bill archer

Wow this is certainly a wealth of possibilities and information, all worthy to try!
Let me know how you make out with some of these. I will certainly try out the decomposed weed tea method, I may have enough time left in the Summer season to start some more tomatoes from seed just to do a side by side comparison (visual, as I have no idea how I could get a nutrient comparison).
The last experiment I tried did not go so well. I decided to try brewing in a 5 gallon bucket some fresh horse manure and molasses for about 2 days (my air pump does not produce the greatest bubbles so I usually do 30-40hrs when brewing). When it was finished, it was a thick, dark tea and I though I would get some super growth for it. I diluted it 1:1 and poured it around an experimental alfalfa patch which was doing pretty good.
The next day the plants looked like they had been burned, they had reduced to nothing and there was a trail from the tea.
Wondering what went wrong and how I could have changed this, I tried diluting 2:1, and got the same result lol. Now my little alfalfa patch is even smaller. Any good books/sites on this subject you could recommend? I'm looking for ways to produce my own fertilizer, for now I'm using "fish and poo" which seems to work.

Thanks for the replies. I like the idea of a scythe, but they are forming a "bulb", sort of purple at the top, should this be of concern if I were to use a scythe? Around this time last year I went "ninja" on the whole patch with two machetes. It was a lot of fun and exercise, but they grew back. So in chopping them, am I "helping" them to spread, or do they just decompose? I figure since the thistle harvest this year appears to have grown by almost 2x in this particular area, that I either helped them to spread or they somehow spread/grew from the root system.

On another note, if I were to chop them and use them in an 18 day compost, would I have contamination in the compost of these weeds? I just watched "Permaculture Soils" and saw that weeds could be used and I'm not too sure of this (though trust the info coming from Lawton, just don't understand how the weeds will not contaminate).

Jay Green wrote:Why not just go one step further and ferment their feeds and accomplish both goals? You can apply that water right into the ferment bucket for a super, enriched feeding experience. When you make fodder you are fermenting the grain anyway, so why not just ferment all their feeds?

I'd really like to try this out when I have more time to take better notes/measurements. It's been hot lately and the challenge is cooling it all down and straining the starchy globs. Not sure if the gain is worth the work. I've have a tough time supplying the starchy water to them as it's labor intensive with 3 "tractors", separate waterers etc so I've been giving it to the pigs who also love it. The present feed is a an Albers 21%. I was using the Salatin "Pastured Poultry Profits" feed, but it became quite to expensive and more time consuming. Still on the hunt for a cost effective (sub $17 per 50lb bag) organic, non-gmo feed, but not having much luck.

Thanks for all your replies. The browning of leaves seemed to stop after adding a bunch of compost around the plants, along with a liquid fish/bat guano solution (dilluted 1 ounce to 1 gallon and watered daily). Could the increase in nitrogen have done the trick? Maybe the acidity was in fact too high and this balanced it out? The acid mix I used along with the composted apples, wood chips and composted sawdust/horse manure mix was Down to Earth 4-3-6. Now that I think about it, this does sound like an overkill of carbon lol. So does lots of carbon = higher acidity?

I have lots of weeds growing in a particular corner of pasture. I'd like to shovel it, but it would take hours and I don't have the time. I noticed just today that they are beginning to bloom.
Is there another way I could deal with these to keep them from spreading? I'm wondering if I torch only the top portion, would this stop them from dropping seeds and spreading?

Came across this video today:

The guy uses weeds from the garden in a bucket with water, he allows it to break down over a couple of weeks and uses the resulting mixture in a 2-1 ratio as fertilizer.

Wondering if anyone has tried this?
Can this also work with thistles? How about stinky chamomile? Any risk of spreading weeds?

Every 3 days or so. Since its been raining though I haven't watered. Leaves are falling off.

I tried this yesterday and in all 3 chicken tractors the water seemed to have been finished faster than before when only using standard water. Maybe a coincidence, but it's been raining the past couple of days. A lot of the starchy sludge from the peas settled into the bottom of the water.

Rion Mather wrote:This is what I am listening to. What about you?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HZ04FPK0S8

I started a Pandora channel based on "The Newberry Consort" as I was researching medieval times, particularly agriculture/farming practices. The music really has an old time feel to it. A lot of the songs generated on the station were written in the 1600s+ and are preserved/performed.

Earlier I was listening to a channel based on the group "Fuel" lol.

Thanks Philip, that's actually another variety I was wondering about. After sifting through hundreds ad hundreds of images/sites, I think it looks more like False Brome (aka Bunchgrass) - http://www.paulnoll.com/Oregon/Wildflower/plant-Brome-False.html
Seems like it's invasive "As this species has spread to the Pacific Northwest of the U.S. it has demonstrated a capability of dominating forest understories and open grasslands to the exclusion of all other flora found in those areas." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_Brome

Pigs seem to really like it, hopefully it's not bad for them, being a noxious weed and all.
I was trying to find info on it's nutritional value but nothing found by way of protein.