by Matthew Orwat | Aug 26, 2017
This event has been cancelled due to Hurricane Irma and the impact it is having on the speakers, who were planning on travelling from central Florida. Rescheduled for February 2018
Entomology specialists from the University of Florida and Extension agents will be leading hands on sessions focusing on insect pest management in vegetable production. This workshop is relevant to anyone growing vegetable crops in any season, but will have a special focus on fall vegetable pests.
Lunch will be provided and CEUs for pesticide license holders will also be available.
Cost: $ 15.00
Address: Washington County Ag Center East Wing, 1424 Jackson Ave, Chipley FL 32428.
Time: 8:30am-3:00pm
Pre Registration required for count: Contact Nikki or Cynthia at 850-638-6180 or email Matthew Orwat at mjorwat@ufl.edu
or register online at eventbrite HERE !
Agenda
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Welcome and Introduction 8:30am-8:35 Matthew Orwat, Washington County Cooperative Extension, Amanda Hodges, University of Florida
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True bugs in Fall Vegetables-Identification and Management 9:00am-10:15am
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Cowpea Curculio 10:15am-10:30pm
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Break 10:30am-10:45am
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Whitefly Management 10:45am-11:10am
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Invasive Species problems in North Florida Vegetable Production 11:10am-11:30am
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Invasive Stink Bugs and Related True Bugs 11:30am-11:50pm
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Lunch 11:50pm-12:30pm
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Tomato leafminer Tuta absoltua 12:30m-12:45pm
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Old World bollworm and Exotic Spodoptera Pests 12:45pm-1:05pm
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Common Vegetable Plant Diseases in the Florida Panhandle 1:05pm-1:35pm
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Pest and Pathogen Walk 1:35pm-2:05pm
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CAPS Exotic Corn Diseases of Concern 2:05pm-2:35pm
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Sample Submission, Arthropod and Disease samples 2:35pm-2:50p
by Matt Lollar | Aug 25, 2017
If you’ve attended any of our landscaping classes, then you’ve probably heard the phrase “Right Plant, Right Place”. This phrase is a simple reminder to research plant growth habits and growing conditions before making selections for your landscape. This not only holds true for ornamental plants, but for edible crops as well. A term used to describe the use of edibles as ornamentals is “Permaculture”. Now this is an extremely simplified definition of the term, but permaculture comes from a combination of the words “permanent” and “agriculture”. The thought behind permaculture is to fashion an edible landscape after a natural ecosystem.
There are a number of strategies to becoming a successful permaculturist. Below you will find a few examples.
- Site Observation and Analysis – The slope, orientation to the sun, and sectors of your yard should all be documented.
- Slope – Identifying the slope of your yard can help you determine the natural flow of water and nutrients. For example, if you have a hill in your back yard you may want to install some plant beds between the peak of the slope and your house. These beds will help absorb water and nutrients before they have a chance to reach the house.
- Orientation – Think about the location, relevant to your house, of each of your edible landscape areas. The eastern side of your house receives morning sunlight, which is much cooler than the western side of your house that receives sunlight in the afternoon. A tomato plant will be much happier if it can avoid the afternoon heat.
- Sectors – While walking your property, you will notice differences in soil texture, soil moisture, and the plants and weeds growing in these different areas. You can divide your yard based on these characteristics along with slope, orientation, and shade percentage to develop sectors of your property.
Cover Crops and Living Mulch – Cover crops are planted in areas that you would normally allow to go fallow. Living mulches are plants that are planted alongside edible plants to help fill voids. The benefits of both are listed below.
- Weed Supression
- Erosion Control
- Produce and/or Scavenge Nutrients
- Nematode Supression
- Harbor Beneficial Insects
Clover is an excellent cover crop choice and has a beautiful flower. Photo Credit: University of Florida/IFAS.
- Space Utilization – The third criteria is to mimic a forest. Just like any good forest, your “forest garden” will consist of different layers of vegetation.
- You can start by planting large deciduous trees such as pecans or pears farthest from the house. These trees will allow filtered light to penetrate the layer below.
- Next, you can plant smaller fruit trees such as citrus or peaches along the understory of the larger trees.
- Then, you can plant your vegetable and herb garden around your fruit tree plantings.
- Finish by planting root and vining vegetables such as carrots or sweet potatoes at the edge of the forest.
A mixed vegetable garden. Photo Credit: eXtension.org.
We’ve just scratched the surface of the concept of permaculture, but I encourage you to dig a little deeper. What could be the harm with being able to eat your landscape? Just don’t eat too much or you may lose your landscape entirely!
An “Intermediate Permaculture” class is scheduled for Saturday, September 23 at the Jackson County Extension Office. For more information, please call (850)-482-9620 and ask for Matt.
For more information on permaculture please visit the NC State Permaculture Page.
For more information on “Right Plant, Right Place” please visit the UF/IFAS Florida Friendly Living Site.
by Molly Jameson | Jul 12, 2017
The modern carrot is available in many sizes, colors, and flavor profiles thanks to thousands of years of plant breeding. Photo by Kelly Thomas.
Fruits and vegetables have undergone various forms of domestication for thousands of years. Throughout this time, selective breeding of wild forages has allowed humans to develop crops with many desirable traits, such as increased size, higher sugar content, more nutrition, and brighter colors.
If you ate a carrot 5,000 years ago, you would be in for a surprise. First, it would not be orange. Instead, it would be white or purple, and would taste very bitter and be very small. We think wild carrots were first cultivated around 1,100 years ago, but that it took another 600 years to develop carrots that are not only available in white and purple, but also yellow, orange, and even red.
Sweet corn 9,000 years ago was a thousand times smaller, and barely edible, tasting more like a raw dried potato than corn, with only a few hard kernels per ear.
When you trace back the history of fruits and vegetables, you not only see many changes taking place through human intervention, but also many rituals, beliefs, and superstitions along the way. Take the mighty onion, for example. Did you know that Greek athletes in the Ancient Olympic Games would eat pounds of raw onion, drink the juice of onions, and rub onions all over their bodies before competing?
Roman generals believed garlic gave soldiers courage and strength, so they planted whole fields of it in areas they conquered, believing this transferred bravery to the armies. According to ancient Egyptian records, the Pharaoh gave the Egyptian slaves who built the pyramids garlic daily, along with their meager rations of beer and flat bread, as a means to increase strength and endurance. By today’s standards, it is believed it cost the Pharaoh two million dollars to keep the slaves supplied with garlic.
The Aztecs domesticated tomatoes around 500 BC, but they were not introduced to Italy until the 16th century. Even then, it took Italians another 250 years to embrace the tomato, as this member of the nightshade family was – understandably – feared to be poisonous. Can you imagine your pizzas and spaghetti without marinara?
Cucumbers originated in India, where their domestication started more than 4,000 years ago. They were traded to the Middle East and Europe about 3,000 years ago, and were even mentioned in the Epic of Gilgamesh. In Ancient Rome, Emperor Tiberius, who reigned briefly from 14 to 16 AD, demanded that he be served cucumbers daily. In the winter, his gardeners had to grow cucumbers in mobile wooden frames to protect the plants and expose them to the sun.
So the next time you enjoy the crunch of a bright orange carrot, sink your teeth into a chunk of hot garlic bread, or nurture your prized heirloom tomatoes, reflect back on just what it took our ancestors to get to the fruits and vegetables we relish today.
by Matt Lollar | Apr 13, 2017
Most of you plant a spring vegetable garden with a number of different vegetable types. However, you may not realize that you are improving the health of your soil and your crops by planting a diverse garden. Intercropping is a gardening practice of growing different crops in the same field. When planting a mixture of crops in the same field year after year, it is important to rotate the location of each type of vegetable. This is a practice known as crop rotation. Intercropping and crop rotation will help reduce insect pest populations, increase beneficial insect populations, and reduce weed populations.
Crop Diversity
Growing plants in your garden that pest insects don’t like to eat makes the pests work harder to find what they do like to eat. Studies have found reduced whitefly numbers on squash plantings mixed with a crop of buckwheat when compared to squash planted alone. Another crop mixture that may be unintentional, but may work in your favor is a row of crapemyrtles along the edge of your garden. Crapemyrtles will attract the crapemyrtle aphid which will attract predatory insects. When the predatory insects run out of crapemyrtle aphids to eat, they will move to your garden and begin to hunt pest insects on your vegetable crop.
Squash with living mulch of buckwheat. Photo Credit: Oscar Liburd, UF/IFAS Extension
Trap Cropping
A trap crop is a plant that attracts a pest insect away from your food crops. Trap crops work best when planted at the edge of your garden, along a fence row, or in movable containers. A bare space, let’s say 5 feet or so, should be kept between your trap crop and your garden. This will help keep the pests from moving on to your vegetables. When you find a good population of pests on your trap crop then it is time to spray them with insecticide or cut the crop down and remove the debris to a location far from your garden. If your trap crops are planted in containers, then it makes them that much easier to remove from near the garden area.
Cover Crops and Green Manure
Soil organic matter can be increased by the use of green manure and cover crops. Cover crops are generally planted during the off-season, but they can be planted in between vegetable rows and tilled in at a designated time as a green manure. Both cover crops and green manure improve the production of your garden by:
- Suppressing weeds by competing for water, light, and nutrients;
- Holding the soil in place and preventing erosion;
- Scavenging for nutrients that can be utilized in future crops;
- Reducing nematode populations;
- Providing a habitat for beneficial insects.
A mixed plot of cover crops and trap crops. Photo Credit: UF/IFAS Extension
A number of different crops can serve as cover crops or green manure crops. Most are legumes (bean family) or grasses. A few that you might like to give a try are:
- Cowpeas
- Sunn hemp
- Sorghum-sudangrass
- Winter rye
More detailed information on cover crops and green manure can be found at this link: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/aa217.
by Molly Jameson | Apr 7, 2017
Be careful planting cucurbit transplants, as they have sensitive roots. Photo by Molly Jameson.
When I think of the end of winter and the hot temperatures that will soon be here to stay in the Florida Panhandle, I often feel a little melancholy. But the one silver lining that always picks me back up is remembering what warmer temperatures will mean in the garden. This is the start to all the fun, colorful, fruiting crops. Think of the oranges, reds, yellows, and even purples that will soon fill their vines.
As an extension agent, one of the questions I am often asked is whether to start summer vegetables from seed directly in the garden, or to start seeds in pots and transplant them later. The answer is – as is often the case – it depends.
Are you planting tomatoes, peppers, or eggplant? Well, the beginning of April is too late to start from seeds with these crops in our neck of the woods. Buy transplants! Are you growing beans, okra, or root crops? Now that we are past the risk of frost, put those seeds directly into your garden. Are you growing cucurbits, like squash, cucumbers, or melons? You have a choice. You could seed them directly, or you could start seeds in pots. What is the advantage of starting in pots, you ask? Well – this will give you the chance to pick the strongest plants and will allow you to transplant them exactly where you want them. The disadvantage? Other than the extra work, cucurbits tend to be sensitive to disturbance. Be sure to handle with care and do not over water once your seedlings have sprouted.
Transplant into the garden when the plant is about the length of its pot. Photo by Molly Jameson.
Whether you grew the seeds in pots yourself or acquired transplants elsewhere, there are certain practices you can follow to ensure your plant babies have a good start. Here are a few tips when it comes to transplanting into the garden:
What should be considered when purchasing transplants? When purchasing transplants, it is important to make sure the plant is healthy. Look for plants with strong stems, green leaves, and no signs of pest or disease damage. Ideally, the plant should not be much taller than the length of its pot, and should be about as tall as it is wide. Also, avoid vegetable plants that are already producing fruit, this is an indication they have been in their pot too long, prompting them to become stressed. When stressed, annuals often feel they need to hurry and produce seeds to carry on the next generation.
When should transplants be planted into the garden? For spring gardens, plant transplants once danger of frost has passed (late March in the Panhandle), when the transplant has had time to develop a strong root system, and when the transplant is about the length of its pot. If you are growing your seeds indoors or in a greenhouse, allow the plant to “harden-off” by placing the plants outdoors in partial shade for a few hours a day for about a week before transplanting.
What is the transplanting process?
- First, prepare your garden site with compost and other soil amendments.
- Water your plants very thoroughly just before planting to decrease transplant shock. The entire root system should be completely wet.
- Dig a hole that is at least double the width of the plant’s root ball.
Add fresh compost or worm castings to each planting hole to give your plants an extra nutrient boost. Photo by Molly Jameson.
- Add one to two handfuls of fresh compost or worm castings to each hole. These soil amendments will improve soil health, introduce beneficial microbes, and provide a slow- release nutrient source for your growing seedlings.
- Avoid covering any leaves or stems under the soil surface. Remove these lower leaves and stems with sharp garden clippers to minimize the size of the wound.
- Avoid touching the stem and avoid disturbing the root ball when removing the transplant from its pot. Gently squeeze the pot to loosen the potting soil and turn the transplant sideways or upside down with the palm of your hand to gently “catch” the transplant.
- Unless the transplant is a tomato, plant it so that the soil level is about the soil level of the transplant, making sure the plant has good structure to decrease susceptibility of falling over as it grows.
- If transplanting a tomato, plant deeper than the soil level of the transplant, as tomatoes can grow what are called “adventitious” roots – roots that grow from their stem – that will improve overall root development.
- Make sure to cover up all roots, and water the soil around the plant thoroughly. Continue to water deeply, keeping the soil moist but not soggy, for the next three to four days while the plant becomes established. You can then begin to switch to a normal watering pattern.
- Always water the soil around the plant, not the plant leaves, throughout the season to decrease susceptibility to disease.
Remember: gardening is a science and an art! And just like art, there are many aspects that are open to interpretation. Have fun gardening – experiment and try new techniques. Keep a journal tracking all your gardening adventures. With time, this can become your road map to the sweetest of summer fruit.
by Molly Jameson | Mar 1, 2017
Raised-bed gardening can maximize production in a small amount of space. Photo by Molly Jameson.
Want to start a vegetable garden, but don’t know where to start? Are you seeing rectangular boxes popping up all over your neighbors’ yards and wondering why? Well, I am here to spread the news of raised-bed gardening!
Raised-bed gardening is a convenient way to grow vegetables without worrying about the quality of your soil. This is because you will be bringing in a high quality soil mix to your site. Vegetable plants need nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and many other nutrients to grow and mature properly. In many Florida Panhandle soils, we either have too much sand, too much clay, and nearly always, not enough organic matter. Organic matter results from the various stages of decay of anything that was alive. Think of it as the “glue” that holds the soil together, improves both soil moisture-holding capacity and drainage, and slowly releases nutrients that become available to the plant.
Organic matter is the “glue” that will hold your soil together. Photo by John Edwards.
Although you could add nutrients and organic materials to your soil without building a raised bed, the walls of a raised bed will hold your soil in place, reduce erosion, and even help keep out weeds. Here are a few things to consider when planning the installation of a raised-bed garden:
Location
The most important thing to consider when picking your location is sunlight. Vegetable plants need a lot of direct sunlight for optimum production. Leafy vegetables (lettuce, kale, arugula) can tolerate four to five hours, but fruiting crops (tomatoes, squash, peppers) generally need six hours of full sunlight to grow strong and produce fruit.
When starting a garden, remember that we are in the northern hemisphere, and this means the sun dips to the south, especially in the winter. Objects therefore cast a shadow to the north, so pay attention to the position of southern tree lines, houses, and anything else that may block the sun. If you must choose, morning sun is better than afternoon sun, as afternoon sun can be very extreme in our area, especially in the summer.
Lastly, consider visibility! If you stick your garden in the very back corner of your yard, how often will you see it? The more visible it is in your daily life, the more likely you will notice easy-to-pull weeds, when your garden needs watering, what is ready to be harvested, and everything else that goes on in the garden.
Although wood is most popular, you can use materials such as concrete, bricks, or tiles to build a raised bed. Photo by Molly Jameson.
Materials
Now you have chosen a perfect garden location. What materials should you use to build your raised bed? Lumber is the most popular material. But you could use concrete blocks, bricks, tiles, or anything else that can support soil. You can make your beds as long as you like, but the important thing to remember is not to make the raised bed wider than four feet. This will allow you to reach all areas of your soil without stepping into the bed, which causes compaction. If you are working with kids, two or three feet wide is even better. You should make the height of your bed 10 to 12 inches, which will allow good drainage and enough space for your vegetable plants to develop strong roots.
When choosing lumber, you can go with untreated or treated wood. Within the last 15 years, wood preservatives considered unsuitable for raised-bed gardening have been phased out. There is well-documented research that has shown the newer products are considered safe for gardening. Although untreated wood typically will not last as long as treated, even treated wood will still begin to decompose after a few seasons. Either way, connect your wood with lag bolts, instead of nails, to hold the wood together tightly.
When filling a four ft. by eight ft. raised bed, you will need about 1 cubic yard of soil mix. Photo by Molly Jameson.
Soil
Now that you have your raised-bed structure built, what will you put in it? There are many landscape and nursery companies that can offer vegetable garden soil mixes for purchase in bulk. Typically, they will be about 50 percent compost (organic matter) and 50 percent top soil (nutrient-containing minerals). If you are filling a four foot by eight foot by 12 inch raised bed, you will need about one cubic yard of soil mix, which typically costs $30 to $60. This is about the volume of the back of a pick-up truck. If you do not have access to a truck, most companies will deliver in bulk for a $30 to $50 fee. This could be worth it if you are filling up multiple beds! Seasonally, you will then need to top off your raised bed as your soil will shrink as the organic materials decompose. But for this, you can buy bagged soil mixes or make your own compost.
The last step is filling your raised bed with vegetable plants! This could also be considered the first step… as you now must consider plant spacing, spring vs. fall vegetables, seeding into the garden vs. using transplants, trellising, pest control, harvesting…but we’ll save all that for future articles. Happy gardening!
