Dr.Hess Posted June 17, 2020 Report Share Posted June 17, 2020 I didn't think it looked like Central Texas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr.Hess Posted June 18, 2020 Report Share Posted June 18, 2020 Oh, DEEP East Texas.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FC Posted June 18, 2020 Author Report Share Posted June 18, 2020 It's looking like we'll move to Thornton in two or three years. It's far from perfect, but at least it's not Houston or Austin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manureman Posted June 19, 2020 Report Share Posted June 19, 2020 Tony it’s usually the first of November, last of October before we get a Hard killing frost, we’ll get some light ones earlier and another month before you can expect it to get cold enough to freeze the ground. You mentioned pine straw, never used it as it ain’t to be had around these parts commercially, but I’ve wanted to try it as I get tired of using straw then fighting a wheat crop in my garden Appreciate the heads up on your tomatoes I was wondering if they were as good as out of the garden or if they were more like out of a hot house . Think I’ll try spraying half of what I have in tubs with aspirin, I hear that triggers the plants and really improves the taste of container raised tomatoes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FC Posted June 29, 2020 Author Report Share Posted June 29, 2020 Aspirin is a new one on me. im going to try adding drip irrigation since I can’t go more than a day without watering in the heat. I finally figured out my frankensquash is a Blue Hubbard. It made a good custard pie. i might plant these next year https://www.southernliving.com/fruits/melon/bradford-watermelon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FC Posted July 1, 2020 Author Report Share Posted July 1, 2020 I'm adding drip irrigation to my buckets. The SC heat is just too much for many of the plants. I've had the supplies for years, but never used them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manureman Posted July 2, 2020 Report Share Posted July 2, 2020 I love good watermelon! Got a buddy that raises a patch every year from seed that’s been in his family for generations, he hides his patch in the middle of a big river bottom corn field. They are a great tasting melon and get huge if pruned properly, some around a hundred pounds most years. I wondered about the buckets holding enough water. Always wanted to try drip irrigation ,it undoubtedly works great I was always worried about cost and how many problems I was going to have Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FC Posted July 4, 2020 Author Report Share Posted July 4, 2020 I spent about 8 hours putting in the drip irrigation system. It’s working fine. Several of the emitors were faulty. I have extra supplies and timers. Maybe I should give some of it to you? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manureman Posted July 6, 2020 Report Share Posted July 6, 2020 Tony thank you very much for your very kind offer it’s much appreciated . But I’m in the middle of rigging up a gravity flow system of sorts using the 275 gallon square caged totes as tanks and garden hose and pvc pipe. The Mennonites talk like they have a terrible time with the extra hard water we have so I started on this . The short runs are doing good as best as I can tell but we’ve had so much rain so far I really haven’t needed to water this year just feed. But I’ll be really curious to know how you get along down there in the all that heat, I’d think you’d have It whipped now. Again I appreciate your offer a bunch but you better hang on to your extras, can’t ever have enough spare parts and if you do move to Texas you’ll sure want them there, but when you have time you can keep me posted on how your stuff is doing. I’ve only had my tubs and barrels out about a month but they seem to be really taking off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FC Posted July 7, 2020 Author Report Share Posted July 7, 2020 One video showed tubing with drip holes every six inches, which might be good for what you're doing. We're getting a whole lot of rain right now for some reason. Unusual for this time of the year. I managed to drown a cucumber in the barrel by having too high of a water level. The other stuff is doing pretty good. Some worm holes though in some of the squashes. I'm trying bok choi, and boy is it doing well. Tomatoes and yellow squash are really loving MasterBlend's high potash fertilizer. The green beans are not liking the mostly full shade very much. Lots of green, but not lots of beans. I had to climb a ladder to get at some of them. I probably put in too much composted manure. The chickens love watermelon and canteloupe rinds, tomatoes, peaches, and strawberries. Watermelon are doing well. Blue Hubbard squash (Frankensquash) make good pies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manureman Posted July 7, 2020 Report Share Posted July 7, 2020 Had to look up your Frankensquash , hadn’t seen or heard of Hubbard before sounds like it would make good pies. I put out several barrels of cucumbers, 3 different kinds and placed them 1 barrel of each in full sun , partial sun and full shade. Figured the ones in full sun might cook but so far they are doing best, but we’ve not been any hotter than about 95 yet and then only a few days of that before getting back down to the upper 80s. Finally gave up and mulched my strawberries with straw after not being able to find pine straw to try. Darn blight is working on my tomatoes in the garden and powdery mildew on my zucchini from all the rain , need to hit em with copper. And the Japanese beetles are starting in.... good thing I enjoy fooling with a garden it’s awfully easy to get aggravated, need to till again as soon as it’s dry enough or the weeds are going to take over, but I do love fresh stuff and the satisfaction of doing it myself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FC Posted July 8, 2020 Author Report Share Posted July 8, 2020 Leon said tomatoes can't hit the ground or they'll rot. I didn't know that. I put lime into many of my buckets, and shouldn't have. I think that's why some of the plants aren't producing like they should. Spaghetti squash, cantaloupe, and cherry tomatoes are too small, and green beans should be producing a lot more. I don't really know how, but this Blue Hubbard climbed two trees! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manureman Posted July 10, 2020 Report Share Posted July 10, 2020 Got my first cucumber off my barrels last night, a Diva. Way I got it figured between the cost of everything involved it cost about $150.00 LOL! I think it’s gonna be the checker for raising cucumbers though with the most expensive items being reusable and such a labor saver , I love not having to worry about weeds or watering. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AzRednek Posted July 13, 2020 Report Share Posted July 13, 2020 About the only thing I had luck growing other than a Bermuda lawn. When I was about 11 or 12 growing some Venus Fly Traps feeding them raw hamburger and cutting fat off of bacon. My aunt believing she was helping out killed them by putting them outside after removing the cellophane covers and baking them dry in direct sunlight. “Plants need plenty of sunshine” she told me. Venus Fly Traps need to be in a shady moist humid climate and thrive in and around swamps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FC Posted July 14, 2020 Author Report Share Posted July 14, 2020 It's going to take a while to recoup that $150! Venus Fly Traps are one of God's curious creations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AzRednek Posted July 15, 2020 Report Share Posted July 15, 2020 21 hours ago, FC said: It's going to take a while to recoup that $150! Venus Fly Traps are one of God's curious creations. The Venus Fly Traps are a unique creation. Beside having a nervous system I believe the traps secrete a substance that attracts flies and mosquitoes. The flies would almost immediately go right into mature pods. After they catch a bug they secrete an acidic fluid to digest the bug. I could also tease the traps by touching the fine hairs with a needle. They would snap shut but usually opened up again in a few minutes. The traps somehow could figure it out or just tire out and would stop closing on the needle after a few times. I got my first batch of plants by ordering from a tiny comic book ad. From a flyer that came with the plants I later ordered an ant farm. The ants didn’t last long. The paperwork showed a copy of a federal law prohibiting the out of state transfer of queen ants. I dug up a few ant nests but could never find a queen. I went through the same digging years later unsuccessfully locating a queen ant for my son’s science project. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manureman Posted July 17, 2020 Report Share Posted July 17, 2020 Cucumbers are coming on by the buckets now with yellow squash and zucchini. Darn squirrels have signed their death certificates. They have started on my strawberries and even worse got to my first almost ripe tomato . At least they’ll eat good with fresh tomatoes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr.Hess Posted July 17, 2020 Report Share Posted July 17, 2020 I'm at 107 Enemy KIA in the GWoS (Global War on Squirrels.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manureman Posted July 17, 2020 Report Share Posted July 17, 2020 Darn your hide Doc ! The first day for a new shirt and you cause me to get coffee stains on it, spewed it out every orifice on my face. GWOS ... Lmao! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr.Hess Posted July 24, 2020 Report Share Posted July 24, 2020 I have noticed that an added side benefit of the GWoS has been a tremendous reduction in the tick population. Last year, before the GWoS, we could hardly walk outside without have them attack. I had some contractors come to bid a French drain and they would get covered. I mix up my own insecticide and spray my pants with it to keep them off, which works pretty well, but they will still get you. Even with putting insecticide down where I walk. This year, with Meisje around, an inside 87 lb high energy dog, I'm having to go outside a whole lot more, and I am rarely seeing a tick. Haven't seen an X-ray, I mean squirrel, in a week or so either. Last X-Ray was a Shiite, I mean a chipmunk. Got a shot off at him with collateral damage (on the porch rail) and he vanished. Can't claim him as #108 as I didn't see the body, but he hasn't been back. My friend says I am selectively breeding super-squirrels as the stupid ones get whacked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manureman Posted July 25, 2020 Report Share Posted July 25, 2020 Never gave the tick thing a thought but I can see that . I put poison down on Easter , Memorial Day, the 4th and Labor Day here or they will pack you off. Hate that collateral damage, we had been having a problem with about a 150 pound “overgrown bobtail coon” getting in the trash and coming up on the back porch and tearing up grills and grill covers , one of the back porch post now is kind of roughed up where I put a little salt on that “coons” tail with low bass #6’s as it headed back to the timber in the middle of the night as I was educating it on the evils of back porches. Education seems to have stuck , one more time and I was going to use a lot courser salt and put a end to it . A little body putty and white paint and that post will be better than new ...... I’ve discovered the secret to defeating the selective breeding program is to mercilessly hunt the young innocent ones and remove them from the gene pool before they reach maturity, and besides for a carnivore like me they eat better, but I really don’t like handling them ticky things this time of year but also hate to see them go to waste so what do ya do... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.