Category: Outdoors

On a cold and snowy day I paused to think back a few years to a conference I attended run by the Ecological Farming Association in Pacific Grove, California. There were several sessions by scientists presenting research confirming what organic gardeners have always known: organic techniques yield plants that resist disease and insects better, and produce better-quality and healthier vegetables. I dug out my notes, and would like to share some of what I learned.

Dr. Larry Phelan, a research scientist at Ohio State University, explained that he wanted to see if organically grown plants attracted insect pests differently than those grown using conventional techniques. He collected soil from two farms that were across the road from each other. The soils were identical except for how they had been tended for the past several years. One farm was organic, the other conventional.

To reduce other variables, Dr. Phelan brought the soil to his greenhouse and potted it up in large containers. He then grew corn in the containers, adding chemical fertilizers in some, fresh cow manure in some, and composted manure in others, using both types of soil for each method. When the corn was at the appropriate size, he released corn borers into the greenhouse and watched what happened.

Not surprisingly, the corn borers preferred the corn grown conventionally. Not only that, but the long-term history of the soil also mattered. The soil from the organic farm had higher levels of organic material in it, and consistently was less attractive to the borers, even if used with chemical fertilizers.

Why should this occur? Dr. Phelan explained that plants evolved over the millennia getting their nutrients through the soil food web, depending on the symbiotic relationships between plants and microorganisms. Soils rich in organic matter provide much needed nutrients in a slow, steady stream, the way Mother Nature does it.

He said that when a plant gets too much nitrogen, the excess is stored in the form of amino acids, the building blocks of protein. For insects, this is like candy for kids: they can detect it, and go to the source.

Dr. Autar Mattoo of the United States Department of Agriculture Research Station in Beltsville, Maryland, also presented some very interesting findings. He compared the health of tomatoes grown with chemical fertilizer on black plastic to the health of those grown organically using a mulch of hairy vetch, an annual cover crop. He found that tomatoes grown with hairy vetch were dramatically better at resisting fungal diseases, especially those that cause blackening and dropping of leaves, which is often the bane of gardeners.

Dr. Mattoo explained that the vetch fixes nitrogen when growing. Which is to say it extracts nitrogen from the air and turns it into a form that plants can use. It was mowed down before flowering and allowed to stay on the surface of the soil, producing a considerable biomass to nourish soil microorganisms.

Compared to chemical fertilizer and black plastic, Dr. Mattoo found a 25 to 30 percent increase in yield using vetch. He explained that eventually the organic tomato plants would develop fungal diseases, but that for the first 84 days after transplant (late August for us), there was virtually no leaf blackening. At the same time, the tomato plants grown conventionally were severely damaged.

He attributed much of the difference to hormone signaling. Anti-fungal proteins can be produced when specific genes are activated, protecting leaves. He explained that depending on the environmental conditions specific genes are turned on or off. He was able to show this by photographing specific genes in the leaves of the tomatoes to see their size and thus their levels of activity. It appears that something in the vetch stimulated the tomatoes to produce those anti-fungal proteins.

What does all this prove? Being an organic gardener has many benefits, and scientists are just catching up with us! So as you plan your garden projects for the spring, think about giving up your use of chemical fertilizers.

Featured photo: This artichoke from my garden was grown without chemicals. Photo by Henry Homeyer.

It starts with a trip to the lumber yard

As I write this, the wind chill factor is well below zero, and summer seems a lifetime away. But if you are thinking about starting seeds indoors this year, this would be a good time to build a simple wooden plant stand. You don’t have to be a carpenter to build this, or have expensive power tools. Your local lumber yard will cut the pieces you need.

Mine is a simple A-frame, with one shelf, and the space for more plant flats on the floor. It stands about 4 feet tall, is 5 feet wide from end to end, and 2 feet from front to back at the base. It has space for four or five flats or trays, each of which will hold at least 32 plants — more if you buy the smaller six-packs that I avoid (some flats can hold 48 to 72 plants). And if at a later time you want to grow more plants, you can put another four flats or more on the floor and add lights above them.

The lumber for this cost me about $50 and the light fixture — a simple shop light with two 4-foot LED bulbs and a plug-in cord — cost $62, although often they are more expensive. Looking at catalogs, I see that one can easily spend much more for a pre-made plant stand. If you decide you like starting plants in the house, you could buy the extra lights next to illuminate more flats on the floor.

Here is what you need to buy for the model I built:

Four pieces of 1”x3” pine, 4 feet long

Four pieces of 1”x3” pine, 5 feet long

Two pieces of 1”x3” pine, 16” long, for cross bracing

One piece ¼-inch plywood, 18”x4’ (you can use thicker plywood if you have some)

One pair 3-inch strap hinges

4 feet of ¼-inch jack chain for hanging the lights and two small cup hooks to hang the chain

One 4-foot shop light with LED bulb and a plug-in cord

30 sheet rock screws (1¼” long)

Tools: portable drill with magnetic bit to fit the screws, and a measuring tape

Most lumber yards will cut all your materials to size for you but do not have small sheets of plywood. I found that Home Depot does have plywood in 2-foot by 4-foot sheets, and they cut mine to give me a piece 18” by 4’ for the shelf. You will need to ask them to cut the 1×3 pine boards as follows: four 60-inch pieces, four 48-inch pieces, and two 16-inch pieces.

Start by making two legs for your plant stand. Lay the 4-foot pieces end to end on the floor. Do it on your deck if possible, or next to a wall so that you can get them in a straight line by lining them up with something that is straight. Lay the hinges in place so that you will be able to fold them closed (most hinges only close one way). A cordless drill with a magnetic bit for Phillips screws will make your work much easier. To start the small screws on the hinges, make a hole first with a nail or awl, or a tiny drill bit.

Next close up the hinged legs and place them 5 feet apart on the floor. Place two of the 5-foot pieces on top of the first side. One should be screwed right at the top, one 24 inches from that. Flip over the stand, and do the same on that side. Stand it up, and spread the legs 2 feet apart at the bottom. Then add a cross brace on each end of the A-frame just below support pieces for your shelves.

Lastly you need to hang the light. Mine came with S-hooks and chain, which made hanging the lights easy. If yours do not, you will have to buy them. Most shop lights have slots and holes on the back side so that you can slip in S-hooks easily to hang them. You can also open a link of your jack chain and fit it in without an S-hook — just use two pairs of pliers to bend a link open. Screw two small cup hooks into a top cross piece and attach the jack chain. The chain will allow you to raise or lower the light — lights should be about 6 inches above the plants.

Starting seedlings indoors is miraculous for me — even after doing it for decades. I hold my breath waiting for germination, and fuss over the seedlings like a mother hen. And when I bite into my first tomato in August, I have the added satisfaction of knowing I brought that tomato into my world — with lots of help from Mother Nature.

Featured photo: The finished plant stand. Photo by Henry Homeyer.

Read the packets, don’t buy hybrid

As a boy in the 1950s I knew there were two kinds of tomatoes: deep red, plump and tasty ones my grandfather grew, and the kind that came four in a package wrapped in cellophane. The Cello-Wraps, as I think of them, had no flavor whatsoever. They were decorative. Sliced and added to our iceberg lettuce salads in winter, they added color.

My grandfather saved seeds from his tomatoes and started plants indoors in the early spring. He was not growing hybrid tomatoes like those sold in the supermarket. Hybrid tomatoes are carefully bred by crossing specific varieties of tomatoes so that they will have special characteristics such as surviving long trips in trucks, having a shelf life almost as long as a tennis ball, or resisting certain diseases.

My grandfather grew what we now call heirloom tomatoes: time-tested varieties that breed true from seed, generation after generation. Tomatoes that had been grown for many decades, seed shared with family and friends. Tomatoes so tasty that they were often eaten right in the garden, warm from the sun.

Examples of well-known heirloom tomatoes include Brandywine (often touted as the best-flavored tomato in existence), Cherokee Purple, Mortgage Lifter, Amish Paste and Black Krim. But there are hundreds of varieties of heirloom tomatoes, each unique and loved by someone.

All heirloom vegetables are what are called “open pollinated,” meaning that they will produce the same variety every year. Of course, in a packet of seeds some will produce better fruits than others. There is variety, but all Brandywines will take about the same length of time to reach maturity and taste about the same.

If you would like to start saving seeds, read the seed packet or catalog and make sure what you buy is labeled open-pollinated or heirloom, not hybrid. At the end of the season, save some seeds and store them in a cool, dry, dark place, perhaps in a sealed jar in a refrigerator.

I called Sylvia Davatz, the now-retired founder of Solstice Seeds in Hartland, Vermont, to talk about saving seeds. Solstice Seeds only grows and sells seeds from heirloom varieties, including some varieties from Europe.

She gave me lots of good advice, starting with the names of two good books on seed saving: The Seed Garden by Lee Buttala and Shanyn Seigel, and The Manual of Seed Saving by Andrea Heistinger. She recommends getting both books if you are going to be serious about saving seeds, as even among experts there are differences of opinion.

One of the reasons for having good books about seed saving is that they will advise you about such things as isolation distances to prevent mixing genetic material by pollinators or wind.

I asked Sylvia what vegetable species are the easiest to save. She said tomatoes, lettuce, beans and peas are all easy. They are self-pollinated and annuals. No insects are needed, and seeds are ready by the end of their season.

Vine crops like squash, pumpkins and cucumbers are insect pollinated and more difficult. If you’ve ever let a “pumpkin” grow in your compost pile from last year’s crop, you know that sometimes you get weird things due to cross-pollination — a pumpkin crossed with a summer squash by a bee, for example, may not be something you want to eat.

Most difficult in our climate are the biennials, things like carrots, beets, parsnips and parsley. These plants have to be kept alive all winter so they can flower and set seeds in their second year. You can dig up carrots and store them in soil in a bucket in a cold basement and replant them in the spring. But carrots, Sylvia explained to me, bloom about the same time as Queen Anne’s lace, a biennial wild flower/weed that can be pollinated by them — which would not produce the carrots you want.

Sylvia pointed out that in the not too distant past seed saving was the norm. Farmers and gardeners saved seeds from their best plants, knew how to do so, and knew how to store them. She explained that the seeds you save will usually be of better quality than seeds from a packet. They will have more vigor and a longer life span.

A good source for heirloom seeds is The Seed Savers Exchange. It has, since 1975, collected and stored seeds from gardeners and farmers. You can join their nonprofit or just buy some seeds or books from them. According to their website, they now store some 20,000 varieties in their collection, although at any given time only a fraction of them are actually for sale.

So think about saving seeds this year, even if only a few from your favorite heirloom tomatoes. And go to solsticeseeds.org to see a wonderful eight-minute video of Sylvia Davatz explaining all the importance and benefits of seed saving.

Featured photo: Heirloom tomatoes are often irregular in size and shape, but they are tasty and you can save seeds for next year. Photo by Henry Homeyer.