Potluck

We have a good harvest of Pac Choi and Chinese Cabbage! We will experiment with some new stir-fry recipes soon like this one 

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Stir-Fried-Baby-Bok-Choy-with-Garlic-240548

Wrapping up the growing season

A second freeze really damaged our green bean plants so most of our beans could not be harvested though they were finally large enough. Someone stepped on some of our kale plants and damaged them. The rest of the kale and basil are still too small to harvest. The kole crops should be ready soon!

Hard Work Pays Off

After several days of heavy rain, we returned to the field and found that the rain was just what our crops needed!
Even though the heavy wind and rain made our bush beans (below) fall to one side, we now have a handful of harvestable beans. We put a row cover on the bed to protect our crop from a freeze tonight. If all goes well, we will have lots of green beans this year!

Our pac choi and Chinese cabbage (below) are doing very well too and are ready to be used used in salads now. We will give most of them a little more time to get larger so that they can be used in stir fries and soups too.

Finally, our kale and Thai basil still have a ways to go. While they have gotten more green since being transplanted, they are still quite small. We are hopeful that this cooler weather will be just what the kale needs to be successful.

Problem: Bean Leaf Roller
The bean leaf roller larva feeds on legume crops such as cow pea, lima bean, pea, snap bean and soybean. The bean leaf roller adult is fairly large, measuring about 50 mm in wingspan. The eggs are deposited singly or in small clusters of two to six eggs on the lower epidermis of foliage. Initially the eggs are white in color, but soon turn yellow. The egg is a slightly flattened sphere, and measures about 1 mm in diameter. Eggs hatch in three to four days. The bean leaf roller can complete its life cycle in about 30 days. 

Solution: Garlic, Peppers & Onion Insecticide

2 hot peppers

1 large onion

1 whole bulb of garlic
1/4 cup water

Toss in the food processor and add water, blend until a mash is made. Cover mash with 1 gallon hot (not boiling) water and let stand 24 hours. Strain. Spray on roses, azaleas, vegetables to kill bug infestations. Bury mash in ground where bugs are heaviest. 

Or

Mineral Oil Mix

3 parts oil per 100 parts water

update for Nov 10

Beans, Cabbage ,and Pac Choi grow well and healthy. But we found that there is a lot of caterpillars on beans. So Jenny did some research and suggest that we use cayenne pepper and mix with water to spray on beans. We decide to do on either Wed and Friday .

Update! 

This past Wednesday, October 29th, we went to the field to check on our plants! We had a lot to do and started by putting more hay around our beds to facilitate weed suppression. This method had worked well in the past for us and our beds only had a minimal amount of weeds on them which we took out. 

We also planted the kale and basil transplants and watered all of our plants multiple times. 

Especially the green beans have been doing great so far! 

Trasplants

Update on our transplants and green beans

This is what our transplants looked like today:

The pac choi and the cabbage have been growing very well. Most of the basil plants look healthy but some are of a very light green color and we observed similar differences in color among the kale plants. We decided to apply organic fertilizer and watered the plants in an effort to facilitate good growth. 

And here you can see what the green beans in the field looked like:

Since there was a little area in which the green beans did not grow well we decided to put new seeds in that area. We then watered the beans. We also made plans to get rid of the weeds throughout the next week. 

Fertilizer Requirements

To ensure that our newly germinated beans and our soon to be planted transplants stay healthy for the whole growing season, we are going to put down some organic fertilizer. This will supply all the necessary Nitrogen, Potassium, Phosphorus and other nutrients our plants need.

Our field’s soil test showed that it was low in N, and K but fairly high in P.

Per the IFAS growing recommendations at these soil conditions, our beans need about 120 lb N/acre/per growing season. Similarly they need between 80 and 100 lbs K and little to no P.  Basil plants also need 120 lb N. The Kale, Chinese Cabbage and Pac Choi have similar nutritional needs and require 175 lbs N, 150 lbs K and little to no P, per acre, per growing season.  

We decided to use the 10-2-8 Nature Safe Fertilizer provided by our professor because it was readily available and a good balance of N-P-K. Because the fertilizer has many organic components that will break down slowly, we will incorporate the full amount into our beds now making some nutrients immediately accessible to our transplants and others slowly released throughout the growing season. Because our beans have already been planted, we will side dress that bed. None of us are very familiar with this fertilizer, however, so we will also look for early symptoms of nutritional deficiencies and act quickly to remedy them.

Below are our calculations for our field requirement.

Our Plot is 20x24 or 480 ft2, or 1/90^th of an acre

175 lb N    X        1     = 1.9 or about 2lb N needed for our plot

Acre                     90

                       

10% of each LB of Nature Safe is N or 1 LB NS=0.1 lb N

0.1 lb N   =  2 lb N  so our field requires 20 lbs Nature Safe to meet it’s N requirement for Cole Crops

1 lb NS         X lb NS

20lb NS X 0.08 K = 1.6 Lb K  (This meets/exceeds requirement)

There are 5 rows in our field, so we need 4lb per row of Cole crops

120 lb N    X        1     = 1.3 lb N needed for our plot

Acre                     90

                       

10% of each LB of Nature Safe is N or 1 LB NS=0.1 lb N

0.1 lb N   =     1.3 lb N  so our field requires 13 lbs Nature Safe to meet it’s N requirement for Beans

1 lb NS         X lb NS

13 lb NS X 0.08 K = 1.04 Lb K  (This meets/exceeds requirement)

There are 5 rows in our field, so we need 2.6 lb per row of Green Beans or Basil

Haricots verts

Bush beans are short plants, growing to approximately two feet in height. They generally reach maturity and produce all of their fruit in a relatively short period of time, then cease to produce.

Assignment 1

Group Project, Assignment 1

Our team's goal this semester is to apply sustainability goals and practices when growing different crops, and hopefully have a really great harvest!

This year, we will be growing these vegetables and herbs from Johnny Seeds.

1.    Toscano Kale

2.    Jade Green Beans

3.    Bilko Cabbage

4.    Black Summer Pac Choi 

5.    Sweet Thai Basil  

Hi, My name is Jenny Molina

Hi, My name is Jenny Molina.
I was born in Bogota, Colombia on April 27^th 1991. When I was nine my family and I moved to Orlando. I lived there for twelve years. Last year I was accepted as a transfer student to the College of Design, Construction and Planning. I moved to Gainesville fall 2013 to continue with my bachelors In Architecture.

My hobby is growing vegetables and herbs; and I am the equivalent to a cat lady but with dogs, I have six of them: Sophie, Dino, Dory, Luna, Ralphie, and Remy.

Hi, my name is Charis Wiegand

Hi, my name is Charis Wiegand! 

I am a senior in Horticultural Sciences and am also pursuing professional registration in Horticultural Therapy. I am an Air Force brat and have lived all over the United States. I love cooking and eating food from around the world, reading, crafting, going on long walks in nature and watching Netflix with my roommates. 

This is a picture of me and my two little sisters.

Hi, My Name is Mai

My name is Ngoc Mai, but I prefer as Mai for short. My family came from Vietnam, and we have lived here since 2006.  I like this town because of the spirit of Gator, but at the same time I don’t like Florida because the weather is so hot and humidity. I am 4^th year- majoring is in Plant Genetics. I like plant, and I want to understand their physiology, and how to keep them survive in harsh condition and last long. So that is reason why I chose this major.

My hobbies are cooking, crochet, handmade craft, and tennis( not very good) . I like to hang out with friends at Yogurtology and Starbucks.

Below photos is my family at birthday 2 week ago !

Hi, my name is Paula Roetscher! 

I am in my third year at UF majoring in International Studies and Sustainability Studies and my minors are Arabic and Geography. I am from a village in Germany called Buttstädt. I moved to the US about 2 years ago. My hobbies are hiking, cooking, reading and travelling. When I am at home I help my grandma and my parents in our garden!