stink Bug.  It definitely isn't a good bug for us to have, especially in the numbers that we have.  Denise says she has been catching 15 - 20 nymphs every day at the garden to take home to feed her praying mantids. When I was reading up on them, one article I read said they were a favorite food of praying mantids.

Do you remember all those brown armored looking bugs that were in the shed all winter and early spring? I do believe this is one of their babies after looking at the pictures of the adults.

Unfortunately for us, the harm they cause is vast. They love to pierce and suck juices out of fruits and leaves of beans, tomato, okra, corn, pepper, eggplant, etc. Where they pierce the fruits and leaves they leave pimples, warts and discolored areas. Have you ever picked a tomato that had cloudy white colored spots on it? This is called cloudy spot and is what happens after the fruit has been pierced by a stink bug.

Here are several links if you want to learn more about them :
Stink bugs
This link has a description of what harm they cause, recommendations of how to deal with them and where they like to hide (like our shed in the winter).

Pictures of all stages of growth of brown marmorated stink bugs
Egg stage through adult. Watch for and kill all stages!

Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs with video
Has the exact same nymph picture I have as well as a little video showing the bugs crawling around on corn, piercing and sucking the juices out of individual kernels of corn. They like to pierce and suck the juice out of lots of different veggies besides corn.

This is my bee hive

 

Now this isn't your traditional bee hive but it is mine. For the last 15 years, we've had bees living in the shed next door. Some years they have a very active swarm, some years not. This year they started off slow, disappeared, then a new group moved in and the swarm has slowly grown. They don't have enough space to all fit in so I see tons on the outside of the shed.

The odd bit about this year's swarm is that it doesn't clump together on the boards closest to the hole they go in. Usually they are really close and you can't see the boards at all.

They were removed once from the shed but they came back. When the bee lady came to remove them it was very fascinating to watch. She pulled the wood siding off, broke off the honeycomb, put it in plastic tubs and also vacuumed up/collected all the bees as she went along.

I enjoy having them and as long as I don't aggravate them everything works out. Luckily the shed is in the back corner of the yard so it is easy to avoid.

Taking out the tomatoes - Boo hooo....

I have conceded tomato defeat for the year. I probably would have struggled on a bit longer but since I was going out of town I took all the tomato plants out. Even though there were tons of green tomatoes coming along. Boo hoo hoo...

Between the rain causing disease to spread faster than a sneeze, leaf footed bugs and brown marmorated stink bugs piercing and sucking the fruits AND those cute but dreadful 4 legged bushy tailed rats aka squirrels stealing my tomatoes, it has been a battle this year. Last year it was just the birds pecking the fruit. True I lost a few to the birds this year as well but the squirrels got lots more than the birds. I'd already started picking my fruit when it was half ripe to keep the squirrels from getting them! No completely sun riped tomatoes for me dang it.

After I stripped my plants of tomatoes, I had 3 huge cookie sheets of tomatoes ripening. I think cherry tomatoes tend to ripen faster than grape and Roma tomatoes. As you can see I have quite a few Sun Gold and Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes in various stages of ripeness. And yes...I do sort my tomatoes into categories. Grin. It is easier to monitor when they are ready to eaten.

Because I was growing cherry tomatoes my vines were huge. To make it easier to remove I took my loppers up to the garden to cut the vines into manageable sections. I started on the outside and just pruned, pruned and pruned. Then I stuffed every piece into bags to haul home. I save the bags that my sunflower seed comes in because they make great bags to haul home diseased garden debris.

Why do I want to take home all my tomato parts? Because they are full of disease spoors. If I put them in the compost bin I would just be spreading more disease to everyone else.  I cut and took the tomato parts home the night before the trash went out so they wouldn't be sitting around long in my trashcan at home.

The other thing I did was try to pick up every single piece of leaf, tomato stem, etc. that fell to the ground. I even combed through my rosemary looking for diseased bits that had fallen off that I hadn't seen before. At least the air smelled good while I was moving the rosemary around.

The new green stems and tomatoes were easy to find. It was harder looking for old, dried up tomato leaves in my leaf mulch. But I did take my time doing that because I want to remove as much contamination as possible. The next step is cleaning up my equipment and cages.

 

Every time you cut into diseased plant material, you put bacteria on your clippers. Technically you should wipe your pruners after every cut. In practice, I tend to wipe my clippers every 10 cuts or so. But I DO try to make sure that I really wipe them clean before I move to the next plant.  Once I get my clippers home I get a new clean wipe and really go over the clippers well.

 

It is easy to clean my hand pruners and loppers with disinfecting wipes. It will be harder to clean the cages.  You can use disinfecting wipes or mix a solution of bleach with water (1 part bleach, 10 parts water) and wipe it all over your trellis, cage, stakes, etc. You can use a rag, paper towel, sponge brush, whatever works for you. Just do make a point of thoroughly cleaning everything before you put it up for the year.

 

If you do this on your grass, be sure and flood the area with water to dilute the damage the bleach could cause.  Bleach kills plants, beneficial microbes and worms in the soil.

What's in Your Dirt?

It is time for another informative Tuesday evening Bed Time Talk. Master Gardener Rita Buehner will be giving the Bed Time Talk this week and will tell you all about beneficial nematodes and how they can help you have healthier soil which will improve your yield by attacking some insects that love to eat our veggies.  Do you remember the cabbage loopers last year?  If you want to learn how to improve your gardening experience, join us Tuesday evening.  Rita's bed talk begins promptly at 7:00 p.m.

Weekly Calendar August 11 - August 18

Tuesday August 13
6:30 pm - 8:30 pm
Tonight's Bed Time Talk What's in Your Dirt will start at 7:00 pm sharp
Master Gardener's and Gardeners will be available for advice and help
 
Thursday August 15
8:30 am - 9:30 am
Master Gardeners in the Garden

Friday August 16
8:30 am - 10:00 am
Walk the Bluebird Trail with Jim
Meet at the garden to begin the walk at 8:30 am
Wear walking shoes and bring water to drink

This is why it's called a SUNflower!

Beautiful, or what?  I can almost see solar flares.  Thank you, Vicki!

Taken at Green Meadows Preserve Sunflower Bed, Tuesday 8/6/13

Now you see them, now you don't

The sunflower border is looking gorgeous these days! My vision of what I wanted to achieve actually worked. Woo hoo!

 
What I had NOT anticipated was those darned 4 legged tree rats with bushy tails (squirrels)discovering the ripening sunflower seeds in the more mature heads and climbing the plants to eat the heads. Boo hiss! Be sure and admire them before the squirrels do them in.
 
We have quite a few different varieties of sunflower cultivars which  have been lots of fun watching flower. By the way, the view from outside the fence is quite a bit different from the inside of the fence.


Watch me disappear.....

 


because now I've been eaten.





Eaten, broken off and left crushed on the ground.

For All You Bee Lovers!

Hey Everyone,

While my hive is not producing any honey, I thought all you beekeepers would appreciate the beauty of this nest.  It is so amazing to get up close views of insects in motion!  I have properly identified these wasps hanging in the trees by my home and may I present the Bald-faced Hornet.  Dolichovespula maculata!

This black-and-white relative of the yellow jacket gets its common name from its largely black color, but mostly white face.  It also has easily identifiable white markings on the tip of the abdomen.  Its habitat is the aerial nest pictured here and at peak can contain 100 - 400 members.

These hornets are quite aggressive in nature and it is said that they will attack anyone or anything that invades their space.  With their stingers being smooth, they have the ability to sting repeatedly.  Their stings contain venom, which can cause pain, swelling, and itching for about 24 hours.  I eagerly wait with anticipation!

Bald-faced Hornets Nest
Sue, I think my queen needs a name!

Happy Gardening,

Denise, Beds 25 & 29

Totally Tomatoes

Hey Everyone,

Next weeks Bed Time Talk, Tuesday, Aug. 6th, is dedicated completely to tomatoes.  Let me be your tour guide as we walk through the garden and learn the proper identification of some of the different strains of blight disease as well as discuss the proper control measures. Working together and adopting better practices in growing tomatoes can go a long way in preventing these blight diseases from taking such a hold. Our walk will begin promptly at 7:00 p.m., with any assistance you may need in your bed immediately thereafter.  This is a wonderful opportunity for us all to learn from each other!

Hope you will come,

Denise, Beds 25 & 29