Mittleider Gardening Magic – Fertilizing Advice and Tips for Your Vegetable Garden

Welcome to Mittleider Gardening Magic advice and tips! I’m excited to be sharing the wisdom of “the world’s greatest vegetable gardener.”

I’ve been a Mittleider gardener ever since the mid 70’s when Jacob Mittleider moved about a mile from my home, and I became his student – patterning my own garden after his prolific backyard masterpiece.

We became friends as I worked with him over the years, and after assisting him on a major teaching project in Russia in 1993, I continued working with him on other projects. And finally in 1998, after more than 20 years of study and work under Jacob’s tutelage, I was given the responsibility and privilege of carrying on his work. I accepted this full-time non-paying job with the proviso that he would continue to stay involved and answer any and all questions, to which he readily agreed, since gardening was his life’s greatest love (just ask his wife, Mildred). Sadly, Jacob died just one month after his 88th birthday, on May 23, 2006. Therefore anything you need to know that Jacob hasn’t already taught me, I will research from his prolific writings.

So, just who is Jacob Mittleider, and what’s his Method all about? You may have seen a neighbor’s beautiful and highly productive Mittleider vegetable garden, and wished yours looked and produced like that. Or perhaps you’ve heard of the great work he’s done around the world. Maybe you even have one of his books and have experimented with growing your own vegetable garden this way. If so, then you may know Jacob’s history, but for those who don’t know him let me tell you very briefly why he’s so famous, and why he promises you a “great garden in any soil and in any climate.”.

For the past 43 years Dr. Jacob Mittleider has quietly and without fanfare dramatically improved the lives of multiplied thousands of people, and even changed the economies of countries, by teaching people how to better feed their families by growing healthy and highly productive vegetable crops – both personally and commercially. He has created 75 teaching and demonstration projects in 27 countries – and has documented his experiences and the great lessons he learned in 10 books, 9 manuals, and 86 video lectures.

To help tell the world’s families about this great gardening method, we have established a 501©(3) Public Charitable Foundation, and created a website at http://www.foodforeveryone.org, with a section for free Gardening Techniques and one for frequently asked questions (FAQ’s). The Mittleider Gardening Basics book is there for you free, with Dr. Mittleider’s best wishes for gardening success. There is also a page where you can buy any or all of his books and CD’s, as well as his Mittleider Magic natural mineral fertilizers, also known as “the poor man’s hydroponic mix,” because it is a scientifically balanced and complete plant nutrient mix.

So much for introductions! Let’s get down to learning about growing better vegetable gardens, shall we?

What problems or questions do you have? I will teach you the principles of successful gardening, but I also want to resolve any concerns you may have. There are many conflicting ideas, methods, and procedures out there, and we will do our best to give you factual “works every time” advice and counsel. A few topics we’ll discuss, about which you might have some concern, include:

1. “My soil is terrible, and nothing will grow. What must I do with my soil so that it will grow a good garden?”

2. “I hear that chemicals are poisoning our waterways, and that organic growing is much healthier, how do I grow a healthy, productive garden without hurting the environment?”

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3. “It seems like so much labor-intensive work, with little reward. Is there a way to have a garden that makes financial sense?”

4. “Weeds just take over our garden, and the vegetables don’t really have a chance. What’s the answer?”

5. “Bugs, diseases, and critters get most of our produce! It’s hardly worth growing for the little bit we manage to save – what can we do to minimize our losses?”

6. “We want to be self-sufficient in food, but we’ve heard it would take 2 ½ acres in order to be truly self/sufficient. We live on a 1/3-acre lot – what practical chance do we have to accomplish that?”

7. “I hear using hybrid plants will only make us dependent on the big seed companies, and I want to use heirlooms, so I can save the seed and be assured I’ll always be able to have good plants, is this something I can do, and how do I do it?”

Exciting stuff, don’t you agree? Join me for real, practical advice and answers to the hard gardening questions. You may also pose your own questions, and you’ll find many answers by going to http://www.foodforeveryone.org and looking in the Gardening Techniques or FAQ pages. Until next time – Great Gardening!

Controlling Pests and Diseases in the Family Vegetable Garden

Pest control is very important to the successful gardener! Cultural practices, such as eliminating all weeds and grass from your garden, including the outside edges, are very important. This will minimize pests and diseases’ opportunity to migrate in from other places.

Also, maintaining dry wide aisles will reduce their opportunities for spreading.

And growing healthy, vigorous plants will reduce pests’ effectiveness perhaps more than anything else. This is one of the great benefits of The Mittleider Method, since plants are rarely in the ground long enough for pest populations to become a serious problem.

In order to learn the various types of bugs, and be able to distinguish which are harmful and how to attack them, I recommend you study chapter 20 in The Mittleider Gardening Course bookor Lecture #22 in the Video Lecture Series, for specific information.

Also, there is good information available on the internet. Two articles I particularly like are one by the University of Florida at http://ipm.ifas.ufl.edu, and one by Oklahoma State U at http://osufacts.okstate.edu/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-2786/HLA-6434web.pdf

Diseases – Prevention and Control

Food For Everyone, a college-level textbook by Dr. Jacob R. Mittleider, has important chapters on both pest and disease control. For the serious grower this book is highly recommended.

As with controlling pests in the garden, we recommend that your first line of defense against disease is the use of several important preventive “cultural practices” that include:

1) Maintaining a totally weed-free garden with wide, dry aisles,

2) Pruning leaves off the ground,

3) Watering only at the soil level (never sprinkle) and only in the actual root area,

4) Growing seedlings in a protected environment and transplanting stocky, healthy seedlings into the garden,

5) Feeding plants a complete, balanced natural mineral nutrient mix that encourages healthy, rapid growth,

6) Harvesting when crops are mature, and

7) If using row covers or “mini greenhouses,” open the ends on cool days (50+), and set the covers to one side on warm days (65+), to maximize sunlight and circulation, and reduce excess humidity build-up.

By following these procedures your problems with pests and disease will normally be rare.

You may have been doing all of these things, and only the increased humidity and warmth of the row covers could give disease an opening.

If you are experiencing Downy Mildew, a fungus disease, general symptoms for all affected vegetable crops, which usually happen under high-humidity conditions, include spots appearing on leaves and a downy white or grey mold developing in these spots or on the undersides of the leaves opposite these spots.

With broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and Brussels sprouts, dark spots may develop on the heads as well as the leaves. Black streaks may be visible on stems and a white fuzzy growth may develop. Seedlings are especially affected.

The best solutions are preventative, and constitute physical controls, such as I have described above.

Also, it’s important to remove and burn all old leaves.

If you have the problem, if it is not too widespread, I recommend you remove all affected leaves immediately and improve the physical conditions as much as possible.

Biological control is your last option, short of removing the entire crop.
“Wettable sulfur, sprayed on tomatoes every two weeks at a rate of 2 tablespoons per gallon will absolutely prevent mildew. And….it is cheap.

“One tablespoon of wettable sulfur to one gallon of water sprayed on squash leaves AFTER you have removed all infected leaves will control mildew on your squash.

“Preventive spraying is the best way to control mildew and only spray in the evening when the leaves of your plants have had a chance to cool down. Spraying on hot leaves will burn them. Ditto with tomatoes.

“Cucumbers are a problem and they do not like sulfur. Skim milk seems to do well on cukes.

“Keeping all leaves that do not look perfect removed daily from your plants, tomatoes, cukes, and squash, goes a long way in preventing the spread of the mildew. Mildew, after all, is a fungus and spreads via spores that blow in the wind.” Contributed by a Mittleider Gardening Group Member – Joanne “pathaj” from Southern California.

Several chemicals are sold to control downy mildew, including Benomyl, Copper, Folpet, Lime Sulfur, Sulfur and chlorothalonil. Counsel with the store from which you obtain any of these materials, and always, when using pesticides, read the entire label on the container and follow the directions. Because mildew will built up a resistance to fungicides over time, especially Benomyl, if the problem persists you will need to consider changing the materials used occasionally.