Dancing?

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Kellemora
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Re: Dancing?

Post by Kellemora »

We can get steamed mulch from the city for 10 to 20 bucks for a yard bucket which is enough to fill a pickup truck.
Mulch placed around bushes, trees, garden areas, etc, only seem to last a couple of years before it has self-decomposed.
Before my health declined, I used to keep our yard pristine. Now it looks more like Sanford and Son's back lot, hi hi.
I'm doing good if I can just get the mowing done.

Maybe the reason I didn't have problems with weed seeds in my mulch, is because after I spread it around the trees and bushes, I always dusted it with Preen.
Now I just go around and shoot vinegar anyplace weeds start to come up, and only when I can, so I have weeds, lots of them now.
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yogi
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Re: Dancing?

Post by yogi »

In light of what you told me about vinegar being a herbicide, I would have thought it would not be a good idea to spray it anywhere near those plants you want to keep.

I like to use peat moss in my soil but all the stuff I ever used is heavy with weed seed. Typically it's purslane which is not as obnoxious looking as other weeds, but still unwanted. I guess my compost pile was a problem because that was the repository for all my weed pickings as well as other things. It's all very organic and good for the soil, but doesn't do much to contain the weeds. Same goes for composted manure, my all time favorite plant nutrient right after fish emulsion. Going organic isn't trouble free and I can see why farmers rather use chemicals.
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Kellemora
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Re: Dancing?

Post by Kellemora »

If you spray it only on the weeds using the small stream setting, and only get it on the weeds, it won't hurt the plants around it.

We had a couple of boilers and used the steam to sterilize our growing beds between each crop. Saved tons on using chemicals or other methods. In the summer months when we didn't have the boilers running, we had a small boiler we used to heat up the bed of a dump truck filled with potting soil. This was too labor intensive, but the only way we could do it for years. Then some company came out with a way to sterilize soil as it poured out of the shredder chute. Kill two birds with one stone so to speak. Although it worked great, it sure stunk to high heaven, since the soil was shot into our storage bins, from outside to inside the potting area.
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yogi
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Re: Dancing?

Post by yogi »

Sterile soil is an interesting concept. My first thought was that it's not what garden plants want to see. I'm thinking of all the good bacteria that promote growth and the bugs that keep the soil friable. I'm not sure how neutralizing those things would cut down on chemical care. I also read where tilling the soil is a bad idea. I talked to a farmer recently who agreed. He drills holes in his soil to plant the seeds. That doesn't seem efficient either but he claims it works fine. I think he was talking about growing wheat in Oklahoma.
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Kellemora
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Re: Dancing?

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I used to plant my tomato plants along a fence row by using a bulb planter to make the hole to set the plants in. They always did great! But here, the frau always had me till the row, and I don't think we ever had what I would call a good crop of tomatoes, or peppers, or anything else for that matter.

My dad used to line up bags of potting soil side by side for planting his tomatoes.
He would poke numerous holes in the bottom side of the bags before setting them in place.
Then make a small slit in the top where he planted the tomato plant.
Next to the plant, he stuck in a 3" plastic funnel to catch rainwater and allow it to get inside the bag.
As soon as the leaves covered the funnel, he took the funnels out and stored them for next year.
The plants themselves would then direct the water down the stem and into the bags.

At the end of the growing season, he pulled the plants out and tossed them, cut one end of each bag and pulled the plastic bag out leaving the soil behind. He wouldn't rake it flat until the next growing season to give time for the old tomato roots to dissolve. What is interesting, the area he did this in never got any taller over the years as one would think. I guess a good portion of potting soil is peat moss which gets consumed like mulch.
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yogi
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Re: Dancing?

Post by yogi »

Some of the best tomato plants I've ever grown were those planted in bags of potting soil. I grew potatoes that way one year too, but they didn't produce as many spuds as I thought they would. The stalks, however, were like tomato stalks and grew tall and green. At one point I was making my own potting soil. Basically it was peat moss, compost, and dirt, but I did put in a few other things from time to time just to see what it does. Vermiculite and Perlite lightened up the soil tremendously but were sterile as far as nutrients were concerned. During the last summer in the old house I grew flowers in bags of potting soil. They did pretty well but I had a heck of a time getting water into the bag. You would think an old time green thumb like me would have thought of the funnel trick. But I never did that. :cry:
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Kellemora
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Re: Dancing?

Post by Kellemora »

I only grew potatoes one time since they are so cheap in the store.
I did mine using stackable rings which made growing and harvesting super easy.
Like you though, we didn't get as many potatoes as I though we would.

I don't golf, but I found these long black plastic tubes used in golf bags and used them over asparagus plants to get white asparagus shoots. I don't like green asparagus at all, so gave all of those away. I just cut the tubes in 10 inch long pieces then flattened and folded the top end over about 1/4 inch and put a staple in it to hold it shut. I got more than I could eat, but didn't realize the amount of work it takes to peel these darn things. I'll now gladly pay for the glass jars of white asparagus from the store!
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yogi
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Re: Dancing?

Post by yogi »

I grew the potatoes as an experiment. As you say, it's hardly worth the effort given they are so cheap in the stores. But, I will repeat the old cliché and tell you home grown tastes better. I also experimented with asparagus one year. It seems as if I paid a premium price to purchase shoots that had to be planted the year prior to harvesting a crop - or something. I made a 25 foot row of plants but only a few survived the winter. I gave up on them after that. Another single year crop I tried was corn. The story goes that corn loses it's freshness and great flavor very quickly. The best way to enjoy corn is to cook it as soon as you pick it. Well, the corn I buy in the store was pretty good tasting so I wanted to see how much of an improvement home grown was. We actually could taste the difference when cooked immediately after picking as opposed to the store bought variety. I learned something new when I planted corn. Apparently only one ear per stalk is normal. I decided corn takes up too much room and didn't grow it after that first attempt.
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