May Lotito

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since Jun 11, 2020
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Recent posts by May Lotito

Could be. I had an outbreak of tussok caterpillars last year and they demolished the butterfly weeds in a short time.  Only one plant  back this year. The caterpillars come out at night and travel down to the soil and hide.  I find out keeping the soil on a leaner side makes wildflowers less attractive to pests. They don't need organic fertilizer or pee.
12 hours ago
How about local farmer's market? If it's for producers only, i.e. no reselling, you will probably find unique produce that are not seen in conventional stores.
1 day ago
My lotus just flowered yesterday. Do you spot any flower bud yet? The Indian blood peach sapling is growing fast thanks to the wetter June this year. Elephant garlic each put out 6-10 corms at the base. Nice to speed up growing more Elephant garlic with corms.
2 days ago
Hi Konsta, I remember in one of the post you showed a picture of barren mountain with village in the foreground. Since Greece has a Mediterranean climate with wet and mild winter, why aren't grasses or shrubs growing back? The mountain looks far enough for sheep to go there and overgraze.
4 days ago
Sea water has high concentration of magnesium. If your land gets salt laden winds, there should have plenty of magnesium.  Do you have a picture of the plant?
5 days ago
I only grew a few Roma tomatoes before but here is what I noticed about their branching patterns: https://permies.com/t/178560/Rule-leaf-flower-ratio-tomato#1601164

"In the indeterminate beefsteak tomato plants, which fruit every three leaves on the main branch and new side shoots fruit after first five leaves then every three leaves after that. In the determinate type, those numbers were reduced to two, three and two respectively. Overall the plants are bushy with more branches and flowers, and the fruits will mature over a shorter period of time. "
6 days ago
No soil is perfect. Honestly, being in a valley with a Mediterranean climate is almost the best situation for growing food, given that you have irrigation when needed. Have you done a soil test to see how unbalanced of various base ions, i.e. the ratio of Ca/K/Mg? If you don't see deficiency symptoms, you probably don't have to worry about it.
I counted the number of leaves on Montana mountain corns and they on average have 10 leaves only: two ear leaves in the middle, 4 below and 4 above to tassel. Hybrid corns can have 20 leaves, thus require a long growing season and produce bigger ears as well. The Montana morado corn is good for regions with growing season from June to September only.  I also find this morado corn useful to fit between two cool season crops in intensive gardening when space is limited. The second batch I planted was following potato (harvested in late May) and there will be daikon or bok choy in place when it is done in August.

ETA. Another powerful storm came by and snapped two of the Inca giant stalks. I took the opportunity to check the growing tips. Tassels are formed after leaf 18! Good to know they won't grow indefinitely.
All right of my Montana morado corns are silking. I guess since the variety was bred for fast maturing in a shorter season, they respond too well to heat and humidity. Maybe I should plant them even earlier in cold soil. We received two episodes of intense rainfalls recently, 3.75" and 6" each within a 24 hr period. Every time I scattered a bit of grass clippings/ compost/ chop and drop ahead of time to mitigate nutrient leaching. So far the Inca giant corns are looking similar to bloody butchers. I am wondering how tall they will end up being.
The scale you are doing is truly impressive! Could you show some pictures of areas with the biochar spread on as well?
2 weeks ago