No Japanese beetles sighted in early June 2014!

Every year, right at about the start of June, my garden areas have been assaulted by Japanese Beetles. These insects crawl out of the grown and then go after about any thing they happen to land on. I've had entire raised bed crops decimated overnight! So, this year, I've keep a sharp eye out for these distinctive looking little critters. Only, they somehow must have missed the wake up call. I've not seen a single beetle thus far!

My theory, as to what happened, centers around the very cold winter we all just went through. It might be possible that the deep and prolonged freezing of the ground may have killed off the larvae. If true, then it may take them a number of years to make any significant return. A possibility that I can live with! At any rate, I still plan to watch for them for another week or two!

May garden notes!

Straight Eight cucumber

It's now mid May and my raised bed areas, many of which are now in my front yard for ease of access, are beginning to show some results! Even after we got a milt frost this morning when I arose! Most notable are the cucumber plants I bought a few weeks ago as starts and which are now showing fruit. I also have some tiny peppers of a variety I think are of a California Wonder variety. Many of my tomato plants also now have blooms on them also. The weather, here in southwest Missouri has been agreeable with temperatures running at or near normal for the season. Rainfall, which had been lacking has also picked up and we may even finish the month close to the normal amount of four inches!

Big Bertha variety pepper

At some point, in the near future, I'm hoping to begin harvesting some leaf lettuce, onions, cucumbers and maybe even a cherry tomato or two. Then, by late June, I fully expect that the main season tomatoes and pepper plants will begin to yield a bountiful harvest. This year is already far ahead of the poor results I had in 2013.

Stats for Forsyth MO as of 5/15/14 - Average Hi 78F Low 51 | Avg 64.1F| Rainfall 2.96"

June 2010 Hot and Dry in SW Missouri

June felt more like July or August in most of Missouri, rainfall was also on the meager side with my rain gauge measuring only about 1.69 inches.

Pat Guinan, a climatologist with the Missouri University Agriculture Program stated that June temperatures throughout the state were four to six degrees above average, making it the hottest June on record since 1957. Here in Forsyth, I measured a mean temperature of 78F. which was four degrees hotter than average.

On addition, the lack of adaquate rainfall for many parts of southern Missouri boded ill for many crops including potatoes, rice and cotton. Some farmers are reporting that they are losing crops due to extreme heat with no rain. Only those with good irrigation systems are making do. Some areas have gone more than a month without a drop of rain. Here in Forsyth, I measured 1.69 inches of rain against an average of 4.3 inches (the average June rainfall for West Plains).

My Garden Update for May 2010

Wow, how quick a month can go by. That’s especially true this time of year when things are growing and the sun is shining. (Just the opposite of the wintertime when the days seem to drag on forever).  The rains this month have been plentiful at over six and a half inches and the combination of warm days and cool nights have just been perfect for my lettuce crops! I’ve had fresh salads all spring with only a few trips to the market for iceberg lettuce that has been costing $1.50 a head! Likewise my radish sowings have been prolific as was a parsley plant left over from the previous season. So, I am very thankful.

Now, in the waning days of the month, I have a good number of other plants coming on. Most notably were the Great Northern Beans I wrote about in earlier blogs. These now have little bean pods on them and I’m not sure if I am supposed to eat them at this stage or let them mature into the dry variety I am familiar with. Hmm, think I’ll pick a few and find out for myself.

I also have a really nice crop of carrots coming up at this time (picture about right). They have been a ‘surprise’ crop ever since last year when I found that they are quite happy to stay in the ground until I need them. And so, I had a source of the most wonderful veggie all fall and on into winter. They truly are a sow and forget crop.

My onions have now begun to bulb up and while they never get all that big, they sure are a welcome addition to my kitchen as I use onions in salads, sandwiches and soups all year long. I think I have about fifty plants right now which may not sound like much, but that will be more than enough to satisfy my needs for the summer and even into part of the fall.

The tomato plants of which I have planted two varieties (Brandywine and Better Boy) are just now getting to be about a foot tall. The Brandywines were purchased as starts while the Better Boys were grown from seed. Like wise I have a good selection of mild and hot green peppers including Long Red Cayenne and California Wonder peppers. The starts are all doing nicely while those grown by me from seed are pretty small at this stage. I’ve found, however, that by the time August and September arrive they have generally caught up. Now the only thing I have to worry about (other than insects) will be the deer who also love to munch on the peppers and tomatoes. To that end, I have planted some of each in different locations in an effort to fool them. Time will tell.

Just How Big a Garden Do I Need?

One question that arises from time to time concerns the amount of space needed for a garden to be considered productive or self supportive. While I’m not sure what the answer is to that question, I can possibly shed some light on what you can expect a given plot of ground to produce. From there I’ll try and relate this to what it would take for an average adult to live ‘off the land’ as it were.

For starters I’m only going to consider standard row gardens. While you can get great production out of a raised bed garden, you’re still limited to some extent by material costs, custom soil blends, etc. A row garden is something most people can construct with only modest expense. For our example we will take a look at a garden plot that is 104 feet square or a quarter of an acre in size. I’ve attempted to draw a diagram that is to scale and show an average sized ranch style home with a quarter acre plot out back. As you can see, it is a substantial area for a garden.

From information I have gleamed on the internet plus data that I collected from my own efforts last year in my garden (I have raw data if anyone wants it), I’m confident that a harvest of about half a pound of produce per square foot can be realized. (Maybe a little less or a little more depending on the nature of what is planted and on how the season turns out). That would translate out to about seven pounds (7.3 to be exact) of produce from a quarter acre per day assuming that you were able to can, freeze or store all of what you grew and then parceled it out over the course of the year.Note a quarter acre plot would be about 104 feet square.

Now if we accept this fact and next focus on the caloric content of the produce, we would find that some vegetables are low, some medium and some high in the number of calories you get from them on a per pound basis. At the high end would be potatoes that can approach a calorie per gram or 453 calories per pound. At the low end, say lettuce for example, you are getting hardly any calories. Maybe ten to twenty per pound grown.

So, if you happen to be an average sized adult and your daily caloric requirement is 1800 calories per day, that would translate out to a yearly need of (1800 cal x 7 days per week x 52 weeks per year) or about 374,400 calories that you would need to eat each year. Now, assuming an average of 7.3 pounds is produced per day in a quarter acre plot at an overall average of 200 calories per pound, you would get (7.3 x 200 x 356) or 512, 640 calories. That’s more than enough to live on even assuming some spoilage and loss to critters.

Sure signs of spring!

Around the middle of March it might seem to many of us living in southwest Missouri that winters hold will never go away. But, if you look carefully, you will see that things are a growing in spite of her cold embrace.This serves as a great reminder for gardeners that this would be a good time to sow Cole crops or any cold hardy plant for that matter.

In my front yard are two such signs. Daffodils and Forsythia are both getting ready to burst forth into flower! Now while neither of these plants look very impressive right this minute. You just wait! Sometime next week the temperature will climb into the sixties, the birds will be singing and these guys will come out in all their glory as early (and welcome) emissaries of better times to come. In my neck of the woods you will see a lot of yellow (the aforementioned Forsythia) pink and white (dogwoods) and daffodils of course!

My only problem with this time of year is the thought of cutting the grass. I can already discern little clumps of green growing here and there. I've always wondered why someone hasn't invented a use for grass clippings! The shear biomass that is produced each year must be staggering. For my part, I never bag my clippings. I have a mulching mower that cuts the grass blades up really fine so they decompose and add nitrogen to the soil. I've never had a problem with thatch buildup by doing this and my lawn looks great!

Cold Frame Update for March 14, 2010

On February the 27^th, I planted by broadcast method a few Little Caesar romaine seed along with an equal amount of Cherry Belle radish seed. Both were from packets that were purchased last spring. As you can see, as of March 14^th, they have germinated well and are on their way. The temperatures during the day have been in the middle forties to low fifties while the nights have fallen in the thirties. But, the cold frames have done a good job of protecting the young seedlings from harm.

On this date, I also broadcast a small amount (about one tablespoon) of fertilizer in both frames. I used a NPK (Nitrogen Phosphorous Potassium) mix of 13-13-13 which should give the young seedlings in Cold Frame #1 and the established lettuce plants in Cold Frame #2 a boost. As a side note, when I finish harvesting the lettuce from the small Cold Frame #2, I plan to spread a little finished compost from my compost pile of kitchen scraps out back. I do this to try and insure an even pH balance is maintained. This frame will then be given a rest and will just be used to hold starter trays through the rest of the cool spring days. As warm weather approaches, I’ll broadcast a small cover crop of hairy vetch to help replenish the soil. By doing this, I will help benefit my fall planting of lettuce there.  Note: The small pot in between Cold Frame #1 (nearest) and Cold Frame #2 contains garlic plants. They are destined for the raised bed out back in  week or so.

Yes, I also need to re-caulk the window frames. They are over twenty years old and have performed well late in life. They were donated to me by a friend, Stephanie O’Neal back in 1995 and were pretty old back then. Since that time they have been repainted a couple of times, but now the window panes are falling out because the old caulk has deteriorated so much. Still, they have performed their function very well. A good motto to live by is to re-use and re-cycle whenever possible. Nature has done a great job of this for millions of years and it works really well.

My Chicken Wire Spud Enclosure Thing

Potato Planting Time is Nigh!

As spring gets ever closer (it’s March 5th as I write this), it’s time to begin thinking about those first vegetables of the gardening season. Potatoes are among the best vegetables to grow and they should deserve your consideration. As a died-in the-wool gardener, I’m hoping to get a few seed potatoes from the local market this weekend. The Home Depot where I live in Branson Missouri seems a good bet.

I have my trusty soil thermometer ready to go. As soon as soil temperatures reach about 50°F, seed potatoes can be planted. Currently, the temperature where I plan to plant is at 49F. Some gardeners use cold frames or high tunnels. Not me! I’m going for the close to the house plan this year. I just need to be careful to protect the young plants from freezing temperatures which can still happen at any time. (Note: If you are planting in the open field, you will need to wait 2-4 weeks before the last frost in your area).

Once I get my seed potatoes, I plan to pre-sprout them for a couple of weeks before planting. This will give them a boost for earlier and maybe larger production ratios. Pre-sprouting is accomplished by placing the potatoes in a warm room (>50°F) until sprouts are observed on the tubers. You also will need to consider using indirect, medium light to form tougher sprouts. These will have a higher chance of survival. That’s the theory anyway.
Note that you can plant either seed pieces or the whole potato. If the seed stock is small (size of an egg or less), whole ones can be used. Larger seed potatoes can be cut in slices having 2 or more eyes or buds per piece. (Since the potato is a root crop, the soil needs to be loose and friable for good growth). The optimum pH is around 5.5 to 7.0.

Speaking for myself, I prefer to plant potatoes on a raised bed that keeps the soil both warm and well-drained. Just make a 6” deep trench and plant the seed pieces or whole tubers about 12” apart. Cover the seed with 2-4” of loose soil. When the potatoes sprout or when they get a few inches above the soil, then rake some additional soil into the trench, making a small hill. Compost can be added and mixed with the soil prior to planting, or some may apply about an inch of compost after the potatoes have emerged from the soil. Take your pick. The nice thing is that this hill method of potato culture provides more than enough soil to form well-shaped tubers while preventing them from being exposed to sunlight that can make them green and inedible. Yuk!

As always, I will do updates through the growing season.