Tall oatgrass (Arrhenatherum elatius) is my monster weed. If you've got larger livestock, I guess they can eat it, but it's useless, otherwise. Well, it would probably slow down an attack of zombies approaching in the dark from your perimeter; when you mow, set the blade on a high cut, and NOBODY can walk through your field because they will be tripping over it with every step, and end up either retreating, or attacking on their hands and knees.
It has small (1/4 to 1/2") stacked tubers, which create thick clumps when they multiply, and spreads by seeds, too. Most people seem to dig it out, but if you leave a viable tuber behind, guess what happens?
The pH of the soil doesn't bother it, it's happy in very acid or very alkaline soil. The state ag colleges say it's even relatively impervious to glyphosate. Their only real suggestion is to keep it mowed really short CONSTANTLY for several years and starve it out. Maybe.
I'm no expert, but I think that most "odd" color changes (like the kind you would want) come from genetic accidents that alter or damage the DNA of regular plants with regular colors.
I've read that when a very different color or appearance shows up in a bed of regular plants, the grower noticed it and saved the seed. Then they grew the seed the next year to see if it would duplicate the "mistake". The variation is called a "sport".
Sometimes, a few new plants show up with the new color, so the grower removes all of the new plants that have the regular old color, saving the ones with the New Color, and covers them in a group, hoping they will cross-pollinate with each other and make more of the new-color plants.
I suspect they do this for several years, continuing to weed out the old colors. When they finally get mostly all new-color plants, they keep growing larger amounts of new seed, until they can offer them for sale.
They will usually warn that there could be some "throwbacks" to the old color.
But some mutant sports are sterile, and your breeding won't go anywhere because the new seeds (if any) won't even sprout to produce plants at all.
Reading more about the benefits of feeding biochar to livestock, I strayed to wondering if it would be beneficial if ingested by humans and household pets?
I know that activated charcoal is used medically in poisoning cases to absorb the toxins, but what about small amounts on a regular and daily basis?
I've read that livestock given biochar have increased health, production and weight gain, so why wouldn't it be good for humans and dogs and cats, too? (Well, most of us wouldn't need the weight gain.). But I'm just not finding much on it for the hooman beans.
William Bronson wrote: Perhaps we should switch from bucket loos to flower pot potties?
I think that was intended as humor, which it was, but...... It is said that urine and solid waste shouldn't be mixed due to odor issues, but if you used a flower pot, the urine could drain through the hole in the flower pot, into another container. Hmmmmmm........
F Agricola: "Don't know why stuff would go unharvested, that's wasted resource..."
You're speaking of theory, not reality (there's a lot of that online). Many people who only write and talk about doing things, dwell on the expected perfection, which usually doesn't happen in Real Life.
High winds, an early frost, an attack by birds, insects or animals, the farmer gets sick or injured, many things can cause a crop to fail or go unharvested. Mother Nature doesn't give a fig about your plans or expectations -- she has a very peculiar sense of humor.
"Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst" is a saying that is almost 460 years old, but is applicable to this day.
Trace, No, I'm talking about the consistency of my results. I am burning fairly small amounts of wood, I'm going through it piece by piece afterward, and breaking up the actual biochar with my fingers, and setting the hard, solid black stuff aside. I call the hard stuff charcoal. I think it needs reburning to advance it to actual biochar, IMO. So, is it ALL really biochar, just because it's black all the way through?
People keep jumping from the word 'biochar' to the word 'charcoal' like both are the same. Is it really? It seems that if you're talking about biochar, stick to the word 'biochar'.
I am under the impression that biochar is the light, holey, black stuff that all the residue has burned off, that crushes easily. I thought the charcoal is the harder, more solid black stuff that takes more effort to crush, and it still contains the volatile residue.
Am I misunderstanding that ALL of it is really biochar as long as it's black???
For cooling pets, there are gel-filled mats. No water or electricity involved, it starts cooling as soon as they step on it. The cooling effect lasts for 3 to 4 hours, and then it needs a "rest" for about 15 minutes, and then it's ready for another few hours. Larger-dog size costs about $45.
I live just over the border in Thurston County. I would strongly suggest you rent for a year before you buy. The people there aren't the friendliest. The nearest medical care is dodgy, to say the least. Even the nearest Walmart is 1.5 hours away, and any major shopping area is 2 hrs (one way).
"After charcoal is inoculated, it becomes biochar."
But biochar is more airy, and charcoal is more dense. Biochar I can break with my fingers, but charcoal is harder and more dense, without that brittle 'ring' to it.
Having a nearby grower insist on spraying your trees is insane. He owns his land and you own your land; if you were to insist that he not spray, he would think you were crazy.
BTW, the birds around here (US, Pacific Northwest) do a lot of planting of acorns and filbert's, and they don't seem to care what I think.
You can't live your life for everyone else. Or for anyone else.
If you meet 5,000 people in a year, most of them won't even agree with each other, so how could you take the advice of all of them?
Most of the advice-givers only want to GIVE advice, they never want to TAKE advice -- odd, isn't it? My youngest sister is a narcissistic sociopath. She tells everyone what they should be doing, but if you should DARE to give her advice, she flies into a rage.
Many people love control, but it's only a one-way street. Don't worry about what people think or say, as most of it's bad advice, anyway.
The two people I've known who did join a couple of those communities years ago said the biggest problem was that, while most of the members were willing to contribute, there were always some who refused to do much of anything, but they always wanted to be the bosses and to take more than their share (as with governmental communism).
And these people said they had heard that was a common problem in other groups, too. I never did hear what the legalities of the groups were -- can you oust the bad ones? Grace said that if she ever wanted to start one, she would start with known people who were dependable, rather than finding the place and then acquiring the members.
I just looked it up, and green mint oil seems to be applied as a fog to the potatoes. This sounds okay in a large, subsidized operation, but not very doable for a smallholder.
The article also said peppermint oil, soaked up by a piece of blotting paper and placed in the bottom of the box containing the potatoes was effective, but apparently it needs to be repeated periodically (and they didn't say how long that period was.)
Article: "Organic and alternative methods for potato sprout control in storage". Sorry, but I'm using my phone and I don't know how to post the link.
Travel trailers and older mobile homes are trash from the ground up. I know -- I live in one. They are built of the cheapest, junkiest materials, most of which would never be used for anything else.
This one is built of thin sheet metal and boards made of chipped wood (OSB), boards made of compressed sawdust, and ceilings made of pressed paper fiber, all held together with staples. Every seam leaks. Every part was the very cheapest they could find, and so was very method. These things were made for dumb suckers.
Start watching some of the older, more basic (and cheaper) Tiny Home videos and websites. Many can be made for around $20,000. Forget the ones that are made for resale $40,000 to $100,000 -- stick with the basic ones.
How about buying a small, used utility trailer? Make sure it doesn't leak, and then line the insides of the walls with straw bales. Get some 2" thick sheets of styrofoam for the ceiling (I would use at least 2 sheets for 4" of thickness). Check around for re-use stores like Habitat for Humanity. If you could find a really good deal on insulation, forget the straw and just use multiple layers of foam insulation.
I live in the Slug Capital of the World, the Pacific Northwest. For 12 years I fought slugs, but the slugs were winning, so I bought four ducks. I think slugs are the ducks' favorite food.
By the second year, it was getting difficult to find more than a few slugs. By the third year, it was almost impossible to find ANY, and the ducks were complaining bitterly.
I save those useful quart yogurt containers, and passed them around to a few neighbors, asking for donations of slugs. (Kids are esp good at filling them up.) I would find the cartons on my front porch, full. I would call the ducks, and they would come a-running, and I would dump them in an open area. None escaped.
For slugs, get a few ducks. They lay nice eggs, too. The girls do better on both, the guys, not so much -- if you want to raise ducklings, get only one male (gander).
Do you think that mold would be likely with just damp biochar? I grind mine down with water in a kitchen blender, so it is usually damp. And... would the mold really be much of an issue, or just kind of be a form of "self-starting organisms"?
I know, I know -- your first thought is to ask WHY would you want to do that?
I'm putting my property up for sale because I can't afford to keep it. I will be a sort of snowbird, moving with the weather, living in a travel trailer. At some point, I may find a place to stay on private property for the growing season, if my luck is good.
While cleaning up this property, I am making biochar from fallen tree branches. I see no point in leaving it in the garden beds, as the majority (by far) of the people here are of the Roundup/chemical fertilizer persuasion, or they will pave the entire place.
Some fearmongers are quick to point out that biochar can spontaneously catch fire, and tell you to put it in airtight metal cans (and someone even said this was even possible when the biochar was WET *rolly eyes*). However, I found a reliable source who said this is only possible the first time that biochar is exposed oxygen after charring.
After charring, I would like to inoculate it with some of the usual beneficial materials, including finished compost. At this point it would contain live microbes. I would like to store it in some lidded, food-grade plastic 5-gallon buckets.
Now, the main questions: How much oxygen do microbes require? How long could I keep the buckets sealed? Would it be a good idea to open the buckets, remove the contents, and fluff it up to incorporate fresh air, and then replace and reseal them?
Alternative idea: Add just the mineral-type nutrients for travel, and buy a fresh package of microbes to mix in when/if I find a place to settle?
Get a soil test before you start adding chemicals to the soil.
Contact your local Cooperative Extension Office about where to get it done, and to find out how much a general test costs. Most run $10-20. Their websites usually tell or show you how to take a sample -- you don't just scrape some dirt off the ground.
If you soil has a low pH, you can add a moderate amount of ash. But if it has a nearly-neutral (6.5) or higher pH, adding ash may increase the pH to the point where some of the other nutrients will not be available to the plants.
Jay Angler:. Yes, you can sterilize water in jars, but if you have clean water, you don't need to -- just fill them with clean water.
Try to avoid using regular garden hoses to deliver drinking water; these aren't the rubber hoses of the 50s and 60s. The cheap-junk hoses of today contain contaminants that you don't want to ingest, and they also usually have a liner of webbing that holds bacteria, mold and occasional bugs. If you must use your garden hose, be sure to flush out the water that has been standing in it.
The best hoses to use are RV hoses, designed and certified for safe drinking water delivery. They are usually about ten feet long, so you might have to buy several. They are specifically colored white or blue. Keep them out of sunlight so they will last longer, and plug the ends, or store them in plastic bags after using, once they're dry inside.
Many people are afraid of rainwater, due to our American fear-mongering society. Rainwater, collected on a clean surface and collected in clean containers, is perfectly safe to drink without treatment.
"Acid Rain" is not toxic or harmful to drink. It acidifies soil, and it can damage certain kinds of stones, metals and man-made materials. Acid rain has a low pH (acidic) of 4.0. Lemonade, blueberries, grapefruit and plums have a lower pH than 4. Nearly all colas and other fuzzy drinks, some beers, and most sports and energy drinks have a pH of less than 4.
The first 15-20 minutes of rainfall will 'wash' most industrial contaminants out of the air, and will also wash most fresh debris off your roof. Climb up and check your roof occasionally (and before an anticipated disaster). There will be fewer contaminants than you expect. If you see some bird droppings near your roof peak, install a few eye-bolts along/above the the peak, run a thin wire through them, and fasten it so it's taut; birds won't perch on thin wires.
You haven't cleaned your metal roof for maybe ten years? Pre-disaster might be a good time.
Check the roof for mammal access and fix it so they can't get up there. Prune overhanging tree limbs and vegetation to discourage birds, or simply don't collect rainfall from that part of the roof. (I mentioned this to a neighbor, and she asked why that would prevent contamination. I pointed out that water runs downhill, not crosswise. "Oh. Yeah.")
Asphalt roofs aren't the best for water collection, due to their chemical makeup (new ones are probably worse than old ones).
Consider buying a few sheets of metal/baked enamel roofing (average 10 ft x 38") from a roofing supply store (not a roofing contractor) and make some short, tilted frames of 2x4s, maybe 3 ft high at one end and 2 ft at the other (with an overhanging lip), and set a clean bucket under the low end. Fit some window screening over the buckets and fasten with a metal ring snap-clamp (I forgot what they're called). THESE ARE NOT WIND-RESISTANT, so store them accordingly.
Texas has the most comprehensive source of information that I've found -- Google TEXAS RAINWATER HARVESTING.
If you do have the need to chlorinate your drinking water, stir it in at the advised rate (more is NOT better), let sit, uncovered, for 24 hours while stirring occasionally, to let the chlorine offgas.
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