New Mexico Central

Grow Your Own: Rise, Fall, and Impending Rebirth of the Cover; Bat Guano Experiments, and More

by John Weckerle

Our sinister plot (lame pun intended) to lengthen the growing season ran into a bit of a snag on its first round.  Not a snag in the sense that the wind, which began rising during the effort, did something horrible to the plastic, but a snag of the basic light-transmission variety.  Our original plan was to test the waters by using standard, home improvement store grade plastic, with which we had had some success overwintering kale on a small scale.  However, about halfway into the effort, Senior Common Sense Editor Lucy noted that the plastic was casting about as much shadow as she was.  After a brief discussion, Senior Materials Science Correspondent Wilson advised that a higher-transmission plastic, perhaps something in the 92% range with infrared retention properties, a 4-year ultraviolet warranty, and anti-condensate features would be more effective.  The wind voiced its agreement, and we removed the offending product and stowed it for more productive uses (small scale overwintering, wrapping beetle-infested tree trunks, and so on).  From there, we proceeded indoors to order the new plastic from Farmtek – a deluxe, 28 x 40 piece of greenhouse sheeting that should provide us with full cover for Bed 5 and some extra material for smaller covers.  We also ordered some snap clamps from Amazon, and we regret to inform that we apparently got the last ones eligible for Prime shipping.  Amazon still has them and Farmtek also carries similar products.  We got a feel for these during the prior experiment; they’re easier to put on than to take off, but seem as if they’ll do the trick just fine.  Let’s hope for less-than-hurricane strength surface winds Saturday or Sunday.

As our readers well know, we start getting antsy after the first of the year, and we do still have the indoor seed starting setup.  We’ve put this to good use in testing seed to see if it is still viable, and so far everything but the chives has come up (although the kale’s not doing well).  The gold star goes to the lone string bean (Blue Lake, a bush variety), which has yielded its first nibble to the testing authorities and been found far from wanting.  Hats off to the old Martian Giant tomato seeds; we had little hope that these would come up, but having put four seeds into the pot, we ended up murdering three plants so that the fourth would survive.  Similar results were seen with the two Mortgage Lifter pots, and here is where the aerobatic mammal droppings come into play.

The two Mortgage Lifter pots were planted one week apart, with the later planting supplemented by Happy Frog bat quano fertilizer, a purported source of phosphorus.  We have long suspected that our small (but tasty and plentiful) tomatoes have been, in part, an issue of less-than-optimal phosphorus availability.  At this time, the two plants are of equal height, with the earlier-planted one having open flowers and the latter-planted one having plenty of flower buds.  These will be grown in pots; one will continue to have phosphorus added at subsequent repottings and the other will not.  Other than the week’s difference in planting date, we’ll treat them the same, and see if there is a difference in fruit size down the line.

For the garden, we’ll be working some phosphorus into the soil for the tomatoes, and probably the other nightshades (peppers, eggplants, etc.).  Also, the composter continues to house a substantial community of earthworms, and some of those will eventually find their way into the garden as well. We’re also considering a shading strategy for the hotter parts of the summer, as this may also have contributed to last year’s fruiting sizes; we got some wonderfully large Pink Brandywines before the heat waves last year, and some wonderfully tasty but much smaller ones afterward, notwithstanding adjustments to the watering schedule to accommodate the higher temperatures.

Bed 4 has been decommissioned, with the intent of providing hummingbird, bee, and butterfly forage as well as forage for the “beneficial predator” insects we’d like to see around the grounds in general.  Our attempts to breed a ladybug big enough to carry marauding deer and squirrels safely outside the fenced area have thus far been unproductive.  Having now realized that tarragon is more aggressive than we might have liked, we expect that Bed 6 will likely undergo a facelift and re-planning this Spring.  As for Beds 1-3, if time permits we’ll get them back into the mix this year.  We’re thinking of asparagus for one of them, and the prospect of oddly colored potatoes continues to intrigue us.

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