Summer Corn

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

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

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. Dr. Sylvan Wittwer confirmed to me that milk is effective as both a repellent of the leafhopper and as an infection preventative. I tried this only one year and it was effective.

A Few Mid-Season Observations

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

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

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

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.