Produce

Today I got the opportunity to judge fresh and canned produce again. Today was the opening of the Greene County Fair in Xenia, Ohio. It was great to see our good friends Ed and Wilma again and their excellent committee.

Entries were down a bit but the quality was high, as usual. You could tell gardens were late or went unplanted this year but the savvy garders were right in there again with quality produce. The heat is taking its toll on these crops but the quality is still excellent.

I don't remember seeing zucchini in so many different forms! This venerable, unstoppable vegetable made its way into all kinds of canned foods! Potatoes and tomatoes took a hit this year but there were still some real good entries.

One lady cans everything under the sun and they keep reading her exhibitor number over and over. I don't look at the tag but it makes you want to look when you are judging and spread the wealth around a little! Then when they read a different number for first I wondered now did I really pick the best one?

Canned vegetables are difficult to judge without tasting but we couldn't taste every sample so color and presentation is about all you have to work with except size and uniformity of the vegetable. I look for damaged pieces and off colors first and always compare the rest of the class to the one I think is best.

I am pretty brain dead and tired when I get done but it's still fun. Teaching the committee what you are looking for is as much fun as watching them watch me and just talking back and forth. It's good for all of us and makes us all think.

Lots of fairs are losing their older exhibitors and it is good to see younger generations involved like the youth shows. I hope these traditions never end but I can see where they might.

Many Ohio fairs are commerating 150-160 years of exhibition and I hope we can keep them going a long while.

Ed

Positive

I am trying to be positive this morning and struggling with it. It's hot, sticky and we didn't get rain. We had to turn the TV off last night and take Sable for a swim.

I couldn't watch our so called leaders using Parliamentary Procedure to defend their undefendable positions about our debt crisis. I can't even describe how I feel about our situation without getting really frustrated.

This should have been handled a long time ago but it keeps getting passed down the line. Now with the slim majorities on both sides of the aisle nothing gets done because nothing is bipartisan and no one dares cross that line.

The two party system has really failed us but its mainly our own greed and the ignoring of basic economic laws; you can't spend more than you take in.

We moved more stocks into safety before the Dow started its expected tumble. If the country does default who knows what will happen. Our credit score is already damaged in my opinion no matter what happens now.

Oh Lord, It's Hard to be Humble, When You Are Perfect in Every Way has been the politicians theme song way too long.

I am afraid we are all going to get a big dose of humility for the lack of it from leaders. You and I can't do much about it but speak up and manage our own affaris.

I guess this long heat wave with no rain and nothing but doom and gloom has made me grumpy so I better focus on gratitude and enjoy every minute of it.

This morning that spells GRANDKIDS.

I leave you with a picture from a year ago which we did again yesterday. The heat took a toll on the flowers, too.

Ed

Heat

Everyone talks about the weather. It's probably the oldest, common discussion point. We sure have had plenty to talk about in my lifetime but you wonder if it was much different in anyone's lifetime over the centuries.

"The 'Heat Streak' is up to 12 days in row with temperatures in the 90s and we are destined to make it 13 today. Yesterday we climbed to 97 degrees officially and that tied for the hottest day of the year so far. Our average temperature this month is now at 80.7 degrees making it the 8th hottest July on record. A cool front and the chance for rain may help some, but only a little."

Columbus set a new record low high temperature of 77 degrees this week. We have had 2274 Growing Degree Days in Martinsville as of today. Growing degree days are calculated by subtracting a high of 86 from a low of 50 degrees, divide by two and add fifty. All of these 90 degree days are counted as a high of 86, more than the plant needs.

So plants have been in a defensive mode this month. This is when irrigators add water to crops to cool it down, especially when it doesn't rain like it hasn't recently. Cincinnati is only around one inch of rainfall this month.

One of the big questions is how corn is pollinating across the country. There has been everything to perfect kernal set to very poor. The crop is so short the traders want to know how good or bad it really is.

We knew planting all this late corn in Ohio was going to be a problem and it is. Lots of corn fields are just silking and ready to pollinate in this heat. Heat disturbs pollination.

The main thing is all of the crop needs a good drink around here. We have chances for showers today but they will be sporadic. Even Sable doesn't like the heat but she is so close to us she does pretty well, pretty much living like a human in this heat.

We tricked her the other night, a family brought their brown mixed Lab dog Dixie to swim at the lake and Sable is so intriguied with other dogs she followed Dixie out into the deep water where she had to paddle to keep her nose above water. Of course she wouldn't do that for us but she did to keep up with another dog. Dixie looks like a little seal swimming and Sable didn't do too bad for a Shepherd. Some Shepherd's won't get near the water.

The picture was taken a year ago today. The weather is in the news again so keep cool!

Ed

Counting Purple Soybean Flowers

I got lost hunting for fields this morning so I had to call LuAnn and Google a map for me. I was very near where I wanted to be but after many years of scouting that area I forgot exactly where it was.

No I don't use Street Pilot for scouting. I usually get copies of aerial maps with the field circled or highlighted and you hope they put the county roads on there so you can figure out where to go.

The primary job is to count soybean flowers and make sure they are all the same variety by description. This variety has purple flowers and tawny pubescence or reddish brown plant hairs in common language.

I was jealous of these non GMO beans but they looked like the ones I raised last year. They were dark black green, fairly tall but not too tall and loaded with flowers. The farmer had good weed control too for all the resistant weeds we have. His chemical program sure worked.

I hope they do better than mine did but they are related to the bean I had last year. That variety shucked all its pods in the heat and drought and the stems were blank 6 to 12 inches off the ground. I was not impressed with the yield.

That's the trouble with non GMO's today, most of the breeding investment is going to GMO's which farmers plant most. It's hard to find a good adapted variety that competes with the myriad of RR and LL varieties available.

I had mentioned to a chemical supplier the concern of glyphosate on soil and he sent me an email he received this morning pointing out everything I had mentioned to him and more. I have encouraged the National NoTill Conference to get some good speakers on the subject as there is a lot of confusion and unknowing out there that needs to be cleared up.

I was in a field yesterday that must have been sprayed with insecticide all season. It had the least bug holes in it I ever remember seeing. There was hardly a hole in a leaf in the whole field. If he didn't spray, he is really doing something right!

We are in our 12th consecutive day above 90 degrees and another 7 predicted which will more than break the record. We had so many last year I lost count. Cincinnati is saying 17 in a row is the record and we usually average 23? for the year? I need to check that out, my memory fails me if I don't take notes and who takes notes during the weather at lunch.

I don't know about you but I am tired of breaking records. It's been 7 years since our record breaking yields of 2004. I could sure use some more of that.

Keep cool,

Ed

Church

Working on LuAnn's church project of procuring donations for the Silent Auction for our Church Festival September 4 has made me think about the church lately. It's made me think of my religious training, and spirituality versus relgion which should go hand in hand to me.

There was only one universal church until the Reformation in the 16th century. In the 16th century, the followers of Martin Luther established the evangelical churches of Germany and Scandinavia. Reformed churches in Switzerland and France were established by John Calvin and more radical reformers such as Huldrych Zwingli. Thomas Cranmer reformed the Church of England and later John Knox established a more radical Calvinist communion in the Church of Scotland.

Life Magazine had an article on Origins and Divisions of Protestantism many decades ago. The flow chart of church origination since the Crucifixtion is very interesting. I remember asking a farmer I was working beside what the original church was and he quickly replied, why the Church of Christ, of course! That is where he worships and all he understood about religion which was fine to me, just not the truth as I understand it.

The Church of Christ didn't appear until this house was built in the 1880's and both happened in America. Although this house is old in modern standards that's 19 centuries after the Crucifixtion. There's a whole lot of history in 1900 years that is missing.

The Reformation started in 1517 when priest Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses on the church door in Wittenburg, Germany. The Disputation of Doctor Martin Luther on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences (now known as the 95 theses)[5][6] debated and criticized the Church and the Pope, concentrating upon the sale of indulgences, the doctrines of purgatory, and the authority of the Pope. Luther maintained that justification (salvation) was granted by faith alone, saying that good works and the sacraments were not necessary in order to be saved. Luther sent a copy of his challenges to his bishop, who in turn forwarded the theses to Rome.[7]

So all of the churches you see today besides the Catholic Church and the Synagogues started only 600 years ago or so.

I find that pretty interesting. Time to go scout fields so have a good day.

Ed Winkle

Feet

Yesterday we talked about plant health so today I thought we would discuss human health. I have told you I have been to more doctors this year than I ever have trying to keep myself going in the 60 plus group.

Yesterday I went to see my foot doctor to get some help for my aching feet. The X Rays showed plenty of arthritis going on there too but nerve endings and blood flow was good so he ended up trying an old trick of his of custom orthotics. This would cost you $500 or more at the Good Feet store and he does it for $25.

He cut two little circles about the size of a drinking glass bottom and put them where your middle toe bone meets that bone across the part you spring from. I felt instant comfort and relief and my gait straightened up. He also doubled my dose of Naprosen or Naproxen Sodium to get the swelling down.

We talked about family and travel and like us he hasn't been back to New York too often with our busy lives here. His oldest child, a boy is entering High School where our youngest lives and he said he had been studying Spanish and Chinese and should graduate from High School with 10 years of Spanish and 6 years of Chinese and he wants to be an engineer. I imagine he will be a prized find for a college and later an employer.

His younger daughter is a whiz kid too but he said she didn't like Chinese because it makes her head hurt. I understand that because when I went to China very few people on this planet are fluent in English and Chinese because each language uses a different hemisphere in the brain.

We got to talking about Drew Hastings and his run for Mayor of Hillsboro and shaking up the business as usual political scene. He said Drew said in one of his talks he was cutting his corn down and a farmer asked him why in the world he would do that and he answered, "Well you told me it had to be knee high by the fourth of July and it's taller than that."

Drew is a life long bachelor who doesn't like kids and he dated a Vegan from LA and after a deep passionate kiss she exclaimed, Ugh, you taste like meat! He said of course I taste like meat because I love meat and you taste like lettuce!

I judged another show at Owensville yesterday and that made my head hurt, too. It was hot by one o'clock and I was brain tired picking out the best plant specimens. Those lucky ducks got two inches of rain the day before and we got one tenth or so. It was so wet I was afraid I would get stuck in the grassed parking lot.

I have a friend who has thousands of acres of corn and soybeans in that area so he hit the jackpot. This morning we have a little fog from our shower, just enough to keep the crop alive in this heat.

So my advice this morning is if you are hurting somewhere, go find out more about it. Farmers are notorious for not going to the doctor before it's too late.

And, please pray for our country in our time of peril.

Ed

Plant Nutrition

We have been having discussions on Crop Talk about how to feed plants or Plant Nutrition. I have always taught healthy soil equals healthy plant, healthy plant equals healthy animals, healthy animals equals healthy humans. This is a very basic description of the cycle farmers face to produce food.

There are a million ways to do this from strict organic to spraying every week, from pure notill to full tillage and from dryland to irrigation. Since every soil and soil history is different we see different results and lots of lack of understanding of why we get what we get.

My friend John Haggard posted this in 2010 and it is a good review on how he applies his knowledge of plant nutrition to the farmers he consults for.

"North Central Ohio, across the Corn belt ! soil basics - how it works

1. The Symbiotic Decay-Nutrition Cycle

The soil works as a dynamic plant-growing system. Good soil is rich in organic matter and microbes that, together with the atmosphere, precipitation and sunshine, provide all the needed elements and conditions for strong plant growth.

Plants are known to need at least 16 elements to live, grow and reproduce (See Table 1). Recent research has shown that most plants also require very small amounts of nickel, and some plants require silicon. Like animals, plants need a certain balance of nutrients, not just the nitrogen (N), phosphate (P) and potassium (K) that we typically associate with plant foods. And like animals, plants need different amounts of the various nutrients at different life stages. How does the soil supply these nutrients in the right balance, and how can we improve soil properties to maximize plant health and vigor?

Table 1. Typical Elemental Plant Composition (%)

Oxygen
Magnesium
Carbon (from air)
Manganes
Hydrogen
Iron
Nitrogen
Zinc
Potassium
Chlorine
Calcium
Boron
Sulfur
Copper
Phosphorus

Molybdenum

In the real world of crop and pasture management, two things are very important to maintaining soil health, and therefore plant vitality: the decay cycle (by which organic matter is recycled to recover critical elements), and supplemental provision of nutrients, usually via some kind of fertilizer.

Decay of organic matter that enriches the soil is a cycle – there must be organic matter present to decay, and there must be microbes present to cause the decay. Organic matter, plants and microbes have a symbiotic relationship; organic matter enriches the physical attributes of the soil by holding water, warming appropriately but not baking in the sun as barren soil would, and providing a food source for the soil microbes. The microbes breakdown the organic matter and make elemental nutrients available to the plants. And the plants provide shade to prevent excessive soil warming (which would be detrimental to the microbes) and provide a continuous supply of organic matter through fallen leaves, dead grass blades, seed husks, etc. The addition of complex chemical and biological compounds to the soil via decay substantially enriches the physical, chemical and biochemical complexity of the soil and helps to maintain the proper pH (6.0 to 6.8) that allows for a healthy balance of microbial life. Use of a natural fertilizer such as the Bradfield products contributes to this provision of organic matter and nutrients.

This symbiotic development of a nutrient cycle results in healthy plants with deep, extensive root systems that are better able to absorb nutrients and water from the surrounding soil. Use of a straight chemical fertilizer interrupts this symbiotic cycle by 1) not contributing organic matter; 2) depressing natural fixation of nutrients by bacteria living in the soil and in nodules found on the roots of plants; 3) disrupting the balance of nutrients available to the plant (much as oversupply of one nutrient may disrupt absorption of another in animals); and 4) interrupting the normal progress of the decay cycle. Over time, this results in plants suffering from malnutrition and inadequate root development, thus increasing the need for extraneous provision of fertilizers.

Nutrient needs are relatively small at the beginning of a crop’s or pasture’s growth, then increase dramatically during peak vegetative growth and during seed production. If soil is healthy and the decay cycle is progressing normally, last year’s residues will be digested and their nutrients released and available to the plant at about the time the plant is approaching its peak needs. Anything that interrupts or slows the cycle can result in inadequate nutrition when the plant most needs it.

Healthy soils have far larger amounts of nutrient elements than crops need, but most of this total soil nutrient supply is unavailable to plants. Most of the nutrients in soil are initially “tied up”, their molecules chemically bound in mineral particles, or in the complex organic molecules in humus or the bodies of soil organisms.

These nutrients can be made available through natural processes: weathering, the action of precipitation and temperature changes; plant root release of acidic substances (hydrogen ions and organic acids); microbe release of acids and chelating substances; and microbial decay of organic matter. In a healthy, biologically active soil, these natural release mechanisms can often meet much of a plant’s nutrient needs. Indeed, natural nutrient release is one reason that biological farmers can reduce their fertilizer inputs after several years. Farmers using inorganic sources of fertilizer typically find that they must increase application rates year after year in order to sustain reasonable crop growth.

For optimal plant health and production, your soil needs sufficient organic matter (2 to 3% minimum), adequate moisture, a proper balance of all nutrients (not just N, P and K), and high biological activity in order to provide an appropriate balance of nutrients and encourage plants to have strong root systems by which to absorb these nutrients. Bradfield products act as a part of the symbiotic cycle to provide natural sources of nutrients in a base of organic matter to feed the soil, not just the plants!
References

Zimmer, Gary. 2006. Soil Basics: How It Works. Acres U.S.A.
www.answers.com/topic/CNO-cycle

Harrison, John Arthur. The Nitrogen Cycle: Of Microbes and Men.
www.visonlearning.com/library/module_viewer.php?mid=98&l=&c3


Soil Basics - How it Works

1. The Symbiotic Decay-Nutrition Cycle

2. Water Uptake

3. Ions, Nutrition and all that “Scary” Chemistry

4. Who are these Microbes, and what are they doing in my Soil?

Download Soil Basics - How it Works from Bradfield Organics® (Adobe Acrobat Required)"

I am posting this for my reviews and yours and as a reference for the future.

Have a great day,

Ed Winkle