Doug McEvers

I am a corn amateur but here is something I am thinking about regarding timing and cross pollination. I have been working with MN 13 heirloom corn since 2012 or thereabout. I plant no earlier than June 1 (this year June 5) when most of the area conventional corn is planted by May 15. The MN 13 I have is thought to be an 87-day corn, most of the local conventional corn is likely 90 days. Would the same corn, some planted on May 15 and some planted on June 1 have about the same number of days to pollination? How does daylength come into play? How about the maturity difference, more days than the planting differential, again with daylength in mind.

Nice catch, Timothy. This (biointensive agriculture), from what I have just read, is human scale agriculture. How to get a whole lot of production from a minimum amount of land, sustainably. Now I have research to do on this wonderful and drizzly morning (we are dry here). The deep double digging is very interesting, I have hard soil when the year is dry. There is much written about tillage, when, how deep and how to provide a refuge for soil life. According to some, tillage should be only in the top 4 or so inches, The soil beneath is left undisturbed and the roots of crops will burrow their way down and loosen the soil below. It is a slow process here to get roots going down in hard soil for farm crops, weeds do much better. A couple of renowned soil experts tell of the need for deep tillage (ripping) from time to time to make the topsoil and subsoil connection. The double digging technique mirrors this.

This is good information, I have considered this (DE) to spread around our house foundation at the farm. The boxelder bugs the last few years are incredible, sounds like rain would render it ineffective. I have been using dish soap and water mixed in my backpack sprayer and this does them in. I am all for bugs and the natural ecosystem but one can only put up with so many bugs in the house. The boxelder bugs seem to have no natural predators here that I can see, at least not in any number.  

Elanor,

You just need enough fresh air to offset the humidity that is generated inside the house by people, showers, cooking and the like. Make sure your vapor barrier under the slab is perfect. I would consider a high grade material over standard polyethylene, seal and limit any penetrations. The rule of thumb I use for continuous ventilation is 15 cfm per bedroom plus 15. You need fresh air, just enough, you want control of all energy expenditures.

https://www.lunos.de/en/exhaust-air

https://www.positive-energy.com/product/fresh-100-air-inlet/

https://www.conservationtechnology.com/building_films.html

Insulate and air seal very well. Annual Heating Degree Days (hdd) divided by 180 for wall R-value and 120 for ceilings. Example, 6,000 hdd, walls R-33 and ceilings R-50. Shoot for 1 or less ach50, (air changes per hour @ 50 pascals). This level of insulation and airtightness will put you on a path of high efficiency, less than 1.5 Btu per square foot per heating degree day. Depending on the ceiling design you might consider moving up to R-60 or 70. If it is blown insulation, extra R-value is quite easy.

I would not get too radical, this area being undisturbed may have enriched soil. Look for earthworms and be sure you are making them comfortable. Take things a bit at a time with a long term goal in mind. I am putting my garden to rest for the season and planting winter rye where I can. After some much needed rainfall the earthworms are revived and doing the heavy lifting, let the soil work for you.

We were planning to burn some of our grassland this spring, it is mainly tallgrass prairie and has not been burned for 3 years, helps keep some areas of copious willow in check. We did not burn, it was too dry and fire burn restrictions were in place all spring. This turned out to be for the best as the summer continued on very dry. The grassland did quite well because the mulch (duff) layer held in the moisture and the warm season grass was very prolific even with just .7" of rain in a hot July. Had we burned, the soil surface would have been exposed to the heat of the sun and the moisture reserve we had going into the summer would have more quickly been used up. I am rethinking my burn frequency and what is accomplished by it. All of the surface dry matter is consumed by the fire and no litter is left on the surface for the soil life below. My initial soil testing on grassland says a burn occasionally raises the soil organic matter percentage but this needs more research. The soil surface litter was our friend this season and our future grassland management will take this into account. We rotationally grazed some of our grassland this summer and even after grazing a lot of the duff layer remained, protecting the soil surface.

I was just thinking about this very thing, grass going into winter. We finally have had some good moisture here after a very dry summer and the grass is green and growing. I have to wonder if leaving it long for a while would help build root reserves and then mow to a reasonable length when the growth appears over for the season?

I would highly recommend some plant tissue testing. I did this in the fall of 2024 on volunteer grain and the results told me my soils were in quite good balance. The standard soil test I had taken the last 2 years said I was devoid of almost all nutrients. I have read Logan Labs is highly regarded, is there anything in the testing you did measuring soil biological function? I am no expert on soils or tests but excess nutrients can complex others. Your high K level may be masking nutrients that are in the soil. I am high on phosphorus and this can complex zinc. My plant tissue and crop residue testing says I am adequate on zinc. I am fortunate to have questioned the test result I was getting from the standard chemical analysis soil test. My soil consultant at the time was recommending truckloads of hard rock phosphate when my advanced soil and biological function testing showed all of our acres with 100% phosphorus. Our pH runs a bit high here (7.5 average) and this can skew test results as well. A better biological function will get more humus working and the pH will be closer to neutral.