I agree that your crop is simply dying back mid-season as the cultivar is apt to do. Such dying back is often accompanied by an increase in fungal disease organisms, but that is normal. In potato production, farmers often think of the season as a race between the plant and its may fungal pathogens. The holes in the leaves look like flea beetle damage. Potato flea beetles
It may be spotted wing drosophila (a species of fruit fly recently spreading across N. America). I don't know much about management, but you might look it up by that name and see what research has been done in B.C. for organic fruit growers. Washington State University has also done a fair bit of work with this beast. It is very difficult to manage in larger scale farms, I know that.
Something I notice is that small birds like finches, juncos, and sparrows like to hang out in piles of pruned branches during the winter. I've not done it yet, but I plan on putting such piles of branches on garden plots during the winter to accumulate bird droppings on a small area. Not sure how effective it will be, but worth a try.
We moved to our place in Colorado last year. It has bindweed on almost every square meter of the 3 acres that are not under concrete or house. So, I've learned a bit about bindweed. ;-) In the lawn-like or pasture-like areas it can be held somewhat in check by giving soil fertility (e.g. manure) and water, which leads to grass outcompeting bindweed. In the veg garden I just pull or break off stems that emerge in my beds (I spend a few minutes weeding several times every day). My hope is to keep it in check. With the level of infestation common on our place and our whole valley, eradication (or anything close) is impossible in my reasonable period of time. Its flowers are kind of pretty in the lawn!
One strategy I read, and that I use in our more marginal ground, is to let the plants emerge and start to flower before pulling or cutting them off. The idea is that the roots have expended a lot of energy to make vines and flowers and decapitating the plants at that point speeds the gradual weakening of the plant.
I like your idea of sharing your land, offering someone a chance to live and work on your place. I've thought about doing something like that on our place, which is probably too big for us to manage from fence to fence. I cannot offer you any help except interest and encouragement! And, I love bugs too. www.aphidtrek.org.
I've been an aphid enthusiast and expert for 30+ years (https://aphidtrek.org/). As somebody mentioned elsewhere, there are thousands of aphid species, each with different biology, behavior, and most importantly, host plant preferences. In my garden I generally don't worry about most species of aphids very much. With good crop and plant diversity, ground cover of plants or organic material, there should be plenty of biocontrol to help you out. Also, many aphids will go away on their own during the heat of summer. There are exceptions. I'll try to squish and otherwise eliminate cabbage aphid because its waxy coating (some predators are dissuaded by the wax) and habit of living deep in the inflorescences or curled leaves mean that it will persist throughout the summer. Once, on my apples, I had a roaring conspiracy between ants and an apple feeding specialist aphid called Aphis pomi, the ants helping the aphids stay abundant all summer, which is rare in tree feeding aphids. I prevented the ants from accessing the aphids for one summer (using sticky traps wrapped around the trunks), and the cycle was broken. That said, many ants, when tending aphids, are not actually protecting them; they are simply gathering honeydew and harvesting aphids as needed as well.
Bottom line for me is that the key principal of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is important here: know what species of insect you have (i.e., not just a broad category like "aphids" or "caterpillars"). Knowing this means you can predict your insect's biology and host range, and then you can act accordingly.
We just got some for free from a local nursery -- they gave us some of a size they no longer use. I see them on the side of the road all the time too, having blown out of yards.
Bean cooking aspects I've not seen mentioned in recent posts include adding some baking soda to the cooking water. For cooking 2 cups dry beans I use about a teaspoon of soda. This helps soften the beans and they cook more uniformly and quicker too. Also, as the pot of beans comes to a boil I scoop off any foam that forms.
Over the years of transitioning to an almost vegan diet, I've apparently developed a different gut flora such that beans and lentils make me feel good, and meat gives me gas. So, I think there is hope for recovery from the beans and gas issue.
All I can add here is that the first three dogwood or cherry photos are indeed a dogwood. The fourth one is probably some kind of cherry. It reminds me of nanking cherry, but being a in western N. America, I might not know enough to be helpful for you.
I've lived in large-scale ag areas of northwestern U.S. most of my life. I have to say the trend in land ownership is not uplifting. Some farmers do cultivate younger partners to take over their operations. Some retirees lease their land to younger growers who need to expand to compete. Most of the land I saw exchange hands from older growers, however, has gone to large corporate entities. Often those are absentee landlords like Bill Gates, often corporations like ConAgra, Simplot, or in central Washington the LDS church, a religious group called Hutterian Brethren, and large "family farms" that control tens of thousands of acres.
We lucked into buying a house on three acres of fantastic soil in long-term rotational cattle grazing that we are converting to garden and food forest. It was split off by the rancher/owner at retirement age because he wanted to become a snow-bird living in his 5th wheel, ranching during summer, living in Arizona during winter. I sit here and dream about him selling the rest of his 80 acres to small permaculturists a few to several acres at a time. I wish he could and would.
It's still getting into the teens F most nights, but the overwintering spinach and chard is thinking about growing during warm afternoons. That's pretty enough for me!
I would consider squash bugs. They congregate on plants and fruits, and can be sneaky and hard to find mid-season when there is a lot of foliage. But, I've never done experiments or much literature research on the issue to be sure that little fruits are actually caused by them.
The University of Idaho has a comprehensive book: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-39157-7 It is aimed at large-scale producers, but information in there would still apply in various ways to gardeners. The book at the link is the revised version. The previous version would be fine for garden-level info and might be found used somewhere. The university might still have old copies based on this web page: https://www.extension.uidaho.edu/detail.aspx?IDnum=1636
Not sure if people appreciate this kind of share on these forums, but I recently discovered this YouTube channel from Azerbaijan. Lots of videos of small farm projects, but mostly wood-fired cooking and food preservation. They are inspiring for me, and might be for some of you as well.
Cody DeBaun wrote:I see a 'The New Enchanted Broccoli Forest' from booksellers, do you by chance know if its worth seeking out the original, vs the new one?
Alas, I've not seen this new edition, but might seek it out. The original book was lost somewhere in the chaos of my young adulthood. I've been cooking vegetarian Indian food for years, but lack a good cookbook for vegetarian food of other types.
I've been making most of the bread for my family for a few decades now. I use variations on a basic bread recipe and method first learned from the cookbook, "The Enchanted Broccoli Forest." The careful instructions and drawings of the bread-making process in that book were extremely helpful back when my kids were babies and I was figuring all this out. If you are new to bread making, I suggest looking through this book.
Two other hints I have relate to ending up with a healthy everyday bread with good texture. First, I always add pureed fruit, in our house it is usually cooked squash or pumpkin, but apple or pear sauce work well too. I've found fruit in bread helps with a soft and uniform final texture, which I prefer (I know soft bread is horrible to some people ;-) ). For three loaves of bread I use 2 or 3 cups of fruit in place of some of the water. Another ingredient I swear by is dark molasses. This also seems to lead to a nice final texture, and I use only a few tablespoons for my usual 3-loaf process.
Depending on the pathogen you are facing, the previous advice may be spot on. But, if you have a soil-borne pathogen like Verticillium infecting the roots and stems, then replacing the tomato plant may be the best option. Verticillium comes in species and within-species categories called vegetative compatibility groups. These are often rather host-specific at the level of plant family or thereabouts. Fusarium also has many species and plant-specific types. So, depending on what you've grown in that spot in previous years, you might be OK with almost any unrelated plant family. Maybe beans, chard, or some big crucifer?
Tests exist in many diagnostic labs to determine the pathogen species involved and even to determine its host plant affiliations. Those cost money of course, and may take weeks to get results, but it might be worth it for planning future years' gardens.
On the other hand, some wilts are caused by non-specific bacteria. But, bacterial wilts are often slimy and icky, looking very different from fungal wilts.
We are also in the midst of converting 2.5 acres of pasture into permaculture/food forest. We are gradually planting small trees into the now very tall pasture. My plan is to get trees established in the coming couple years and gradually replace pasture plants with things people can eat. The good things about tall pasture include that it holds soil moisture, supports lots of biodiversity, and suppresses invasive weeds, all while we figure out a plan for converting from pasture to food forest. I am hoping observations made as trees establish and start growing will guide our decisions about building around the trees.
I have little insight for you, but was interested to see someone else in a similar situation to us, albeit in a very different climate/habitat.
Interesting discussion about potatoes. Just a couple quick points: potato varieties are not really determinate or indeterminate like tomatoes, but they trend in one direction or the other. For example, Russet Norkotah, the most common fresh market russet, is thought of as determinate, while a common processing variety called Alturas is considered indeterminate. The gradation from 'determinate' to 'indeterminate' in potato varieties is probably one reason it's not talked about much in seed sales.
An important issue not discussed in this thread is inherent tuber dormancy. This varies dramatically across potato varieties. Some have genetically programmed dormancy of up to 200 days, others are dormant for only a couple weeks post-harvest. So, this idea of planting potatoes in the fall for spring harvest is most likely to succeed with long-dormancy varieties (in addition to places with moderate winters or good snow cover during extreme cold).
What a great resource these forums are -- I was just about to post something about lentils and found this long thread! I was glad to see others have used lentils as cover crops and have not reported any reasons that is a bad idea. I've been using lentils for years as a quick way to get roots in the soil after harvest of annual crops. I always use brown lentils from the grocery store, and simply scatter them fairly thickly and lightly rake the soil. Germination seems to be darn near 100%. They are very cold tolerant, although I lack info on just how cold tolerant. I use the tops for mulch when the next crops need to go in, and gradually pull lentils as crops need more space.
You've gotten some good suggestions so far. I'd especially encourage planting in hills to avoid waterlogging. But mostly, your problem may be late blight, the disease that was involved in the famous Irish famine. This disease is facilitated by wet warm weather with high humidity. Once it gets going in an area, there is little that can stop it. Large-scale potato farmers manage it mostly through preventative fungicide applications (copper compounds in organic production, synthetics in conventional ag). The suggestion of late blight resistant varieties is really important. I know of one that was developed by research colleagues of mine, called Defender. I think it is still available from some online seed suppliers. It does not perform competitively in the U.S. potato industry, but it was imported by Bangladesh to support their farmers and communities.
Andy Jensen wrote:I have relatively little experience, but I have grown perennial chard, which was nice. I've overwintered regular chard too, and gotten a few months of harvest in the spring before bolting.
I didn't know regular chard could be overwintered in 5b. I do have about a dozen white stemmed chard and another dozen perpetual spinach that I've been growing since May. Do you use row covers or did you have an unusually mild winter when they overwintered? Or can they withstand -10F to 0F temps unprotected? Or are they like parsley, tops die back but then it grows back from roots?
I actually overwintered chard in a harsher place than where I am now. I cut back the big leaves and covered the plants with fallen tree leaves. I forget what the weather was like that winter -- it might have been a snowy one, which adds to the insulation.
I have relatively little experience, but I have grown perennial chard, which was nice. I've overwintered regular chard too, and gotten a few months of harvest in the spring before bolting.
If I lived west of the Cascades I'd try salmon berry, Rubus spectabilis. It is shade tolerant but can also do well with more sun. Fruits are big and mild tasting.
I totally agree with the advice to try to enjoy the process!
The comments about growing mostly or only fragile annuals is a good one. Personally, we are lucky enough to be putting our new gardening system into a piece of ground (2 acres-ish) in long-term pasture. The plant diversity is strong, soil in fantastic shape, and abundance and diversity of beneficial organisms extreme (for example, the soils are often swarming with wolf spiders and predatory big-eyed bugs). So, as we plan our site, I am strategizing how to maintain that diversity by retaining large patches of diverse pasture plants, wildflowers, etc. as habitat and attractors for that helpful diversity. My point relative to your question is that perhaps you can wedge into your garden some permanent biodiversity habitats: let the grass grow tall, plant in some flowers, etc. It'll take time to develop, but that might be a long-term strategy in addition to soil-building, which it sounds like you understand the need for.
I would strongly urge use of wood posts along the lines of what has been suggested, depending on what you have available. Trees in the juniper/cedar group last for decades. Another one ranchers in western USA use is black locust. There was a very interesting experiment done here in the western U.S. that looked at the life of posts of various compositions: different species and different treatment chemicals. Some species can be expected to last 30 or more years without chemical treatment. I've previously found the experiment's results searching on Google, but could not replicate that success just now...
In addition to what has already been suggested, it might help to have the diseases and arthropod pests identified. A disease that causes brown spots on leaves is unlikely to be the same pathogen across diverse kinds of plants. It is possible that you have a few different diseases/pests at work, which may respond to different management practices. Also, something like uniform leaf damage can reflect a nutrient deficiency or similar in the soil, pointing your efforts more toward soil building than toward pest management. Most state "land grant" universities have plant pest diagnostics clinics that can be quite helpful in both identification and management recommendations.
I've done both broadcast seeding like you describe and planting in rows. I really like the broadcast approach because it's fun watching everything emerge and identifying the seedlings. But, managing a mix of plants that grow at various rates and into various sizes was a challenge. (But, that was also fun. ;-) ) This year I planted my late summer spinach, lettuce, and chard all separately because of expected variability in overwintering hardiness, aiming to use lettuce first such that garlic I planted among the lettuce can take over next spring, spinach will last longer into fall, and I hope to overwinter the chard. We'll see!
You've gotten a lot of good suggestions. We are about an hour south of Grand Junction. We recently bought a place on land that has been under irrigation for many decades and now has incredibly rich, high organic matter soils. So, probably quite different from your situation of settling on desert land. For part of our land we are looking at a similar list of plants to what has been suggested to you. Also, we are pretty good field botanists and my partner is a soil scientist/geologist -- we might be able to help you understand native plants and soils in your area if you're interested. :-)
Whether management of debris at the base of a plant will control the pests depends a whole lot on the particular species that are your pests. I'm not sure what "leaf lice" are, but they might be aphids, thrips, scales, whiteflies, leafhoppers, etc. Most of these fly readily and can colonize new host plants from far away. So, management of debris on the ground will help little or not at all. Most mites are not host-specific and also fly (by "ballooning" with their silk), but they DO overwinter in leaf litter so controlling leaf litter may delay mite colonization next spring.
Anyhow, bottom lines for effectiveness of any integrated pest management (IPM) tactic are the particular pest involved and its life cycle. Sometimes controlling leaf litter is helpful, sometimes it may be counterproductive by eliminating hiding places for predatory and parasitic insects.
Because certified seed potatoes are produced in the northern states, and harvest and certification processes are just now finishing, you're unlikely to find any certified seed available. Potatoes that were harvested mid-summer might be able to sprout in the fall, depending on cultivar. Some potato cultivars have long dormant periods, others much shorter. Commercial potato growers in the South who grow potato during winter go to great lengths to get their seed to sprout.
I would look in grocery stores for tubers that are showing sprout growth. Make sure, however, that the sprouts are normal in color, with no black. The black indicates treatment with an essential oil sprout inhibitor, usually clove oil.
As far as disease, seed certification in potato mainly protects you from insect-transmitted viruses, a bacterial disease called ring rot, and from a few other pathogens to limited degrees. Certification does not protect you from most pathogens that move in the soil adhering to the seed.
We felt the same kind of overwhelm after moving into our 3-acre place this spring. We coped by following advice in Gaia's Garden and simply observed this year (with very limited ad hoc vegetable gardening), listing all plants and animals we see, looking at the soils, wet and dry spots, irrigation patterns (we live in a desert), etc. Between us are highly trained in botany, soils, insects, and vertebrates, so the inventory is relatively easy. We also are thinking in terms of Zones. We are building plans for 2022 dealing only with Zone 1 (right near the house) and for large trees, especially nut trees that will take some time to get established and productive and will be central to guilds we'll build in the coming couple years. Vegetable garden will probably be ad hoc again next year as we build out more 'permanent' structures and such. My spouse is especially struggling with the overwhelm you mention, so we are developing a way to assign her discrete areas and tasks to help with focus and stave off the feelings of overwhelm.
You've gotten some good comments already. I'd add that I've experienced nanking cherry doing well in bad soil with poor irrigation and heavy deer browsing. I'm a big fan. Otherwise I'd only caution that Utah serviceberry, at least the wild populations I see, often produces icky, dry, unpleasant fruits.
I doubt David would join a general forum like this, but academics like him actually like to hear from the general public about their favorite crop. I bet he'd answer an email from you. Here's his info: https://www.canr.msu.edu/people/douches_david
I don't know anything about comparative nutrition of potato varieties. They vary, but little detail is known.
