Devv-2018-Loving life in the dirt

Devv · Apr 23, 2018

stickman said:
Thanks Scott! So, do you spray it on as a foliar feed or water it in around the roots as a soil drench?

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Sorry Rick, my bad.

I use the watering can to drench the plant. I'm glad I stopped by here, I just made up 2 gallons and did a quick soak on all the mater plants

The mix goes pretty far!

Devv · Apr 23, 2018

fcaruana said:
Wow, just amazing! Your plants are monsters, I can’t believe how many bells you’ve got set on that plant! Is there a secret to getting he pods to grow so big?? My poblanos never reached the gigantic grocery-store size last year, they were about 2/3rds as big at their best (still delicious though!)

Ah, beautiful padrons! Pick them now, otherwise they get HOT. I learned my lesson last summer - if you leave them on the bush they will get very big and very hot. At least in my experience, I found that the best thing to do was to pick them extremely early on/unripe - when they were about 2 or 3 inches long, light green, and the seeds inside were still underdeveloped (that way you don’t have to crunch through them when you fry them up in oil)! They’re absolutely delicious.

Keep up the good work, this glog is amazing!

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Thanks Frankie!

My 2nd to the last post before this mentions what I did this year. Buying the The Intelligent Gardener…Steve Soloman w/ Erica Reinheimer book, and getting the soil test done at logan's labs. I then followed the amendment plan. The large fruit is a first for me while growing peppers. Maters are quite a bit more forgiving

b3rnd · Apr 24, 2018

Devv said:
Thanks!

I wish I could send some of my weather your way! Although I don;t think July-August would suit your needs

I know you're across the pond and all, so the Logan's soil test is probably not an option. But do read the book: The Intelligent Gardener…Steve Soloman w/ Erica Reinheimer

It starts off rather slow, but the good info is later on.

Yeah, I know those oven months too well from my time in Portugal!

I got the same recommendation from Stickman. I'm about to order it! What makes Logan's soil test so special? I know there are labs to do soil tests around here, so...

stickman · Apr 24, 2018

b3rnd said:
Yeah, I know those oven months too well from my time in Portugal!

I got the same recommendation from Stickman. I'm about to order it! What makes Logan's soil test so special? I know there are labs to do soil tests around here, so...

Sorry for the hijack Scott, I'll make it quick...

In soil testing, it's important to use the right extractant for your local conditions. Logan Labs performs those tests and presents the information in a manner that's useable in the soil mineralization scheme put forward in the book. Here's what a sample test report looks like when using a Melich III extractant.

http://www.loganlabs.com/doc/Soil-Report-Sample.pdf

For a few dollars more they'll also include Selenium, Molybdenum, Cobalt and soluble Silicon levels. That was my choice.

You probably have a district agronomy officer, probably at a university, and if you find them, you can ask for a recommendation for which soil lab to use for your tests. It can be a complicated subject as you can see from this thesis.

https://t-stor.teagasc.ie/bitstream/handle/11019/399/Denis%20Brennan%20Thesis%20Total%20Fin.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Now back to regular programming...

b3rnd · Apr 24, 2018

stickman said:
Sorry for the hijack Scott, I'll make it quick...

In soil testing, it's important to use the right extractant for your local conditions. Logan Labs performs those tests and presents the information in a manner that's useable in the soil mineralization scheme put forward in the book. Here's what a sample test report looks like when using a Melich III extractant.

http://www.loganlabs.com/doc/Soil-Report-Sample.pdf

For a few dollars more they'll also include Selenium, Molybdenum, Cobalt and soluble Silicon levels. That was my choice.

You probably have a district agronomy officer, probably at a university, and if you find them, you can ask for a recommendation for which soil lab to use for your tests. It can be a complicated subject as you can see from this thesis.

https://t-stor.teagasc.ie/bitstream/handle/11019/399/Denis%20Brennan%20Thesis%20Total%20Fin.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Now back to regular programming...

Thanks so much, Stickman! I'll do some research to see if I can find a lab like that in Europe. If I do, I'll post somewhere it for my fellow Europeans.

Devv · Apr 24, 2018

stickman said:
Sorry for the hijack Scott, I'll make it quick...

In soil testing, it's important to use the right extractant for your local conditions. Logan Labs performs those tests and presents the information in a manner that's useable in the soil mineralization scheme put forward in the book. Here's what a sample test report looks like when using a Melich III extractant.

http://www.loganlabs.com/doc/Soil-Report-Sample.pdf

For a few dollars more they'll also include Selenium, Molybdenum, Cobalt and soluble Silicon levels. That was my choice.

You probably have a district agronomy officer, probably at a university, and if you find them, you can ask for a recommendation for which soil lab to use for your tests. It can be a complicated subject as you can see from this thesis.

https://t-stor.teagasc.ie/bitstream/handle/11019/399/Denis%20Brennan%20Thesis%20Total%20Fin.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Now back to regular programming...

No Hijack buddy, this word needs to be spread. These changes I made put the performance back to where it was before adding that horrible "top soil". Top soil from hell...

It will get better and better every year from now on..

Devv · Apr 24, 2018

b3rnd said:
Thanks so much, Stickman! I'll do some research to see if I can find a lab like that in Europe. If I do, I'll post somewhere it for my fellow Europeans.

I hope you find a good lab

stickman · Apr 24, 2018

Devv said:
No Hijack buddy, this word needs to be spread. These changes I made put the performance back to where it was before adding that horrible "top soil". Top soil from hell...

It will get better and better every year from now on..

Eventually, you'll hit the wall when you max out your CEC. Then all you have to do is replace what you remove from the soil with your harvests, and keep your organic matter content above 5% (though up to 15% is possible.)

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Devv · Apr 27, 2018

stickman said:
Eventually, you'll hit the wall when you max out your CEC. Then all you have to do is replace what you remove from the soil with your harvests, and keep your organic matter content above 5% (though up to 15% is possible.)

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I'm so ready for that to happen!

Wednesday afternoon, right after LB came home all hell broke lose. Just crazy winds, they were forecasting up to 70 mph, hail, and lightning.

IDK what we got wind wise, but no hail...yes! But the wind was quite crazy. The fenced part of the garden did well. The lightning hit our wireless tower and took out our wireless access. The plants outside the garden look quite rough for sure! They came out and replaced the damaged hardware today so I'm here again :rolleyes:

So yesterday I spent a bit of time straightening up the knocked over plants, no real damage

It rained about an inch, the cool thing is the 1,000 tank took on another 300 plus gallons and overflowed

I like it!

stickman · Apr 27, 2018

Devv said:
I'm so ready for that to happen!

Wednesday afternoon, right after LB came home all hell broke lose. Just crazy winds, they were forecasting up to 70 mph, hail, and lightning.

IDK what we got wind wise, but no hail...yes! But the wind was quite crazy. The fenced part of the garden did well. The lightning hit our wireless tower and took out our wireless access. The plants outside the garden look quite rough for sure! They came out and replaced the damaged hardware today so I'm here again

So yesterday I spent a bit of time straightening up the knocked over plants, no real damage

It rained about an inch, the cool thing is the 1,000 tank took on another 300 plus gallons and overflowed [emoji14]

I like it!

The tank is full now? Woot! Glad to hear the squall didn't do any real damage, hopefully it didn't strip off any of those Bell peppers!

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Sawyer · Apr 28, 2018

A full tank of water is a good thing to have. Any idea how long that much water would last if/when it quits raining?

cone9 · Apr 28, 2018

Scott, I have a couple empty plastic milk jugs in the recycle bin if you want some backup for your "jug".

Devv · Apr 28, 2018

stickman said:
The tank is full now? Woot! Glad to hear the squall didn't do any real damage, hopefully it didn't strip off any of those Bell peppers!

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Yes!

It was down around 620-640 gals before this last rain.

Garden peppers are fine. The poor gals in the 15 gallon growbags got the heck beat out of them. But, they will make peppers

Devv · Apr 28, 2018

Sawyer said:
A full tank of water is a good thing to have. Any idea how long that much water would last if/when it quits raining?

The tank filled to 900 after the first rain, it had 100 in when I set it up to keep it from blowing away...LOL

I used around 260 to 280 over the last 4 weeks. So I would say 3 months as water usage will go up as we warm up. But also the maters will be pulled up in 6 weeks, and some peppers will follow. So we should be good! The only peppers that we'll keep going are the ones that continue to produce and meet the needs of everyday use.

LB is talking about getting another one..LOL. We shall see...

Devv · Apr 28, 2018

cone9 said:
Scott, I have a couple empty plastic milk jugs in the recycle bin if you want some backup for your "jug".

Too funny Dave

We went with this because the well water Ph is in the low 8's. For the last few years I've collected in 3 32 gallon garbage pails (new ones) and transferred to 2.5 gallon jugs. That sh!t got old...

stickman · Apr 28, 2018

Devv said:
Yes!

It was down around 620-640 gals before this last rain.

Garden peppers are fine. The poor gals in the 15 gallon growbags got the heck beat out of them. But, they will make peppers

Cool! How are your tomatoes faring? Did you end up trimming them back? Pics?

I think mine are a little behind yours... [emoji14]

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stickman · Apr 28, 2018

Devv said:
The tank filled to 900 after the first rain, it had 100 in when I set it up to keep it from blowing away...LOL

I used around 260 to 280 over the last 4 weeks. So I would say 3 months as water usage will go up as we warm up. But also the maters will be pulled up in 6 weeks, and some peppers will follow. So we should be good! The only peppers that we'll keep going are the ones that continue to produce and meet the needs of everyday use.

LB is talking about getting another one..LOL. We shall see...

Smart woman... don't let her go! [emoji106]

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Devv · Apr 28, 2018

Today's project (and tomorrows), get the framing ready for the sunshade.

2 years ago I extended the framing and the 2 4x4's on the right would up too deep. I couldn't stand to look at it anymore so I leveled the 2x6's. Pretty no...

Also could stand to look at this either anymore. It was a 20' run and the weight over time caused the sag.

I'll do this one after the harvest, same deal..

Adding a post and 2 new pieces of 2x6. I bought more (yet more) shade cloth this winter. Might as well before I retire and money will be around a lot less.

Oh this looks like pain on the vine...

Any ideas? Pepper maggots?

Just a few :dance:

Devv · Apr 28, 2018

stickman said:
Cool! How are your tomatoes faring? Did you end up trimming them back? Pics?

I think mine are a little behind yours... [emoji14]

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I'll get some more pics up tomorrow, I have to get the BBQ going here shortly. I did start snipping just a few that are growing out of the cage headed towards the dirt. The plants are as Ron White says "loooooaaaaaddded".

Devv · Apr 28, 2018

stickman said:
Smart woman... don't let her go! [emoji106]

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Oh never!

We've been together since I was in 11th grade...and that's pushing 44 years now

I was filling up the wheel barrow with char to add to the compost pile for inoculation, she passed me by. "I have weeding to do".