Howdy Folks,

August!  So humid…but I’ll take it anyday over the cold.  What rain in August brings to our farm is a sense of relief and of emergency.  The relief is obviously to break up the intense heat and water everything.  The emergency is that water gives life to the good and the bad.  So, with the influx of rain, we’re on the scout for big diseases getting a foothold in the crops.  

You’re all likely familiar with tomato diseases.  The simple way we keep disease off our tomatoes is by planting them under a layer of plastic.  That mostly keeps the tomato plants completely clean and free of disease. 

In the field it’s much more diverse and scary.  August isn’t the month of the year vegetable farmers are talking about free time.  So, when we see some disease somewhere, it can be very difficult to manage it.  One way we organic guys manage disease is to start harvesting right around the source.  We’ll go to where there are some discolored leaves in a bed and start picking hard right there.  Spots of beet leaves?  Pick right there first.  Just picking those leaves often times can slow or stop altogether a disease.

At this time of year, this is something I have to take very seriously.  Hot humid days and humid warm nights are perfect to spread disease.  It all can happen very quickly.

So, I’m off to do my rounds.  

I do want to mention a new-ish pest that you’re probably seeing in Pittsburgh.  The spotted lantern fly.  This is something that you should manage if you see them around.  They can be quite destructive.  Here is a link to some information and pictures.  click here

Your Farmers, 

Chris, Aeros and The Who Crew