Cabbage root maggots

Thank you, Mr. H, you were correct, my cauliflower problem is root maggots.

Seemingly recovered cauliflower. 

I went out just a little while ago, and saw that the cauliflower appears to be recovering, as the wilting went away. The books I consulted said that the effected plants will generally wilt in the hottest part of the days. Had I not known that the cauliflower's roots were probably infected, I would have ignored the problem.

But, I pulled up the plant and inspected the root. There it was, an ugly maggot.

Root maggot. I broke off the root and let the chickens have a go at it. 

I consulted Steve Solomon's Gardening When it Counts Book mentions that root maggots are a huge problem here in Cascadia. He says that we can delay planting in the until late may through July when the flies are least active. I'm assuming that this also means that sowing seeds prior to that time under protection (row covers and tunnel cloches, etc.) will protect the seedlings from flies (but not from maggots already present in the soil.

Some varieties of brassicas are resistant to the root maggot. He did not say which in this book. Perhaps he mentions the varieties in his other book, which I cannot seem to find at the moment.

In addition he mentioned the work of a man named Blair Adams, who found that wood ashes placed around the plants will actually attract maggots to the soil. But, what does work (even better than traditional barrier methods, he says) is a ring of fresh sawdust placed around the plants, and hilling the soil a little around the plants so that the roots are buried a little deeper.

Evidently parasitic nematodes work well, as long as the nematodes are fresh and haven't been sitting around.

Other pest control articles.


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Blanching cardoon for harvest

I've never grown or eaten cardoon before. I noticed the other day that these plants are awfully large, so looked up the harvesting information. I had it in my head that I probably shouldn't harvest them this year... kinda like asparagus or rhubarb. But everything I've read seems to indicate that it is fine to harvest in the first year.

cardoon planted mid-summer

Blanched cardoon. Can't wait to try it in a few weeks!

These two articles are particularly interesting:
http://www.frenchgardening.com/aupotager.html?pid=11916664991580
http://subsistencepatternfoodgarden.blogspot.com/2009/10/forgotten-cardoon.html

Guy found some blackberries today. It makes him very happy.

See what else is growing in my garden.

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Trapping slugs with boards, tiles, rocks: here's what I've learned

If you haven't been following this experiment, let me write up a quick summary for you:

Trapping slugs is only minimally effective and is only that effective if you remember to go out every single day and check under every single trap. And you will only gather significant amounts of slugs if you place out very high numbers of traps.

Since slugs like to hide under boards, rocks, leaves, mulches, etc., I decided to try to see how effective it would be to trap them. I gathered every flat board, tile, and rock I could find and placed them under my slug infested bean plants, an area of roughly 50 square feet. I ended up with around 25 traps that covered at least a third of the infected area.

I had high hopes for this experiment. I thought that if I bombarded the area with traps, rather than place them randomly throughout the garden, I would have gained control rather quickly. Unfortunately that wasn't the case.

I kept the traps out for nearly two weeks, and I have collected and destroyed just as many slugs on the last day as I did on the first day. Initially I wanted to figure out just how long it would have taken me to gain control over the slug population in that area of the garden, but I am feeling now that the time I spend on flipping over ever single trap and destroying what is underneath is... well, not exactly a waste of time, as it obviously is mildly effective (IF you remember to go out everyday and destroy them) but I think my time would be better spent on another method of control.

While I was trying to gain control over the area, I was not oblivious to the fact that slugs were proliferating in every other area of my garden. I don't have time to trap every single slug and need to come up with a better approach.

Yesterday I had an aha moment when I was outside weeding. Weeding is one of the most effect methods of reducing slug populations since they won't have many shaded ground covers to hide under. I've got blackberries and all other manners of weeds trying to crowd out all of my vegetables. But I can't get anywhere fast with my little 3-4" hoe. I need a bigger hoe. The little hoe is still very useful for getting inbetween plants, but is going to take too darn long to hoe all my gardens with it. Also I am going to need to increase spacing of the plants, which will allow me to hoe easier.

Clearly I will need to do something about the current slug population. I will be experimenting with baits soon... how to use them most effectively. Stay tuned!



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California Late garlic

I got more garlic in the ground today. I'm feeling boring because this is one of the most common supermarket varieties. But it is very cheap through Peaceful Valley. After the year I had with the awfully puny garlic harvest, I didn't want to spend as much money. But every other year has been a great success, so I'm hoping it is just because of the cold, wet summer.

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French fries!

My son had been begging for french fries for hours today. I dug a couple of my yukon golds and fried some up for him. Here's how I do it:

1. heat about a quart or so of your choice of frying oil over medium heat.
2. meanwhile, cut your potatoes. I find this easiest to quarter the potatoes and then cut them into french fry shapes, trying to keep them similar in size.
3. test your oil to see if it is at the right temperature. you can do this by dropping one of the fries in the oil. if it sizzles like you see in the photograph, the oil is hot enough.
4. fry potatoes in small batches until browned (these potatoes are Yukon Golds, a dual purpose potato, so they aren't as brown as a mealy/starchy variety would be).
5. drain them on paper towels.
6. salt them while still hot.
7. eat!

Potato terminology

It took me a while to figure out the terminology in potato varieties. The considerations are: texture and your length of season. 

Texture: 

Mealy or starchy varieties have a low moisture high starch content. Think of the fluffy texture of mashed potatoes. These varieties will soak up a lot of moisture or fat, making for good mashed potatoes. The same starch also browns and crisps very well, and so they are used for french fries. However, if you were to try to make a potato salad or another such dish in which you want your potatoes to hold together, they would fall apart on you. In short: use these potatoes when you want a nice browning when you fry them, for baking, for mashed potatoes, but not for holding their shape. 

Waxy potatoes have a low amount of starch, high sugar and high protein content. These types hold their shape well and are sweet but would be a terrible choice for frying. If you were to fry or brown these potatoes you would likely end up with burnt potatoes, because there is not enough starch content to brown and the sugars would just end up burning. In short: use waxy varieties when you want them to hold their shape, but not for frying. 

Dual purpose varieties fall in-between these two. They are sweet like the waxy potatoes and hold their shape and they will brown a little if you attempt to fry them. 

Fingerling potatoes--as far as I can tell the term "fingerling" only refers to an oblong shaped potato. If anyone knows otherwise please let me know. 

Length of season: often you will see early, mid, or late season in the catalogs. This refers to how long the potato tuber takes to develop. The later season varieties tend to store longer. The shorter season varieties are nice so you can have an earlier crop available. But some areas of the country don't have a hot enough summer to allow later varieties to develop. If you call a seed supplier, such as Ronniger's, they would be able to help you figure out how long your season is and the best varieties for you. 

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Yukon Gold Potatoes

Yukon Gold Potatoes are one of my favorite varieties to grow. I have not harvested the entire crop yet, but I went out to pick a couple for my son who'd been begging for french fries for the last several hours.

These are a dual purpose potato, so the french fries aren't quite as crispy as they would with a mealy potato. Even though they don't get that crisp when fried, they are very good.

Bombarding slugs with traps... day 4

For background on this experiment, please see this post.

Today I caught about 10 slugs.


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Seed and garden supply companies

Baker creek
Fedco seeds
Johnny's Selected Seeds
Nichols Garden Nursery
One Green World 
Peaceful Valley--some of the best prices I've seen, especially on equipment
Pinetree Garden Seeds
Raintree Nursery
Sandhill Preservation Center
Seeds of Change
Seed Savers Exchange
Stokes Seeds
Territorial Seed Company


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Bombarding slugs with traps... day 2

This is part of my War on Slugs experiments.

See: bombarding slugs with traps day 1 for the story on this experiment.

This is the result of bombarding my slug infested bean garden with as many boards and tiles that I could find. I found upwards of a dozen slugs trapped.

The drawback: this is awfully laborious and my time might be better spent using iron phosphate. But that's another experiment I'll be working on down the road!

For a list of all of my slug control experiments, please see this page.

Slugs and eggshells

It's hard to see in this photograph, but there are slugs entwined in these lettuce leaves which are placed in the middle of about 12 crushed eggshells. Sorry, this is another method that just doesn't work! Who has that many shells, anyway?

For a list of all of my slug control experiments, please see this page. 

Bombarding slugs with traps... day 1

By now I've certainly figured out that slugs like to hide under boards and rocks during the day. I've been using this to my advantage, by trapping them with boards and tiles and rock strewn throughout the garden. Though this works, I have noticed the following limitations:

1. Since I have placed so many traps randomly throughout the garden, I realize that I am just not able to get to all of them everyday, even though I try. Since I don't, this works to my disadvantage and just gives the slugs a place to call home and deposit their eggs.

2. I've noticed that there are days that I get many slugs under boards in certain areas and that the plants the boards are attempting to protect are still being attacked. Conversely, there are areas that don't seem to have any damage and day after day I lift the boards and don't find slugs. This has also worked to my disadvantage because I get lazy and don't check the boards that I haven't had problems with for several days, only to find that a slug has indeed found itself a home and perhaps laid eggs. A revision in my trapping methods is definitely needed.

So here's my new experiment:

I've gathered every board, tile, flat rock I have and bombarded this slug infested bean area with traps. I've placed tiles and short boards in the thickest of the under-plantings. Each day, I will go out in the morning and destroy all the slugs that are underneath. My theory is that in a few days the slug population will be dramatically reduced if not eliminated, except for the slug eggs that have already been laid. (anyone know how to deal with slug eggs?) Once the slugs are gone, or when it gets cold and I cannot check everyday, I will promptly remove the boards.

Tiles and little boards placed under the thickest areas. +++

This morning, with only 2 or 3 traps, I found five big fat slugs and a baby slug. Now I have upwards of 20. I hope to update the blog each day with my findings.

As a side note: the slugs definitely seem to prefer wet boards and rocks. If you are trying to lure them to your traps, it may be a good idea to thoroughly wet the area. If you are trying to keep the slugs away from the area, the less moisture is better.

Bombarding slugs with traps... day 2

Bombarding slugs with traps... day 3

Bombarding slugs with traps... day 4

Bombarding slugs with traps... day 5

Bombarding slugs with traps... day 6

Bombarding slugs with traps... day 7
Bombarding slugs with traps... day 8
Bombarding slugs with traps... day 9

For a list of all of my slug control experiments, please see this page.




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Are slugs repelled by copper?

Here's a slug, chomping away on lettuce leaves on top of a bed of copper.

As part of my War on Slugs experiments, I took a big chunk of cardboard and plastered it with copper to find out if slugs are truly repelled by copper. It didn't take long for the slugs to start munching away at this lettuce. 

For a list of all of my slug control experiments, please see this page. 

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Alibi Cucumber

I was hoping to have a photo of this variety this year, but the slugs ate every plant. This is a "pickling" cucumber. Last year I had two plants and they were not grown in the most optimal sun exposure. But I probably had upwards of 50 quarts of pickles! I bought them from Territorial.

Casper Eggplant

I grew this variety last year, but neglected to take a photograph. Good flavor, but the thing grew giant thorns like a Himalayan Blackberry. Actually it was more like a dorsal finn. Ouch.

Success PM summer squash

Good flavor, but not as scrumptious as the good old Yellow Crookneck.

Taxi tomato

A few years ago I grew a yellow variety of tomato and could swear it was taxi, but didn't write it down. So I bought a packet of seeds and grew these tomatoes two years in a row. And for two years, these tomatoes have given me awfully bland flavor. Thumbs down.

Gardening equipment

Leaf Blower

Mini roto-tiller

Scythe--by Art of Propietation

Good hoes vs, bad hoes--by Gene Logsdon
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Garden Structures

Cucumber Trellis--by New Life on a Homestead

Free Fence from Pallets--by New Life on a Homestead

Stringing Tomatoes--by This Garden is Illegal

Helen and Scott Nearing's house and gardens--by Chiot's Run

Homemade bricks--New Life on a Homestead

My rock paths

Root cellars--by The Never Done Farm

Simple Garden Trellis--by Diggin Food

Antiqued Spoon Plant Markers--by Shrimp Salad Circus

Tomato Cages--by New Life on a Homestead




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Miscellaneous gardening

My front yard garden

Fall Gardening Resolutions

Apple variety website

Heucheras

Natives in my yard

How to make mason bee houses--by Rob's DIY

Steve Solomon's gardening books

Why you shouldn't refrigerate tomatoes--by The Washington Post

When/how to pick pears--New Life on a Homestead

Black mold on stored onions--New Life on a Homestead
 
 
 
 
 
 
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