Thom Bri

First corn picked this year. Mountain Morado. Planted 5/9/26. 71 days. The corn is still in the dough stage so can be harvested but still pretty early. I picked them because the plant was damaged by deer and bugs.

Dug potatoes today from between the corn hills. Very convenient system. The dirt goes on top the corn hills just when it is needed most, mid-July when it is hot and dry. Last rain was July 5th, and temps in the 90s, so things are getting dry. So far, the corn looks good, no rolled leaves. Pollination in full swing.
Pic shows hilled corn with fresh dirt on top:

Brace roots. Very dry recently, not seeing any mucous. Most of the brace roots are buried when I mound up the hills.

Kabocha squash, two types:

May Lotito wrote:My giant Inca maize /choclo grow multiple rings of air roots while other varieties tend to have fewer row of brace roots. Lots of mucilage dripping at the tips after a storm but dry out in between. If there are nitrogen fixing bacteria, they would be less effective compared to those grown in the tropical region with frequent rainfall. Nevertheless, these Inca corns are robust. Some already have ears maturing and some still keep on growing.

Brace roots is a highly variable trait in my corn. Some years lots in multiple rows, other years hardly any. Genetic or environmental? Probably both. Some produce lots of mucilage. Heading to the farm soon and will take a look, but have not really noticed any brace roots this year so far.

Some Maxima squash, Red Kuri:

Christopher Weeks wrote:Being up north, I’m behind everyone but working to catch up! Squash seeds have been in the ground for 5-6 days but I saw no sign of their leaves yet.

What kind of squash?
Those lambsquarters are stealing all the nitrogen!

Corn starting to look pretty good. Most is tasseling and some silks showing. Happy so far. Looking forward to some rain by week's end. Starting to pick beans every few days. In a week there will be too many to keep up with.

May Lotito wrote:

Thom Bri wrote: One goal of this garden is to test if production gradually drops off if corn is planted year after year using the old Indian methods.

The black soil of corn belt is the most fertile soil in the world and the three-sister method makes balanced use of soil minerals. There are C3 vs C4 plants, nitrogen fixer vs non-fixer and different root structures. Their nutritional needs are complementary so it will take you quite awhile to run short.  In my personal experience, brassicas sowed in Mid summer can be an early indicator if soil fertility drops. Daikon radish with deep tap root is more sensitive than arugula with a more fibrous root system.  The seedlings would germinate normally but fail to past first true leaf stage. If you want to give it a test, just broadcast some seeeds under the canopy of squashes in the first week of August.

This garden has very little black soil. One row along the south edge and a few spots on the other edges. Not surprisingly these areas always look great. Most of the garden is clay dug up years ago when we buried an old barn that blew down, and one corner was part of a gravel drive and is a thin layer of black soil over crushed rock. I can't get a shovel down more than a few inches due to the rocks. But with mounding the corn has about a foot of dirt so the corn does Okay there too.

Re brassicas. I have been spreading fresh seeds this summer. The radish seeds I spread in the spring did well. Hoping for a good rain to see if the new seeds sprout. These are all sorts of mixed seeds, whatever is going to seed in my home garden.

Picking beans and killing squash bugs today. Temp low 90s.
I found where the squash bugs hide in hot weather. They cluster right at the base of the squash vine where the vine enters the dirt. I was just messing around and happened to move some mulch from around a vine and there was a cluster of them. So I went along the row looking at the squash bases and there were clusters of bugs at most of them. Lots of bugs. Much easier than finding them one at a time by looking under the leaves.

In my other garden, (the more conventional one, non-organic), early in the spring and several times since them I have treated the vines at the bases. Very few squash bugs on those vines and very few egg masses. I believe that possibly treating only the bases, a few inches right where they protrude from the soil, might be a useful thing. Now to figure out a good plant extract that repels squash bugs. I have some saved tobacco leaves and may try that. Or radish.

Found squash bug eggs on soy and bean leaves today. Quite a lot.

Deer bit it right in half!