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.

Cabbage worms

As soon as I see little white butterflies with greyish-brown dots on its wings visit my garden, I know it is time to protect my vegetable garden from cabbage worms.

Cabbage Worm (length = approximately 1")

These butterflies lay hundreds of tiny yellow eggs on the underside of the leaves. The eggs hatch and release velvety green larvae (cabbage worms) that love the taste of broccoli, cabbage, collard greens, and other members of the brassica genus. The larvae feed on the foliage of these vegetables, creating numerous holes. About three weeks after hatching, the cabbage worm form a cocoon-like pupal case. A few days later, a new butterfly emerges and the cycle starts again...and again, throughout the summer. In the fall, these pests overwinter and emerge again in the spring.

Cabbage worms can be very destructive during their short lifespan. Leaves become riddled with small holes, altering the appearance of the plant, reducing yield, and eventually impacting the plant's ability to undergo photosynthesis.

Some gardeners cover their crops with a light floating row cover to prevent the butterflies from laying eggs. This sounds great, but I practice intensive gardening. It is too difficult to cover just the brassica crops. AND, the floating row cover should be applied at transplanting to be the most effective. 

Alternatively, cabbage worms can be hand-picked off the plants. Yeah, this sounds like a lot of fun. Not really! This is a labor-intensive endevour that I know I will not win, so I don't even attempt to fight this battle.

I prefer to use an "organic" control that relies on the bacterium, bacillus thuringiensis (also called "Bt"). Bt can be found at most garden centers under the brand names "Dipel" or "Thuricide".

Although harmless to humans, Bt is toxic to a number of destructive worms upon digestion, including: cabbage worms, tomato hornworms, and cutworms. However, it must be applied when the cabbage worms are actively feeding on the leaves. Once the cabbage worm ingests the Bt, it will stop feeding and die of starvation within 3-5 days.

Since Bt rapidly degrades in the sun, I sprinkle it sparingly over the leaves surface just after the sun goes down in the evening. A bonus: cabbage worms mainly feed at night so the Bt will be most effective at this time as well. Unfortunately, Bt must be reapplied after it rains.

It is possible to still get harvestable ("sellable") produce despite a cabbage worm infestation, provided that it is caught and treated early in the season.

Garlic scapes

Garlic Scapes

Tuesday I harvested the garlic scapes from one of the two varieties of hardneck garlic I planted last fall (Music).

Garlic scapes are the "flower" stalks of hardneck garlic plants. These twisting and twirling stems shoot up from the center of the garlic plant's leaves and signal that the garlic is 3-6 weeks away from being ready to harvest.  

While the scapes do not need to be cut off the plants, some people believe the plants energy will be diverted from forming plump bulbs if the flower was allowed to grow. However, last year I left the scapes on a couple of the garlic plants and did not notice any significant difference between the size or weight of the garlic. So, I do not think it hurts the size of the bulb to the keep the garlic scape on the plant...but why waste such a tasty treat. 

I first noticed the garlic scapes forming about 3 weeks ago. Since it is best to harvest young and tender garlic scapes, I have been keeping a watchful eye on the stalks as they twisted and turned. If I harvest the garlic scapes too early, the scape will continue to grow, making it difficult to remove the nub of new growth. Too late and the scape would be too fiborous to eat. And, you will want to eat them! Garlic scapes have the texture of fresh green beans and taste like mild garlic. They are excellent in salads, stir-fries, and pestos!

Freedom from the hose

Once a garden has been planted, there is nothing more important than water for its ability to survive. 

The best time to water is in the morning (6-9 am) or early evening (5-7 pm), before the sun sets. Since I rather sleep in the morning, I spend my evenings watering each vegetable bed by hand using a hand-held sprinkler.

Not only is overhead watering a waste of water and an invitation for disease, I spend more than 12 hours per week watering all my gardens. Last year I vowed that it was going to be my last year lugging around a garden hose to water the vegetable gardens.

The most economical method for watering vegetable gardens is to use a soaker hose. However, in the past, I found that the soaker hose needed to be on for several hours to provide sufficient water to the roots of each plant. At the time, I really didn't feel that the plants were being watered well enough to encourage a deep root system. 

After considering the alternatives, I decided to install a drip irrigation system. Not only is a drip irrigation system a great time saver, it supplies water directly to the roots of the plants. This minimizes the loss of water due to evaporation and runoff (which occurs with overhead watering) and helps to reduce water bills. An added benefit: direct watering should keep the area between plants dry, which helps limit weed growth. BONUS!

I used the Mister Landscaper Drip Irrigation System (plus additional tubing, emitters, stakes, etc.) for my garden. Setting up the drip irrigation system was easy, but it did require some planning ahead of time. Something I do not usually do when it comes to something like this. 

Ryan efficiently used all the parts to design a simple system while my setup was far more complicated (and messy). I believe my lack of engineering skills showed through in my set up. Nonetheless, after six trips to the big box store to get additional parts, Ryan and I have completed the installation of a drip irrigation system in my vegetable garden. And...IT WORKS! :)

I placed 1 gallon per hour (gph) emitters on all the pepper plants, 2 gph emitters on all the tomato plants, and 10 gph adjustable misters to the rest of the garden (onions, lettuce, beans, etc). I have no idea whether this is the best rate for each plant. I am currently trying to optimize the watering schedule so I do not over or under water each plant. 

Once the system fully operational, it doesn't mean I can just walk away and assume the garden is being properly watered. Periodically throughout the season, I will monitor the soil's moisture level to ensure sufficient water is delivered to the roots of the plants.

Only time will tell whether the investment of the drip irrigation system will pay off. But I am looking forward to the system being a significant time saver for me. I plan to use the my extra time harvesting, weeding, and maintaining my garden, rather than watering.

Alien-like veggie

White/green Kohlrabi

Kohlrabi is a cool weather vegetable and a member of the cabbage family. It is supposed to taste like a cross between turnips and cabbage. 

Although kohlrabi can be directly seeded, I grew mine indoors from seed in early March and then transplanted the seedlings in garden at the end of April.

I have to say, Kohlrabi is probably the oddest-looking vegetable that I have grown in my garden. It forms a swollen bulb-like base that sits just above the surface of the soil. The bulb is either white/green or purple (depending on the variety) and has several leafy stems that protrude randomly from it, giving kohlrabi an alien-like appearance.

It is best to harvest kohlrabi when it is about the size of a baseball (any larger and the bulbs will be woody and have an unpleasant taste). After weeks of watching the bulbs grow, today was the day to harvest one of the eight plants I grew.

I ventured out to the garden, knife in hand, eager to make my first kohlrabi harvest - ever. I sawed at the thick stem to no avail. In the end, I had to rock the plant back and forth to help break up the roots, then I pulled the entire plant straight out of the ground, roots and all. Now I know why kohlrabi is not a common vegetable to grow for the mass markets...it takes more effort to harvest than most vegetables!

I found a recipe for kohlrabi and apple salad on Epicurious.com that I am looking forward to trying this weekend. For now, I wrapped the entire plant in plastic wrap to help secure the leaves and to take up less room in the refrigerator. 

But now I am curious...what does purple kohlrabi taste like?