windchicken 2015

KiNGDeNNiZ · May 5, 2015

Looks great...

windchicken · May 5, 2015

Thanks KD!

mpicante · May 6, 2015

Looking great Gary!I like the row of PRIMO'S.Expert gardening at its best.

PaulS · May 6, 2015

Looks awesome. Are the tanks in the background your water supply?

Trippa · May 6, 2015

Awesome garden bed there Gary. I am/was/will looking at doing RCW in at least one of my new beds I am putting down now for next spring (September/October/November plant out depending on Weather). However I will likely have a hard time sourcing enough small branch Hardwood chips here in New Zealand as most native trees (all?) Are non-deciduous soft woods and plantation forest trees all soft wood conifers (radiata pine)
I may be able to get enough branches from planted hardwood Exotic trees in gardens/farms and orchard trimmings but I am curious what were your tree types used in your beds?

windchicken · May 6, 2015

mpicante said:
Looking great Gary!I like the row of PRIMO'S.Expert gardening at its best.

Wow, thanks Florisa!

PaulS said:
Looks awesome. Are the tanks in the background your water supply?

Thanks Paul! That's a disused salt water tank from the gas field.

Trippa said:
Awesome garden bed there Gary. I am/was/will looking at doing RCW in at least one of my new beds I am putting down now for next spring (September/October/November plant out depending on Weather). However I will likely have a hard time sourcing enough small branch Hardwood chips here in New Zealand as most native trees (all?) Are non-deciduous soft woods and plantation forest trees all soft wood conifers (radiata pine)
I may be able to get enough branches from planted hardwood Exotic trees in gardens/farms and orchard trimmings but I am curious what were your tree types used in your beds?

Thanks Trippa! All my RCW is from oak branches. I recently became aware how little hardwood there is in Australia and New Zealand, in an FB RCW group…I'm thinking there may be a business opportunity there.

If you are on FB, the group is maintained by a guy in Perth…

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1378863849066804/

Trippa · May 6, 2015

windchicken said:
Wow, thanks Florisa!

Thanks Paul! That's a disused salt water tank from the gas field.

Thanks Trippa! All my RCW is from oak branches. I recently became aware how little hardwood there is in Australia and New Zealand, in an FB RCW groupI'm thinking there may be a business opportunity there.

If you are on FB, the group is maintained by a guy in Perth

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1378863849066804/

Cheers Gary!! Much appreciated ... Yeah basically just what has been planted in gardens and Farms here in NZ ... I have access to 2 small orchards and 2 farms with a few Oaks/Sycamores/English Plain trees and poplars scattered about so may have to lop off some low hanging branches and in the case of the sycamores get all the little saplings that pop up ... Will see how I go .. Cheers for the link!

windchicken · May 11, 2015

Trippa said:
Cheers Gary!! Much appreciated ... Yeah basically just what has been planted in gardens and Farms here in NZ ... I have access to 2 small orchards and 2 farms with a few Oaks/Sycamores/English Plain trees and poplars scattered about so may have to lop off some low hanging branches and in the case of the sycamores get all the little saplings that pop up ... Will see how I go .. Cheers for the link!

I'll be interested to see how the fruit tree trimmings work. Several of the Aussie growers are doing the same thing, with apparently good results.

I am now way more grateful to be living in a place where hardwoods are such a part of the landscape that we take them for granted. In fact, some of the pine tree farmers here will actually kill all the hardwoods on newly purchased land…It breaks my heart to see the huge piles of burning oak... :tear:

windchicken · May 12, 2015

The last of the super hots are finally in the dirt: Butch Taylor's Mississippi Scorpion in the DeSoto Parish "Executive Bed:"

MeatHead1313 · May 12, 2015

Picture perfect plants as always Gary! What's hiding under the shade cloth?

windchicken · May 12, 2015

MeatHead1313 said:
Picture perfect plants as always Gary! What's hiding under the shade cloth?

Thanks so much, Chris! It's down to the C. annuum plants in the tent now. Those little ones on the corner are NuMex Jalmundo, for my brother, then there are 25 plants of New Mexico chile: 15 of Lumbre, and 10 of Big Jim Legacy, from chileseedusa.com. Also, out of the photo, are Carlos Orellana's Chile de Arbol "Stubby" var. (an impossibly hot C. annuum) and SmiterQ's Texas Pequin...

Scorched · May 12, 2015

Wow, nice glog! You've got really beautiful plants. I'm going to have to do some reading on RCW. I've heard of it before but not 100% on the process. Looks like results are pretty amazing.

Have never heard of the Mississippi Scorpion. I'm really curious to see how this one turns out. And Primo seeds right from his own personal garden? Doesn't get any better than that. Hope your have an excellent season with massive harvests. I look forward to following along

windchicken · May 13, 2015

Scorched said:
Wow, nice glog! You've got really beautiful plants. I'm going to have to do some reading on RCW. I've heard of it before but not 100% on the process. Looks like results are pretty amazing.

Have never heard of the Mississippi Scorpion. I'm really curious to see how this one turns out. And Primo seeds right from his own personal garden? Doesn't get any better than that. Hope your have an excellent season with massive harvests. I look forward to following along

Thanks Chris! If you really want to follow up on RCW (or as I like to call it, Building Forest Soil), here's the paper that started it all for me, all those years ago. I can't emphasize enough how it changed the way I look at and think about soil, agriculture, and how things work:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/61900856/Original_Lemieux_Paper.pdf

The Mississippi Scorpions were started from seeds I collected from pods Butch Taylor sent me last summer. So I'm growing the landrace super hots from both banks of the Mississippi River…I feel real lucky to be living where I am right now.

Scorched · May 13, 2015

Thanks for the link! And pods direct from Butch Taylor is pretty sweet.

windchicken · May 13, 2015

Scorched said:
Thanks for the link! And pods direct from Butch Taylor is pretty sweet.

Please, if you have any questions at all about RCW, please don't be shy. I've made just about every mistake possible several times. I believe I've just about got it figured out, and it does my heart more good than you can imagine to see others building soil the way the forest has for millenia.

Butch and Troy are both super cool guys—no ego at all. Most all of the "rock star" chile growers seem to be really nice, no-b.s. guys...

Datil · May 15, 2015

Excellent work as always Gary!
Your plants and soil look so healthy!

windchicken said:
Also, out of the photo, are Carlos Orellana's Chile de Arbol "Stubby" var. (an impossibly hot C. annuum)

I will beg for seeds of this one at some point

Cya

Datil

windchicken · May 15, 2015

Datil said:
Excellent work as always Gary!
Your plants and soil look so healthy!

I will beg for seeds of this one at some point

Cya

Datil

Thanks, Fabrizio! That particular chile is made to order for you, my friend…I just may have a few pods of air-dried (viable) "Stubby" Chile de Arbol….

Update on the Pilot Bed this morning. That's Spicegeist's wonderful f4 Bonda Man Jacques x 7 Pot Yellow on the left, and Bhut Orange Copenhagen on the right:

checkerkitty · May 16, 2015

Beautiful, beautiful! I hope your season keeps going well. You're certainly off to an incredible start!

windchicken · May 18, 2015

checkerkitty said:
Beautiful, beautiful! I hope your season keeps going well. You're certainly off to an incredible start!

Thanks Christy!

meatfreak · May 18, 2015

Love those chipped beds

Best of luck, G!