Summing up my earth friendly EB 2011 garden

[writeone]

My EB garden seems earth friendly and highly productive in spring, summer, and fall of 2011. This season is going on my second year of gardening.

Using the standard EB protocol (potting mix, fertilizer, and dolomite), weekly snacks, and liquid seaweed as need (once per week at the most) and regular prayer to bless garden, I had healthy, high to good yield crops for spring, summer, and fall of 2011. Okra was a little low on production, but they had a bad aphid infestation followed by fungus that I didn't treat other than to cut off the infected leaves. And, one of the okra EBs sprung a leak that made it difficult to maintain even moisture.

I sprayed 2 - 3 times with spinosad and no other chemical intervention for pest control for the whole year. I did a lot of research and had other products available, but they were not used.  

Wouldn't that reflect well on EB's contribution to earth friendly gardening?

Details about seaweed:

An avid earth boxer (20 boxes) recommend Medina Liquid Seaweed
http://www.hastagro.com/product_details.php?pid=MTM3
She and her co-workers add 1 oz, 1/wk to each EB -- sometimes more if the plant is struggling with a pest/disease.

She's not been using the snack. Since I am using snack, I only use the seaweed when the plants are struggling, and only one ounce per week when used. That helps keep the costs down.

2012 Garden:
This spring pests were heavy early due to a warm winter. So far, I spayed once with Neem oil, once with insecticide soap, and twice with spinosad. It's been two weeks since I sprayed with anything. No new pest damage evident.

I do spot checks daily and mash pests when I find them.

In addition to spraying, I added seaweed to first set of seedlings after the pest damage started. Then added it to my second set of seedlings before damage started. So far, the second set has no pest damage, and the first seedling set have recovered. It's been over a week since I sprayed anything.

I'll stop the seaweed additive as the plants mature and develop their immunity.

Now if I could figure out why my tomatoes are dropping blossoms. They have all set at least one fruit, but all are dropping blossoms. Maybe I should start giving them seaweed regularly to see if that will helps. So far, I've only used it on my seedlings with visible pest damage.

EDIT 5/18/12
I've decided to discontinue use of seaweed based on this new info:
http://www.puyallup.wsu.edu/~Linda%20Chalker-Scott/Horticultural%20Myths_files/Myths/Seaweed%20extracts.pdf

http://forum.earthbox.com/index.php?topic=4448.msg37573#msg37573

[heatherbynum]

Could you provide a link to the discussion about this from "An avid earth boxer (20 boxes)"

Is it on the forum somewhere?

Thanks,
Heather

[writeone]

The discussion was with a local person. Also, she owns a store that sells the seaweed. I did ask about it here -- http://forum.earthbox.com/index.php?topic=8467.0
gives the original discussion.

[PaulB]

Tomato blossoms tend to self-abort if the average temperature is over a certain limit.  What is your general daytime/nighttime temps?

[writeone]

80s - 60s

[PaulB]

That is cool enough for good pollination.  Perhaps another factor is involved.

[writeone]

According to other forum posts, symptoms indicate that someone in the area is spraying herbicide that's affecting the toms. Grrr. 

[kathy]

Usually the herbicide spraying will result in twisted contorted stems, and often some discolored foliage and stems, along with a stunting of the plants.  I would suspect temperature fluctuations, first.

[writeone]

some of the stems close to the leaves are twisted. No disoloration yet.

So the temperature range is too much fluxuation? Last night we got 50s. The high today is predicted at 83. We'll have a lot of fluxuation this week. The lows range from 59 - 64 and highs from 80 to 87.

[PaulB]

That's about the same temperature variation that I am experiencing at the moment, with no blossom drop.

[heatherbynum]

I'm so sorry that you have lost some blossoms. I bet they will recover though. It's amazing to me how resilient plants can be. But, if for some reason they don't it's still so early in the year that you could just replant if need be.

[baysidegardner]

Hi,
I am new to all this and after following the links I am still wondering what "snack" is?

Trish

[writeone]

I'm so sorry that you have lost some blossoms. I bet they will recover though. It's amazing to me how resilient plants can be. But, if for some reason they don't it's still so early in the year that you could just replant if need be.

Every season I've had early blossom drop prop for one reason or another, but the total harvest still paid for it's earth box costs.

[kathy]

Hi,
I am new to all this and after following the links I am still wondering what "snack" is?

Trish

Finding out what the snack is, is like going through the pledging process to join the "in" club of the forum....keep reading....one hint go to the home page and search snack "snack" or calcium nitrate!

[writeone]

LOL. Yes, it's one of our best secrets. "snack" is a nick name for Calcium Nitrate. The name is earned because it helps plants obsorb nutrients as they need it. So if fertilizer is the meal, CaNo3 is the snack. CaNo3 is the scientific abbreviation for snack. Maybe knowing the terms and abbreviation will help you make sense of the discussions. Once you've read through the posts, if you have clarifying questions, start a new topic. Someone will be glad to help.