2013 Gardening Thread (Read 239 times)


flatland mountaineer

     

    I'm very interested in that sensor, if you have any kind of link discussing it.  Makes perfect sense but I've never seen such a thing (my immediate family still farms 4-row equipement and my most modern piece is an IH674).

     

     

     

     

     

    The sensor is a Watermark sensor (inexpensive) we read with a portable reader or else use a datalogger (MK Hanson in bottom pic in the link). In deeper rooted crops like corn we use a 1,2 and 3 foot sensor. They even have them you can read from your computer but $$$.

    Watermark http://www.irrometer.com/sensors.html#wm

    MK Hanson. http://www.mkhansen.com/

    More from UNL http://ianrpubs.unl.edu/live/ec783/build/ec783.pdf

    You can see the volunteer corn in the picture, it was sprayed with the Clethodim and is basically dead. I'll look around to see what is out there for easily available corn grass herbicides.

    Hope this helps.

    The whole world said I shoulda used red but it looked good to Charlene in John Deere Green!!

    Support Ethanol, drink the best, burn the rest.

    Run for fun? What the hell kind of recreation is that?  quote from Back to the Fut III


    Feeling the growl again

      This has been a slow thread this year....

       

      -3 weeks into the sweet corn...family eats 7 cobs/night plus entertained twice, and I will still have to start freezing some to save it by the weekend.

      -About 50 quarts of great beans canned

      -18 pints of pickles canned

      -7 quarts peaches canned

      -3 peach pies frozen, 1 eaten

      -Untold pounds of peaches and some early-ripening white grapes converted into what will end up a good 5 gallons of peach wine

      -3 quarts peas frozen

      -Currently eating white table grapes, the earlier variety of Asian pears

       

      Coming soon...

      -Apples

      -3 more pear varieties

      -Likely ~25-30 gallons of 3 types of grape wines.

      -Watermelons, cantelopes, pumpkins all doing well for the first time since we moved here

      -Potatoes

       

      My white wine from last year won a bronze at a recognized amateur wine competition.

      "If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does.  There's your pep talk for today.  Go Run." -- Slo_Hand

       

      I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills

       


      Prince of Fatness

        This has been a slow thread this year....

         

        Yeah, not a lot going on with me.

         

        Most of my potatoes have been dug up.  Yields were pretty good.  I still have to dig the Red Pontiacs up.  They are a late variety and are thin skinned so I would like for them to harden off some in the ground/

         

        The deer finally got to my green beans, but not before we were able to harvest quite a few.

         

        Tomatoes.  Meh.  Plenty of fruit on them but they just don't want to ripen.  I am going to blame the wet weather that we have had this summer.

         

        I have some zucchini, pumpkins, and butter bush squash in.  At this point I will let the winter squash take over the garden.  At least the deer leave them alone.

         

        It has been a wet summer.  I have to cut the grass more than once a week or it becomes a jungle.  I cannot remember too many summers where it has been this green and lush in August.  Saves on the watering tho.

         

        MTA:  I really don't have room to grow corn but there is a produce stand just down the road and they grow their own.  It has been outstanding.  Yummy Jersey sweet corn.

        Not at it at all. 

           

          Tomatoes.  Meh.  Plenty of fruit on them but they just don't want to ripen.  I am going to blame the wet weather that we have had this summer.

          My garden is fairly small too, but here is the current results:

           

          Spinach / Carrots - Cut spinach for juicing, lasted a couple weeks. Carrots. Been harvesting for last 2 weeks, (for juicing). Still have enough in the ground for another 2 months.

           

          Green beans - 23 quarts + many fresh meals. Dying back but still producing.

           

          Corn - Growing well, but none harvested yet.

           

          Tomatoes - Getting several per day, but most aren't ripening.

           

          Potatoes - Will be harvested in next week or two. So far, potatoes dug up by hand are very nice.

           

          Daughter's garden:

           

          Sunflowers, Honeydew, and Pumpkins - Sunflowers are blooming great. Honeydew have bloomed but no fruit yet. Pumpkins are growing well and several nice potential jack-o-lanterns growing.


          Best Present Ever

            interesting to hear that others are having the tomatoes-not-ripening thing.  We have a big cherry tomato bush (can't remember what -- something dark purple-ish) that's given us a good number, but the big tomatoes haven't ripened.  The few that have started to have been eaten by something -- something large enough to pick them and leave the remnants across the garden.

            NikoRosa


            Funky Kicks 2019

              I'm having problems with chipmunks eating my edamame.  There is no way to exclude them from the garden, and I haven't managed to convince my husband or my dogs to pee around the bed where they are planted.  I have had to settle with putting about two dozen mousetraps baited with peanut butter all around the outside of the bed.

               

              japanese beetles have feasted on the bean plants but I still have gotten a ton of beans.  It has been a really great year for blueberries and Swiss chard.  My cherry tomatoes are just now starting to ripen, have picked about half a dozen now.

               

              I don't think my corn experiment will work out.  There are ears but they are still small.  I may end up with just treats for the chickens.

               

              i managed to grow one single celery plant, it's a whopping six inches tall Smile

              Leah, mother of dogs


              Feeling the growl again

                I'm having problems with chipmunks eating my edamame.  There is no way to exclude them from the garden, and I haven't managed to convince my husband or my dogs to pee around the bed where they are planted.  I have had to settle with putting about two dozen mousetraps baited with peanut butter all around the outside of the bed.

                 

                japanese beetles have feasted on the bean plants but I still have gotten a ton of beans.  It has been a really great year for blueberries and Swiss chard.  My cherry tomatoes are just now starting to ripen, have picked about half a dozen now.

                 

                I don't think my corn experiment will work out.  There are ears but they are still small.  I may end up with just treats for the chickens.

                 

                i managed to grow one single celery plant, it's a whopping six inches tall Smile

                 

                I hate chipmunks.  At this point I think I've trapped them all from my place (they were digging under an outbuilding's foundation; had to go).

                 

                Sevin works on beetles, though I try to avoid it on things I am going to eat (I use it on grapevines but only well before ripening, ideally when there are no grapes).

                "If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does.  There's your pep talk for today.  Go Run." -- Slo_Hand

                 

                I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills

                 

                Daves_Not_Here


                  Gonna be vastly expanding my gardens next year with my new "used" toy....

                   

                  I have so very much needed one of these for years...I finally own one. Smile

                  kcam


                    interesting to hear that others are having the tomatoes-not-ripening thing.  We have a big cherry tomato bush (can't remember what -- something dark purple-ish) that's given us a good number, but the big tomatoes haven't ripened.  The few that have started to have been eaten by something -- something large enough to pick them and leave the remnants across the garden.

                     

                    Interesting times 2.  We usually get massive yields on tomatos but this year not so much.  Don't get me wrong we still get enough to make salsa and spaghetti sauce and I take about 15 cherry toms with me for lunch every day but the big tomatoes are not really ripening like they should.  I think it's due to our cooler than usual summer.

                    The rest of the garden has been awesome.  We eat fresh vegetables every night ... peas, beans, bell peppers, zuchinni, cucumbers, squash, butternut squash, jalapenos, garlic, onions, potatoes.  Spinach, lettuce and arugula have largely gone away but we ate lots of that in the early spring.  We grew some corn that we already harvested and it was dam good but, like someone else said, we don't really have the room for it so I don't think we'll plant it next year.  We've already got new ideas for next year ... getting better at this every year!

                     

                    MTA - oh, and count me JEALOUS that you have the room to use that tractor.  Sweet!


                    Feeling the growl again

                      Nice!  Mine's a little bigger but your looks much more handy for the purpose...I just got what was available when I needed it and it is nice to have bigger for clearing snow (the main reason I bought it)  Does the backhoe come off so you can put a tiller on back?

                       

                      Gonna be vastly expanding my gardens next year with my new "used" toy....

                       

                      I have so very much needed one of these for years...I finally own one. Smile

                      "If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does.  There's your pep talk for today.  Go Run." -- Slo_Hand

                       

                      I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills

                       

                      kcam


                        Nice!  Mine's a little bigger but your looks much more handy for the purpose...I just got what was available when I needed it and it is nice to have bigger for clearing snow (the main reason I bought it)  Does the backhoe come off so you can put a tiller on back?

                         

                         

                        Sure it is, spaniel.  Smile

                        Daves_Not_Here


                          Nice!  Mine's a little bigger but your looks much more handy for the purpose...I just got what was available when I needed it and it is nice to have bigger for clearing snow (the main reason I bought it)  Does the backhoe come off so you can put a tiller on back?

                           

                           

                          It does. 3 point hitch and as you can see in the pic, it came w/ a box scraper. Today I'm driving down to Sacramento to buy a 3 point PTO chipper/shredder I found on craigslist.


                          Prince of Fatness

                            I dug up the last of the potatoes, Red Pontiacs, last weekend.  Great yield and some rather large ones.  I had one that weighed in at 1 pound 11 ounces.  My wife and I had it for dinner and there were leftovers.

                             

                            Zucchini are starting to ripen.

                             

                            Pumpkin vines are starting to take over the garden.  Don't see any actual pumpkins yet.

                             

                            Tomato plants look nice and healthy but still very little in the way of ripe tomatoes.

                            Not at it at all. 


                            Feeling the growl again

                               

                              Sure it is, spaniel.  Smile

                               

                              She thinks my tractor's sexy.... Big grin

                               

                              Mine's got a 6-ft bucket on front....that one looks smaller...but I envy that backhoe a lot.  Mine is made for fields, not gardens.  I used to try and plow my garden with it but it was absurd so I gave up and it's too big to put a rototiller on back (7 ft from wheel-to-wheel).

                              "If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does.  There's your pep talk for today.  Go Run." -- Slo_Hand

                               

                              I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills

                               

                              NikoRosa


                              Funky Kicks 2019

                                Wow, that is a massive tractor. You must have more of a farm than a garden.  We have a 28 HP Kubota, best investment we ever made, although I don't use it in the garden.  We have a half mile driveway to maintain, and it does the trick.

                                 

                                The chipmunks got my corn.  The little bastards were scaling the bean trellis, leaping off and landing on the corn stalks, which they rode to the ground and then devoured the ears.  My husband saw them in action.  Oh well, the ears were pretty small anyway.

                                 

                                i have more cucumbers than I know what to do with.  I have already made a case of pickles out of them and they just keep on coming.

                                 

                                Tomatoes are coming on a few each day, with no sign of late blight (knock wood).

                                 

                                I am starting to pull some stuff like bolted lettuce and dismantling the pea trellis.  Seems like things will begin to wind down soon.  Hopefully the tomatoes and peppers ripen before the first frost.  My pumpkins are turning orange already.

                                Leah, mother of dogs