We will bring carrots, squash, cucumbers, Calalloo and peppers to the Cherry Street Market Saturday morning, but we are disappointed in the quantity. We've discovered that June is a difficult month to plan for. All of the spring crops have given up due to the heat and dry weather, which we had plenty of this year. The lettuce is cooked, the spinach is drowned, the beets are finished, and so forth, while the summer crops are just getting their wheels turning. So here we are with more than 3 acres planted at the moment and very little to show for. We though that since we missed the Wednesday market we'd show you a big picture of what is at the farm so you won't think we've just been drinking lemonade and dreaming about farming. We really are farmers! In the above photo you see (from the left) Okra and Green Beans and behind that are nearly 3000 sweet potatoes, many of which are heirlooms. Behind that is a huge patch of really fancy sweet corn that is currently getting eaten by Chinch bugs. As far as we can tell there are not any organic remedies for Chinch bugs, do you know of any? They are annhilating our corn seedlings so fast that I wouldn't be surprised to find all my best corn dead tomorrow. Hopefully they move on because Chelsea planted even more sweet corn behind them that isn't up yet, maybe that corn will have a chance.
In this photo you can see our nearly weed-free beds of Hales' Best Jumbo cantaloupe, and two stands of amazing sweet corn with some all-black heirloom tomatoes smashed in the middle. We are very proud of all of our summer and fall crops, we just wish they'd hurry up and make some veggies!See you at the market,
Don
Hello,
ReplyDeleteI have read your blogs herein with great interest. I grew up working in my family's backyard gardens using organic methods. I remember the recipe for the natural bug repellent that always worked on ALL the crops to repel the bad little critters. It always did a great job, too! It also works on orchard tree crops of all kinds. The only drawback with it is that if it rains, the repellent must be reapplied each time because the rain washes it away. It is biodegradable, and I believe that this is the ONLY reason why God created tobacco, actually, was for it to be the natural pesticide for all other crops.
Here's the recipe:
TOBACCO TEA PESTICIDE
1 pouch of Beech Nut or Redman tobacco per 5 gallon pail of HOT water to start with; soaked overnight in the water. (If you use several layers of cheesecloth to put the tobacco in and tie it with string, you can dangle it, swirl it around, bob it up and down, and steep it like a tea bag. It's good to bob and swirl it around every hour or 2 just to help the steeping along some during the process.) In the morning, take out the tobacco and squeeze out the excess water from the tobacco leaves into the tea.
Add 2 cups of natural dishwashing liquid soap to the water, (we always used Amway's L.O.C. or Dish Drops because of its organic base being coconut oil instead of petroleum distillates; see www.amwayglobal.com) along with 2 cups of raw apple cider vinegar and 1/4 c. of ground cayenne pepper. Mix this concoction well and load into a sprayer tank that you can pump up with air to power-spray on the crops. Occasionally shake the tank to keep the mixture blended well as you apply it to the crops. Be sure to coat the undersides of the leaves that tend to get bugs that live or feed there.
You will find this wonderful natural pesticide to repel anything that is a destructive bug, but it will not harm the naturally friendly critters, like beneficial nematodes or ladybugs, that are so important to the crops' health and growth.
If you try this, I hope that you will have much success with its use to protect your crops. I know that there have been variations of this master recipe - I've even tried a few of them - but I kept coming back to the original as I found it to be the best. If you find some more sensitive leaves looking "burned" for some strange reason, it may be that the heat unit strength of the cayenne could be too strong. I had that problem once when I used 120,000 h.u. instead of the 45,000 I usually used, so you have to watch how strong the pepper is that you use sometimes for the more sensitive leaves.
I admire what you are doing very much! If you have further questions, you may contact me via email at *health is your wealth two [at] yahoo [dot] com* [join all the words and number together between the asterisks – change the spelled-out number to the digit instead - and change the bracketed items to literal markings. I just didn’t want to get spammed from all the web crawlers looking for email addresses to spam!] If you need some help on your farm, I have 2 teen daughters that could use some work and a few lessons in organic crop raising and self-sufficiency. They are homeschooled, and it would be a great unit study for them to help out on a farm the size of yours for a while. It's just a thought...Anyway, God bless you and your work there on the farm. I pray you will find much success in your endeavors there. I'll also pray you find the right land to buy to start your own farm on. Have a blessed day and a successful, blessed life!