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Susan, I think your idea is wonderful! Not only will all the observations be interesting -- and some probably puzzling, but it will also provide a way for farmers to see the extent to which their observations are similar to or different from others. It may encourage some folks to pay more attention to certain aspects of their farming. And it may suggest areas where some more systematic research would be useful and relevant. I'm also thinking how often some of my own observations just get lost because my mind moves on to other things. Does that happen to others? Maybe having a place to share observations will help some of us to "hold that thought" at least until we reach the computer to share it. Thanks for a great suggestion. I'm glad you found those two spare minutes! Susan Smalley *** At 04:03 PM 7/18/2006 -0400, Susan Houghton wrote: >Ok, so I have two spare minutes - which will rapidly disappear in weeds. > >I have been doing all the typical things - weeding, seeding, cultivating, >harvesting, and going to markets, (and reducing the varmit population) the >same as most of the other farmers on this list. > >Giving Tree Farm is 21 acres, 6 of it in vegetables of many kinds (over 50 >different plant varieties this year), and 8 hoophouses. So we do nearly >year round production (mostly greens in the winter). Our markets are local >restaurants, East Lansing Food Coop, two farmer's markets and a small CSA. > >I started pulling some potatoes and noted what I thought were alfalfa leaf >hoopers (could have been potato leaf hoopers, I really don't know enough >about the differences yet to identify exactly which it was). > >This started me thinking that I also have made other observations, for >instance: >When I pulled quack grass, the soil was still moist, even though everything >else was dry as a bone.... > >I broadcast seeded rye at the same time I planted summer squash, and the >cucumber beetles didn't even attempt to work on those plants (even though >there was other winter squash about 50 feet away, planted earlier, that was >almost overtaken with squash beetles and cucumber beetles). > >So my whole point is : most of us farmers make obeservations like this >daily, and then don't follow through with any action (sometimes I have time >to go look it up, other times I just can't), and by the time I have time to >look something up, I have forgotten what it was I wanted to know. > >So, what if this list could maintain an archive, or a collection of >observations, and then either we would have a collection of solutions, or >maybe someone could put them together for research projects. ? > >Whaddya think? > > >Susan Houghton >Giving Tree Farm >15433 Turner Road >Lansing MI 48906 >517-482-8885 >[log in to unmask] >Why Wait? Move to EarthLink. > >If you would like to access previous postings to the Mich-Organic listserv >you can copy and paste the following URL into your browser address bar > http://list.msu.edu/archives/mich-organic.html Susan B. Smalley, Ph.D. Extension Specialist C.S. Mott Group for Sustainable Food Systems at Michigan State University Department of Community, Agriculture, Recreation and Resource Studies (CARRS) 303 Natural Resources Building East Lansing, MI 48824-1222 [log in to unmask] 517.432.0049 voice 517.353.3834 fax If you would like to access previous postings to the Mich-Organic listserv you can copy and paste the following URL into your browser address bar http://list.msu.edu/archives/mich-organic.html