While most of the US is still seeing sweltering hot temps, the cool temps of fall and winter aren’t really all that far away for those of us unlucky (or lucky) enough to not live in a tropical climate. The tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and other warm-season crops planted back at the beginning of summer are … Continue reading Counting the Days to Maturity: Calculating planting dates for fall vegetables
In this blog I continue to examine maladies caused by environmental conditions in the absence of a disease agent or insect. SalinitySalt in soils or water is simply the presence of too many soluble ions in the soil-water solution. This tends to happen in dry climates where evaporation rates exceed precipitation rates. In these climates … Continue reading Diagnosing Abiotic Disorders II
Insects and pathogens cause damage and disease in garden plants, but damage can also occur in absence of pests. We refer to these diseases as abiotic disorders. Plant pathologists consider abiotic disorders diseases because plants develop symptoms that reflect the changes in their physiology over time. Unlike outbreaks caused by insects or pathogens, abiotic disorders … Continue reading Diagnosing Abiotic Disorders I
There’s all kinds of maladies that can strike your garden plants throughout the season- diseases, insects, negligence, and more. But one common issue we are seeing more and more here in the corn belt and other places with lots of crop production is herbicide drift. Of course, you don’t have to have a corn or … Continue reading Catch my Drift? Herbicide Drift, Curling Tomato Leaves, and Food Safety
If you’ve been around as long as I have, you will no doubt remember the Creedence Clearwater Revival song “Have You Ever Seen the Rain”. This week I want to talk about sensing the rain using radar and how you can use it to provide you with local rainfall information if you don’t have a … Continue reading “Have you ever seen the rain?”
Most gardeners this time of year are thinking about the last frost dates for their locations and how soon they can get out into their garden plots. Here in the Southeast, many areas have already passed their last frost or will soon, while in other parts of the country, it may be many weeks before … Continue reading Where to find spring frost dates and the mystery of Southeastern frost trends
Do you use predictions of seasonal climate to plan your garden work? Or are you frustrated because they don’t seem to be very useful? I’ve been getting a lot of complaints this year about how bad the climate forecast for winter was because what we have seen so far has not matched the predictions in … Continue reading Why seasonal climate forecasts aren’t always accurate
Systems to grow fresh produce in your home using hydroponics or other automatic processes have been popular for several years but seem to be even more popular this year with more folks home and looking for something to do and hoping to produce their own food. As a result, these systems are popping up on … Continue reading Hydroponics for the Holidays? Home Systems are a hot holiday gift list item
Summer is done. The last apples are coming off my orchard trees now and persimmons are ripening fast. Some fruit remains to be picked but most is off. As garden productivity subsides we turn our tasks to winter. In Southern California it means planting the winter vegetable garden, in Northern Mn snow has already flown … Continue reading Fall is for fungal fruit
Ah, summer – vacations (pre-COVID), swimming pools (pre-COVID), ice cream, vegetable gardens, and, in many places, really high temperatures. These things all go hand-in-hand (or at least they did before the pandemic). Many gardeners feel that the heat of mid-summer goes hand in hand with garden production; those high temps driving production on those fruiting … Continue reading Some like it hot… but most do not: How high temperatures delay pollination and ripening
