Super Scoopers

  We did fertilizer calculations with three 45-foot rows and a bed spacing of three feet. This means we need 5.4 pounds of fertilizer over the season, or three fertilizations of 1.8 pounds. We used 10-2-8 fertilizer and spread it mainly over the growing areas and focused on transplants. Even though we use plenty of amendments, this will provide the main essential nutrients. We also planted some seeds of carrots and other root vegetables in between some of the open space we had to try and utilize as much space as possible. This is a flea beetle on one of our sunflower plants. It may cause damage, but we applied pesticides last week and will continue for the rest of the season. There are multiple buds on all of our sunflowers, which is something I have never seen before. Hopefully we will get to harvest and enjoy some sunflower seeds! Our summer squash is recovering very well from the white flies that they had gotten. We have been spraying an organic pesticide that is sesame seed oil...

  Last week in the plot we noticed most of our corn starti ng to tassel. This is unusual being that the corn in only a foot tall at best (pictured when they first started to our tallest now). Dr. Zhao suggested we start fertilizing with a high nitrogen fertilizer frequently to help it grow more and have the ability to support many ears of corn.  We have unfortunately run into a white fly problem. Here, Sierra is spraying some of our bush beans with pesticides to help mitigate them. The brassicas and cucurbits were heavily drenched since the problem seems to be worse there. We will most likely be treating these weekly until there are no more signs of white fly. Our helper Isaac said it could take up to 5 treatments to be sure we don't loose too much of our hard work. Our broccoli seems to be really enjoying the cooler fall weather. Out of the several heads we planted, almost all of them are bushy and healthy. Hopefully they will continue to thrive and we will be able to harvest...