For The Birds

Another frost and then 80 degree days to follow. It is so difficult for the plants to know how to grow. The cilantro and lettuce starts bolting and doesn't grow like it should. The rest of this week will be warm. I have many lettuce, cole crops, and other cool season plants to plant. I wish it would stay a little cooler until they got going. I guess I missed the timing on those. We will see. I didn't get a chance to plant the solanaceous crops (tomato, pepper, eggplants). I hope to plant them this week.

We found a local guy with great composted horse manure. He breeds Arabians, shows horses, and trains and boards other horses. His business is down considerably this year and can't even move his horse manure. He said last year it never piled up. This year he is having trouble getting rid of the stuff. I hope to get a few more loads which will benefit both of us. We got one load with the flat trailer. It was a bear to unload the stuff. I used the Massey front loader tractor to get what I could. Then my dad and I pulled the tarp that was underneath to get the rest off. That was a really hard job.

Anna and I made a bird house from some left over wood we had. I was trying to build a nicer house than my tractor and tool cabinet where they usually nest. They may take one look at it and decide to go elsewhere to nest anyway. At least Anna and I had fun putting it together. I mounted it next to the pump. I like to have the Carolina wrens around. They chase some of the bugs and sound nice. I had to put tape on it because the wood split when I was nailing it. It was wood from an old sign that I salvaged.

Chilling out!

We got a blast of cold air last week for two nights. I spent the night at the farm for two nights sleeping in our Toyota Corolla. I ran the water to ice in some of our trees that are on order. I wanted to make sure that nothing happened with the water as it ran. I found out a few things that night:

1. By turning on the mist in the greenhouse I can elevate the temperature about 10 degrees from the ambient outside temps.

2. Cold temperatures will wake me up if it gets cold enough.

3. Even as I age, I still think that ice is really neat (mind you, this is a Floridian's perspective).

We wound up getting some damage to our tropical plants but that was expected. Our veggies were surprisingly fine except for some snow peas. Our citrus blew all there leaves and I think I may have lost a lemon tree. I lost the carambola that was finally making a good comeback from last years freeze. It was just starting to look good. Our new transplants are looking well. Our potatoes are just starting to crack the ground. I hope to plant out some of the tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants this week.

Here are some pictures from the last two weeks.

Frozen veggies

Iced Mint

Cold Slaw

I can't believe that all the plants had no damage. We had temperatures in the twenties.

I also have good news. I am the new extension agent for commercial horticulture in Hillsborough and Polk counties! I start sometime in March. I am back on the campus of UF. This time as a faculty member. Go Gator Nation!

Changes afoot

A lot has happened since our last post. We had a freeze that went down into the upper 20's and killed a bunch of our tropical fruit that was doing so well. The vegetables made it through alright. Many of our tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers in the greenhouse burnt up from the freeze. Our loquats that were ripening all froze off. The lime tree has dropped all the flowers that were just appearing as well as the leaves. I have planted another round of cool season plants to try and extend the season. We will see what happens.

Our seed orders have arrived and I have begun planting for this season. I also planted beets and more carrots in the plots.

I might have a new job with the Hillsborough county extension service. It is an environmental production horticulture agent. So I would be a University of Florida off-campus faculty. Go Gator Nation!

I have a new page on local harvest website. http://www.localharvest.org/farms/M26660 You can check us out there if you are local.

I also went to a Southwest Florida small farm network conference in Arcadia. that was interesting. I am now beginning to think more holistically about my farm and not so much as different segments (a plant nursery, citrus, and organic veggies) but just as a small farm. I am glad I went. I will explain more about this in upcoming posts.

I will add more from Dr. Treadwell from her favorite books to read.

Caldwell, Brian; Emily Rosen, Eric Sideman, Anthony Sheldon and Christine Smart. Resource guide for organic insect and disease management. 2005. 169 pages. Available for free at: http://www.nyaes.cornell.edu/pp/resourceguide/index.php

Coleman, Elliot. 1995. The new organic grower: A master’s manual of tools and techniques for the home and market gardener. 340 pages. Chelsea Green Publishing Co. $24.95 www.chelseagreen.com

Ellis, B. and Fern Bradley (Eds.). 1996. The organic gardener’s handbook of natural insect and disease control: A problem solving guide to keeping your garden and yard healthy without chemicals. 534 pages. Rodale Press. Emmaus, PA.

Grubringer, Vernon. 1999. Sustainable vegetable production from start-up to market. 280 pages. Natural Resource, Agriculture and Engineering Service. Cornell Cooperative Extension. 152 Riley-Robb Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853-5701; phone 607-255-7654; fax 607-254-8770. www.nraes.org

Gershuny, Grace and Joe Smillie. 1995. The soul of soil: A guide to ecological soil management. 4th ed. 158 pages. AgAccess, Davis, CA. Available for about $10.00 at http://www.agribooks.com

Jeavons, John. 1974. How to grow more vegetables and fruits, nuts, berries, grains and other crops than you ever thought possible on less land than you can imagine. 268 pages. Ten Speed Press. Berkeley CA. www.tenspeed.com

Peet, Mary. 1996. Sustainable practices for vegetable production in the south. 174 pages. Focus Publishing, R. Pullins Co. Newburyport, MA. Available online at: http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/sustainable/peet/index.html

SARE’s practical guides to sustainable farming. Six books in the series, all available online for free, or mail order for less than $25.00 each at: http://www.sare.org/publications/handbooks.htm

The New Farmer’s Market: Farm Fresh Ideas for Producers, Managers and Communities. 2001. 272 pages.

Building a sustainable business: A guide to developing a business plans for farms and rural business. 2003. 280 pages.

Building soils for better crops, 2nd Ed. 2000. 240 pages.

Managing cover crops profitably, 2nd Edition. 2001. 212 pages.

Manage insects on your farm: A guide to ecological strategies. 2005. 128 pages.

Steel in the field: A farmer’s guide to weed management tools. 2001. 128 pages.

Stephens, James. 2003. Manual of minor vegetables. Florida Cooperative Extension Service. UF-IFAS. 123 pages. $7.00. Available from the IFAS Extension bookstore: http://ifasbooks.ufl.edu/merchant2/merchant.mv

University of California, Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Specialty crops and minor crops handbook. 1998. 2nd ed. 184 pages. $35.00. Available at: http://www.sfc.ucdavis.edu/docs/speccrop.html