Ahhhhhh, crap...

Kind of a bummer today, but hope is not lost and we’re going to get a chance to test the responsiveness of our Internal Control System. Philip came up yesterday afternoon and was around for most of the day today. The primary reason he came up was to bring us some cash that we can be using for advances, which is very timely since school is opening next week and school fees and other related expenses are on everyone’s mind.

This morning, we visited one of our farmer-partners in the village of Lui. This is one of the farmers nursing some coffee seeds we brought up this past spring; about a kilogram or what should turn into about 3,000 seedlings. Well apparently, I haven’t been paying as close attention to the nursery as I ought to have been because when Philip looked at the seedlings the first thing he saw was a fungus disease that I completely missed, and it’s pretty nasty, so I’m embarrassed to say that.

An ant's eye view of some coffee that needs help.

I’m no pathologist, so I can’t say for sure which disease this is, but it comes out as soaked black spots on the first leaves (cotyledons) and also affects the stem (or hypocotyl) eventually causing the growing point to die, effectively killing the plant. Philip has seen this in his own nursery and immediately recommended a few fungicides. Here’s where the Internal Control stuff comes in. By US law, there are actually a pretty broad range of copper based fungicides that are allowed for application. The idea is that you can apply these fungicides in a limited fashion when there is a demonstrable need and you can avoid soil contamination. I’d say we have the demonstrable need and if we follow the best practices for application we can avoid soil contamination, particularly since these seedlings are being grown in a raised bed.

Next step, stop gap application of a botanical fungicide. We’ll go with garlic cause I have some in my house now and I wouldn’t mind mashing some up to add to my mashed potatoes later tonight anyway. Step two, find all the available fungicides available in the market and look up their chemical formulas to see if they are allowed by the US Organic law. Step three, send an email to our Licensed Certifier to ask for permission to use whatever fungicides we think are suitable. Go team!

On a personal note, while I am embarrassed that I missed this one, it fits into the general pattern of my professional growing life. I’m pretty much blind to anything unless I’ve had it pointed out to me. First time my poinsettias died from Phytophthora I was just befuddled and the first time my geraniums were showing Iron/Manganese toxicity I was pretty sure I just needed to water them more, but give me the chance to kill a few hundred/thousand plants and I’m gonna learn something. So next time coffee is being nursed in my backyard this damping off disease will not go unnoticed. Can’t say that’s much consolation to the poor seedlings that are keeling over now, but that’s pretty much why I went into biology and not zoology a decade ago.