Posts from the Farm

Kudzu Eggs seen today on our Bulletin Board…

These are immature kudzu eggs getting ready to hatch. Their mother decided to attach them to the post of our bulletin board in Valley Crest Square.

Blake sprayed them with a plant-derived, naturally occuring insecticide-Pyrethrum. It’s made from Chrysanthemum dried flower heads.

Fingers crossed they die overnight…if not, this unlucky nest will be smashed dead with a 2×4 by 9am tomorrow!

Eggs seen in Skidaway Farms

Farmer: Stay vigilant! If we don’t all keep after this infestation we’ll lose more than just the legumes…kudzu bugs were found on artichokes today as well! (5/19/12)

Dubious Honor for the Farm:

Chatham County’s “first-sighting” of the Kudzu Bug

Committee member, Jane Kollmann sent the Chatham County Extension Service a picture of the latest insect to appear inside the Farm:

Kudzu Bugs love legume plants

Unfortunately, the response from Chatham County wasn’t what Jane wanted to hear: a positive ID for the dreaded Kudzu (or sometimes called a Stinkbug), infester and unwanted inhabitant for the legume family. Pole Beans, peas and bush beans are this bug’s favorite choice of meal. It sucks the life-juices of the plants by attaching to the vines and stalks then piercing the skin and drinking to abandon…death of the plant occurs soon after. It has wreaked havoc for the soy and peanut industries in the Southeastern states.

These bugs are flyers and can be cleared off the plant by a stiff wind or by a good quick shake from you but they will come back eventually. First seen in Georgia in 2009, ours may be the first reported to the Extension Service in our county. They recommend that any insecticide will kill them, but being rapid multipliers, these bugs may take several applications to completely eradicate from your plot.

One Farmer has used repeated sprayings of a diluted soapy water recipe which has had a noticeable positive effect. Here are two links for further information:

http://www.walterreeves.com/insects-and-animals/kudzu-bug-control-in-garden-beans-and-peas/
http://m.onlineathens.com/uga/2012-05-02/tiny-wasp-may-hold-key-controlling-kudzu-bug
http://chronicle.augusta.com/life/home/gardening/2012-05-10/kudzu-bugs-have-very-dark-side

Stay attentive and keep on these guys if they are in your plot. They view our Farm as “the pot at the end of the rainbow” so we are all going to have to stay vigilant…farming is great but sometimes it ain’t easy. (5/13/12)

The Electric Fence

The anti-raccoon electric fence has been energized every night since May 4th. The TLA Security staff turns it on and off when they secure the driveway gate on McWhorter…thanks again to the TLA for all their ever-present support of the Farm!

The fence energizer puts out 8-9kV (kilovolts)…pulsed out every second…it’s enough to hurt a probing human hand but not enough to “do you in”. The jolt of electricity needed to thwart a raccoon-sized critter is a recommended 4kV…enough to sting them but not enough to kill them either. In fact, depending on their size, it could knock them right off the fence! The hope is that these marauders will be smart enough to learn not to return to the Farm ever again AND that they will pass this knowledge on to their offspring…at least, that’s the plan!

The Committee has set the on/off times for the electric fence…no-Farm access… to be:

Turn on electricity at 8:00 pm – McWhorter Gate locked

Turn off electricity at 7:00 am – McWhorter Gate opened

As the days lengthen…or shorten in the fall… the Committee will adjust these times to accommodate the daylight hours. If a majority of the Farmers have a problem with these hours, the Committee will adjust them. Given the damage done to corn and tomatoes in late April this season…before the electric fence was installed…we know we’ve got very attentive raccoons hawking our harvest.

The 11 hours of electrified protection for our plots should be enough to protect them during the most predictable “raccoon-hours”… please report any sighting of ‘coon damage to the Committee…and remember to “bird-net” your tomatoes and berries…the crows are still hard at work during the day! (5/13/12)

A Special “Shout-Out”

A very loud “THANKS!” is due to all the folks who donated cardboard to the Farm for our wood-chip path coverage project:

Matt Joy and his Heritage Recycling Company

Pratt Industries

Cathy Adler of Carolina Pharmaceuticals

Savannah Kitchen and Bath – owned by Lukejohn and Amy Dickson

Wild Birds Unlimited – owned by Craig and Nancy McEwan

The Farm will be getting another load from Matt Joy to cover the remaining grass paths. His new service – Heritage Recycling – picks up on Skidaway Island every other week: $ 15/month for curbside unsorted recyclables (glass, cardboard, plastics, papers, etc). Call Matt at 272-4817 for further information.

The wood-chip pathways are looking mighty fine thanks to y’all’s help! How nice it’s going to be to not have to deal with those weeds again! (4/30/12)

Getting it done....

Look what the Children brought home…

The children in the “Sprouts” gardening program have been hard at work …learning how to grow vegetables and strawberries under the ever-watchful eye of Jane Kollman and her helpers. Keeping a compost pile going…fertilizing potatoes, peas and beans…pruning tomato plants and knowing when to harvest lettuce…these are just some of the lessons learned by these young Farmers.

Last weekend, the fruits of their labor were on display…for a short time before they were gobbled up…in a huge salad prepared for the Skidaway Methodist Church’s recent fellowship event. Needless-to-say…it was a HUGE hit! (4/20/12)

The Strawberries Need Protection!

A couple Farmers proudly showed off their red-ripening strawberries recently…it’s a bit earlier than usual for these delicious red berries but our weather has been impossible to predict lately! The good thing is that this has thrown off the birds that so far haven’t schedule in their daily berry-pickin’ flyovers…at least not yet.

Just for good measure, both these Farmers smartly covered their berry plots with bird-netting…strung above the plants high enough to keep prying beaks from picking through the netting holes. This bird-netting is also good for squirrels and raccoons as well…seems none of these critters like touching this soft, clingy material…guess it rattles their sensibilities too much!

Nestled safely under bird-netting...

Give it a try when it comes to saving your tomatoes as well…last season, no tomatoes wrapped in bird-netting were demolished by the ‘coons. What a wonderful, inexpensive invention! (3/24/12)

Thank You: Evergreen Tree and the TLA!

The Farm owes a loud “THANK YOU” to Larry Simpson and his folks at Evergreen Tree Company ….those guys right next door to the Farm….and Paul Kurilla and his staff at the TLA.

Delivery courtesy of the TLA....

Evergreen supplied us with 30 cubic yards of wood chips….and the TLA lent us a front-loader and a driver for four hours. Without all this, the Farm couldn’t have begun its project of covering all the grass (weedy) walkways with cardboard and wood chips. Experience now tells us that this procedure is the best way to smother out the unwanted weed growth that has taken over our grassy walkways.

These chips will deplete your soil of nitrogen as they break down so do NOT use them inside your plots! They do a great job of smothering things so keep them out of your gardens and on the walkways!

While they looked pretty for a short while last season, these paths have succumbed to out-of-control dollar weed and wild clover encroachment. Problem is, this has led to the weeds entering into the Farm plots….and we all know how nasty THAT can be!

Covering Your Pathway…

Farmers are free to cover their walkways with cardboard and wood chips from the huge pile in the middle of the Farm. Remember to soak the cardboard before layering the chips on top….that soaking begins the work the cardboard does on the weeds beneath it and without the cardboard, the weeds will find the sunshine somehow and grow right through the wood chips! The chips keep the cardboard in place and will help smother weed growth once the cardboard starts to breaks down. Use about four large wheelbarrows of chips to cover 20 feet of cardboard next to one plot.

Weeds Be Gone! (3/21/12)