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Rye Straw

Like I’ve posted about before, I’m working on Tim Peter’s perennial rye, making selections and trying to get improved seed.

With normal annual rye, it dies off at the end of the year so you don’t have to worry about killing it.  In my case, out of the 300 or so plants I started with, I selected about 20 for transplant to another place to save.  I had to kill the remaining plants, so I first cut them down to about 50cm high to make them easier to manage, then covered them with woven black plastic.  I did this last fall.

I’m busy preparing garden beds, so I just pulled the plastic back.  I was a little amazed at what I found.  The ground was covered with very good quality and clean straw.  If I had wanted to use it where it was, it would have been no problem to just plant right into.  In my case, I needed mulch for my garlic, and it was very easy to just rake up and move.  I sometimes use plant debris for mulch, but honestly I buy a lot of mulch (mostly straw from local farmers) because it’s just easier.  I’ve never grown any plant myself that made such good quality mulch in useful quantities.

In the picture you see a few weeds poking through.  This is mostly because I used overlapping pieces of black plastic and some weeds grew through the edges.

After I raked up the straw, I had another surprise.  My camera didn’t take a good picture, but underneath was very rich chocolate brown and crumbly dirt.  I’ve never seen anything like that in my garden before either.  My garden is on top of an old peat bog, hundreds of years old, mixed with a lot of clay.  The deep roots of the rye plants (these can get to about 2m deep) pulled up lots of great nutrients and even some of the color of the peat.  The dirt also had a great smell!  Don’t you just love the smell of rich dirt?!

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Ban MON810 in Poland

Poland, a country that’s sometimes, mostly, GMO free is encountering more political problems.  The only legal GMO corn variety in Europe, Monsanto’s Bt MON810 is currently legal in Poland.

The good news is the Agricultural Minister promised to ban this variety like 9 other EU countries have already done.  The bad news is his statement also included the condition ‘this would only be possible with the permission of the European Commission’.

What a load of rubbish!

Not only is there no one in particular to ask such permission from in the EU, or anyone likely to give it, but it’s not necessary.  Poland is a sovereign country and can pass it’s own laws without EU approval.  Do we need to remind the Polish minister that the ban in France was overturned by the courts, and so the ban in Poland should avoid the issues that led to this?

Please write Mr Marek Sawicki, the Polish Minister of Agriculture, and let him know what you think!

marek.sawicki@minrol.gov.pl
tel.: +48 226231510; fax: +48 226231788

Please also send a copy to ICPPC – International Coalition to Protect the Polish Countryside, who are coordinating this campaign.  Contact information is on their website.

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Purple of Sicily Cauliflower

I first wrote about this cauliflower 6 years ago.  Bayu who lives in Indonesia left a comment asking if I had any spare seeds I would send for free, but I don’t have these any more.  Does anyone have some seeds, or would like to buy some seeds, and send them to Indonesia for free?  If so, please let me know and I’ll forward the email address.

These are pretty ordinary seeds.  If you live in the US, they are available for example at Baker Creek.  There are similar varieties with different names, so if you have something that looks the same it probably is.

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Junaluska Apple

Last year around this time I was looking for fruit tree scion wood, and my search led me to the website of Tom Brown in North Carolina in the US.   Even though Tom was willing to cooperate, we quickly discovered the Netherlands doesn’t allow the import of apple tree scion wood from the US without lots of red tape, so the discussion ended.

So much of Tom speaks to what it means to collect and share heirloom and heritage varieties.  Tom not only has a very impressive collection of heritage apples, mostly from the US south, but he’s done everything possible to collect stories and other documentation to go along with them.  The roots of Tom’s interest in his apple collection lie in his childhood and passions as a young man.

Not only has the world lost so many heritage plant varieties over the years, but we’ve lost the passions that go along with growing, documenting and hunting for them.

Tom recently rewrote and reposted the story of how found the Junaluska apple, and sent me a link.  Note too the link on the bottom of the page that leads to the various descriptions of the apple he found.  Many of us grow the Cherokee Trail of Tears beans in our garden each year, and now thanks to Tom a Cherokee apple from that time is also available.

If you live in the US and are looking for an apple tree to grow, consider buying this or others from Tom via his website.

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Garlic Rust in Iran

Last week Arash in Iran left the following comment:

Hello to all
I am a researcher in iran.I and my cooperator have collected 22 accessions from region of Tarom (one of areas of Zanjan province). We want to research taht how many genotypes are being farm in this area and also study resistance to puccinia alli. please gide me how I operate thate conclude best.

on this post.

He actually doesn’t say it’s specifically on garlic, rather alliums in general, but since my original post was on garlic I assume that’s what he meant.

Does anyone have any information for him?

I can say that in the last few years since I’ve been making posts about garlic rust, I first read that it was present in on the US west coast, specifically in California in the region around Gilroy and a few isolated places in Oregon.  I also knew it was present in northern Europe because it was in my garden and those of fellow gardeners in the UK, Denmark and Sweden.

In the years that followed I had reports from readers that it was present in the entire Willamette Valley area of Oregon, and later British Columbia in Canada and Los Angeles, in southern California.  Two years ago someone reported it appeared in Ethiopia.  I see mentioned on the Internet it’s also appeared this year on the east coast of the US in Maine.  It seems to be spreading now, almost all over the world.

Following a suggestion from Søren, a fellow blogger in Denmark I’ve been experimenting with spraying dilute milk on my plants.  I have not done this in any sort of scientific way, but my feeling is it’s of significant benefit.  It seems to slow the rust down and manage it, to the extent it’s no longer a serious problem.  I spray this on the plants about once a week or after rain, during the last 2-3 months or when I think rust infection is likely to occur.  It’s benefit seems to be much greater if applied before the plants are infected.  I use a ratio of 3-10 parts water to one part milk.

In the last several years I have grown more than 120 varieties of garlic in my garden, and a friend of mine more than 300.  We have not really noticed significant signs of resistance to garlic rust on any of them, except a few of the more vigorous varieties like Susan Delafield and Estonian Red (a purple stripe type) seem to stand up a little longer to the rust probably because of the strength of the plants, and some silverskin varieties like Chilean Silver seemed to get infected a little later than the others.

The other thing a number of people observed was the application of high nitrogen fertilizer, in particular animal manure, caused the rust problem to become much worse.