155 Research Rd, Quincy, FL 32351
For more information contact
Shep Eubanks
Phone: (850) 875-7255
bigbuck@ufl.edu
If you are a regular reader of Gardening in the Panhandle, you know that this e-newsletter covers many topics related to ornamental and vegetable gardening, Florida-friendly landscaping, pest management, and lawn and garden fertility.
But did you also know that UF/IFAS Extension in the Florida Panhandle has four other E-newsletters covering topics such as Florida agriculture, wildlife and natural resources, 4-H youth, economic well-being, health and nutrition, and overall life quality for individuals and families?
These other E-Extension in the Panhandle newsletters include Panhandle Agriculture , Panhandle Outdoors, 4-H in the Panhandle, and Living Well in the Panhandle.
As a Gardening in the Panhandle enthusiast, here is a list of horticulture and gardening related EDIS publications you might find useful:
Vegetable Gardening
Home Lawns and Landscapes
Soil and Fertility
Pest Management
Take lessons from a farmer to control fire ants in your garden. Photo by Molly Jameson.
As I near the three-year mark of being an Extension Agent, I think about how fortunate I am to have a career that not only encourages me to meet all our local farmers, but also to learn from them and share their knowledge with the community.
A few months ago, I visited Blake Canter of Owen River Farm. Blake gave me the grand tour of his small mixed vegetable plot, which is in far east Tallahassee.
One thing that I remember most about my visit with Blake was what has worked for him in controlling the notorious red imported fire ant (Solenopsis invicta). I have heard of many different ways to control these non-native invaders, each with its drawbacks, and, it seems, anecdotally limited success.
For instance, spinosad, a nervous system toxin, has been known to be effective on fire ant populations and is considered safe to use in vegetable gardens. But in practice, I have heard mixed reviews. In my home garden, I either douse the mounds with boiling water (be careful!) or leave my garden hose in the hot sun and scorch them while the water is still hot. But often, I signal defeat, letting them take captive of two corners of my raised beds.
Blake at Owen River Farm makes his fire ant control mixture by combining commercial grade d-Limonene and a hefty squirt of eco-friendly dish soap into five gallons of water. Photo by Molly Jameson.
Blake’s technique on Owen River Farm is using commercial grade d-Limonene, which is a distilled orange oil nerve toxin. Blake mixes one-third cup of d-Limonene with a hefty squirt of eco-friendly dish soap in a five-gallon bucket of water. He then uses this mixture as a drench for fire ant mounds – which he figures is about as effective as boiling water – but much safer and easier to handle (be sure to follow the label carefully when using any product).
Blake goes out early in the morning (when fire ants move slower and queens are usually higher in their nests) and pours the mixture onto the mounds in a spiral formation, from outside in, to minimize escape. He tries to collapse the mound as much as possible, while pouring slowly so it penetrates deeply, with minimal runoff.
Depending on colony size, Blake uses about half the bucket, or more, on just one mound. He warns that he has lost a cucumber plant that was about a foot away to this method, but he knows the ants will often do even more damage, if not sting and bite (they do both!) him hundreds of times, as he works in his vegetable beds.
Blake likes this method because, “I can specifically target the fire ants, and after doing its job, the all-natural orange oil quickly becomes inert. When I used organic ant bait I found that the native ants took up the poison, often times faster than the fire ants. This was particularly bad because native ants are the number one competition for fire ants.”
Blake also points out, “Make sure anyone you recommend this to can identify the difference between fire ant mounds with no center opening to the mound, and native ant mounds, where there is usually an entrance hole in the center of the mound.”
The hardest part, Blake says, is finding the queens. For instance, he says ants often make auxiliary mounds at the base of okra plants, but this is not where the queen resides. The queen will often be in a central mound many yards away from where her workers are foraging. And, unfortunately, these worker ants love easily habitable soft soil, just like in our raised bed vegetable gardens.
Fire ants in a petri dish. Photo by UF/IFAS.
Despite these challenges, last fall Blake drenched colonies whenever he found a mound around his farm (sometimes daily), and after a few weeks he noticed a drastic reduction in fire ant populations. And happily, an increased population of harmless (and even helpful!) native black ants. His brassica (think kale, collards, broccoli, cabbages) transplants were no longer getting girdled by vicious fire ants and he was no longer ending up with dozens of ant bites every time he worked in his beds!
Blake does warn that you must stay vigilant, especially in the summer and fall and after rain events, when the ants become busy building new colonies.
Lastly, Blake also uses his orange oil mixture as a spray for contact killing ants and other garden pests. However, just as with all horticultural oils and soaps (often made from plant oils, animal fats, or petroleum), care must be taken not to burn the foliage of your crops. Blake will sometimes dilute his mixture for this purpose. But just remember, to really stop an ant infestation, you must take down the queen!
For more information on least-toxic garden pest control strategies, read the UF/IFAS EDIS publication “Natural Products for Managing Landscape and Garden Pests in Florida” available at: https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/in197.
I had to do a hard thing last week. My battle-worn okra, eggplant and pepper plants that had produced so reliably since June and endured all the summertime challenges (heat, insects, disease, and a hurricane to name a few) were finally pulled out of my raised bed garden and discarded. A combination of lowered yields, increased insect pressure, and the fact that one can only eat so much okra in a calendar year sealed their fate.
However, before planting our cool-season veggie favorites, like those tender leafy greens and wonderfully crunchy carrots, there are a few things to do to get our raised beds in shape to give maximum yield performance and make growing a little easier.
One of the main benefits of raised beds is the ability to grow in near-perfect soil conditions. If I was relegated to gardening in my yard’s less than ideal native sandy soil, I might have given up altogether by now and I suspect many of you would be in the same boat. Raised beds totally alleviate this problem and give gardeners the opportunity to grow in rich, fertile soil composed of your favorite homemade soil mixture (mine is two parts mushroom compost to one part aged pine bark) or commercial potting mix/compost. However, at the end of each growing season, you will notice you have a bit less soil in your beds than you did at the beginning. While frustrating, this is a natural process for soils rich in organic material – they naturally break down and decompose! So to give your veggies’ roots the maximum amount of growing space for the coming season, top off your beds with a quality soil/compost mix and till it in before sowing seed or setting out transplants.
If you have a mature tree anywhere near your raised bed garden, you are going to be in for a surprise when you till that new compost in! It turns out that tree roots like that rich, fertile raised bed soil just as much as vegetables do and will seek it out. It is not uncommon for mature trees to have root systems that stretch horizontally two to three times the height of the tree, meaning a 50’ oak tree could have roots growing well over a hundred feet away from its trunk! Therefore, unless you have a totally tree-free property, battling tree roots in your beds will be an ongoing issue. For instance, each fall, when I transition from warm season to cool season crops, I find that my neighbor’s Laurel Oak has filled all three of my raised beds full of feeder roots glad to be free of the infertile sand. This is a problem because those roots suck up vital water and nutrients meant for my vegetable crops, robbing them of reaching their full potential. It is good practice to thoroughly till your beds’ soil and remove as many of the competing roots as you can. Doing so will give your new plants a head start on becoming established before the competition returns.
Depleted soil and competition from tree roots are two of the biggest threats to your raised bed’s performance. By planning ahead and accounting for both of these things prior to planting your fall garden, you will be more likely to reap a larger yields when harvest time comes! For more information on raised bed vegetable gardening and other horticultural questions, contact your local UF/IFAS Extension Office. Happy fall gardening!
The Garden Educator Training Series helps garden leaders start or improve their school or community garden. Photo by Molly Jameson.
By Tiffany Torres
Tiffany Torres is the Family Nutrition Program Northwest District Food Systems Specialist with UF/IFAS Extension.
With the cooler months of fall upon us, school gardens across the Panhandle are beginning to awaken from their summer slumber. Soon, students and teachers will begin to replenish the soil, plant their seeds, and dive into an engaging edible education experience.
For these schools and communities, gardens are much more than just a few beds of carrots. School gardens serve as outdoor classrooms, bringing academic concepts to life in new and exciting ways, while also encouraging environmental stewardship. In addition, school gardens can expose students to lifelong healthy eating habits by inspiring them to try new fruits and vegetables. In time, the school garden can become a facet of school culture and pride, ultimately reinforcing an overall healthier school food environment for students, teachers, parents, and the broader community.
School gardens can inspire students to try foods, impacting their eating habits long-term. Photo by Molly Jameson.
To help support teachers and other school garden stakeholders on this journey, specialists at the University of Florida IFAS Extension Family Nutrition Program developed a seasonal school and community garden training. The “Garden Educator Training Series” provides teachers and volunteers with tools for improving school garden education, enjoyment, and long-term outcomes. This monthly education and networking opportunity welcomes teachers who want to start and sustain school gardens, college students who want to volunteer with local gardening projects, and other garden enthusiasts, such as Master Gardeners, who want to lend their time to ensure the success of school and community gardens.
Each session includes three engaging components: 1) seasonally relevant, hands-on gardening skills; 2) curriculum and education connections; and 3) community organizing strategies to build team commitments. Sessions also include an opportunity to share successes and challenges amongst fellow attendees, resulting in a stronger school and community garden network. Each garden project leader will build a “Living History Binder,” which they will fill with resources throughout the series and use with their team to help organize their garden projects.
Through the Garden Educator Training Series, it is our hope that everyone involved will gain tangible and valuable skills to launch or improve their school or community garden projects. The program will give educators the tools necessary to design their gardens to be outdoor classrooms; promote health and wellness through gardening; facilitate community engagement; and teach students valuable life skills such as teamwork, cooperation, focus, and patience – inspiring the next generation of “garden leaders, not just garden weeders.”
The Series provides teachers and volunteers networking opportunities and tools to improve school garden education. Photo by Molly Jameson.
Interested in participating in the Garden Educator Training Series? The Series is free of charge, and will take place at the Leon County Extension Office (615 Paul Russell Rd, Tallahassee, FL). Fall sessions are 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. on September 14th, October 12th, November 9th, and November 30th. To register, visit the UF/IFAS Leon County Eventbrite website (https://leongetsfall2017.eventbrite.com).
For further information, please contact the UF/IFAS Extension Office at Leon County by calling (850) 606-5200.