Devv's 2014- Stick a fork in me, I'm done....

capsidadburn · Apr 5, 2014

Plants are looking like monsters Scott!

I hope I did not send you mixed up Cumari seeds? Pods will be small round to oval green unripe to yellow. Small flowers too.

I germed a couple to keep the seed line going for my own stock. The form looks true but my plants are suffering from aphid/ squirrel battles and now yellowing issues. Not sure if they

will pull through.

Glad your Manzano is mobile in case it prefers more shade.

You look to be approaching a cruise control mode!

Have a great weekend!

Mike

OCD Chilehead · Apr 5, 2014

Looks good Devv. The Manzanos look right at home. Onions look good as well.

Jamison · Apr 5, 2014

Man if this Glog isn't inspiration, I don't know what is! Seriously looking good Scottyboy! I got some catching up to do my friend! What was your source for the MoA's?

Devv · Apr 6, 2014

GA Growhead said:
I'm sure some will pop up where you didn't plant them.
I did well till the last 18 plants. Knocked over the tray and a few peat peats rolled. I was able to figure all but 6 for sure by comparing my notes on how many germinated. Those 6 mysteries... I did my best. Will see once in ground and podding.

I know I have 4 or 5 mysteries, it's the ones I'm sure of, or least I though I was sure of that blow my mind. Oh well, now I can't wait to see what they are! And I too did my best

My wife was laughing at me "it's like a box of chocolates".

Blister said:
Looking forward to seeing how the growbag works for you this year. I'm going to give it a go with coco.

Neil

I used them last year, I had 8 plants in 5 gallon buckets and they were wilting everyday in the heat, potting them to the 20 gal bags solved that.

HillBilly Jeff said:
Things are looking good. Can't wait to start seeing ripening pod pics.

Thanks Jeff!

I'm so ready for them to do their thing!

capsidadburn said:
Plants are looking like monsters Scott!

I hope I did not send you mixed up Cumari seeds? Pods will be small round to oval green unripe to yellow. Small flowers too.

I germed a couple to keep the seed line going for my own stock. The form looks true but my plants are suffering from aphid/ squirrel battles and now yellowing issues. Not sure if they

will pull through.

Glad your Manzano is mobile in case it prefers more shade.

You look to be approaching a cruise control mode!

Have a great weekend!

Mike

Thanks Mike!

I don't know what happened with the Cumari :confused:

But I have more seeds next season

I have a lot of Squirrels and they don't bother the garden, are they digging? The only plant they mess with are the strawberries which we keep covered.

The Manzano in the pot is in the shade, I also have one in the dirt, but will be under the shadecloth soon. I'm thinking it will do fine, they grow outside at higher elevations where the UV should be stronger.

Getting closer to cruise control, the other day I watered from both wells and flooded the ditches in 10 minutes, now that's what I'm talking about!

Back atcha enjoy the weekend!

OCD Chilehead said:
Looks good Devv. The Manzanos look right at home. Onions look good as well.

Thanks OCD!

I noticed a few Onions bolting, I need to pull them once that happens they stop.

Jamison said:
Man if this Glog isn't inspiration, I don't know what is! Seriously looking good Scottyboy! I got some catching up to do my friend! What was your source for the MoA's?

Thanks Jamison!

Still trying to figure out the soil after major adjustments this fall, it's the only spot on my land where I can see a puddle after a heavy rain..LOL

I got the MoA seeds from Ramon.

cone9 · Apr 6, 2014

I don't know, Scott, I may have to stop reading this glog - all this talk of pods ripening and onions bolting and cruise controling while I'm sitting here watching a light frost burn off the back yard grass!

You're corrupting me. Envy is a sin!

Jeff H · Apr 6, 2014

Plants look great, but when do we get to see the raised bed construction? That is all the rage this spring.

capsidadburn · Apr 6, 2014

The squirrels are digging Scott. At first it was cute to observe their excitement of the new bed not realizing I was standing 3 feet away watching them drool over the possibilities. I've had two plants completely uprooted and removed from a one gallon pot. They both survived. Constantly small holes in the beds and pots. One plant in the new raised bed was completely buried under soil. It is not as bad with the mulch down but still irritating. Most of the dirt is recycled and it is entirely possible that there are acorns in there. The plants are just colateral damage and not the target.

I am long past the desire to remove small animals from their existance, but I find myself thinking about the 22's I have, or putting up copy's of my rifle expert medal with roadkill under it!

Like the aphids, as long as I can get the plants beyond the young adult stage I think they can handle themselves with mild attention.

I can see the cruise control around the corner, but not yet there.

Getting lite rain drizzle here today so it will be muddy working!

Mike

GA Growhead · Apr 6, 2014

Would a toy snake or two keep the squirrels away?

Devv · Apr 6, 2014

cone9 said:
I don't know, Scott, I may have to stop reading this glog - all this talk of pods ripening and onions bolting and cruise controling while I'm sitting here watching a light frost burn off the back yard grass!

You're corrupting me. Envy is a sin!

So would it bad to mention the corn is a foot tall and the tomato plants are loading up? :shh:

I know how hard it is to wait until it's warm enough to plant, my wait just starts earlier, and my season ends sooner as well. Yours will be in full swing and I'll be pulling up plants in July. My brother lives in Ohio and says he grows until late October.

So it's all relevant

Jeff H said:
Plants look great, but when do we get to see the raised bed construction? That is all the rage this spring.

Actually I was on the tractor today for a few hours leveling a spot. I had to remove about 8 yds of dirt that was a berm for drainage, a secondary overflow berm. Being it doesn't rain enough to use them anymore I figured what the heck.

Tomorrow I'm going to buy some rebar (have a note on my cell) and start working on it.

capsidadburn said:
The squirrels are digging Scott. At first it was cute to observe their excitement of the new bed not realizing I was standing 3 feet away watching them drool over the possibilities. I've had two plants completely uprooted and removed from a one gallon pot. They both survived. Constantly small holes in the beds and pots. One plant in the new raised bed was completely buried under soil. It is not as bad with the mulch down but still irritating. Most of the dirt is recycled and it is entirely possible that there are acorns in there. The plants are just colateral damage and not the target.

I am long past the desire to remove small animals from their existance, but I find myself thinking about the 22's I have, or putting up copy's of my rifle expert medal with roadkill under it!

Like the aphids, as long as I can get the plants beyond the young adult stage I think they can handle themselves with mild attention.

I can see the cruise control around the corner, but not yet there.

Getting lite rain drizzle here today so it will be muddy working!

Mike

I have a few hit the garden but they don't go there much. two seasons ago the leaves I brought home had acorns, I tilled them under in the fall, come spring we had a lot of squirrels in there but they never hurt anything. And dang it if I didn't have to pull hundreds of little Oak seedlings out.

We had the same weather here, the mulch between rows made things less muddy, so I worked the mulch for a few hours.

And yeah I don't want to hurt mine, I enjoy watching them raid the dog food bowl

GA Growhead said:
Would a toy snake or two keep the squirrels away?

I was trying to think of something to deter them, it's worth a try, and maybe fox or coyote scent?

cone9 · Apr 6, 2014

Devv said:
I was trying to think of something to deter them, it's worth a try, and maybe fox or coyote scent?

Maybe, but only if it was via direct deposit from a live fox or a live coyote!

I think squirrels are the most difficult pest to deter. They are just too smart. They strip every peach from my tree every year before the fruit is even as large as a pecan. Last year I wired rat traps among the lower branches with foot long strips of wood attached to the trap arms (you want a good laugh, try to picture me resetting them and getting slapped a couple times with my own booby traps) I figured I might be able to scare the squirrels away from the tree. Nope! In no time they didn't even bump the traps enough to trigger them.

The little buggers are good to eat, though.

Devv · Apr 6, 2014

Huh, birds hit my fruits, never have been able to eat a grape, and they ruin most of the pears and peaches. Haven't seen the Squirrels after them yet, although they go after the Strawberries, which we use screens to cover the pots.

They're smart, fast, and agile, but the dogs do get one every so often. Probably why they don't bother the trees, no safe path for them.

Peptacular · Apr 6, 2014

Wow, inspirational stuff! Super explosive glog too. Information overload for the likes of me.

Devv · Apr 7, 2014

Peptacular said:
Wow, inspirational stuff! Super explosive glog too. Information overload for the likes of me.

Thanks!

Still trying to get up to speed now that they're in the dirt, been a bit cooler than I had hoped, 43° this AM. Real cool for here this time of the year.

So here's my start on the second raised bed, definitely an experiment on my part.

I moved this much dirt to level the spot, distance to the fence is about 28yds. That pile is 8-10"s high.

Got started and the weather changed, got dark and windy. Certainly don't need this kind of rain. Red usually means hail, and it did, but not here.

What you see here is what we call the Devine split. This is a normal occurrence, the cell splits and we get close to nada. Once again, normal here.

As far as I got today, had the wood and metal chop saws out and had to put everything up. Notice I was behaving and drinking water..LOL

After a brief .2" shower I went out and hit the plants with a 100% dose of my fert recipe. Been going slow trying to NOT burn them, but damn it they are still yellow sorry looking specimens. Hoping that kick starts them.

Well at least we didn't get the hail.

Thanks for reading!

HillBilly Jeff · Apr 7, 2014

Glad the hail missed you. Are you nailing the timbers together? I am planing on using heavy duty screws on mine. Going to get started on em tomorrow after I pick up more timbers lol. Like your dirt move....that is always the hardest back breakingest part of it all.

OCD Chilehead · Apr 7, 2014

Nice looking beds. I was thinking drilling and staking mine down with rebar. Will that work? Hope it warms up a bit for you.

Roguejim · Apr 7, 2014

Wow, my raised beds look piddly by comparison! If I might ask, why don't you pull the wood chips up around the base of the plants? Just learning, here.

Blister · Apr 7, 2014

Love the raised beds. They are so much easier to weed and they tend to be warmer than simply planting in the ground. I did potatoes, spinach and onions in them a few years back. It was a really wet year. I had spinach like you wouldn't believe and my potatoes were the size of softballs. The onions weren't bad, but all the rain we had seemed to produce a really mild onion. Years before we had onions that would make your eyes water when someone was cutting them in the kitchen and you were in the next room. Oh sooooo good though!

Neil

Jeff H · Apr 8, 2014

Raised bed is looking good Scott.

Pulpiteer · Apr 8, 2014

That's fascinating that the storms miss you like that. What is the cause? Is there a river there or something? All of that stuff just amazes me - there are so many variables and causal connections in life, a ton of them that contribute to weather patterns.
Is that new raised bed in the shade? What kind of trees are those? You folks in the south have to worry about heat in a way that is foreign to me up north, so it's interesting to see.

Devv · Apr 8, 2014

OCD Chilehead said:
Nice looking beds. I was thinking drilling and staking mine down with rebar. Will that work? Hope it warms up a bit for you.

Hi OCD!

HillBilly Jeff said:
Glad the hail missed you. Are you nailing the timbers together? I am planing on using heavy duty screws on mine. Going to get started on em tomorrow after I pick up more timbers lol. Like your dirt move....that is always the hardest back breakingest part of it all.

Hi Jeff,

Don't need hail at my house!

I'm using 3/8" rebar cut to 5.5"s, drill a 3/8" hole with a wood bit and hammer the rebar. It hammers like nails and fits tightly. I bought 40' for less than $7.00

Roguejim said:
Wow, my raised beds look piddly by comparison! If I might ask, why don't you pull the wood chips up around the base of the plants? Just learning, here.

Hi Jim,

I guess you're talking about in the garden. If I mulch all the way to the plants it messes with the flood irrigation, it all dams up at the stem of the plant.

Blister said:
Love the raised beds. They are so much easier to weed and they tend to be warmer than simply planting in the ground. I did potatoes, spinach and onions in them a few years back. It was a really wet year. I had spinach like you wouldn't believe and my potatoes were the size of softballs. The onions weren't bad, but all the rain we had seemed to produce a really mild onion. Years before we had onions that would make your eyes water when someone was cutting them in the kitchen and you were in the next room. Oh sooooo good though!

Neil

Hi Neil,

These beds are mainly for the wife, kinda gives her, her own space. They're right out the back door and will be easy to manage. We have to learn, this is experiment season. I'm hoping to make two more.

Jeff H said:
Raised bed is looking good Scott.

Thanks Jeff!

What little I got done before the weather kicked up

Pulpiteer said:
That's fascinating that the storms miss you like that. What is the cause? Is there a river there or something? All of that stuff just amazes me - there are so many variables and causal connections in life, a ton of them that contribute to weather patterns.
Is that new raised bed in the shade? What kind of trees are those? You folks in the south have to worry about heat in a way that is foreign to me up north, so it's interesting to see.

Hi Andy!

That storm was red all the way to Uvalde, and then started shrinking up. Really had me worried at first, if it had been thicker north to south we would have been slammed. I feel the reason they split is the contour of the land, we're around 200' above the town of Devine, so they split and go around us. Many times coming back together after they pass.

The beds are in semi shade, and for the obvious reason down here, intense sun and heat. Trying to use a natural sun shade, if they need to be moved I can push or drag them with the tractor. But I think they're good there, we had a Lime tree under that tree last season and it grew like crazy.

The tree is a Live Oak, really interesting trees. Usually between mid Feb, and early March the leaves turn brown and drop. The new leaves are already growing and then they flower and set acorns. The wood is really heavy and the grain is in a pattern I would call "puzzle pieces". It's extremely had to split by hand. They are prized down here for their beauty and shade.

Thanks for stopping by!