Beerbreath's Glog 2014---There are many like it, but this one is mine

OCD Chilehead · Jul 28, 2014

Thanks for the berry tip. My neighbor a couple doors down has a creek runs up to his property. He said I could plant them next to the creek. It's really shaded. Will have to look into that. Sounds like the trees are a success.

Have a great week.

beerbreath81 · Aug 14, 2014

Ok, Long time since last update so here come a flood of pictures.

First, scored this little beauty couple weeks ago of craigslist. Runs like a champ and made out like a bandit on the deal. Will be getting alot of use out of this one

Lets start up by the house with ones that ive been babysitting

Celery--never planted in container before, should be bigger than this

Birgets

OW

Been hitting it pretty hard with cal/mag, looks like calcium deficiency to me

Zimbabwe Bird

Mater plants have made full recovery. Had all leaves stripped. died back to grownd and grew back STRONG!

Even a few fruits, will be small im sure but Ill take it

When I say strong I mean strong. I have never seen leaves like this before. Very waxy, and tough like cardboard

Wife got me a lemon and lime plant for my b-day

Newly planted grapes. Been in ground for about a month. Getting a little wind beaten and chewed up by the bunnies so the pipes have really helped

Close-up of grapes

Fruit trees planted this year, Im done diggin holes! haha

Ok so lets go over to the garden. I have pretty much abandoned this thing but the wife still waters. She just cant let it go yet. Me? I want to fire up that tiller

The following pictures are to show what happens when you have poor soil, never feed, and poor starting growing conditions. All plants are about 5-6" high, all were planted first weekend in May

Aji Crystal

C. Bhut

Cherry

Cucumber, extremly small for time in ground, fuiting

Even lettuce wont grow here.... :mope:

Cheers!
Hope everyone has a good weekend!

OCD Chilehead · Aug 14, 2014

Thanks for the update. I seen that same tiller in Craigslist awhile back on your side of the mountains. Or at least it looks
like it. Perfect time to start ground work for next year. I think Scott said he's shooting for the 1st. Aji Crystal looks fantastic.

Thanks for sharing.

Chuck

HillBilly Jeff · Sep 1, 2014

Wow, is that all clay you're digging in there? Are you planning on using that tiller to amend your soil to make it a little more workable? Looking forward to reading through the rest of your glog.

JoeFish · Sep 1, 2014

Looking good brother!

beerbreath81 · Sep 1, 2014

HillBilly Jeff said:
Wow, is that all clay you're digging in there? Are you planning on using that tiller to amend your soil to make it a little more workable? Looking forward to reading through the rest of your glog.

Hey jeff, thanks for checking in. Yup, pretty much 100 clay and no nutrients at all. I dug a few of the plants up that i wanted to try and save a few weeks back. Im out of seeds on a couple and need to get a least one pod from them. When i dug them up the plants they were all rootbound in the soil i planted them in. just to hard for them to break through to native soil. Work in progress..lol

OCD Chilehead said:
Thanks for the update. I seen that same tiller in Craigslist awhile back on your side of the mountains. Or at least it looks
like it. Perfect time to start ground work for next year. I think Scott said he's shooting for the 1st. Aji Crystal looks fantastic.
Thanks for sharing.
Chuck

The tiller is doing its best in the hard clay but struggling and keeps dying on me. Got to go really slooooow. Gettin there though.

JoeFish said:
Looking good brother!

Thanks Justin, been a little rough this year hopefully i can turn it around on the next go around.

Been tilling everynight this past week. West side i can cut through with the tiller cause all the water drains to that end. The east end is concrete hard and gonna take some work to break up. Might need to bring in heavier artillery for this first year. Been doing alot of work over the werkend. Started puttin up all the kids summer toys, alot of mowin, and got a load of horse poo today and got it spread into about 1/4 of the garden area. time for a recliner and a cold one....lol

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

HillBilly Jeff · Sep 1, 2014

Looking good. Have you thought about raised beds?

OCD Chilehead · Sep 1, 2014

Oh yeah. That's looking great. Keep that up and you'll be ready by Spring. I haven't tested my soil yet. It's just like yours. I was told by locals, that it's high in minerals. They say if you till and add organics in it like what your doing, stuff will grow like crazy. I'm think there is some truth in what there saying. I gave my neighbor a bunch of supers to grow in the ground. He tilled in composted horse manure and that's it. His plants look just as good as mine if not better. No added nutes. No calcium deficiency. Nothing. It gives me hope. I might have my soil tested to see what I'm working with. Keep adding them leaves and chips.

Looking good BB81.

Thanks for sharing

JoeFish · Sep 1, 2014

Get a cold one BB! Matter of fact get you and me a cold one.... Good luck brother. I got some cheer you up coming in the mail.

beerbreath81 · Sep 2, 2014

HillBilly Jeff said:
Looking good. Have you thought about raised beds?

Thought about that and thought about raised rows. Raised rows i'm still on the fence about but the raised beds I dont think I will do. Plain old dirt planting is what I know and to be honest I'm not sure on how to maintain the raised beds. All soil turned by hand each year? Do you need to replace soil after a given time? Just easier to add stuff to the ground and till it in for me.

OCD Chilehead said:
Oh yeah. That's looking great. Keep that up and you'll be ready by Spring. I haven't tested my soil yet. It's just like yours. I was told by locals, that it's high in minerals. They say if you till and add organics in it like what your doing, stuff will grow like crazy. I'm think there is some truth in what there saying. I gave my neighbor a bunch of supers to grow in the ground. He tilled in composted horse manure and that's it. His plants look just as good as mine if not better. No added nutes. No calcium deficiency. Nothing. It gives me hope. I might have my soil tested to see what I'm working with. Keep adding them leaves and chips.

Looking good BB81.

Thanks for sharing

That gives me hope too...lol. Tiller has been doing its best but failed me at the end last night. Only runs on full choke, I think I got an air leak somewhere??...ugh

JoeFish said:
Get a cold one BB! Matter of fact get you and me a cold one.... Good luck brother. I got some cheer you up coming in the mail.

Thanks Justin, will put them to good use!

Seacowboy · Sep 2, 2014

Some of the farmers over here plant big ass beets to break up hard soil. Leave them in the ground then till the following spring. You still should have time to plant them I think, the bigger the better on those. Will try and find out which ones they used and let you know.

Let me know what seeds you need and will see what I can do. Try and make it soon cause there is already a box with your name on it fixing to go in the mail...

Sawyer · Sep 2, 2014

There's a winter radish that can be used in the same way as the beets Jason mentions. Talk to your local county extension agent about improving soil, or go by your local Farmer's Co-op. They'll have some good pointers for you.

My money is on clogged fuel passages in the carburetor on your tiller. Especially if the previous owner used gas with ethanol in it. Try taking the carb apart and running a thin wire (like the twist-tie on a loaf of bread) through all the passages you can find. Any black debris you find could be from decomposing fuel lines. Those can be replaced with ethanol-resistant ones. Any white debris might be aluminum oxide. Ethanol will dissolve the varnish from aluminum surfaces and then moisture dissolved in the ethanol will oxidize the aluminum. And be sure to use only ethanol-free gas.

Helvete · Sep 2, 2014

Daikon radishes will work more than likely. I break up clay by tilling in composted horse manure. It's very fibrous and helps add organic material to the clay.

When you had the pic of "even lettuce won't grow here" I was like....oh man, time for more aquaponics lol

beerbreath81 · Sep 3, 2014

Seacowboy said:
Some of the farmers over here plant big ass beets to break up hard soil. Leave them in the ground then till the following spring. You still should have time to plant them I think, the bigger the better on those. Will try and find out which ones they used and let you know.

Let me know what seeds you need and will see what I can do. Try and make it soon cause there is already a box with your name on it fixing to go in the mail...

may have to look into this as an option, we had the same problem when we were doing ground prep to lay sod this spring. Had to get a bobcat with a claw attachment. Worked ok but left big chunks of soil. Had my doubt on how the lawn would take. Luckly it worked out ok, just when the grass is wet it is very spongy to walk on. Now I'm that guy....STAY OFF THE LAWN!!

Sawyer said:
There's a winter radish that can be used in the same way as the beets Jason mentions. Talk to your local county extension agent about improving soil, or go by your local Farmer's Co-op. They'll have some good pointers for you.

My money is on clogged fuel passages in the carburetor on your tiller. Especially if the previous owner used gas with ethanol in it. Try taking the carb apart and running a thin wire (like the twist-tie on a loaf of bread) through all the passages you can find. Any black debris you find could be from decomposing fuel lines. Those can be replaced with ethanol-resistant ones. Any white debris might be aluminum oxide. Ethanol will dissolve the varnish from aluminum surfaces and then moisture dissolved in the ethanol will oxidize the aluminum. And be sure to use only ethanol-free gas.

Great idea on the farmers co-op lots of farmers in the area so there must be some secret to success that i havent figured out yet. Got a new air filter assembly ordered and carb kit should be here at the end of the week. I removed the carb bowl the other day and the gasket litteraly fell apart in my hand. Carb seems to be clean, but im am no mechanic so?? The air filter was very clogged probably the original.

ikeepfish said:
Daikon radishes will work more than likely. I break up clay by tilling in composted horse manure. It's very fibrous and helps add organic material to the clay.

When you had the pic of "even lettuce won't grow here" I was like....oh man, time for more aquaponics lol

Never grown them but definatly a possiblity too. The root vegetables I did grow this year did poorly as well. I planted some potatoes, bulls blood beets, and some carrots. I harvested them all last week and carrots and potatoes gave me something....all very small for time spent in the ground. The beets leaves were just bairly breaking the surface and when I dug them up they were just a single root strand. Struggled with the aquaponics as well this year, mainly due to winds at the start, then calcium durring and at the end. Its gonna need some shelter of some sort if its gonna work at the new place. I just took down the blue barrel yesterday, and I'm on the fence on whether or not I'm gonna continue with the aquaponics next year. Focus right now is on the garden.

Thanks all for the advice.

Sawyer · Sep 3, 2014

Good luck with the carb. Keep us posted. I haven't had much luck with beets this year, either. They are heavy feeders, but need more P (and K?) than N. Too much N gives you lots of beet greens, but scrawny roots. I'm going to try one last time this year with some short season beets.

Along with the beet/radish/daikon, planting a winter cover crop of hairy vetch and rye will go a long ways toward improving your soil. It will get established in the fall, then remain more or less dormant until an early spring growth spurt. You just mow and till two or three weeks before you plant your spring garden. There are other options, Austrian winter pea, winter wheat and oats, but the vetch is the most cold tolerant and I'm guessing it gets pretty cold where you are. Not sure about cold tolerance of rye vs. wheat and oats. If you do plant a winter cover, you want to do it soon, so it can get established before the really cold weather gets here.

beerbreath81 · Sep 3, 2014

Sawyer said:
Good luck with the carb. Keep us posted. I haven't had much luck with beets this year, either. They are heavy feeders, but need more P (and K?) than N. Too much N gives you lots of beet greens, but scrawny roots. I'm going to try one last time this year with some short season beets.

Along with the beet/radish/daikon, planting a winter cover crop of hairy vetch and rye will go a long ways toward improving your soil. It will get established in the fall, then remain more or less dormant until an early spring growth spurt. You just mow and till two or three weeks before you plant your spring garden. There are other options, Austrian winter pea, winter wheat and oats, but the vetch is the most cold tolerant and I'm guessing it gets pretty cold where you are. Not sure about cold tolerance of rye vs. wheat and oats. If you do plant a winter cover, you want to do it soon, so it can get established before the really cold weather gets here.

Now that is a great idea. I have never done cover crops before but I think the vetch and rye would work great here. I have heard that the Rye's root sytem is really good at breaking up hard clay soil, and helps choke out weeds. Hopefully I can get the rest of manure i need by end of Sept/early Oct. and I think I will do the cover crop. Thanks for the tip! Do you think I should plant both vetch and rye or just rye?

Sawyer · Sep 3, 2014

I'd definitely plant the vetch, too. That's where the nitrogen comes from. The rye, or whatever grain, gives the vetch something to grow on. According to Scott (Devv) the rye roots can be a pain to till in the spring. Depending on how strong your tiller is, you might have to go over things twice.

Devv · Sep 3, 2014

Looks like you're headed in the right direction with added the mulch and tilling it in. John's correct about the alcohol in the fuel, it's hydroscopic and stuff grows in it. I switched to non alcohol premium with a stabilizer additive. Compressed air is how I clean my small engine carbs. But the small wire works too, I happen to be a ~~retarded~~ retired auto tech that specialized in drivability, so I have a feel for engines. If you use them enough they won't crud up. I learned this with my mower, that sits quite awhile sometimes between mowings.

So back to the garden. I water before tilling when dry and wait a day or so, so the tiller does try to rip my arms out of their sockets

Barring the wind, I'm sure things will do much better for you next year. I've spent many a dollar and time getting my place in a condition where things will grow. If you can't grow a viable cover crop some nitrogen added to the soil will help it digest the goodies. But don't get crazy

beerbreath81 · Sep 3, 2014

Sawyer said:
I'd definitely plant the vetch, too. That's where the nitrogen comes from. The rye, or whatever grain, gives the vetch something to grow on. According to Scott (Devv) the rye roots can be a pain to till in the spring. Depending on how strong your tiller is, you might have to go over things twice.

Thanks again for the great idea John, I've taken this and ran with it I was even able to find a local source for the seed. Decided to go with the rye anyways to help break the soil. I went with a 70% rye and 30% hairy vetch mix. Sound about right to you??

Devv said:
Looks like you're headed in the right direction with added the mulch and tilling it in. John's correct about the alcohol in the fuel, it's hydroscopic and stuff grows in it. I switched to non alcohol premium with a stabilizer additive. Compressed air is how I clean my small engine carbs. But the small wire works too, I happen to be a retarded retired auto tech that specialized in drivability, so I have a feel for engines. If you use them enough they won't crud up. I learned this with my mower, that sits quite awhile sometimes between mowings.

So back to the garden. I water before tilling when dry and wait a day or so, so the tiller does try to rip my arms out of their sockets

Barring the wind, I'm sure things will do much better for you next year. I've spent many a dollar and time getting my place in a condition where things will grow. If you can't grow a viable cover crop some nitrogen added to the soil will help it digest the goodies. But don't get crazy

Thanks for the tips on the tiller I've only used mid-grade or premium fuel in the tiller and mowers we have but since I got the tiller used who knows what was used beforehand? It did look all good when i took it apart and was running fine till i found a leak and removed the carb bowl. When i did the gasket fell apart and i went ahead and put it back together without the gasket and started having problems. The tiller really struggles with the hard clay not sure if i will get through on the east side where its super dry, even with watering but will definatly keep trying. With the plan to do the winter crop underway need to get the manure ASAP so I can sow the seeds in late Sep. My source only promised 4 yards every two weeks so had to reach out to some others. Was able to find someone willing to deliver 20yrds next week for $50 bucks so once and done.

Thanks again for all the help

Sawyer · Sep 3, 2014

I have no advice regarding the ratio of rye to vetch. Maybe Scott knows something. I generally buy as much of each as I'm comfortable paying for, then broadcast it by hand to cover the area needed. Not very scientific. I have started gathering information from seed vendors on lbs/acre for straight and mixed sow rates, but haven't put all the info together yet.

You absolutely should be using ethanol-free gas in your tiller and mowers. If you're using 10% ethanol fuel it will cause problems, sooner rather than later. This link might help you find a source. Places that sell racing fuel will have ethanol-free fuel, too.