Unity Farm Journal Second Week of August 2016

Running an organic farm means that you have to manage animals and plants in concert with the trials and tribulations nature throws in your path. You must become an expert on predator/prey, disease/cure, and seasonal variation. How do you deal with wet/dry, hot/cold, light/dark, insects/rodents, planting/harvesting rhythms etc.For example we know that flea beetles, which eat eggplant leaves die in July.  Thus we raise eggplant seedlings indoors and plant them in July.We know what tomato hornworm damage looks like so we can rapidly find the hot dog sized caterpillars and feed them to the chickens.This week ’s issue isblack sooty mold on the basil.  Earlier in the season we had aphids on the young tomato plants.  The aphids, by drilling into plant tissues, created a layer of “honeydew” on the leaves that was infected by mold.  That mold spread to the nearby basil and some of the leaves are yellowing.  Our approach has been to spray a very dilute organic sulfur solution (.4%, OMRI certified) on the undersides of the basil leaves, which kills the mold.  When we harvest the leaves, we carefully remove any damage and wash the remaining plants so they are perfect. Greenhouses and hoop houses can be very humid and shield plants from drying breezes, so it ’s clear we need to step up our hoop house airflow to reduce mold problems in the future.We ’re also struggling a bit with cucumber beetle - they disrupt the vascular system of pl...
Source: Life as a Healthcare CIO - Category: Information Technology Source Type: blogs