WEEK XV - Aug 11 to 13

WEEK XV

Aug 11

Working at the Terraces

The leaves of our sunflowers display an array of brow spots accompanied by yellowing of the areas around the spots. A little bit of research point to a couple of fungi. Septoria leafspot as well as Alternaria leafspot are two foliar diseases that are common in sunflowers. The fungus, Septoria helianthi, affects plants of any age but symptoms usually begin on the lower leaves after flowering.

Management: Crop rotation, incorporation of sunflower residue and clean seed are the best means of managing Septoria leaf spots. Although resistance to Septoria has been identified in breeding material, the infrequent occurrence of Septoria has not warranted the development of resistant hybrids (Sunflower Production, North Dakota State University 2007)

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The runner beans have recovered from the could of days without irrigation. We were able to harvest some more beans out of them. We also harvest lettuce that grew in the shade of the sunflowers.

We pinched the lambs quarter to prevent them from going to seed.

We also sprayed the cucurbits with a mix of baking soda, soap and water.

Aug 13

At the Orchard

Our last day at the Orchard, we are harvesting the Yukon Gold potatoes. It seem, according to Dr. Bomford, that the wilting symptoms this variety was experiencing was not a fungal infection but, who would thought, early senescence. Dr. Bomford did some research and found it is possible for potato plants to senesce without going into the blooming phenolic stage. He noted that the wilt was occurring mainly on the leaves, while the stems remained  healthy and strong, which would not happen if tho had been a fungus.

We re-applied the mix of baking soda, soap and water to the squash to keep powdery mildew under control.

The blackberry bushes are very effectively coming back, they will need to be mowed with the tractor.

As we come to the end of the course, we will always cherish the learnings and the great moment we spent together. I am sure that we will cross paths in the future many times as we collectively build a more sustainable food system.

Class of 2012, the very first Sustainable Ag Batch!

WEEK XIV: Aug 4 - 6

WEEK XIV

Aug 3

At the Terraces...

Corn suffering from nutrient deficiency in some areas, corn takes a harder hit because sunflowers have deeper roots even though corn was planted earlier. Timing of nutrient uptake and availability is really critical, since we added an organic fertilizer, nitrogen is not ready available as compared to a synthetic fertilizer. Nitrogen was not available when corn was at its critical stage and as a result growth was stunted. Corn was also outcompeted by the sunflower which is better equipped to absolve any nutrients that became available in the decomposition process of the organic fertilizer.

From a nutritional perspective, the difference between easily soluble synthetic fertilizers and organic soil amendments is the rate at which nutrients become available for the plants. For easily soluble synthetic fertilizers the release is usually a few days to weeks, while for organic soil amendments, nutrients become available over a period of months or years. 

Based on these facts, a shift from one to the other must be properly timed. There must be a gradual transition to allow, once organic fertilizer is introduced, for the release of nutrients and the build up of microbial populations in the soil, as soils fertilized with synthetic fertilizers tend to have lower soil microbial populations than organically treated ones. The soils must be weaned from synthetic fertilizers slowly.

Sunflowers 

Beans really took a hard hit when the irrigation system went down over the weekend...

Irrigation lines working well in the new rows of lettuce and swiss chard. Water availability will dictate the germination success of these crops.

Here, some of the irrigations lines were not turned on and germination success of lettuce and endive was very low.

Fields of carrots still looking very sad...

However, the second seeding of carrots, started in June, is growing well.

Kale...definitely not a heat loving plant. Leaves are hard and leathery.

 Beans and peas planted in June are growing well.

Beets still looking sad.

Cucumbers next to the tunnel show two different leaf colours. The yellow one corresponds to an earlier date, previous to fertilizing, the new leaves, greener than the old growth, are capturing all the nitrogen that was slowly released into the soil and look healthier. Nitrogen release in organic fertilizers is slower than in synthetic once. 

Tomatoes and basil plants stressed by lack of irrigation. Leaves curl up to cope with the rapid loss of water though stomata due to transpiration.

We harvested these beautiful plants of lettuce and swiss chard today. We only collected weight measurements.

Lambs quarters in the East terraces

Beautiful sunflower on the west terrace!

Aug 3

At the Orchard

Unfortunately, most apples are affected by coddling moth. frass in the outside of the fruits is an indication. Wholesaler will not buy those apples. A difficult pest to control in organic settings. Dormant oil was applied some time, but didn't work. For fruit growers, this is a stressful time of the year because you reach a point where you cannot do anything about it. These problems need to be fought long before fruit sets in the trees. Early spring and early summer pest management is everything. This applies also to rusts, and scab. It is also stressful in terms of what the weather is going to be like, because as this apples are getting into their final ripening stages they need nice, hot sunny weather to get the right colour. 

Necrotic spots in Yukon gold potato plants. 

Yukon Gold are significantly different in colour. We suspect late blight spreading from the edge in. 

Carrot fields along the rows of squash. We trimmed the leaves of the squash that were stating to grow over the carrot rows. We also weeded between the rows.

Powdery mildew seems to be under control.

Corn plants look greener than the corn in the terraces and seems to be growing an inch or two per week, or more!

Fruit trees at the orchard

Unfortunately, fruit trees are affected by some major pests, such as scab 

Scab is superficial, you can rub it off, it is static (see the imperfect produce article at the end). Fruits affected by scab is used for making cider. Scab can be controlled with sulphur applications. If left unattended, eventually will affect the fruit at the time of cell division and it will affect the number of cells the fruit is going to end up with.

Anthracnose (a fungus) in trunks and stems of cherries. 

Plum trees full of aphids.

WEEK XIII: July 28 -30

WEEK XIII

July 28


At the Terraces

Among some of the tasks we completed today at the terraces, we were able to re-apply a mixture of 40% milk spray to combat powdery mildew in cucurbits. This and the removal of old and infected leaves seems to be working. Removal of some of the leaves will not affect the photosynthetic rate since plants were bushy to begin with.

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We planted some leafy greens...

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According to Dr. Bomford, in July along we have harvested 100kg of produce, which account for double of what we harvested in June. Solanaceous crop yield remains low because potatoes have been counted as a root crop rather than a Solanaceous. Solanaceous crop yield will however increase once tomatoes are all harvested. Overall, we estimate this numbers are going to fade naturally as the season comes to an end. 

The harvesting pattern has moved from the west side of the terrace, where the late Spring to early Summer crops were planted, to the east side, where the summer crops such as tomatoes, peppers, bush beans were planted. Today we were able to harvest cucumbers...

Carrots. Yields remain low due to a combination of factors: soil disturbance in some section, poor compost, thievery) 

pole beans, the yield was significantly high...

tomatoes and peppers

and squash and zucchini

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Beautiful sunflowers growing along the corn in the west terrace. Notice the difference in size and colour among the corn plants due to a difference in nutrient content in the soil. This could be attributed to the fact that the composts was not tilled into the soil at the edges of the beds because the walk behind tractor could not access the narrow space at the end of the beds.

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We had a great germination rate among the beans and peas that were planted in June.

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The dill is growing very well, in spite of being kind of neglected by our class...

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No progress on the beets, still...

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Unfortunately the irrigation system failed and was off for a couple of days. A few crops show water stress, such as tobacco...

tomatoes and basil...

We have officially moved into stage 4 draught and stage 3 water use restrictions starting July. Nevertheless, thanks to the 20mm rainfall received last week, Richmond has met the expected average rainfall amount for July. Water restrictions remain in place until the local reservoir is replenished, which will probably take place during the fall.

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We notice a significant difference in side between the plants growing in the tunnels and the same varieties growing outside when we lifted the wall of the tunnel to spray the zucchinis

July 30


At the Orchard...

Diligently, we came to the rescue of corn and squash crops and lay down the irrigation lines at the orchard.

Plants of the Yukon gold potato variety were showing signs of early senescence, although this shouldn't be happening before blooming. A fungus could be responsible for the wilting symptoms. We also observed potato flea beetles in the plants closer to the edges.This pest pressure probably comes from neighbouring potato fields. Potato farmers use this to their advantage and plant rows of potatoes in horizontal rows at the edges of their fields. Potato flea beetle  cannot fly long distances and tend to establish themselves in these outer rows at the edges of the field. This allows the farmer to spray only these marginal rows instead of having to spray the whole potato field.

The corn continues to grow successfully, better than the one at the terraces and definitely green, which implies better overall nitrogen and nutrient content. One thing to notice is that the plant are at different stages of maturation, due to the fact that there was to stages of seeding, something we should avoid in the future if we are going to manage pollination effectively.

to the Squash is growing successfully, again, larger in size than at the terraces. There's also less sightings of powdery mildew. We sprayed a mixture of sodium bicarbonate, soap and water and removed infected leaves  (took them to the composts vs. leaving them laying in the floor)

Carrots are growing better her than at the terraces.

Ahhh garlic!! Yummy snack at 11:30...

Weeding in Sami's experimental plot...to avoid a build up of weeds seed bank at the orchard