I made some changes in the one I posted earlier and embedded it from Scribd as a pdf document. Please let me know if you have trouble downloading it by posting here on the blog. This has been put together for elevations of about 500 ft (160m) to 3000 ft (1000m) elevations at 36 degrees N. Latitude in a desert environment. Vegetable and Herb Planting Calendar
Vegetable and Herb Planting Calendar Re-Posted as PDF Read More »
Vegetable and Herb Planting Calendar click here for pdf
Vegetable and Herb Planting Calendar for 36 N Latitude 2000 ft Elevation (Las Vegas) Read More »
Q. I have cats that use my raised beds instead of their litter box. I planned on using chicken wire to help keep them out in the spring. Is my soil is ruined because of their urine and excrement? Does the ammonia from the urine alter the pH? A. No, it’s not ruined. Just rake out the feces and it will be fine. The urine is much less of a problem than the feces. If you organic garden at all it is similar to other animal manures. The only problem would be for pregnant women. A summary of this problem can be found on the CDD website. http://www.cdc.gov/healthypets/pregnant.htm . It is highly advisable pregnant women should not garden in this soil, handle freshly harvested vegetables or fruit coming from this spot without someone else thoroughly cleaning the produce before handling. I would give the garden spot a thorough soaking before planting to flush excess salts. As with anything else, you should always wash your hands after gardening or handling fresh produce from soils containing any kind of compost. That goes for everyone. The pH of our soil is very difficult to change for any length of time due to its high calcium carbonate (lime) levels. It just goes back up to wherever it was, usually around 8.2 or higher in unamended soil and about 7.6-7.8 for desert composted soils.
Garden Soil Not Ruined with Cat Problems Read More »
Q. I have planter boxes which get hours and hours of direct sun. I’ve tried everything from corn, to edamame, grapes, peppers, tomatillo, and many others. I have even put up shading but either there is too much sun or maybe I over water. I’d like to start now and get a jump on summer. A. The usual problems are finding a good spot in the landscape for the garden, getting the organic matter up to decent levels, planting at the right time and watering correctly. All of the vegetables you mention as well as grapes have no trouble handling our sun and temperatures. Shade cloth, around 30 to 40% and no more, can improve the quality of many crops but not all crops. Okra for instance does not tolerate any shade at all. It has beautiful leaves but no edible production. Corn is the same way. This is a ten foot wide hoophouse with 30% shade cloth. 30% does not seem like much in the very bright summer sun but it is enough to give some relief to vegetables resulting in better quality. Put the garden where you can regularly see it from inside the house. Out of sight, out of mind. The garden needs 6 hours of sunlight at a minimum. Eight is better. The worst spot for a summer garden is on the west side in full sun. The best location is full sun in the morning through mid-afternoon.
Garden Placement is Very Important in the Desert Read More »
Q. I am starting a new garden spot. How much compost should I add to the soil? A. If this is a new spot of raw desert soil or fill, the first year incorporate about 12 cubic yards of compost into 1000 square feet of growing area to a depth of 12 inches. The second year of growing incorporate half of that; the third year, half of what you applied the second year. If desert soil has never had compost added to it or it was never in any kind of agricultural production then the first application will be very heavy. The second year not as much is needed and the third year the amount added is even less. Each year afterwards add 2 yards per 1000 square feet to maintain soil organic matter and production levels. Why so much? You can visit my blog and learn why. I would recommend growing in beds clearly identified for your garden. The areas between the beds are designated for foot traffic. When compost is added at the rate of 12 cubic yards for every 1000 square feet it doesn’t seem like much when it is incorporated to a depth of 12 inches. Raised beds do not require hard construction sidewalls. Constructing hard sidewalls gives you about six inches of extra growing space around the edge of the beds. Constructed beds should be 12 to 18 inches tall and three to four feet wide. Foot access should be provided on all sides of the bed. Raised beds will stay in place without hard sidewalls if constructed properly. You can see beds like these on the UNCE Orchard in North Las Vegas. The second year about half of the compost is added to the raised beds that was added the first year to build soil organic matter. Raised beds do not need constructed hard sidewalls. Mulch is put down the center aisle for walking. Drip irrigation is best. Drip emitters should be about 12 inches apart for most crops. Crops that require closer spacing (onions, garlic, beets, and carrots) may require emitters closer than this. All emitters should release water at the same rate and pressure. Space tubing one foot apart lengthwise down the beds. A 3 – 4 foot wide bed would have three in each bed. The four foot wide would accommodate three as well but spaced further apart. Mulching vegetables during the summer heat helps. Use straw or a light topdressing (3/8 inch minus) of screened compost. After amending the soil and building the raised beds, the drip irrigation is installed. This is drip tubing with emitters spaced every 12 inches along the tubing. If rabbits are a problem, fence the area with 2 ft. wide chicken wire, one inch hex, buried on the bottom edge one inch deep. Fertilize vegetables lightly once a month. Use a high phosphorus fertilizer at planting time. Irrigate daily during the summer months. Remove weeds daily when they are small.
How Much Compost to Add to Garden Depends on Soil Read More »
Q. I planted a peach tree that has 3 varieties of peach grafted into the same tree. I can’t remember the names of the peaches. In either case, my tree bore no fruit last spring. What can I do to get fruit this season? A. It is fortunate you have only different peaches on your fruit cocktail tree. When there is a mixture of different types of fruits on the same tree the tree is harder to manage. You didn’t mention the age of the trees but sounds like a pruning problem if it had peaches in previous years. It is possible it could have been a late freeze as well. It depends if you saw flowers or not. Flowers and no fruit…probably a freeze problem. No flowers at all. Probably a pruning problem. Pruning a peach requires removing half of last year’s growth. It is getting late now but you can still prune during, and a couple of weeks after, bloom. One big problem with “cocktail” types of fruit trees is the different rates of growth between the different fruits. Some are more vigorous than others. This can give the tree an unbalanced look before pruning. All of the growth, more vigorous types and less vigorous types, must be brought back into proportion each year.This will require more aggressive pruning on the more vigorously growing sides of the tree. If you don’t do this, the more aggressive varieties will dominate and probably eliminate the less vigorous ones. Another problem is that parts of the tree will be in flower at different times. During bloom move slowly and carefully making sure you do not accidentally hurt any bees. They are busy “working” the flowers the same time you are pruning. If you are not careful, they will view your work as “aggressive” behavior and defensively sting. Bee in peach blossom Fruit comes from flower buds growing along the length of last year’s growth. In peach and nectarine, fruit buds are only produced on last year’s reddish growth. Older brownish wood does not produce fruit. Older wood is there to support the fruit and, with your help through pruning, balance the fruit load throughout the canopy. Here you can see the older brown wood (two year old wood and no flowers) and the newer (last years) reddish brown growth with flowers. Your purpose in pruning is to give the tree structure that will support the fruit, distribute the fruit load and allow light to get inside the canopy. Last year’s growth is easy to see because it is reddish brown compared to the older, brown wood. The more vigorous growth requires more aggressive pruning. First bring the tree into “balance” by removing older wood that is growing too close together and remove any strong vertical growth. Preserve 50% of the best reddish growth when pruning for fruit production. If your pruning removes all of the new, reddish growth, you will have no fruit. Strong vertical growth is normally removed unless there was nothing else in that area to bear fruit. When pruning, remove reddish growth that is growing perfectly upright. Fruit from this growth will dangle above older wood and get damaged as it gets bigger. It will also help to keep the canopy open for better light penetration. Next, remove reddish growth that is growing straight down. Finally remove reddish growth along the branch that is closer than 4 to 5 inches apart. Leave the most robust reddish growth spaced far enough apart for bearing the fruit. Lastly, if you have reddish growth that is exceedingly long (over 18 inches in length), cut it back to about 10 inches.
Improving Peach Production on Peach Cocktail Tree Read More »
Q. A few months ago you had an article about grapes not growing to normal size. You stated the soil in Southern Nevada lacked a certain hormone that the grapes required. My Thompson vines grow like weeds but the fruit is the size of peas. A. The hormone is not in the soil but manufactured by the plant. Purchasing and applying this hormone is one of three methods that can be used to encourage larger berries. The application of this hormone to grapes is permitted for organic production in most cases. However, there are two other methods that will enlarge berry size without the application of this hormone. These other two methods follow the same principle used for producing larger fruit in tree crops: remove fruit from the plant so the remaining fruit becomes larger. This totally organic practice is called “thinning”. Pinching the bottom third off of the bunch When berry clusters or bunches first emerge in March or early April, thin or remove bunches so only large ones remain spaced no closer than a foot apart. Remove small bunches totally. Second, when grape individual berries are about the size of a BB, pinch off the bottom third of the bunch. Bunches of grapes are normally triangular in outline. Pinching the bottom third of the bunch produces a harvestable bunch that is round in outline with much larger berries. After those practices have been followed, you can use a plant hormone called gibberellin to increase the berry size artificially. This is not a natural process but you are basically giving the berries a “kick in the pants” to get them to elongate more than they would normally. Warning. Don’t expect gibberellin alone to do the work for you. You must also thin out your grape bunches. Improving Size and Quality of Seedless Grapes
Methods to Use to Increase the Size of Grape Berries Read More »
This has not been unusual weather. It’s the norm. But watch out! About eight or nine years out of ten we get a warming trend in mid-January followed by returning cold weather. Sometimes it is devastating. February can be dangerous for plants. December 1990 was one of the coldest months on record but February 1989 was much more damaging to plants. In December plants are in their deepest sleep, well-prepared for winter lows. But on February 5, 1989, unrecorded temperatures as low as 2F in the Northwest part of the valley came on the heals of 70+F temperatures in mid-January. The temperatures that week in February were low enough to kill bermudagrass, roots and all, at the Painted Desert Golf Course in the Northwest part of the valley. Be diligent around your garden. Protect tender plants. We can be 95% assured that freezing temperatures will not occur after mid-March.
Hope Freezing Temperatures are Over. Plan That They are Not. Read More »
Q. Your may think I am crazy but a neighbor has beautiful roses. When asked what he uses for ferilizer, he said he uses urine mixed with an equal amount of water. Is human urine fertilizer? A. Yes it is but untreated urine is not permitted by law both legally (public urination is a misdemeanor) and environmentally (state dept of environmental protection, NDEP, usually controls the use of waste products in agriculture). Contains urea which converts to ammonia, then nitrite and finally nitrate by soil microorganisms where it can finally be used by plants. Urine also contains numerous minerals in smaller amounts the content depends on what you eat. There are also health issues surrounding the use of animal waste that has not been properly composted, but urine is relatively safe compared to unrefined, solid waste. That being said, read on about what others have said….. Human urine as a fertilizer in Scientific American Review of human urine as a fertilizer
Human Urine as a Fertilizer Read More »
Q. A lot of people are raving about worm castings. What is your opinion? A. Producing worm castings is a form of composting. Some people add worms to finished compost so the worms do not have to survive the very high temperatures produced during composting. Another method is to add worms directly to a fresh compost letting worms mix and digest scraps in the compost heap directly. Either way the resulting product is a very high grade of compost uniform in size and consistency. The finished worm compost or vermicompost has a low percentage of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium among other nutrients as well. The finished product is humus, just like it is in compost. Humus has many other benefits such as a lowering of the pH, increase in organic acids that act as natural chelating agents and an increase in biological activity. So, in a nutshell, what is there not to like? However, producing vermicompost without composting first may produce a product that has more health concerns and weeds than traditional compost. Composting releases nutrients and many other It was first recommended that after traditional composting this compost was taken through a second stage of composting by worms, vermicomposting. Vermicomposting is now done directly with waste products, many times skipping the traditional composting step. Traditional composting done correctly produces temperatures high enough to kill most microorganisms associated with health concerns like E. coli. If temperatures were high enough, it also killed most weed seeds. However, research has shown that both pathogens and weed seeds can be destroyed in vermicomposting. Vermicomposting is usually done in containers and can be done indoors and outdoors, allowing year round composting. It takes compost to a different level. There are some good and some not as good. After it passes through the gut of a worm, it is more finely digested and makes nutrients more quickly available to plants making it act more closely to a faster releasing fertilizer. The down side of it, it is not as good at re-building desert soil structure and stimulating microorganisms as compost can be. Below is for your information with my comments inserted in ( ) and important points highlighted. Effects of composting with earthworm on the chemical and biological properties of agricultural organic wastes: a principal component analysis. Liu T, Ren ZL, Zhang C, Chen XF, Zhou B, Dai J. Abstract Taking mixed agricultural organic wastes cattle manure and rice straw (C:N = 28.7:1) as the substrate of earthworm Eisenia foetida, an experiment was conducted to study the effects of earthworm on the changes of the chemical and biological properties of wastes during vermi-composting. After 30 days of vermi-composting, the substrate’ s pH and C/N decreased (this is good) while the total P content increased significantly, and the total N, available N, dissolved organic carbon, available P content, microbial biomass-C, respiration rate, and microbial quotient increased by 8.5% , 2.6%, 1.8%, 6.3%, 21.2%, 4.4%, and 30.0% (this is also good) whereas the organic matter content (not as good if you are re-building a desert soil) and metabolic quotient (activity of microorganisms) decreased by 5.0% and 21.9%, respectively, as compared with natural composting. Vermi-composting made the substrate have higher invertase, acid phosphatase, and alkaline phosphatase activities but lower catalase and urease activities. Principal component analysis and discriminant analysis confirmed the significant differences in the substrate’ s chemical and biological properties between vermi-composting and natural composting. This study indicated that vermi-composting was superior to natural composting, which could obviously improve the chemical and biological properties of composted organic materials, being a high efficient technology for the management of agricultural organic wastes.
Vermicompost Opinion Piece Read More »