Colin McCrate's Blog, page 22

Curbing Blossom End Rot

A healthy Calliope eggplant puts on new fruit after blossom end rot damaged fruit were removed.

Blossom end rot can be an incredibly frustrating challenge for any vegetable gardener.  There is something particularly upsetting about watching a perfectly healthy-looking plant produce damaged and rotten fruits!  Fortunately, blossom end rot can be avoided and, once in process can often be overcome.  Blossom end rot can occur on a range of fruits, but is most commonly seen on tomatoes, peppers and eggplant.  

If you are a vigilant gardener (as you should be), keeping a watchful eye on your crops through their development, you will notice the advent of blossom end rot as soft, bruised areas on (or near) the bottom tip of your fruit.  This dark, squishy area will develop into a black, crusty scar at the bottom of the fruit, eventually leading to a shriveled and moldy mess.  

Blossom end rot is the result of a lack of calcium in the fruit tissue.  This calcium deficiency can be caused by a lack of calcium in the soil or by the plant’s inability to effectively absorb calcium from the soil.  Here are a few simple ways to prevent and/or reduce the impact of blossom end rot in the garden (most of these things you should be doing anyways!):

Check the pH of your soil.  Proper pH range for most fruiting vegetables is between 6.3 and 6.9.  Maintaining the proper pH will help crops absorb nutrients from the soil.

Maintain even watering cycles through the season.  Most often, blossom end rot is a result of water stress which disrupts the plant’s ability to draw calcium up from the soil.  Keeping the soil adequately and consistently moist can eliminate this problem.

Add bone meal to your soil.  Bone meal, known primarily for its supply of phosphorus, but also supplies calcium.  Bone meal feeding supplements are a long-used tool to prevent blossom end rot in long-season fruiting crops.

Add dolomitic lime. Dolomite lime supplies both magnesium and calcium to the soil (in addition to adjusting soil pH).  If used in high doses or too frequently, it can lead to nutrient imbalances in the soil, but it can also be highly effective in supplying fruiting crops with adequate calcium to support healthy fruit production.

If you plan to add organic amendments like bone meal and dolomite lime to the soil every season, be sure to take soil samples regularly to guard against nutrient imbalances and over fertilization (which can lead to their own set of crop health issues).  

Blossom end rot on tomatoes: 

Harvesting Winter Squash

We often refer to Winter squash as “long-season crops”.  Long-season crops typically grow slowly and remain in the garden for the majority of the growing season, planted in the spring and harvested in the fall. While summer squash (the soft skinned counterparts of winter squash) grow relatively quickly and have a very short storage life; when properly cured, the tough skinned winter squash can store up to 6 months in a cool, dry location. The key to growing perfect butternut and acorn squash (not to mention pumpkins and kabocha) is simply knowing the lifecycle of the plant, when to harvest, and how the fruits should be cured.

Winter squash fruit is mature when it is full sized, properly colored and has a tough skin. Sizes and color will vary between varieties. Even if your squash already appears mature and takes on the color and size you expect, we highly recommend leaving the fruit on the vine while the plant dies back. The warm temperatures of late summer and early autumn will help cure the fruit and increase the storage life.

Once the plant has died back, use sharp pruners or a knife to cut the stem from the vine. Make sure to leave 5-6 inches of stem on the top of the fruit. A broken stem exposes the fruit to rot, so be careful when harvesting and transporting fruit. If one of your stems does break off, be sure to use that fruit within a few weeks of harvest.

Fruit that is exposed to freezing temperatures will not store long, so make sure to harvest winter squash before the first frost in the fall. In general, temperature extremes reduce storage life, so aim to keep your winter squash in a dry location that stays between 50 and 55°F.  Check up on your stores every few days throughout the fall and winter, turning fruits to look for bruising or wounds that can lead to rot.  Use the ugliest and most damaged fruits first and enjoy your harvest as long as possible through the off-season!

Bonterra's Garden at Queen Anne Food Bank

To our delight, Bonterra Vineyards reached out to us a few months ago with the idea of donating a food garden to a local non-profit. We agreed that a food bank would be a good fit for this type of project and began reaching out to potential partners. We quickly landed on Queen Anne Food Bank whose Executive Director, Derek Wertz, had farming experience and is passionate about growing fresh, organic produce to incorporate into the meals served at the site. Shortly after connecting Bonterra with Derek, the project was approved! Our lead designer, Jessica Roundy, visited the site and worked with Derek to create a design that maximizes sun exposure and fits perfectly into the greenspace available outside the Food Bank headquarters.  We scheduled the project and our installation crew did a wonderful job executing the plan.  

Seattle Urban Farm Co. (SUFCo) Installation Crew building the cedar raised beds

The now-completed Bonterra Garden at Queen Anne Food Bank features a series of raised beds for annual fruit and vegetable crop production and a perennial edible garden. The perennial edible garden utilizes an existing at-grade garden bed to the west of the main entry to grow a range of edibles such as herbs and blueberries, as well as beneficial flowers to support garden crops. Along the south facade of the building, a series of 4’ x 8‘ x 18” tall rough-sawn cedar raised beds provides approximately 100 square feet of annual crop production. Two separate watering systems provide automatically timed drip irrigation to the annual and perennial gardens, to support their unique watering needs.

Thank you to Bonterra for making this project possible! Your generosity is truly remarkable and we are so honored to have had the opportunity to be a part of this collaboration.

Derek has already changed his head shot on the Queen Anne Food Bank website to a photo of him in the new garden and has this to say about the garden:

“Really is kind of a magical story, and testament to both Bonterra and SUFC to their commitment to philanthropy, sustainability and community. I just cannot express how grateful we are for this partnership; and furthermore, what positive impact you will both have to feeding the hungry of our community.”

QAFB Executive Director, Derek Wertz and Colin McCrate of SUFCo. plant the garden

Derek Wertz and Lucas Askew of Bonterra Vineyards at ribbon cutting

To learn more about Bonterra Vineyards please visit: www.bonterra.com
To learn more about Queen Anne Food Bank please visit: www.qafb.org

Have extra produce in your garden this year? Food Banks are Happy to Take Your Extra Produce

 

Organic Fertilizer Break Down Part Three: Greensand

The next stop on our path towards total fertilizer enlightenment is the wonderful world of Greensand.  As we learned in part one of our series, all fertilizers are rated by their NPK ratio, which indicates the percentage of Nitrogen-Phosphorous-Potassium in the product. Greensand (0-0-3) is a great source of Potassium and works as a component of a fertilizer mix and as a stand-alone soil amendment.  

Part Three: Greensand

Unlike most components of organic fertilizer blends, Potassium is a notoriously difficult element to derive from contemporary, sustainable sources such as plant and animal waste or carcasses.  To keep agricultural soils productive, this elusive mineral is most often collected from mines which occur all over the world.  The product sold as Greensand is comprised of a mineral known as Glauconite  Most Greensand products are mined from ancient beds of Glauconite which were deposited on the ocean beds of the long past days of the Eocene, Cambrian, and Cretaceous periods.  

In spite of its non-renewable nature, its wide range of soil-improving properties make greensand a delightful and necessary soil-building substance.  In addition to supplying Potassium, Greensand is a source of many micronutrients (which we learned about when discussion Kelp Meal), it can help break up clayey soils and improve your soil’s water retention capacity.  Greensand is a slow-release fertilizer, so its not the best quick-fix solution if you are experiencing a Potassium deficiency in your crops, (use Sulfate of Potash instead), but it is certainly the best Potassium source for your fertility regime that is aimed at improving the long-term health of your soil and crops.   

We recommend using Greensand as part of a balanced fertilizer blend and applying Greensand as a stand-alone amendment for soils that are particularly low in Potassium or are incredibly clayey.  Rough guidelines are as follows:

-Use a balanced fertilizer including Greensand when planting new vegetable crops each season.  Application rates for fertilizers vary, follow the recommendations on the product label. -If your soil test results indicate very low levels of Potassium in your soil, consider an application of pure Greensand in the fall or early spring (use product application rates).  

Bonus tip: Potassium plays a major role in the efficiency of water use in plants. Both uptake of water through plant roots and its loss through the stomata are affected by potassium. Adding potassium to your garden can improve drought resistance in crops.

New Potatoes

(New) Potatoes Solanum tuberosum

New potatoes are potatoes that are harvested young, or before the potato plant dies back and the potatoes fully mature. They have a thin, tender skin which is rarely peeled, are generally sweeter than mature potatoes, and are particularly delicious when pulled fresh from the garden.

When and how and how should I harvest new potatoes?
If your potato plants have flowered, it is likely the new potatoes have formed! To harvest, gently dig around the base of your potato plant, being very careful not to disturb the plant, and pull out potatoes that are close to the surface. The plant will continue to photosynthesis, feeding the potatoes that are left in the ground as they continue to grow.

If they are so good, why not harvest all your potatoes as new potatoes?
New potatoes don’t make a great storage crop because of their thin skins and high moisture levels.

How should I store new potatoes?
We recommend you use new potatoes within a few days of harvesting, but they can be stored for a week or two in the refrigerator.  If refrigerating new potatoes, keep the unwashed potatoes in a paper bag or loosely wrapped plastic.  Washing the potatoes with water will shorten their storage life and should be done gently because their tenders skins will easily scrub off.  If the potatoes you pull from your garden are really dirty, gently wipe the dirt off with a dry towel.

If you are not planning to harvest any of your young potatoes and would like to let all of the tubers mature, let the foliage die back completely before harvesting.  Once the foliage had died back, you can remove the unsightly brown leaves by simply cutting them down.  The potatoes can remain in the ground until late fall, or until a danger of frost.  All potatoes should be dug out of the garden by the first frost.  

The mature potatoes will store 3-6 months if stored in a dry, dark, well ventilated place with a temperature around 40°F  

New Potato Harvest 

Storage Potato Harvest

Design Chat: Urban Farm Design Process With Seattle Urban Farm Co.

Every landscape project begins with a design. The design process ensures the space is laid out in a thoughtful and useful way. Working through a landscape design provides opportunities to consider different placements for garden elements, different materials and the impact of each choice on the long term functionality and beauty of the project.  Over the next few months, we will be profiling our design department, asking our Lead Designer, Jessica Roundy, provocative questions, and trying to get her to spill the beans on what it really takes to create a successful urban farm:   
 

What are some of the questions you like to ask a new client during their initial site visit?

I like to start by getting an idea of what their dream garden space would look like. Many people have some sort of idea in their head about how big they would like their garden to be and what elements; such as raised beds, gathering spaces and pathways; they would like to include. It’s great to get all of those ideas on the table right away and then walk through the site to see and discuss what’s really possible. For example, it’s not uncommon that the part of the site picked out by the homeowner for annual garden space just doesn't get enough sun. Our job is to weave together a garden design that is drawn off of our clients ideas and goals for the space, but layered with our technical and creative skills to create an intelligent, productive, and beautiful space.
 

After your first meeting with the client, what are your next steps as a designer?

An initial design process is essential to the success of every productive garden. A comprehensive site plan allows you to combine individual elements of your urban farm to create a cohesive, functional, and beautiful space.  A garden design includes scaled drawings of the space, planting recommendations, material specifications and precise dimensions for garden elements such as: garden beds, pathways, trellises, irrigation, tool sheds, washing stations, greenhouses, and seating areas. Additional, more detailed drawings including planting plans, grading plans and renderings can also be produced, as applicable to each project. Design budgets vary depending on the scale and complexity of the project.
 

Describe one of the most interesting design challenges the SUFCo design team has had lately?

One of the most interesting design challenges that we've had lately was to create a garden for a client that was to function both as the aesthetic front yard and entrance to their home while at the same time serving as a highly productive vegetable garden producing crops for a nearby restaurant. The overall site had a very strong aesthetic that was already established through the design of the existing house and structures. Our job was to create a space that would blend seamlessly in with the established aesthetic, be a welcoming entrance to the entire site but also be really functional in terms of creating an environment that would allow for highly productive crops.

One of the challenges we encountered was negotiating its border with the sidewalk. We wanted to define the garden edge as a way to create privacy and blend in with the neighboring landscapes without sacrificing sunlight. The solution we came up with was to construct a berm planted with short perennial plantings. The subtle change in topography created by the height and depth of the berm creates the illusion that there is more space between the sidewalk and the garden than there really is. The short plantings covering the berm add year-round visual interest and screen the garden at eye level.

We also structured the main pathway through the garden so that it is at an oblique angle from the street to the house. When you first look down the pathway you get a view through the garden but you're not actually looking directly at the house. As soon as you enter the pathway it turns and you see the path towards the house. Your view of the house continues to unfold as you're walking through the garden and approaching the front door.
 

Can you talk about plants that SUFCo clients are really excited about right now?

I think one of the plants our clients are most excited about right now is what people are calling the kiwi berry vine or the small kiwi. It has a number of different common names, but the scientific name is Actinidia kolomikta. What's exciting about it from a designer standpoint is that Actinidia kolomikta has been used for years as an ornamental plant, by just planting the male, and not the female. It's been heralded by designers for its gorgeous leaf which alone can be modeled with green, white and pink. Just over the last few years have people finally figured out that when you plant both a male and a female, you get kiwi berries! It's been really fun utilizing the vine in spaces that are really visible and for clients who really like the look of it’s leaves. To have a vine that is both really productive and really beautiful, and to be taking something that for such a long time in landscape design has been use for only its ornamental qualities and finally getting to use it for it’s edible qualities as well is very cool.
 

Can you talk about a particular designer whose work is inspirational to you?

I have been really inspired by the work of the Tom Leader Studio. They are based out of the Bay Area and they work on a really wide range of scales which is something that I find really inspiring. They worked on master planning projects for big parks, all the way down to very small scale installations that are very temporal. I think that it shows the talent of their staff, that they are able to think and build on all these different scales, and I think it also really relates to our work.  We've done everything from a weekend installation of living wall in Pioneer Square for the Seattle Design Festival to working on master plans for several acre farm sites.

I think that always being grounded in knowing how something will be built, regardless of it scale, is what makes our practice very strong. It’s inspiring to be able to look to another studios work and see that same quality and to see the ways in which they apply their creativity to these different sites.

JESSICA ROUNDY

Jessica joined SUFCo in 2012 to design urban farms for residences, schools, restaurants, and public spaces. Her work is informed by regularly digging into the soil while farming across the city and working with clients in educational gardening sessions. Jessica received her Masters of Landscape Architecture from the Rhode Island School of Design. On behalf of SUFCo, Jessica has presented at Living Future, American Institute of Architects, American Community Gardening Association, and Pecha Kucha.

Organic Fertilizer Breakdown Part Two: Kelp

Welcome back to our 4-part series on organic fertilizer. In part two, we will continue to break down the ingredients in our custom organic fertilizer blend. This month we will be highlighting Kelp Meal.

As we learned last month, all fertilizers are rated by their NPK ratio, which indicates the percentage of Nitrogen-Phosphorous-Potassium in the mix. This month, we will use Kelp Meal to help us take a look at the hidden world of micronutrients (sometimes referred to as trace elements), which constitute the rest of the minerals present in your organic fertilizer.   

Part Two: Kelp Meal

As the name indicates, Kelp Meal is made from dried ocean seaweed. Kelp can be processed into a meal (which we use in our fertilizer blend), a powder (which has finer particles and can be mixed into a liquid solution) and a liquid (which is typically diluted and applied as a foliar spray to maturing crops).  Like most granular organic fertilizers, Kelp Meal takes several weeks to several months to release its nutrients into the soil for absorption by crops.  The range of nutrients in Kelp Meal is somewhat astounding and includes Magnesium, Sulfur, Sodium, and Vanadium.  Check out this link to see a complete chemical analysis of Kelp Meal

A fundamental difference between industrial agriculture and organic agriculture is the care and attention paid to the long term health and fertility of the soil.  The organic grower’s primary concern is building a complex soil system to support crops year after year.  The application of the micronutrients supplied by Kelp Meal help do just that.  Although, each micronutrient is present in remarkably low amounts, your crops will locate them and be better able to absorb water, photosynthesize and process the macronutrients if these trace elements are available.  Furthermore, it is crucial that the trace elements are present only in low quantities, as many of them would create a toxic environment if applied in large amounts. It is easy to think of this balance in parallel to human health: for example, while Iodine is an essential mineral in your diet, an overdose would wreak havoc on your gastrointestinal and respiratory systems.  Its the same for plants and Boron or Silicon.  

We recommend using Kelp Meal as part of a balanced fertilizer blend and applying Liquid Kelp as a foliar spray to crops throughout the season.  Rough guidelines are as follows:

Use a balanced fertilizer including Kelp Meal when planting new vegetable crops each season. Application rates for fertilizers vary, follow the recommendations on the product label.   Provide a supplemental feeding of Kelp Meal to long-season fruiting crops like tomatoes and summer squash two additional times throughout the summer.Foliar feed ALL crops as often as once every two weeks through the growing season with Liquid Kelp.  Dilute the liquid to the rate indicated on the label and apply to crops very early in the morning.  Early morning feedings allow the plants to absorb the nutrients through their opening stomata and prevent the repercussions of midday applications (possible leaf burning) and evening applications (possible fungal infection)

New Greenhouse Update

Spring is moving ahead at full speed here in the Northwest.  We’ve been getting a mixture of bright sunshine and heavy rains, which has been perfect for early spring crop like snap peas, onions and lettuce.  We are working away on our Barnraiser projects and wanted to send out a quick update to keep you posted on our progress.  The weather out at the Urban Fringe Farm is significantly cooler and wetter than here in the city, but this has provided a good opportunity to spend this time working on greenhouses and other infrastructure before the planting season starts in full effect.  Check out the photos of the raising of our wash/pack greenhouse, we expect to have this house completed in a couple of weeks. Please keep in touch, We hope to see you all sometime this season! 

More With Less Part Two: Choosing the Right Plants for Your Small Vegetable Garden

Choosing the best crops to grow for your space plays a huge role in the productivity of your garden!  Some crops produce multiple harvests in a relatively small space over a short span of just a few months, while others take a lot longer to mature and are much more space intensive. To make the most out of your smaller garden, choose crops that produce multiple harvests off of a single planting, or crops that mature quickly so you can replant the space multiple times over the season.

The top ten annual plants we recommend for space intensive planting:

Salad greens (lettuce mix, arugula, mustard greens and spinach): salad greens are a great choice because they grow very quickly (some can be ready to harvest 30 days after planting) and grow well under a variety of weather conditions.  Salad greens are often the first and last crop of the season (and many in between).

Tomatoes: nearly everyone wants tomatoes in the garden.  These huge plants are highly productive.  In Seattle, we recommend focusing on cherry tomatoes, which ripen more reliably in our climate and can provide an ongoing harvest for several weeks (or more) in the late summer and early fall.

Peppers: these plants love growing in the heat, so they might not be the most obvious choice for a Pacific Northwest garden, but we have found that many types of hot peppers and smaller sweet peppers are incredibly productive even during our mild summers.  Wait to plant these crops outdoors until the weather has really warmed up and then watch them take off.

Cilantro: this crop is notorious as a quick bolting crop (meaning that it sets flowers before you want it to).  The trick is to seed the crop into the garden very frequently.  We seed a new row of cilantro every single week during the main growing season so we always have a fresh supply of young, tender leaves.  Of course this means that you also have to remove the older, bolted plants just as frequently.  

Radish: the fastest growing crop in the garden, radishes can be ready for harvest in as little as 3 weeks after seeding.  You can plant radishes pretty much any time during the spring, summer or fall.  These are a great crop to fill in open spaces in the garden, even a few feet of space can provide a robust harvest.

Cucumbers: a very productive, vining crop, cucumbers are one of the most popular garden crops.  Feed these plants heavily (lots of organic fertilizer) and trellis them to keep fruit off the ground (we like to use tomato cages to trellis cucumbers).  Then just watch the harvest roll in.  
 Parsley: one of the easiest crops to grow, parsley is also arguably the most productive crop of all.  Simply plant a few parsley each spring and then reap the harvest all season long.  Since the plant is biennial, it will often resprout the following year, providing an early season harvest before the new spring plantings have matured.
 Beans: to keep a consistent supply, we recommend planting both pole beans and bush beans.  The pole beans take awhile to mature, but produce a consistent harvest for weeks on end in the middle and end of the summer season.  Bush beans grow much more quickly and can produce huge harvests off of just a few tiny plants.  
 Basil: of all the heat loving crops, basil is probably the most intolerant of cold weather conditions.  Also one of the most productive crops per plant in the universe, wait until weather has really warmed up before planting these outside (in Seattle we don’t plant basil until June).  Basil grows very quickly, so it is possible to get in a great harvest even if you get a late start.  
 Kale: based on social media analytics, kale was probably the most popular crop of 2014. This is understandable since the plants are beautiful, nutritious, very productive and very tolerant of a range of growing conditions.  On occasion, a healthy kale plant can produce a consistent harvest for 6 months or more.  For the record, we liked kale before it was cool.  

Spring Events

It's spring and that means plant nurseries and local gardening organizations are buzzing with activity! Here is short list of a few upcoming events we recommend:

Saturday April 11th:Molbaks Nursery Edible Gardening Weekend | April 11& 12, 11am-2pm
Ready to jump into edible gardening but don’t know where to start?  Join Molbaks for two days of expert advice, information-packed classes and savings good enough to eat!
As part of this event, Colin will be leading an edible garden design workshop on Saturday!10-11am Edible Garden Design with  Colin McCrate, Author of Food Grown Right, in Your Backyard, and Co-founder of Seattle Urban Farm Co.11am-2pm Master Gardener Plant Clinic11am-2pm Spring Recipe Tasting with Lisa Holman, MS and Selva Wohlgemuth, MS, Bastyr University Dietetic Interns12-1pm Backyard Berries with Lisa Taylor, Author of the Maritime Northwest Garden Guide, and Your Farm in the City: An Urban Dweller’s Guide to Growing Food and Raising AnimalsLooking Ahead:The popular Rooftop Dinner Series hosted by Bastille Cafe & Bar returns this summer for weekly Monday night dinners on the Bastille rooftop garden! Guests can arrive at 5:30pm for a rooftop garden tour with Seattle Urban Farm Company. The tour begins in the bar with a Rooftop Garden inspired cocktail to sip while exploring the garden. Guests are seated for dinner under a cabana overlooking the ship canal at 6:30pm. Save the date - tickets go on sale April 8th. Check out their blog for full details, ticket info, and a sample menu.