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More bees, Less Disease–splits might be the way to go

Posted July 19, 2016 by Peter Brezny

A concise and informative article from Bee Culture magazine on using splits to help manage varroa:
http://www.beeculture.com/splits-varroa-more-colonies-fewer-mites-new-queens-what-could-be-better/

 

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Who wants to go to the conference for free? OGS i Who wants to go to the conference for free?

OGS is looking for Work Trades! 

Info and Signup here:
https://organicgrowersschool.org/conferences/spring/work-trade/
Who doesn't love 100 year old, functional tech?... Who doesn't love 100 year old, functional tech?...

#oldschool #farmlife
Everything I learned about growing open pollinated Everything I learned about growing open pollinated sweet corn for seed this year.

0. Biological farming is all you need in your 'fertility management' scheme. In this case, beans and squash interplanted with the corn in a single application of heavy, top-dressed, compost , no-till plot did it all.

1. Everything eats sweet corn. Have your critter defences (in field and at drying station) ready from the start.

2. Plant Early--sweet corn takes _an eternity_ to dry before shelling (while everything still wants to eat it...seriously, from ground hogs to house wrens!).

3. Dense planting won't let your beans or squash produce much of a crop (in this case, 30" row spacing and 6" plant spacing for the corn).

4. When in doubt, experiment! To my surprise, younger, yellow, dry kernels germinated just as well as the harder (more cured/older), orange kernels. If you've reached 'black layer' apparently it will germinate. As you might expect, kernels still soft have poor germination, and I imagine the potential to spoil your seed stock. Worth culling those when shelling. Taking the time to do my own germination test really helped insure I delivered a quality batch of seed.

Thanks to @sowtrueseed for trusting us with their sweet corn grow out again this year, @cngfarming for the growing community of dedicated, naturally grown farmers who provide so much support and knowledge transfer, @organicgrowersschool and @carolinafarms for all the regional work they do supporting farms in the South East.
There's so much beauty on a farm. Sometimes I ge There's so much beauty on a farm. 

Sometimes I get overwhelmed by the elegant simplicity of nature and her grand scheme (plants exhale oxygen, animals exhale carbon dioxide). Just let that sink in...

And all that expressed in such intricate, diverse, and outright beautiful structures among plants and fungi. 

Our home, this planet, is out of balance right now, but it will come back into harmony, if we just step back, slow down, and re-integrate ourselves into the way of nature.
It's that time y'all. Getting the garlic bed's pre It's that time y'all. Getting the garlic bed's prepped!
September is for Seed Saving. Open pollinated see September is for Seed Saving.

Open pollinated seeds saved from your farm/garden will have, over time, genetics tuned for your soil and ecological region. 
Sometimes we forget that life is continually evolving all around us. 
Every flower represents an opportunity for adaptation, every seed, a living time capsule ready to feel the sun and feed the soil.

#seedsaving #farm #knowyourfarmerknowyourfood
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