Growing carrots

Carrots smell amazing when they are first harvested - like a bouquet of wisteria and gardenia. The slightly phenolic aroma is intoxicating. It is no wonder rabbits keep finding their way to my carrot patch! I seriously think the perfume industry is missing out on some untapped fragrances that can be extracted from vegetables. 

The smell of carrots is fresh in my mind as I just harvest the mother load today. It has been a long wait for these sweet treats, especially given the cooler, wet spring we experienced this year. 

Fortunately, not all the carrots were "of size" so I will probably continue to harvest them throughout the rest of the season. A handful every couple of days is still too much for two people, but that is why I have friends, neighbors, and co-workers - to share the bounty! This is probably the real reason I love gardening. If Ryan and I ate everything we harvested, we would be a lot thinner and healthier. But that is for another blog  ;)  

In general, carrots are slow to grow and are picky about their growing conditions. 

Although carrots can be planted as soon as the soil can be worked in the spring, seeds germinate best when the soil temperature is 60-65oF. So it is best to give the soil a few weeks to warm up in the early spring. 

Carrot seeds must be seeded directly in the garden. They should be sprinkled over the surface of nutrient-rich, deeply tilled sandy soil that is free of stones. The seeding density needs to be just right: close, but not too close together. This can be quite the chore given the size of carrot seeds and the fact that they are hard to see when sprinkled over the soil surface. There are lots of ways to help get the right spacing, but the easiest is to take a pinch of seeds and gently rub them between your fingers over the surface of the soil...think of how you might sprinkle pepper over your food.

To germinate, carrot seeds need even moisture. But be careful watering! It is best to use a mister to water carrot seeds during the 14-21 days it takes for seeds to germinate to prevent seeds from floating away with every watering. 

I keep the soil evenly moist throughout the growing season. Too much water, especially after a hot spell, may result in the carrots splitting (see photo).

Waterlogged carrot

After about 2 months, to see if the carrot is ready to harvest, look at the thickness of the leaves at the soil line. Carrots are ready to harvest when the leaves at the soil line are thick and about 1 inch in diameter. The shoulder of the carrot may be visible when ready to harvest, but not always. 

To harvest, hold the carrot top close to the soil and give it a tug. Success? You may find you have a tiny root. Try another one. Same thing? Wait another week and check again. If the carrots look like a good size, start harvesting as many as you can eat in a weeks timeframe. 

Carrots can be left in the ground without rotting. You will be in for an even more tasty treat when carrots are allowed to go through a cold spell (light frost).

Praying mantis

Baby praying mantis

Despite its awkward appearance, the praying mantis is a gardener's best friend.

Praying mantis will eat any insect that is large enough to capture their attention, but small enough to grasp with their spiked forelegs. Unfortunately, this sometimes includes honey bees. 

However, for the most part, praying mantises are beneficial insects. They are predators that feed on "bad" bugs such as aphids, moths, flies, and beetles which are more destructive than the honey bee and are often a larger feast for the praying mantis. 

A bugs life is a tough life. Praying mantis are cannibalistic when food sources are scarce. In addition, females will kill their partner after mating and baby mantises will eat each other in an "eat or be eaten" way of life. 

Nonetheless, I am excited that I have finally found a praying mantis in my garden. I just hope that these guys stick around and help me to organically control the insects in my garden. Lord knows I have plenty of japanese beetles feasting on my raspberry bushes and apple trees.

Darn rabbits

Dear Mrs. Bunny, your dare-devil partner, and all your little ones:

I am watching you. 

Peppers eaten by rabbits

I see you in the mornings and in the evenings munching on a variety of produce that is meant for human consumption. I see one bunny as the look out bunny while the others munch away. You think you are SO clever by bringing your cute little 4 inch offspring with you to the feast.  I am on to you.

There are solutions that your family will not like - just look at what I was capable of earlier this year when I was tilling the garden. It could happen again. And this time, it may not be an accident.

Just because you can reach my vegetables, does not mean you can eat my vegetables. If you are seeking vegetation, please eat the weeds which are far more plentiful.

Warm regards,

The FARMER

Tomatoes are here

There are a few things that come to mind when I think of summer: fireflies, longer days, warm nights, hot cars, tall corn stalks, 4th of July, and of course tomatoes.

I cannot wait to see all the different colors and shapes of the heirloom tomatoes I am growing this year - 10 varieties in total (oh my, what was I thinking). 

First of many tomato harvest

I picked my first tomatoes this weekend: one yellow pear tomato, one sweet 100 cherry, two roma, and a handful of sun gold cherry tomatoes. While this harvest was small, it is only a matter of time before I am again swimming in tomatoes. 

Using the peppers, sweet onions, and basil that I have harvested from my garden, I am making my first batch of homemade tomato sauce with about 3 gallons of stewed tomatoes that I froze at the end of last summer.  This is the first of many days to come.

Growing onions

Although onions can be grown from seeds, sets, or transplants, I prefer to grow them from seeds. After a cold winter, the arrival of seed catalogs and the starting of onions seeds remind me that spring is around the corner. I like to watch the seeds germinate and sprout long leaves which need to be cut 2-3 times before transplanting. I also like detangling the roots of the seedlings when it is time to transplant them in the spring. To me, onions = spring.

As an experiment, I planted Walla Walla onion seedlings last November. I read that planting sweet onions in the fall results in a sweeter onion. What I did not know was that the onions would be larger and mature much earlier than those planted in the spring. So, this November I will be planting even more onions to overwinter!

While I am already enjoying the Walla Walla onions (over 1 lb each!) I planted last fall, I have noticed that the onions I planted this spring are starting to bulb up nicely. I anticipate the rest of the onions being ready to harvest around the end of July.

Onion showing symptoms
of Pantoea ananatis

This week, I came across one sweet onion (Candy) that had suddenly looked kind of weird. The onion was bulbing up like the others, but it had floppy white/bleached looking center leaves (the outer leaves were green and healthy looking). Having seen what happens to tomato plants if disease is not controlled early, I ripped this onion out of the ground and started my investigation into what was the cause of the wilt. 

It turns out that the onion was likely infected with a bacterial disease caused by Pantoea ananatis. This bacterium causes what is called "center rot" and commonly occurs in sweet onions during periods of hot weather. The classical sign of infection is the collapsed bleached center leaves hanging down beside the onion's neck. Bingo! This is exactly what was wrong with my onion.

Go figure: high temperatures are necessary for the development of this disease. We have been in a 90-degree heat wave for about 2 weeks. This is another benefit of growing onions over the winter - they mature earlier, thereby helping to prevent loss from center rot.

I also suspect that the overhead misters I installed on the onion bed may have contributed to the bacterial disease. Water from the misters could be held in the leaf axils making the onion more susceptible to bacteria entering the plant. Needless to say, I have turned off the misters and will rely solely on drip emitters for the rest of the season. 

Tomato leaf spot

Septoria leaf spot infected tomato leaves

About 2 weeks ago, the lower leaves of the some of my cherry tomato plants began to show signs of Septoria leaf spot, an infection caused by the fungus Septoria lycopersici.

While I usually do not see this problem until later in summer, given all the rain we received this month, I am not surprised that it arrived this early in the season. 

Septoria leaf spot is characterize by the formation of numerous small circular lesions that are 1/16-1/8" in diameter. Spots first appear on lower leaves and have a dark brown border and a grayish-white center. 

Heavily infected leaves turn yellow and wither off the trunk of the plant. This can result in sun-scalding of fruit and ultimately a reduction in the amount of fruit produced. 

In an attempt to slow the spread of the fungus, I have had to defoliate all the lower leaves of all my cherry tomato plants. I removed infected leaves using pruning shears (cleaned with a 30% bleach solution before and after each cut). 

Sadly, it looks like I have tomato trees rather than bushy tomato plants. Luckily, none of the fruit show signs of infection. However, I have lost a few clusters of tomatoes due to my heavy pruning of the infected leaves (and not paying attention to where exactly my pruning shears were snipping...oops).

To minimize risk for disease, tomato plants should be:

• Spaced 2 feet apart
• Staked to improve circulation
• Watered early in the day using soaker hoses or drip irrigation to minimize splashing of water onto the leaves
• Grown in a new location in the garden every year

Although I followed all these recommendations, I was not able to prevent Septoria leaf spot from rearing its ugly head. Unfortunately, once this fungus appears, the only thing you can do is control its spread.

Every 7 days (or after rainfall), I will have to treat the infected plants with a copper-based fungicide or a fungicide that contains chlorothalonil. Fungicides will not cure infected leaves, but they will protect new leaves from becoming infected. I will also have to be diligent about removing infected leaves since the disease is spread by wind and water splashing up from the ground and infected leaves.