Desert Gardening

Pecans, Pecans, Pecans

2011-01-30T10:05:00.003-07:00

My pecans trees had a heavy set this year, and our harvest reflects that. My experience with pecans is limited, but here are my observations.

The 2010 Spring was cold and wet, summer was late arriving; consequently, I believe the pecans were late maturing as well, at least that is my observation. In past years, the pecans filled out, began opening up, and falling to the ground 2-3 weeks earlier than they did in 2010. My first harvest was November 15th, 2-3 weeks later than previous years.

We also had an early, hard freeze in mid-October. Then in December we had days and days of rain, plus snow, followed by extremely cold weather. We had a few days when the daytime high did not get above freezing--while the pecans on the ground lay on wet ground and covered by snow. I'm sure this was not good for the pecans.

A large number of my pecans came down in a strong wind, following much rain, the night before it snowed. In mid-January, the tree shaker came and brought down the rest of them. Clearly, those that stayed on the trees and came down with the shaker, were of better quality.

As a result, many of my pecans did not fully open up, or did not open up at all. Still, I harvested 165 gallons of pecans in the shell, this is more than double my previous largest harvest. Even so, I'm certain there were at least twice that many pecans that I discarded, that were moldy, black, not opened, or with only partially opened husks. So I believe I could have easily had 300 to 350 gallons of pecans, had the weather been more favorable, and they all opened up properly.

I have already shelled 33 gallons (85 pounds) of pecans. I have given pecans away to our kids, neighbors and friends. Still, I have about 25 more gallons of pecans to shell.

In shelling the pecans this year, I make the following observations:

1. The shells are harder, thicker, and more difficult to break.
2. The shells did not break free of the meat, as in previous years, consequently, I have a lot more pieces and broken halves than in the past. These pecans are good, tasty and of good quality, just not nice full halves.
3. The pecans that remained wet, under the snow, etc; had thinner shells, black in color (mold?), and a smaller, poorer quality meat. I think shells that remain wet, become porous and the meat dries out and shrinks in size.
4. The pecans that remained on the trees were not affected by the rain and snow, those on the ground were. Because of the snow covering the pecans on the ground, I was not able to harvest them for nearly a week, once the pecans were on the ground.
5. Even with the significantly heavier set of pecans, I did not notice a reduction in the size of the pecans (as with other fruit), pecan size was excellent.

Still, it's kind of amazing how tough pecans are, even with all the adverse weather, rain and snow, and lying on the ground, the meat is pretty darn good.

I have read that pecans have an alternating pattern of heavy yield, then light, then heavy. Other gardeners in this area dispute that. My 2008 harvest was heavy, my 2009 harvest was very light, and my 2010 harvest was very heavy. I have Mahan soft shell pecans. Maybe the variety makes a difference, but so far my trees are on the alternating cycle.

2010 Gardening Review

2010-11-01T09:53:00.004-06:00

Gardening for this year is about finished. But it was an outstanding gardening year, a cool, wet spring, and little evidence of curlytop, provided us with an abundant harvest.

I just finished a great green bean harvest, we ate, canned, and gave many away to family and friends. I planted the beans on August 15th, began harvesting the first of October, and finished the harvest on October 27th.

I finished my corn harvest on October 4th, and we canned (freezer) much of the harvest.

I still have tomatoes producing in the garden (Ropac and Columbian), along with spinach. I have been very impressed with the Ropac and Columbian tomato varieties. These varieties produced early, heavy, through the summer, and into the late fall; easily the best producer in my garden. I like their flavor, they didn't crack, and didn't contract curlytop. I will plant these varieties again next year.

The cool, wet spring made for an excellent spring and early summer garden, and the summer wasn't too bad either. The fall has also been nice. The lack of too many violent winds has helped all growing season. My pecans, maturity wise, are behind prior years, but my trees are loaded with large, plump pecans--they just took a little longer to mature due to the cool spring and early summer. But I expect a huge crop. The wind only blew off a small percentage of the pecans, so my losses are small.

I had a wonderful pomegranate crop, we juiced most, got about 5 gallons of juice. I have both sweet and sour pomegranates and I juice them all together, it makes a nice tart, but not too tart, blend of pomegranate juice that we will enjoy until next October. I have three sour pomegranates and five sweet. Three trees are the original, old Toquerville pomegrantates (whatever variety that is). They are dark red and sweet. I planted three sour varieties, and two sweet varieties. All trees produced fruit this year, though the two sweet varieties I planted are still quite small. The sour pomegranates obviously grow faster than the sweet varieties. Just interesting.

I experimented by planting some late beets and Great Lakes lettuce, in September. I don't think the beets will make. The lettuce may still make, if not, it will be ready to take off when spring comes.

We pretty much lived off our garden all summer long (June through October). It was the best eating we've had in years. I believe Americans will be forced to grow more of their food in the future--if they want to eat. Agriculture in this country is in trouble, government regulations and price controls have made agriculture marginally profitable. Most dairymen are on the verge of bankruptcy, the government continues to punish farmers, environmentalists have all but declared war on agriculture and are determined to eliminate large scale agriculture, which means there will be food shortages in the future. I don't say this to be an alarmist or to sound like a political rant; but we all need to understand that growing our own food will be critical in the next few years, at least. Gardening is not easy, you can't just throw the seeds in the ground and come back later and harvest the crop. Gardening takes a great deal of knowledge, patience, work, good timing, a little luck, and a lot of faith.

It's time now to begin preparing your garden for next year. Till in all your leaves (except for walnut leaves), grass clippings, and other compostable material. By spring, it will all be decomposed and ready to grow you a great garden.

September Gardening Report

2010-09-30T16:39:00.004-06:00

Gardening has slowed down considerably. I did harvest my O'Henry peaches, as pictured here. I also harvested our Asian pears in September. These are wonderful, round, crisp and juicy pears. My final grapes were harvested and juiced (concord). We are currently harvesting my final corn crop. We canned (froze) about half the harvest, and continue to eat this wonderful sweet corn from the garden. My fall green beans are about ready to pick, and I still harvest some tomatoes, bell peppers and Anaheim peppers.

Because of worms in the peaches the past two years, I sprayed my peaches three times after they began showing color, and did not have a single worm. The harvest of both the Elberta and O'Henry peaches was excellent for me. The only remaining fruit for me are a few Golden Delicious apples, and pomegranates. My apple tree is small and set only a few blossoms and apples.

My pomegranates are also about ripe. Last year we juiced most of our pomegranates and have enjoyed the juice all year long. I have both sweet and sour pomegranates, and when mixed with Fresca, makes a wonderful and healthy drink. I mix both sweet and sour pomegranates together, and it makes a wonderful blend for zesty drinks.

I'm looking forward to the pecan harvest this year. My trees are loaded heavily with large pecans (my harvest was quite light last year). The winds have been light, so not many have fallen prematurely to the ground. I also noticed the pecan aphids were very light this year, very little sap and drippage from the leaves.

I am already tilling my garden, tilling in corn stubble, grass clippings, chicken manure and other compostable material. All my fall leaves will also go into the garden, if tilled in, they will be completely decomposed by spring.

August Gardening Report

2010-09-01T20:34:00.004-06:00

August has been a heavy production month for me. Tomatoes, peppers, cantaloupes, casabas, watermelon, corn, and peaches. In terms of weight, August is easily the heaviest production month of the year (those melons add up in a hurry). My melons are about done producing, though I have a few cantaloupes and a few watermelons still on the vine.

A few observations and conclusions:
1. Moving my drip lines away from the base of the melons clearly helped keep the squash bugs down; I had some, but they were never much of a problem.
2. Placing a couple of drops of vegetable oil on the corn silk early in development, clearly keeps the bugs and worms out of the ear of corn.
3. I planted Striped Klondike, Crimson Sweet and Green River watermelons. The Striped Klondike were easily the best flavor, they were so sweet and delicious. Even the small Klondikes were tasty. The Green River melons were a disappointment, though I did plant them late.
4. The Ropac and Columbian tomatoes easily out-produced the Celebrity and Better Boy varieties--and they're still fairly loaded with tomatoes.
5. The casabas were disappointingly small, but good flavor, and we had more than we could eat.
6. In the past, I have not sprayed my fruit, but both previous years nearly all my peaches had worms. So this year I sprayed, only at the first sign of color. I sprayed three times, two weeks apart--and I have no worms this year. I used a vegetable safe Spectracide product.
7. My peaches (elberta) were a couple weeks later this year than last, but we did have a cool spring. But it's a great peach crop for a three year old tree. My OHenry variety ripens later, but they look good too, and I sprayed them also and see no signs of worms.
8. My pecans are also maturing later than last year. Last year in mid-August they were completely filled out, this year on September 1st, they are still not completely filled out. I have a heavy crop, and hope they still fill out large.

I planted spinach today (Sept 1st), planted green beans on August 9th, and fall corn on July 20th.

If you have empty space in your garden (have taken out completed crops), begin tilling in mulch, compost, manure, etc. The ground is a great place to compost, from now until Spring planting.

July Gardening Report

2010-07-31T14:52:00.003-06:00

July has been an amazingly productive month for me this year. Let me address this by crop:

Tomato: Admittedly, curly top was very light this year. A few gardeners reported some curly top, but most had none, I had none. I planted eight tomato plants, 2 Celebrity, 2 Better Boy, 2 Ropac, and 2 Columbian. During May and June I sprayed the celebrity and the Better Boy with powdered milk. I did not spray the Ropac and Columbian plants. I also sprayed my melons (cantaloupe, casaba and watermelon) with powdered milk.

None of my tomato plants contracted curly top (nor have the melons). It’s difficult to know if it had anything to do with the powdered milk, or there just weren’t any beet leafhoppers around. I did not see any leafhoppers in my garden, but they are small and difficult to see.

Consequently, my tomato harvest has been amazing. The Ropac and Columbian varieties are touted as curly top resistant (maybe they are and maybe they aren’t), but I tried both varieties. They did not contract curly top, and they were both very heavy producers. I’ve never had a tomato plant set on as heavily as these did. The tomatoes were not large, and some were quite small, but the flavor was good, and we also used them in making salsa, so the size didn’t matter.

The Celebrity variety was a bit of a disappointment in its productivity (also disappointed last year, but curly top was such a problem I dismissed it), but the tomatoes were large and tasty. The only tomatoes in my garden that had any cracking were the Celebrity tomatoes. I may try another variety next year.

The Better Boy plants(indeterminate variety) set on late, but has produced heavily, and produced some of the largest tomatoes I’ve ever grown, consistently 8 to 12 oz size.

I was tempted to plant more tomato plants this year, but know that 8 plants is far more than we and our family can use–if curly top will leave them alone. Glad I didn’t plant more. I have harvested a large bowl of tomatoes every morning for about three weeks.

Corn: I planted three plantings of corn, four rows by about 12 feet long, about three weeks apart. I planted only Miracle Corn (I really like this corn). We have had more than we can eat and have given it away to neighbors and family. I place a couple of drops of vegetable oil on the corn silk after it emerges to eliminate worms and bugs. It was less effective this year than what I experienced in the past–not sure why. Still, most ears were worm and bug free. The third planting is just getting ripe now. I also planted four full rows of corn on July 20th, for my fall crop. Miracle Corn is a 70 day corn, so we’ll be eating this crop in October. We plan to blanche, cut off the kernels, bag and freeze much of this crop.

There is no reason, in this area, that you cannot enjoy sweet corn from your garden from about July 1st through October, if you make successive plantings.

As I harvest my corn, I take a large butcher knife with me and cut off the corn stalks low, then cut up the stalk into about 6-8" pieces, and just leave them in the corn rows. When I’m finished with the crop, I till it all back into the soil. My experience is that the corn stubble is all decomposed well before I begin tilling for the spring planting.

Cantaloupe: As some of you may know, I only plant one variety, Ambrosia, easily the best flavored cantaloupe on the market. It has a short shelf life and therefore you won’t find it in the grocery stores. I planted two rows (40 feet long), and we have been buried in sweet, tasty melons.

Casaba: I have never grown casaba before, but tried it this year (I normally plant Crenshaw Melons). Casabas are a little later maturing, and have only harvested two melons so far. The size of the casaba are a bit small for some reason.

Watermelon: I planted two rows of watermelons, a row of Striped Klondike, a half row of Crimson Sweet, and a half row of Green River. The Green River seeds came from my father in law who has been dead for 15 years, every seed sprouted, however. But I planted these a little later and they are not yet ready.

The Klondike melons are looking extremely good. We’ve only eaten a couple of smaller ones that cracked open, but the flavor, even for an immature melon, was excellent.

The Crimson Sweet are also not ready yet, but will be within a week or two.

Boysenberry: I have a small everbearing strawberry patch, and several boysenberry plants. During the month of July we have enjoyed an abundant harvest of both strawberries and large, plump boysenberries. This has been a real treat for us. The boysenberries are nearly finished, however. The strawberries have been producing since April 20th.

Green Beans: This past week I also planted two rows of bush type green beans, which are sprouting today. Beans are about a 60 day crop so they should be ready by October 1st.

I plan on planting spinach about September 1st, for a winter crop.

Finally, as I observe other gardens and talk to other gardeners, I notice a couple of things:

1) Weed Control: it’s a mistake to allow weeds to grow large. They are easy to remove when small, just a couple minutes a day will keep all your weeds out. Large weeds sap nutrients, water, and space from your garden, and if allowed to go to seed, will dump hundreds or thousands of weed seeds back into your garden–a big mistake.
2) Nutrients: many gardeners fail to understand the necessity of adding nutrients back into their garden, every year, even continuously. A successful garden will take out hundreds of pounds of produce, plus the weight of the plant that it grows on; so hundreds of pounds of nutrient must be replaced. Leaves, manure, compost, grass clippings, table scraps, or any organic material can, and should, be returned to the garden. If you have a chipper or grinder, then leaves, twigs, and other carbon based materials can be ground up and returned to the garden. This is a process I engage in year round, but especially during the dormant fall and winter period. All of the above mentioned material were completely decomposed by spring. The rule of thumb is this: it takes the same amount of time for something to decompose as it did to grow. Here is my recycling program: it goes from the garden to the table, from the table to the chickens, from the chickens to the garden.
3) Variety: many gardeners do not pay attention to the variety they plant–this is a mistake. The variety affects the flavor, production, and success of your garden. Experiment a little every year and settle on the varieties that have the best flavor, are the most productive, and do the best in this area.

June Gardening

2010-07-01T15:59:00.005-06:00

A few observations about gardening this year.

1. Curly Top : I've seen no evidence of the beet leafhopper and the accompanying curly top virus in my tomatoes. Nor have I seen any evidence of it in any of my vines. My neighbor had one of about 20 plants infected with curly top. I've asked a few neighbors and none have had problems with the disease...yet. I continue to spray powdered milk on my tomatoes and vines. Renowned agronomist Sylvan Wittwer told me that milk is a known defense against curly top and other tomato diseases. It isn't 100%, but it is known to be effective. So the powdered milk thing is not just urban legend, but has a scientific basis. Still, it's difficult to know whether this is just an off year for the beet leafhopper, or if the milk is having an effect. I suspect the strong southwesterly winds we experienced most days in May and June may have blown the leafhoppers far away from Toquerville.

2. Tomatoes: I planted Celebrity, Better Boy, Rowpac, and Columbian varieties this year. Rowpac and Columbian are supposedly curly top resistant. All are doing well. The Rowpac and Columbian are heavy setters and are loaded with tomatoes, though their size is smaller than I like. But the flavor of both is good, and very little cracking. The Better Boy plants have not set many tomatoes this year. Witter recommends Champion or Superfantasic over this variety, I may try these next year.

3. Corn: I planted four rows of Miracle Corn. Last year this 70 day corn was on the table at 70 days; this year, however, it will be about an 85 day corn. The cool weather slowed down its growth. Still, the corn looks great and we look to be eating some within a week's time. I've mentioned this before, but I always place a couple of drops of vegetable oil on the corn silk shortly after it emerges. This eliminates the corn borer and keeps the ears clear of bugs. It's an inexpensive solution, and avoids the use of pesticides. This year I put the oil in a small squirt bottle and just shot a little squirt of oil onto the silk. It worked perfectly.

4. Melons: I planted Ambrosia cantaloupe, Casaba, Klondike watermelon, and Green River watermelon. The Green River melon seeds were some my wife's father had saved (he's been dead for 15 years), but every seed sprouted. The Ambrosia and Casaba are doing well, with good melon sets growing nicely. This year I gradually moved my drip lines away from the base of the melons (and squash). This keeps the squash bugs at bay (I have no squash bugs yet). The ground remains dry at the base of the plants, where squash bugs like to reside.

5. Onions: I have been harvesting onions for eight weeks, and have now taken the water off and am drying out the onion bulbs. This onion crop was impressive, probably the best onions I've grown. I'm trying to dry out the onions better this year so they will last longer through the winter.

6. Squash: I planted zucchini and scallop summer squash. All plants look great and are producing all too well. Again, I've seen no squash bugs yet. I also planted a "turban" squash given to me by a friend of mine. This is a large, winter squash. The plant is very large and has set several turbans.

7. Berries: I am now harvesting large, black, delicious boysenberries. This is a first for me. The plants have grown well, and are producing a nice crop. We have also been eating strawberries for over two months. My raspberries flowered thickly, but produced no fruit, very disappointing. I've had others tell me there's did the same this year, so not sure what that is about.

Overall, this has been a wonderful gardening year for me. All the cool weather crops were excellent; beets, carrots, broccoli, peas, onions. I have green beans growing, a great crop of grapes coming, and a nice crop of figs. The figs, however, are about a month behind last year. After a disappointing pecan crop last year, this year's crop looks to be very good, the trees are thick with young, small pecans. My apricots mostly froze, but are enjoying the few that survived.

Toquerville gardeners should appreciate the excellent gardening weather we have here. Two elements make the difference, in my opinion. First, although the days can get hot, Toquerville warms slowly in the summer mornings, and usually begin cooling by 1-2pm in the afternoon. So there is really only a few hours of hot temperatures. Second, the evening always cool (it was 66 degrees this morning), so plants do not get significantly stressed by the summer heat. This is not typical of St George and Washington, and areas south.

May Gardening Report

2010-06-06T08:26:00.003-06:00

May was a spectacular month for gardening in Toquerville. Warm days and cool nights was perfect for onions, broccoli, peas, beets, carrots and tomatoes. I've never had better onions, broccoli, beets, carrots, and peas--the weather was perfect.

It's also interesting to see how much the garden changes since my last post (6 weeks ago). I have been harvesting broccoli since May 6th, green onions since May 7th, beets since May 10th, carrots since May 20th, and peas since May 22nd. And my harvest has been excellent.

My beets are about done, the peas will probably be done within a week or so. I continue to harvest flowerettes from the broccoli plants, and expect they will be ok for another couple of weeks.

But if the weather was perfect for the cool weather crops, it was not quite so good for the warm weather crops like corn, melons, peppers, cucumbers, and squash. All are doing well, they are just behind their growth from last year, due to cooler temperatues.

I have three plantings of corn however. My first planting was April 12th, second planting was May 6th, and third planting was May 26th. The first planting is nearing the tassel stage (this week I think). I planted Miracle Corn again this year, was very pleased with its performance last year, great flavor, large ears, and it doesn't blow over in the wind. With the successive plantings, we should have delicious corn for two and a half months.

The other good news (fingers crossed) is I have had no evidence of curly top. Due to the cool, wet spring weather, the beet leafhoppers have not appeared in my garden--yet. I am experimenting with two "defensive" measures. I planted both Rowpac, and Columbian varieties, both claim to be resistant to curly top. For my other two varieties (Celebrity and Better Boy), I have sprayed them with a powdered milk mixture. By this time last year, I had already lost most of my tomatoes to curly top. Last year I took no action against the disease, and had to replant most of my tomatoes, and eventually got a fair crop.

April Garden and Weather Report

2010-04-23T16:00:00.004-06:00

It has been an unusual Spring, wet, cool, and frosty. I planted my tomatoes on April 2nd. On April 6th, it got down to 32 degree and froze my tomatoes, peppers, most of my apricots, and a few peaches. Admittedly, I was shocked to see frost on the ground that morning, since the weather report the night before called for a low of only 39 degrees, partly cloudy and breezy--so I was not worried. If you think Al Gore knows the weather 100 years from now, consider that between 10:30 pm, and 8 a.m. the following morning, it cleared off, there was no breeze and it froze--the weather report was off considerably.

Even with the unusual weather, it is still a great spring for gardening, lots of rain (8.45 inches of rain at my house since Jan 1st), cool temps, and not much wind.

My onions, peas, beets and carrots are loving this spring of 2010. I replanted my tomatoes and peppers, and planted Miracle Corn on April 12th, and it is now up. I also planted Ambrosia Cantaloupe, Casaba, and summer squash.

With the cool weather, there are not many pests yet, but the aphid are showing up on my peach tree leaves, so they will get sprayed tomorrow. I use a non-chemical mixture of Tabasco hot sauce and Dawn dish soap in a sprayer. It works very well for aphids and is non-toxic.

If you can dodge the rain and the wind, it's a good time to spray 2-4 D product on morning glory, dandelions, and other broadleaf weeds. Remember that 2-4D drifts, if it's windy, and can damage garden crops and fruit trees--even your neighbor's crops and trees, so always avoid spraying if there is any wind.

March Gardening

2010-03-21T09:20:00.005-06:00

January was wet, February was wet, March IS wet. Consequently, the soil is also wet, and makes it difficult to till. I was able to get my garden tilled in early February, and got a few cool crops planted in mid-late February. But I have been unable to till the garden since--just too wet.

Toquerville has received almost 8 inches of rain since January 1st, already above our annual average rainfall. And with the El Nino pattern, it will probably continue wet well into May. But the El Nino pattern also means we will have fewer strong, north winds, and we have had fewer strong north winds than the past three years. So young, tender garden plants will not get beat up so badly from the wind. And I have not yet needed to water either my garden, grass or trees. I would suggest that because the soil is so saturated, to be careful about watering just because it warms up. I doubt trees will need any water for some time yet.

I have onions, peas, beets, carrots, and broccoli up and growing. Your cool weather crops should be in by now.

March Checklist:
1. Cool weather crops should be in the ground by now.
2. Roses should be pruned
3. Fertilize (spikes or granular) fruit trees, berries, shrubs
4. Till garden as soon as it dries out sufficiently, for planting tomatoes, potatoes, summer squash, melons, corn, etc.
5. Setup your drip system, this picture shows mine. I have my drip on a timer so I know the garden always gets watered, even if I forget about it, or am out of town.
6. Be thinking about Curly Top, and how you're going to combat it. I am going to plant some resistant varieties this year. See my earlier posts in this blog for a more complete treatment of this subject. It's been a wet winter and spring, so the Beet Leafhopper will be abundant this year.

Consider fertilizing your garden with a water soluble fertilizer through your drip system. Monoamonium Phosphate is what I use. Ballards Nursery sells this fertilizer, it is a low nitrogen, high phosphate, water soluble fertilizer, and I dispense it through my drip system. This fertilizer comes in a 50 lb bag, but will last you two or three years, or more.

Spring Garden Guide

2010-02-08T19:01:00.001-07:00

Spring is not far away and it’s time to begin planning your spring garden. This January and February have been cooler than last year (A year ago, it was 65 degrees on Feb 8th), so I’m holding off planting for a bit, plus my garden is too wet to work.

A Few Tips
1. Don’t till your garden while the soil is sticky wet, wait until it dries a bit. If the soil sticks together, you will have hard, dirt clods for a good while. If it’s too wet, which mine is right now, just wait a few days, let the wind and the sun dry it out a bit. Toquerville has had 4.5 inches of rain the past three weeks. That’s a lot of water, let the soil dry out.
2. It’s still not too late to till in leaves or other compost material, but get it in the ground. A few weeks of sun and additional tilling, and it will be broken down nicely. Here’s a rule of thumb: it takes as long to compost a material as it did to grow it. So if you have two year old sticks in the garden, it will take two years to break it all down. Leaves? They are out and grown to size in a matter of weeks, so a few weeks of leaves in the ground, and they’re done. If you tilling in now, plant your early garden in another spot, and plant your later crops where you’re now mulching in compost material.
3. Plant what you eat. It doesn’t make sense to grow things because they’re easy (like radishes), if you don’t like radishes, then try to push them off onto your neighbors.
4. Grow only the quantity of a crop you and your family can eat, or give to family and neighbors. Remember your neighbors are also gardening (probably), so go easy on the quantity. It’s better to grow a wide variety of crops, in small amounts you can eat, than to grow a lot of zucchini (for example) that you can’t give away. A full row of zucchini will feed the entire town, but several rows of melons will go fast.
5. Nearly all crops do best, produce the best fruit, best flavor, best size, etc, when they grow fast. So if you plant early and the temperature stays cold, they won’t grow much, but will sit in the ground, waiting for birds to eat them down.
6. Planting onions from seed can be tricky to obtain a good germination. When I plant seed, I cover with white plastic until they germinate, it works well. But I prefer planting the small dry sets, every set grows, they get growing faster, and still reach a nice size. Plant sets with the bottom down. Sets are fail proof.
7. Fruit trees should be pruned by now.

Crops To Plant Now
The following crops can be planted now, and for the next couple of months. If the garden can be worked, isn’t too wet, and it warms up a bit, these crops will grow in cool weather:

1. Peas – can go in the ground anytime now
2. Broccoli – wait a couple of weeks, plant sets deep to avoid wind damage
3. Carrots – wait until it warms a bit, they’ll germinate better (a week or two)
4. Beets – wait until it warms a bit (a week or two)
5. Onions – can go in the ground anytime now
6. Spinach – can go in the ground anytime (I’m harvesting spinach I planted in late August)
7. Lettuce – wait until it warms a bit, and protect it from birds

Keep in mind the birds are hungry right now, and until things green up, they will be looking at your garden as food for them.

Plant In April-May (just wait until temperatures are in the 65-75 range)
1. Tomato
2. Potato
3. Corn
4. Melons
5. Squash

Varieties of Preference
I believe in planting the right varieties, varieties with the best flavor, that do well in this climate, and that provide good production. Here are my preferences:

1. Corn = Miracle Corn (great flavor, 70 day maturity, doesn't blow over
2. Tomato = Celebrity, Better Boy, Floramerica (hard to find), great slicing tomato. Rowpac, Columbia and Salad Master all claim to be resistant to the Curly Top virus.
3. Cantaloupe = Ambrosia, by far the best flavored cantaloupe on the market. This variety has a poor shelf life, so you will never find it in the grocery store, so you must grow your own.
4. Beets = Ruby Queen, or Detroit Dark. Both varieties do well.
5. Onions = Sweet Spanish. I grow onions to last through the winter, Sweet Spanish is a good flavored onion, and will last through the winter. Sweeter varieties like Walla Walla, and Texas, do not store well, but have nice flavor.
6. Watermelon = I had good success with the Crimson Sweet, but haven't really tried other varieties. Melons were flavorful, good size, and disease resistant.
7. Squash = I grew zucchini, crookneck, spaghetti, and Toquer Squash with good success
8. Crenshaw melons and Casaba melons do well here, get them in early (April-May) and enjoy them all summer

Season's End

2009-11-05T19:25:00.002-07:00

On October 30th, Toquerville got some frost, and pretty much ended my gardening. I picked the last of my green beans the night before, and picked the rest of my tomatoes. I still have beets, carrots and spinach we continue to enjoy. Though we have not had a freeze yet, my garden has pretty much stopped growing. Last year, our first freeze came on October 12th, but after that, it didn't freeze again until December 5th. But length of day, and soil temperatures are such that plants will no longer do much growing. This spring, temperatures did not warm until about mid-April.

I have tilled up my garden, tilled in a few leaves, grass clippings, and some manure I brought in. I also tilled in a large bale of straw in an area of my garden which is heavier and has more clay. Now is the time to get compost working in your garden. Come planting time in the spring, your straw, leaves, and other material will all be broken down and fully composted.

Season Summary
It was a wet winter and spring, so the beet leaf hopper was particularly bad and affected everyone's tomatoes, potatoes, and nearly all vines. The leaf hopper population is dependent on the weather, the wetter the winter and spring, the higher the leaf hopper population; the drier the winter and spring, the lower the leaf hopper population. Still, even a low leaf hopper population can wreak havoc with your garden. I avoid using pesticides, but may have to do more next year to fight the leaf hopper.

I felt I had a successful garden, but some crops were better than others. My corn was great, cantaloupes, crenshaw, and watermelon were all good, but diseases hurt quality and production. Beets, carrots, broccoli, onions, and squash were all very good for me.

My observations are these: I will plant a bit later in the spring than in the past, to try to avoid the beet leafhopper, hard winds, and cold temperatures. I probably won't do much before April 1st. I put in a drip watering system this spring. I like it, conserves water, works off my timer, and allows me to work in the garden while I am watering.

Varieties of Preference
I believe in planting the right varieties, varieties with the best flavor, that do well in this climate, and that provide good production. Here are my preferences
1. Corn = Miracle Corn (great flavor, 70 day maturity, doesn't blow over
2. Tomato = Celebrity, Better Boy, Floramerica (hard to find), great slicing tomato. I may have to consider varieties resistant to the blight.
3. Cantalooupe = Ambrosia, by far the best flavored cantaloupe on the market. This variety has a poor shelf life, so you will never find it in the grocery store, so you must grow your own.
4. Beets = Ruby Queen, or Detroit Dark. Both varieties do well.
5. Onions = Sweet Spanish. I grown onions to last through the winter, Sweet Spanish is a good flavored onion, and will last through the winter. Sweeter varieties like Walla Walla, and Texas, will not last through the winter.
6. Watermelon = I had good success with the Crimson Sweet, but haven't really tried other varieties. Melons were flavorful, good size, and disease resistant.
7. Squash = I grew zucchini, crookneck, spaghetti, and Toquer Squash with good success

Garden Basics
1. Your garden success is only as good as your soil, add humus, compost, fertilizer, and other soil conditioners now until the ground freezes.
2. Determine the varieties you want to plant next year, and make sure you can find those varieties come planting time. 2009 was perhaps one of the most active gardening seasons in years--and nurseries and garden centers ran out of a lot of seeds, so buy early.
3. Weeds, even winter weeds, harbor pests, sap nutrients from your soil, and multiply faster than you can say Jack Sprat. So keep weeds out of your entire yard.
4. Fall and winter is a good time to service your tiller, lawnmower, weed eater, and other equipment; clean air filters, check oil levels, and do general cleaning of the equipment.
5. Pruning can be done at anytime, but pruning in the spring, just before fruit trees bloom, is the ideal time. Allow the trees to take the strength from the leaves and branches, down into the roots, then prune in the spring.

The Fall Garden

2009-10-06T16:39:00.004-06:00

My summer garden is about done. I just finished my second crop of sweet corn. Again, I've never grown better corn, and yes, I'm still sold on Miracle Corn, my new variety of choice. The corn's flavor is superb, large ears, and matures in about 70 days. The corn grows only about 6ft tall, thus resists lodging during strong winds. And it pollinates very successfully, even on the edges of the crop. I'm also sold on placing a couple of drops of vegetable oil on the silk, shortly after it appears--this prevents worms and bugs from entering the ear of corn. It is 100% successful, if applied in a timely manner. The result? perfect ears of corn with no worms or bugs.

I currently have tomatoes, green beans, beets, carrots, and spinach in my garden. We ate our first green beans yesterday, are enjoying a late tomato crop, and have harvested some spinach. The beans were planted July 18th, the spinach and beans were planted on August 10th. I should have beets ready later in October. Other falls crops can also be planted; broccoli, lettuce, cabbage, and other cool weather crops.

I have applied a load of manure on the greater part of the, now unused, garden soil, and tilled it in. I will also till in large quantities of leaves as soon as they come down. Fall is the time to prepare the garden for spring planting. You took a lot out of your garden, you need to put a lot back. Manure, leaves, compost, sawdust, any biodegradable material should be tilled into your garden.

I tend not to want to pay for the manure I put in my garden, so I ask around and find horse owners, or other folks with animals, and ask if I can relieve them of some of their manure (they are always anxious to get rid of some of that stuff). Some with tractors and loaders will even load my truck for me, so all I have to do is empty the truck and place it in my garden. Chicken and Turkey manure is too hot for the garden, but if mixed with other material (leaves, sawdust, etc) it becomes a great garden fertilizer. I prefer horse manure, it isn't too hot (nitrogen content), and horse owners tend to buy the best hay, with few weeds, so I "import" fewer weeds than with cow manure.

Squash Bugs

2009-08-17T14:40:00.004-06:00

Nothing is quite as ugly, smelly and destructive as squash bugs. Squash bugs, Anasa tristis, are a difficult garden pest to control, but there are options. Squash bugs prefer yellow crookneck summer squash, and they prefer this variety over zucchini and other squashes, although I don't find them very discriminating. They also favor pumpkins, and spaghetti squash. Squash bugs will thrive in, on, under, and around all squash plants, melons, pumpkins, cucumbers, and all cucurbits.

In my garden they seemed to favor the squash (crookneck and spaghetti), and avoided watermelon. Since my watermelons turned out quite good, I may plant more watermelon next year.

Sylvan Wittwer suggested to me, to use drip lines, and as the plants grow, move the lines further away from the plant base. Squash bugs like moist areas around the base of the plants, so removing the moisture from that area greatly reduces the attractiveness of the plant base. So this year, with a drip system installed, I tested this theory. My first row of garden, next to the lawn, had a Toquer Squash, a pumpkin, and a spaghetti squash. This was my control because it got overspray from the lawn sprinklers and the base of the plants were usually damp.

The remaining rows of cantaloupe, crenshaw melons, crookneck, zucchini, watermelon, and spaghetti squash, received the benefit of my moving the drip lines away from the base of the plants, as the plants grew. The drip lines ended up about 1 ft away from the base of the plants.

Clearly, the squash bugs preferred the first row of vines that tended to remain damp from the lawn overspray. Some of the other rows of melons, etc, where the base remained dry and open to the sun, squash bugs were much less prominent. So this does help--but the bugs will still come, they just won't be as "happy" and don't seem to reproduce nearly as fast in the dry conditions.

In addition to the above cultural practice, I also did the following:

1. Each day, I would scour the vine leaves for the eggs of the squash bugs, and squish these with my fingers. I was interested that the bugs laid eggs both under the leaves, and on top of the leaves. As the garden got bigger (quite a few melons), examining all the leaves became a bit of a chore, but I still tried to spend a few minutes each day looking for eggs, and eliminating them before they hatched.

2. I would also lift up the ends of the squash plants, every morning, and look for bugs, and squish them on the spot. This works well with the crookneck because you can lift up each vine all the way back to the base and see the bugs, and get rid of them. If you're squeamish, wear gloves.

3. Later in the summer, the squash bugs will accumulate under and on the fruit of the plants. As the foliage of the plants deteriorates through the summer, they will begin eating the squash, melons or pumpkins, etc. So I would lift or turn each squash (spaghetti), melon (cantaloupe and crenshaw) and expose the bugs, and squish them enmasse.

Historically, pesticides are not effective against adult squash bugs, and sprays or powders must be sprayed on the under side of plants and leaves to get to where the bugs are, and this is difficult to do. I do not even attempt to spray for squash bugs, and I tend to avoid using pesticides generally.

Strong, healthy, vigorous plants will withstand the effects of squash bugs better than weak or less thriving plants, so this should always be strived for. My experience is, doing nothing is not a good option--the bugs will win, your plants will lose, and you won't get much production.

Mid-Summer Report

2009-08-02T18:27:00.003-06:00

Corn
The Miracle Corn I planted in May was a huge success. It was easily the best corn crop I've ever grown. I really liked the variety, large stalks, large leaves, not too tall (6 ft), two large ears per stalk, full rows of kernels, great flavor.

You'll notice in this picture there are no worms. I treat the newly emerged silk with two drops of vegetable oil, which prevents worms and other bugs from entering the growing ears. This is an easy, non-pesticide method that works 100%.

This crop is finished, but I have a fall crop of Miracle Corn on the way.

Watermelon
I have never had success growing watermelon, but thought I'd give it another try in Toquerville. I planted Crimson Sweet, and this melon was the first one I harvested, about 20 lbs, the flavor was very good, juicy, and I'll probably grow watermelon again, although I think I'll try the seedless variety next year.

Onions
I harvested my Sweet Spanish onions, had an excellent crop, with nice medium sized onions. I'm not satisfied with my drying methods yet. I have tried laying them on the ground, in the shade. This worked pretty well, but you have to keep turning and moving the onions until the tops are completely dried. I have tried tying the leaves together over a line, in the shade. This worked pretty well too, but they would sometimes fall down, or blow down if there was a strong wind, and squirrels or animals would take them. This year I tried pulling them and just leaving them on the ground (dry ground). This worked ok for some of the onions, but too high a percentage "cooked" and were spoiled by the sun.

Cantaloupes
We have been eating cantaloupes for a month. I plant only Ambrosia cantaloupes, by far the best flavor of any cantaloupe, but they have a very short shelf life (which is why you won't find them in any grocery store). The cantaloupes are not as large this year, as last, but still of normal size and excellent flavor. Curly Top killed about a third of my cantaloupe plants.

Summer Squash
My zucchini, crookneck and spaghetti squash all produced well. The curly top took both my zucchini plants, and both my crookneck plants, but I replanted both and have not been without summer squash yet. Quality has been excellent.

Pumpkin
Curly Top killed my one pumpkin plant, but we still got three pumpkins off it before it was gone.

Potatoes
The Curly Top eventually got to all my potato plants, but I still got a fair harvest, the potatoes just did not get as large as they should. The red potatoes did much better than the white "gold" variety. We've been enjoying the potatoes, and the flavor is very good, potatoes are just small.

Toquer Squash
I have a Toquer Squash vine growing in my garden that has become very large, spreading far and wide (I was warned it would do this). It contains several large, maturing bell shaped squash, and does not appear to be affected by Curly Top. When mature, this squash weighs 20-30 pounds. I got these seeds from my neighbor who grows the squash also. I'm impressed with the sweetness and flavor of this squash, plus it being a winter squash, should store well for some time.

Curly Top
Curly Top has damaged my tomatoes, potatoes, spinach, squash, pumpkin, cantaloupe, crenshaw melons, pumpkin, and cucumbers. Harris Seed is sending me a sample bottle of "GreenCure" which is effective against all blights (Curly Top is a blight), but they don't guarantee it. I am going to try it next spring. I am unwilling to give into the widespread damage of Curly Top. If anyone has experience with "GreenCure," I'd love to hear about it.

Summer Corn

2009-07-13T14:07:00.005-06:00

On May 9th, I planted four rows of Miracle Corn, on July 13th (70 days), I harvested the first ears...and was it ever tasty.

Miracle Corn is a hybrid derived from Golden Jubilee, my previous favorite corn, that has twice the lysine and tryptophan (proteins) of other corn varieties. Miracle was developed to fight malnutrition in third world countries. It's a relatively new corn, being available for only the past few years.

I have had difficulty the past few years getting two, large, full ears of corn on each stalk; Miracle corn delivered for me this year, however. Frankly, I was impressed. I have never seen better corn in the field, and its flavor is impressive. Miracle is supposed to hold its sugar longer before turning to starch, than other varieties, as well.

Beginning early last fall, I tilled in large amounts of mulch and leaves, then applied mono-ammoniumphosphate every two to three weeks through my drip system. At 30 days from planting, I "turned" the furrow against the young corn and applied a side dressing of 16-16-16.

When the silk appeared, I applied two drops of vegetable oil to the silk, using an eyedropper. This prevents worms and bugs from entering the ear of corn, giving full, clean, worm free, ears, without using pesticides. Stalks grow about 6 ft high.

I plan on a second planting towards the end of July, same variety, different location in the garden.

Potatoes

2009-07-01T13:36:00.002-06:00

I have updated my June 23rd post with additional information regarding curly top and tomatoes. But curly top also infects potatoes as well as other garden plants. Indeed, variety seems to be important in fighting curly top.

Potatoes
I have two rows of potatoes, planted from seed potatoes. I have observed that the red potatoes are virtually unaffected by curly top, but the white (actually gold) potatoes are largely infected and dying. I am harvesting some nice "new" potatoes from these dying plants, but fear I will not get many mature ones.

Melons
It is also my observation, to date, that Crenshaw Melons are not affected by curly top, but Ambrosia Cantaloupes are, somewhat. The effect on Ambrosia is not significant, but has taken two of my plants.

Squash
In my garden, this year, my Crookneck Summer Squash was completely taken by curly top, but my Zucchini is unaffected.

My Spaghetti Squash, Big Max Pumpkin, and Toquer Squash are, so far, unaffected by curly top.

Cucumber
The cucumber I planted early, all died, presumably from curly top, but cucumber I planted later, are so far unaffected, and are thriving.

Curly Top and the Beet Leafhopper

2009-06-23T16:09:00.008-06:00

Because of the seriousness of the curly top blight in local gardens (actually throughout the Western United States), I have researched the subject and provide the following information.

This top picture is of a healthy tomato plant from my garden.

The second picture is of a Curly Top infected tomato from my garden

General Information
Causal Agent: Beet Curly Top Virus (BCTV) Hosts: Tomatoes, beans, pepper, spinach, beets, and cucumbers.
Symptoms: Leaves of infested plants are dwarfed, crinkled, rolled inward, and cupped upward. Veins on the underside of leaves usually have a purple discoloration, may be roughened, and often produce swellings or spine-like outgrowths. Roots are stunted and may exhibit a proliferation of secondary rootlets.
BCTV is transmitted to/from plant to plant by the beet leafhopper, Circulifer tenellus. Both the virus and the beet leafhopper have very wide host ranges. Once acquired by the leafhopper, BCTV is carried for the rest of the leafhopper's life, and thus long distance spread is common. Infected plants are usually scattered in a field. The beet leafhopper acquires the virus from infected crop plants or weeds such as wild mustard and Russian thistle. Only brief feeding periods (minutes) are required for the leafhopper to acquire the virus and transmit it to new plants. Plants begin to show symptoms about 7 to 14 days after they are first infected by a leafhopper. Tomato is not a preferred host for the beet leafhopper; however the leafhoppers transmit the virus to tomatoes while sampling it.

Curly Top facts
a. Curly Top is a blight transmitted by the Beet Leafhopper. Although tomatoes are not its preferred host, leafhoppers are fairly indiscriminate, and tomatoes get infected along with beets, beans, melons, squash, potatoes, spinach, peppers, cucumbers and other garden plants. Even Pumpkins have been infected in some states.

b. When humidity is above 50%, Curly Top is nonexistent; thus the desert southwest is very susceptible to this disease.

c. There is no cure, once infected, the plant fails to thrive, will not set additional fruit, and will usually die. Remaining fruit will be of low quality, underdeveloped, and of poor quality and flavor.

What Doesn’t Work

a. Spraying for the Beet Leafhopper is ineffective since the Leafhopper migrates, usually coming down from hillsides as the weather warms. And although spraying will kill the leafhopper, the damage is done before the leafhopper dies.

b. Commercially, there are some insecticide spraying programs, and soil treatments that are effective, but for the home gardener, they are either not available or impractical.

c. Some of the cultural practices of commercial farmers, are also impractical or irrelevant to the home gardener. For example, planting large, thick fields of tomatoes seems to repel the Leafhopper, but gardeners can’t do this.

d. The State of California is investigating the introduction of predators and parasites for control of Beet Leafhopper, but to date, no solution has been found.

e. Covering tomatoes with a mesh or screen to keep the leafhoppers out. Most mesh is not tight enough to keep the leafhopper out, and if it is tight enough, the mesh will also keep out sunlight and create too much shading, and stunt plant growth.

What Might Work
a. There are possibly two or three resistant varieties, but all tomato varieties are susceptible. Ropac and Columbia seem to be resistant, but no immune, to curly top. Floramerica is another variety reported to be resistant, though it's not been confirmed in our area. Bruce Church in Hurricane experiences about 80% success with Ropac and Columbia.

b. Planting tomatoes later in the season, for the Hurricane Valley this would be mid-May to mid-June. Leafhoppers seem to be less prevalent by this date, and moved on to their more favored plants like Russian Thistle, Mustard, and other weeds.

c. Creating dense stands of tomatoes seems to repel the leafhopper, but for most home gardeners, this is impractical. Still, if you can plant in a square instead of a row, you will probably create some protection against the leafhopper.

d. Eliminating Russian Thistle, plantain, and other weeds is also somewhat effective, since the Leafhopper prefers weeds, particularly the Russian Thistle.

e. Creating an enclosed, clear plastic “greenhouse” over the tomatoes, for the early growing period, in theory, should protect the tomatoes from the Leafhopper, but the “greenhouse” must be tight as to make it impenetrable by the Leafhopper. If this can be maintained until mid-May, when it would probably be impracticable and inadvisable to keep the tomatoes inside the “greenhouse.”

f. Shading, which lowers light intensity and retards evaporation, probably delays leafhopper visits, decreases the infection rate, and reduces symptom expression. However, tomatoes do not like being shaded (they prefer full sun), so there is an adverse affect to this practice.

g. New Mexico State University has tested the use of applying a white kaolin mineral product (3% kaolin suspension) on tomatoes and peppers, and the treatment has proven effective against curly top. But row irrigation or drip irrigation must be used since sprinklers and rain will wash the kaolin off the plant and eliminate its effectiveness. Kaolin is a soft, earthy, usually white mineral...and don't ask me where you get Kaolin. It is probably available someplace.

h. Bruce Church in Hurricane says a spray of reconstituted dry milk is effective (From Utah State info), and he uses it.

A Few Mid-Season Observations

2009-06-23T11:49:00.003-06:00

With the warmer weather my corn, tomatoes, cantaloupes and other vines, have all really taken off. Following, are a few mid season observations:

1. In Toquerville, there is little or no advantage to planting early. The ground is too cold, the winds too strong, and plants tend to not grow much until April or May.

2. All vines (cantaloupes, crenshaw melons, cucumbers, squash, pumpkins, etc) seem to do really well in this area. Plant them in early May, and you still have plenty of time for them to mature.

3. The tomato curly top disease is very bad, and very frustrating to try to overcome. There is essentially no effective prevention, and no cure, so the leafhoppers just infect the tomatoes, and there isn't a whole lot you can do about it; except to pull out the plant and replace it. The six plants I replaced are all doing well, setting on tomatoes, and none of them have become infected with the curly top blight. Unless I learn differently, I'm assuming planting tomatoes later is better than planting early, because you avoid the curly top blight.

4. The cool May and June this year was ideal weather for broccoli, but I planted broccoli in early March, and have had nearly 8 weeks of broccoli harvest so far. Also, I've not been bothered by aphid or leaf worms--so far.

5. We had a huge pecan harvest last year, but I have very few pecans this year. Pecans do altenate between heavy and light harvests, but I didn't expect it to be this thin. Also, I've observed that last year, my pecan trees did not have sap on them, nothing observable anyway. This year, however, with hardly any pecans on the trees, the sap is very heavy in all trees. Is there a connection between the "off year" and heavy sap?

June Report

2009-06-09T16:22:00.003-06:00

I have had success and failure in my garden so far this year. Beets, Onions, Peas, Carrots, Broccoli and Summer Squash have been very successful.

Cauliflower was mostly a failure. I'm not sure why, but the plants did not grow for a long time, when they did grow, they looked good, but the heads were strange, an odd color, and the flavor was poor.

Tomatoes continue to suffer from "Curlytop" brought by the Beet Leafhopper. About half my plants were infected and I have taken them out. I have replaced the plants, mostly as an experiment to see how they do being planted this late. I have never planted tomatoes this late in the season, but in Toquerville, I suspect they may still be productive. Time will tell. In researching this devastating disease, it appears the only real solution is to cover the tomatoes in a greenhouse structure until about this time of year when the leafhoppers appear to be gone. Apparently, no pesticide or cultural practices are very effective.

The broccoli is some of the best I've ever grown, beautiful heads, and large flowerettes continue to produce wonderful broccoli.

The carrots are probably the best I've ever grown also, very good quality, long, nicely shaped carrots.

The zucchini and crookneck squash has also been very good. I began harvesting the last day of May, and the quality is excellent.

All my vines are thriving, Ambrosia Cantaloupe and Crenshaw Melons look impressive, and the corn (Miracle Corn) also looks excellent.

I have also planted Big Max Pumpkins, Toquer Squash (excellent if you haven't tried it), Spaghetti Squash, and watermelons. All are doing very well.

May Harvest

2009-05-07T19:23:00.003-06:00

I began harvesting beets, spinach and peas on May 5th. My broccoli has heads about four inches across, and the cauliflower has heads about two inches across.

Although my potatoes took longer than expected to emerge, they are now looking very healthy and are about a foot high.

On may 5th, I planted Miracle Corn, Spaghetti Squash, Big Max pumpkins, Crimson Sweet Watermelon, and the Toquerville Squash. The Toquerville Squash is a very large, very sweet, bell shaped winter type of squash. I can't find any other name for the squash, but it is very sweet and tasty. I'm not a big fan of winter squash, but this squash is worth trying in your garden. My neighbor grows the squash and gave me some seeds for this planting.

I now have the entire garden under cultivation, and under drip tape from Ballard's Nursery. I love this system, it waters the entire garden, allows me to fertilize the entire garden with water soluable mono-ammonium phosphate at the same time, and I have it on a timer, so I can turn it on and leave it. What I also like is I can work in the garden while I am watering it, or immediately after watering it because the only place that gets wet is directly under the plants.

I moved my boysenberries and raspberries this spring, and they are doing much better, flowering and setting on berries.

The grapes on this property, that were all but dead when we bought the place in October 2007, are loaded with grapes this year. Last year, I got only a few, but I had to prune back a ton of old wood and canes, but the grapes are setting on quite impressively, so I'm pleased.

Gardening Update

2009-04-20T20:19:00.005-06:00

The weather has warmed and the garden shows it. This picture shows strawberries at the lower left, then my beets in the foreground, looking impressive, then Sweet Spanish onions, looking great; then the peas--looking ok. The ground on this end of the garden is too heavy for peas, I will plant peas on the far end of the garden next year.

Behind the peas are the tomatoes, finally starting to grow. I lost two plants to frost, had to cover my tomatoes twice. Beyond the tomatoes is my broccoli, growing very impressively. Beyond the broccoli is the potatoes. The potatoes took a long time to emerge, but they are now all up and doing well. Cauliflower is the last green row, and they are beginning to grow too.

I have installed a drip irrigation system this year, with the ability to distribute water soluable mono-amonium phospate through the drip system via a Miracle Grow, inline feeder. Behind that I have a battery powered timer so I can be sure the garden gets watered the right amount, and watered when I am out of town.

I'm liking the drip system. It puts water only where the plants are, keeps the rest of the garden dry keeping down weeds, and allowing me to work in the garden while I'm watering, or after, without getting mud on my shoes. It's a wonderful system and not expensive.

Today I planted Ambrosia cantaloupes--I plant no other kind of cantaloupe. I also planted a row of Crenshaw melons. Sylvan Wittwer PhD agronomist from Hurricane and Michigan State recommends planting melons (all melons) on hills or ridges, deep watering, then not watering near the plant, but moving the drip lines out as the melons grow. This is supposed to eliminate, or minimize, the squash bugs. So this year I am going to try that and see how it works. I had great melons last year, but the squash bugs did eventually take the plants.

If you have never grown Ambrosia Cantaloupes, you must do so. They are without question the best flavored cantaloupe available. You cannot buy Ambrosia melons in the grocery store because they have a short shelf life (does that tell you something about melons and the grocery stores?) But the flavor is out of this world, and if you grow them once, you will never grow any other variety.

Spring Planting Report

2009-03-17T15:35:00.004-06:00

Throughout the fall and winter months, I tilled large amounts of leaves into my garden. I also tilled in some clean grass clippings, and some mulch I got from the fairgrounds. I've tilled my garden often (when it wasn't too wet) throughout the winter and early spring. Nearly all of the material is now decomposed, making a nice, loamy soil.

On January 31st I planted peas, which are up and growing nicely now. On February 3rd I planted beets and onions, all of which are up and beginning to grow, now that the weather has warmed. On February 21st, I planted carrots, which are all up; cauliflower sets, and carrots. The carrots are now all germinated. I also planted seed potatoes on February 21st, they have not yet emerged. I did cover the onions, beets, carrots and spinach with clear plastic to ensure good, quick germination.

On March 3rd, I planted broccoli sets, which are now growing. On March 4th, I planted a few tomatoes, which froze March 8th. On March 14th, I replanted with Better Boy, Big Beef, and Celebrity.

My raspberries and boysenberries put forth leaves the first week of March. My strawberries also began to grow that week and are now flowering.

Last year I watered my garden by sprinkling and had more or less satisfactory results. This year, I determined to put in a drip system, which I have used before, and liked. I have the drip lines connected to a battery powered timer, which ensures watering even when I am out of town.

Winter Pecan Harvest

2009-01-29T11:11:00.007-07:00

I began picking up pecans that fell to the ground in early November. Wind, birds, and the ripening process caused enough pecans to fall that I had gathered about 40 gallons of pecans before Christmas. On January 13th the "pecan tree shaker" came and shook my three Mahan trees. I gathered 75 gallons of pecans from this shaking. I estimate another 10 gallons of pecans did not come down with the shaking, and are left to the birds and the squirrels.

In early fall, before the pecans had ripened, a hard wind blew off a good 30 gallons of large, beautiful pecans in the husk. But the pecans had not matured, so there was nothing to harvest. Other pecans have come down, blown down, or been eaten or damaged by the birds. I have calculated that all totaled, I got about 200 gallons of pecans off these three trees. Only about 125 gallons were usable and became part of the harvest.

The ratio of shell to meat on the pecan is about 50/50. So we will get about 60 gallons of shelled pecans from this year's harvest. A gallon of shelled pecans weighs about 3 1/2 pounds. So we will harvest about 210 pounds of pecans.

Crows, ravens, woodpeckers, starlings, doves, and blue birds, all come into the trees and eat the pecans. They do little damage while the pecans are still in the husk, but once the husk opens up, the birds peck into the shell and eat out some of the meat and waste the rest. Many of these nuts fall to the ground and are of no value. The squirrels also harvest pecans that fall to the ground, and are lost. Still, the harvest is so abundant, and I pick them off the ground so quickly, that the birds and squirrels don't actually take a significant number of the nuts.

Pecans are best when picked off the ground as soon as they fall, or harvested as soon as they open up. Commercial growers shake the trees early and place the nuts, in or out of the husk, on concrete floors for a few days to dry. I did this with the early pecans that dropped. Three to four days on the floor and they were ready to crack and extract the meat.

Some locals believe the pecan leaves are too acidic and should not be tilled into garden areas. But according to the National Gardeners Association, only walnut leaves should not be tilled into gardens, Pecan leaves are fine. I also till in the husks and the broken shells after I crack the nuts. Mowed up pecan leaves, husks, shells, and grass make a great mulch for the garden.

Nutritional Composition of One Ounce of Pecans
15 Vitamins, including significant amounts of Vitamin A, Vitamin E, and Folate
10 Minerals, including significant amounts of Potassium, Phosphorus, Calcium and Magnesium
Pecans have no sodium, are cholesterol free, fiber rich, and significant protein

Late Fall Planting Report

2009-01-29T10:32:00.002-07:00

In mid-November I planted lettuce, peas, onions, beets, and carrots. I got a good germination for all. In mid-December we got 13 inches of snow, which covered these young sprouts for three weeks. We had temperatures down to 19 degrees this winter, and freezing temperatures almost every night since the snow in December.

Only the peas and lettuce survived the cold and snow cover. The peas did the best, and are actually growing right now (end of January). Not all the lettuce survived, but some did. I suspect that had I planted in October, and these sprouts gotten better established, they would have done better. All should have survived the winter.

I know from past experience that lettuce, peas and carrots will winter over, under snow, in much colder temperatures than we have here. And established onions don't freeze. So it was the tenderness of these young sprouts that was the problem. I knew it was late to plant, but thought I'd try anyway.

I didn't plant any fall spinach, but my neighbor did, and says she has harvested it all winter, and it's the best spinach she's ever had. Fall and Winter is a great time to garden. Many gardeners ignore this time of year, but there are no pests, no diseases, and no weeds.

Fall Soil Preparation

2008-12-17T11:43:00.003-07:00

This fall I determined to delay planting a fall garden to allow for time to till in compost and leaves into the soil. I have tilled in a truck load of compost from the fairgrounds, all my pecan shells, pecan husks, and leaves. I tilled in leaves I brought from my daughters place in Springville, leaves I bagged from the church, and leaves from my neighbors. I also tilled in late lawn clippings, which included fallen leaves and pecan husks. The lawnmower does a nice job of cutting the grass, leaves and pecan husks into small pieces, insuring they will compost more quickly.

With the fall rains, and repeated tilling of the ground, the leaves and material are already decomposing nicely. On Monday, December 15th, snow fell, a total of 9 inches in Toquerville. The snow cover, freezing temperatures, and the recently tilled soil will all contribute to a nice decomposition of the leaves and other material. By planting time in the spring, the soil will be ready for production.

I cannot emphasize enough, the necessity of composting leaves and other organic material into the garden every year, it is essential. I also throw in some commercial nitrogen when tilling in composting material, it expedites the decomposition process and adds nitrogen to the soil.

Still, in early November, I planted peas, lettuce, onions, carrots and beets. I'll see how they winter over. We've already had temperatures as low as 21 degrees.

Crenshaw Melons

2008-09-17T21:33:00.003-06:00

These Crenshaw melons were impressive, sweet, mild flavor; large, firm melons. Harvested on September 15, 2008

Ambrosia Cantaloupes

2008-08-13T20:50:00.004-06:00

This is clearly the largest cantaloupe I've ever grown and probably the largest I've ever seen. This melon has a circumference of 25 inches! Wow! These are not specialty melons, it is an Ambrosia Cantaloupe, without question the best tasting cantaloupe in existence. These melons are soft, sweet, juicy and will change your taste for cantaloupe forever.

Why so big? Last fall I tilled in liberal amounts of mulch from the fairgrounds in Hurricane, then this spring I tilled in a little more and added monoammonioum phosphate before planting, and several times throughout the growing season. Watering was as frequent as weather and temperature required; sometimes every three days, sometimes every two days, sometimes everyday--mostly overhead sprinklers. Garden is in full sun.

Ambrosia cantaloupes

2008-07-23T21:51:00.003-06:00

I have never grown better looking cantaloupe plants than I have this year in Toquerville. Dark, healthy, growthy plants with large developing cantaloupes. If you have never grown Ambrosia cantaloupes, I can't recommend them more highly. They are simply the best variety you will ever grow (I grow no other variety). You will never get these in the grocery story because they don't have a long shelf life (the primary consideration for grocery store produce), but if you ever eat one of those tasty, tender, juicy, flavor filled melons, you will never grow another Hale's Best, Heart of Gold, or any other variety. I planted in May, but with the cool spring they didn't really take off until early July. I tilled in compost from the Washington County Fairgrounds in November, and added monoamonium phosphate (water soluble) after plants were up and well established.

Mid summer garden

2008-07-21T22:28:00.003-06:00

After a slow start, a cold and windy spring, my summer garden has taken off. The corn is doing great, ate our first serving tonight, my Ambrosia Cantaloupe is growing and looking very impressive, my summer squash, zucchini, crookneck, butternut (actually a winter squash) are all looking great and producing excellent produce.

I have begun harvesting one of my best onion crops ever (sweet spanish), and my tomatoes are still looking well and producing better than earlier this summer. My fall corn crop is about a foot tall, and my green beans are just sprouting. In the past, my mid summer garden was an ugly thing with the heat stressing most plants out of production and into the ugly stage. But in Toquerville, my mid-summer garden is very exciting and bounteous. It's fun to garden in the summer again.

Summer plantings

2008-07-12T19:39:00.008-06:00

I have found, in Toquerville, that I can successfully plant, during the summer months, many garden items I could not successfully plant in climates a bit warmer in the summer. Such things as cucumbers, beets, melons and squash. In warmer climates these have to be planted in the spring before the summer heat stresses them out of production. And in colder climates they must be planted in early spring just to be able to mature before cool weather arrives in the fall. But the summers are mild enough in Toquerville that most plants don't stress as they do in St George or southern Nevada. Plus the growing season is long enough that the plants can mature and produce before cold weather arrives.

I believe the key to this is the fact Toquerville is protected from the morning sun until at least 8 a.m. during the summer, and the fact that the daily high temperature is almost always reached by 2 pm and immediately begins to cool from that hour. The Toquerville high, on average, is 3 degrees cooler than St George, but that high is maintained for a far shorter period of time than St George. Also, I have observed that shortly after sundown, Toquerville will be from 10 to 15 degrees cooler than St George--even though both cities may sometimes reach the same night time low, Toquerville will reach that low much earlier in the evening than does St George.

This weather pattern means that plants, which begin to stress at temperatures above 100 degrees, will be stressed for only a relatively short period of time in Toquerville, but for a much longer period of the day in St George and other southern, desert areas.

Soil preparation

2008-07-03T20:09:00.004-06:00

Toquerville soil contains clay and sand but is excellent soil if composted material is added. My experience is that fall leaves tilled in with plentiful horse manure in the fall, makes a wonderful composted soil in the spring. In the warmer climates, this compost can be tilled three or four times during the winter and be ready for spring planting. In colder climates, the leaves and manure can be tilled in late fall and again in early spring, and are then ready for planting.

In Washington County, the fair grounds offers composted horse manure and sawdust for ten dollars a pickup load. This is excellent material and can be tilled in the soil at anytime.

I have also successfully used straw and steer manure, although it takes a little longer to break down.

Weather

2008-07-03T20:02:00.003-06:00

I live in Toquerville, Utah. Toquerville has severe winter and spring winds that challenge the gardeners here. However, providing some protection from those early north winds will get your young tender garden through to better weather. Both here and in other desert (windy) areas, I have successfully used as wind breaks; 1. block walls, 2. pomegranate trees, and 3. Holly Oak trees.

In Toquerville, the only real wind problem, relative to gardening, is the early spring, north winds. Southerly winds during the spring and summer are light and inconsequential. Recorded top wind speeds from southerly or westerly flows are much higher in St George than in Toquerville, while recorded top wind speeds from northerly or easterly flows are much higher in Toquerville than in St George. So the period of concern for Toquerville gardeners is that period in the spring when northerly winds are still present. Many gardeners, therefore, postpone planting until the northerly winds have stopped or diminished. But with some protection from the northerly winds will allow gardeners to plan earlier in the spring, since ground temperatures allow for it.

Favorite varieties

2008-07-03T19:55:00.004-06:00

I have experimented with various varieties of produce and have found the following to be unmatched in quality and performance:
1. Tomatoes: Celebrity or Floramerica (both are low juice, high meat, slicing tomatoes with a mild flavor; and neither are bothered by most diseases)
2. Cantaloupe: Ambrosia (the only variety I will plant; it's flavor and tender meat is unequaled by anything on the market)
3. Corn: Golden Jubilee (I continue to experiment and try other varieties, but this old time variety simply performs, stays sweet on the stalk, and has great flavor, and usually produces two ears per stalk)
4. Onions: Sweet Spanish (I just keep coming back to this onion, it is a great green onion, can be eaten at any stage, grows well in the desert, and stores all winter)

I grow all of our onions, we never buy onions from the store. The Sweet Spanish can be picked at any stage and eaten as a green onion, or picked mid season for a smaller slicing onion, or harvested and stored in mid to late summer and stored for winter use. The sweet (Texas sweet and Walla Walla sweet) onions are wonderful to eat but do not store well, and will not last through the winter.