Cooperative Extension Service Clark County 1400 Fortune Drive Winchester, KY 40391-8292 (859) 744-4682 Fax: (859) 744-4698 extension.ca.uky.edu

Fall is a great time to soil test home lawns and gardens. It is best to apply fertilizer to lawns throughout the fall months to prepare them for winter, and the fall is also a good time to apply lime if it is needed. You don’t know what your lawn will need unless you take a soil test. Soil testing for gardens in the fall also avoids the spring rush. There is less demand for soil testing in the fall, and soil test results are usually returned in a shorter amount of time. Gardeners can purchase compost, organic, or commercial fertilizers this time of year to be better prepared for the spring. In some instances,

purchasing fertilizers this time of year may actually help you save on gardening costs. Even if you don’t make your fertilizer or compost purchases until the spring, it is good

to go ahead and soil test so that you have the results in hand to be prepared to start gardening when spring conditions are favorable. Homeowners can receive up to five free soil tests from the Clark County Cooperative Extension Office per year. Soil testing supplies are available for check-out at our office from 8:00 am to 4:30 pm (M-F). Feel free to come by and pick-up your supplies.

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Bee Keepers, make sure to join us on Monday, October 17, starting at 6:00 pm at the Clark County Extension Office. The Clark County Bee Keeper Interest Group meets the third Monday of each month. Anyone interested in bee keeping, learning more about honeybees, or protecting honeybees is welcome. You don’t have to own bees to attend! This month Curt White, a Clark County bee keeper, will be discussing taking hives from homes, buildings, and structures. He will discuss what he has learned through his experience. Pre-registration is not required, but please do let us know that you plan to attend by calling the Clark County Cooperative Extension Service at (859) 744-4682.

From the Ag Agent’s Garden . . . Tips for Farmers’ Market Producers from Experience

One of my “hobbies” is gardening, and I really enjoy selling vegetables at a farmers’ market in my spare time. If you ask my wife, she may say that it is a little more than “a hobby”. This summer was a great year for my garden despite strange weather patterns, lots of disease pressure, and many lessons learned. In fact, I am still harvesting tomatoes. At least until I either get tired, or frost comes. Here are a few reflections of the practices that made my year successful.

Early Season Planting Pays Off. Especially for Farmers’ Market Growers! One of my goals going into the season this year was to have produce available to sale earlier in the season. My wife and I planted several early season vegetables including green onions, lettuce, beets, broccoli, cabbage, and carrots. New to our farm this year also was the addition of a hi-tunnel to produce early season tomatoes. We were also able to plant sweet corn

and green beans in black plastic mulch. Planting on black plastic heats up the ground, and will allow germination earlier in the season. Getting tomatoes, and sweet corn to the market early in the year was great to establish an early customer base. Thanks to the hi-tunnel, we were able to take tomatoes to market in early July this year. This brought new customers, and they stayed with us throughout the summer months. My brother-in-law got married this year, and we planted zinnias early to have them for a wedding gift as well. We weren’t sure they would make it, but thanks to wedding planning, we learned that we can plant earlier in the future. The early flowers brought more customers to our farmers’ market booth, simply because they were unique early in the season.

Plant a Niche Product to Get Your Customer’s Attention. If you are a farmers’ market grower, finding a niche product each season is a great way to introduce yourself to new potential customers. This year we planted several different varieties of heirloom tomatoes that are not common. Having something new and unique gets your customers attention. Often, you only have a short window of opportunity to get a customer’s attention at the

farmers market as they are walking thru the market. They may not purchase the niche product, but offering something that they do not see in the grocery store, or from other vendors is a good way to get customers to stop at the booth. By the way, those heirloom tomatoes were a huge success!

Trying New Things is Not Always Successful! It is important to try new things, but all new things are not a success the first time that you try them. With our hi-tunnel, we learned many lessons. Although we did have tomatoes early, we originally planted them to have them much earlier. We were using the University of Kentucky

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From the Ag Agent’s Garden … Continued from page 2

design for a low cost, low input tunnel. These tunnels are fabricated from material purchased locally. This design is great if you are on a tight budget, but it can come with consequences if you can’t put the time into it that it needs to maintain crops growing in the tunnel. Planting in a tunnel is challenging. With a low input tunnel, you have to be available to open the sides manually so that the plants do not get too hot during pollination. You have to be available after a rain storm to make sure the sides stay open when the sun comes out, and you have to make sure that pollination occurs since bees or other pollinators cannot access the tunnel when it is closed. We had a couple of rain showers during early pollination, followed by hot sun where we did not make sure the sides stayed open. At one point the temperatures were well above 110° F when the sides were finally opened. The first fruit hands on the plants did not pollinate, and we lost 2 to 3 weeks of production. Sometimes you just have to learn lessons the hard way for next year. That is farming, right!

Timed Preventative Fungicide Applications Makes a Huge Difference. With all the rainfall we had throughout the season, high humidity, and favorable temperatures, garden disease pathogens were very active throughout the year. Most homeowners, or farmer’s market producers that did not apply preventative fungicides to their

vegetables lost their garden plants to disease, or harvest time was shortened. One of the reasons that I am still harvesting tomatoes in early October is due to my preventative fungicide application program. Time spent controlling weeds, extra maintenance, and keeping everything harvested in a timely manner also helps.

Successive Planting Extends the Season. One of the biggest problems that vegetable gardeners have is that everything tends to come in all at one time. Successive planting helps to extend the season, and allows enjoyment of garden vegetables for a much longer period of time. This past year, I planted tomatoes in late April,

mid-May, and early July. It has really helped our farmers’ market business because I have had a constant supply for our customers. They have been able to rely on us to supply them with tomatoes throughout the year. Planning to plant multiple crops based upon harvest timing has also kept me from “putting all my eggs”, or tomatoes in my case, “into one basket”. Even though our hi-tunnel had production issues, we more than made up for it with our later plantings of tomatoes.

These are just a few of the lessons that I have learned through experience this past year. If you would like additional assistance with making plans for your garden, or for producing for farmers’ market, feel free to contact me at the Clark County Extension Office by calling (859) 744-4682.

Pest Proof Your Just in Time for Fall

As the temperatures cool, you may experience outside invaders in your home. Rodents, insects, spiders, and other pests often look for winter homes. Here are a few steps to take to avoid these unwanted intruders. (Some of these practices will also help reduce energy usage, and your heating bill! )

Install door sweeps at the base of all exterior doors. You should not be able to see light coming from under the door when it is

closed.

Seal off openings where pipes and wires enter the foundation and siding. Look in particular around outdoor faucets, receptacles,

gas meters, clothes dryer vents, and access points for telephone and cable TV wires. You can plug holes with caulk, cement, urethane expandable foam, steel wool, or other suitable sealants.

Caulk cracks around windows, doors, and fascia boards.

Repair gaps and tears in windows and screen doors.

Install ¼ inch wire mesh over attic, roof, and crawl space vents.

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Preheat oven to 350° F. Lightly spray a 13 x 9 x 2 inch pan with non-stick spray. Mash sweet potatoes. Add cream cheese, 2/3 cup brown sugar, vanilla and cinnamon. Mix until smooth. Spread sweet potato mixture evenly into pan. Top sweet potatoes with chopped apples. In a small bowl, combine flour, oats, and 1/3 cup brown sugar. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse

crumbles. Stir in pecans. Sprinkle mixture over apples. Bake uncovered for 35-40 minutes or until topping is golden brown and fruit is tender.

Yield: 16, ¾ cup servings.

Nutritional Analysis: 240 calories, 6 g fat, 3 g sat fat, 5 mg cholesterol, 200 mg sodium, 44 g carbohydrate, 4 g fiber, 20 g sugar, 4 g protein.

3 large fresh sweet potatoes, cooked until tender

8 ounces reduced fat cream cheese, softened

1 cup brown sugar, divided

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

2 medium apples, chopped

½ cup all-purpose flour

2/3 cup quick cooking oats

3 tablespoons butter

¼ cup chopped pecans

Sweet Potato Crisp

Buying Kentucky Proud is easy. Look for the label at your grocery store, farmers’ market, or roadside stand.

The Kentucky Master Gardener Program is a Cooperative Extension Volunteer Training Program. The purpose of the program is to educate and engage a group of volunteers who can facilitate programs of the Clark County Cooperative Extension Service and provide research based information in order to enhance environmental horticulture in the community. Clark County Master Gardeners provide leadership and volunteerism to further advance horticulture through Extension field days, county fair, booths, and other approved volunteer opportunities. To become a Clark County Master Gardener, each participant must first complete the volunteer application process. This process involves a background check, and review by the Clark County Cooperative Extension Service Client Protection Committee. Once accepted into the program, each participant must attend ten 3 hour horticulture subject matter training sessions. The topics of each session are designed based upon the focus of planned horticulture programs conducted thru Clark County Cooperative Extension Service. In addition, each participant must complete a total of 40 volunteer hours

before December of the year the program is offered. There is an application fee of $100. Starting January 1, 2017, to maintain status, each current Clark County Master Gardener must complete a total of 20 hours of volunteer service by December 31st each year. The Clark County Cooperative Extension Service is planning to conduct a Master Gardener Training throughout the spring of 2017 beginning in January. New this year, training classes will begin at 5:00 pm. Dates and locations of each class will be announced at a later date. We must have a minimum of 10 participants to offer the program.

If you are interested in becoming a Clark County Master Gardener, in participating in the 2017 Clark County Master Gardener Program, and would like to receive additional information contact us by calling (859) 744-4682.

2017 Clark County Master Gardener Program