2015 Seed2Need Year-End Report2

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    Now that the 2015 gardening season is coming to an end, I would like to take thisopportunity to thank you for your nancial support and to send you a year-end report so youcan see what your donation helped us accomplish.

    2015 was a ery productie year. !e e"panded the gardens #y 1$2 acre, had a record

    harest and we passed the %0,000 pound mark for the rst time. &wo graphs are proided#elow. &he rst graph shows our harest totals from 2010 - 2015. &he second compares our

    ma'or crops from 2012 -2015. &hanks to a long growing season, a good fruit crop and many

    generous property owners who donated land and allowed us to glean fruit from their

    orchards, this year(s harest was %0,0)* pounds...and the season is not oer yet. !e still

    hae seeral hundred pounds of #roccoli and cauli+ower to harest #etween now and

    &hanksgiing.

    What went well

    1. Long growing season: ur rst hard frost did not occur until the 1st week of

    Noem#er. &hat is appro"imately two weeks longer than usual.

    2. Increase in volunteer hours: esides eed2Need olunteers /andoal ounty

    aster ardeners and the general pu#lic3, we hosted nine 4agle scout pro'ects - three toplant the gardens, e to glean fruit and one to clean up the gardens at the end of

    season. In addition, we receied help from seeral orporate olunteer groups such as

    eads 6p 7andscaping and ara", three large church groups, #oy and girl scout troops,

    and students from os8ue chool and 9l#u8uer8ue 9cademy. !e sincerely appreciated

    the help.

    3. Squash bug Control: In 201*, we planted s8uash and cucum#ers twice and eery

    seedling was killed #y s8uash #ugs #efore it was 1: tall. In years past, we hae tried

    seeral ways to control s8uash #ugs - companion planting, trap crops, diatomaceous

    Seed2Need201!ear"#nd $e%ort

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    earth, pesticide - #ut nothing has worked. &his year, instead of trying to control the

    s8uash #ugs, we focused on preenting them from reaching the plants. !e coered all

    of the s8uash and cucum#ers with row coer and did not remoe it until the plants were

    full grown. f course, s8uash #ugs eentually moed in and killed the plants #ut not

    #efore we harested oer 1*,000 pounds of s8uash and cucum#ers.

    In 201;, we plan to take this one step further. In 1, the second garden

    should #e ready to harest.

    *. &erbicide da'age.In 201*, we spread manure on one garden and the plant growth in

    that garden showed signs of her#icide damage. !e sent plant samples to N6 and

    they conrmed our suspicions. ?urther research pointed to her#icide damage caused #y

    using manure from animals that ate hay harested o= of a pasture treated with a #road

    leaf her#icide such as picloram, clopyralid and aminopyralid. ?or more information see

    http@$$www.ces.ncsu.edu$+etcher$programs$ncorganic$special-

    pu#s$her#icideAcarryoer.pdf

    9n article pu#lished #y lemson 6niersity reported that spreading actiated charcoal on

    a contaminated eld would deactiate the her#icide so this spring we spread actiated

    charcoal on this garden and it seemed to work. !e had ery few plants that showed

    signs of her#icide damage. &he ones that did were on the outside edges of the garden

    so it is likely that we simply missed a few spots.

    http@$$www.clemson.edu$e"tension$horticulture$turf$pestAguidelines$pesticideAdeactiatio

    n.html

    What did not go well ( New learning o%%ortunities

    1. )o'ato Si*e(&arvest. Bespite haing a longer growing season and a record oerall

    harest, the 2015 tomato crop was disappointing. ur total tomato harest wasappro"imately )0C less than in 201) and 201*, the tomatoes were smaller and there

    were fewer tomatoes on the ines. 9t this point, the cause is unknown. Dotential

    causes and solutions will #e researched this winter...a new learning opportunity.

    +re%arations ,or 201-

    ?or eed2Need olunteers, this pro'ect has #ecome a year-round endeaor. !e hae a

    young 4agle scout candidate and his team of olunteers coming Noem#er 1* to clean up

    the gardens and put e8uipment away for the winter. !e start ordering seed and gardening

    supplies in

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    !e will #e looking forward to another record

    #reaking garden season in 201;.

    est wishes for a 'oyful holiday season,

    &he oard of Birectors and the olunteers of

    eed2Need