Winged Beans! Marvelous and Uncommonly Nutritious!

This great image from Baker Creek Rare Seeds gives you a quick idea about the day neutral Urizun Japanese Winged Beans, a popular summer veggie on the island of Okinawa. It is native to Asia, has a unique configuration yielding little star like crosscuts, the flowers are blue and purple, the little pods are tender fresh crunchy eating from the vine. The large pods are for harvesting green edible seeds. When the pods dry and turn dark, the seeds are saved to cook and/or grow more plants! Baker Creek always has free shipping and gives you a free seed packet with every order!!! You can donate if you care to.

April 2021 My first Urizun Japanese Winged Bean was given to me by an adventurous fellow gardener! This little tyke was 2 days old. Long story. For several months it went back and forth between living and dying, growing slower and slowly, finally making about 6″ tall. My friend gave up way sooner, composted hers, disappointed. Mine grew to about a foot tall and made a few small pods. I had planted it in a shady area. Well. We found out it is a tropical full sun humid heat lover. It was a heroic little plant trying to do what I asked it to. However. I have found that ‘Because the early growth of winged bean is slow, it is important to maintain weeds.’ Well Hallelujah! I am slightly vindicated after all! Apparently, they, and some other legumes, are naturally slow in the beginning! 

2022  But I was hooked. Me, curious and determined, got some seeds from Baker Creek and tried again. I didn’t know it at the time, but much to their favor, the Urizuns are a Day Neutral variety. More below. I planted in April again, but in a sunny spot sheltered between Long Red Beans tall on the side the cooling wind comes from and Cucumbers low to the ground on the sunrise side. I hoped to keep them warmer and for a little humidity. I gave them a 6′ tall cage and told them my expectations.

Planting! I gave them (four!) super soil – they like well draining rich sandy loam. Their required soil pH ranges from 4.3 to 7.5. Since a tropical water lover, I built a big basin. They need to have a good amount of moisture in the soil to produce pods. Baker Creek says Sow 1-2 inches deep, in full sun, directly in garden well after last frost. Sow 6-12 inches apart in beds. Pre-soaking for 1-2 or 24-48 hours speeds germination – some say overnight. Pick out the ones that swell. Some will double in size! They germinate best between 77 and 85°, soil temp 65°. If you are starting them indoors, a heating pad helps. The plant likes 64-86° F. Lower than that they stop producing. They are not drought or frost tolerant.

They must have appreciated my efforts, because they thrived, slowly at first, but in no time, compared to 2021, they were quite taller and super healthy! Huge difference! Pods arrived in August.

Winged Beans have many names and are grown in many places. The winged bean (Psophocarpus tetragonolobus), also known as the Goa bean, asparagus pea, four-angled bean, four-cornered bean, Manila bean, Mauritius bean, winged pea, cigarillas, princess bean, in Vietnam dragon bean, is a tropical legume plant native to southern Asia—Papua New Guinea, Mauritius, Madagascar, and India. It grows abundantly in hot, humid equatorial countries, from the  Philippines and Indonesia to India, Burma, Thailand and Sri Lanka. They are now grown in the US – mainly in Florida, Africa, Australia and Hawaii! Success in more locations is coming due to the further development of Day Neutral varieties.

It’s a Super plant for three reasons!

1. Wiki says: Winged bean is nutrient-rich and all parts of the plant are edible. The leaves can be eaten like spinach, flowers can be used in salads, tubers can be eaten raw or cooked, and seeds can be used in similar ways as the soybean. The winged bean is an underutilized species but has the potential to become a major multi-use food crop in the tropics of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The winged beans are high in Protein 12%, Potassium 16% and Iron 11%. Compared with a variety of legumes, these beans contain the highest proportion of calcium which make bones strong and prevents breakage. Fresh beans contain 31% of daily vitamin-C. 100 g of fresh leaves provide 45 mg of vitamin-C (75% of recommended daily value) and 8090 IU of vitamin-A (270 % of RDA)! The bean seeds are similar to soybeans in both use and nutritional content (being 29.8% to 39% protein). For some fascinating detailed research based info see ScienceDirect.
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   Per Elen Khachatrain raw winged beans: have a high level of Vitamin B1, which allows the body to use carbohydrates for energy. Winged beans have incredibly high amounts of potassium and copper. These beans contain more potassium than 90% of foods. The glycemic index of winged beans is low. The pH value of winged beans, in general, has been calculated to be equal to -6, which makes these beans an alkaline food. They are very high in net carbs, so check your diet to see if they are allowed. Thanks to Elen for her super post!
2. Winged beans are a perennial, but can be, and usually are, grown as an annual! In areas and times of extended drought, perennials use less water in general and don’t have to be replanted each year, using more water to establish them. But winged bean are not considered drought tolerant! Perennials can produce 10 months of the year, a much longer production period than most veggies, produce more veggies, and you don’t have to wait for another crop to grow. They produce right up to first frosts! If you have space and decide to let them die back in fall/winter, they will come back in spring!
3. The plants are legumes! That means two good things! Like other legumes they can feed themselves by fixing their own Nitrogen from the air and depositing it in nodules on their roots. 1) When the plant dies it releases the Nitrogen into the soil. 2) They use less fertilizer while they are alive. The only necessity is to be sure to use an inoculant when you plant your seeds, the right inoculant, a Rhizobium. If you don’t use it, no nodules are formed. You can get it at any nursery.
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   This also makes Winged Beans an effective soil restorative cover crop – and you get beans! Plants for a Future states: A very good green manure with exceptional nitrogen-fixing properties, producing a greater weight of nodules per plant than any other member of the Leguminosae! William Woys Weaver says their nitrogen-fixing ability helped secure their role as a cover crop on banana plantations, both to enrich the soil and to provide an alternative source of income when bananas are not producing!

The large flower is white, pink, or light blue. My beautiful Urizuns are lavender with a touch of yellow!

Varieties depending on genotype!

My experience is as the images, with green rectangular Winged Beans, but they can also appear flat. Per World Wide Vegetables: Pod color can vary from shades of cream, green, pink, red or purple! Stem color is commonly green, but can vary from shades of green to shades of purple. Leaves vary a lot in shape and are different shades of green. The surface of the pod can be smooth or rough. When the pod is fully ripe, it turns an ash-brown color and splits open to release the seeds. Seed shape is often round, but oval and rectangular seeds are also found. Seed color changes based on environmental factors and storage conditions. Seeds may appear white, cream, brown or dark tan in appearance.

William Woys Weaver tells us: Due to the Bean’s adaptability, today there are hundreds of varieties, many developed in China. Of the varieties developed by Chinese gardeners, the ‘Hunan’ winged bean is credited for making cultivation possible in North America. Most winged beans grown in the United States are raised in south Florida and planted for winter cropping, because the plants do not flower unless the day length is short. ‘Hunan,’ however, can be grown anywhere with at least two months of warm nighttime temperatures (70 degrees or more). It will begin to flower in the latter part of the summer and then crop heavily in September until frost.

Evergreen Seeds says ‘Gardeners in most parts of the United States may see lots of vegetative growth throughout the summer, but no seed pods until late summer or fall.’

Per Echonet: Most varieties of this jungle plant from Borneo only bloom and set fruit when the days become very short, so they are planted in early fall. The variety ‘chimbu’ produces longer pods than most and is a striking deep red color. For pods in a summer garden in Florida or “up north,” be sure to purchase a “day neutral” or “long day” variety. See more about Day Length/Photoperiodism

Companions  They don’t mind growing near corn or tomatoes. Perhaps like Peas, another legume, the Onion family stunt the bean’s growth. Carrots are a great plant that enhance peas! Maybe try them at the base of the Winged Beans… But the plants often grow so full, there would be no space to stand to harvest them along a row. Some plant WBs on both sides of heavy gauge cattle panels! The beans do well inter-cropped with banana, sugar cane, taro, coconut, banana, oil palm, rubber, and cacao.

Planting  Winged Beans are a tropical plant, will only flower when the day length is less than 12 hours, though there are varieties, like Hunan and Urizun, that are day-length neutral. If your area has day lengths over 12 hours, do your planting timing accordingly. REPEAT: The only necessity is to be sure to use an INOCULANT when you plant your seeds, the right inoculant, Rhizobium leguminosarum. Unless your soil already has the Rhizobium, if you don’t use it, no Nitrogen nodules, that feed your plant, are formed on the roots. They suffer.

Actually, the bacteria ‘infect’ your plants and cause them to make the nodules. If there is none in the soil, seeds may even be unable to germinate. Even if you presprout to start your seedlings, they will live, but not have the ability to fix the N they need, are feeble, struggle and produce little. Even if you fertilize it is not the same.

Inoculant, living Rhizobium leguminosera, has a short life. Last year’s left over is likely not viable. Get fresh, LOL! You can get it at any nursery. It’s inexpensive. It’s important to know that in addition to the Rhizobium, available nutrients and soil pH matter as well.

Give them a place to live, plenty of space! All varieties of winged bean are vines and need support. Without it they grow into heaps of tangled intertwined stems that produce few pods or seeds. That, however, is good if you are growing for tubers! Trellised plants produce twice the seed of unstaked plants. 10-13′ Vines will grow right over a shed if you let them! Growing vertically saves space to grow other plants.

My four beans preferred the morning side of the cage and by August they were near the top! They did make it to the top! Due to a coolish summer, they didn’t make that 10′. At the upper right you can glimpse that the four Long Red Beans also made it to the top and did their job sheltering the Winged Beans from cooling winds.

Maintenance  Weed carefully while they are young.

Super tip from William Woys Weaver! Several growers have told me they prune the vines after about the 12th leaf appears. This causes the vines to send out as many as six side shoots, much like a grapevine, so you get a huge increase in pod production. A large pod harvest is most important for those of us who do not live in tropical climates, because frost is likely to ruin any chance of enjoying the tubers. – If you do this and you have a good hot climate, allow plenty of room because they can get really big and bushy! However, see the 4th image above! Varieties must vary, because my Urizun immediately put out plenty of side shoots on its own!

Otherwise, they are not drought tolerant! Maintenance is pretty much giving generous amounts of water for both the Long Red Beans and the Wings. The raccoons loved all that moisture and the worms that went with it, so there were diggings by them and recovering the roots by me. Thank goodness the Wings and Reds have strong long deep roots. Yellow or brown droopy leaves on the winged bean vine are a sign of overwatering, while dry brown crunchy leaves are a sign of underwatering.

Pests-Disease  The Long Reds attracted ants/aphids and a few got on the Wings but didn’t stay long. I think they don’t like the Wings. I sprayed them off and the Reds did better this year too. There were NO diseases on the Wings, but there were on the Reds when they were near finishing. Winged Beans are noted for disease resistance. However, Texas Real Food farmers report leaf spot and powdery mildew. They recommend to treat powdery mildew, use copper fungicide or sulfur plant fungicide. For leaf spot, use sulfur sprays or copper-based fungicides to prevent the spores from germinating. In Florida Nematodes can be a problem and in some areas, mites.

Ladies and Gentlemen! August brought Baby Urizuns and delicious eating size ones. I harvested up to 6″ long ones that were tender. Help the baby beans by pulling the dead flowers off the tip of the bean.

Harvests, plural!  The beans themselves can break just before the point where they are attached to the plant. Generally mine just popped off when I pulled them, but you will learn from your own plant what works best. There are still two last harvests! At the end of the season, flower production stops, seeds are saved, dig up your plant to see if there are any tubers! Note that some varieties of winged bean do not produce tubers. If your variety does make tubers and you want them more than the pods, remove the flowers!

Storage is simple. Fresh is best. On the counter they go limp quickly. In the fridge is better. Better to eat them right away or the little wings start turning black along the edge. They have a short shelf life, and fresh winged beans are very delicate, difficult to ship. Probably why they aren’t a commercial success. Freeze them if you need to store them longer.

October giants, 7-8″ long are hard as can be, no flex whatsoever, definitely not edible! They are doing a perfect job protecting ripening seeds inside. I cut one open, not an easy task, and the tender seeds are a good 1/4″ diameter, still green. They still have to form a protective covering and dry. November we had some early morning frosts and by the end of November pod production stopped.

SeedSaving  If your growing season is short, you may get plenty of pods for eating, but not many seeds.

Other timing can be a bit tricky too! When I thought I better leave a few pods to dry for seeds I stopped watering. I’m guessing these pups have long strong roots partly because even the raccoons couldn’t dig them up, but also because they kept right on producing when I stopped watering them. Then it rained. Twice. A few weeks apart. They are still as green as can be though there are fewer new ones. The plant stops making pods when there isn’t enough moisture. We want them to dry and darken. Still having to wait and it is the end of November now. They are a Perennial and with those long strong roots somewhat drought tolerant and they are proving it, LOL! And, rain is predicted again in a couple days…

Instead, do this! In short season areas, 1) immediately leave some pods on the vine and let to dry and turn dark colored or 2) start some plants separately for seed saving and let them run to seed right away. When the pods turn black and dry out, they’re ready to pick. Store your seeds in an airtight jar in a cool dark place. Harvesting is super easy. Split the pod open and remove the seeds!

Winged bean is a self-pollinating plant but mutations and occasional outcrossing may produce variations in the species. Nothing is ever 100% predictable, thank goodness!

Medicinal Benefits too! Winged Beans are loaded with healthfulness! Health Benefits Times says: Helps Prevent Premature Aging, Reduces Headaches and Migraines, Ensures a Healthy Pregnancy, Inflammation and Sprains, Helps Prevent Vision Problems, Weight loss, Weakness, Can Help Prevent Diabetes, Prevents Asthma, Increases Immunity and Fights Colds. Practical Health and Wellness Solutions cites 18 benefits, including some of the above, and more! They are a terrific bean, and not just for eating. Check the net!

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Nutrition and You cautions:

Winged beans and plant parts can be safely consumed by all healthy persons without any reservations. However, individuals with known immune-allergy to legumes and in G6PD-enzyme deficiency disease should avoid them.

Winged beans carry oxalic acid, a naturally occurring substance found in some vegetables which may crystallize as oxalate stones in the urinary tract in some people. Therefore, individuals with known oxalate urinary tract stones are advised to avoid eating vegetables that belong to Brassica and Fabaceae family. Adequate intake of water is therefore advised to maintain normal urine output in these individuals to minimize the stone risk.

Also, mature seeds must be cooked for 2-3 hours to destroy the trypsin inhibitor and hemagglutinins that inhibit digestion.

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Culinary Treats! WBs are often referred to as a ‘supermarket on a stalk!’

• The beans are one of the commonly featured ingredients in Indonesian, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Cambodian cooking.
• I eat the beans raw off the vine! For longer keeping and tasty eating, pickle them!
• Finely chopped beans added in salads, stir-fries, and sambal.
• Whole immature pods may be grilled and seasoned with oil, salt, and pepper, served with a dipping sauce. In Sri Lanka winged bean recipes include various fried and curry dishes. I personally enjoyed pods cut on the diagonal in my omelets!
• The tender leafy greens and shoots cooked in stews and stir-fries.
• Flowers are lovely scattered over salad. The flowers of the winged bean are used to color rice and pastry.
• Fresh green winged beans seeds can be eaten like fresh peas! They can be roasted or added to stews. Sautéed or steamed, they can be served as a side dish with fish, seafood, and poultry. Generally, they are used in the same manner as peas.
• Dried and roasted, seeds can be ground into flour, make high protein bread. When brewed, it can be used to make a drink similar to coffee.
• Winged beans can also be made into milk, similar to soy milk.
• In Indonesia they make a popular Tempeh from the dried beans. Legumes can also be turned into curd by sprouting it, similar to tofu. Miso.
• Oil! Like soy beans, the seeds produce oil, used for cooking, illumination and soap. Expressed oil cakes are fed to livestock.
• Roots of winged beans can be eaten like potatoes.
• Tubers are eaten raw or cooked, have a nutty flavor due to their high protein content. Boil, steam, bake or fry them thoroughly. Evergreen Seeds says: They are significantly higher protein than potatoes or yams. Certain varieties of winged bean plants produce larger and better-tasting tubers, usually at the expense of seed pod production. Not all varieties produce tubers… Depending on varieties, tubers are harvested at 5 to 12 months.
• In addition, winged beans are used as animal feed for cattle, poultry, fish, and other livestock.

What a versatile plant! Though it is slow to start, it is worth waiting for! It is super nutritious, a somewhat drought tolerant perennial legume, a soil restorative! From a permaculture standpoint it IS a super plant! From an artistic point of view, it is pretty crazy and wild! Just plain fun ~ The freshest place to buy it and try it is likely your local Asian market, the farmers market or if you are lucky a friend will gift you! You don’t really have to have an adventurous palate or a strong gut because it is neither oddly flavored nor spicy hot! It has a subtle flavor like asparagus or peas! It’s distinctive shape is most certainly a conversation starter! Please enjoy this Baker Creek mini Vid!

See about more valuable Perennials

Highland tribesmen in Papua New Guinea esteem it so highly that they hold winged bean sing-sings (feasts) at harvest time. I hope your plantings bring you such happiness!

Bon Appétit, Dear Gardeners!

Updated 3.3.23

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Love your Mother! Plant bird & bee food! Think grey water! Grow organic! Bless you for being such a wonderful Earth Steward!

The Green Bean Connection started as correspondence for the Santa Barbara CA USA Pilgrim Terrace Community Garden. Both remaining Santa Barbara City’s community gardens are very coastal. During late spring/summer we are often in a fog belt/marine layer most years, locally referred to as the May grays, June glooms and August fogusts. Keep that in mind compared to the microclimate niche where your veggie garden is. Bless you for being such a wonderful Earth Steward!

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Virtuous Veggies! Alkalize Your Body for Top Health!

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Soil pH is important for your soil, the health of your veggies. Your body’s pH is vital to you! Too much, too little are not fun. Acid forming foods drop you down. Alkalizing foods bring you up! Simplified, foods high in protein such as meat and cheese, and cereal products are acidifying. Fruits and veggies alkalize. If you are well, keep well. If not, shift your diet to get better sooner! In 1931, Dr Otto Warburg won the Nobel Prize for proving that cancer cannot survive in an alkaline, oxygen-rich environment. Seriously, an acidic balance will decrease your body’s ability to absorb minerals and other nutrients, decrease the energy production in the cells, decrease its ability to repair damaged cells, decrease its ability to detoxify heavy metals, make tumor cells thrive, and make it more susceptible to fatigue and illness.

One site says: Experts recommend a diet of 30% acid forming foods and 70% alkaline forming foods to maintain health, or a diet of 20% acidic and 80% alkaline foods if you are trying to recover your health. Others contend that while this a good ratio for active people (exercise creates a lot of acid), less active people can handle a diet with a ratio of two parts alkaline to one part acid.

An odd little bit about this process is that it’s what the food does in your body that makes the difference. Meat is alkaline, but acidifies your body. Lemons and vinegars, are acidic, but alkalize your body!

The pH graph above will give you ideas which are best of all. In the top category, #10, it is all veggies, including that cute little radish, with one fruit – a Lemon! At #9, Avos rank high, along with celery and grapes. Nanas, tomatoes, peppers, strawberries are on the good side.

There are wonderful lists online with some that give the exact pH. See Medinat for example. Some rank the items listed, others alphabetize, but all will get you started. The lists include Fruits & Veggies, Nuts & Seeds, Beans/Peas, Grains, Seasonings/Dressings, Oils, Meat/Dairy, Beverages and others! Some specify Highly Acidic or Alkaline foods. That can be a quick help.

Several sites show these three lists, Extremely, Highly, and Moderately:

1) Extremely Acidic Foods to reduce or eliminate…

Artificial sweeteners, beef, beer, breads, brown sugar, carbonated soft drinks, cereals (refined), chocolate, cigarettes and tobacco, coffee, cream of wheat (unrefined), custard (with white sugar), deer, drugs, fish, flour (white, wheat), fruit juices with sugar, jams, jellies, lamb.

Liquor, maple syrup (processed), molasses (sulphured), pasta (white), pastries and cakes from white flour, pickles (commercial), pork, poultry, seafood, sugar (white), table salt (refined and iodized), tea (black), white bread, white vinegar (processed), whole wheat foods, wine, and yogurt (sweetened).

2) Highly Alkaline Forming Foods to keep you healthy, restore your health…

Baking soda, sea salt, mineral water, pumpkin seed, lentils, seaweed, onion, taro root, sea vegetables, lotus root, sweet potato, lime, lemons, nectarine, persimmon, raspberry, watermelon, tangerine, and pineapple.

3) Moderately Alkaline Forming Foods to choose…

Apricots, spices, kambucha, unsulfured molasses, soy sauce, cashews, chestnuts, pepper, kohlrabi, parsnip, garlic, asparagus, kale, parsley, endive, arugula, mustard green, ginger root, broccoli, grapefruit, cantaloupe, honeydew, citrus, olive, dewberry, carrots, loganberry, and mango. Ketchup, Mayonnaise, Butter, Apple, Apricot, Banana, Blackberry, Blueberry, Cranberry, Grapes, Mango, Mangosteen, Orange, Peach, Papaya, Pineapple, Strawberry, Brown Rice, Oats, Rye Bread, Wheat, Wholemeal Bread, Wild Rice, Wholemeal Pasta, Ocean Fish.

Take a good look. You may find some surprises! There are differences. For example, some bread is badder than other bread. Whole wheat is 1.8 acidic; white is 3.7. Sprouted grains are alkaline! White rice is 4.6, while brown rice is 5.12! If you gotta have your bread or rice, make the better choice if it is important to alkalize your body. In general, increase use of the more alkaline one. Comparing citruses, oranges don’t rank well because of all their sugar. Bananas and lots of fruits are high in sugar! See more about sugary fruits and combining them with healthy fats in smoothies.

There are contradictions about some foods on the net and right here on this page! Some sites put an asterisk by the item in question. Just make sure a good percentage of the foods you eat are for sure alkaline. How it affects YOU is what is important. If your health is at risk, choose the more dependable options. Here are foods that are questionable:

Brazil Nuts Brussel Sprouts Buckwheat Cashews Chicken Corn Cottage Cheese

Eggs Flax Seeds Green Tea Herbal Tea Honey Kombucha -probiotic Lima Beans

Maple Syrup Milk Nuts Organic Milk (unpasteurized) Potatoes, white Pumpkin Seeds Quinoa

Sauerkraut Soy Products Sprouted Seeds Squashes Sunflower Seeds Tomatoes Yogurt – probiotic

Happily for us gardeners, all vegetables are alkaline forming, just some more than others! Alfalfa, Barley grass, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, cucumber, garlic, green beans, kale, lettuce, mushrooms, onions, peas, peppers, pumpkin, radishes, sea veggies, spinach, sprouts, squash, sweet potatoes, wheatgrass, wild greens!

Salads may be high on your list! They can be loCal and delicious all year long. The general dressing recipe is to use an alkaline oil, citrus juice of your choice, a tad of sea salt (alkaline) plus the veggie or fruit of the day! Feel free to adjust these recipes to your needs or taste…

Lemon Vinaigrette ¼ cup apple cider vinegar ¼ cup olive oil 3 tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice Zest of 1 lemon 1 tsp. of sea salt	1/3 cup olive oil juice of one half lemon 1/4 tsp fine Himalayan sea salt 1/4 avocado 2 tbsp sunflower seeds, soaked for 10-15 mins
1 cup Mango, chopped 1/4 cup Grapeseed Oil 2 tbsp. Lime Juice 1/4 tsp. Sea Salt	1 cup Cucumber 1/4 cup Avocado (Oil) 1 tbsp. Lime Juice 2 tsp. Agave
2 Plum Tomatoes, chopped 2 tbsp. Sesame Seeds 1 tbsp. Agave 1 tbsp. Lime Juice	Lemon, crushed garlic, mustard (a little) and olive oil (mixed together)
Olive oil, lemon juice and pomegranate	Surprisingly, stirring an alkaline hummus through a salad makes a great thick and creamy dressing

Holidays, special events & parties, traveling are vulnerable times when we often have more stress in our lives. Sometimes we just eat what we eat out of habit and how we did growing up with our family. Perhaps pop a list or small card, your own personal pocket guide, of your best choices and foods to avoid the most into your pocket, with your credit cards. Before you go out to eat, take a look at it to remind yourself. Ask your server if you can substitute one for the other. Choose places that generally serve more alkaline foods or take them with you to the potluck!

And it’s not just your food! Your mental and spiritual health literally affect your body’s pH too!

Take good care of yourself and your garden!

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Love your Mother! Plant bird & bee food! Think grey water! Grow organic! Bless you for being such a wonderful Earth Steward! 

The Green Bean Connection newsletter started as correspondence for the Santa Barbara CA USA, Pilgrim Terrace Community Garden. All three of Santa Barbara city community gardens are very coastal. During late spring/summer we are in a fog belt/marine layer area most years, locally referred to as the May grays, June glooms and August fogusts. Keep that in mind compared to the microclimate niche where your veggie garden is. Bless you for being such a wonderful Earth Steward!

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Garden Ants in Your Summer Veggies?!

Ants tending aphids on Tomato plant

Too many ants! Plants are seriously damaged by their aphids. Production is stalled, plants die. Not ok.

Bad year! Ants are on beans, cucumbers, okra, even tomatoes! It’s become clear the usual hosing off the aphids isn’t enough. Hosing uses too much water, it waters your plants too much, which the ants like! With big tomato plants jammed in cages, you can’t get to the center and fuzzy plants don’t like to be watered on their leaves anyway. The aphids the ants tend are almost impossible to get off those fuzzy backed leaves – especially the stiff haired cucumber leaves. You can’t hard spray them off cucumber flowers because it blows the flowers away too. Argh.

Where do those aphids come from?! Some farming ant species gather and store the aphid eggs in their nests over the winter. In the spring, the ants carry the newly hatched aphids back to the plants. Queens that are leaving to start a new colony take an aphid egg to found a new herd of underground aphids in the new colony. As aphids feed, they often transmit plant viruses that can sometimes kill the plants, and the honeydew they make, that the ants feed on, favors the growth of sooty mold. This is a very destructive black fungus that spreads on plant leaves. Not only do ants protect and farm herds of aphids, but also cottony scales, mealybugs, soft-type scales, and whiteflies. Bad juju in the garden.

OK. So it’s either spray with a killer mix, or bait to end the colony. Enough already. Spraying is immediate; baiting takes a few days to a week. Do both to save your plants sooner.

Temporary Solutions

• Insecticidal soaps are quick but temporary. Drench ant colonies with solutions of insecticidal soap, which are nearly non-toxic highly refined soap. It will not eliminate ants deep in the nest.
• Neem Oil, organic, is a maybe. Some report it works and swear by it, others say it doesn’t work at all. Probably depends on what kind of ants you have. Some say premix works for them, others say get the 100% stuff. It is not long lasting, repeated sprayings are needed.
• The Stinkies! Tea Tree Oil, herbs like Peppermint or Rosemary, Cinnamon, Eucalyptus sprays work and smell great! These can be used a couple of different ways. Crush the leaves, sprinkle on an ant line and they vanish. Or, use one cup of water to ¼ cup of peppermint or spearmint. Mix in your blender, strain into a handheld pump sprayer. Put it where you want it! Repeated sprayings needed. Some say you need less of Tea Tree and less frequent sprayings.
• Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth is fossilized remains of plankton; it looks like an off-white talc powder. It kills insects with exoskeletons, all kinds of them! It is perfectly safe for mammals, in fact, is eaten daily by some humans. To work it has to get ON the ant, and if it is even dew dampened, doesn’t work. It doesn’t attract ants, so they don’t invite their friends, and it isn’t ‘shared’ with the other ants. So yes it works, and no it doesn’t. If your plants are suffering now, it’s too slow to use.
• Vinegar A half to a liter down the hole kills, but the ones that escape merely move. Remember, vinegar is also an herbicide. Be careful.
• Water? Ants can live submerged in water for several days. That’s why the hose down the hole doesn’t work. So you need a little fire power, boiling hot water, to kill them.

‘Permanent’ Solution! Borax, plain old grocery store 20 Mule Team Borax kills the colony. It really works without fail. It’s cheap, a little goes a long way, and you can use what’s left to do your laundry!

Spray Mix 1/2 cup of sugar with 1 teaspoon of borax (20 mule team) with 1 cup of water to make a spray and spray on their trail where they enter the house (garden) and in 3 days they will be gone. Spay around the windows and doors to keep them out. When the spray dries they eat the crystals and take them back to the nest and POOF they are gone. At the garden, do this on a WINDLESS DAY, and be very careful not to get it on your plants. It’s an herbicide.

Per April Sanders, here’s how the BAIT thing works: Worker ants only feed on liquids. They take solid food back to the nests, where it is given to larvae. Then, the larvae convert it to liquid and feed it back to the worker ants [all the worker ants!]. Straight boric acid or insecticide will kill ants, but the worker ants will eat it rather than taking it back to the nest because it is in liquid form. Making a paste ensures the poison will get to the nest.

The first bait recipes I found were sugar and Borax. So I tried it. I found a lot of dead ants, meaning the Borax was not getting back to the nest, but the Borax was definitely killing the ants. After reading April’s explanation, I am now adding cornmeal to the mix. It is a ‘solid’ the ants have to carry back to the nest for processing. So sugar to attract the ants, cornmeal to carry home, Borax to do the job.

Here’s the skinny on cornmeal! Neither cornmeal nor grits cause ants to explode or jam up and starve because ants don’t eat solids. Cornmeal does disrupt ants’ scent trails until they lay down new ones. Yes, the ants might move, due to disrupted trails, and that might be only a few feet away. It appears to stop ants, but they are merely feeding close to their nest at your expense! They take the stuff home, let the larvae convert it to liquid, and they get it back in the form they can eat.

April explains that cornmeal is a medium to carry the poison. ‘Mix cornmeal with a slow-acting liquid insecticide or boric acid to make a paste. Slow-acting insecticides are the most effective way of controlling ants, according to the Colorado State University Extension. Choose one made specifically for ants for best results, and add it a little at a time to the cornmeal until you have a thick paste.’

• Sugar ants. Bait is serious. This means you are out to kill the colony, a ‘permanent fix.’ Bait is easy to make, a cup of very warm water, 1/2 c of sugar, cornmeal, 2 tablespoons Borax, make a paste. Set it out in a way birds, pets or children can’t get to it. Put it out AFTER you have watered, at the base of plants the ants and aphids are bothering. The ants will go for the sugar and lay off your plants. Scout ants take it home to the colony, and it is spread to all the ants. It isn’t an instant fix, but it works in a few days to a week. REMOVE while you water, replace afterwards.
• For grease or protein ants, Golden Harvest Organics bait: Mix three parts peanut butter with two parts jelly and add one tablespoon of boric acid per six ounces of mix. Add cornmeal for your solid. Place the bait on pieces of paper or stuff it into large straws (safer so birds won’t get into it,) and place it where you see ants foraging.

Make your own SAFE bait containers!

• Small diameters of pipe or unchewable tubing keeps bait safe from birds, pets and small animals. Swab the inside of the end of the tube with a Q-tip to be sure the paste is stuffed far enough away from the end of the tube for a small creature to reach. Place out of the sun, or make some shade for it, along the ant trail.
• Make holes in a jar lid, toward the center, so if it gets wet, falls over or you lay it on its side, your bait doesn’t ooze out. Put your bait in the jar, put the lid on tight. Lay it on its side, butt end facing the direction you water from, so if you accidentally water, the water doesn’t get inside. Lay it on its side along the ant trail, but especially near a plant the ants have been tending, for their easy access. They will go to it and stop tending the aphids. Don’t put it in full sun so it won’t bake your bait or be too hot for the ants to want to get into. If the lid surface is too slick for purchase, sandpaper or scratch it with a rock so the ants can get a grip. Containers are safe for you to handle when you want to move them or add more bait or remove while you water. If you make holes in the sides, make them high so the bait doesn’t seep out.

When I say Borax really works, I mean it! BE VERY CAREFUL. Besides a bugacide, it is an herbicide, used to kill weeds! It can’t tell the difference between a weed and your veggie plants. When you put down your bait, do not water later, forgetting it is there, and get it in your soil or on your plants. Take up your baits before you water. Definitely don’t do it before rains.

More ant & Borax details from an undated UCCE article on ‘New Research’ by Nick Savotich says: ‘The Argentine ant, being a honeydew feeder, has a strong preference for high carbohydrate liquids. High sucrose-based baits, (50% solution), were found to be the most preferred. Various concentrations of boric acid as the toxicant were also tried in combination with the high sucrose baits. It was found that the lowest concentration of boric acid, 0.25%, was as acceptable to the ants as was the sugar solution alone. Higher concentrations, 0.5 – 2%, tended to inhibit acceptance. Boric acid is an excellent toxicant for ants. However the next step is to determine whether this very low concentration (0.25%) is adequate to destroy whole colonies of the Argentine ant.’ So you see, it doesn’t take much of that 20 Mule Team to do the job.

For best results lay out a fresh bait daily. Lay it in areas where you see regular activity and near their points of entry if you know them. Don’t be diligent washing away their trails, you want them to find the bait spots easily again and again. All the workers in the colony can follow each others trails, so even if you killed off the first foragers, their partners will follow the trail they left.

Stop them before they start! Maybe you have been over watering? Ants make their colonies near a water source, and soft over watered plants are aphid friendly. When you find ant colony entrances, put a few drops of dish soap around, down the nest hole, fill in/bury the nest entrance. If they have taken up residence in your compost pile, turn that compost more frequently and water it a little less!

Predators! Groundbeetles, humpback flies, parasitic wasps, praying mantids and the yellow-shafted flicker all dine on ants. Plant flowering plants like cilantro, celery, carrots, food to bring the beneficial insect predators. You are lucky if you have woodpeckers because they are voracious ant eaters.

Wear gloves, wash your hands when you are done working with any toxic stuff, and remove your baits promptly when you are done with them.

Next year, put down your baits before you do plantings the ants and aphids love. Knock back the ant population from the get go! No, dear garden friends, we will never be ant free, nor do we want to be. Ants aerate our soil, clean up scraps and seeds, feed on fleas, termites, and other pests, are a food source for birds and other insects. As with all creatures, they play an important part in a healthy planet. Balance is a practical peace.

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Maggots in your Compost?! Two Surprising Answers!

Maggots. Icky.  Ewww!  Yuck.  Ok, got that out.  Did you even know this could happen?!  Have you been afraid to ask about, admit to it, because it’s so ugly? Ok, gardener therapy time…. Maggots are really nothing weird, they are the larvae of black soldier flies (Hermetia illucens), often referred to as BSF, a native-to-the-Americas fly whose amazing environmental usefulness is now known. In fact, you may already know BSF as Phoenix Worms, sold in Pet stores as food for fish, birds and reptiles. They became the first feeder insect to be granted a U.S. registered trademark in 2006!

They don’t look like I expected, and, instead, are rather interesting and polite! Adults do not sting or bite, don’t carry diseases, do not feed at all. They mate, look for a place to lay eggs, die within 2 days! There are a lot of different ones and the males differ from the females. If you see pale yellow or cream colored eggs in masses that contain as many as 500 eggs, my response now is Thank you! Some wonder if they’re cockroach eggs. They’re not, thank goodness! The grubs, maggots, or larvae, can be anywhere from white to a dark brown. More about them

Answer ONE!  Maggots are not going to hurt your compost, but they may be a sign that your balance of green materials/brown materials is off. Make sure you are adding enough (but not too much) brown stuff like straw. Also it may be too moist; it should feel like a wrung out sponge. If it is too wet or has too much green material (food waste, grass, fresh leaves) in relation to brown, it can become slimy and rotten smelling and attract lots of maggots. If you really can’t stand them you can get some lime (this is organic) and dust your compost with it. It will deal with the maggots and you will still have good compost, but it will increase the pH of the compost.

A word about LIME – Liming

It is normally not necessary to add lime to your compost pile to improve the breakdown of most yard wastes. Finished compost is usually slightly alkaline. If you add lime during the decomposition process, it will probably be too alkaline when completed. If your pile contains large amounts of acidic materials such as pine needles or fruit wastes, you might add lime, but no more than one cup per 25 cubic feet of material. Excessive lime application can lead to loss of nitrogen from the compost pile.

Black Soldier Fly Larvae – Maggots!

Answer TWO! OR, decide to HAVE maggots!!!! You’ve seen the dead dry ones in your garden many times. Alive they make compost in record time! The material they are working fairly seethes. Here is a fab SFGate link all about them: Yucky but useful: Maggots make compost by Maria Gaura, Special to The Chronicle  Saturday, July 26, 2008. It’s a read for the brave, but believe it or not, it will make you laugh! And change your ways of thinking about your compost! Did you ever think you would see these words? ‘While we’re waiting for our first shipment of BSF larvae to arrive…‘

I first posted this August 19, 2011. Per the London, Jan. 15, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — According to a new market research report titled “Black Soldier Fly Market by Product Type (Protein Meal, Whole Dried Larvae, Oil, Biofertilizer, Live Insect, Chitin/Chitosan), Application (Animal Feed, Agriculture, Pet Food, Pharmaceutical, and Cosmetics), and Geography- Global Forecast to 2030”, published by Meticulous Research^®, the global black soldier fly market will grow at a CAGR of 33.3% from 2019 to 2030 to reach $2.57 billion by 2030! See more details

BSFs are big business! Besides food for you fish, pet reptiles and chickens, they are sold to compost making businesses as well as the gear sold for those businesses. They’re also used in forensic entomology to clean bones bare. At your garden, what the maggots leave, your red worm casting making worms can eat! And, btw, maggots have no gentile needs like your delicate worms. They will eat anything biodegradable, even mountains of orange peel from the juice industry!

BSF larvae convert biowaste to protein! When they are done with your compost, they can be ground up into protein powder to feed other animals like fish you may be raising! As of Dec 2019 Forbes called BSFs The New Superstars of Sustainable Aquaculture and that they are revolutionizing the Aquaculture industry, Aquaculture production has more than doubled in the past 15 years!

There was a blog called Black Soldier Fly Blog?!?! Sure! It featured a sophisticated DIY specialized composter, with how-to image after image and videos!  The page had no less than 188 comments!

Here is a Houzz page with a LOT of great comments, and it explains and debunks myths about BSF! Especially read comments by Kelly_Slocum.

So how do you and I, home gardeners, use BSFs in our humble little gardens?

Of first importance is having enough for them to eat! Worms are much slower and may be perfect for your needs. See more Grow Garden Worms, Harvest Castings! If you have a big family and a lot of scraps, access to a grocery store waste or restaurant scraps, consider trying maggots. Soldier fly bins can be sized for a backyard or scaled up for a commercial operation.

On the flip side, you can’t fill the BSF bin full over and over because in time trying to get compost – you only get a little volume at a time, the acidity increases too much. The pH is thrown off with over-feeding. It’s going to take a little trial and error. Slower is probably better to start.

If your worms are in a container,  do not  combine the grubs with your worms! Alison Collin, Master Gardener of Inyo/Mono counties threw rotting windfall apples into an open stock tank. When she needed the tank, she was shocked to find it full of maggots! She advises: …though Black Soldier Fly larvae and red worms both like the same food, the fly larvae are extremely active [crowd out the worms and leave no food for the worms], like warm, moist conditions, and their leachate makes the soil acidic which is not good for worms. So if you have worm bins it is prudent to check them from time to time and remove any Black Soldier Fly larvae that may be present.

If your worms are in an outdoor compost pile, Anne Baley has some common sense advice: Encourage them in your compost pile by keeping green material, kitchen waste, near the top of the heap instead of burying it underneath dry leaves. Water the pile a little more than usual to help keep the moisture levels up. If soldier fly larvae seem to be taking over and crowding out the regular earthworms in your compost, bury kitchen waste under at least 4 inches of leaves, paper and other brown materials, and cut back on the moisture available to the pile.

How do you get your Soldier Flies? Australian Gavin Smith encourages using a purpose-built black soldier fly farm with images, instructions and explanations! This special home attracts them naturally. Or you can order them online! Or like Alison, throw some rotting apples where you want them and they will come, LOL! Sally G. Miller at Dave’s Garden says ‘BSF love coffee grounds. Collect a gallon or two of used coffee grounds and put them on the compost. Make sure the grounds stay moist. Dig into the grounds after a week and check for small tan wriggly “worms.” ‘

The Seasons: In the Pacific Northwest, it is recommended to ‘continue fueling the composting process for about nine months out of the year! Farmer Scott Olsen says ‘It will be warm and humid in there [the building] with lots of light because that’s what they like. … We’ll have to figure out how much energy we have to add to keep it going during the wintertime. We might be able to do that with solar or compost heat.” ‘ In our home gardens, adult soldier flies become inactive during cold months. Pupae can overwinter.

You chicken owners can be happy to know there are special growing chambers for BSFL [larvae]. When the larvae are mature, they crawl out of the food source, are channeled into a collection bucket right in the hungry chickens’ foraging area!

After eating their fill at your compost pile, soldier fly larvae crawl away to virtually disappear. The cycle continues. Along the way they become a food for birds and small creatures.

As a veggie gardener you can be glad they do not carry pathogens from manure to food items because they make great compost posthaste!

The physical reality dilemmas! A thread writer posed this comparison. ‘Most journals I’ve read say bsfl leave behind around 5% solid material, of course it depends on the food source. This seems to be pretty accurate. You can put literally hundreds of pounds of waste in a bin and have a few inches of substrate. It’s like I tell the people I teach this stuff to, if you want fertilizer and waste disposal, go with red wiggler worms, and if you want waste disposal and animal feed, go with BSFL. 

The questioner replied that she also didn’t get enough grubs to feed her chickens. She said bsfl are super at waste disposal! ‘I wouldn’t be able to compost everything from a restaurant with worms because of space considerations or because worms can’t be fed all that fat, meat and dairy that a restaurant will naturally produce.’ Bsfl have no problem. She’s considering keeping worms in a greenhouse over winter because she wants soil… Maybe she could do both?

Finished bsfl compost looks the same as other finished compost but it has one important difference! Devin Gustus at DenGarden says black soldier fly larvae compost can stunt plant growth if applied before further composting, to consider that frass “half-composted” material. Worms can easily digest the frass further, creating high quality vermicasts. Depending on who you talk with, there is a bit more to the process than what is thought at first. If you are purchasing bsfl compost, ask how it has been processed.

So here are some pros/cons. If you go with bsfl, be ready for a fast game!

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The Green Bean Connection newsletter started as correspondence for the Santa Barbara CA USA, Pilgrim Terrace Community Garden. All three of Santa Barbara city community gardens are very coastal. During late spring/summer we are in a fog belt/marine layer area most years, locally referred to as the May grays, June glooms and August fogusts. Keep that in mind compared to the microclimate niche where your veggie garden is.

Love your Mother! Plant bird & pollinator food! Think grey water! Grow organic! Bless you for being such a wonderful Earth Steward!

 

 

 

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Keeping Your Veggie Garden Happy – Foliar Plant Care!

Foliar plant care is so easy!
Use a Dramm Can, the Perfect Foliar Machine!

Worm Castings, Compost, Manure Tea, Fish Emulsion/Kelp for FEEDING – All in ONE!

You can easily make this tea!  A handful of castings, a handful to a cup of compost, handful of manure, stir and let them soak overnight in a bucket.  In the morning, swoosh it around in the bucket one more time, let it settle, then pour the top liquid into your watering can, the one with the up turning rose.  Add a Tablespoon Fish Emulsion/Kelp, mix, and drench your plants in the morning!  Yum!

Epsom Salts, Magnesium Sulfate, Your Solanaceaes, Peppers especially, and Roses!

Magnesium is critical for seed germination and the production of chlorophyll, fruit, and nuts. Magnesium helps strengthen cell walls and improves plants’ uptake of nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur.  Magnesium deficiency in the soil may be one reason your tomato leaves yellow between the leaf veins late in the season and fruit production slows down.

Sulfur, a key element in plant growth, is critical to production of vitamins, amino acids (therefore protein), and enzymes.  Sulfur is probably the oldest known pesticide in current use. It can be used for disease control (e.g., powdery mildews, rusts, leaf blights, and fruit rots), and pests like mites, psyllids and thrips. Sulfur is nontoxic to mammals, but may irritate skin or especially eyes.  Sulfur has the potential to damage plants in hot (90°F and above), dry weather. It is also incompatible with other pesticides. Do not use sulfur within 20 to 30 days on plants where spray oils have been applied; it reacts with the oils to make a more phytotoxic combination.

Epsom Salts are easy to do!  Buy some Epsom Salts, what you soak your feet in, at the grocery store, mix a tablespoon per gallon, foliar feed!  Foliar feeding is simply sprinkling leaves with your solutions, and works better than applying to the soil!  Get a Dramm 5 liter long snouted watering can that has a turnable sprinkler head.  That long spout comes in handy, reaching well into your plant!  Turn the head so the water shoots up under the leaves then falls back on the tops!  The long arc of the handle gives lots of maneuvering ability!  Feed your plants once when they bloom, and again ten days later. The results, attributed to magnesium in the salts, are larger plants, more flowers, more fruit, thicker walled peppers!  I use this mix on all my Solanaceaes: eggplant, pepper, tomato, tomatillo.  Roses love it too! 

Baking Soda & Nonfat Powdered Milk for PREVENTION!

The bicarbonate of soda makes the leaf surface alkaline and this inhibits the germination of fungal spores. Baking soda prevents and reduces Powdery Mildew, and many other diseases on veggies, roses, and other plants!  It kills PM within minutes.  It can be used on roses every 3 to 4 days, but do your veggie plants every 5 to 10 days, or after significant rains, as the plant grows, because these new plant tissues are not yet protected yet by your fungicide.  Irrigate well 2 days before use; on a sunny day spray off as much of the PM as you can from plants in sunny locations.  A heaping Tablespoon baking soda to a gallon of water, with a 1/2 Teaspoon of a surfactant – insecticidal or dish soap or salad oil, does the job.  It is not effective without the surfactant to spread it and make it stick.  You can add a liquid fertilizer with it if you want.   Cautions:  1)  I have had no trouble using it on my veggies, but it may burn the leaves of some other plants, so try it on a few leaves first.  2)  Don’t apply during hot midday sun that can burn the leaves.  3)  Avoid over use – it is a sodium, salt.  For a definitive discussion of Baking Soda usage and research, see https://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/bakingsoda.html.   The article is an easy read, nicely summarized, has references, includes cautions and info on commercial preparations.  Best of all is to plant powdery mildew resistant varieties:

• Cucumber:  Diva
• Yellow Summer Squash:  Success, Sunray, Sunglo
• Zucchini:  Ambassador, Wildcat
• Pumpkin:  18 Karat Gold, Gladiator

Add nonfat powdered milk to your Baking Soda fungicide!  Powdered milk is a natural germicide, boosts your plant’s immune system!  Apply right away on young bean plants, all your cucurbits – cukes, zuchs, any mildew prone plant.  A 1/4 c milk in your gallon of water.  Get under those leaves, early morning so the leaves dry and the habitat is less humid.

Also add Salicylic acid, an aspirin to the mix! It triggers a defense response in tomatoes and other plants as well, and stimulates growth!  One regular strength dissolved/gallon does the job.

Healthy plants and abundant production are so rewarding!  Just take a few minutes to give your plants a boost with these simple treatments!  Whether Dramm, or another can, get yourself a good one!  Make it easy to get up under those leaves!  Otherwise, you are treating only 1/2 your plant!

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APRIL is for Heat Lovers! Pull back your mulches, let soil heat up, PLANT!

Why not start with an AAS (All America Selections) 2011 Winner?!
Pepper ‘Orange Blaze’ F1  Early ripening orange variety, very sweet flavor, multiple disease resistances!

AAS 2011 Winner - Orange Blaze F1 Pepper

Get out last year’s garden notes if you made any, and review for varieties you liked, where you got ‘em, how much to plant!

CORN!
Plant in blocks, not rows, for pollination.  When tassels bloom, break off pieces and whap them on the silks!  Each silk is one kernel, each needs one grain of pollen!
Corn hybridizes – plant only one variety, or varieties that don’t have pollen at the same time.  This is pretty much not doable at a community garden since everyone is planting all kinds at any time, so if you harvest seeds, don’t expect true results!

Heat tolerant, tipburn resistant lettuces – Nevada, Sierra, Black Seeded Simpson, Jericho Romaine
     Slo bolt cilantro, arugula in semi shade (among your corn?!)
Eggplant love humidity and heat.  Tuck ‘em in between, right up against, other plants.  Near the cooler coast plant the longer length varieties that mature earlier.
Jicama, limas, melons, okra, peppers, seed potatoes, pumpkins
From Seed:  basil (Nufar is wilt resistant), chard, green beans (while peas finishing), beets, carrots, corn, endive, New Zealand spinach, parsley, radish, squash – summer & WINTER, sunflowers, turnips.  Coastal gardeners, get your winter squash in NOW so it will have ample time to mature.
The radish variety French Breakfast holds up and grows better than most early types in summer heat if water is supplied regularly.

PreSoak and/or PreSprout for 100% success!  Click here for details!  Per eHow:  How to Soak Watermelon Seeds in Milk Before Growing.  Sometimes the seed coat carries a virus, and the proteins in milk will also help deactivate the virus.  Read more 

Transplants:  cucumbers (hand pollinate?), tomatoes, watermelon
WAIT FOR MAY to plant cantaloupe
Herbs from transplants – oregano, rosemary, sage, savory, thyme 

Plant successively!  If you put in transplants now, also put in seeds for an automatic 6 week succession!  Plant different varieties (except of corn if you want true seed – see above)! 

If you overplant, thin for greens, or transplant when they are about 2 to 3 inches high.  Lettuce, carrots, onions.  Too many stunt each other.  OR, this from Santa Barbara Westsiders Lili & Gabor:  Overplant mesclun on purpose, then mow the little guys!  If you are at home, plant densely in a planter bowl, cut off, leaving 1 ½” of stem still in your soil.  They will regrow, you will have several months’ supply of tasty baby greens.  Plant two or three bowls for more people or more frequent harvest!  Give a bowl as a gift! 

Tomatoes
Plant for excellence – Throw a handful of bone meal in your planting hole along with a handful of nonfat powdered milk, worm castings, compost/manures, mix it all up with your soil.  Sprinkle the roots of your transplant with mycorrhizal fungi!  That’ll do it!  Stand back for bounty!
REMOVE LOWER LEAVES OF TOMATOES  Wilt prevention.  Water sparingly or not at all after about a foot tall.  Wilt comes from the ground up the leaves and is airborne. Remove any leaves that touch the ground or could get water splashed.  Don’t remove suckers – airborne fungi can enter open wounds.
Sorry, NO HEIRLOOMS if you know the soil has the wilts.  Heirlooms don’t have resistance.  Get varieties with VF on the tag or that you know have resistance/tolerance.
Mid day, rap tomato cages or the main stem, to help pollination.  55 degrees or lower, higher than 75 at night, or 105 in daytime = bud drop.  Not your fault.  Grow early varieties first that tolerate cooler temps.
Pilgrim Terrace Community Garden Kevin and Mary Smith have had successes with 2 blight resistant/tolerant determinate varieties, New Hampshire Surecrop, a 78 day, great tasting slicer/canner, and Legend, a very early 68 day!  Ask for them, and more Jetsetters, with unbelievable VFFNTA resistance/tolerance, at your nursery.  See Tomatoes and Wilts here at the Green Bean Connection Blog for a list of additional resistant/tolerant varieties and tips!   

Maintenance!  Sidedress when blooms start.  Fish/kelp, foliar feed Epsom salt for Solanaceaes, seabird guano (not bat) for more blooms, manures for lettuces and leaf crops like chard, collards.

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