March 2013 – Nu Trac

cuddling a peach tree

I have 2 peach trees and last year their blossoms were freeze damaged and I had no fruit. I really shouldn’t have any peach trees because they are difficult to produce fruit using organic methods and they blossom very early in the spring. But Georgia is known as the “Peach state” and Peachtree is a very popular street name in Georgia, and the Peachtree 10K Road Race is the world’s largest 10k race (I have run it 20 times), so my enthusiasm got the better of prudence.

Freeze damage occurs differently based on the type of fruit tree and its stage of development. For the peach at first bloom stage, where is where my one tree is, 10% of the blossoms will be destroyed at 26 deg F and 90% at 21 deg F. My second tree is at the first calyx red stage where the relevant temperatures are 23 deg F and 9 deg F, so I was not too worried about it. I decided that if I do not get any peaches this year I will replace the peach trees. With this ultimatum issued, I feel I have to do my best to help them along. With freeze warnings in place for most of the past week, I took the initiative and wrapped my most vulnerable tree with Agribon row covers which give about 6 deg F protection. I have never wrapped a tree before. Rather than web the technique, I decided to try figure it out myself. The covers are 7 ft wide so I took covers from my raised bed and wrapped them round the tree.

my first attempt was amateurish, I wrapped the tree and hoped for the best

The wind was gusting >15mph and in a very short time the covers were undone and the tree looked like a weird ghost with flapping garments. So I decided to be more deliberate. I pruned off the taller branches and with a rope belted the limbs closer together.

the yellow roped served as a belt or girdle to pull in the tree's waistline — the yellow rope served as a belt or girdle to pull in the tree’s waistline

I again wrapped the tree in row covers and added two encircling ropes to hold them in place.

I thought this would do it, but the wind increased in intensity and was persistent. So I remembered I had several bulldog clips on hand and used them to secure the loose ends of the covers together.

bulldog clip securing loose ends of the covers

This seemed to do the trick and the covers stayed pretty much in place. Now, with no freeze forecast for next week I removed the covers to inspect the damage. All the blossoms were ok except for a few at the extremities which probably had poked through the covers.

a damaged blossom, the ones below are ok

And interestingly, a budding leaf also appeared partly damaged.

the tips of the leaf bud are also damaged

Beats me why the peach tree insists on producing blossoms first and then leaves while with most of my other trees it is the other way round. So, for now, the peach blossoms are ok. But as I consult my notes from last year I see there was a late frost in April which wiped out the blossoms of both peach trees.

Is meat good for you? – the Finnish debate and Mummies

An examination of post mortem records of Finnish hospitals before and after the 2^nd World War shows that deaths from heart disease declined significantly during the war years. Some researchers have concluded that the decrease was because of reduced consumption of fats (meat, eggs, dairy and butter) as a result of shortages during the war years. Apparently deaths from atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) did not decline as much in the United States and this is attributed to more severe food shortages in Europe than in America. This trend was also observed in the Scandinavian countries. See this link -http://www.epi.umn.edu/cvdepi/slider_morta.swf . A full blown analysis is available at http://healthylongevity.blogspot.com/2012/08/forks-over-knives-and-healthy-longevity.html.

Correlation does not mean cause. Subscribers to the Paleolithic diet, also referred to as the hunter-gatherer diet, take an opposite tack and believer that a large intake of meat and fish is good for you. Their meat and fish is not purchased in a supermarket but taken directly from nature. A hunter acquaintance said he will only eat meat he has personally killed/”harvested” since only then does he know what he is eating. He also avoids most fish.

Now to complicate matters a new study released in March 2013 suggests there was atherosclerosis in mummies from 5,000 years ago. This has produced a slew of differing interpretations. A friend, who is not against junk food, argues that these findings show that junk food is not the cause of artery hardening since junk foods were not around 5,000 years ago. Another argument is that hardening of the arteries is a natural aging process influenced perhaps, but not significantly, by nutrition. To further confuse matters the mummies which were analyzed came from different parts of the world where some were hunter-gatherers who ate a lot of fatty meats, and others were from agricultural societies where they ate grains as well as domesticated animals.

This stuff is complex (as opposed to complicated, which means you can eventually figure it out) and, as with the debate on global warming, the experts are not definitive. The best they can offer is the palliative that exercise, avoiding tobacco, and eating healthy will all help to reduce heart disease.

locating a buried 4″ drainage pipe

About 20 years ago I dug a 100 ft trench for a 4″ drain pipe, which led from a concave area of the yard where the rainwater gathered, to a nearby creek. Over the years I planted many trees and shrubs in this area. The pipe worked well until the past few months when it completely ceased functioning. With downpours seemingly more intense than ever, I decided I had to fix the problem.

I have a 50 ft plumber’s snake and I inserted it in the hole and it moved along easily for 45 ft and then hit a blockage. I pulled the snake and inserted a contractor grade hose to the blockage and turned on the faucet thinking/hoping the water pressure would clear the blockage. To no avail, even after several days attempts. I concluded I should dig up and replace the blocked section of the pipe.

plumber's snake and damaged pipe — plumber’s snake at top and the blocked pipe. section on left had completely collapsed and section on right was a few feet further downline and was partially collapsed, all from roots of the same tree

Problem was I didn’t know exactly where the pipe ran under the ground since, over the past 2 decades the landscape had changed. I tried digging a 5ft trench perpendicular to the supposed run of the pipe, but did not find it. The pipe is about 1 ft underground and digging a 1ft deep trench should not take much effort or time. Problem is the whole area is interlaced with the roots of good trees including a Japanese maple, Harry Lauder’s walking stick, and other worth preserving species. Plus some pretty thick pine roots as well.

How to locate the underground pipe? Plumbers use a transmitter on their underground probes, but they are expensive for a one time use. I googled personal locator devices and saw there are two options for the absent minded – with the cheaper device you attach a transmitter to your keys or other often lost items (not a cell phone because you just dial your # and it will ring) and, when lost, you press a button on the locator and the transmitter will flash and make a noise and you should find it. This wouldn’t work for an underground scenario. So I had to spring for the more expensive device (loc8tor lite) which has red and green directional lights on the locator as well as a beeper. You press the button, the locator calls the transmitter, the transmitter responds and then, with the locator in your hand you do a little circle and when you are nearer to the location of the transmitter, the locator becomes excited and even more excited with red and green lights glowing and noisier as you get nearer to the transmitter.

the locator is credit card sized and the transmitter on the left much smaller and worked for locating buried pipe — the locator is credit card sized and the transmitter on the left much smaller

I placed the transmitter in a secure waterproof container (actually an old cylindrical 35mm film container) secured it with duct tape to the end of the plumber’s snake and sent it down the pipe. Initially my locator failed completely to detect the transmitter. So I figured its range must be limited when the transmitter is underground and to ensure I had the locator as close as possible to the position of the transmitter, I pushed the snake exactly 10 ft down the hole and measured exactly 10ft ground distance and, after removing some topsoil, I was able to locate the transmitter when it was directly below the locator separated by about 8″ of soil. The cheerful chirping and flashing green lights after hours of fruitless work was recompense enough. From there on it was easy going – measure out 10 ft distance on the ground, advance the snake 10 ft, clear the soil and the magical beeping and light flashing re-commenced. And so I continued until I located the blockage which was about 10 ft away from where I had thought the pipe ran and also much deeper than I had imagined. A worthwhile $68 investment and no doubt it will be handy for locating my often lost keys.

the traditional Okinawan diet and the sweet potato

My root crops (carrots, turnips and beets) are growing better as my soil has improved with time and I am now planning for the sweet potato. There are several vogue diets circulating – the Mediterranean diet; the Esselstyn vegan diet I posted a few weeks ago, and the new Nordic diet (a free Coursera MOOC starts September 2013). So why go back in time to the traditional Okinawan diet with its reliance on the sweet potato?

I was pointed to the Journal of the American College of Nutrition 2009 article titled: “The Okinawan Diet: Health Implications of a Low-Calorie, Nutrient-Dense, Antioxidant-Rich Dietary Pattern Low in
Glycemic Load”. The title tells you much about the diet. Okinawa is a prefecture of Japan whose residents are very long lived and this is attributed to their healthy life style including their traditional diet. The authors compare this diet with the traditional Mediterranean diet and DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) and note that the traditional Okinawan diet is lowest in fat intake and highest in carbohydrate intake especially of orange-yellow root vegetables primarily the sweet potato, which is also antioxidant rich, and green leafy vegetables.

You probably notice “traditional” surfacing a lot – the authors note that changes in the diet since World War II have been for the worse with younger Okinawans now more prone to obesity and other chronic diseases than older Japanese. A helpful chart shows that in 1949 almost 60% of the calories were from the sweet potato with about 13% from rice and 0% from bread. In 1972 less than 5% was from the sweet potato. Other features of the traditional Okinawan diet are lots of vegetables and legumes (mostly soy); some fish; little meat and dairy, and some alcohol (phew!). The emphasis is on low GI carbohydrates – the sweet potato has a GI of 55 compared with 75 for the Yam and 90 for the Irish potato. The article details other functional components of the traditional diet.

So I was pointed, I read, I converted and have now placed an order for 36 Southern sweet potato slips to be delivered and planted in April.

Down Under takes a stand – almost

Hurricane Sandy late last year hammered the northeast. I read the articles and listened carefully to NPR for a consensus from the scientific community attributing the cause of the hurricane to global warming (I use “global warming” and “climate change” interchangeably). There was no consensus nor did I hear a scientific expert unequivocally say that global warming caused Hurricane Sandy. No shortage of laypeople expressing their views, including Mayor Bloomberg, but it seemed the scientific community was silent.

While there is agreement that the climate is changing and that man has a lot to do with this, only generalities have been offered as to the impact of all this on the weather. Weather is the short term state of the atmosphere, while climate describes the typical or average atmospheric conditions.

It really is important for the scientific community to determine if the droughts in the mid-west and the severe storms we are bearing are caused by human activity. If the droughts persist, and once the reservoirs have been drained, prime farmland will no longer be good for growing food and there will be huge loss in asset values and food shortages. I view this not emotionally but pragmatically – if human activity is causing massive degradation in our environment which will seriously impact us, then the experts must expedite their research and step up and say so.

So I was very interested to read in the NYT yesterday that “Report Blames Climate Change for Extremes in Australia” (March 5, 2013: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/05/world/asia/australian-government-blames-climate-change-for-angry-summer.html?_r=0).

The Australian summer over the past few months has been brutal. On almost every weekly chat with my Mom, who lives in Perth, the temperature was mentioned. Many days it was in the low to mid- 40’s Celsius (for comparison 43 degrees Celsius equates to 109 degrees Fahrenheit). This is truly HOT!

The report, issued by the Climate Commission (per the NYT “an independent panel of experts that issues reports on behalf of the government but is not subject to its direction or oversight”) is titled “The Angry Summer”. It includes a slide which has catchy titles: “Hottest January on record”, “Hottest Summer on Record”, “Hottest Day on record for Australia as a whole” etc. A quick reading of the NYT article leads you to think that the Commission was saying that climate change caused the record setting temperatures and bush fires. That is a problem with quick readings since you tend to merge the quotes from interviews with quotes from the report. The interview quotes had good stuff such as the probability the heat was caused by natural events is 500:1 and “Not too many people would want to put their life savings on a 500-to-1 horse” or an analogy that the climate is like an athlete on steroids. Persuasive images, but not in the report.

The report’s wording is more cautious such as: “All weather, including extreme weather events, is influenced by climate change” and “It is highly likely that extreme hot weather will become even more frequent and severe in Australia and around the globe over the coming decades” and, finally as to causation “The decisions we make this decade will largely determine the severity of climate change and its influence on extreme events for our grandchildren”.

“Influenced by”, “Highly likely” and “Largely determine” are hardly words which will catalyze action. But still, a step in the right direction.

raised beds for growing vegetables

One of my takeaways from the recent GO conference (see two previous posts) is that a raised bed can be constructed from untreated pine and will last a number of years. I have previously constructed my raised beds from composite decking planks.

an example of a raised deck from composites. the wooden planks in the middle support the row cover, when needed

On the first day of the conference we visited local farms and the small farm I visited was on 2.5 acres of mainly granite and therefore made extensive use of raised beds. The composite decking planks I used for my raised beds cost $21.97 for 1.25″x6″x12′ or 30.5cents per sq inch. I had not thought to use untreated pine for raised beds since I thought it would rot within a few years. The farm we visited, which provides for 40 CSA customers, has been using the same untreated pine for raised beds for 8 years. The cost of untreated pine is $11.71 for 2″x10″x12′ or 9.8c per sq inch. So the cost of constructing a raised bed with untreated pine is less than 1/3 the cost of a raised bed with composite materials. And if my raised bed will last even 5 to 6 years I will be very happy.

the composite raised bed half of which serves as a simple cold frame — a one tier composite raised bed half of which serves as a simple cold frame

As a trial I purchased 2 10″by 12′ lengths and had the store cut each 12′ length into an 8′ and 4′ piece. I also bought a 2″x2″x8′ stud for joining the corners. It was quick work to construct the raised bed.

new raised bed constructed from untreated pine with steel rods buttressing the middles of the sides

Since the raised bed is on sloping ground and I wanted it reasonably level I had two choices. I could dig the higher side into the ground or raise the lower side. Since I wanted to reduce earth contact as much as possible (to minimize rotting), I decided to raise the lower side of the raised bed by placing it on surplus bricks. The raised bed is reasonably level now. I pinned the corners of the raised bed using 2.5″ weather resistant screws and also buttressed the sides with scrap iron rods hammered vertically into the ground. I filled the raised bed with soil which previously covered rotted logs so it is rich in organic materials. And then I added a wheel barrow of compost to the top and forked it in. The raised bed is now ready for its first occupants and after the next rains, when it has settled, I will seed with root plants (carrots, turnips and beets) interspersed with my favorite kale seedlings.

new raised bed showing bricks supporting the lower side