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Post by oldmobie on Jun 23, 2018 22:57:45 GMT -5
The problem is in sorting them out carefully. I saw a mention when I googled of float sorting them in a saline solution. I think the ergot infected seeds float, the normal ones sink. I'll look into it for harvest time. Hopefully that will work with plain water, too. I can't imagine salt would be good for seed viability.
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Post by oldmobie on Jun 23, 2018 22:20:55 GMT -5
The latter grasses look like Rye to me. The long seeds that stick out are not seeds but ergot. Do not eat the ergot. I'd already eaten one. It didn't taste the same as a ripe wheat, so I concluded it either isn't ripe, or isn't wheat. After your comment, I googled ergot. Then I googled ergotism. I agree: I won't eat that any more. After the enlarged seeds are removed, can the normal seeds be made safe for human or animal consumption? Or should it be destroyed?
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Post by oldmobie on Jun 23, 2018 18:39:13 GMT -5
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Post by oldmobie on Jun 23, 2018 18:26:42 GMT -5
...and I've never seen potato plants as tall as this years volunteers. (They volunteered in the tomato bed, so they got sheep and goat manure. Hope they're makin spuds, not just tops.) See what I mean?
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Post by oldmobie on Jun 23, 2018 18:09:27 GMT -5
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Post by oldmobie on Jun 19, 2018 17:43:49 GMT -5
I,ve wondered about about big taproots on radishes, I,ve heard that they allow land to better drain in clay soil, but I wonder (probable) if that also speeds up nitrogens ability to leech past the root zone. I guess maybe a trade of some sorts, seeing how some of clays retention ability is useful, and in some ways it's not. I guess with beans you don't have to worry about leaching. * I guess I maybe referencing a post on page 2 and didn't realize where in terms of pages I was, better late than never... I've tried to use radishes and carrots to decompact my soil. I didn't really have much success. Others seem to succeed, so don't be discouraged by my results. For me, larger varieties either end up stunted, or grow with about the same amount of root below ground, but extend up several inches, with the leaves starting higher from the ground. I've been having great success this year with my broadfork I got for Christmas. Immediately after use, the bed where I used it will be about 2"-3" higher than the surrounding soil. I never realized it was THAT compacted. I suppose it will recompact over time. I really should start spreading organic matter (like manure, straw, leaves, grass clippings) before broadforking. Whatever works it's way below the surface should help delay recompaction. Notice the slope down on the left side, just before the mulch starts? That was level before broadforking. On the right, that walkway was broadforked, but walking on it is starting to recompact it. Same in the picture below: the path was broadforked, but we walk on it. In the foreground, I didn't broadfork, because that's an area where we buried sticks last season for some hugelculture style decompaction.
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Post by oldmobie on Jun 18, 2018 19:41:05 GMT -5
Crap. My carrot for seed rotted off. Probably overwatered. On the other hand, beans are starting to bloom, radishes were harvested today, tomatoes (store bought) are loading up with green fruit, first patch of sweet corn is around a foot high, cucumbers and squash are up, most of the pepper transplants and all of the homegrown tomato transplants lived, and I've never seen potato plants as tall as this years volunteers. (They volunteered in the tomato bed, so they got sheep and goat manure. Hope they're makin spuds, not just tops.) Then there's the garlic. One bed left alone to make seeds, another transplanted into mel's mix last year, and de-scaped this year to try for respectably sized bulbs. I pulled one up today to check. Not a record breaker, but not bad. Knowing that I hadn't dried it down for storage, about four cloves went into tonight's roast, the rest into a jar of store bought kosher dills.
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Post by oldmobie on Jun 4, 2018 22:49:22 GMT -5
Aquaponic peanuts started blooming two days ago. My aquaponic sweet potatoes have little bud things. Maybe blooms? Hope I get to join the TSPS club.
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Post by oldmobie on May 28, 2018 15:37:55 GMT -5
That bamboo variety is a real spreader. I found getting a piece of it to grow works better to cut off the all growth, just bury a section of root in a pot keep damp and cool, it soon pops up, its hard to kill stuff really. Most of the top growth has broken off anyway. If it takes, that means I can at least prune future transplants low enough to keep them bottom heavy. So what do you transplant? Just the underground shoot tip and some root?
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Post by oldmobie on May 28, 2018 5:01:04 GMT -5
Not looking too bad this year. I suspect it's because things are living off of food stored in their seeds, tubers, etc. The potatoes have the whole tuber in the ground. The beans and sunflowers have just germinated. The sweet potatoes were starts, (in a 6 pack) so they have a bit of soil among their roots. The possible exception is these little purple guys. I think they're amaranth. Amaranth seeds are tiny. If I'm right, these must be getting enough (or nearly enough) organic matter from the system! I'm likely gonna add a wicking bed. (Jack Spirko style) I'm also thinking of pushing sticks into the sand. Or burying them. Kinda borrow the hugelculture idea. Organic matter, added with minimal disturbance of my current plantings.
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Post by oldmobie on May 28, 2018 2:44:45 GMT -5
Green beans starting to fill in: Trying out bamboo transplanted into pots. If it takes, I may have something to sell. Another attempt at covercropping for weed control. Working better than it usually does for me. (So far.) My garlic is scaping. I pulled the scapes out of my bulb production bed. Of course I left the scapes on the seed production bed. I sauteed most of the removed scapes with salt and canola oil. Kind of a green bean / asparagus effect. The smell is too aired out now for me to smell it, but I bet I won't see a vampire in my kitchen for like... a month. Most of my fall planted grains didn't make it, but one is nearly ready to harvest, maybe. I'm not familiar enought to say if it's wheat, rye, or barley. Maybe when I harvest. Spring planted grains look good, but are far from producing.
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Post by oldmobie on May 20, 2018 18:50:15 GMT -5
I have one carrot that survived last winter in-ground. It's not blooming yet, but it's from seed Joseph Lofthouse sent me, so I expect it to produce pollen of it's own. There's a common weed around here that I never paid attention to before. It's leaves and blooms are pretty carrot like, so I looked it up. Poison hemlock. It's all over the neighborhood, but I have a stand of it you can't even see through, ~100-150 yards from my carrot. If blooming coincides, is the pollen likely to travel that far? How likely is the carrot to be compatible? Are carrots self-compatible? If I end up with a carrot / hemlock cross, is it 50%-50% odds it'll be poisonous? Or more like it WILL be poisonous, but less so than pure hemlock? If crossing and poisonous offspring are possible, is there a reasonable way to mitigate the danger? I'd sooner dispose of the carrot before it flowers than risk poisoning myself or someone else, but I hope it won't come to that. Carrots aren't very happy in my garden. I'd love to adapt them.
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Post by oldmobie on May 13, 2018 21:17:32 GMT -5
... My skills are NOT sufficient to the task. I had every intention to raise my skill level and do it anyway, but it would appear to also be outside the scope of app inventor. I searched the play store again and found gardenize. It does a lot of what I wanted, so I've been using it. My biggest dislike so far is that the export feature is only in the pro version. Can't fault the dev, though, I was gonna monetize if I built something.
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Post by oldmobie on May 13, 2018 21:05:45 GMT -5
Got around too late to plant regular peas. Still plan to plant proto heat tolerant. Planted green beans and teparies yesterday. Thirty-two feet of ~ one foot bed, nine hills per square foot (a hill every three inches in every direction). Planted sweet mint in a semi-contained space, plus two cuttings for the aquaponic grow bed. Sweet potatoes are in, regular potatoes, too. Garlic seems happier this year, especially the ones transplanted into mel's mix / potting soil (out of compacted clay). A handful of transplants are ready, including a few tomatoes, several grains, and a couple of what I think are alfalfa. Gonna have to buy tomato plants. Trying to supress weeds in a few beds with a covercrop mix I made from radish, turnip, amaranth, and orach. Look out. My best growing bamboo is finally ready to divide. I dug and potted three transplants, to see if I can get it to live. Maybe I can sell some. My original start was a Christmas gift. About five or six years ago, it was in a pot pretty much like the middle one. It may have been the same pot. Here it is today:
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Post by oldmobie on Apr 25, 2018 16:28:06 GMT -5
Another outstanding example of "intelligent design". Can't survive the inhospitible winter alone, so hunker under a wool blanket with a warm animal. (Put small size and firm grip to good ewes.) Sounds reasonably intelligent...
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