Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Lynn Montgomery" <sunfarm@toast.net>]

For flea beatles, I have been using a pyrethrum spray that is OK for organic growers;

http://www.planetnatural.com/site/pyganic-pest-control.html

Flea beatles are the most destructive pest I have here at Sun Farm. Although this is expensive on the surface, not being able to get brassicas beyond the vulnerable seedling stage and the damage done to solanaceae family (tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers), makes it well worth it. A quart of this stuff goes a long way. One has to spray daily until the plants are big and strong enough to survive the onslaught. This particular formulation is odorless and pleasant to work with. I had an awful infestation of leaf hoppers in my attached greenhouse which were destroying all my seedlings, and one application did them in and solved the problem. There were no head spinning fumes to deal with, although I recommend good ventilation when using indoors.

I grow a lot of garlic and perennial alliums for market. If one wishes for large high quality bulbs that one can sell for a high price, one has to take more care than just watching it grow. Garlic is very particular to its growing cycle, and deviating from this will give poor results. Save your largest and best of the June harvested crop for planting back. Store these in a dry, airy, cool place until early Oct. and then plant the separated cloves 4-6" apart and 3" deep. The soil should be as well prepared as for any food crop. Keep well watered, but not soggy. It likes to dry out a bit before the next irrigation. Most of it will come up and then be knocked down by frost. Garlic grows an extensive root system over the winter, so while the snow flies one can still be growing something out in the garden. It will come up again in the early spring. Keep well weeded, especially grasses. When the tops start to show signs of drying out, usually in June, stomp them down and let cure in the ground for a week to 10 days. Don't leave them as the skins will get dirt stained and unattractive. Do not water! Dig and let cure out of the sun for a couple weeks. If you neglect to dig them at the exact time, you end up with a mess. I grow two varieties representing the basic types of garlic. Softneck and hardneck. The softnecks are hot, keep almost a year, and are good for braiding. Hardnecks have to have their flower-seed stalks removed as they form, to make energy go to the bulb and not seed and bulbles. Luther Burbank offered $10,000 for viable garlic seed around 1900, and his ghost is still waiting. Bulbles are the little sets that form on the flower stalk and are a super pain. If they shatter into the soil, one will have an invasive weed that is almost impossible to eradicate. Hardnecks have large cloves and a milder flavor that makes for good baking. They don't keep much more than 4 months, but all good cooks demand them when in season. So don't be lackadaisical about your garlic. It is a noble plant that needs respect. Recommended reading: A Garlic Testament by Stanley Crawford, about growing market garlic in N. NM.

Regards, Lynn Montgomery