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Post by heavyhitterokra on May 3, 2022 5:14:24 GMT -6
The six fruit trees that survived are still flourishing, however, the freak cold in February of 2021, and the April snows and hail storms that seem to have become so common here lately have kept us from having any fruit in recent years. Maybe, this year will be different? We're due a good year for once. it has been a while.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on May 5, 2022 12:35:04 GMT -6
I'm sure glad I got my Plasticulture laid when I did. It has been raining almost continually ever since. Right now, I can't even get to my garden because of the high water. The little dry creek behind our house is a raging, muddy, river today, with more heavy rain on the way.
it's a good thing my beds are raised, or that the raising of the beds lowered the surrounding soil some, or else my plants would be under 6" or 8" inches of standing water.
Even though the high today has only been about 60 degrees, it's forecast to be in the lower 90s by Monday afternoon. Sunday is forecast to be around 89 degrees with a 20-25 mph South wind, so maybe, things will dry up some fairly quickly, so that I can get some much-needed planting done.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on May 6, 2022 12:33:46 GMT -6
I think God is about to pull out all the stops. Though it has been a nasty, cold, rainy-wet Spring so far, starting tomorrow; there looks to be clear, sunny, and moderately hot days for several days to come. It looks like temperatures in the 90s every day next week as well. I've got my first 200 okra seeds soaking today, planning on planting them tomorrow (Saturday) morning.
According to the Farmer's Almanac, May 5th, and 6th, are favorable for planting okra, beans, corn, peppers, tomatoes, squash and other above ground vegetables.
Farmer's Almanac planting guide for the month of May, 2022
May 4th – 6th
Plant seedbeds and flower gardens. Most favorable for corn, cotton, okra, beans, peppers, eggplant, and other aboveground crops.
7th – 11th
A barren period. Favorable for killing plant pests, cultivating, or taking a short vacation.
12th – 13th
Favorable time for sowing hay, fodder crops, and grains. Plant flowers. Excellent time for planting corn, beans, peppers, and other aboveground crops.
14th – 15th
Plant seedbeds. Excellent for planting aboveground crops, and planting leafy vegetables.
16th – 17th
Seeds planted now will do poorly and yield little.
18th – 19th
Plant late beets, potatoes, onions, carrots, and other root crops.
20th – 21st
Kill plant pests on these barren days.
22nd – 23rd
Fine for vine crops. Set strawberry plants. Good days for transplanting. Favorable time for planting late root crops.
24th – 26th
Poor planting. Fine for cultivating or spraying. Good harvest days.
27th – 28th
Good days for transplanting. Root crops that can be planted now will yield well.
29th – 31st
Any seed planted now will tend to rot. First day is a good harvest day.
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Post by chrysanthemum on May 6, 2022 20:25:27 GMT -6
I have ten seeds soaking now for my second planting. I plan to do that tomorrow morning (despite it being a “barren” day according to the almanac. What is the reasoning behind those predictions, do you know?
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Post by heavyhitterokra on May 6, 2022 21:53:33 GMT -6
The Farmer's Almanac website has an article titled, "Learn Why We Garden by the Moon" Here's the URL https:https://www.farmersalmanac.com/calendar/gardening
I planted a lot of things today, though not much of any one thing. I planted 50 or so okra seeds, some Cherokee striped corn hill beans, a few tomato transplants, a zucchini transplant, some squash seeds, and did some weeding.
I try to plant by the sign of the moon, but it's not always convenient or practical, as was the case this week when it poured down rain on every one of the good planting days. I haven't noticed that there is difference, because I never remember to mark my calendar on days that I do or don't plant by the sign.
I plan on planting 250 or more okra seeds tomorrow morning. It was only 64 degrees today and the underside of the black plastic was already hot enough that I couldn't hold my hand under it. I have to cut extra large holes this late in the season or the "Chimney Effect" of hot air rising through the holes will burn the Cotyledons off my seedlings, killing them.
Large holes degrade the efficiency of the plastic's ability to retain moisture, but it's a necessity when temperatures spike 90 or above.
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Post by chrysanthemum on May 7, 2022 6:38:39 GMT -6
I hope your planting goes well this morning (or has already gone well, as the case may be).
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Post by hmoosek on May 7, 2022 11:54:38 GMT -6
Good luck with your planting.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on May 7, 2022 18:32:44 GMT -6
Thanks, guys. I got one whole row done today. I started on the longest row first, so each day, maybe it will go a little faster. My garden has an obtuse trapezoid shape to it because it follows an old creek bank that used to cut through there diagonally. That makes it really hard to layout anything in a straight row for far, but that is what it is.
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Post by chrysanthemum on May 8, 2022 6:57:56 GMT -6
Hurray!
“Obtuse trapezoid shape” really made me think hard. I think I finally got it.
Our garden used to be a trapezoid as well because when we first built it we did all the fencing from materials that were on the property when we moved in. We had one sixteen foot long cattle panel, two twenty foot utility panels and a ten foot gate. Once we could get wire fencing on sale, we made the garden a larger rectangle, and used those panels to create trellises. They were too good not to, especially because vertical gardening is so helpful for me in my limited space.
I’ll look forward to hearing a report of when the first sprouts pop up.
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Post by chrysanthemum on May 8, 2022 16:52:20 GMT -6
I just wanted to let you know that I had an opportunity to share some more Heavy Hitter Okra seeds with an older lady from my church today. She has some gardening experience, but I believe it has been a number of years for her. I made a copy of your germination instructions for her, heavyhitterokra , and she’s going to try to space out her seeds to give them plenty of room. She only has a small area to garden, but she was excited to have a crop that can take the heat down here in summers.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on May 8, 2022 19:35:34 GMT -6
Chrysanthemum,
Hopefully, your friend from Church will have good results there in the summer heat. My best results with okra were in 2011. That was the year we had a record drought here and 65 consecutive days over 100 degrees, two weeks of that were over 110, and one day reached 115.
I had drip irrigation and black Plasticulture that year and it was so dry that I had to stop irrigating in mid-July, for fear I'd run our well dry. There were a few days that the blossoms dried out from hot winds frying the petals before they pollinated, but for the most part they did surprisingly well.
This photo was taken in October of 2011. I had just built this makeshift hoop house at the very end of the season because a freeze warning was in effect for the end of that week. Despite my best efforts, 30 mph winds and temperatures in the low twenties killed this plant before most of the pods were mature enough to save seeds. I was only able to save seeds from 5 pods. The rest of the pods in this photo were ruined by freezing temperatures. This plant had 65 branches and is still my record plant to date.
The reason I lost the plant before the pods were mature was that I had harvested okra for the Farmer's Market into late August, not expecting such an early killing frost. It takes okra about 8 weeks to make it to seed saving maturity, so harvesting pods until mid-August just cut it too close. This plant had over 100 pods on it when it died, they were just not old enough to be any good for seed.
Live and learn I guess ... However, it seems like I almost always learn things the hard way.
On this day, in mid-August of 2011, I harvested 44 tender pods from this plant in a single day. That was the day I decided to stop harvesting any more pods from this plant and to save the rest for seed. Unfortunately, it was so late in the year by then, that only 5 pods made it to seed saving maturity before a killing frost took its life.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on May 9, 2022 20:46:10 GMT -6
So far, over the past few days, I've got a little over 400 Heavy Hitter Okra seeds planted. That was two full rows over 150' feet long each, and about a third of the next row. A few of the seeds were some marked, "Trinity Sky Rocket" frozen since 2015. (Those were from the plant that grew three pods at each fruting node, rather than one, and had the appearance of fireworks all going off at once when heavily laden with pods. I attempt to capture that gene each year with limited success. That is a recessive gene, not showing up in every generation, kind of like spots on a horse.
I have 12 rows total to plant, so only nine and a half more left to go. This project, like everything else I do here, is going to take several days of labor to complete. My poor old thighs are finally getting the hang of duckwalking up and down the rows again. The long winter's rest was tough on my creaky old body, it takes a while to get everything oiled up and working properly again. My thighs and hips don't hurt anymore when I go duck walking and doing the standing, squatting, thing all day long now. (Finally!) It seems a little tougher to get going again with each passing season.This is a photo of the Plasticulture rows that I finished laying on April 30th. Back in 1982, a crew of about a dozen of us took a job wiring all of the runway lights at Tulsa International Airport. The runway there was 10,000' feet long (almost 2 miles). It was also about 150' feet wide. It had flush-mount lighting cans poured into the 24' inch thick concrete all the way down the center, plus more flush-mount lighting cans set left and right of center for the entire length of the runway. Besides that, there were several hundred 12" inch tall, blue colored, taxiway lights going off in various directions, leading back to maintenance areas, hangers, and the main concourse at the airport terminal.
Looking down my long, narrow, black rows of Plasticulture while punching holes in the plastic and planting seeds reminds me of looking down that 2 mile runway, all the while thinking; "Man! that's a long way to go crawling on my hands and knees dropping light fixtures into all of those lighting can holes!"
All of my rows of Plasticulture put together equal about 1,800' feet, nowhere near two miles. So no matter how long the rows may seem, there was a time in my life that I've worked day in, day out, on rows even longer. (That kind of helps me in a way), knowing that I've worked in similar situations, day after day, that did eventually have a terminus at the end of a long crawling season. I learned to love it there at that airport and even missed it when it was done.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on May 10, 2022 20:31:42 GMT -6
Broke the 500 Mark Today! I'm up to about 525 okra seeds planted now. I finished my 3rd full row today. The ground is so compacted from heavy rains that it takes me twice as long to plant. I have to take time to dig out each hole individually and stir the dirt to recultivate the soil under the plastic before I place a seed.When I was finished planting all of the seeds that I have pre-germinated, I walked back over to check the first row and saw little baby okra seedlings popping up all along the first half of the first row I planted. It won't be long now. It takes about 55 days from germination until the first blossoms open.
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Post by chrysanthemum on May 10, 2022 20:41:13 GMT -6
Wow. I bet that was a great feeling when you saw those sprouts popping up. A good reward for all that hard work you’re putting in.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on May 10, 2022 21:04:09 GMT -6
Chrysanthemum, I was thinking the same thing about the okra seedlings that you posted a photo of back on May 1st. Mine don't have true leaves yet, they just now popped out of their shell. We'll both have okra in less than 60 days!
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