www.auburnskyfarm.com

Greenhouses protect against Inclement Weather

• Greenhouse growing is becoming the only way to protect the growing environment

• Keeping the rain off of the tomatoes and other growing crops is a major key to success

• Use drip irrigation and water reclamation techniques

• Mulch plants

• Don’t use NON UV 6 mil plastic from Lowes. Get UV treated plastic from Van Wingerden

Greenhouses

• Do NOT go all the way to the ground with the plastic it will cook the plants inside the greenhouse

• Roll the sides up pretty high to encourage air flow

• Running the ridge East – West is better

Homemade Overwinter Greenhouse

• There are 2 different styles of greenhouse

• Gothic and Round

• Gothic is the style to use here because of snow load

Homemade Overwinter Greenhouse

Where to find parts kits

• www.lostcreek.net – The Original Hoop Benders - www.buildmyowngreenhouse.com

• www.growerssolution.com

• www.greenhousemegastore.com

• www.farmtec.com

• www.ebay.com

Where to find 1 3/8” Pipe

• Lowes or Home Depot sells these

Parts

• buildmyowngreenhouse

Setting up Modulars

Setting up Modulars

Parts

• Wiggle Wire and U Channel is how you attach the plastic

• You can mount 2

Plastics and 1 shade

Cloth with this product

Parts

• Ebay

Dealing with Greenhouse heat

• Apply Surround (kaolin clay) to the leaves this provides a barrier to pests and helps to cool the plant because the plants are cooler this helps to improve photosynthesis

• Or use a 30% shade cloth

30% - 40% Shade Cloth

• 30% Shade cloth is the maximum you would want to use with tomatoes

• 40% Shade for lettuce and all leafy green vegetables.

• Under a tree canopy that gets morning sun and afternoon shade

• A good technique for the greens is sprinkle with water throughout the day. This rehydrates the lettuce and helps it thrive

Disease control

• Blight is the main problem here in WNC

• This is ground zero for blight

• Many companies trial their products here

• Due to inclement weather greenhouse growing is emerging as a viable alternative to minimize crop losses and may one day be the only to grow

Blight Central USA • Can I grow tomatoes here?

You can grow great tomatoes here

• If you know the secrets

There are two kinds of Blight

• Alternaria or early blight splashes up from the soil. The fungus spends the winter in infected plant debris in or on the soil where it can survive at least one and perhaps several years.

• Late blight Phytophthora infestans flies through the air or water and can fly 30 miles in a night.

It can move a good 10-15 miles on a rainy day

• These are the main two diseases in the WNC area we don’t get to many viral diseases on tomatoes here

The two kinds of Blight

• Alternaria or early blight can be a problem using infected equipment from the prior growing season. Example: Steaks, Pots and not mulching Soil

• Late blight is not contracted from infected equipment

Integrated Blight Management

• Use no or low till • Well composted and mulched living soil – Raised

beds the best for this • Every year cover crop the soil over winter use

Hairy Vetch and Winter Rye • Proper soil drainage • combined with maximized air circulation • Preventative spray techniques (weekly) • Grow genetic varieties that withstand blight • All these keys keep blight manageable

Integrated Blight Management

• Good air drainage makes a HUGE difference

• The best fungicide in the world is sunlight

• Proper plant spacing helps reduce risk better to be too far apart than too close

• Volunteer potatoes are a Trojan horse and major carrier of blight

• Buy certified disease free potatoes

Spray Regime

• In the morning use OxiDate to clean the pathogens off the leaves – This product is very similar to hydrogen peroxide

• Make sure to follow up with a beneficial spray soon

• Weekly (7 day cycles) spray programs

• Spray for pest control Monday

• Spray fungicide Friday

Spray Regime

Compost Tea

Brewed Compost Tea – 2 Bubbler method (1 in bag 1 in bucket) Beneficial Bacteria Factory – 1TBSP oil to break foam * Recipe makes 50 Gallons of tea Place in 5 Gallon paint strainer with bubbler • 15.625 lbs Cured Compost • Worm Castings 3.75 lbs • Azomite – ¾ cup • Kelp meal – ¾ cup Add to water only • Fish Emulsion – 1 ½ cup • Seaweed 1 cup • Molasses – 1 cup Bubble this mixture for 24 hours Then foliar spray or soil drench the plants *Use Cal-Mag plus 2-0-0 by Botanicare as needed. OK for hydroponics Tomato, Pepper & Lettuce

Spraying Fungicide with Compost Tea

• When you spray with compost tea, you envelope the plant with living organisms -- and you enhance the web of life of which the plant is a part. The results can be astounding: large, mineral rich vegetation with clear glossy leaves, decreased disease, and even lessened insect attacks. Plants treated with foliar fertilization and especially compost tea have higher “Brix” levels – a measure of the carbohydrates and mineral density in the sap. High Brix is said to make the plants less attractive to pests and more resilient to stress. If they are vegetables, they even taste better!

Spraying Fungicide with Compost Tea

• Compost tea, unlike mineral sprays and foliar fertilization, cannot be over-applied and does not burn leaves. The microbe-rich droplets drip off the leaves to improve soil and growing solutions. Those same microbes can clean up toxic chemicals and turn them into nutrients. For growers who regularly use compost tea, there is nothing better. The main drawback is that being alive, it has a limited shelf life. If you brew your own compost tea, it needs to have the best ingredients and proven test results. We use McEnroe compost from 5th Season Asheville and the other products listed

Garden Pump Sprayer Selection

• Use a high powered hand pump sprayer. The kind we use on the farm is 90psi

• You will want to find a minimum 60psi pump

• You will need to atomize the spray

• A curved spray nozzle is best for getting hard to reach under leaf areas

• Start the season with a lot of compost tea when the plants are tiny

• When the tomato plants are 3 weeks in the ground (before the end of May) add Regalia to the compost tea spray.

• This spray is about raising the level of phenols in the leaves and is not as hospitable to fungi

Spray Regime- Beginning

Mid to late May and through the season

• Regalia and compost tea mix weekly

• Spray more if its rainy

• This adds so much life to the leaves that there is very little room for disease.

• If you were to look through a microscope at the leaves it would look like a jungle.

Spray Regime

• After starting with compost tea and Regailia

• Integrate Double Nickel into the spray program

• The Double Nickel makes the leaves more vibrant

• The theory is it may help the acquired systemic immune response of the plant to naturally fight off pathogens

• Add the Double Nickel once a week during rainy times or every other week in dry times

Spray Regime-Before Flowers

• Once the tomato plants begin flowering

• Tomatoes are way more vulnerable when they are flowering. They are putting energy into producing seed and their defense system is not as good

• The weather is warmer and the diseases are more likely to be coming

• Now the compost tea is mixed with either Serenade or Sonata

• Serenade or Sonata are both anti fungal

Spray Regime-After Flowers

Serenade – goes into the vascular system of the plant

• At the first sign of infection add copper sulfate to the serenade (Sonata) compost tea mix. Don’t overuse the copper sulfate some add it to the mix every time but this can create a copper buildup in your soil.

• We hold off on the Copper Sulfate and the Oxidate till the disease is actually here

• On a sunny day in the morning or early afternoon spray Oxidate and leave for a couple of hours (it sets right away) then come back in the evening with the Compost tea, Serenade (Sonata), Copper sulfate mixture

• The idea is that we are wiping the slate clean and then putting good life back on that leaf

Spray Regime-Once the disease is here

Spray Regime-When the disease begins raging

• We may use Copper Sulfate 4 times or so during the season

• We never like what it does to plants it is always hard on plants

• Nordox is hard on plants

• Champ WG is not as hard on plants

Spray Regime-Experimental

• The company BioWorks has many products we are trialing this time

• For blight there is Milstop and CEASE mix both and spray

• All are organic

Spray Regime-Experimental

• The product Sporatec uses:

• Rosemary Oil

• Clove Oil

• Thyme Oil

• And various other ingredients

Spray Regime

• EM Effective Microorganisms

• This is a great additive to charge compost tea with abundant life

• Just add Molasses and you can brew your own

• Use small portions to make large amounts and brew your own

Downey Mildew

• Squash, Cucumber and other similar plants will suffer from Downey mildew or Powdery mildew – Regalia fixes this problem too

• Downey mildew is in the same family of water molds as late blight

Blight Tracking

• Use the county Extensions Blight reporting services

• The County extensions are invaluable for helping identify leaf diseases

• This website is also good for keeping track

http://usablight.org/

• If you know that late blight has arrived and conditions are rite for the pathogen

• Spray Copper and Serenade together when you know it has arrived

Other Tomato Problems

• Splitting – Just pick before any rain event

• Blossom End Rot, Is caused by calcium deficiency – Spray Cal-Mag

Pest Control

• The company BioWorks has excellent organic pest products they sell in quart size

• For pests we use Mycotrol and Molt-X in the hydroponic greenhouse for removing whitefly, Thrips and Aphids

• In the field we use Botanigard & Molt X

• Flea beetles will not pepper eggplant with holes

• These products have proven results

Organic Pest Control-Spray at Dusk

• We use BT on Cabbage, Broccoli, Squash and Cucumber worms of all sorts

• Spinosad is great for worms in fruit trees and other uses

• Neem is a great general purpose spray-Will kill beneficial's

• Diatomaceous Earth is great for mechanical pest control

• Pyrethrin is a powerful spray use rarely it kills everything

Organic Pest Control-DE • A Great little applicator for Diatomaceous

Earth

• www.diatomaceousearth.com/gilmour-duster

• The Gilmour Duster is perfect to dust plants. We recommend watering your garden first, which helps the DE bind to the plant.

MYCOTROL® O

• MYCOTROL® O is an insecticide containing spores of the insect-killing fungus Beauveria bassiana GHA strain. It is specifically formulated for use in organic agriculture and is OMRI Listed. The benefits of using a spore based insecticide are that it is compatible with beneficial insects, it stays where you put it and it can be used up to the day of harvest. MYCOTROL® O has been registered for use against a wide variety of soft-bodied pests such as whitefly, thrips, aphids, psyllids, leafhoppers, mealybugs, scarab beetles, plant bugs and weevils. Has also been shown to be effective against many other pests. Contains 10.9% spores of Beauveria bassiana Strain GHA.

• Conditions: Store in a cool, dry place. Shelf life 1 year Environment: Outdoors, Crops, Orchards & Vineyards, Nursery, Greenhouse, Grow Room, Hydroponics, Aquaponics, Pond & Environment, Interiorscapes, Container Plants, Houseplants

Molt-X®

• Molt-X® works primarily as an Insect Growth Regulator (IGR) that disrupts the molting process in insects. Once treated with Molt-X, insects become sluggish, stop feeding, and fail to mature and reproduce. Molt-X also acts as an insect repellent, antifeedant, and ovipositional deterrent; these multiple modes of action make it a highly effective tool for use in a resistance management program. Molt-X is also an excellent tank-mix or rotational partner with MYCOTROL O, BotaniGard and SuffOil-X!

• Conditions: Store in a cool, dry place. Shelf life 15 months

• Generally safe for beneficial insects

• Environment: Same as Mycotrol except this product is toxic to fish

Use yellow sticky pads to detect pests