{"id":5188,"date":"2015-04-27T09:47:13","date_gmt":"2015-04-27T09:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/happychildcsa.com\/froghollowCSA\/?p=5188"},"modified":"2016-04-08T09:48:20","modified_gmt":"2016-04-08T09:48:20","slug":"a-note-from-farmer-al-april-27th","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/happychildcsa.com\/froghollowCSA\/a-note-from-farmer-al-april-27th\/","title":{"rendered":"A note from farmer Al : April 27th"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>A NOTE FROM FARMER AL<\/h3>\r\nDear CSA Members,\r\n\r\nSometimes things actually do work out just the way we hoped for! Last week\u00a0was like that.\r\n\r\nFirst, the tomato planting: we prepared the ground by applying a thin band of\u00a0compost right down each row where tomatoes are to be planted. This compost\u00a0band, 18\u201d wide and 1\u20442\u201d thick, will inoculate the soil with bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and other beneficial microbes which will provide nutrient cycling to the\u00a0tomatoes. Then, on Friday, we drenched these compost bands with compost\u00a0tea, further amplifying the microbial population. We then installed drip tubing\u00a0to moisten the compost and carry the microbes into the soil. So the rain that\u00a0fell Friday night enhanced all of this work just perfectly.\r\n\r\nSecondly, the issue of mildew is always looming on the weather horizon\u00a0this time of year. For Powdery Mildew (it affects peaches, nectarines, plums,\u00a0apricots, and grapes: it grows on the skin\u2019s surface, leaving unsightly cosmetic\u00a0scars!) dry, windy conditions, which we\u2019ve had all this past week, accelerate the\u00a0growth of powdery mildew; rain, actually destroys it. A good rain, like we had\u00a0last Friday night, is more effective at controlling Powdery Mildew than sulfur\u00a0sprays, which are costly and time consuming. Thanks again, for this timely\u00a0rain!\r\n\r\nThirdly, the dust problem: dust on the leaves is the perfect habitat for mites.\u00a0Mites can defoliate trees if they get established. So this rain washed the dust\u00a0off all our leaves, thus destroying the mites\u2019 habitat and again saving us all of\u00a0the control costs.\r\n\r\nFourthly, compost was spread in about 30 acres of trees this past week. So this\u00a0rain was perfect: not only did it enliven and transplant the microbes down\u00a0into the soil: it also washed the compost dust off the leaves, thus cleaning the\u00a0leaves and eliminating habitat for those deadly mites.\r\n\r\nFinally, drought is the dark cloud\u00a0hanging over all farmers in California, and every storm counts.\r\n\r\nSo, yes, we here at Frog Hollow Farm are very grateful for this latest gift of rain!\r\n\r\nBest,\r\n\r\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Signature of Farmer Al\" src=\"http:\/\/happychildcsa.com\/assets\/FarmerAlSig.gif\" width=\"250\" \/>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A NOTE FROM FARMER AL Dear CSA Members, Sometimes things actually do work out just the way we hoped for! Last week\u00a0was like that. First, the tomato planting: we prepared the ground by applying a thin band of\u00a0compost right down each row where tomatoes are to be planted. This compost\u00a0band, 18\u201d wide and 1\u20442\u201d thick, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-note-from-farmer-al"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5HwAU-1lG","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/happychildcsa.com\/froghollowCSA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/happychildcsa.com\/froghollowCSA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/happychildcsa.com\/froghollowCSA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/happychildcsa.com\/froghollowCSA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/happychildcsa.com\/froghollowCSA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5188"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/happychildcsa.com\/froghollowCSA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5190,"href":"https:\/\/happychildcsa.com\/froghollowCSA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5188\/revisions\/5190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/happychildcsa.com\/froghollowCSA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/happychildcsa.com\/froghollowCSA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/happychildcsa.com\/froghollowCSA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}