Robbins Farm Garden

A Cooperative Learning Project

cabbage

Blanching Cauliflower

by

A couple weeks ago, we decided to experiment on the cauliflower. No, no, we did not pour boiling water on them!  Quoting from the Kansas State University Univesity horticulture report on cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower:  "Blanching consists of pulling some of the larger leaves over the small head when they are 2 to 3 inches in diameter, and securing them with twine or rubber bands.  Failure to blanch will result in discolored heads often wtih a bitter, disagreeable flavor."  Gardeners were mixed about implementing blanching on the cauliflower.  Some felt that tying leaves around the head would suppress head growth, leading to smaller heads.  Others were skeptical about any difference in taste.  So, as an experiment, we tied up two heads, and left the rest untied.

Two weeks later, we have some results.  One of the cauliflower heads tied up is quite white; another whose tie fell off and needed to be retied is mostly white.  By comparison, the head not tied at all is distinctly yellow.  It is also the smallest of the three, but then (unfairly perhaps) the two tied up were larger then as well.  One gardener still scoffed that there would be no taste difference.  We shall see!

Blossoms and even a fruit

by

TomatoesOur fourteen tomato plants went into the ground at Memorial Day, after a robust discussion the week before of which types and quantities we should raise.

Twelve of them ended up in the bed we designated for them, and singles are in the adjacent brassica bed in openings created when we had to remove diseased cauliflower and cabbage plants.

This is our roster, thanks to Lisa, who reported their planting when they went in: 2 sugar plum grape, 2 sungold cherry, 1 red zebra, 1 blondkopfchen cherry, 2 Moskovitch, 1 yellow perfection, 1 red brandywine, 1 brandywine, 1 Charlie Black and 2 eva purples.

The method for planting was completely different than what I would have done with my own tomato plants at home had I not been there to observe: The holes were dug one-third deeper than the pots the seedlings were in; this was because tomatoes, I was told (by Mike, or Alan?) are vines, and all about their roots. To accommodate the added depth, we pinched off the shoots from the stem that would have been underground.

The holes were prepared, meanwhile, just as I had, on instruction, earlier in the day for peppers and eggplants: A small handful of chicken poop for fertilizer and a sprinkling of pulverized eggshells for calcium, to ward off blossom end rot. 

Mike, who headed the tomato committee, advised mounding small rings of earth at each plant’s drip line, to form sort of a watering dish. This, he told me, ensures that water showered on the plant is more likely to arrive at its roots, instead of dampening all the surrounding area.

Last Saturday, the first tomato appeared on one of the plants — sorry, dunno which one (it was a sugar plum)— mottled green and marble-sized. I took a picture to share with you, but my auto-focus got a really sharp image of the hairs of an adjoining stem instead. It was mottled green and marble-sized, trust me.

Cabbage Patch Invaded

by

The cabbage patch has been invaded … by tomatoes!  The spaces formerly occupied by the two culled seedlings were filled last Saturday by the tomato committee.  A couple other plants are doing poorly — while some are doing very well.  What is the difference?  The cabbage family has a shallow root system, and so more vulnerable when transplanting (as ours were), and more sensitive to being underwatered.  The question is whether the early stunted growth can be overcome by warmer weather, rich sunlight, and good watering.

Cauliflower trouble

by

Root maggotsTwo of the cauliflower seedlings have been looking pretty bad. I pulled them today and replaced them with two new red cabbage plants from Busa Farm. Upon examination, we found at least one root maggot and a lot of damage.

Cabbage root maggots are the larval stage of Baby caulflowerthe cabbage root fly. There’s not much you can do once you have root maggots, and our only hope is that the other brassicas are strong enough to grow in spite of possible infestation. We’ve already pulled a few cabbages with the same problem. So far, the brocolli doesn’t seem to have been effected.

The only effective prevention for cabbage root maggots is to grow the seedlings under an impenetrable tent or cloche until they’ve grown big enough to survive an infestation. It also helps sometimes to plant later than usual, after the first generation of the flies is past. I took the damaged seedlings home to compost, since we don’t grow brassicas at home.

Sadly, this little damaged plant had already produced a perfect miniature cauliflower bud.

Sickly Seedlings

by

Last Saturday we pulled two seedlings, one cabbage and one cauilflower, that we felt were too sickly to survive.  We closely examined their roots and the surrounding dirt, looking for the cause, and in particular for cutworms.  The base of the stem of one of the seedlings did look like it had been partially eaten-through, which might be due to a cutworm; although, a real cutworm would have eaten entirely through the stem.  The other seedling had no rootlets — the fine root hairs branching off the main root — as if something had eaten them; although cutworms don’t attack a seedling that way.  In both cases, we saw no cutworms or any other pest in the soil that could be responsible for the damage.  We were puzzled.