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Fighting Fungus, Fungus Gnats, and Whitefly in Your Seedlings

 Starting plants indoors can certainly be more difficult that it sounds. The seedlings become your babies, of a sort, and no doubt you keep going to check on them. I find myself in a state of concern, wanting to water, then thinking I shouldn't have, and it goes around in circles. After a week of following some of the suggestions below, however, things seem to be well under control. To prevent damping off, where the stem rots near the soil, and other disease, watering must be kept to just as much as is really needed. Since the plants quickly develop a tap root which goes straight down, watering should be from below, letting the starting medium draw it up. Any water left in the tray after fifteen minutes should be poured out. The plants will be hydrated, and they should not be watered again until the soil is good and dry or the plants start to wilt. This will help to prevent fungus from growing and gnat larvae from developing. On the other hand, whitefly likes warm and dry condition...
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Spring '21: A Start on Our Land

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  We came to start laying out cardboard to kill the grass and make our life wonderful; we'd bought a 250 foot roll of corrugated paper, and who should be interested in it but the NonGrata Trio. (Can they read the Private Property sign?) Of course we will be planting food for them, but the cardboard is ours! At the left in the picture is the area we covered a few months ago. We put in some of our forest soil then and planted garlic and clover, and that has provided miniscule bits of green. That's ok; it is only March. The sticks on top are because we don't have a wood chipper yet, and we can't currently get a truckload down to the area. This trip we put in fava beans (broadbeans) and daikon radish--our goal at this time is to fix the soil. We'll be planting lots of beans to help turn the whitish silt into loam, and worms will feed on the daikon radish, leaving us castings. We ran out of time or we'd have covered the soil with cut weeds. Hopefully the clover will ...
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Biochar: Just Wow! And it is All But Free

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There are many warnings out there today. Keith St. John of Canadian Permaculture Legacy (YouTube) says we have only 55 years of topsoil remaining. High carbon levels in the air are causing disasters. But charcoal greatly accelerates what sunlight, water, and plants can do to build the soil and clean the air--to a wake up and pay attention degree! Perhaps you are aware of charcoal being used in cleaning up oil spills and post-hurricane cleanup. But do you know the amazing effect it can have on your garden, both in the short and long term? It can amend your soil as follows for 1,000 to 2,000 years! Forest fires, within reason, have been considered beneficial in the long run. Carbon is stabilized into the soil. Biochar harbors microbial life necessary for healthy plant growth in the same way coral does, in microscopic pathways for the absorption of water (it holds a lot!) and nutrients. Its water holding properties make it useful in sandy soil, preventing the draining away of nutrien...
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