Doug McEvers

A very wise man told me a number of years ago, the total yearly output for a healthy working human being in Btu's is equivalent to 7 or 8 gallons of gasoline. This gives one some idea of the energy density in fossil fuels.

I know my tomato plants will have top leaves looking dry in these hot afternoons even though they are thoroughly watered. Nature's way of conserving valuable moisture? As I recall, certain parts of the US, Fargo, ND for instance, would use 105% along with the F charts in calculating solar gain in housing. Can't say why, maybe typically less upper and mid-level water vapor than other parts of the US.

This explains much about solar.

https://www.pveducation.org/pvcdrom/properties-of-sunlight/calculation-of-solar-insolation

I have posted this before but for those interested in weeds.

https://savoursoilpermaculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/weeds_guardians_of_the_soil.pdf

Joeseph Cocannouer writes that weeds are pioneers in rebuilding degraded soils. His work came after the dust bowl where in areas the entire topsoil was lost due to wind and drought. He contends weeds should be cultivated to help start the process of making damaged soil productive. After reading his work I had a whole new take on weeds and the role they play. May sound odd but a healthy and diverse weed crop likely indicates a quality working soil. How to take advantage of nature's bounty?

Mainstream agriculture has done a fantastic job in the vilification of weeds. So many glossy ads showing uber clean fields, not a weed in sight. No biological diversity either. We are in our final year of organic transition and will be certified in August. The tillable acres on our farm were rented out for 40 years and swept up in the GMO revolution. To watch the weeds have their way these last 3 years is really a learning experience in the "soil weed seed bank". You would think after those many years of continual spraying for weeds the weed seed bank would be curtailed, that is not the case here at all. We have some areas where the crop is ok and the weeds are mainly in the background. In other areas the weeds dominate, what is going on? I believe the weeds are showing us where we have compaction and a poor soil air exchange. The transition to organic may be 3 years but the working soil transition is longer than 3 years in our case. Weather has everything to do with what you do and when. We have minimized soil disturbance (no-till this spring) with the longer term goal of building soil health. The weeds we are growing this year may be part of a good transition, the dense roots loosening the soil and extra organic matter added when we do a shallow incorporation.

We have the good fortune to have native prairie remnants on this farm along with a carefully restored prairie completed in 1993. This is my reference for how the native vegetation and our soil really work. Weeds are a non-issue on the prairie, the native vegetation is overwhelming. Winter grains this fall on our tillable acres will help turn the tide in our favor to growing healthy crops. We are working with my neighbor this year in grazing his cattle on our grassland. We moved his herd yesterday into the first larger paddock on the restored prairie, the quality of the grass right now is fabulous. All of this with a growing season of about 60% normal precipitation so far, resilience is showing itself. The cows are now belly deep in grass and the calves with just their back and head showing, fun to see. I took a grass sample yesterday, July 9, to see where we are in forage quality. Warm season native grass is quite nutritious in its vegetative state, the protein and relative feed value will start to decrease when it begins to set seed. We are trying to get the cattle to do a flash grazing on as many acres as possible to delay flowering. Take half and leave half is the order of the day.

I think the straw mulch is a great plan regardless of the application time. You are conserving moisture and giving the soil life something to feed on. I will be mulching my garden with grass hay that I have recently cut. If you look under the mulch you may find earthworms coming to the surface for lunch. Mulchless in the spring is good in our cool climate as we want the garden soil to warm as quickly as possible. I have my neighbors' cattle on our grassland this summer and the 2 years of mulch (duff) accumulation is really paying off in moisture conservation. We are at about 60% of normal precipitation for 2026 and our warm season (prairie) grasses are green and lush.

Mine was more a stroke of luck. We have a garden tractor with a tiller attachment that would not start a few years ago. This led me to a minimum tillage, soil building method of gardening and the results have been fantastic. I now do cover crops between plants and rows and build soil. Churning soil into a fine powder with a tiller is the worst thing possible, the garden tractor sits quietly today.

Nancy,

This what I feed tomatoes. Pelletized chicken manure, 4-3-2 NPK plus about 8.5% calcium and there may be some trace elements that are fed to the chickens as a supplement. I also put on gypsum (calcium sulfate). We have a good magnesium level in our soil so that fertility element is something I do not think about. Our soil gets very hard with frequent waterings so when I plant the transplants I dig a fairly generous hole and mix the dirt with about 1/2 organic potting soil. This allows the roots to expand more freely and the fertilizer (every 2 weeks) will get to the roots quickly with each watering. We have high calcium levels in our soil but the additional available calcium I feel is essential.  In good years there may be 50 to 75 nice WI 55 tomatoes per plant. May put on a bit of Soil Biological a couple times per summer just to make me feel good and maybe the tomatoes too.

As the summer progresses the bottom leaves do dry up on the WI 55 tomatoes. They are also very good at sending out new branches (low runners) very near the ground. They will form all kinds of new tomatoes if left alone. I cut off the low runners except for maybe a cluster or 2 near the main plant. As time goes on I will clip off new blossoms and the ends of the new growth to concentrate all efforts towards the ripening tomatoes. The tomato is quite a plant, from a tiny papery seed comes all of the production, the miracle of photosynthesis.

I would suggest a plant tissue analysis, very affordable and will show you what is normal, deficient or excessive. Would not be without this test, is part of my fertility decision making.


https://midwestlabs.com/agronomy

Plant Tissue Analysis Nitrogen, Sulfur, Phosphorus, Potassium, Magnesium, Calcium, Sodium, Iron, Manganese, Copper, Boron, Zinc Call for sample size * Results, 3 Days $24.20

Showing an adequate level of calcium in the soil does not mean extra (available) calcium should be overlooked. Many soil nutrients are complexed for various reasons and I believe calcium is high on the list. The eggshells sound like a good soil amendment as the calcium was available to the chicken to make the shell. I think they feed calcitic lime right from the mine to the chickens. I like gypsum on my garden as an available calcium and sulfur source. Two key nutrients and gypsum does seem to help loosen and dry waterlogged soil.

This link explains the lime amendments.

https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/should_i_use_dolomitic_or_calcitic_lime

If it has not been mentioned, we had leaded gasoline in the past. Property next to busy roads may show a higher level of lead. Sulfur is now a needed amendment for some areas as diesel and coal have been scrubbed of this element.

Someone said recently, maybe here, that spring (last frost) seems to come later and the first frost in fall comes later. The records (Fargo) show the first frost in fall is quite a bit later than 20 or 30 years ago. We had 32 degrees on May 20 of this year, colder in some areas. 6 days later we broke a record at 96. For gardening I think you would want to work around the typical frost dates for both spring and fall. I have been planting tomatoes (WI 55, 75 day) later and have had good results. Will put in my transplants this weekend, my latest tomato transplant date. Last year I had to rely on volunteer tomatoes as my transplants were a bust. They were likely just coming up in the middle of June. We had an early frost last fall, September 7, I believe. It did not kill the tomatoes (they produced) but there was frost on the leaves, it did kill the cucumbers a bit farther away from the trees. It was cold as the dew point was very high and the grass was covered in ice. This is where you need to think about Brix and the higher nutrient levels in plants as being kind of an antifreeze.

We may have a shorter growing season in the northern US but we also have some very long daylengths in summer. Garden with this in mind. You can do a lot in a short time with nearly 16 hours of daylight.


THE FARGO HECTOR INTL AP ND CLIMATE NORMALS FOR TODAY
                        NORMAL    RECORD    YEAR                    
MAXIMUM TEMPERATURE (F)   78       101      1893                      
MINIMUM TEMPERATURE (F)   55        38      1927                      


SUNRISE AND SUNSET                                                    
JUNE 12 2026..........SUNRISE   532 AM CDT   SUNSET   922 PM CDT    
JUNE 13 2026..........SUNRISE   532 AM CDT   SUNSET   923 PM CDT