Monroe County Master Gardener Association

by Gail K.
As is our usual–For our May meeting

DECISIONS DECISIONS DECSIONS
Bob Bransky a past member-who has been involved in a community garden project; arrives with his volkswagon loaded with a selection of vegetable and native plants. Some of his vegetables are heirloom tomato plants………….

Emoke & Jenny discuss the various tomato plants while Paul
& Joan talk over the native plant selection.

Looks like Emoke has made her decision— Tom ?? BLTs for lunch

Looks like Joan has her hands full and isn’t quite done yet and Paul still
hasn’t made his choice.

Jenny discusses with Bob on her selection.

By Gail K. & Jennie S.
In May–Jennie invited Marissa Schuh, from MSU; An expert for the Commercial Vegetable Growers in southwest MIchigan.

Her role is to educate small growers who produce for local fresh markets and large growers who supply large quantities of produce to major grocery chains (often through the Detroit Eastern Market,) and restaurants.

Our area is notable for growing large acreage of tomatoes for Red Gold, and large amounts of cabbage for fresh use and for processing into coleslaw and sauerkraut.

She helped conduct a research project at Tollgate on soil blocking vs plastic trays for starting tomatoes, she said the data did not support the idea that soil blocks produced higher yielding plants either in greenhouse “tunnels” or outdoors. Read more here: https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/impact-of-soil-blocks-on-yield-and-earliness-of-six-tomato-varieties

While it does reduce use of plastics, it requires more effort and management. A main point is the variety you choose will make more difference to the health and productivity of your tomato plants than any other factor. Heirloom varieties tend to be less predictable, and less disease resistant.
Her well-illustrated talk gave examples from Johnny’s catalog, which provides good information on disease resistance and other plant characteristics, recommending that gardeners learn which diseases are causing them problems and choose varieties with specific resistance to those.

She spoke on the Western Bean Cutworm, how it has moved into our area in very recent years and affects sweet corn. Most field corn is now produced from seed that has been genetically altered to produce the natural insecticide Bt, so there are far fewer corn borer and corn earworm moths than previously and growers of peppers and other vegetables can use less insecticide as a result of that. This newer worm is resistant to some “Bt” hybrids, thus able to multiply in field corn at present.
However, commercial sweet corn growers do not use genetically modified seed because the fresh market and major grocery chains will not accept it. They must continue to closely monitor insect development so they can spray at the right times to prevent egg-laying or to kill tiny emerging caterpillars before they burrow into the ears.

In closing, Marissa referenced a book and the MSU Enviroweather page for our area, where you can also monitor pest development, weather factors, etc. (Click on Vegetables, for example, in the bar at the top of the page.) https://enviroweather.msu.edu/weather.php?commodity=&stn=drf
JS & GK