2012 Maine Gardening Thread! (Standish: coop, house, buy)

[birdinmigration]

Great tips and advice on the 'Hunker Down' thread! So I thought I would finally spin this off.

From beltrams:

Not to turn this into a Maine gardening thread, but are you sure it's just slugs that are making your plants disappear overnight? When entire seedlings disappear overnight in the spring it suggests other critters as well. If the seedling appears to be cut off just above the soil with a fair part of the plant left on the ground, especially this time of year, that's the work of cutworms....actually a caterpillar larvae of a moth that overwinters in the soil, wakes up, gets hungry, and crawls out of the ground at night for a meal on your plants, then crawls back into its hole. Plant collars such as retiredtinbender suggests help on cutworms. Spraying BT and hand picking cutworms by flashlight after dark help too. You might have both slugs and cutworms, with the latter doing more of the actual damage than you think.

Entire plants disappearing overnight can be the work of rabbits and deer as well, if those things are around your yard. Electric fence netting stops rabbits and if you add a higher strand of electric rope (4 feet high or so), stood off outside that netting by 3 or so feet, the deer will be blocked as well. (Deer have poor depth perception and don't usually jump over such a "3D" fence.) Plants disappearing mainly during the day means woodchucks. Electric netting stops them too.

Electric netting will also block the racoons that come along later in the season for your sweet corn.

**************

Great tips, beltrams! I am not sure what is eating everything. I just have dispatched so many slugs the past few years. The back of my property is woody and marshy. My veggie garden has a wood fence with chicken wire lining it. I don't think it's big critters.

[Maine Writer]

The only time I mulch is when a blight might be a problem. A lot of blights live in the soil. Watering plants can splash the spores onto the plants and give it a good start. You can help prevent those blights by pulling the leaves off the plant 12" to 18" up the stem when the plant has enough leaves above that point to maintain health and growth. Mulching creates a barrier between the soil and plant. Water deeply once a week rather than often. I use IRT rather than straw on the tomatoes.

Late blight, Phytophthora infestans, comes in on a carrier and in the wind. It will die in about four hours if it doesn't have a live host plant. This is the blight that turns a healthy plant into a pile of black mush in a few days. If you suspect you have an infected plant you should carefully cover the plant with a trash bag, close the bag tightly around the stem and pull it out of the ground. Get rid of it immediately.

The weather we're having right now, cool and damp, is perfect for blights. Late blight usually stops sporating at 85*. A hot, dry summer is the best way to avoid infection.

You mentioned chickens in the other thread. They cause more damage than the ducks do in my garden but they are good pest killers. Turkeys are helpful too. Ducks don't eat my tomatoes but chickens and turkeys will take a bite and move on to the next plant, take a bite and spot another tomato, take a bite and move on. They can do a lot of damage quickly. They were happy to have bolting lettuce and beets thrown over the fence this morning. If I can't let them out I at least give them fresh greens daily. They process spent plants faster than composting.

[birdinmigration]

Great stuff, MW! I am printing this out and the advice you gave in the Hunker Down thread.

This is clearer and more succinct than even my big Rodale's. I remember when everyone was afflicted with blight a couple of years ago, the word was that it came in on the seedlings from the 'big box' stores, like Walmart, from "The South". I got most of my seedlings locally from my CSA in Standish, but confession, I did get a couple of tomato plants from Home Depot. I guess it must have spread. You could just see these beautiful plants and numerous tomatoes and huge pumpkins wither and rot on the vine before they even had a chance.

Q: what is IRT?

Sounds like you have turkeys, ducks and chickens, right? Is this a lot of work, particularly in winter? What is their coop like? Did you build it yourself?

[Maine Writer]

Originally Posted by birdinmigration

This is clearer and more succinct than even my big Rodale's.

Good! I like to keep gardening simple.

I remember when everyone was afflicted with blight a couple of years ago, the word was that it came in on the seedlings from the 'big box' stores, like Walmart, from "The South". I got most of my seedlings locally from my CSA in Standish, but confession, I did get a couple of tomato plants from Home Depot. I guess it must have spread. You could just see these beautiful plants and numerous tomatoes and huge pumpkins wither and rot on the vine before they even had a chance.

That info is correct. The state of Maine allowed that nursery to ship in plants the following year and I'm sure they did again this year. I don't buy any seedlings. Ever. I start everything msyelf and until this year, sold thousands of seedlings each year. I lost all of my tomatoes and potatoes to late blight anyway. Sometimes it doesn't matter how careful you are. We can't control the wind. I lost all of the tomato plants outside last year to late blight when the hurricane blew through and brought blight spores with it. I closed the high tunnels before the wind started and didn't open them unless there wasn't a breeze. I was sick to death of picking tomatoes in October.

Q: what is IRT?

IRT stands for infra-red transmissible. It's a plastic mulch bought on a roll. You roll it out, tack it down, burn or cut the holes for the seedlings, and leave down the entire growing season. It helps warm the soil and control weeds. I order it from Fedco or Johnny's.

Sounds like you have turkeys, ducks and chickens, right? Is this a lot of work, particularly in winter? What is their coop like? Did you build it yourself?

Yup, all three. It's not a lot of work. It's easier in the warm months. I open their door from the hen house (chickens and turkeys together) to the pen in the morning, make sure they have food and clean water, collect eggs and that's it for the day. I'm lazy so the water pan is under the eaves and gets filled by the rain. If it doesn't rain I fill it with the hose. The hopper holds 25 lbs of food. At night I close the door after they go in for the night, pick up the eggs and that's it. If they're free ranging I keep at least one of the farm dogs with them to keep them safe. Same thing for the ducks that live in the barn, except that they're messy and need their pool cleaned out once or twice a day. In the winter I carry water to them. They get a little more than they can drink if the temp is below freezing. No sense in having to clean ice out of the containers every time I water them.

We did build the barn the ducks are in but the hen house has a story. It's a cabin that we were given to house our Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs. DH and Dad cut a few tamarack trees, some how wedged them under the cabin to make a skid and the next morning, just before sunrise, DH dragged it 1.5 miles to the house behind the truck. I'm sure a neighbor had to look more than once to be sure he was seeing a cabin being towed by a truck, and not a hallucination from the previous night's drunk. I muck the birds' homes out as needed. The meat chickens and turkeys live in chicken tractors that are moved around on grass. If I have an empty spot in the garden I put them on that so that they eat weed seeds, dig up weeds and fertilize for me.

[Zymer]

Late blight, Phytophthora infestans, comes in on a carrier and in the wind. It will die in about four hours if it doesn't have a live host plant. This is the blight that turns a healthy plant into a pile of black mush in a few days.

Sounds like what I've had for the last two or three years. Seems to hit the squash and pumpkins hard, overnight they go black and dead.

[Maine Writer]

Originally Posted by Zymer

Sounds like what I've had for the last two or three years. Seems to hit the squash and pumpkins hard, overnight they go black and dead.

That's a Phytophthora. It will also destroy peppers, certain kinds of beans and eggplant.

[birdinmigration]

Originally Posted by Maine Writer

That's a Phytophthora. It will also destroy peppers, certain kinds of beans and eggplant.

It's all those diphthongs. They kill a plant dead.

[Zymer]

Originally Posted by Maine Writer

That's a Phytophthora. It will also destroy peppers, certain kinds of beans and eggplant.

Well, that may be an answer to several problems that I've noticed with some of my trees as well. After reviewing a number of articles on the various species, some of which can also be hosted by trees, I'm still at a loss as to how to control/eradicate it. There were some recommendations as to using raised beds, crop rotation, and using drip irrigation as opposed to spray, plus using copper-based controls...but none of the articles seemed particularly optimistic as to success.

I had previously been thinking that it was powdery or downy mildew and was going to experiment with diluted milk sprays but maybe it would be a waste of time?

Any suggestions?

[Maine Writer]

Originally Posted by Zymer

Well, that may be an answer to several problems that I've noticed with some of my trees as well. After reviewing a number of articles on the various species, some of which can also be hosted by trees, I'm still at a loss as to how to control/eradicate it. There were some recommendations as to using raised beds,

Raised beds won't do much for blights. If it's a blight (there are many) that lives in the soil you have to clean everything up. If it's a blight that lives on plant matter you have to clean everything up. Raised bed or flat ground, you have to take care of the soil.

crop rotation

The further away you can move plants from an infected area the better. Moving potatoes and tomatoes three rows away from soil harboring spores isn't going to be very helpful.

, and using drip irrigation as opposed to spray,

I agree with this one. Drip irrigation doesn't splash spores onto plants, doesn't soak leaves and is a more efficient use of water.

plus using copper-based controls...but none of the articles seemed particularly optimistic as to success.

Copper works but it has to be used carefully.

I had previously been thinking that it was powdery or downy mildew and was going to experiment with diluted milk sprays but maybe it would be a waste of time?

The best thing you can do to control disease is know what you're dealing with. Blight doesn't look like powdery mildew. They're easy to tell apart. That's a plus. If you use raw milk you might get some mildew control. If it's an ongoing problem I'd choose PM resistant varieties, give them plenty of space to allow for good air circulation (should do this for most plants) and treat according to the label on whatever you use.

Good soil goes a long way toward preventing pests and disease. A healthy plant can put up a good fight.

[birdinmigration]

Got Item: manual push mower. Call me crazy, but how hard can it be...