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Post by woodeye on Aug 16, 2022 10:12:52 GMT -6
When I plant Irish potatoes, I use unsulfured blackstrap molasses to make a solution to pour on the soil in the spot I plant the potato pieces. I've had success using it, a gallon jug of the stuff goes a long ways, I only added 1 cup of blackstrap molasses to 5 gallons of water, then used one cup of the solution per potato piece. It gives the potato pieces more energy to utilize when they first get planted.
What I do not know is if it would help when planting sweet potatoes. As far as I know it would not hurt to try it, but I was wondering if anybody here on the forum had tried it on sweet potatoes?
Also, I think the solution would help when making compost, but I haven't tried it yet. It might make the compost a higher octane, but I don't know if that is necessary?
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Post by hmoosek on Aug 16, 2022 10:49:55 GMT -6
Yes woodeye, it helps with compost. I’ve added it to compost tea in the past. It was just regular old store bought compost though as I never tried making my own. We used to have a place up here to buy compost by the truck bed, but they quit a few years ago. Looking back, I bet it wasn’t the best thing in the world to use as their source for materials was all the house holds that brought limbs, leaves, grass, etc. with all the chemicals some use on their yards.
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Post by woodeye on Aug 16, 2022 11:17:46 GMT -6
Thanks hmoosek, I'll start adding some to my compost tumbler. Bagged compost is all I've ever used too, that's why I'm so interested in making some of my own.
I want to plant a few sweet potatoes next year and I'll pour some of the solution in the planting hole when I set them out, Lord knows anything planted around here almost needs divine intervention to succeed anyway, so a little bit of blackstrap Kool-Aid shouldn't hurt...
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Post by macmex on Aug 16, 2022 11:23:03 GMT -6
Wow! Those were "interesting years." Bet they were well aware of the value of sweet potatoes for real subsistence needs.
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Post by woodeye on Aug 16, 2022 11:52:56 GMT -6
Yes indeed they were, macmex. And to think that all of those years were without electricity, a tractor, or anything like that. All the things that we take for granted now were not even possible for them. Though it can't be seen very well now because of red cedar trees growing everywhere, this land was all terraced to keep it from washing away. An unimaginable amount of dirt was moved to build the terraces, even if you had a tractor. They did it with a team of mules and a plow.
The last descendant of that era is the uncle I have that lives in Yukon now, I go to visit him every month. He helped build some of the terraces when he was a youngster, he is 94 years old now. Sweet potatoes and sorghum molasses were the 2 main things, everything else was secondary. Lots of time spent in the basement sorting sweet potatoes for slips and for eating. It's all in the daybooks, all of the work that was done down in the basement by an oil lamp. No fan, no lights to switch on. I found out from my uncle that the basement under the old house on the home place was dug after the house was built. It was a big basement too...
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Aug 17, 2022 11:05:17 GMT -6
Those day books would be a treasure to read. Those were rough times. I'll bet there were some interesting notes there. I'll bet your 94-year-old Uncle is a treasure too. I have a neighbor who is 93. I enjoy every minute spent with him.
My grandma had a basement like that. It was the closest thing to air conditioning they had. Hers was only about 12' x 12' foot square though. We spent many a night down there during tornado season when I was a kid. That's where we bathed. They didn't have indoor plumbing, so they'd heat water on the stove in the kitchen and carry it down stairs to the basement to pour into a galvanized tub. After everyone bathed, they'd tump it over in the cement floor and let it drain out into the garden by way of a buried pipe. In Summer, snakes would crawl up the pipe and end up down there in the basement, so you always had to be on the lookout for them when canning time rolled around. Grandma stored all of her canned veggies down there. She kept the empty jars in her smoke house.
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Post by woodeye on Aug 17, 2022 12:42:11 GMT -6
Yes, my uncle Lindy is quite a character. The reason he lives in Yukon now is that my aunt's (his 3rd wife--he outlived his first 2 wives) family lives close by. It is a retirement village and is a very nice place. I helped them move from Coweta last January. While he was married to his second wife, they owned and operated the convenience store that was on the west side of Fort Gibson Lake, just after you cross the lake on the old bridge on Highway 51. I don't know if the convenience store is still there or not, but man it was really a booming business back in the 70's when they owned it. After they sold the store, they bought a 5th wheel travel trailer and retired. They spent half the year at Mar-Val campground near Gore, and the other half at Toledo Bend in Louisiana. Caught lots of fish at both places. He is responsible for my striped bass fishing days, a very memorable time for me. Please note that if you ever have the opportunity to catch striped bass, you will have a hard time going back to fishing for smaller fish. The biggest one I caught was 37 lbs., caught him in 1980 trolling a live shad, Garcia 5500C reel, and a 5' Lew's Speed Stick rod. Fun!! Sorry, forgot that this is NOT a fishing forum.
I'll drag out those day books soon and look them over again, I'll try to find some interesting things to post here on the forum about their crops back in the day...
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Aug 18, 2022 17:16:39 GMT -6
What a coincidence, I think my cousin may have owned that same store? It was on the West side of Fort Gibson Lake, on the South side of Highway 51, right after you cross the causeway leading from the old bridge, just past Taylor's Ferry. When my cousin owned it, it was called, "Lake Food Mart." I think it has changed hands recently though. Someone had done a remodel on it the last time I drove by that place.
When I was a kid, we used to buy 50-pouund blocks of ice for our real ice box, across the highway from that old store, at Bonus Gas Station.
I noodled my biggest flathead catfish about 5 miles East of there, in 14 Mile Creek, just North of the bridge. It still gives me the shivers, just thinking of putting my arm up into that old beaver waller where that catfish was hiding. I tied it to a 20' foot stringer and the kids rode it like a dolphin all day long. By the end of the day they had is so tame that it would swim after them and chase them off. I didn't have the heart to eat it after that, so when it got dark that night, I turned it loose to give it a break from all the kids. He earned his freedom.
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Post by woodeye on Aug 18, 2022 18:09:20 GMT -6
I will ask Lindy, I hope he can remember exactly where that store was on the west side of the lake. (His memory is fading on him) This is where I remember it being, but it's been 45 years since I was there, so I'm not certain. I do remember that he sold LOTS of ice. He sold lots of gas too, and his holding tanks were above ground, first gas station I had ever seen like that. I put an arrow with a red dot on the photo, that building is where I remember it being, but like I say, I'll have to check with Lindy on it...
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Post by woodeye on Aug 18, 2022 18:33:36 GMT -6
This is the street view of the same place. It's what I remember, except there have been a lot of renovations. Gas price at that store across the street was $1.99 when this photo was taken in 2016.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Aug 18, 2022 21:25:01 GMT -6
Nope, not the same place my cousin owned. My cousin owned the convenience store at the top left of that first photo. Now, they call it, "CJ's One Stop. It used to be called, Lake Food Mart.
We lived about 5 miles South of there from 1970 until 2004. We used to buy kerosene from that place that your Uncle owned when I was a kid. I still remember the first time I ever saw unleaded gasoline for sale was at that gas station. My Dad worked at DX Refinery in Tulsa at the time. He'd stop at your Uncle's place to fill up on our way to grandma's house. He was driving a '63 Ford Falcon, a '55 Chevy truck, and a '65 Chevy pickup truck back then. They all used regular gasoline. He always marveled at how they got away with charging more money for unleaded, when all they did was leave the lead out of it.
We always begged Dad to stop at Bonus gas station to buy gas, just West of there because they had monkeys in a big cage out back and the owner would give us kids ice cubes to feed them. Dad would buy gas at your Uncle's place, then buy ice at Bonus gas. Your Uncle must have had a better price.
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Post by woodeye on Aug 19, 2022 2:04:21 GMT -6
He had that store mostly during the 70's, not sure if he had it in the latter part of the 60's, but he may have. I don't remember that little grocery store across the highway, but that doesn't mean it wasn't there when I was visiting them. I stayed all night with uncle Lindy and aunt Mack a few times there at the store, but they didn't have any monkeys...
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Aug 19, 2022 12:56:44 GMT -6
Bonus Gas Station (where the monkeys were out back) was on the same side of the highway as your uncle Lindy's store, about a quarter mile west, in the direction of Wagoner. He also had a talking Minor Bird inside. It was a kid's paradise there. He'd always give us an ice cube to feed the monkeys, or else give us a treat to feed his talking bird.
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Post by woodeye on Aug 19, 2022 16:04:37 GMT -6
Sounds like some good fun missed, monkeys and talking birds. I reckon Lindy withheld that information from us youngin's so we wouldn't stray...
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Post by june on Oct 3, 2022 9:37:50 GMT -6
@ macmex
Its October and I have officially declared 'sweet potato digging' season has begun! I started trimming vines and dug a few hills this morning. Very pleased with these... these are Okinawan from my original slips purchased in 2021...Lots of vines, but I did not get a single potato from them that year. I did saved vine cuttings and carried them through the winter...so these tubers are from the original vines I purchased from California spring 2021. They are purple inside. They were in one cluster, just under the ground. Soil was very hard...should have been worked better and watered more. This is from one hill. I have more to dig.
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