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[Beekissed]

Looked up the scab and found info that said it was less likely in acidic soils and leaves should produce that, so wondering why leaves would be thought to contribute? We have really acid soil here and have never seen this potato scab...had to look it up. We rarely rotate crops either.

Do you have a source on the info about leaves causing scab? I'm about to place a huge quantity of leaves on the garden and it would be interesting to see the outcome at harvest time and if it shows any scab as a result.

http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/factsheets/Potato_Scab.htm

Have you watched that BTE vid? That fella never rotates crops...never needs to. Would be interesting to see what would happen if you get your BTE established well and then followed suit.

 

[Beekissed]

Oh yes, it was fresh manure! I just mixed it up with the leaves and limed it to make up for my uncomposted manure. I paid the kids across the street $20 to bring me all the leaves they were raking up next door to me. They thought they died and went to heaven. They got paid to rake them up and they got paid to deliver them to me!

After I harvested the new potatoes, I planted sweet potatoes and got another great harvest.

Could have been the fresh manure and the lime...the info I'm finding all list both of these things as causing increase in scab. Nothing about leaves though, other than saying more organic matter and more acidic soils seems to prevent scab.

 

[thistlebloom]

Bee, you are correct. I went back and looked up most of what I had previously read and found a lot of references to streptomyces scabies being present on fallen leaves. My little brain made the leap to FALLen leaves, and didn't link the fallen leaves to meaning POTATO leaves. Click! The light went on!
How embarrassing. I spend so much of my work time dealing with tree leaves that have fallen off the tree that that is what my first impression is.
I will go back and put an edit note on my formerly unenlightened comments!

 

[ninnymary]

Bee, you are correct. I went back and looked up most of what I had previously read and found a lot of references to streptomyces scabies being present on fallen leaves. My little brain made the leap to FALLen leaves, and didn't link the fallen leaves to meaning POTATO leaves. Click! The light went on!
How embarrassing. I spend so much of my work time dealing with tree leaves that have fallen off the tree that that is what my first impression is.
I will go back and put an edit note on my formerly unenlightened comments!

It's all those bags of leaves Beekissed has picked up that has us thinking FALL LEAVES. I know leaves is all that is in my mind right now! (insert a smiley of falling leaves here)

Mary

 

[Beekissed]

Planted another row of taters today, mounded up with grass clippings, shredded leaves, and wood chips. All 13 bags of leaves and lawn clippings collected the first day of scavenging for leaves have been deposited on the garden.

Tomorrow I go after more, this time taking the utility trailer along. I stored the other 50 bags at my son's house and will bring them home tomorrow as well as also driving through town collecting what I can find. I had prayed about all the fall leaves and how in the world I could get them onto the garden when my back just screams at the act of raking~can wrestle logs of 100- 200 lbs up to the splitter all day, but raking just tears me up.

Well...He answered like He always does. In ABUNDANCE!!!!! Running over, pressed down, heaped up abundance. I've been walking around in a golden haze since receiving this blessing, can't wipe the smile off my face! Just going through my day thanking the Lord, over and over.

Funny thing, a few of the folks told me that many people are collecting leaves this year...I'm wondering if a lot more people are trying this BTE method. They told me one guy is collecting leaves to cover a 2 acre garden! He's driving from over 35 miles away to get these leaves. I'm driving 20 miles myself, so I don't find it too amazing...these are like spun gold for a composting garden.

 

[baymule]

Ask and ye shall receive.

 

[baymule]

Do you remember what kind of leaves they were?

A mix of oak, pecan, pine, poplar, magnolia and a couple of others.

 

[Beekissed]

Ask and ye shall receive.

And receive and receive and receive.....

...total count on bags of leaves and lawn clippings~but mostly leaves, pine needles, twigs, flower trimmings, etc.~is 181....and counting. I plan to go out for more, if the Lord wills it, the next few days and maybe more next week as well.

The garden currently looks like I'm starting a landfill and the coop is mounded high with leaves. It was a beautiful sunny day with amazing clouds and gorgeous sky, balmy weather in the 70s-80s...in November!

I was thanking the Lord all day long...for the beauty around me, the lovely weather, for my good son, Eli, who helped me today, for a truck and trailer and the abundance of leaves. We made three trips today to town~60 mi. total for those~and each stop for leaves were on a single block of residential area.

First stop netted us all we could pack onto the truck and trailer, mounded high, at three houses on that block. The next stop, in a different area, two houses loaded us up again. The next stop was around the corner from my son's house, where we had stored all those bags the other day, but we made a stop before we got there that filled the truck and trailer almost full, so we topped it off from some of those stored at Joel's house(still some left to get) and made that our last trip. So...not a lot of driving around with little stops here and there for a few bags, but very few stops for MANY bags...all of these today were leaves, leaves and more leaves. HUGE bags all. The pin oaks are currently dropping their leaves, so these were mostly oak, not that I care...it all composts.

Three of these places said to stop by in a week and they'd have even more for us! And I'll do it, if the Lord is willing for me to do so.

It was a good day and I thanked the Lord all day long!

Garden gold!!!!

 

[ninnymary]

Love hearing about all your blessings Bee! I want to see pictures! Not that I don't believe you.

Mary

 

[Beekissed]

You will definitely see some pics on this story, Miss Mary. It's too enormous to not take pics of it all, even though some of the bags are stored in the shed and more have been emptied into the coop, and still more have already been deposited onto the garden....there will still be a sufficient amount for you to get the picture, so to speak.

I'll also take pics when they have all been emptied and spread out on the garden...it should be quite a sight! And, I'll still be collecting as many times as I can, as this bounty won't last for long.

It's staggering to realize how many bags of leaves are heading to landfills all over this country right now and what a horrible, horrible waste that is. God meant for those to nourish the trees and to be used in just this way(gardens), I imagine, so it's just another sign of how far this country has fallen away from all that it normal and natural, and how incredibly wasteful it has all become.