Utah Seed Exchange: April 2013

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Event with Caleb Warnock

Caleb Warnock with be doing an hour presentation on gardening at an Emergency Preparedness Event on April 27th at 3pm at 950 East 850 North, American Fork, Utah. The event goes from 1-4pm and will have many other presentations from 1-3pm. The event coordinators have graciously invited anyone to attend.

Caleb is the author of the three books:
The Forgotten Self Survival Skills Used by the Mormon Pioneers
The Art of Baking with Natural Yeast
Backyard Winter Gardening

Monday, April 15, 2013

Organic Methods by our Members

I have a new Page on the right hand side of the website called Organic Methods by our Members. Send me your tested and true ideas for organic fertilization, pest control and disease control and I'll keep them posted there. We have one already submitted by Kassie on how to increase calcium for your tomatoes to prevent blossom-end rot.

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Soil Health and Nutrients

I've been doing some research and trying to simplify and put all in one place; information about the nutrients our plants need in the soil, how to spot deficiencies, and how to organically supply these nutrients to my plants.

I've created a page called Minerals That Plants Need, please look under Pages on the right hand side and click on it to view.

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Nature's Rototiller

If you have hard, compacted soil that you want to aerate and loosen, you can plant nature's own rototiller - the Daikon Radish. This tough radish will grow deep into your compacted soil, breaking up the hard subsurface soil layers and bringing up minerals and micronutrients from the subsoil that shallow-rooted crops have a hard time reaching. Put a couple of inches of good compost as a top layer and it get those nutrients down in your soil and speed up your soil amending. All this without dragging up weed seeds like tilling does!

Saturday, April 6, 2013

List of Potato Leaf Tomato Varieties

Potato Leaf Tomato varieties will cross pollinate by insects which makes them difficult to save pure seed from. Regular, or Tomato Leaf varieties are self pollinating and the risk of cross pollination is low.

This website is a fairly comprehensive list of Potato Leaf varieties. Please note that there are 2 pages to this list.

http://tatianastomatobase.com/w/index.php?title=Category:Potato_Leaf_Tomatoes&until=Ninas+Heirloom

Vegetable Planting Chart

Specific Planting Dates for Spanish Fork, UT, may need to adjust for weather or location, from Clyde's Garden Planner donated by Baker Creek Seed:

Spring Crops (last spring frost May 10th):
March 1 plant seeds indoors Cabbage, Cauliflower
March 15 plant seeds indoors Broccoli
March 17 in the ground Peas, Spinach
March 22 in the ground Onions
March 29 plant seeds indoors Lettuce
April 5 plant starts Cabbage, Cauliflower
April 5 plant in the ground Radish, Turnip
April 12 plant in the ground Beets, Potatoes
April 12 plant seeds indoors Peppers, Tomatoes
April 19 plant starts Broccoli, Lettuce
April 26 plant in the ground Carrots, Beets
May 3 plant seeds indoors Cucumbers, Squash, Melons
May 10 plant seeds indoors Ochra
May 17 plant seeds indoors Pumpkins
May 17 in the ground Beans, Corn
May 24 plant starts Cucumbers, Squash, Melons
May 31 plant starts Peppers, Tomatoes
June 7 plant starts Okra, Pumpkins

Fall Crops (first fall frost October 10th):
May 31 plant seeds indoors Cabbage
June 7 plant seeds indoors Cauliflower
June 14 plant seeds indoors Broccoli
July 5 plant in the ground, Cucumbers, Okra, Pumpkins, Summer Squash - plant starts Cabbage*
July 12 plant in the ground Peas*, Carrots*, Chard - plant starts Cauliflower*
July 19 plant in the ground Beets, Bush Green Beans - plant starts Broccoli*
August 2 plant in the ground Radishes, Turnips, Cabbage
August 9 plant in the ground Leaf Lettuce, Bok Choi
August 16 plant in the ground Spinach
October plant in the ground Garlic

*protect from heat
Plant cold hardy varieties of lettuce and spinach to extend your growing season into the winter. See chapter 6 of 'The Forgotten Skills of Self-Sufficiency used by the Mormon Pioneers' by Caleb Warnock for cold hardy variety recommendations.

How to Become a Member

If you would like to become a member of the Utah Seed Exchange you will need to:

1. Commit to learning and actively saving seeds, at least one new variety a year. You must test your seeds for purity by growing a few and matching them to the parent plant before you share them with anyone.

2. Become familiar with the concepts of seed saving. Please catch up with the information and classes that have been taught. They are listed under the 'Pages' section on the right. Go through the pages and read and watch the information.

3. You will need to own and reference 'Seed to Seed' by Suzanne Ashworth (amazon.com) and it is recommended that you own and read 'The Forgotten Skills of Self-Sufficiency used by the Mormon Pioneer' by Caleb Warnock which is a great book on seed saving in Utah.

When you have done these things, email me your request for membership at utahseedexchange@gmail.com and let me know that you have completed the requirements.