BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: maeve
Date: 26 Jan 12 - 07:35 PM

Because it's considered a "cold" manure, you don't have to let rabbit poop age... "

...one of the best manures for gardens. It has one of the highest levels of nitrogen...

Sounds like an idea, Bobert.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: katlaughing
Date: 26 Jan 12 - 08:52 PM

Bettynh, thank you! I love the wildflower mix, but think we'll probably try the Low Work Low Water Dwarf Fescue grass. Maybe we'll put part of it in the flower mix. I'd love some of them around the back, too. And, I have flax in my perennial garden. I love it, never thought to just scatter the seeds like that, though would have no way of watering them out back.

Thanks, again!

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Bobert
Date: 26 Jan 12 - 09:00 PM

Thanks, maeve.... Sounds like we have struck upon a goldmine of manures...

Still hunting, Kat...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Janie
Date: 26 Jan 12 - 10:51 PM

That's a good idea, Bobert. I guess I was thinking you needed to stay local re: hauling. When I started my garden in Hillsborough I soon learned that what wasn't hardpan in the front yard was fill dirt and ended up, a pick-up load at a time (+ 1 small dump truck load) importing dirt for the entire front garden. If you remember the photos, you have an idea of how much dirt got off-loaded and distributed by moi, a wheel barrow at a time. (It was hard work and it took me several months of steady work to do it, but I was 18 years younger than I am now. My degenerative joints and vertebrae couldn't repeat that feat today without landing me in a pain clinic or under a surgeon's knife.)

Anyhoo - Although I bought the topsoil from a local landscaper and bulk supplier, he had "imported" it from further east - Goldsboro springs to mind, but I can't really remember. It was beautiful garden soil. It was mostly a sandy loam into which had been incorporated well composted horse manure. It laid a really good foundation for the front garden that served me and the plants well for the next 12 years until I moved.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Bobert
Date: 27 Jan 12 - 08:59 AM

Yeah, Goldsboro is in Rockingham Couty, I believe, and is about 50 miles east of us... I think the transport costs will be about the same if I get 5 yards or 15 yards so we're going to try to get as much as we can and use my tractor to move around... No wheelbarrows for this job...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Janie
Date: 27 Jan 12 - 11:27 PM

Goldsboro is about 3 1/2 hours from you Bobert. I think you are looking for a sandy, blended, topsoil. My neighbor got good blended topsoil for his raised beds last year in Haw River, about 10 miles west of me. You may have to look further east than you live, but some landscape outfits between Burlington and Raleigh are close enough to the eastern part of the state that they regularly haul or have blended topsoil from the east. (Or haul sandy topsoil from the east and blend it themselves with compost.) I'm sure there are others, but call Mebane Shrubbery Market ((800)-448-5469 -number for their Burlington site, which is closest to you) and tell them what you are looking for. Also, Can Do Landscape Materials near Hillsborough, [phone]. It is a full-time but very much Mom and Pop/family operation.   Can Do is where I bought that soil I described. Talk to the Mr. and not to the Mrs. He will listen to what you want and will tell you whether or not he thinks the blended soil he has at any given time will fit the bill.

New garden topic. Next post.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: katlaughing
Date: 27 Jan 12 - 11:42 PM

No worries, Bobert, thanks. I think we'll go with the stuff in that link posted by Bettynh.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Jan 12 - 09:00 PM

It got cold again this weekend - I hope to get out into the yard one day soon. I had dinner with friends tonight and they have a new pet rabbit. I told her not to toss the droppings in the trash - dump it into the garden. The things we learn here at Mudcat!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Bobert
Date: 28 Jan 12 - 09:18 PM

Man, I ain't never gonna figure out where stuff is in NC... It's 7 hours to the Outer Banks from Charlotte!!?!?!?!... I thought Goldsboro was right down the street...

Never minf...

Thanks, Janie... I'll call 'um... We also have a line on someone who might be able to get us some loam outta South Caroline... We'll know soon...

Meanwhile, it's time to get seed together for this year's food...


Seen several cherries in bloom here... That ain't good... Way too early... Don't seem like we're gonna get winter this year then everything will bloom and then... BANG!!!... Deep freeze... No blooms for spring...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: maeve
Date: 29 Jan 12 - 07:21 AM

Here's a link to the newest USDA Hardiness Zone Map:
http://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/PHZMWeb/

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Janie
Date: 29 Jan 12 - 09:06 AM

The species Bridal Wreath spirea in my yard are starting to bloom. That ain't supposed to happen until March!

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Bobert
Date: 13 Feb 12 - 12:59 PM

Anyone have any info on using horse manure in a veggie garden???

My neighbor has three horses and she routinely cleans out their stalls and put the manure in a dump trailer... It fill up in about 3 months... She has a trailer full now but I'm not sure if I can mix it in with the loamy soil I am trying to create with what I have a available... I don't want to burn up anything and not sure how long the stuff needs to cook on its own before it is usable???

Any thoughts, ya'll???

B

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: maeve
Date: 13 Feb 12 - 04:21 PM

We have found horse manure to be a great help in loosening our clay soil and freeing up nutrients, with one warning: Horses tend to have many weed seeds in their manure, so it must be thoroughly composted or you WILL introduce more weeds than any gardener needs to battle in one lifetime.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Bobert
Date: 13 Feb 12 - 05:21 PM

That's what I was afraid if, Maeve... I was thinking that if I let it sit in a pile and compost that the heat would kill the seeds... Yes/No???

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: maeve
Date: 13 Feb 12 - 06:50 PM

If you keep it as a hot compost pile, yes. Our pile was way too big (6'x8'x80')to turn by hand and we didn't have a tractor then, so lots of weed seeds survived.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Bobert
Date: 13 Feb 12 - 06:56 PM

I can turn it, maeve, with my tractor... How long will it take and should I cover it with black plastic... It's not alot... Maybe 3 yards???

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: maeve
Date: 13 Feb 12 - 07:08 PM

This looks like very good information, Bobert:
http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/agdex7956

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Bobert
Date: 13 Feb 12 - 07:41 PM

Great site, maeve... All my questions now have answers... Looks like this pile ain't gonna be any good for a couple two months...

Meanwhile, it's a challenge to create enough usable top/loam/silt/clay combination to make enough soil to have a decent garden... We're going to do a raised bed (approx. 20 X 40) with well leached out RR ties to contain it on 3 sides... I've found some loamy areas and am using tractor to harvest and have about 4 yards of the approx 10 yards I think it will take to fill the box...

Hard work but we'll get there somehow...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Janie
Date: 13 Feb 12 - 09:36 PM

I should be getting a little raised bed ready to plant lettuce and mesclun mix but the knee won't let me. So I'm gonna wait until the end of the month and plant in pots.

Indoors, my ex sis-in-law sent me an amaryllis bulb from White Flower Farm at Christmas and it has been absolutely stunning. 3 blooming stems, the last one at it's peak right now.

I've been told, and wonder if any of you have experience with this, that if I let it go dormant and then plant it outside (in my case, in a pot) in late spring, it will bloom again in mid to late summer. Que?

I have less than 30 square feet of raised bed space for veggies, and only 2/3's of it gets 5-6 hours of sun in summer once the trees are leafed out. Too little space to rotate crops. I'm wondering how effective it would be to not worry about rotation but to simply replace the soil in these beds each year. My biggest concern is pathogens and soil-laid insect eggs. Do you think replacing the soil will be sufficient to control soil-borne pathogens over time?

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: freda underhill
Date: 14 Feb 12 - 05:38 AM

Kat

I have Australian
native violets as a groundcover around the stepping stones in my back yard. They are very hardy, grow and spread and are good in a a damp, shady, position. A groundcover of Australian native violets (Viola hederacea)is a beautiful alternative to a lawn.

They grow in eastern Australia and the Western Pacific Islands. The purple and white flowers grow more in the warmer months, but there's always a few flowers showing. If used instead of lawn native violet needs an occasional trim to stop it invading garden beds.

freda

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Feb 12 - 11:45 PM

Bobert and maeve, I envy you access to that horse manure. I am in a village surrounded by a city, and there are horses nearby, but I am not aware of any available manure. I'll have to ask.

Ruth Stout interview. You might enjoy this. Ruth Stout about her garden and some of the follow-up links that come after the video are interesting. She gardened in the nude and was one of the acolytes of Carrie Nation in Nation's early days. What a woman!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Bobert
Date: 15 Feb 12 - 07:50 AM

Well, I was looking at Ruth Stout's soil with complete envy... We don't have anything that comes close to looking like that...

I am harvesting a little top soil here and a little there with my tractor... The top soil in these parts, if there is any at all is about an inch deep before hitting shale... Shale is like concrete and won't even grow weeds... I'm finding that top soil back in the woods under the leaves...

We'll have to find some course sand and once I think I have about enough top soil to fill a 40 X 20 raised bed 8 inches deep then I'll mix the top soil and sand and fill it and see how it does...

Like Mrs. Stout, we mulch with straw... I've grown taters in straw, too, but find I get more yield out of pulling up loose mounds and planting in them...

Thanks, Magz, for the link...


B~

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Feb 12 - 12:35 PM

I had to mow my front lawn last night, I was afraid the tall weeds and grass might attract burglars. (It has in the past.) The back needs it next, but we had a thunderstorm pass over this morning, so perhaps by the weekend I'll head back there with the mower. Poor thing is falling apart - the back dragging flap thingie, whatever it is, came off. Now I hear the noise of the motor more.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Janie
Date: 15 Feb 12 - 10:39 PM

lovely and startling little patches of common speedwell appearing on warm days.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Feb 12 - 03:20 PM

Thick gooshy weeds killed the mower front and back this week.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Bobert
Date: 16 Feb 12 - 05:28 PM

..."killed the mower...??? What, Magz??? Yer mower died???

Been working on my old mower off and on this winter... I thought it was dead so I bought a new new Crapsman 18.5 HP one last September during their Labor Day sale (10% off mowers) and then it developed a bad noise so I called Sears and they sent out cool repair guy to fix it... I started talking to him about my old Crapsman and told him what it was doing and he told me that all it needed was new valve lifters... So I bought them and a head gasket and had them in a couple hours and it was running like new...

Then I figured that, seeing as it was running well, that I'd tackle fixing the slop in the steering which was slobber-knocker...

Now I've got a back up mower in case one goes down this summer...

As fir gardening???

There is a 20 bed on the east side of the house that had nothing but boring lirope and yopon hollies in it... I pulled them out last fall and we are going to do something more impressive with the bed sometime but, for now, it's going to be our lettuce, spinach, beets, onions bed... Step son and the P-Vine got it all prepped and planted yesterday...

Found old, but decent, RR ties about 7 miles from here just into SC... $8 each... Gonna use them to house the raised bed veggie garden...

Meanwhile, maples are ready to open... In February, no less!!!

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Feb 12 - 12:29 AM

Stall it out. I tip it back to kick out the pesto-style clippings from around the blade on my mulching mower, but I had to start it several times last night.

The dogs got a skunk tonight but only one got hit - the one who is supposed to be healthy and sweet-smelling and well-groomed so he can visit his owner in the rehab hospital. Geez. . . (Nature's Miracle Skunk Odor Remover is the best thing around, but it still takes several applications to work.)

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Janie
Date: 25 Feb 12 - 04:06 PM

Would love to be able to get out in the yard to do some clean-up and cutting back. Gonna send son to the store tomorrow for potting soil and at least get some greens and green onions started in pots.

The italian parsley self-sowed prolificly and I think that bed is high enough that I can bend straight-legged to thin it out. The red russian kale planted last spring needs fertilized for a good crop before it starts to send up flower stalks. Such a pretty color!

But, what I really want to say is thanks, Bobert, for that white hellebore I got from you the first Getaway I met you. After three years here the hellebores have finally established themselves in their new homes, and that one in particular is stunningly lovely this year - loaded with gracefully nodding, large creamy white blooms. It has babies around it that I will be transplanting. I hope some of them turn out to be as lovely.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Bobert
Date: 25 Feb 12 - 05:53 PM

Great, Janie... We don't have the white anymore so keep one of them babies for us... We do have a soft purple we'll trade ya'...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Janie
Date: 25 Feb 12 - 06:10 PM

Bobert, I most assuredly will. There are 4 or 5 tiny seedings coming up around the mother plant. I'll dig out the ones not too close to the crown when the weather gets a little milder and your name will be on half of whatever I dig.

This was a division from a plant in your West Virginia garden, before you moved to Luray. I dug it up and brought it with me when I moved.

I've not transplanted hellebore seedlings before. I understand from what I've read that I need to dig surprisingly deep. I want to have a care for the roots of the "mother" plant in doing so. Any one have words of wisdom or other advise to increase the chances of success?

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Janie
Date: 25 Feb 12 - 06:30 PM

Helleborus niger. Do you recall if it is a cultivar or the species?

Whichever, it is beautiful. I would love sweeps of them under the trees in my front lawn.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Janie
Date: 03 Mar 12 - 11:17 AM

Not good. 6-8 weeks before danger of frost is past and my mophead hydrangea is leafing out.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 Mar 12 - 12:53 PM

I'm gnashing teeth today - so much yard work to do, it's a nice day, and I have a stupid head cold that has me up to the eyeballs with decongestants, cough syrup, etc. I'm sick of it, especially when it kills a weekend!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Janie
Date: 03 Mar 12 - 01:04 PM

It's too wet to work in the yard here today even if I were out of this brace, although I did have some silly idea before I took a gimpy walk around the place that I could go out and at least cut back some stuff, even with the knee immobilizer.

I'm gonna be so glad when I am out of the danged thing. 17 more days - but whose counting:<(

When my son gets home, though, I think I will have him go pick up some potting soil and help me at least get some greens seeded to grow in a few pots I can sit in sunny places in the yard.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Bobert
Date: 03 Mar 12 - 01:21 PM

Bot too sure, Janie... It's an old cultivator and we got it from the P-Vine's gardening mentor, Barbara Alexander, who has been written up in "Carolina Gardener" and has a large stand of them in a shady part of her garden...

Tomato and pepper seedlings up... 100% germination... Going to have to find another 10 yards of fill somewhere in the woods before setting the railroad ties and filling with my mix of loam, top soil, clay, sand and maybe pematil or pea gravel... Because the area tends to be a tad wet I'm going to put in 3 French drains under it which will move water into the pond...

Wildflowers peeping up in the woods... Found a stand of wild orchids... Ginger everywhere... Will be interesting to see what all is back in the woods and along the 2 streams...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Bobert
Date: 05 Apr 12 - 07:18 AM

Well, well, well...

We are enjoying the hundreds of azaleas we moved here to NC... The Kharoma Sheikibo was about the 1st but we now have at least 100 in bloom...

The permanent veggie garden will have to wait until next year as the area where it will finally be located is still too wet to get into and install three French drains under it... We've had so much rain that nothing quite ever dries out before yet more rain... But we'll use 10 gallon containers and the two 12 X 6 raised beds and the pool area behind the house is going to look more like a nursery/farm than a pool...

Went to "Natives of the Blue Ridge" last week and bought a number of spring wild flowers that we haven't found here... Also found some May Apple on the side of the road and borrowed a couple...

Happy gardening...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: gnu
Date: 05 Apr 12 - 02:13 PM

Bobert... do you use a filter fabric over and on the sides of your French drains? or some other type of "material", be it plastic or whatever?

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Bobert
Date: 05 Apr 12 - 02:31 PM

Yeah, gn-ze... The "paper" (cloth) that is best is a white fabric that is synthetic and doesn't break down but you can us the plastic landscape cloth, as well... Lots of gravel, of course...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: gnu
Date: 05 Apr 12 - 02:48 PM

As an engineer, I am familar with a wide variety of filter fabrics not only for drainage systems but for soils reinforcement. Amazing stuff... build roads over bogs without culverts and so on and much less fill and environmental damage.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Bobert
Date: 05 Apr 12 - 08:17 PM

Yeah... Some cool stuff gn-ze...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Apr 12 - 02:36 PM

I just posted some photos and remarks on a DirtDoctor.org pests forum so people can see what it is that is clobbering their gardens. And a few of the things I've done to treat them. I put out beneficial nematodes today. They'll deal with cutworms, tobacco hornworms, fleas, fire ants, etc.

Since I regularly call and write into a local Friday question and answer program on my NPR station, one of my answers about these from last week was read on the air today. I also called in with another answer and mentioned these again, so I went ahead and put up a new post just to do with cutworms so people can find it easily.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Bobert
Date: 06 Apr 12 - 05:20 PM

We have canker worms... Lots of them... They will start climbing soon so tomorrow I'm going to put tape around the oak trees to discourage them... BTW, the tape is very inexpensive...

We've gotten our second cutting of kale and lettuce and arugela going to bed... Spinach coming along nicely... Squash seeds planted... Tomato (6 varieties), pepper (3 varieties) and eggplant (2 varieties) seedlings all up and pretty... They'll go in in the next few days...

The P-Vine's mentor, Barbara Alexander who has been written up in "Carolina Gardener" magazine, was over yesterday and the two of them worked all day on design...

Starting to look pretty good around here...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: LilyFestre
Date: 06 Apr 12 - 05:40 PM

Even though we've had a nice stretch of weather here in north central PA, it's still too early to do much gardening other than getting the soil ready for when planting time does arrive. To that measure, we have pigs in a movable pen and they are doing a fantastic job of loosening up the soil and rooting around. :) I did start some sprouts in jars the other day. The seed has started to sprout but it will be a day or two before they are ready for use.

I am hoping to plant lettuce in just a few minutes (if Jeremiah allows it!) in movable pots so I can bring them in at night. I know they like cold weather but the temperature ranges have been extreme...so I'll bring them in. In fact, the temps have been in the 70s and then dropped to below freezing. Several of our fruit trees have blossoms on them and have had to be covered at night. Last year we lost most of our peach crop to this kind of silliness. Now that I'm thinking about it, I'm thinking some peas will go in the garden this weekend.

I'm looking forward to playing in the dirt with my family. :)

Michelle

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Apr 12 - 06:31 PM

Bobert, do you use beneficial nematodes, or tricograma wasps?

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Janie
Date: 06 Apr 12 - 07:44 PM

No gardening allowed, not even weeding, until the rehab has progressed a bit more (going well, btw,) but I sure am enjoying watching stuff grow.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Bobert
Date: 06 Apr 12 - 08:01 PM

No, Magz... Can you give me the "condensed" story on them???

Sorry, Janie... You'd have to laugh if you watched me garden... I have a little roll-ie thing that I can sit on which allows me to be a one handed gardener... Did your kharomo sheikibu bloom???

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Janie
Date: 06 Apr 12 - 10:21 PM

It is still blooming, Bobert, though starting to fade. This year was the best yet. Also, one of the later azaleas you and p-vine gave me that p-vine started from seed is blooming beautifully. I potted it up into an azalea pot fall of 2010. The label got knocked out somewhere along the line by squirrels digging in pots so I don't know which it is. Frilly blooms, white, going to pink toward the edges. Not so delineated in color shift as to be called picoteed.

The old established azaleas in the yard are hit hard by a flower blight. Much worse this year than last. Last year was the first year I realized there is a problem. I'm new to azaleas. There were a bunch of them here, but only three varieties. The first year I simply thought at end of bloom time, the flowers turned brown. Last year I realized the flowers were supposed to drop petals, not turn brown and cling. This year, the earliest azaleas did not have as many blooms, and are turning soggy brown. The later azaleas are now developing symptoms. The kharomo sheikibu, which is the only one of the three you have gifted me with that is in the ground is so far unaffected, though azalea lacebugs continue to be an issue. The diciduous azalea has not yet bloomed and has no buds this year, and the pretty white/pink is so far not blighted. I am hesitant to plant out either of the two in pots unless or until I figure out what to do about the blight.

Manhy of the azaleas here were old and leggy and dying out, even after rejuvenation pruning and root pruning, particularly in one old island bed. There are three varieties, planted mostly in clumps and the clumps are quite distant from one another. However, all the existing clumps are showing signs of the disease. I had planned on replacing the azaleas in that bed with the ones you gave me until I noticed the blight last year. Now I'm holding off on doing anything and keeping the pots isolated on a far side of the house away from all the planted azaleas, hoping the spores don't spread to them.

I'm really handicapped right now. I can't take on a major spraying project,and if the blight is such that it can be controlled but not eliminated I don't know what the future holds for azaleas in my yard. If I were physically able, what I would do right now is cut all the azaleas back to nearly the ground, bag up the branches, leaves and blooms, rake out all the existing leaf mulch and bag it to be hauled away, and then figure out how to proceed from there.

This place, in terms of light and acidity is made for azaleas and rhodies. Haven't seen any good suggestions for organic control. Haven't absolutely identified the disease.   Don't know what to do at this point. Also haven't done enough research to know how controllable this flower blight may be.

Frustrated that I can't get down to dig up baby hellebores. Solomon Seal is looking good. Iris borers are chewing their way down through the leaves of the irises from my great and great-great grandparents' graves. Will set them back a season but I should be fit enough to dig them up, cut out the damaged roots and replant by mid-summer. They will be salvagable.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Bobert
Date: 06 Apr 12 - 10:37 PM

Yeah, Janie... Chainsaw pruning does seem to work on old azaleas... Kinda pisses them off and makes 'um want to show you a thing or two???

Weird plants???

The canker worms are doing more damage to ours than blossom end blight and other problems...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Apr 12 - 12:04 AM

http://www.dirtdoctor.com/Beneficial-Nematodes_vq2139.htm will take you to an article about them at the organic site I use all of the time. In short:

Beneficial nematodes should be used for soil-borne pests. Overall broadcasting is best. Spot treating helps if the budget dictates. In an organic program one treatment a year is usually enough. No, they do not hurt the beneficials. Apply per the label instructions for the control of fleas, ticks, grubworms, termites, fire ants and roaches. Beneficial nematodes are just one of the beneficial microbes that exist in healthy soil. That's why they seem to control more pests than they are supposed to.

He puts out a weekly newsletter you could subscribe to. The lower part of the page is one of the newsletters he put out a while back.

This is the place that sells the type I use: I use the jar that treats up to 1/4 acre and put it around the house, on the vegetable gardens, and in the turf area in the back yard closest to the house and in a couple of corners where the dogs hang out. The bottle gives instructions for fire ants, and they tell you to visit the web site for the other instructions. (I've copied and posted these instructions before, but now you can get it at the web site: http://www.gulfcoastbiotics.com.

They're living organisms so you need to keep them refrigerated until you use them, but don't freeze and don't let them get too warm. There is a "use by" date on the top and you should buy them through the mail or from a merchant that keeps them in a fridge.

Using something like this in the garden means fewer pests like grub worms, cut worms, horn worms, etc. They won't all go away, but there will be fewer. I don't have fleas in the yard for all of the years I have had dogs because I use this along with treating the dogs.

The jar comes with a mix that looks kind of like moist peat moss. You get a container that holds at least a quart of water, and pour the contents into that quart of cool water. Let it sit for about 10 minutes, stir it a bit, then there is a paper screen they give you with the bottle (if they don't offer it, ask). You pour some of the contents through into a hose end sprayer bottle and set it to 2 tsp per gallon, but if it doesn't seem to draw down very fast you can go to 4 tsp per gallon (the screen gets most of the grit, but it can slow the drawing of the liquid out of the jar).

It's important that you do this early or late, not in the hot part of the day, and you need to have watered or had a rain right before so the nematodes have a chance to get into the soil while it's moist. We had a heavy rain on Tuesday and I put these out early today so it probably took.

I have some other microorganisms I use. BT for hornworms (in a spray that goes just on the affected plants, don't broadcast or you'll harm butterflies) and I use is a mycorrhizal fungal product. Do you know when you turn the old compost or the soil and you see those thin white fungal fibres in the soil? That's mycorrhizal fungi, and it is beneficial, it shows lots of healthy biological activity in your soil. You can get a product you add to your watering can or hose end sprayer that adds more to your soil. Scroll down in the Library under the M page and you'll see a number of entries about mycorrhizal fungi. There are several garden products out there called "Thrive," but the one by AlfaBIO systems (Click the photo for a message from Howard Garrett, who runs the Dirt Doctor site).

This gives you enough for now. Poke around the library or the forum for information about specific issues and see if he has good answers. The beneficial nematodes are something I put out once a year every year or two. I need to pick up some trichogramma wasps and staple the little cards on a post in the garden to help with some of the other pests (though BT is still my best defense for things like squash borers). Because ants will pick the eggs off of the card before they hatch, I put a shallow garden saucer in the middle of the garden, fill it with water, and put a brick with holes in it. I stable the card to a 1 x 1/2 furring strip that is a couple of feet long and fits into the hole in the brick. This keeps the ants off of the card and the wasps can hatch.

I hope you're paying attention this time. I get tired of typing this every couple of years!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat Gardeners 2012
From: Matt_R
Date: 07 Apr 12 - 12:39 AM

Getting ready to start our little 6-foot by 6-foot garden out back. We first grew veggies in 2010 but let it run to weeds last year while raising the newborn. Now that she's a toddler, were ready to plant again once the 15th rolls around. This time were going to plant stuff we actually like to eat, instead of about 7 million tomatoes. Looks like this year, leaf lettuce, spinach, pumpkins, my beloved banana peppers and perhaps some potatoes are on the docket.