Sunday, October 30, 2011. I finally broke down and sprayed the plants for the tiny cabbage loopers that are munching holes in the cabbages and Brussels Sprouts 
(BS).
I used a 24 oz. spray bottle of Bayer Complete Insect Spray, and when I ran out of that, I mixed up some "Garden Dust" into a liquid form and sprayed that on the remaining plants. I'm not an "organic" gardener, but these products are what I had on hand.
The liquified Garden Dust left a white residue on the plants after it dried (probably back to the original powder form). However, there's an updated formula tinted green to blend in with the foliage when you poof! it on in powder form. The Bayer Complete spray dried clear.
This morning, I noticed a small army of turtledoves? pecking in the grass perimeter of the bucket garden. A very GOOD thing to have allies on the bug hunt!
Will check for worm activity today, with further report. I believe the spraying schedule will be every 10-14 days from now on, or immediately after any rain. Not fond of photographing veggies with holes in them...
On another preventive maintenance note, I'm learning the hard way that certain things just HAVE to be done when they're supposed to be done, or you'll have problems down the line.
The winds last week were gusting through at 25-35 mph, and my tallish Broccoli plants on the back row were leaning over the buckets from the wind -- because I didn't stake them at plant out. Which I most certainly shouldn've done! So, there I was trying to gently force 5-foot reinforced plant stakes down through the soil and avoid tearing through roots. Which I KNOW I did not succeed at. I'm praying I didn't hit too many important roots...
Take a word from the now-Wise. It does NOT matter how cute and tiny those little seedlings look at plantout. Put the plant stake in as soon as the seedling is in. You'll thank me one day...
Godspeed, and Good Harvest!
I'm going to use these entries to post observations I have made throughout this growing season:
PINE BARK FINES/RECIPE: I'm truly liking Tapla's (Al Fassezke) pine bark fines (PBFs) mix, a lot! Although I do have to water the free-draining buckets an average of every other day, the growth and overall health of my plants makes this extra effort well worth it. I have experienced truly fast take-off of the seedlings planted in the mix. To date, I've been using a 5:1:1 recipe of 5 parts new pine bark fines:1 part old peat (MG potting mix from last season):1 part perlite (where necessary). I haven't had to use much perlite at all.
In the beginning, I sifted out the large chunks of pine bark through 1/2" hardware cloth, but, after awhile I stopped sifting and either just pulled out the obvious large pieces or broke them up since they sliver and snap so easily into smaller, nickel-size slivers, which, ideally, is what I want for this mix. Those that didn't snap easily got tossed aside for later use in the raised bed recipe.
In a pinch, I did a quick sifting through some 1/4" hardware cloth to replant those drowned Snowball Cauliflower seedlings from the community tray. I was working on the fly, here. I'd never planted any seedlings in straight PBFs before (without any potting mix added), and the lack of a true "soil" structure seemed a bit weird, but, Al said it would work, and, "nothing beats a wish but a try!" I got a fair amount of the "fines" or the "dust" sifted through and quite a bit of small to about nickel-size slivers of pine bark, dumped it into 16 oz. Red plastic cups, and watered it in. It's best to work with it damp, so the dust isn't flying around and the slivers aren't floating on the top and washing out. Then, I used a dowel to shove a hole down the center. It was truly strange planting in a cup of "chips". But, as you can see from the picture in the previous entry, those seedlings took off! Today, they're healthier than the seedlings I planted in the regular seed starting mixes, hands down! In the future, I will sow seeds in the starter mix, but then pot up to sifted pine bark fines that have more of the "fines" and not so much of the "chips". Or, at best, up to about dime-size slivers.
Al has attributed the success of his PBFs mixes to excellent drainage and great aeration of the planting medium. I totally agree with his findings, and owe him a debt of thanks for the time he has taken tutoring me in his method. He's also saved me a TON of $$$$ by making me a PBF convert!
PBFs CHARACTERISTICS: The pic on the right is what "the right stuff" looks like on the pile at my supplier.
The pine bark fines should appear to be nice and dry (even if it's moist!), and not contain a lot of sticks, or shreddy, twiggy, trashy pieces. You should see a good ratio of nickel-size slivers to fine dust particles, such that if you do sift, you won't end up with a large pile of huge chunks and just a small pile of small slivers and dust. You want more of those small slivers and all that dust! Even if you have some larger-than-silver dollar-size chunks, those chunks should be easily "flaked" into slivers by just snapping/crumbling them in your hand, or hitting them with the edge of your shovel. You don't want chunky "nuggets" that don't flake! You want the flaky pine bark.
So, here's what to remember when you're looking for pine bark fines: "if you can't flake it -- don't take it!"
Godspeed, and Good Harvest!
I've been feeding these hungry hippos with 2 small caps of MG Plant Food for Veggies (the blue stuff) + 2 small caps of Epsom Salts per 1 gallon of water, and dividing the gallon between 3 plants once a week, on Saturday mornings. I’ve decided to up the pace and divide a gallon between FOUR buckets on Wednesdays (mid-week), just to tide them over. After I pour it on each plant, I water the buckets all in with the garden hose, just until I get run-off out of the bottoms. Compare these to the same shot in the previous blog entry. This growth is one week apart!
We're supposed to dip into the mid-40s for the next 3 days, and they’re getting ready for the cold snap. I can hardly wait for it, too!
I think the cabbages are about to starting heading, and the broccolis may declare heads in about another 1-2 weeks. I gotta throw out some (more) mustard and collard seeds, and sow some lettuce and spinach seeds in the Rubbermaid tubs. Aaarrrggghhh!!!
Remember those poor, drowned Snowball cauliflowers in the pan? Well, I've managed to save 26 out of the 30 I rescued from the pan (compare to pics in the previous blog entry).
Here's what they look like today. I gave out 8 already, have 8 ready for my plant out (below), and 4 are still in the original tray outside (left).
They just refuse to die!
These 7 are back under the lights.
Godspeed, and Good Harvest!
Here's another fall-winter veggie garden update.
This is one-half of my free-draining bucket garden. These are mostly broccolis and Brussels sprouts, growing in tall, 6.5 gallon pool chemical buckets (right). I drilled five(5) 1" drainage holes in the bottoms with a hole drill, and used a 5/8" drill bit to put additional holes around the sides, close to the bottoms. Since Tapla's (Al Fassezke) 5:1:1 mix drains so fast, I do have to water more frequently than if these were eBuckets with built-in reservoirs. But, I like the opportunity to get up close and personal with the vegetation, checking here and there for growth and buggies, and hand-watering (hosing) lets me do this.
The next wave of plantings will be more cabbages, that will go in much shallower, 3.5 gallon, square kitty litter pails. Since I examine all my root systems at the end of the season (curiosity and inquisitive minds that want to know!), I've determined the cabbages do not require the soil depth that the top-heavy broccolis and cauliflowers do. As long as the soil is tight enough for them to not topple over in the wind, the cabbages are happy in as little as 11"-18" potting mix.
I managed to save 30 plants from that tray. Time will tell...
Godspeed, and Good Harvest!
I guess I should stop referring to the plants as "seedlings". To date, they've been out in the real world approximately 2-1/2-3 weeks? They're all doing great!
Saturday, I was conducting a close check of each plant, and came upon this totally WICKED, DEMONIC, Cutworm! I hate those things!!! I ran scrambling for my pruners to snip him in half, and then I did an even closer check on each plant. I didn't uncover any more cutworms, but took the opportunity to shore up the stems of each plant so the cutty couldn't wrap himself around and snap any stems in half.
It occurred to me there were a number of small stick pieces of pine bark in the buckets so I started using those. Unfortunately, they were too brittle and easily snapped. Then, I spied the fallen tree branches and began collecting some perfectly smooth twigs from the grass. I could easily snap them into the lengths I needed, and carefully poked them down into the soil close to each plant stem on either side. So far, I've not seen any damage or felled seedlings (some are still young enough...).
Most of the teenagers (with plant stems sturdy enough that a cutworm couldn't snap it...) are growing by leaps and bounds, and it's almost time for another feeding. I've taken my own advice (Tapla's), and have been feeding "weakly", weekly. At most, 2 small capfuls of MG Water Soluble Plant Food for Veggies and 2 capfuls of Epson Salts, in a gallon of water. Then, I divide that gallon between 3 buckets, pouring in from the top. After I've fed all the buckets, I water in with the garden hose, just until I see the first signs of any run-off out the bottom. Have I mentioned these plants will eat you out of house and home, if you let them?
Last night was our first cold snap, down to 58 degrees, with winds gusting 20-35 mph. I didn't get the hoop up before nightfall, so I'll put it up today, just to provide a windbreak. I'm never worried about the temps, 'cause, ideally, my plants are still too warm during the daytime. They need the daytime temps to be consistently in the low-50s to the mid-40s, optimally (from my past observations), with sunshine. Tonight's temps are supposed to drop down into the mid-40s.
Another observation I've made is that my cole crop broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, cabbages, and cauliflowers simply do NOT do well with full, hot sun beating down on them all day long. Bright, dappled shade, or some mild, shadowy location seems to work best. With that, I'm having to rethink my garden landscape plan, because I have the buckets sitting on the old shed footprint, that's targeted as a tomato bed in the future. But, it's on the southwestern end of the yard, and gets early, bright sun until around 10 a.m., then the hot, hot, hot, burning sun moves to the halfway point in my yard and perches there until around 5 p.m. or so. I'll need to move the tomato operation to the other side of the yard, to take advantage of that hot, bright sunshine!
Since I'm only growing about 10-15 tomato plants for myself, I might grow them in the free-draining buckets next season, so I can move them around to the most optimum locations, based on the sun patterns. Then I'll decide on the spot for a permanent raised bed... ...maybe.
"TO DO" Notes:
►I still need to pot up some LATE, LATE, Brussels Sprout transplants. Again, the seedling starter mix I'm using is the pits! That stuff gets hard as concrete. Won't be using it again...
►The Snowball Cauliflowers I scalped are growing again, and putting out new leaves. Out of the tray, I managed to save 20 seedlings. There are still about 4 more viable ones I can plant out.
►Need to plant the scalped Soloist cabbages into the EBs (DONE).
►Onion sets are on the way. Need to prep the EBs.
►Strawberry bare-root plants are on the way. Need to construct strawberry eBuckets from the 6.5 gallon pool chem buckets.
Whew!! Burning daylight!
