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Post by prairiegardens on Jun 14, 2017 11:31:04 GMT -5
Apparently the area I'm in is known for frequently having high aluminum content in the soil, not sure if there's any simple way to test for that, nor if there's anything that can be done about it in any case. Last year I was very dismayed to find horsetail coming up everywhere, finally deciding that since there seemed to be no real strategy for success in getting rid of it, I'd gather it up and use it. This year so far, inexplicably, there's no sign of it.
there was a short discussion in a health series I'm following at the moment about how horsetail..any of them..will bind to aluminum so it can be excreted by the body. No idea if that somehow can relate to what happens in soil? Watching this property evolve through regenerative stages has been fascinating.
Something sideways i noted yesterday, wondering if rain kills forest webworms if they are caught by it at the " wrong" stage. I had another huge infestation happening and went to spray canola oil and there were only about a third of them if that, still around, desiccated bodies on lumber and such as though they'd been sprayed with something. Some had already built cuccoons but not nearly enough to explain the disappearance. Three days earlier they were literally everywhere, if you stood still for more than a moment they were climbing up your shoes etc, yesterday only saw possibly a dozen or so all told on the ground.
It's rained hard overnight, still drizzling now, it will be interesting to see if the numbers come back again this summer or if the rain will have done more of them in.
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Post by mjc on Jun 14, 2017 12:25:24 GMT -5
Sounds like they were victims of either a bacterial control agent or beneficial nematodes...both of which can occur naturally, but usually are not around in significant enough numbers to do much. So they are generally sold and applied...but will persist, as long as there is a food source.
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Post by steev on Jun 19, 2017 23:35:25 GMT -5
Aluminum is the most ubiquitous metal in the Earth's crust; due to its needing to be refined electrically, as opposed to smelting, it was only lately discovered (Napoleonic times); the effects of aluminum are disputed, so far as its health aspects are concerned.
Personally, I think I'm far more in danger from ignorance or fear than aluminum (all being equally ubiquitous).
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Post by prairiegardens on Jun 21, 2017 21:06:08 GMT -5
The question is the effect it has on the growth of plants, plants like buffalo berry which should have done well even in infertile sandy soil have languished and eventually given up the ghost.Otoh maple, which is supposed to fail in sandy soil rooted itself from tree trimmings thrown into a depression the horses used to roll in. No soil at all, the things weren't even planted. It's only ,Manitoba Maple so a sort of a weed tree but I'll take it, it can fight with the poplar and it's somewhat better as firewood as well as being the only tree that the webworms don't defoliate. They even went after a pine tree seedling.
Besides which there's degrees...what level of aluminum there may be in most soils is fine but if there's a whole lot more in this soil I'm not excited about my veggies taking up huge quantities of it. It is a neurotoxin after all, and Alzheimer's is not a pretty prospect, whether or not they've established a link to ingestion, the unusually large amount of it in the brain of an Alzheimer's sufferer is pretty well established and it had to get there somehow.
In any case I've started building raised beds there at least to build up a concentrated area of fertile soil and organic matter. So far what it's mostly produced is volunteer mushrooms which I'm afraid to try but it's all very young yet and I expect with the addition of some chickens etc this time next year I'll have a very usable garden area there. Not huge, but big enough for stuff like corn and winter squash etc. If I can get enough organic matter to get the soil biology going... it will be Celebration day the first day I see an earthworm.
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Post by walnuttr on Jun 23, 2017 3:04:38 GMT -5
Um, going off faded ( Alu. loaded? ) grey matter here, but the plant-available aluminium also depends on the pH / acid level, with high acid being worse for most veges but great for Azaleas and Hydrangea and maybe camellia & rhododendron ( all good if you like them flowry stuff ).
What is a textbook name for those "Manitoba Maple" and "Otoh maple" ? I'm curious about anything that will root from a stick.
Maybe load on the lime and firewood ashes between layers of the local soil, and be liberal with the Epsom salts (MgSO4 )?
Cheers, W
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Post by mjc on Jun 23, 2017 7:58:05 GMT -5
The Manitoba Maple is Acer negundo.
Larger specimens can be tapped for maple syrup. They tend to be more 'watery' than sugar maples, though, along the lines of 50 to 60 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup...unlike sugar maples which usually are in the 40 gallons (or even lower) range.
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Post by prairiegardens on Aug 24, 2017 21:09:02 GMT -5
Manitoba maple here is considered a weed tree, it is a constant battle to keep them out of the garden. They coppice without thinking about it so chopping one out won't work, you have to get all the roots out to get rid of it. It's said to be fairly brittle and short lived as maples go, prone to have branches let go. And it doesn't have the magnificent fall colours of eg the sugar maple. Still, several are growing in the sand pit so they'll be contributing by shedding leaves and holding what soil there is in place and they do make acceptable if not great firewood. The sap being tappable is a bonus, watery or not.  |
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Post by Walk on Aug 25, 2017 14:01:05 GMT -5
Manitoba maple here is considered a weed tree, it is a constant battle to keep them out of the garden. They coppice without thinking about it so chopping one out won't work, you have to get all the roots out to get rid of it. It's said to be fairly brittle and short lived as maples go, prone to have branches let go. And it doesn't have the magnificent fall colours of eg the sugar maple. Still, several are growing in the sand pit so they'll be contributing by shedding leaves and holding what soil there is in place and they do make acceptable if not great firewood. The sap being tappable is a bonus, watery or not. Manitoba maple, or boxelder as it's called around here, can be killed by girdling the bark if you're not in a hurry. Hatchet or draw knife off a ring of bark about 1' high on the trunk about 1-3' from the ground. It takes a couple of years for the tree to die completely at which point you can cut it down and it won't coppice. It does make good firewood, at least for our masonry heater, better than birch although not as hot a burn as oak or elm. Easy to cut and split. The trees will get big and old if given the opportunity. If thinned to a single specimen they can get a wide crown and made a good shade tree, which from the distance can look like a stately oak. If left in clumps they grow all higglety-pigglety. The syrup is delicious but another edible bonus, at least around here, is the abundance of elm oyster mushrooms produced where branches have broken away. In the fall, the mushrooms can even be spotted when driving at highway speed, they are that abundant. BTW, squirrels really like to eat the tree's seeds. |
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Post by steev on Aug 25, 2017 21:18:11 GMT -5
One might suppose the squirrels are also tasty, perhaps braised with mushrooms.
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Post by prairiegardens on Aug 26, 2017 2:34:05 GMT -5
Manitoba maple, or boxelder as it's called around here, can be killed by girdling the bark if you're not in a hurry. Hatchet or draw knife off a ring of bark about 1' high on the trunk about 1-3' from the ground. It takes a couple of years for the tree to die completely at which point you can cut it down and it won't coppice. It does make good firewood, at least for our masonry heater, better than birch although not as hot a burn as oak or elm. Easy to cut and split. The trees will get big and old if given the opportunity. If thinned to a single specimen they can get a wide crown and made a good shade tree, which from the distance can look like a stately oak. If left in clumps they grow all higglety-pigglety. The syrup is delicious but another edible bonus, at least around here, is the abundance of elm oyster mushrooms produced where branches have broken away. In the fall, the mushrooms can even be spotted when driving at highway speed, they are that abundant. BTW, squirrels really like to eat the tree's seeds. That's interesting I've never spotted mushrooms on any of them here. There are various fungi which show up on poplar but I'll have to take a closer look at some of the maples in the road verge, I look for interesting stuff in there but haven't paid a lot of attention to the maples. There was a nice little patch of tiger lilies starting to establish, and some fireweed of all things, it's fairly damp and shady along the grid road where it showed up. Neither lasted long, the grader operator apparently thinks grid roads should be 40 feet wide and graded through them. |
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Post by steev on Aug 26, 2017 3:08:16 GMT -5
Isn't it wonderful how focussed some folks are on what they're doing, although occasionally not so in touch with what might be going on around them?
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Post by prairiegardens on Aug 26, 2017 4:26:35 GMT -5
Possibly the big machine syndrome manifesting,. Generally speaking, having much interest in or concern for the flora is not the norm here. I've mentioned before taking plants in to the local farmers' coffee group to ask what they were was and invariably getting blank looks.
Regarding the Manitoba maple, since it seems to be happy in the dismal as yet not restored soil, thinking about possibly establishing a woodlot of them. They grow very fast, and coppice enthusiastically and are better for firewood than the highly overpriced poplar which is generally all that's on offer. In ten years or so it could start producing a little cash.... I got a couple of black locust this year thinking about that as well....that stuff is supposed to be a challenge to cut but have basically the same btu as coal. And it doesn't interfere with crops, fixes nitrogen and bees produce supposedly the best honey ever from the flowers.
Just not sure where or in what manner to plant a woodlot intended as a crop, sort of. , I wonder if they would beat back the poplar's attempts to march into the fields. Or not.
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Post by stone on Sept 2, 2017 8:40:43 GMT -5
Black locust is fence post material.... Too good to burn....
Re beating the box elder.... Both are supposed to sucker... Although I've never seen box elder to colonize the way that robinia does.
Re the tent caterpillars...
At my house, I had a good sized structure going on the elderberry bush.... Until the berries ripened... Songbirds picked the berries and the caterpillars at the same time....
I grow the elderberries for the songbirds.... Reckon The caterpillars make good food for them too.
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Post by stone on Sept 2, 2017 8:45:15 GMT -5
Isn't it wonderful how focussed some folks are on what they're doing, although occasionally not so in touch with what might be going on around them? Around here... The autumn bloom seems to incentivize the road crews to busily turn all the beauty into brown stubble.... One year I tried complaining to tourist board (or whatever) and... Was told.... Take it elsewhere... Just don't understand why those sunflowers need to be mowed just as they are starting to bloom.... Why can't they wait a month? |
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Post by prairiegardens on Sept 2, 2017 21:38:31 GMT -5
The road crew showed up with mower and grader yesterday and we all had a friendly chat for a while. I mentioned the lilies and then we all agreed they were probably done for this year, so hoping they will back off the lilies area next year but not counting on it. At least I tried. The grader operator is a senior member of the RM road crews and has been helpful in the past , he actually came in off the road into my field with his grader and pulled my truck up the hill when it couldnt move anywhere in the middle of winter the second year I had horses there.
He was bemused by the building, said he'd spotted it early on in the build and wondered what in the world I thought I was doing. 😄 The mower operator otoh, has apparently already built two small buildings with pallets. I wish I'd spoken to him first, have made two mistakes, neither especially serious but bothersome and taking precious time to work around. One was even thought about and the wrong decision made, the second was simply a mistake. Still, people have been capering around the roof with no fear of going through or anything letting go, so so far so good.
As far as black locust, when it's -45c with a good stiff breeze, very little might be considered too good to burn. It apparently has the same btu values as good coal. I haven't noticed that box elder sucker, it seems to sprout readily wherever the seed lands.as does what I'm told is green ash. Another one with a highly tenacious tap root and a strong will to live. They've been nailed almost every year by the caterpillars and are still growing. They are my privacy screen. But the ash I tried to plant on the land under discussion just..vanished.
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