- Editors Corner
- Shout Outs
- Summer is Here!
- Bugs, Blights and Bacteria
- Mosquito Season
- Consider This:
- News & Events
- Newmarket Farmers Market
- Northwood Farmers Market
- Wentworth Greenhouse Farmers Market
Editors Corner
Shout Outs
First, let me say how nice it was to see so many of you here at Castle Anam Cara for the Barrington Open Farm Day. We figure that over 300 people visited us. Tours of the gardens, blacksmith shop, sweat lodge, rainwater irrigation system and inside kept us busy throughout the day. James, Loretta and I found it a very enjoyable day.
Second, thanks to all of you who sent us positive feedback on the article in the current New Hampshire Magazine. In addition to the article, Healthy Home Harvest was honored as the EDITORS CHOICE for the best mushrooms in New Hampshire. James and I worked several years perfecting (dare I use that word ?!?) the growing process and are very honored by the recognition!
Summer is Here!
I just came in from taking my solar shower outside. Hot water is collected from a hose on the blacksmith shop roof that runs into a 10-gallon galvanized can. A short 3 foot hose with a nozzle on it comes out of the can and allows us to shower with wonderfully hot (or warm if you want) water. Free hot water! Fresh air! The birds singing! Nothing like it!
Some of you might find this 90 plus degree weather oppressive but I happen to be one of those people who LOVE hot weather. Thoughts of days like these are what keep me going on those below zero days in February when we are out shoveling the driveway. For gardeners or commercial growers, however, these days do bring some special considerations. The first is quite obvious – watering. You know that plants take up water through their roots. However, plants also “exhale” or give off water vapor through the surface of their leaves. This is a process known as TRANSPIRATION. Normally, the amount of water taken up through the roots meets or exceeds the amount of water lost through TRANSPIRATION. This positive balance results in a sufficient level of water in the plant’s vascular system to keep the plant upright and full looking. If the plant either fails to take up enough water through its roots OR loses too much water through TRANSPIRATION, the plant will lose its positive pressure balance and WILT. If water is not delivered to the plant in a timely manner, the plant will die. I am sure too many of you are familiar with this occurrence in your hanging basket plants! In addition, remember how important water is for nutrient suspension and delivery to the plant through the roots?
During these periods of extreme heat, water evaporates from the soil at a remarkable rate and transpiration from the leaf surface increases. That is why you are seeing your plants wilt. Water levels in the soil drop quickly. Plus, WE NEED RAIN!! You are probably noticing areas of your garden soil that are actually turning dusty! Remember talking about peat moss and how HYDROPHOBIC (inability to easily take up water due to surface chemistry/conductivity issues) it is when it is dry? Many soils actually become temporarily HYDROPHOBIC as they dry out from extended periods of drought. Water one of your dusty dry soil areas. Spray some water on and then dig down into the soil with your hand. You may well find that the soil has NOT absorbed much of the water – it has simply drained through because it is in a HYDROPHOBIC condition.
If you have been adding lots of organic material to your soil over the past years, you will have less of a problem with this situation than if you have sandy soil. Dried out soil combined with increased transpiration can make it very difficult to keep your garden plants hydrated. What to do? When you water, water deeply. When you think you have watered enough, dig into the soil and make sure that it is moist down to a level below the plant’s root system. MULCH!!! I have talked about this many times in previous articles. Mulching can DRAMATICALLY reduce water loss from the soil! Use a layer of straw (NOT hay) several inches thick. Mulching will also keep the weeds from growing. Straw can be purchased at Blue Seal in Rochester and, last time I checked, is under $8.00 a bale. Use grass clippings – ONLY IF YOU HAVE NOT USED WEED KILLERS OR OTHER POISONS ON YOUR LAWN.
OK, so you are growing in containers – no problems, right? Well, containers actually lose more water more quickly than in ground gardens or raised beds. Why? You have a small volume of soil in a container that has a large surface area exposed to the hot sun and air. So we container growers – I grow a LOT in containers – MUST water frequently and deeply. You can also mulch the tops of your containers with straw or cut a circle of ground mat or weed block fabric to put on the soil surface. Because containers can dry out so quickly and then sit in the hot sun. soil temperatures in the container can rise to levels high enough to damage or actually kill the plant! So be vigilant! Remember the article that talked about container sizes and suggested that “when in doubt, go to a larger container”? One reason is to increase the VOLUME of soil – which will retain more water, dry out more slowly and provide a larger heat sink to help protect delicate roots.
Using well water during these dry spells should get you thinking about starting to collect FREE rainwater for irrigating your garden.
Bugs, Blights and Bacteria:
I am already getting a lot of questions about the dreaded LATE BLIGHT! Yes, it is progressing up the East Coast in its yearly campaign. I will write a newsletter dedicated to the late blight very shortly. In the meantime, there are MANY plant diseases that you and I will have to deal with as we progress through the growing season. It is a given and how you deal with them can determine how bountiful your harvest is. On a positive note, many, and I will even say MOST, diseases you will have to deal with can now be effectively controlled with Organic disease control methods. There is a plethora of diseases and many of them can resemble other diseases. Tomatoes are the most popular vegetable in America. Unfortunately, they are also the target of some of the most challenging diseases. Rather than me trying to describe the vast array of these diseases, I suggest that you spend a little time on the website for the Cornell University plant pathology department http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/ .
Proper sanitation in your garden, watering at the right TIME of day, watering the soil and not the plant, use of organic fertilizer and specifically a seaweed component and pre-emptive use of organic preventative agents can all greatly contribute to a disease free or nearly free garden. I personally keep several items in my arsenal of disease prevention. The first is, as I stated earlier, an organic fertilizer with a seaweed component. Go back and read my earlier newsletter on fertilizers and the importance of seaweed. The second is a product called GREENCURE. It is an organic fungicide with a base of Potassium Bicarbonate. Developed by a professor at Cornell University, it apparently changes the pH on the leaf surface and disease spore, preventing development of the disease and/or killing the pathogen. The third product is SERENADE. This is a liquid product that is mixed with water and sprayed on the plant. Both GREENCURE and SERENADE are sold at places like Blue Seal in Rochester. Neither of these two products will prevent two of the most devastating tomato diseases – late blight and bacterial canker. BUT, SERENADE has been shown to be a helpful element in a comprehensive late blight prevention and treatment program. As I said, more on this in a newsletter to come out soon.
Between the two – GREENCURE and SERENADE – you will have quite effective control (or at least suppression) capabilities over many of the common and problematic garden diseases including – Anthracnose, Bacterial Leaf Blight, Bacterial Speck, Bacterial Spot, Black Mold, Black Spot of Rose, Botrytis, Downy Mildew, Early Blight, Grey Mold, Leaf Spots (like Septoria) and Rusts, Powdery Mildew and Scab.
Unlike GREENCURE which is a Potassium Bicarbonate powder, SERENADE is actually a BIOFUNGICIDE with the primary component being the beneficial bacterium – Bacillus Subtillis strain QST 713.
Look into these two products. Now is the time to prepare for the inevitable actions you will need to take in your garden.
Mosquito Season
If we followed all the suggestions about protecting ourselves from ticks and mosquitoes – don’t go out during times of maximum activity, use repellants, wear long sleeve shirts, tape your pants – we probably wouldn’t get bitten but we also wouldn’t get much work done or would die from heat stroke! Therefore, perhaps our best line of defense is to provide the least hospitable environment we can for the development of mosquito populations. Make sure you don’t have standing pools of water in things like old tires, rubbish areas, old five gallon buckets etc. Drain them, drill them or turn them over. But you are very apt to have containers like rain barrels, water troughs for animals or small ponds that can’t be treated so easily. Here, your best solution is to use a product like Summit’s MOSQUITO DUNKS. These are small compressed circles containing bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (Bti) – a bacterium that is commonly found in damp leaf mold. Throw a DUNK into the barrel. The bacterium is released into the water as the circle slowly dissolves. Mosquitoes lay their eggs on the surface of standing water. The eggs hatch and the larvae develop in the water. Ever look into some standing water at this time of the year and see those little wormy looking things wriggling around? The bacteria enter the mosquito larvae, damage their guts and eventually kill them. And yes, Bti is non-toxic to mammals, birds, fish and virtually all insects.
So put your mosquito repellant on and go clean up your hidden mosquito breeding puddles. Buy some DUNKS and treat those large water collection containers you use. And do your part to protect yourself, your family and your neighbors from mosquito borne diseases like West Nile virus and EEE (Eastern Equine Encephalitis).
Oh yes, don’t forget to put your bat houses up.
Consider This:
Ponder this quote from an editorial in the current issue of MOTHER EARTH NEWS:
“In 2002, The Environmental Working Group, a non-profit watchdog, released the results of a “body burden” study that found 167 chemicals present in the blood and urine of nine volunteers. Then in 2005, the group reported the results of its tests of 10 newborn babies, in whom it found 287 chemicals present……
Take pesticides, for example. There are more than 1000 “active” ingredients currently being used in insecticides, herbicides, fungicides and other “cides” – all are designed to kill something living. There are also about 4000 additional chemicals in those products that manufacturers claim are “inert” ingredients. Federal law requires that companies reveal the active ingredients on the products’ labels. But the law allows companies to conceal any ingredients they say are “inert”, even though at least 374 inerts are known to be hazardous and another 1,863 were of unknown toxicity in 2006, when 22 advocacy groups and 15 state attorneys general petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to require disclosure of the hazardous inerts. In fall 2009, the EPA announced it would pursue a change in disclosure rules for hazardous inert ingredients in pesticides.”
MOTHER EARTH NEWS has been a magazine I have enjoyed reading for more years than I want to admit. Check it out.
U.S. SMALL FARMS WITH DAIRY COWS:
1940 = 4,600,000
2007 = 53,324
KEEP YOURSELVES AND YOUR PLANTS WELL WATERED!!!!
I will leave you with a thought from a book on one of my favorite philosophers/thinkers –Soren Kierkegaard:
WHAT A SHAME TO HAVE DIED BEFORE ONE LIVED
Until Next Time,
The Healthy Home Harvest team
feedback@healthyhomeharvest.com
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News & Events
Please Note:
Healthy Home Harvest will not be attending this Saturday’s Farmers Markets. If there was anything you looking to pick up from us, send us an email to check our availability.
Newmarket Farmers Market
When: Saturdays, from 9:00am until 1:00pm.
Where: The Stone Church, Newmarket NH.
The Newmarket Farmers Market starts again next Saturday, June 19th at the Stone Church on the hill in downtown Newmarket. It runs from 9:00am until 1:00pm. Great people, good music and a lot of fun.
The venue is small and intimate. The vendors are diverse, enthusiastic and friendly. There is great food available and some very talented live musicians provide first class entertainment. The feeling is more like a family gathering than a trip to the local store. We look forward to seeing you at the next Newmarket Farmers Market!
For those of you not familiar with Newmarket, the Stone Church is up on the hill behind the Post Office in downtown Newmarket. This is our favorite farmers market! Good atmosphere, live music, some wonderful vendors, good food and a variety of products. See you there!
Northwood Farmers Market:
When: Thursdays, 3:00pm until 6:30pm
Where:
Don’t forget that we are now at the Northwood Farmers Market every Thursday afternoon from 3:00pm until 6:30pm. The Market is held at the intersection of Routes 4 and 202. There is parking and a good selection of farmers. We have plants, in season produce, fertilizer, low tunnel hoops and of course our famous mushrooms. Come see us.
Wentworth Greenhouse Farmers Market
When: Saturdays, 10:00am until 2:00pm
Where:
We are happy to announce that PHILBRICK’S FRESH MARKET is now carrying our famous MYCOANGELO organic gourmet mushrooms in their produce department. We pick and deliver often so you are assured a fresh, quality product. Now you can access our mushrooms in the Portsmouth area whenever the spirit move you! Other regional outlets to be announced soon.
About the Newsletter
The Healthy Home Harvest newsletter is a bi-weekly publication which consists of news, events, how-to and reader submitted questions.
If you have any questions or feedback, please email us at feedback@healthyhomeharvest.com