Mittleider gardeners in Trinidad

In Trinidad, bagasse was the popular choice as a medium. The sugar
industry is now closed and bagasse is no longer available. Is there
a suggestion? There is no other crop byproduct that can be obtained
cheaply.
Simon
Agronomist

Simon:

Do you have access to coconut coir - which is ground-up coconut
husks? How about coffee or rice hulls? Peanut shells? You
probably don't have pine trees, do you. Ground-up pine needles are
good also. Is there no wood industry there, where you could find
sawdust?

If you can find NOTHING in which to grow, I suggest you try growing
right in the native soil. We do that in most places around the
world now, and have success everywhere.

Create a level soil-bed. When growing commercially things like
lettuce and other small crops the bed is 4' wide, and whatever
length you want. Make at least 3'-wide aisles, and pull dirt from
those aisles to make the beds a couple of inches higher than the
aisles. Make ridges all around the beds at least 4" high, to hold
water.

Feeding, watering, and growing are the same as in the raised boxes,
but you will have weeding to do.

Look on the website at www.foodforeveryone .org in the Learn section
to see how to grow in the dirt with the same success you have
enjoyed in raised boxes for so many years.

Jim Kennard

My tomatoes are splitting HELP

The problem of cracking is exacerbated by hot weather and uneven
moisture, but Jacob Mittleider gave me pictures of research he
conducted in recent years which taught him that boron deficiency also
played a part. In addition to making sure you are doing what is
possible to give the plants some relief from the hot sun (mid-day 50%
shade), and watering every day, i would give them a shot of boron -
about 1/2 teaspoon per foot of row.

Mixing your own preplant and weekly feed Mittleider

Q. How much does it cost to ship the pre-mixed fertilizers from
Utah? We live in the Bahamas.

A. It's too expensive to ship fertilizers. Instead, make your own.

For Pre-Plant, just mix lime, Epsom Salt, and Borax in a ratio of 80-4-
1.

For Weekly Feed, unless you're growing a commercial-sized garden, I
recommend you buy the Micro-Nutrients from the Foundation at
www.growfood. com - in the Materials section - then add NPK and Epsom
Salts as instructed on the Micro package.