R Scott wrote:Do a search for Gabe Brown's cover crop seed mix, he does 14+ different seeds.
Thank you for the lead on the cover crop supplier! He even has phacelia, one of my favorite cover crops. I just placed an order. Hopefully it will arrive soon.
So we just bought 5 acres of clay in southern Ohio. This field has been used for corn and soy, and has been already sprayed with roundup for the season. I want to plant some cover crops now, and I need help figuring out What kind of cover crops are best for this land (see picture below), having in mind we are at the end if May, and whether to plow before planting or just spread seeds on the surface. Any advice is much appreciated!
Short story: just bought 5 acres of farmland (Literally, yesterday), now what?
Long story:
In the past ten years I have converted my backyard into a small farm, chickens and all. Then I expanded to community plots (I have 5 around the city today). So I know a thing or two about no-till gardening, cover cropping, composting, Huggleculture, and vermiculture. However, I never had an experience staring at a 5-acre, round-up sprayed bare land, not knowing where to start. It’s mid-May, raining cats and dogs for the next week. I am thinking about throwing some tillage radish, clover, and buckwheat on this land just to get it through this summer, and then plant garlic in November. But I don’t even know how to do this the smart way. Till, no till? What machinery is there to help me? Buy or rent? Where at? So many questions, makes my head spin. HELP!
Benen Huntley wrote:Definitely will do. Here's the core. Have plenty of blanket to make a 5 minute riser.
Any chance you could share the plans? We just had a tornado take out a transformer in our town. Looks like it’s going to be a long week without power. For now we are surviving on the camping stove, but I don’t know if we will have a continuous supply of propane.
Does anyone know how many lentil seeds one plant produce? I just tried to germinate hulled red lentils (Bob’s mill brand), and these little suckers sprouted to my surprise! I will try to grow them, but how many plants should I plant per family member? We consume about a cup of dry lentils each week.
Has anyone expermented with sea berry for oil production? Do you use it for cooking or cosmetic/medicinal only? I know sea berry is high in oils, but is also very high in oil-soluble carotenoids, which can become toxic if digested regularly undiluted.
Steve, the “flower” heads are not really flowers, and the bulbils are not seeds, but rather clones of the parent plant. So no polination takes place in this case. You can get good bulbils from just one garlic plant.
Megan, what I have on the photo came from 4 or 5 “flower heads”. I suspect Rocamboles? Thank you for the references, I will have 6 hours tonight on the plane to read up in the subject.
Roberto pokachinni wrote:The bulbils you purchased sound like they were probably rounds, or second year bulbils, or even cloves.
That seems to be the consensus among the fellow growers I talked too, and I would make the same conclusion if I did not take those bulbils out from the scape casing myself. They were unusually large, up to half of an inch. Some were smaller. The guy who sold it to me said that he kept it in his barn, so they had some winter stress by the time I got them. Here is a picture of them after I took them out of the casings and sorted by size:
Anyone grows Garlic from bulbils? I receved some really nice bulbils from ebay and planted them in December. I expected the bulbils to grow into a larger ine-clove head, but instead they shot scapes and yielded small heads, divided into 3-5 cloves. I guess my question is - what now? Do I divide them and plant separately, or do I plant the 2-ng year bulbil head whole?
Hello All Permies, young and old,
My newly planted (a month or so) seaberry has had a rough stressful shipping, but I thought it recovered because I saw healthy gren new growth. This week I noticed the newest leaves are yellowish. What can I do to help it? This is Star of Altai variety. Much thanks!
Looks like I have cinquefoil judging by yellow flowers and tastless berries. Well, good news is that I just found an endless supply of snack greens for my guinea pigs! Do we know the nutritional values, anyone? Thank you!
My garden walkways are overrun by the wild strawberries, similar to the ones on the picture below.
Does anyone know if there is a value of keeping them around, or will I be better off over-planting the walkways with bio-accumulators, such as clover?
And got disappointed again. And again. Finally I gave up in the idea, turned around, and went home. However, I did make some discoveries today:
1. Getting drenched-soaked in the rain is just as much fun (little pleasures!)
2. Rain water tastes much better than any other water I tried.
3. Indian Hill on Saturday morning sounds like the fight for Stalingrad in 1943. There is no freaking way there will be gun controls in this country- people shoot in the morning, just for fun, like it’s a cup of coffee.
Nothing fancy - just piled cut up pumpkins in there and covered with 2-3 inches of dirt. Kids called it “pumpkin cemetery”. I did add a heap of worms from a compost pile though, and I still see them dancing hapily in there. I love the idea recycling the pumpkisnthis way. Plus I got over a gallon of pumpkin seeds to snack on all winter. I ended up grinding most of it and using as a “bone meal” in other parts of the garden.
Rebecca Norman wrote:...but then the tiny sprouts got roasted on a sunny day, and I changed my mind about introducing an exotic species, and decided to try to get some of the local nettle species (but haven't done it yet).
That’s the problem with using seeds for nettle propagation: they are too tender the first year and you get no harvest until second season. Hopefully rhizomes will get me some harvest this fall.
J,
I got seeds from ebay and threw it on top of sandy soil in February (it needs stratification) in a bucket, and covered with row cover to protect from wind and birds. Dermination was pretty impressive, but not 100%. I just begged one of the permies (Mime Cantrell) to send some rhizomes and will be planting those as well tonight. Search “stinging nettle” or just “nettle” on this forum and you will find old posts where people offered sending rhizomes - you want to have someone not too far from you so nettles don’t wilt in transit too much.
Steven Rodenberg wrote:Take a canoe trip down the little miami river. There is tons of it along the river bank just upstream of Milford ohio. You can also take a bike ride along the little miami river bike trail and fine it growing like weeds. Start out at the milfore bike trail train station at US 50 parking area and go north.
Thank you for the tip, Steven! I will get on the trail this weekend, have been planning on doing it for years anyway. I want to collect and dry some for tea. Mine will not be ready until next year.
Hi William, looks like we are neighbors (Madeira). I have been looking into seaberry trees lately. There is a hot market for its berries, juices and oil (according to some posts), but the most important - some of the cultivars of these trees have nice thorns (wild variety is the most rich in vitamins and thorns). A pain when harvesting, but works very well as a live fence. You can get dry seeds in Russian deli market in Mason (sold as an herb supplement), or order 2-3 year old trees from nurseries. I just got a couple from OneGreenWorld last week. I ill be happy to share cuttings when they establish.
Just wanted to share my accidental success with early potatoes this year. I collect halloween pumpkins from our neighbors to recycle, and this year I made a hot bed. In March I planted some red potatoes under a plastic hoop, with additional row cover underneath (I am in zone 6b). Yesterday (May11) I had my earliest potatoe harvest ever. It’s on a “proof of concept” scale, but nonetheless exciting.
If tou are covering plants that do not require polination, such as brassicas or root veggies, I would recommend floating row covers, found in many places: johnny’s seeds, ebay or amazon. It can also help you extend the gardening season by a month or so, if you us it to make a tunnell. It lasts for years and is worth the investment.
Does anyone have any established stinging nettle you could dig up and send me? I know it is a common weed in most places, but we don’t have it in Cincinnati. I will pay for the shipping and the trouble getting it sent. I am looking for a dozen or so of strong specimens to establish a dedicated nettle raised bed.
Hello Ohio,
I am an urban gardener, running out of backyard space. I am seriously considering getting some acreage outside of town (Cincinnati) and starting a food garden. I am not yet ready to quit my teaching job and dive into this endeavor though. Anyone in the area with similar goals? How would you do it?
Jordan Johnston wrote: currently i am growing seabuckthorn
Are you growing the wild variety or a cultivar? I can’t find seeds from cultivars (I do have a wild seed). Dug through the whole internet it seems, all in vain...
I have a bunch on my windowsill right now. Can't really tell you what variety it is, I got it from organic section at my grocer. I can share a few slips, just PM me .
