Pesky Leaf Miners in my Spinach

I was asked what is a Leaf Miner.  I'm no expert on the topic, bug, or control. All I know is that there is a little fly that resembles a house fly that lays tiny white eggs on the underneath sides of leaves, and when the eggs hatch, the larva starts munching away on the underneath side of the leave, taking all the juicy nutrients out.  On the top side of the leaf, it looks like a whitish lesion or strip has been damaged.  In a day or two, the leaf curls and shivels around the damage. At first, I thought it was sun damage. 

I routinely (daily) check the leaves for the tiny white eggs.  I scrape off the eggs with my fingernail and flick them out into the grass.  I have read that it is not a good idea to pull the leaves and put them into compost, as this becomes a perfect area for them to breed and grow within the breakdown.  I don't know for certain, that's just what I read. I put damaged leaves into my burn pile or garbage. There are probably better treatments to stop the flies from laying eggs.  I just try to stay organic, and in my micro garden patch, it is not that difficult to check the leaves every day or every other day. 

Leaf Miner Larva Damage	Leaf Miner Eggs are White and in rows
Close up of Eggs	Close up of damage
Leaf Miner Fly *

*Resource - "https://www.daylilies.org/ahs_dictionary/leafminer.html"

One Month into Fall 2018

Here we are, one month into the fall season, and the weather is polar opposite of this time last year. We have sunshine, albeit breezy, and temps in the 70s during the day. This year, my fall garden is so much better than last year.  Some things I learned is to have most of the fall veggies in pots/buckets in order to be able to move them quickly into the green house, in the event the over night temps drop into the low 30s.  Otherwise, I leave them outside over night, for any rain or dew.  One thing to watch for closely are bugs that want to lay eggs in the soil.  One way to cut down on this is to sprinkle DE (diatomacious earth) that is "food safe" around the plants onto the soil.  This will kill and/or detract most bugs. Also, watch for leaf miners that lay little white eggs on the under side of the leaves. The culprit looks like a house fly. But, the eggs, as they hatch will take all the nourishment from the leaf, causing it to look like a slug crawled over it.

So far, the bell peppers (in the green house 24-7) are still producing cute little peppers. The strawberry starts all took and are looking great, as the older berry leaves are turning red and brown. The oregano has slowed its growth, but we can still harvest any that we want.

Fall plants, carrots, spinach, garlic and cilantro are knocking it out of the park this year. Could not ask for a better bunch of plants. I have planted a second fall start (fingers crossed) of spinach and lettuce.

30 carrots in a container	Topdown carrots
Fall Cilantro	Fall Leaf Lettuce
Fall Strawberry Starts	Fall Spinach
Leftover Bell Peppers	More Bell Peppers

Three of the four Welsummers are in full moult, while one continues to persist laying an egg every other day. She seems quite proud of herself.  The Rhode Island Reds are continuing to lay three eggs per day for us, so we are plenty in the eggs this fall. Considering that there are only about 11 hours of daylight per day, and we have yet to put any wattage into their coop yet, I am in no hurry to take the electricity out there, just yet, while they continue to lay an egg per day. 

The Freedom Rangers are 10 weeks of age, and we will process them next weekend. They are good sized.  I speculate that they will each weigh about 5 - 6 pounds processed. There are three cockerels and three pullets.  The cockerels are crowing every morning and every evening... they seem most intrigued by the hens in the other coop, since the pullets are not mature enough for mating purposes. 

All six Freedom Rangers	Two Pulls and Two Rels
Pullets Leaning into the Breeze	Good Size!
Back to the feed trough

Moult, Eggs and Garden

The Welsummers have headed into their first moult. One hen has already lost a lot of her wing and breast feathers.  The others are looking pretty fluffy (a lot of down feathers are being exposed). Time to take the oyster shell away and we will need to switch over to starter/developer feed for higher protein content.  Rhodies will not moult this year as this is their first year. This means that the Welsummers probably won't be back to laying until December or January.

The Freedom Rangers are doing well outside.  They are foraging (like heritage chicks) and seem comfortable outside. They don't seem too flightly with the sounds. We do have to round them up after dark as they are not inclined to want to go inside at night. That's good though, as that means that they are foraging well into the evening.  

The first few weeks of September have been excellent fall temps, high 60s and low 70s.  Greenhouse lettuce is growing well, the outdoor plants, cilantro, carrots and spinach are loving these temps. 

Picked up garlic starts today. I'm soaking them overnight and will get them in the dirt tomorrow.  I picked up some different organic fertilizer, Bio-Live.  I can work this into the dirt tonight for tomorrow's planting. Should be great for a lot of our under the soil growth, i.e. carrots, garlic, onion and potatoes. Time will tell.  

No Photos today.

Outdoors a Week Early

While the clucks are not fully feathered at five weeks, the day time temps are above 65 this week, and, as such, should be fine outside for the chicks.  We have a little heat lamp inside the coop for warmth at night. If it gets too cool at night, we can close up the coop tighter for added warmth for them.

One of the six cluck clucks is rather smallish in comparison, but is eating hearty, so it may just be a smaller chicken.  The others are quite a bit larger, which is a good sign. The smaller one is at the feed trough in the first photo with black spots on its back. But, in truth, they are still small compared to the Cornish Cross, at this age. Even the larger ones have to stretch to get to their water. Their eyes are an interesting color of grey with speckles of blue.  The photos do not do it justice.

Little Cluck at the Feed Trough	Swollowing that drink
Little Peep standing next to the bigger peeps.	Checking on the Feed

September Time, Squawk Flock & Fall Plants

The Freedom Ranger chicks are three weeks now, with most of them having their long necks established. Although the chicks are growing faster than layers seem to grow, they are not quite the equivalence of the Cornish Cross, especially in the legs and breast areas.  The pecking order happens quickly with these chicks.

Natural Lighting	Squawk Flock with Flash for Light
The Long Necks are Here	Two Roo Face Off?

The garden is winding down.  I did harvest the last of the carrots out of the garden space. I cut back the basil and cut half of the dill.  One has gone to seed, so we may save those seeds for next year. The few remaining onions were toast.  I ended up putting a lot into the compost bin. The corn is on its final stand.  The nights are getting too cool and the few remaining ears of corn are not in the best shape. The final tomatoes are getting red. The bell peppers are blooming again and we have a few small peppers developing.  We will keep them in the greenhouse for protecting and warmth at night. 

Fall plantings are kicking in. I planted another row of spinach today.  The center row is leafing already. The cilantro is looking better. The fall planting of carrots is in a deep planting bed that is movable, if we need to haul it into the green house. I have two new buckets of leaf lettuce planted.  I planted them about two weeks apart so that we are not so wasteful with it. I hate when I have to throw out plants that rotted. It is one thing if it is because of bugs, but a whole different feeling when we had too much and could not harvest it in time. Oregano is popping up with gusto. 

Carrots	Cilantro
Leaf Lettuce	Oregano
September 1 Leaves	Fall is near

Freedom Ranger two weeks

The little rangers are growing fast, similar to their counterparts, the Cornish Cross. I took a little longer to put them into shavings. Today is their first real experience with the shavings in their environment. They like it. I have moved the warmer up weekly and they are chunkier than I anticipated.  They are kind of skittish.  I think I need to spend more time working with them so that we won't be stuck chasing them around in the rain when it comes time to prepare.

Rangers are Growing Fast - 17 days old

Pecking in the wood shavings

They are getting wings and tails

Ten weeks without Rain

The last rain we had in our area was June 17 and it was about one-half inch. Yesterday and last night, we had rain.  Not a lot. Not enough to get through the leaves on the trees, but enough to cause humidity to increase.  The past five days, the temps at night have been dropping into the 50s and it has been more cloudy.  The temps dropped quickly from the 90s mid-day to the 70s and 60s at mid-day. So obviously the weather has changed, at least for now, to a fall-like late summer.

This year, a record was broken for the number of 90+ days in the year.  So far, we have had 30 days, albeit, not in a row.  

My fall plantings are all up with pix below.  My cuks are doing well enough and it looks like we will get a total of five cucumbers from the two plants.  My bell peppers are being harvested. We pulled 16 additional cobs from the corn with another 10, or so, left to grow, if they do.  With the sudden cool down, it is unlikely that they will get much larger. The chickens will get those.

With the sudden cooldown, I have pulled the tomatoes, peppers and lettuce into the green house so that the cool nights don't stop them in their tracks. The fall plantings will appreciate this cooler weather and should do just fine.

Cucumbers with rain drops	Fall Carrot Starts
Fall Cilantro Starts	Fall Lettuce Starts
Fall Spinach Starts	Red and Yellow Bell Peppers

August is Harvesting the Rewards

We are pulling ripe plants and fruits as they appear mature. Sometimes, we are a little too early, but, that happens when we can't see what's inside.

First of all it is strawberry runner time.  Strawberries will send out runners across the ground and "replant" themselves.  However, because we have ours in pots, we can bring bags of dirt up to the runner to simulate the event.  This is how we do it.  We do not cut the runner until the roots take hold in the dirt. Then we need to keep the soil really wet to ensure that the new little plant survives. This is an easy peasy way to get new strawberry plants for next spring.

Strawberry runner in fresh dirt for root growth.

Let the new growth peek above the soil keeping it wet.

A new plant on its own

I harvested 1/2 pound of green beans from our first plant. It is on the downhill side of producing. However, of the other two bean plants that I replanted, one has survived and is now thriving, so we may have more beans later in the fall!  This is the first harvest of the carrots.  There will be another in about two weeks to finish off that planting.  The fall harvest will likely be in early October. Tomatoes continue to ripen and the few apples that we have this year are ready. The other harvest is the corn. Can you tell what we will be having for dinner tonight?

Today's harvest from green bean bush	One-Half of the Carrots planted
Tomatoes and part of a ripe apple	CORN!
Sweet 100s	More the sweet 100s

As you can see, we do NOT plant a lot of anything that we grow.  We do not see any reason to over plant because we hate to be wasteful plus it takes up precious space. Some things will be dried for use later in the year, like herbs. Oregano that I totally cut back last month and thinned out is coming back in force, so we will get a third harvest this fall. Also, it is time to cut the dill flowers for drying. I keep topping the basil so that we continue to have a fresh supply all summer.  I LOVE a little fresh basil on my hamburgers. I have dried some basil for cooking this winter. This year I used a clean fry pan screen set on top of a colander. In the photo below, I outlined some of the dried leaves that will be thrown out because those leaves that turn a funky color tend to be bitter. 

Oregano Fall Reboot

Dill Flowers & Basil

Drying Basil