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Post by mountaindweller on Mar 5, 2014 20:22:22 GMT -5
I looked in the thread about tools and there was this picture of oxbow farm's greenhouse. It really makes my fingers itchy, I would immediately obsessively collect all the stones and pile them up where they disturb most. When I start a new bed from new ground I try to remove all the stones and as we have fill big concrete lumps boulders and such, and once you start you just dig a little bit deeper and find even more stones. What do you do? How do roots grow with that many stones are they all crocked? On the other hand stones so conserve moisture and heat.If you dig them all out you are left with a huge pile of stones you don't really know what to do with.
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Post by steev on Mar 5, 2014 21:25:18 GMT -5
I keep piles as snake/lizard refuges, until I find another use.
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Post by richardw on Mar 6, 2014 13:07:59 GMT -5
If you have just too much stone you would be better to bring in soil and build up the bed above.Either that you build a greenhouse outa all that stone.
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Post by longhorngardens on Mar 6, 2014 13:34:30 GMT -5
The stones would probably drive my nuts. I too would most likely try to remove them, but I think it may be an exercise in futility. The more you remove the more probably work their way up. I would love to hear more about it though from Oxbow.
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Post by 12540dumont on Mar 6, 2014 14:50:19 GMT -5
Each year Oxbow gives me as many quarry stones as I want. And then he sends me on my way with fresh ice cream from his cows and more seed than I can plant.
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Post by mountaindweller on Mar 6, 2014 18:50:12 GMT -5
I was amazed to see the picture. And I really ask myself is it a futile task to remove all these stones? Does oxbow do the right thing and simply leave them were they are? It is a bit like weeding, some plants don't like weeds but others as soon as they are bigger don't bother, but still many people weed all the time.
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Post by oxbowfarm on Mar 6, 2014 19:06:22 GMT -5
It isn't that big of a deal. Most crops grow fine. The rocks create a situation where the soil drains like gravel even though the texture is silt loam. I do have some trouble germinating small slow germinating crops like carrots because the soil surface tends to dry out very quickly. It is also sometimes challenging to cultivate. I tend to transplant many things that are often direct seeded by other folks. I grow pretty much everything and feed my family off this soil, and this land has been farmed for over 150 years. The very large rocks I remove and pile up as they appear because they are hard on my equipment. It is a very difficult soil to dig holes in, but I do it all the time. It is also a soil that is very unfriendly to a rototiller, I rarely use the tiller since I got a Berta rotary plow.
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Post by mountaindweller on Mar 6, 2014 20:42:30 GMT -5
Your solution is seedlings. I don't do much seedlings other than maybe tomato celeriac or leeks and the like. Maybe you use the stones to keep your carrots moist, if you don't forget to remove them after germinating. At least this inspires me to TRY very hard to keep some stones in place.
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Post by steev on Mar 6, 2014 22:22:48 GMT -5
My farm's soil being mostly silt, my only issue with stone is that I see no point in hitting the same stone repeatedly with my tiller, so I toss them into the tree-lanes (with the slash) where I don't till. If they're of any size (half a grapefruit) I'll use them for something, one day; meanwhile, they're rodentivore habitat.
The neighbor's horses having utterly denuded the south ten acres, I am tempted to go around gathering the exposed stones; ya know, I just don't think I have the time/energy.
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Post by richardw on Mar 7, 2014 13:15:33 GMT -5
My neighbours paddocks would be at least 50% rocks and not small rocks either,the largest would be the size of footballs,luckily they dont garden.
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Post by steev on Mar 8, 2014 1:40:20 GMT -5
So is your area entirely alluvial?
Mine is silt, and the stones are river-rock (to my eye) but I've no idea how it got there, being well above the current streams (seasonal) and there being no rivers. Pretty old deposits, I think; extremely non-organic, sure drains well, though.
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Post by richardw on Mar 8, 2014 4:18:46 GMT -5
So is your area entirely alluvial? Yep,about half way down our 5 hectare property is a creek bed crosses over which mainly flows in winter,about 100m either side there's about 30cm of heavy soil over top of 1/2m clay then into alluvial shingle.At the northern end there is very little soil,mainly just straight into stone/shingle.
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