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Post by FrostyTurnip on Mar 31, 2023 10:00:41 GMT -6
I want to say congratulations for all the wind, heavy, as it will help dry up your saturated soils, but I dunno what I’m doing. It really is difficult to keep up with the avg gardening or farming chores when there are enormous extra curricular activities: building fences, building chicken coops and runs, plowing and tilling. It turns the task of weeding into a vacation!
Like his wife, my husband is going to join the fun and help get things moving.
This wind is depressing. The drought map has a diagonal line across the state screeching half way through its borders. The bottom is drought free, the top is mostly extreme or exceptional drought. As you can guess, we’re in the top. Not good to be on top for this drought map! Woodeye, too.
Yesterday’s thunder and lightening produced nominal amounts of precipitation.
Spring is not here. It brings the hazard of freezes, but gives hope to more precipitation.
Tucs, I always say, If my seedlings can survive me, they’ll take off when they hit the ground. Seedlings are more likely to survive you, but same same.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Mar 31, 2023 16:01:40 GMT -6
Tucson,
I saw your quandary on page 114. That okrie probably just got it too good there.
Other than that, I'd say George's hunch might be right.
Or possibly, it might be a lighting problem. I've sunburned a few seedlings by leaving my grow lights on 24/7 when I should have turned them off at night to let the plants rest. That makes them a weird, speckled green color, sometimes kind of stripy.
I've also had topsoil purchased from Atwood's that had Glyphosate contamination before. I lost a whole season's planting of tomato seedlings that were transplanted from seed trays to 3" inch pots of Atwood's topsoil one year.
I called the guy who bags the soil for them with a complaint about that. He said they do spray weed killer on their stockpiles in summer, but then when it's bagged he tries to scrape all that off, but some inevitably ends up in the hopper while loading it with the frontend loader and skid-steer. He said topsoil is not meant for seedlings. I should have used potting soil. All they did was offer to refund the money I spent on the topsoil. They wouldn't replace the plants that turned stripy, curly, and spindly from being poisoned. Glyphosate makes them develop a light green stipe and causes leaf curl. It looks like a blow torch was passed over a plastic plant.
In other words, It could be any one of many things. My guesses are probably not as good as the paper this is written on. Oh wait ... this ain't even paper is it?
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Apr 2, 2023 23:24:10 GMT -6
I got all of my elderberry prunings stacked up and burned between winds. That meant that I had to go rake and till up a fire break for twenty feet in every direction, then go out to do my burning at night while it was calm and dewy, in hopes that it would all burn out before the sun-driven winds came back. I just burned a little of it at a time, keeping the fire small all night. (It worked!) Yeah!!!
Then, today, after Church, I smoked about 60 pounds of pork for a wedding. Man, I'm so tired right now! We got half of the pork pulled already, but the rest will have to wait until tomorrow morning because it's still too hot to touch right now. It looks like the meat will end up about half of the raw weight after it's all said and done. That bit of information will sure come in handy for next time. We'll have to smoke more meat before the actual day.
Hopefully, someday, I'll actually get time to work on my garden. So many irons in the fire right now ...
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Apr 9, 2023 7:14:56 GMT -6
I got 8 out of 12 seed beds raised and covered with Plasticulture yesterday. This has been a tough year to get a garden plowed and ready to go before heavy rains ruin all my hard work. It almost seems surreal to look at the forecast this morning and see no rain in sight for the next 7 days.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Apr 10, 2023 20:49:45 GMT -6
I finally got all of my seed beds raised and covered with plastic. This has been an incredibly busy Spring! Hopefully, I can get back to building my deer-proof fence now. I already have several deer tracks on my freshly laid plastic and I don't even have the irrigation lines hooked to the drip tapes yet.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Apr 12, 2023 14:14:01 GMT -6
Yesterday, I got the first stage of the deer fence built completely around the garden, up to the 5' foot mark. It sure feels good to be able to close the gate and be reasonably sure that no more deer will casually walk over my freshly laid rows of plastic without at least a little effort. The bottom 5' feet of the fence is built out of cattle panels, so I know they can't penetrate that, though they can still easily jump it.
After my Daughter's wedding next week, I plan on starting Phase II of that project, which is to begin on the second tier of fencing to raise it to the 7' foot mark.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Apr 12, 2023 20:58:33 GMT -6
That sounds great, heavyhitterokra. Best wishes to your daughter on her upcoming marriage, and congratulations to your family on gaining a new son-in-law.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Apr 13, 2023 19:56:20 GMT -6
Just for the record, I planted 35 pre-germinated, Heavy Hitter Okra seeds today. April 13th, 2023. The only other year I've planted this early and gotten away with it was 2011. We had a really warm April that year too. We ended up having 65 consecutive days over 100° that year and a high of 115° before it was all said and done. Hopefully, this year doesn't follow suit.
My best guess is that we'll have at least one more cold spell this year, but who knows? Maybe I'm wrong? If so, I'll be glad I planted a few seeds today, if not, what's 35 seeds anyways? I'll have upward of 2,000 this season before I'm finished.
My plan is to plant a few seeds in succession every few days, hoping I'll hit the 'sweet spot' somewhere along the way. All I cracked out was one pod of okra seeds. I only planted those that germinated within the first 24 hours. When the others germinate I'll plant them too. When they're gone, they're gone. Then I'll probably wait another week to 10 days and see what the weather looks like. If it's still uncommonly warm, I'll keep on planting. It will take me several days to plant all 12 rows.
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Post by FrostyTurnip on Apr 14, 2023 7:43:29 GMT -6
Good thinking there, Ron. You’re right at 7 to ten days ahead of me and I’ll be thinking in probabilities and ROI come next week when I need to start okra too. I have pepper plants that look stunted now in their pots and need to be in the ground. I’m considering doing so but readying a makeshift plastic cover.
amyinowasso If I do this, I’m going to run an extension cord out to a crockpot full of water. A makeshift greenhouse of sorts.
We all know it is likely to get cold overnight until mid May.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Apr 14, 2023 16:12:29 GMT -6
I usually have to cover my blueberry bushes every year, while plugging in an electric heater underneath to keep them from freezing. This year, the daytime highs are already hitting 86° and the blueberries have not even bloomed yet.
What a strange year! I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop.
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Post by Tucson Grower on Apr 15, 2023 4:49:14 GMT -6
Soon after my post about the chlorosis in my seedlings, I mixed up some organic fertilizer, a mixture of 2-5-3 and blood meal 12-0-0 (added for iron). I mixed these together ~ 3 parts 2-5-3 and 1 part 12-0-0. I ground the mixture together in an electric coffee grinder and blended them together, thoroughly, then placed a small pinch in each affected cell and watered it in. In a few days every plant showed great improvement.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Apr 15, 2023 9:05:59 GMT -6
Tucson,
I'm glad you got the seedlings straightened out. Sounds like George's guess must have been very close. I'll probably be offline for a couple of days, my daughter is getting married this weekend and we're out of town.
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Post by Tucson Grower on Apr 15, 2023 9:55:12 GMT -6
Best wishes to all.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Apr 28, 2023 1:07:57 GMT -6
I just heard the first Whippoorwill call of the season tonight. That's usually a fairly good indication that warmer weather is here to stay. When I hear Whippoorwills calling at night, I know that it's getting very close to the time of year when I can safely sow my okra seeds.
According to local Indian lore, A man will rid himself of an aching back if he turns three somersaults in time to a whippoorwill call. If my back wasn't aching so much right now, I might just give that one a try.
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Post by macmex on Apr 28, 2023 6:45:40 GMT -6
I've often thought that in all likelihood the Whippoorwill cowpea got its name because someone repeated (frequently) that we plant this one while the Whippoorwill sings.
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