Vegetables Gardening - Growing Organic Vegetables

What an inspiring story of learning and practicing the Mittleider Method of growing. I believe we have all benefited greatly from this method.
Rita

From: Jim Kennard
Sent: Sunday, October 28, 2012 4:34 PM
To: MittleiderMethodGardening@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [MittleiderMethodGardening] Mittleider Gardener in Perth, W Australia - Reports Great Garden & Has Questions


Hi Jim (and others):

I purchased several books from your organization a while back, inspired to do and learn more after I was given "More Food From Your Garden" (aka Mittleider Grow-Box Gardens - available as digital download & on Gardening Library CD - JK) by a friend about 7 years ago.

Friends and neighbors are AMAZED at my garden and wonder why I don't have to mulch, mulch, mulch to protect my plants from our ferocious summers! We live on a 5-acre property in the hills east of Perth, Western Australia's capital city. Our soil is classified as "gravelly loam" - it sets like concrete in summer but makes beautiful paths between grow beds! It is workable in winter.

We are lucky in Perth in that we are able to grow vegetables all year round due to our temperate (Mediterranean climate), but have to contend with summer temperatures in the 40s (Celsius, that is!) (I think that is well over 100F!). Winters are mild although we did endure a terribly frosty winter in 2010, which also saw our driest year on record with only 450mm of rain falling (about 18"), a far cry from our usual 850-900mm!

I have used a 75% sawdust/25% blow sand combination in my grow beds and have harvested the best peas and cabbages to date! I was unable to purchase a 16-16-16 NPK, so I ended up using what we already had, which was a 11.6% - 6% - 15% blend - probably not ideal, but it grew a great garden anyhow (probably will need to supplement with addl. phosphorus - JK). I added the other minerals in the proper amounts, however I was unable to purchase zinc and manganese as separate components and had to settle for a blend, so just added a total of 5 ounces of the blend to the mix.

My winter garden (just finishing now) produced the best crop of peas I have ever grown and several MONSTER cabbages (green and red) and leeks. My broad beens are ready now, too.

We rely on bore (well) water here as we are not connected to a municipal supply and our rainwater harvesting is only sufficient for household needs. However, we have excellent quality bore water with only 440 ppm total dissolved salts, which is pretty amazing as several of our neighbors have a serious salinity problem and have as much as 2400 ppm TDS!

We have a young orchard as well as an older established orchard (whose trees are now starting to struggle being nearly 30 years old!) (Feed those older trees and you may be surprised at how well they come back! - JK)

After reading the results on your (new and very nice!) website of a Queenslander using the mineral mix on his fruit trees, I will do the same for our new orchard as it was planted in 2009 (before our driest year) and even though we have harvested some nectarines and peaches last summer, many of the young trees are struggling. (When we originally planted this orchard out, we only used "organic" fertilizers - blood and bone, horse manure, volcanic rock minerals and an organic NPK, based on bat droppings, which only has percentages of NPK as follows: 5.4% - 2.5% - 3.9%, which seems terribly low.

We had a soil test performed in early 2009 by a laboratory and found that our soil was very deficient in calcium and many minerals. In fact, we had to apply 2 tonnes per hectare (sorry, I can't translate that one into imperial measure!!) to correct our acidic soil (5).

We planted out the orchard after the liming, but I still feel that there isn't enough food going to the new trees.

Are you able to recommend dosage rates of the mineral mix? (For feeding rates on trees look in the Files section of this mailto:mittleidermethodgardening%40yahoo.groups.com website under Feeding Trees & Shrubs - JK) It is a "fruit salad" orchard consisting of stone fruit (2 varieties of plum, 2 peach and 1 nectarine) an apple tree, 2 bay trees, 4 citrus trees (2 varieties of orange, 1 mandarin and 1 lime), a self-fertile almond and a pecan. (I think the latter is a wistful dream!).

The orchard is reticulated using drip irrigation and receives watering twice a week from late spring to early autumn using about 2,500-3,000 liters in total each time (approx 500-600 gallons). (Plants need water from the time they break dormancy in the spring until they go dormant again in late fall. Don't hurt them by stopping too soon. - JK)

My next question relates to using seed raising "cells" rather than "flats". I work in a nursery (conveniently located next door!) where we raise native plants for re-vegetation projects. (It is pleasing work, but I prefer growing food!!!) The cells we use are roughly 1" square and nearly 3" deep with drainage slits on 2 sides and open work bottom and come as a molded plastic tray with 64 cells per tray. We use a pine bark medium with added fertilizers suited to natives (low phosphorus requirements).

Could I use these same cell trays with the Mittleider seed raising mix (Yes you can! - JK) and if so, should I just mix the total amount and keep a-fillin' the trays until all is used up? (That is best. Make sure you apply the fertilizer mixes - Pre-Plant Mix only, at 2 oz/cu ft for seeds and both PP (same rate) & Weekly Feed, at 1 oz/cu ft for seedlings. - JK)

I have been purchasing seedlings from the nursery, but it is getting too expensive now that vegetable growing is popular again. They cost as much as $3.50 for a tray of 6 - 8 plants!!

My next question relates to strawberries. Can I use the Mittleider Method for growing strawberries? (Yes, 3 feedings for single-crop varieties, and two/three more for two-crop varieties - JK) I have a perennial bed about 5" x 6" (probably 5' X 6' - JK) and remove older plants as required once their new runners are established and the older plants no longer fruit. I feel that it could use a boost. It is planted in a mushroom compost/homemade compost mix, which I constantly have to top up, difficult because of the inter-connectedness of the plants.

My last question relates to the CDs for sale in your web shop. Are there any format specifics I need to know? I use both a Mac Notebook as well as a Windows laptop running XP (it used to have Vista on it until I found out I could replace it and go back to the excellent XP and therefore access the Garden Master CDs I purchased! (The new PDF version of the Mittleider Gardening Library CD works on all platforms. It also contains ALL 10 of Dr. Mittleider's books and all 9 manuals, and is searchable! It is a tremendous bargain, in my opinion - JK).

Thank you for your time - sorry I took up so much of it with my garden's life story!!! Whenever I feel dejected (and not just with my garden) I often pick up one of my Mittleider books and immediately feel better and more enthusiastic and inspired. I would love to be totally self-sufficient in vegetables, but I have so many other things I enjoy doing there just aren't enough hours in my day!
With kind regards,

Kerry Rowles





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