nematodes

Solarization of our whole hoophouse

Solarization plastic spread across our hoophouse. Next we weighted down the edges with small buckets of rocks. Photo Ken Bezilla

I wrote in August 2019 about Solarization and Crop Choices to Fight Nematodes. Previously we solarized part of a bed in our hoophouse, or one or two beds. I’ve written before about our first efforts at solarization to fight root knot nematodes in our hoophouse. Back then we shoveled soil on the plastic edges to make a good seal between the plastic and the soil. Later we developed a good technique of pushing the plastic edges down into soil using spades, which gives a much better seal, and if you work both sides of the bed at the same time you can avoid wrinkles.

Solarizing a single bed in 2019 using a spade to push the plastic edge into the soil..
Photo Pam Dawling

This summer we decided to solarize the whole hoophouse. We hope to make progress on reducing fungal diseases in our winter crops, drawing down the weed seed bank, and killing lots of nematodes. We plan to solarize for the whole of August (4 weeks). Here’s the story so far.

Solarization

Solarization is a method of killing pests, diseases and weed seeds near the surface of the soil by covering the soil with clear plastic in hot weather. Nematodes are only active in warm weather, and we have not had problems with them outdoors, but of course, it’s warmer in the hoophouse!

In my Book Review: The Organic No-Till Farming Revolution: High Production Methods for Small-Scale Farmers, Andrew Mefferd, I wrote a little about solarizing:

“Solarization uses clear plastic (old hoophouse plastic is ideal). In a summer hoophouse, solarization can be as quick as 24 hours, Andrew says. When we’ve done this, one of our goals was to kill nematodes and fungal diseases, not just weeds, so we waited a few weeks. Outdoors it takes several weeks. You can see when the weeds are dead. Bryan O’Hara poked a thermometer probe through solarization plastic and found a 50F degree (28C) difference between the outside air and the soil immediately under the plastic; a 10F (6C) difference at 1″(2.5 cm) deep and little temperature gain lower than that. Solarization does not kill all the soil life!”

Preparation for Solarizing

Last time we changed the plastic, we saved our old hoophouse plastic in one large sheet, for just this option of solarizing the whole hoophouse. Unfortunately, someone used it for some other purpose, and we ended up having to buy new plastic to carry out our plan. Ouch! Label your old plastic very thoroughly! We bought 4 mil Tufflite Nursery Clear plastic from Nolts Greenhouse Supplies, Ephrata, PA (only rated for one year outdoors), thinner than the 6mil we buy for covering the frame. Be aware that shipping can be a big part of the cost, unless you are ordering lots of things.

Clearing hoophouse tomatoes and sunn hemp cover crop.
Photo Pam Dawling

We pulled up our tomatoes and cucumbers at the end of July, a week earlier than usual. The squash had already gone. I was sad to say goodbye to the bell peppers as they were the best we’ve had in years. Usually we keep the peppers until October and do our winter crop planning so that the pepper area is the last planted in winter crops, but we made that sacrifice! For several years our peppers didn’t do well, as the salinity of our soil had got too high. We now do salt wash-downs in September and March. This year they were spectacular! Big plants, huge peppers!

Lady Bell peppers ripening on 7 July.
Photo Pam Dawling

We decided to keep the big shadecloth in place for the solarizing day, expecting it to be very hot. It wasn’t, but it was a wise precaution. We planned to remove the shadecloth the next day, but it was raining and we need the shadecloth to be dry to pack it away. So we waited a couple of days for our little monsoon season to pass. Normally we leave the shadecloth in place until mid-September or so, but this year we want maximum heating for the solarization.

We are leaving the drip tape in place so we can water the soil and keep it alive below the hot zone. If we had thought of it in time, we might have spread compost on the beds before spreading the plastic and killed the weed seeds that have landed on the compost pile while we ignored it since early April. We were stretched thin and got behind with the mowing, and we know grass and spiny amaranth seeded somewhat on to the pile. We did have it partly covered with a tarp.

Unrolling the Plastic

Unrolling plastic to solarize the hoophouse.
Photo Pam Dawling

We bought plastic 32’x100’ which was just right for the footprint of our 30’x 96’ gothic hoophouse. We unrolled it down the center bed (it was folded in several concertina folds from each edge to the middle). We gradually unpacked the folds and pulled the plastic out to the edges. It is important to get as smooth and tight a fit as possible (few airgaps between soil and plastic).

We designated one person to take their sandals off and walk on top of the plastic, while the rest of us gathered small buckets and put some rocks in them, to anchor the edges. This all went very smoothly and took less time than we expected. We used about one bucket of rocks every 20’ down the length. We rolled our painters’ pole that we use for our SnoBrum in the plastic across the west doorway, the direction the strongest winds come from, for add extra security in preventing wind getting under that edge of the plastic. We did not bury the plastic edges in the soil, as that seemed difficult and we figured a large area would suffer less edge cooling/heat escape than a single bed.

Closing Up the Hoophouse for a Month

We closed the doors and windows and relaxed into enjoying a summer month off from harvesting in the hoophouse. We have made a list of infrastructure repairs, landscape care and, of course, the winter crop planning to do in t he next month. And we’ll be irrigating maybe twice a week and checking the soil thermometer periodically. It showed 80F last week, before we solarized.

Hoophouse solarization at Dripping Springs Garden, Arkansas.
Photo Pam Dawling

More Resources on Solarizing

eOrganic’s Organic Vegetable Production Systems Topics list offers publications on plant disease management, weed management and management of soil-borne pathogens using Anaerobic Soil Disinfestation. Here’s a 2025 webinar about On-farm Anaerobic Soil Disinfestation for the Management of Soilborne Pathogens in High Tunnel Production Systems:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pEf26ae6XI

The University of California Solarization site and their Small and Organic Farm Advisor have good information, including some in Spanish and Hmong

More Resources on Nematodes

I’ve written here before about our struggles with root knot nematodes in our hoophouse, and you can read everything I know about nematodes in the Year-Round Hoophouse.

My article on nematodes in Growing for Market in November 2014 describes our discovery of the beasties and our first attempts to deal with them. My most thorough blogpost about nematodes was for Mother Earth News Managing Nematodes in the Hoophouse. It’s free for MEN members.

There is info on dealing with nematodes from Garry Ross in Hawaii, where nematodes are a fact of daily life, in my post Cold weather, snow, thinking about nematodes from February 2015.

Soil Test Results: Leaf Yellowing, High Salts

Yellowed over-wintered spinach outdoors in spring.
Photo Pam Dawling

What to do with Soil Test Results

Here I’m addressing some of the soil test results from our hoophouse, and of course the same principles apply outdoors too.

This fall we took multiple samples of soil in our 96’ x 30’ (29 x 9 m) hoophouse, because of curiosity as well as two specific concerns. The first concern was that our twice-a-year salt wash-downs maybe weren’t doing a good job of reaching the edge beds. The second was that one particular area of one of the beds produced a patch of poor yellow spinach last winter, and we wondered why. In a normal year we just take one soil sample from the whole hoophouse, mixing several cores. After all, agriculturally speaking, 2,880 square feet (268 m²) is a small area! Last year we didn’t do any soil tests. Normally it isn’t necessary to test every year, but if you think something has changed, it’s a good move.

Soluble Salt Levels

Our salt levels (after our salt wash-down) were reassuring. All were low (230-269 ppm), except the north edge bed which had 474 ppm, medium. The south edge bed had 358 ppm, but that’s still classed as low. “Soluble Salts are not high enough to cause salt injury”. We decided to do nothing right now, except buy a new heavy-duty lawn sprinkler, so we always have a spare on hand.

Why Salt Wash-Downs Become Necessary in Hoophouses

Because hoophouse soil is protected from rain and snow, soluble salts do not get washed down or away, as happens outdoors. Like many hoophouse growers, we use drip irrigation, not overhead watering. This is a much more efficient use of water, although it makes salt build up (salinization) more likely. Think about salt pans where salt is harvested from seawater: a large flat area is covered with seawater and left undisturbed while the water evaporates in the sun. The (no-till) hoophouse soil has water (including soluble salts) spread through the surface layers. It is left undisturbed. The heat of the sun draws the water up to the surface and evaporates it, leaving salts to build up and damage crops in hoophouses, especially if your soil doesn’t drain well or if you use animal manures or synthetic fertilizers. Salinization can cause symptoms like drought stress, interfere with seed germination, and inhibit plant growth. It can also encourage some pests.

How We Do Salt Wash-Downs

Twice a year, we do a multiday salt wash-down treatment with an oscillating lawn sprinkler. In the fall we time the wash-down for October after we’ve planted the first bed of winter crops, before we start prepping the other beds, or in early November after they are all planted. We don’t want to be broadforking heavy, sticky wet soil! In the spring we do the wash-down in early March before we start transplanting the tomatoes. We don’t want overhead watering on the crops that are prone to fungal diseases.

Here is a 3-slide explanation. Click the bottom of the slide to advance to the next.

Salt Build-up

Our lawn sprinkler covers a rectangle about 30 ft (9 m) wide and about 24 ft (7.2 m) long. We flag 4 spots along the center bed, the first 12 ft (3.7 m) from one end wall, and then every 24 ft (7.4 m). In the simple version, we start at the easternmost flag and run the sprinkler for two hours. Then we move the sprinkler to the next flag and run it there for two hours. Doing all 4 flagged spots takes an 8-hour day. Before watering the western spot, we gather all the tools, logbook, tubs of labels, and put them outside in a garden cart (covered with a tarp) for the night.

Next day we start at the west end and once we have moved the sprinkler to the second spot we can return the tools to their accustomed hooks. In the spring we can only manage two days of wash-down, but in the fall we do three days. According to the soil tests, this is enough to give an OK reading on soluble salts.

It is tricky to get the edge beds adequately watered, so we usually run the sprinklers offset one bed either side of the center-line, giving the edge beds a better chance. This year, the south edge bed got as good a reading as the middle beds, and the north bed got a slightly poorer (higher) reading. Our hydrant gives 1” (2.5 cm) of water every hour. You can test with a shallow straight-sided container, such as a tuna can. So the soil gets 4” (10 cm) of water in the spring salt wash-down and 6” (15 cm) in the fall one.

As a guideline, to leach out soluble salts from the top 12” (30 cm) of soil, apply 6” (15 cm) of water to wash down 50% of the salts, apply 12” (30 cm) to wash down 80% of the salts and 24% to wash down about 90% of the salts (California Fertilizer Association, Western Fertilizer Handbook, 8th Ed.)

See Dealing With High Soluble Salt levels in High Tunnels PA

Soil Nutrient Levels

Our levels of nutrients were all Sufficient, High or Very High, except potassium in one test, which was Medium. Various nutrient deficiencies can cause leaf yellowing and other symptoms. Nothing I saw in the nutrient test results worried me. I’ve written previously about high phosphorus levels. I did note that the phosphorus was highest in the area where we’d had the very yellow spinach last winter (and where the pH was highest). More on this next week.

Causes of Leaf Yellowing (Chlorosis)

I wrote about causes of yellow spinach here in 2019. Here’s a recap:

Yellow over-wintered spinach in spring. Note that it is the outer leaves that are yellow, while the younger inner ones are green. Note that even the veins are yellow.
Photo Pam Dawling

Possible causes of yellow spinach leaves include poor drainage, compacted soil, damaged roots/poor root growth, high soil pH, too much or too little water, too low or too high a temperature, or perhaps cold temperatures followed abruptly by very warm temperatures, 80°F (26.7°C) or greater; nutrient deficiencies or disease. Our roots grew OK, and we don’t tend towards alkaline soil. But this year’s soil test revealed exactly that! The problem area had a pH of 7.2! Other areas within the hoophouse had 6.6-7.1, all buffered to about 6.6. I’ll say more about pH and what we did to improve it in a week or so. Today I’ll focus on salinity and causes of leaf yellowing.

Nutrient deficiencies can occur due to low amounts in the soil or because high soil pH has made those nutrients unavailable. The most common nutrient problem associated with yellowing is lack of iron, but it may also be caused by deficiencies of manganese, magnesium, boron, zinc, or nitrogen. Iron deficiency starts on young leaves and works towards the older leaves (which initially had enough iron, as a transplant). It can occur in water-logged soil. The veins can remain green. Not the problem we have – our older leaves were yellower.

Deficiencies in manganese, zinc or nitrogen develop on older leaves first and then progress upward/inward. Within older leaves, magnesium is transported from the leaf’s interstitial areas to the veins, resulting in yellowing of the areas between leaf veins. This creates a marbled appearance, a typical symptom of magnesium deficiency. Our leaves were yellow all over.

Nitrogen deficiency. Overall yellowing (including veins). The lower, older leaves appear yellow first as the plant moves the available nitrogen to the more important newer leaves. Spinach is sensitive to inadequate nitrogen. Our main suspect.

Soil auger, form and sample box from Virginia Tech and our soil tests results file.
Photo Pam Dawling

Boron deficiency also yellows the leaves and stunts spinach plants. We do tend to run short of boron, and my approach was to add boron before brassicas each winter. We haven’t added any for several years and the only brassicas in these beds were turnips in spring 2017 and fall 2018. I don’t remember if we added boron in 2016/2017, and the records are tucked away.

Spinach is a heavy feeder. Recommendations are to feed with compost tea, manure tea, or fish emulsion when plants have four true leaves. Side-dress with compost tea every 10 to 15 days. Mix 1 tablespoon of fish emulsion and 2 tablespoons of kelp extract per gallon of water; use about one cup per foot (30 cm) of row on a weekly basis until plants are about 4″ (10 cm) tall; then feed twice more before harvest. Add mature compost to planting beds twice each year.

Fusarium wilt or fusarium yellows, Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. Spinaciae (also called spinach yellows) is a fungal disease which infects plant vascular tissues. Fungal spores live in the soil for at least 10-15 years and can be carried by cucumber beetles. We certainly have lots of striped cucumber beetles! But our plants that year were not wilting. Liming to ensure the soil is not acidic can help prevent this disease.

See Identifying nutrient deficiency in plants and Guide to Symptoms of Plant Nutrient Deficiencies

Nematodes (we do have peanut root-knot nematodes) can cause yellow leaves.

Solarization and crop choices to fight nematodes

Solarizing to combat nematodes. Photo Pam Dawling

Solarization

Solarization is a method of killing pests, diseases and weed seeds near the surface of the soil by covering the soil with clear plastic for six weeks or more in hot weather. We use this method to help control nematodes in our hoophouse. Nematodes are only active in warm weather, and we have not had problems with them outdoors, but of course, it’s warmer in the hoophouse!

I’ve written before about solarization to fight nematodes in our hoophouse.

In my Book Review: The Organic No-Till Farming Revolution: High Production Methods for Small-Scale Farmers, Andrew Mefferd, I wrote a little about solarizing:

“Solarization uses clear plastic (old hoophouse plastic is ideal). In a summer hoophouse, solarization can be as quick as 24 hours, Andrew says. When we’ve done this, one of our goals was to kill nematodes and fungal diseases, not just weeds, so we waited a few weeks. Outdoors it takes several weeks. You can see when the weeds are dead. Bryan O’Hara poked a thermometer probe through solarization plastic and found a 50F degree (28C) difference between the outside air and the soil immediately under the plastic; a 10F (6C) difference at 1″ (2.5 cm) deep and little temperature gain lower than that. Solarization does not kill all the soil life!”

Extension offers Solarization and Tarping for Weed Management on Organic Vegetable Farms in the Northeast USA which can, of course, be modified for those of us in other regions.

I’ve written here before about our struggles with root knot nematodes in our hoophouse, and you can read everything I know about nematodes in the Year-Round Hoophouse.

My article on nematodes in Growing for Market in November 2014 describes our discovery of the beasties and our first attempts to deal with them.

My most thorough blogpost about nematodes was for Mother Earth News Managing Nematodes in the Hoophouse.

Cucumber roots with nematodes (see circles).
Photo Pam Dawling

My post Good news – great hoeing weather! Bad news – more nematodes in the hoophouse August 2014 includes a photo of our first attempt at solarizing – a bit of a How Not To!

There is info on dealing with nematodes from Garry Ross in Hawaii, where nematodes are a fact of daily life, in my post Cold weather, snow, thinking about nematodes from February 2015.

Cover Crop Choices

French marigolds and sesame to deter Root Knot nematodes in our hoophouse.
Photo Pam Dawling

In June this year I wrote about using marigolds, sesame, Iron and Clay cowpeas as nematode resistant cover crops. We’ve also used winter wheat, and white lupins. See Our Organic Integrated Pest Management . Other cover crops that suppress nematodes include some other OP French marigold varieties (but avoid Tangerine Gem or hybrid marigolds); chrysanthemum; black-eyed Susan; gaillardia (blanket flower, Indian blanket); oats; sesame/millet mix. We decided against sorghum-sudangrass (too big), winter rye (harder than wheat to incorporate by hand), bahiagrass, Bermuda grass (both invasive), castor bean and Crotolaria (sunnhemp) (both poisonous, although newer varieties of Crotolaria have lower toxin levels, and I’ve been rethinking my opposition to using that), partridge pea, California poppy (both require at least one full year of growth) and some obscure vetches that weren’t available locally. We might have included Pacific Gold mustard (B. juncea), if we’d found it in time. Don’t confuse this with Ida Gold Mustard, which kills weeds, and is susceptible to nematodes.

Food Crop Choices

This list starts with the crops most resistant to Root Know Nematodes and ends with the most susceptible. I’ve included some “bookmarks” between categories, but it can also be read as a continuous list:

Scallions in our hoophouse in late November.
Photo Pam Dawling

Most resistant

Strawberries

Rhubarb

Onion (? not certain)

Corn

West Indian Gherkins

Horseradish

Asparagus

Jerusalem Artichokes

Globe Artichokes

Radishes in our hoophouse in February.
Photo Pam Dawling

Fairly Resistant

Ground Cherry

Some Sweet Potato varieties

Radishes (? not certain)

Rutabagas

Garlic, Leeks, Chives

Cress

Brassica juncea mustards

Brassica rapa var. japonica greens (? Uncertain)

Broccoli, Kale, Collards, Brussels Sprouts

Red Russian kale from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange in our hoophouse in March.
Photo Pam Dawling

Somewhat Susceptible:

Fall Turnips

Peas

Fall Spinach

Swiss Chard

Parsnips

New Zealand Spinach

Very Susceptible:

Lettuce

Cabbage

Cucumbers, Muskmelons, Watermelons, Squash, Pumpkins

Beans, Fava Beans, Soybeans

Okra

Beets

Carrots, Celery

Tomatoes, Eggplant, Peppers, Potatoes, Peanuts

Ruby Streaks, Golden Frills, Scarlet Frills juncea mustards, very resistant to root-knit nematodes.
Photo Pam Dawling

Nematode-resistant winter greens

We came up with a collection of nematode-resistant winter greens, including radishes, Russian kales, Brassica juncea mustards (mostly salad greens like Ruby Streaks, Golden Frills, Scarlet Frills), and Brassica rapa var. japonica greens, mizuna and Yukina Savoy. We have since learned that Yukina Savoy is a Brassica rapa, not B. juncea as we thought, and that mizuna is Brassica rapa var. japonica with a less certain resistance, or perhaps Brassica rapa var. niposinica, or perhaps B.juncea after all (integrifolia type). We also grow scallions in the nematode-infested areas. Now I am looking for more nematode-resistant cold-weather greens.

Green mizuna in our hoophouse in November.
Photo Pam Dawling

This Year

After the winter greens this spring, we transplanted two beds of tomatoes, one each of peppers, squash and cucumbers, and put two beds into Iron and Clay cowpeas. The eastern ends where we had found evidence of nematodes, we transplanted French marigolds and sesame as stronger fighting forces.

When we pulled up the squash and cucumbers we found no sign of nematodes on the roots. One of the tomato beds produced no sign either, but the other one did. Our first response was to sow Iron and Clay cowpeas instead of the planned soybeans, but before the plants were even 2” (5 cm) high, we decided to solarize that whole bed. We now have small patches of nematode infestation in almost every bed, calling for a more nimble approach to crop planning.

Brassica juncea mustards to try

According to Wikipedia, Brassica juncea cultivars can be divided into four major subgroups: integrifolia, juncea, napiformis, and tsatsai. I did some searching for more B. juncea, especially large leafed ones. Some promising looking crops include these:

“Green-in-Snow” mustard, Serifon gai choi type Chinese Mustard, Suehlihung.

Serifon (Suehlihung, Green-in-Snow) mustard. Kitazawa Seeds

“Red-in-Snow” mustard (sorry, no details)

Giant Red, Osaka Purple, Southern Giant Curled Mustards, all quite pungent

Horned Mustard

Miike Giant

Hatakena

Yanagawa Takana broad leaved mustard

Wasabina

Our Organic Integrated Pest Management

French Marigolds and sesame to combat root knot nematodes in our hoophouse.
Photo Pam Dawling

Organic Integrated Pest Management involves tackling pest problems one step at a time with ecologically-based practices, starting with actions chosen to reduce the chances of the pest ever getting a grip on your crops.

Steps:

Cultivate a good environment for your crops: healthy soil, sufficient space, nutrients and water, suitable temperature, soil pH. Practice crop rotation to reduce the chances of pests and diseases carrying over from one crop to the next. Clear old crops promptly, so they don’t act as a breeding ground for the pest. Choose suitable varieties that resist the pests you most expect.
Cover or protect the plants physically from the pests (mulches to stop soil-dwelling pests moving up into your crops, netting, rowcover, planting diverse crops, and even trap crops)

Young cucumber plant under **insect netting** in June.
Photo Pam Dawling

Provide habitat for natural enemies and other beneficial insects
Monitor crops regularly at least once a week and identify any pests you see.
Introduce natural enemies of the pest (bacteria, fungi, insect predators or parasites)
Hand pick (or trap) and kill the pests if the pest population is above the action threshold. Many fruit and root crop plants can take 30% defoliation before any loss of yield. Where the crop is the foliage, this may be too much!
Use biological controls (often derived from natural enemies) if the damage is still economically significant after trying the earlier steps in the process.

I recommend the ATTRA online publication Organic Integrated Pest Management.

Each of the 22 pages is a poster, complete with good photos and concise clear info.

Our motion sensor sprinkler and the outer layer of our fence around the sweet potato patch at the end of May. The inner fence was installed later.
Photo Pam Dawling

One of our biggest garden pests is the deer, which are especially fond of sweet potatoes. We use motion-sensor water sprayers initially or in years when the deer pressure is low. For worse years we install an electric fence with a solar-powered charger. Last year our electric fence didn’t keep the deer out, so this year we have a double layered fence to make sure.

Broccoli bed with alyssum to attract aphid predators.
Photo Pam Dawling

At the other end of the size scale are aphids. We plant sweet alyssum in our beds of broccoli and cabbage to attract insects that will eat aphids. We sow about 200 plugs for 1500 row feet (450 m) of brassicas planted as two rows in a bed, and pop one alyssum plug in the bed centers every 4ft of bed or about one alyssum per 4 plants. We transplant these the same day that we replace any casualty broccoli and cabbage plants.

Nasturtiums planted in with squash to deter pests. Does it work?
Photo Pam Dawling

We transplant some bush nasturtiums in with our first plantings of cucumber and summer squash. They are said to repel some cucurbit pests such as squash bugs., but I can’t vouch for that. Radishes in cucumber or squash rows are said to repel cucumber beetles and squash bugs. I haven’t tried that. There are a lot of companion planting ideas out there, but most have no scientific evidence for effectiveness.

An insectary circle in early June. The flowers will attract beneficial insects.
Photo Pam Dawling

In late May or early June, we transplant some flowers in our garden to attract pollinators and pest predators. We use circles cut from plastic buckets to surround these clusters of flowers so that inexperienced helpers don’t pull them out as weeds. We use a combination of sunflowers, dill, borage, cosmos, calendula, tithonia (Mexican sunflowers), zinnias.

Sunflower bee and bug.
Photo by Bridget Aleshire

We also sow sunflowers in our bean beds at each succession. These attract birds and pollinators, while also acting as landmarks for our harvest progress.

In our hoophouse we have been tackling nematodes for several years. This year we have planted the nematode areas in French marigolds and sesame (apparently particularly good in deterring root knot nematodes, the type we have.) Some other nematode areas have been planted with Iron and Clay cowpeas. Unfortunately we now have an aphid infestation on the cowpeas! We are trying blasting the aphids off the plants with a strong stream of water from a hose. Later in the summer we will solarize some of the nematode areas.

We planted Iron and Clay cowpeas to deter nematodes, but got aphids!
Photo Pam Dawling

Flowering sesame in our hoophouse, surrounded by French marigolds. We hope they will fight the root knot nematodes.
Photo Pam Dawling

Young greens in the hoophouse, nematodes, upcoming events

Young senposai transplant in our hoophouse.
Photo Pam Dawling

After the set-backs with our winter hoophouse greens transplants that I wrote about last week, we worked really hard and got the whole house planted up. Most of the transplants have recovered from their transplant shock (wilting each day), during the cloudy weather we had.

The new seedlings are coming up fast and calling on us to thin them. We ended up not needing so many of the Plan D plug flat plants, but we’ve kept them for now “in case” .

Young Tokyo bekana transplant in our hoophouse .
Photo Pam Dawling

Ultimately if we don’t need them, they’ll go in a salad mix. I wrote about making salad mix last year. The past two days I have been able to harvest a mix in the hoophouse. The ingredient we are shortest of is lettuce. My first mix was spinach, Bulls Blood beet leaves, a few leaves of Tokyo Bekana, Bright Lights chard, Scarlet Frills, Ruby Streaks and Golden Frills, and a handful of lettuce leaves. Red Tinged Winter is growing fastest, of all the varieties we planted this year.

Ruby Streaks transplant in our hoophouse. Compare with Scarlet Frills below.
Photo Pam Dawling

Golden Frills mustard transplant in our hoophouse. I harvested a leaf for salad mix yesterday.
Photo Pam Dawling

Scarlet frills mustard in our hoophouse. Notice that this crop is frillier than Ruby Streaks.
Photo Pam Dawling

The mix I made today had fewer ingredients. I left the frilly mustards, the lettuces and the Tokyo bekana alone to grow some more. I used Bulls Blood beets, spinach, tatsoi outer leaves and a few Bright Lights chard leaves and stems.

I have a new Mother Earth News blogpost, about the nematodes in our hoophouse. And I’m preparing a new slide show for the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association conference. See my Events page for details

For those of you on other social media, here are their handles and links (use the hashtag #CFSAC2018).

CFSA Facebook: @carolinafarmstewards http://ow.ly/3qzS30m2E4b
2018 SAC event page: http://ow.ly/YL3h30m2E9u
Twitter: @CarolinaFarm http://ow.ly/COPG30m2Edn
Instagram: @CarolinaFarms http://ow.ly/FdV330m2Ef9

This week we will be popping garlic for planting and having our Annual Garden Crop Review meeting. Next week I’ll tell you more about garlic planting as part of the Alliums for November post.