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Post by raymondo on Nov 21, 2013 5:46:42 GMT -5
Having sown two seeds per hole, I have two plants in a couple of places. I'll transplant these to fill out the patch a little then plant the rest with a white and yellow selection of my AD. Shouldn't really call it AD I suppose since I've blended in other corns. Perhaps Mad, standing for my Astronomy Domine, or Rad, for Ray's Astronomy Domine! Actually, I like Rad.
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Post by copse on Nov 21, 2013 19:33:17 GMT -5
In my case, the ground is littered with thistles. So when I dig up a patch, I spend ages grubbing thistles at least once a week. Smaller area and less thistle grubbing sounds good me to. What type of thistles do you mainly do battle with No idea, they just look like thistles to me :-)
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Post by DarJones on Nov 21, 2013 19:40:06 GMT -5
Rad Ray might be a hit. Call it Rad Ray corn.
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Post by richardw on Nov 22, 2013 12:51:08 GMT -5
What type of thistles do you mainly do battle with No idea, they just look like thistles to me :-) If you are dealing with the Californian thistles these are different from the others,although the aerial parts die down in winter, the plants survive by their extensive underground root system. Because of this all the individuals in a patch of thistles are all exactly the same plant - and that plant is either male or female! It’s very rare for Californian thistle seedlings to grow successfully in long pasture but love bare soil.i find that as soon as i see one individual plant i dribble some roundup over it before its able to establish the under ground network.All other thistles i hoe off and add to the compost heap.
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Post by steev on Nov 22, 2013 21:00:15 GMT -5
Interesting; although as a native Californian, I could take issue with the notion that our native thistles could be a problem versus immigrants like star thistle (from SoHem, last I heard). However, I accept that what is growing is what must be dealt with, no moral value entailed. I'm thinking the neighbor's sheep, grazing my land, will go a long way toward clearing up my thistle problem, regardless of its provenance.
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Post by richardw on Nov 23, 2013 13:12:45 GMT -5
Well ok if you wish to take issue you are more than welcome to come and repatriate this most unwanted of pest plants.
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Post by 12540dumont on Nov 23, 2013 13:52:31 GMT -5
I agree. I've tried many things that other farmers have sworn by....
Raised beds in boxes, become coffins for veges in my dry climate.
The 3 sisters do fine here, IF, you plant the corn far enough apart and pick the right bean. Ahh, there's the rub. Also here it works fine if you forget trying to put any beans in the middle and concentrate the beans to the outside. I put the squash in the middle, and it grows to the outside edge......and beyond.
Many heirlooms do terrible here. I received some wonderful Brussel Sprouts from Lieven. I'll be derned if I can get them to grow here.
Other things just take more time. The first time I grew okra, I got one pod...maybe 2. This year I got hundreds of these. I have a whole tub of pods to seed. It's almost like I had to grow it out, save the seed, replant and Voila!
So my experiments look like this. 1. Year one Plant something new and throw my arms up in disgust. 2. Year two Plant the seeds of the plant that I threw my arms up in disgust about, prepare for mild surprise. 3. Year three Plant the seeds from year 2, prepare for onslaught of overabundance.
1. Year one plant trial. Ask who's stoopid design was this? 2. Year two plant new trial. Severely tweak last years design. 3. Spend hours on the internet and talking with other folks to find a better design. 4. Year four success at last.
There are plants that just don't do well here, techniques that are fruitless and sometimes weather and life conspire to make a bloody mess of the whole thing.
With corn, I've had a wide range of experience regarding spacing. Some of this corn thinks it wants 24 inches between the plants and rows!
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Post by blueadzuki on Nov 23, 2013 18:28:08 GMT -5
Sounds a bit like me except in my case it's more like
1.Year one, plant something new and suffer a failure rate of 99-100% 2a. Year two, plant the seed from whatever made it through year one and suffer a 99-100% failure rate again, becuse the conditions that year are the diametric opposite of whatever they were the previos year 2b. Knowing that the condtions are going to be diametrically opposite, skip planting the seed from last year and instead plant the seed from the year before........and suffer 99-100% dailure because the condtions are the same 2c if try and trick it out by planting both last years and the years before (on the grounds that one or the other has to be right) get condtions that are fatal for BOTH of them. 3. Begin to wonder if there is some sort of divine message in this about the futility of trying to garden here. Brood on this and begin to wonder if said futility in fact applies to ALL my endevors of any sort. Become depressed,or stubborn or bitter. 4. If either of the latter two, repeat process.
I wish I could paint a more postive picture, but there it is. By now I practically go into the year with no hope, and have begun to wonder if the few times things actually do work a bit are no so much miracles of sucess as fate setting me up to make the failure down the road all the more painful.
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Post by templeton on Nov 23, 2013 20:22:20 GMT -5
...and then someone offers you a surefire method/variety/soil amendment, and the hope rises again, until...the watering system fails/you do your shoulder/the boss starts checking your time sheets/you develop an allergy to said crop/the blackbirds dig it all up...at which time you count your blessings that in a rare moment of whimsy, you sowed cornflowers and poppies and love-in-a-mist, turn your back on the crops and enjoy the display, then go inside to watch the aussies thrash England in the first cricket test, drink beer, and realise life is still good while we can give it to the pommie bastards...
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Post by blueadzuki on Nov 23, 2013 23:10:44 GMT -5
In my case you'd have to replace blackbirds with squirrels/chipmunks/voles, the poppies with pansies, the cornflowers with grasspeas,and the love-in-a-mist with love-in-a-puff. I'll leave the cricket and beer to you.
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Post by richardw on Nov 23, 2013 23:58:54 GMT -5
...and then someone offers you a surefire method/variety/soil amendment, and the hope rises again, until...the watering system fails/you do your shoulder/the boss starts checking your time sheets/you develop an allergy to said crop/the blackbirds dig it all up...at which time you count your blessings that in a rare moment of whimsy, you sowed cornflowers and poppies and love-in-a-mist, turn your back on the crops and enjoy the display, then go inside to watch the aussies thrash England in the first cricket test, drink beer, and realise life is still good while we can give it to the pommie bastards... I get the feeling you take your cricket rather seriously
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Post by templeton on Nov 24, 2013 17:59:09 GMT -5
...and then someone offers you a surefire method/variety/soil amendment, and the hope rises again, until...the watering system fails/you do your shoulder/the boss starts checking your time sheets/you develop an allergy to said crop/the blackbirds dig it all up...at which time you count your blessings that in a rare moment of whimsy, you sowed cornflowers and poppies and love-in-a-mist, turn your back on the crops and enjoy the display, then go inside to watch the aussies thrash England in the first cricket test, drink beer, and realise life is still good while we can give it to the pommie bastards... I get the feeling you take your cricket rather seriously Nah, can't take any cricket seriously after all the match rigging scandals. But there is something about the examination of character that test cricket throws up - But since most of our NH friends think we are talking about Orthoptera, back to the corn, I reckon.
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Post by blueadzuki on Nov 24, 2013 20:03:38 GMT -5
Reminds me of a conversation I had back in college
Me "What to you think of anime?" Other person "Don't know. Who's Annie Mae?"
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Post by RpR on Nov 25, 2013 0:26:16 GMT -5
I would think that is very debatable. What book is that? I would like to take a look. I would think that making more efficient use of fertilizer would be a good thing, as is conserving water. There are possibly many holes in that theory, including what type of corn is being grown, whether you are using organic, chemical, or no fertilizers, what the climate is like, where the seed is sourced from, etc... There are a lot of variables to consider. And frankly, even if some of the crops do not produce to maximum yield per acre, if you are spending less money and resources on water, fertilizer, etc., and growing more organically, that's a tradeoff I'd choose to make. The booklet, which is not cheap, and is small, is available from Redwood City Seeds. It was written by Craig Dremann. In it, the only thing that really is a even half-hearted good companion, with anything, is garlic. He did the tests after he read an article on Carrots Love Tomatoes and found out if you hate your tomatoes plant them by carrots. On a scale of 0 to 100, tomatoes planted by carrots gave a return of 6. Now this has nothing to do with the efficiency, but if you have been to Southwestern U.S., you would see, was done of necessity, but simply addresses the fact that plants generally do not like to be close to plants of a different species and have allelopathic qualities to deal with this.
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Post by steev on Nov 25, 2013 0:29:00 GMT -5
Orthoptera? Hell, no! We beat the Brits in 1778, or so (1812 was inconclusive, even if they did burn the White House). Oh, wait, you were talking about sport; who cares about cricket? Now, ferret-legging, there's a sport!
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