Post by copse on Jan 7, 2016 19:40:47 GMT -5
No drought. Don't recall mention of drought here at all, thankfully. Hope things have gotten better for you since November. A lot of my projects this year are to see how well things will do if I don't water them, or weed beyond essentials, and the grass and weeds are out of control here.
I was curious whether the wire netting layer over the corn seedlings, would protect them from birds and more importantly, the chickens considering they were in the open paddock with unfenced chickens. Netting was laid, holes were just poked in the ground, seedlings were dropped in, and then watered until I was satisfied they were on their way. After that I just left them.
The painted mountain.. I guess I can still see the odd one.
The bloody butcher I am happier with. Next year, I'm going to stick with this variety, and do a lot more of them in the same way.
For my yams/oca this year, I've been wanting to try something I saw suggested somewhere. Namely, that yams don't take off until later, and that it should be possible to plant late and see the same sort of results. I kept three egg cartons of what little survived last years planting (some pest took bites out of many before they were ready to harvest) and they're at the stage where they've almost exhausted the tubers into sprouts.
I've had yams in the open paddock before, and the big danger from chickens in my experience, is that they see the red yams in the soil, and scratch at them because they think it's a hint of worms. Given a success with open paddock corn planting, with vigorous chicken scratching around them, I've continued with my wire netting chicken protection.
I'm too lazy to take a better photo of the broad bean landrace, but it's poor state can be seen at the back. They have not been watered, and to some degree have suffered from it. But the real damage was done by the grass and thistles which grew to overshadow them. It of course made it humid and caused insect and disease damage. This is fine, and there's plenty of seed for replanting next year, but I was disappointed not to see obvious candidates for selection among the different varieties which had done better than others.
The peas have grown well, with perhaps one watering. Next year, I might try a pea landrace. And the potatoes along the right hand side, are Vivaldi leading back to moimoi. The real damage was done to the moimoi by the chickens, when they got into the shed and kicked over the tray containing the sprouting seed potatoes, and mixed them all up with other varieties. However, I've had volunteer moimoi elsewhere where the discarded soil the seed was grown in, has resulted in obvious plants growing in strange locations.
If only dock was a crop with potential. Or californian thistle.
The pumpkin landrace has been kept moderately clear of grass, by the chickens. I've been experimenting to see how big the pumpkins need to be, before I can remove the protective netting from the seedlings, and any chicken scratching around it causes no damage to the plants. A smaller sized plant can be seen left just past the buttercup, which is how small I went. In the end though, I gave up on the netting, and just used large stones around the seedlings as chicken protection.
And there's a volunteer closer to the house, which may be close enough to cross with.
Scarlett runner bean tipi are at the height I would expect. One of these has a row of gila indian bean at the front. The large stone mulch did the trick for keeping the chickens out.
The red kidney beans.. well, I don't think I am going to bother in future. But the seed did come from a bulk food store and who knows how old it is.
Here's the red ursa seed crop, which reminds me I've got to go out there and collect the heads that are ripe enough for today.
I was curious whether the wire netting layer over the corn seedlings, would protect them from birds and more importantly, the chickens considering they were in the open paddock with unfenced chickens. Netting was laid, holes were just poked in the ground, seedlings were dropped in, and then watered until I was satisfied they were on their way. After that I just left them.
The painted mountain.. I guess I can still see the odd one.
The bloody butcher I am happier with. Next year, I'm going to stick with this variety, and do a lot more of them in the same way.
For my yams/oca this year, I've been wanting to try something I saw suggested somewhere. Namely, that yams don't take off until later, and that it should be possible to plant late and see the same sort of results. I kept three egg cartons of what little survived last years planting (some pest took bites out of many before they were ready to harvest) and they're at the stage where they've almost exhausted the tubers into sprouts.
I've had yams in the open paddock before, and the big danger from chickens in my experience, is that they see the red yams in the soil, and scratch at them because they think it's a hint of worms. Given a success with open paddock corn planting, with vigorous chicken scratching around them, I've continued with my wire netting chicken protection.
I'm too lazy to take a better photo of the broad bean landrace, but it's poor state can be seen at the back. They have not been watered, and to some degree have suffered from it. But the real damage was done by the grass and thistles which grew to overshadow them. It of course made it humid and caused insect and disease damage. This is fine, and there's plenty of seed for replanting next year, but I was disappointed not to see obvious candidates for selection among the different varieties which had done better than others.
The peas have grown well, with perhaps one watering. Next year, I might try a pea landrace. And the potatoes along the right hand side, are Vivaldi leading back to moimoi. The real damage was done to the moimoi by the chickens, when they got into the shed and kicked over the tray containing the sprouting seed potatoes, and mixed them all up with other varieties. However, I've had volunteer moimoi elsewhere where the discarded soil the seed was grown in, has resulted in obvious plants growing in strange locations.
If only dock was a crop with potential. Or californian thistle.
The pumpkin landrace has been kept moderately clear of grass, by the chickens. I've been experimenting to see how big the pumpkins need to be, before I can remove the protective netting from the seedlings, and any chicken scratching around it causes no damage to the plants. A smaller sized plant can be seen left just past the buttercup, which is how small I went. In the end though, I gave up on the netting, and just used large stones around the seedlings as chicken protection.
And there's a volunteer closer to the house, which may be close enough to cross with.
Scarlett runner bean tipi are at the height I would expect. One of these has a row of gila indian bean at the front. The large stone mulch did the trick for keeping the chickens out.
The red kidney beans.. well, I don't think I am going to bother in future. But the seed did come from a bulk food store and who knows how old it is.
Here's the red ursa seed crop, which reminds me I've got to go out there and collect the heads that are ripe enough for today.
