I am always amazed at how strong the plants in my Mittleider garden are.
This year I grew mostly heirloom seeds just to mention a few of the varieties I grew
Habanero Peppers
Onions
Horseradish
California Wonder Peppers
Roma Tomatoes
Yellow Pear Tomatoes
Cubenelle Peppers
Black Krim Tomaotes
Delicious Tomatoes
Organic Garlic
Super Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes
Health Kick Tomatoes
You can see video about my 2010 Mittleider organic garden here
What I do with most of my vegetables is chop them up and freeze them I call it my Vegetarian meal starters.
Next year I plan on building a greenhouse and also using Mittleider garden row covers to extend my season.
As I get more experience I am sure I can turn my Mittleider garden into a full time gardening business. I cant wait to get into the soil next spring
This is all part of my strategy to start my own Homestead, I want to use solar and hydro power and be totally off grid. But I will still need Internet access :):)
Happy gardening and I would like to give a big shout out to Jim Kennard of the Gardening Non-Profit Food for Everyone Foundation who teaches the Mittleider method.
Showing posts with label organic gardening. Show all posts
Showing posts with label organic gardening. Show all posts
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Monday, August 23, 2010
Lemon boy tomato
Lemon Boy low acid tomato, I grew these in my sustainable organic garden using the Mittleider method.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Phase two Mittleider garden setup
My garden is rocks rocks and more rocks the Mittleider method allows me to grow in this "soil"
Monday, November 2, 2009
Cross Polination
Cucumbers & Melons, Zucchini & Pumpkin
Hopefully, we can all learn from Joe s question. I will assume
that the answer is not a very over-ripe zucchini and a very under-ripe
watermelon, although those may have been factors in either or both
situations.
In talking with Dr. Mittleider about this, he said he never says never about
these things. Although the research I have been able to read all says
plants won't cross pollinate between different genus's, sometimes we see
some strange things, such as Joe Mandell just mentioned.
The only thing I have been able to find that may be a partial explanation
for this phenomenon is the following: In talking about the fruit growth of
seedless watermelons, researchers Beste et al. (1999) found that fruit
enlargement is stimulated by growth-promoting hormones provided by the
pollen placed on the stigmas of the seedless watermelons. Perhaps it's
possible that growth-promoting hormones from an adjacent cucumber plant
could influence more than just the growth (?)
It may have nothing to do with it, but at least it's a thought. Does anyone
else have more wisdom or experience in this matter?
Hopefully, we can all learn from Joe s question. I will assume
that the answer is not a very over-ripe zucchini and a very under-ripe
watermelon, although those may have been factors in either or both
situations.
In talking with Dr. Mittleider about this, he said he never says never about
these things. Although the research I have been able to read all says
plants won't cross pollinate between different genus's, sometimes we see
some strange things, such as Joe Mandell just mentioned.
The only thing I have been able to find that may be a partial explanation
for this phenomenon is the following: In talking about the fruit growth of
seedless watermelons, researchers Beste et al. (1999) found that fruit
enlargement is stimulated by growth-promoting hormones provided by the
pollen placed on the stigmas of the seedless watermelons. Perhaps it's
possible that growth-promoting hormones from an adjacent cucumber plant
could influence more than just the growth (?)
It may have nothing to do with it, but at least it's a thought. Does anyone
else have more wisdom or experience in this matter?
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Aisles, Paths, Walkways etc - Moving "improved" soil
Everyone please remember that 90-95% of the work of growing healthy plants is done by the process of photosynthesis using 3 elements that come from the air, and made possible by sunlight and the attendant warm temperatures, plus water.
5%+ of the work is done by the other 13 essential nutrients, which man can control and supply.
Soil provides 6 functions, including
1) Anchoring the plants,
2) Holding moisture,
3) Storing nutrients,
4) Allowing oxygen to reach plant roots,
5) Allowing for drainage, and
6) buffering the temperature.
All 6 of those functions can be adequately provided by the worst of soils, if the gardener uses level, raised, ridged beds, and provides water and small amounts of balanced natural mineral nutrients.
Therefore, amending your soil is not essential to having a good and productive garden.
Furthermore, adding organic materials to your garden soil, while it can improve soil tilth and add small amounts of nutrition, may also introduce diseases, weed seeds, and destructive insects into the garden. For these reasons we recommend you exercise care and caution in trying to "improve" your soil.
Moving existing "improved" soil to another location may provide a benefit, if none of the 3 negatives are present, but it is a lot of work, and is not necessary. Plus, it leaves the existing garden area with beds that are 4-6" higher than they should be from the aisles. This may make it difficult to keep moisture in the beds, and thus require much more water, or leave your plants suffering for lack of it. All things considered, I can't recommend it, but just know that your plant roots will reach out into the aisle area somewhat (depending on water availability there), and can thus benefit from the soil.
5%+ of the work is done by the other 13 essential nutrients, which man can control and supply.
Soil provides 6 functions, including
1) Anchoring the plants,
2) Holding moisture,
3) Storing nutrients,
4) Allowing oxygen to reach plant roots,
5) Allowing for drainage, and
6) buffering the temperature.
All 6 of those functions can be adequately provided by the worst of soils, if the gardener uses level, raised, ridged beds, and provides water and small amounts of balanced natural mineral nutrients.
Therefore, amending your soil is not essential to having a good and productive garden.
Furthermore, adding organic materials to your garden soil, while it can improve soil tilth and add small amounts of nutrition, may also introduce diseases, weed seeds, and destructive insects into the garden. For these reasons we recommend you exercise care and caution in trying to "improve" your soil.
Moving existing "improved" soil to another location may provide a benefit, if none of the 3 negatives are present, but it is a lot of work, and is not necessary. Plus, it leaves the existing garden area with beds that are 4-6" higher than they should be from the aisles. This may make it difficult to keep moisture in the beds, and thus require much more water, or leave your plants suffering for lack of it. All things considered, I can't recommend it, but just know that your plant roots will reach out into the aisle area somewhat (depending on water availability there), and can thus benefit from the soil.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Keeping tomatoes beyond the first frost
Does everyone know what to do with your green tomatoes in late fall? Pick them before it freezes, obviously, and then place them one layer deep in a cool part of the house out of the sun. They will ripen over the next several weeks, thus extending your season for fresh fruit. Some of the smaller ones will not ripen, and you may want to learn to appreciate some of the green tomato recipes, so they don't go to waste.
Have you all seen the picture of the Zoo Garden tomatoes growing up strings using T-Frames? It's on the home page of the MittleiderMethodGardening@yahoogroups.com group. I recommend you look at it, especially for the PVC "roof" I put on it. In late September I covered the whole thing, consisting of about 80 tomato plants, with 6 mil greenhouse plastic. With just a little heat during freezing weather this Should let you continue to grow and harvest fresh tomatoes at least into November, and maybe even December!
Beyond that, by covering it in the spring, you can transplant your tomatoes into the garden a month or so earlier - thus extending your harvest season on both ends! And the entire thing, including T-Frames, costs only about $200.
Have you all seen the picture of the Zoo Garden tomatoes growing up strings using T-Frames? It's on the home page of the MittleiderMethodGardening@yahoogroups.com group. I recommend you look at it, especially for the PVC "roof" I put on it. In late September I covered the whole thing, consisting of about 80 tomato plants, with 6 mil greenhouse plastic. With just a little heat during freezing weather this Should let you continue to grow and harvest fresh tomatoes at least into November, and maybe even December!
Beyond that, by covering it in the spring, you can transplant your tomatoes into the garden a month or so earlier - thus extending your harvest season on both ends! And the entire thing, including T-Frames, costs only about $200.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Soil Mix in Grow-Boxes
Q. I have made several beds. I am using the original garden soil to which I have added 10% vermiculite and 10% peat moss by volume. My top soil was so shallow (about 5 inches) that I really need to add another
couple of inches of something to get the mix to the top of the frames.
Would it be all right to fill the bed the rest of the way with fresh pine sawdust I have a ready? It is the size of dry oatmeal. Could there be an acid or heat problem with too much pine dust?
A. Several problems are associated with using the natural soil in your Grow-Boxes.
1. The weight of the dirt is much greater than the organic materials we recommend for 65-75% of the mix. This will tend to push your walls out.
2. The soil will tend to get very hard and compact.
3. The soil may have disease, almost certainly has weed seeds, and likely has some bugs in it. So by using it you continue problems that we try to avoid in the Mittleider Method.
There is no problem in using pine sawdust, but the size of what you describe makes it sound more like shavings or chips, rather than sawdust. You are inviting problems of having the materials sour if they are too large, and they don't absorb water, the way sawdust does, so I can't recommend anything larger than regular sawdust.
couple of inches of something to get the mix to the top of the frames.
Would it be all right to fill the bed the rest of the way with fresh pine sawdust I have a ready? It is the size of dry oatmeal. Could there be an acid or heat problem with too much pine dust?
A. Several problems are associated with using the natural soil in your Grow-Boxes.
1. The weight of the dirt is much greater than the organic materials we recommend for 65-75% of the mix. This will tend to push your walls out.
2. The soil will tend to get very hard and compact.
3. The soil may have disease, almost certainly has weed seeds, and likely has some bugs in it. So by using it you continue problems that we try to avoid in the Mittleider Method.
There is no problem in using pine sawdust, but the size of what you describe makes it sound more like shavings or chips, rather than sawdust. You are inviting problems of having the materials sour if they are too large, and they don't absorb water, the way sawdust does, so I can't recommend anything larger than regular sawdust.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Mixing Square Foot Gardening with The Mittleider Method?
Q. I would like to get the fertilizing method clarified. For the past 3 years I have used the square foot gardening method in raised beds. Last year I wasn't as happy with my tomato production and realized when my husband turned the bed that I would have to do something with the soil. Initially it was 1/3 top soil, 1/3 peat moss and 1/3 compost.
So this spring I decided to do some online research on how to fix my soil and came across the Mittleider Method. I thought I would be able to incorporate some of these methods with the square foot method. So, we added a bag of manure to each raised bed. They are 4' x 10' for 3 and 4' x 8' for two. We worked this into the beds along with some chopped leaves and peat moss. Once the soil was well mixed, we leveled it off and added 5-10-15 pre-planting fertilizer. In addition bone meal 7-5-0 was sprinkled on tope of each bed as rabbit
control. This was done before I read the ebook on the Mittleider method for fertilizing. Can I continue on with the weekly fertilizing? Do I really add fertilizer on a weekly basis? Since my beds are only 10' long, how much fertilizer would I use?
BTW, last year our garden with the exception of tomatoes did well. I was able to can 21 quarts of green beans besides what we ate fresh. It was a bad gardening year too. It was too hot and too dry. Tomatoes were really so so. Even zucchini did poorly which is why I started looking for other methods. I like the square foot method for higher yield production in small areas yet the fertilizing makes a lot of sense to me. So this year my garden is a mix of the square foot method and Mittleider method along with a heavy reliance on companion plantings.
A. I can't answer for what you can do, since you didn't say how much of anything you put in your beds, except the manure. I suspect you added more of the things you mention than needed, and you say nothing about the important secondary and trace minerals.
The reason fertilizing using the Mittleider Method produces such great gardens consistently year after year is that we always know just what we are adding to the soil, and we provide just what the plants need of all 13 natural mineral elements, without taking the risks of disease, weed seeds, and bugs that are so often associated with compost and manures.
We apply only small amounts of the Weekly Feed mix (5 ounces to a 10' row of plants) on a weekly basis until 3 weeks before harvest for single crop varieties, and until 8 weeks before first frost for ever-bearing plants like
tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, etc.
Best of success to you. I do hope you'll give the Mittleider Method a fair chance. I'm confident you'll be pleased with the easy and simple procedures, and especially pleased with your yields of beautiful healthy produce.
So this spring I decided to do some online research on how to fix my soil and came across the Mittleider Method. I thought I would be able to incorporate some of these methods with the square foot method. So, we added a bag of manure to each raised bed. They are 4' x 10' for 3 and 4' x 8' for two. We worked this into the beds along with some chopped leaves and peat moss. Once the soil was well mixed, we leveled it off and added 5-10-15 pre-planting fertilizer. In addition bone meal 7-5-0 was sprinkled on tope of each bed as rabbit
control. This was done before I read the ebook on the Mittleider method for fertilizing. Can I continue on with the weekly fertilizing? Do I really add fertilizer on a weekly basis? Since my beds are only 10' long, how much fertilizer would I use?
BTW, last year our garden with the exception of tomatoes did well. I was able to can 21 quarts of green beans besides what we ate fresh. It was a bad gardening year too. It was too hot and too dry. Tomatoes were really so so. Even zucchini did poorly which is why I started looking for other methods. I like the square foot method for higher yield production in small areas yet the fertilizing makes a lot of sense to me. So this year my garden is a mix of the square foot method and Mittleider method along with a heavy reliance on companion plantings.
A. I can't answer for what you can do, since you didn't say how much of anything you put in your beds, except the manure. I suspect you added more of the things you mention than needed, and you say nothing about the important secondary and trace minerals.
The reason fertilizing using the Mittleider Method produces such great gardens consistently year after year is that we always know just what we are adding to the soil, and we provide just what the plants need of all 13 natural mineral elements, without taking the risks of disease, weed seeds, and bugs that are so often associated with compost and manures.
We apply only small amounts of the Weekly Feed mix (5 ounces to a 10' row of plants) on a weekly basis until 3 weeks before harvest for single crop varieties, and until 8 weeks before first frost for ever-bearing plants like
tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, etc.
Best of success to you. I do hope you'll give the Mittleider Method a fair chance. I'm confident you'll be pleased with the easy and simple procedures, and especially pleased with your yields of beautiful healthy produce.
Monday, October 5, 2009
How much water pressure is needed for auto watering?
Watering System Question
Q. When I set up my watering pipes, I made a separate hose attachment for each row.
Now I would like to connect them to a manifold to water several rows at a time.
How many rows can be watered at once with a typical house faucet pressure? The
south side of my garden has 9 rows, and the north side has 4. Thanks!
A. With a water source of a 3/8" (sometimes smaller!) water hose you won't have much
success watering multiple rows at the same time, unless your rows are
substantially shorter than 30'.
I water 25 rows at one time, but I have a 2" main line with water delivered by a
5 HP Honda pump. The laterals that feed 20-25 rows are 1 1/2", and T's that feed
individual beds are 3/4".
A 1" main line could water several beds at a time - the number being dependent
on the water pressure to your garden.
Q. When I set up my watering pipes, I made a separate hose attachment for each row.
Now I would like to connect them to a manifold to water several rows at a time.
How many rows can be watered at once with a typical house faucet pressure? The
south side of my garden has 9 rows, and the north side has 4. Thanks!
A. With a water source of a 3/8" (sometimes smaller!) water hose you won't have much
success watering multiple rows at the same time, unless your rows are
substantially shorter than 30'.
I water 25 rows at one time, but I have a 2" main line with water delivered by a
5 HP Honda pump. The laterals that feed 20-25 rows are 1 1/2", and T's that feed
individual beds are 3/4".
A 1" main line could water several beds at a time - the number being dependent
on the water pressure to your garden.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Organic Gardening to Produce Food for your Family
Gardening to Produce Food For Everyone
My name is Jim Kennard, and as President of the Food For Everyone Foundation I am excited to help in fulfilling the foundation's mission of "teaching the world to grow food one family at a time."
The first way we do this is by providing a wealth of free vegetable gardening information, training, tips, and advice on the internet at www.foodforeveryone.org. People from all over the world log on here to receive free training and advice, as well as to obtain the great gardening books, CDs and software written by Dr. Jacob R. Mittleider, some of which were created in collaboration with several BYU PhDs and Professors of Educational Psychology and Technology.
The Mittleider Gardening Basics Course ebook is free on the website at www.foodforeveryone.org/learn. The book-length FAQ section also has over 500 short gardening articles, which answer people's questions and give advice on many important vegetable gardening subjects.
In addition we have free greenhouse plans and free plans for automating your garden watering system, as well as a free gardening group where you can share knowledge and experience with thousands of successful vegetable gardeners.
I'll briefly introduce you to the Foundation's gardening methods by describing a few things about the Mittleider Method that are important, and which distinguish it from other gardening methods.
Most of the time our gardens are grown right in the native soil, with no amendments. We promise you "a great garden in any soil, in almost any climate". From straight sand to the worst clay, we'll show you how to have success growing healthy, delicious vegetables the first time and every time. The picture is Jan & Gretchen Graf’s first ever garden West of Santa Clara, Utah in blow-sand. It was a great success.
Grow-Boxes, or containers are sometimes needed for people living in apartments, and for disabled people. Container gardening can be just as effective as growing in the soil. Three of Dr. Mittleider's 10 books are dedicated to the unique features of the container gardening process, and for the next 5 days I will send a copy of the Digital version of Gardening by the Foot to all who request it from me at jim@growfood.com.
The Mittleider Method is sometimes called "the poor man's hydroponic system", because we use some of the principles and procedures of greenhouse growers, such as
1. Vertical growing,
2. Allowing NO weeds,
3. Watering often with small amounts of water,
4. Feeding the plants accurately throughout their growing cycle with natural mineral nutrients, and
5. Controlling temperature extremes, thus extending the growing season in both the spring and fall.
The Second major element in the Foundation's mission is teaching, training, and assisting people directly. One way we do this in America is by conducting free ½-day group gardening seminars. These can be arranged by contacting me by email at jim@growfood.com.
We also conduct humanitarian projects in countries throughout the world. In 2002 I was in Turkey and Madagascar for the Church. Every year since 2004 we have spent time in Armenia. In 2007 and 2008 we were also in the Republic of Georgia, and in 2007-2008 we were on a University campus in Colombia for several months – again for the Church. Everywhere we’ve been we grow many kinds of vegetables the locals thought couldn't possibly be grown in "their region", and we try to leave people in place to be the local “experts” to carry on and expand the work.
Another way in which we extend our reach is to train others who are becoming missionaries. One example is Howard and Glenice Morgan from Southern California, who recently returned from a 2-year LDS mission to Zimbabwe. They were sent to teach Mittleider gardening to Church members throughout the country, and they did a FABULOUS job.
They prepared by studying the Mittleider gardening books. Then, after some training in my garden adjacent to Utah's Hogle Zoo, and using only the simple 6 Steps to Successful Gardening book, the Morgans created 84 large “community” gardens in 4 countries, and taught over 10,500 people to feed themselves by growing their own healthy vegetables.
And Howard and Glenice thanked me for helping them have the time of their lives! Howard was a retired dentist, by the way, with very little previous experience in gardening.
So, whatever level you are currently on, you too can experience this kind of success – whether it's in your own home garden, a community effort, or as a humanitarian missionary in some distant country.
Join us as we teach people how there can be “food for everyone”, and learn to produce the best gardens of your life.
Jim Kennard
My name is Jim Kennard, and as President of the Food For Everyone Foundation I am excited to help in fulfilling the foundation's mission of "teaching the world to grow food one family at a time."
The first way we do this is by providing a wealth of free vegetable gardening information, training, tips, and advice on the internet at www.foodforeveryone.org. People from all over the world log on here to receive free training and advice, as well as to obtain the great gardening books, CDs and software written by Dr. Jacob R. Mittleider, some of which were created in collaboration with several BYU PhDs and Professors of Educational Psychology and Technology.
The Mittleider Gardening Basics Course ebook is free on the website at www.foodforeveryone.org/learn. The book-length FAQ section also has over 500 short gardening articles, which answer people's questions and give advice on many important vegetable gardening subjects.
In addition we have free greenhouse plans and free plans for automating your garden watering system, as well as a free gardening group where you can share knowledge and experience with thousands of successful vegetable gardeners.
I'll briefly introduce you to the Foundation's gardening methods by describing a few things about the Mittleider Method that are important, and which distinguish it from other gardening methods.
Most of the time our gardens are grown right in the native soil, with no amendments. We promise you "a great garden in any soil, in almost any climate". From straight sand to the worst clay, we'll show you how to have success growing healthy, delicious vegetables the first time and every time. The picture is Jan & Gretchen Graf’s first ever garden West of Santa Clara, Utah in blow-sand. It was a great success.
Grow-Boxes, or containers are sometimes needed for people living in apartments, and for disabled people. Container gardening can be just as effective as growing in the soil. Three of Dr. Mittleider's 10 books are dedicated to the unique features of the container gardening process, and for the next 5 days I will send a copy of the Digital version of Gardening by the Foot to all who request it from me at jim@growfood.com.
The Mittleider Method is sometimes called "the poor man's hydroponic system", because we use some of the principles and procedures of greenhouse growers, such as
1. Vertical growing,
2. Allowing NO weeds,
3. Watering often with small amounts of water,
4. Feeding the plants accurately throughout their growing cycle with natural mineral nutrients, and
5. Controlling temperature extremes, thus extending the growing season in both the spring and fall.
The Second major element in the Foundation's mission is teaching, training, and assisting people directly. One way we do this in America is by conducting free ½-day group gardening seminars. These can be arranged by contacting me by email at jim@growfood.com.
We also conduct humanitarian projects in countries throughout the world. In 2002 I was in Turkey and Madagascar for the Church. Every year since 2004 we have spent time in Armenia. In 2007 and 2008 we were also in the Republic of Georgia, and in 2007-2008 we were on a University campus in Colombia for several months – again for the Church. Everywhere we’ve been we grow many kinds of vegetables the locals thought couldn't possibly be grown in "their region", and we try to leave people in place to be the local “experts” to carry on and expand the work.
Another way in which we extend our reach is to train others who are becoming missionaries. One example is Howard and Glenice Morgan from Southern California, who recently returned from a 2-year LDS mission to Zimbabwe. They were sent to teach Mittleider gardening to Church members throughout the country, and they did a FABULOUS job.
They prepared by studying the Mittleider gardening books. Then, after some training in my garden adjacent to Utah's Hogle Zoo, and using only the simple 6 Steps to Successful Gardening book, the Morgans created 84 large “community” gardens in 4 countries, and taught over 10,500 people to feed themselves by growing their own healthy vegetables.
And Howard and Glenice thanked me for helping them have the time of their lives! Howard was a retired dentist, by the way, with very little previous experience in gardening.
So, whatever level you are currently on, you too can experience this kind of success – whether it's in your own home garden, a community effort, or as a humanitarian missionary in some distant country.
Join us as we teach people how there can be “food for everyone”, and learn to produce the best gardens of your life.
Jim Kennard
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