Mini Farming Bible by Brett L. Markham

Author:Brett L. Markham
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Published: 2013-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

Broccoli grows well closely spaced.

Early in the season, the availability of nitrogen in the soil is not reliable because the soil temperature may be too cool for microorganisms to work. Because cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower are heavy feeders, you may see signs of nitrogen deficiency almost immediately in the form of older leaves turning yellow. This is easily prevented by watering spring transplants heavily every couple of days with fish fertilizer until they are well-established and danger of frost is past.

Weeds, Pests, and Diseases

As long as the bed was prepared and weed-free prior to planting, with these large-leaved vegetables planted so closely together, most weeds will be shaded and have difficulty growing. While the plants are small, you can remove weeds between them with careful use of a stirrup hoe; once they are larger you can easily hand-pull any weeds encountered.

As with other crops, the best approach to pests and diseases is prevention through crop rotation and proper sanitation. Especially when growing in raised beds that prevent waterlogged roots and with properly adjusted soil pH, most disease problems simply will not occur.

Cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower are subject to a few likely pests. Chief among them in common are cabbage loopers. These are the small green worm-like larvae of a nondescript moth with mottled gray and brown coloration. The moths lay eggs either singly or in groups of as many as six on the underside of leaves. When the leaves hatch, the green larvae grow quickly as they consume three times their body weight in vegetable matter daily, leaving a slime of fecal matter in their wake. They have a distinctive “looping” style of locomotion.

Since these pests seldom eat the crowns of broccoli or cauliflower and only rarely bore into the heads of cabbage, on the scale of a mini farm their economic impact is usually small and they can be adequately controlled by hand-picking. (I feed mine to the chickens who consider them a rare delicacy!) If, however, infestation becomes a serious risk, they can be controlled with a Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) preparation used according to label directions. Cabbage loopers have a lot of natural enemies, and among them is the nuclear polyhedrosis virus (NPV). If you are observant and you find any whitish cabbage loopers hanging limply from vegetation, they are dying from NPV. If you can collect them in a can, wait a few hours for them to die, and then mash them up into a water-based spray; any cabbage loopers that eat the coated vegetation will die from NPV in about a week.

Cabbage root maggots can be a problem with early plantings, particularly if immature compost has been added to the beds. These are the larvae of a fly that looks similar to an ordinary house fly. The tell-tale symptom is plants that look wilted even though they are thoroughly watered. The easiest prevention is to plant no more than three weeks before last frost and never use immature compost. Diagnosis is easy: when you pull up a stunted and wilted plant, there will be little white grubs all over the roots.

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