2015 Seed2Need Year-End Report2
Transcript of 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