A New Planting

The oranges are in full blossom right now. I love this time of the year in the grove. The smell is like an intoxicating drug for me. I can't get enough of the aromas. We had three inches of rain, 80 F. temperatures, and then a light frost all in the span of a week. It is amazing how quickly our Florida weather changes. I have been itching to plant my transplants into the new plot. I have been trying to wait 30 days for the manure to settle before I planted just so I don't get any contamination on our food. But I couldn't wait any longer. I planted a French melon called a Charentais var. "Savor" from Johnny's Seeds. I have never heard of this but I was sold on the description and the pictures (nice job, ad guys). I planted a galia melon, "Arava". The galia is an Isreali melon. I had them before in graduate school. Another student and friend of mine was doing research on them for a new greenhouse crop. I helped him a time or two with his research and I got to eat fresh galia melons. They were very sweet and fragrant. I also planted cantalope var. "Earliqueen". I never had any luck with melons. They always seem to die right before the fruits become ripe. I hope I can break that streak this time. I hoed the ground before planting and then watered them in lightly.

We missed the transplants target date of this weekend. Due to a freeze, not getting our seeds until this week, and the slower rate at which organic plants grow. I worked for Speedling, Inc., a major transplant supplier to farmers and could grow most transplants in about 4 weeks. I need a bit longer than that for a marketable plant to sell organically. The seed company, Southern Exposure Seeds ran out of cherry tomato seeds that I ordered. They then forgot to call me and let my order languish because they had no response from me on what to do with the other seeds they had. I am glad I finally called them. It took two days to hear back from them and it took two phone calls and an email. I will plan better next year for these set backs.

We are still harvesting carrots, beets, lettuce, collards, mustards, and dandelion in our trial plot. We will continue to harvest Hamlin oranges and the Valencias will be ready shortly. Our peaches, nectarines, plums, limes, lemons, grapefruit, and other citrus are blooming now.

I hope to finish planting the rest of the new plot this week with cucurbits, squash, corn, beans, a little late lettuce.

Fertilizer blues

Dead tomato plants from a frost.

I have been having trouble with the fertility on the vegetables in the trial gardens. I haven't quite worked out how much to apply. Growing organically is so different from conventional growing in terms of fertility. I am having trouble adjusting to it. Conventionally you just apply some fertilizer over the top or in a band next to the plants and they respond. I have been apply organic fertilizers and it take a while for the plants to pick up the nutrients. It seems so much slower. I can tell that the plants are nutrient starved in the trial garden, but the amounts that I put on don't seem to do much. The amounts that I apply with an organic 6-2-4 would fry conventionally grown plants with the same amounts of synthetic fertilizer. I was getting concerned about my transplants not growing fast enough so I applied more fertilizer over the top. I happened to do this the day before the frost came. I have lost a bunch of my tomato plants. I thought that it was the fertilizer but I checked with my EC meter and the levels look fine. An EC meter is a great tool to check your fertility level. It stands for electrical conductivity meter. It measures the amount of soluble salts present in solution. There are different ways to measure it. I use a one part growing media to two parts water, stir it up, and let it sit for about 5 minutes, strain the water off, and put it in the meter and measure the results. Results of 0-0.5 are too low. 0.5-1.5 is acceptable, and 1.5 or greater is high in fertility. If it is too high it may burn your plants. Meters are fairly cheap and a great way to keep things in the right range. My transplants were 1.0 which is within a good range. So I guess the frost did more damage than I thought. It measured 39 F. but there was frost on the plants. I guess I need to get over the cringing feeling when I apply organic fertilizers. I always feel that I am going to burn the plants. I am learning that the soluble salt levels are lower in organic fertilizers and I can apply a larger amount without problems.

A load of poop!

A load of manure before and after spreading.

Today it was 35 degrees F. when I woke up. We closed down the houses but I left the transplants outside. I will see the damage later when I do my evening walk through. It had been upper 70F. earlier in the week.

This week we have been busy planting seeds in trays and getting our fertilizers in the ground for our spring/summer crop. We have planted lettuce, and dandelion. We got our first load of horse manure dumped in our garden area. It was an interesting experience both visually and aromatically to get our fertilizer in this way. I was trying not to get too squeamish when the smell was burning my eyes and nose and white maggots were moving through the pile after being disturbed from there meal. My Dad and I took loads to all the fruit trees and blueberry bushes. Then I spread it out over the area with the front end loader and tilled it with the other side of the tractor. It was a tight squeeze and will definitely need new ground for next year.

I thinned some of the peaches this week. I am doing an experiment on thinning on side of the tree to see how that works out compared to no thinning in terms of number and sizes of fruits.

We have been harvesting awesome looking carrots. They are still growing and getting larger by the day. Our radishes have been splitting so I don't think that I can sell them. Too much variation in temperatures and rainfall I believe is the cause. The seven potato plants are all dead. I think that it may have been ants. When I pulled them up there were tunnels in the stems and ants crawling through them. I at first thought that it was fungus but I have changed my mind. We are running out of lettuce that has been selling well to one customer and I am trying to catch a late harvest keep the revenue coming in.

I ate the first beets this week. They were very good. Jenn didn't like them. She said they tasted like dirt to her. I think they have a sweet and earthy taste. I like them except for the red dye they ooze out on everything including my teeth. I roasted them in a pan with some carrots in the oven and they came out really good. I also pan fried the leaves with olive oil and garlic and they were excellent. I have never cooked beets before but enjoyed them. I will grow them again for myself. They took terribly long for a sales item to plant. If you have any receipies please share them with us.

Next week I hope to get my seeds we have been waiting on for three weeks. I read their catalog again and they mention allow 3-4 weeks during the busy time which is now. Bad planning on my part, weak service on their part. Live and learn!