Sounds like a job well done, Thelka. I'm aware of the flocculation of clay to precipitate it from water but not aware of how I might use it. I'll have to research it here. Grasses are great for putting down deep, fibrous roots that, in the long run, add organic material, create air channels as those roots die, and moving nutrients. The clay, seemingly potter's quality, is soggy wet in Winter, and almost concrete hard and dry in Summer leaving little opportunity for roots to penetrate. The saying around here is: "If you want to make concrete, just add sand to the clay soil.".
I can add organic matter to the clay soil's surface, but, short of digging or tilling, I have no way of getting it actually into the soil. Digging a hole for a tree just makes a water holding pot for the roots to drown in in the Winter and Spring, and a dry pit in the Summer. So, I avoid planting trees in the clay unless I break up the clay soil with a shovel for a large diameter beyond the planting hole and keep it watered in Summer.
Just for the record, Cristo, I've dumped organic matter by tractor load on top of some of those undisturbed clay domes for a number of years. Makes beautiful surface dwelling organic soil and plants grow really well for a while. By the way, I am quite aware of the capillarity of clay soils and their nutrient exchange capacities. Oh, surprise, I even know how Fungi grow whether they are Zygomycetes, Ascomycetes, Basidiomycetes, or Fungi Imperfecti. I was employed as a biologist for 30 years in my earlier life. For certain, there is a whole world of things I don't know, but I've been around the block a few times, and I have learned a little bit during the journey.
What I've found to be true by experience with this property is that the minute I stop dumping organic
matter onto a clay site, it quickly, in a year or two, returns to its original clay dome condition. Like I had never touched it. So, in the long run, have I really changed the soil composition?
I could put a raised bed on top the clay, but if I removed it, I have a feeling that the soil underneath would still just be clay you would be poking your finger into. One may make compost in a few weeks, but that's not soil building. I don't think soil building happens in a few weeks, or even a few months. Permaculture takes years to truly amend the soil.The organic matter needs to get down into the soil, not just sit on top of it, and it takes decades for the worms and soil borrowers to mix it in naturally. Also, even with soil building plantings in place, it takes years for enough plant roots and other organic matter to permeate the soil and form a deep, rich soil even with burrowing organisms doing the mixing.
"dude" Really???
On this property, the clay domes - where the compacted clay base is at or very near the surface - have, I'm sure, existed for thousands of years. The workshop of Nature has had a long, long time to convert these areas into rich soil. This hasn't happened, and there is no reason to think it is going to happen without intervention by an outside influence.
In my, perhaps misconstrued way of thinking, adding rich soil building materials on top of undisturbed, compacted, water-shedding clay domes and letting the worms, microbes, etc. do their work is still going to require at least several decades of continual amendment to even modify an inch or two of the clay soil.
I may cut the H--- out of worms, fungal hyphae, and other soil denizens and destroy compacted clay soil structure if I TILL once, or even a few times, and thereby mix all of the added amendments into the upper 6" of the compacted clay, but I'm guessing that all these critters and the aeration channels and water channels they leave will be back in place in the tilled, modified soil long before amendments sitting on top of the compacted clay soil have made a dent in the compacted clay itself - which has a low population of soil critters to start with. I think tilling can give the soil critters and soil modification a bit of a boost in the long run. IMHO tilling has a place in soil building, just not a continual year after year place.
Off topic?
Cristo, isn't going to take several decades or even several hundred years...or thousands of years for the worms, microbes, etc. to develop a rich soil that is incorporated into the clay base? Or, are you talking of building a rich soil on top of the clay base?
Like you, Stacy, I would not use a 55° angled fence - too many cons, including all those you mentioned. I spend a lot of time removing blackberries without having to deal with a 55° fence. For the elk, people tell me to get a dog or shoot them. I won't do either because 1) they were here before me, and 2) I enjoy watching them. I chose to take the effort required to protect (not always successfully) individual trees and other plants scattered across the property. For most, protection from elk is only until the trees is big enough, except for 6' of the trunk they like to debark with their antlers - and then there are the beavers, too. The elk, standing on their back legs, can readily reach, and break, branches up to 8' to 10' so a fruit tree needs fairly long term protection.
Back to the original topic - you can't go wrong by planting trees as soon as you can, lots of them.
Like you Cristo, my tractor's tiller attachment and BCS, Gravely, and Bradley walk behind tillers have all seen little use in recent years. Most of this property has not been tilled for over 15 years, BUT we have a mix of soils here. There is a large amount of beautiful, loamy soil that supports 6' tall grass, AND some very clayey soil where the grass struggles to grow to 8". Most of the clay domes are left intact because they support an interesting array of plants. But, the tiller use is really the only reasonable way for me to add amendments to clay areas I want to convert to "better" soil. The only other area that gets some tiller use is the fenced garden where added soil amendments are mixed into the existing soil with a tiller to save my back.
OK, John, point taken, a tractor does require a certain amount of working room and a walk behind requires less. I just have the 725 BCS - nice machine that is good for tight spaces, but at my age, it is becoming quite a wrestle.
We also tried a dozen different deer fence configurations that all failed. Long thin garden plots was the answer in the end. Our small kitchen garden is just 7' X 30' with one raised berm down the middle - we simply planted on top of a pile of felled trees and cut branches topped with soil as our raised bed. Deer won't jump a fence if the back fence looks too close or if they feel that after the jump that they will be trapped in and not have room to jump back out. If only we had figured this out sooner.
Should one be inclined to have an odd looking fence, research has shown that deer won't jump over a 5 foot fence IF the fence is installed at an angle of 55°. As stated in the quote, they want to know what is on each side of any vertical obstacle they plan to jump. I am always amazed at how an animal as big as an elk is, can just seem to spring over a 5 foot fence. When elk started jumping a section of our fenced garden that was about 6 feet high, the rest is higher, I dumped a lot of larger plastic pots along the inside of the fence. This landing spot uncertainty was enough to deter them until I raised the fence.
If you're just tilling and plowing, I like the idea of a walk behind 2-wheel tractor. I also like the idea of upgrading to a diesel engine. Bigger is good, until you get older. I have a BCS, but like Grillo, too. I also have a tractor with a front loader and other implements that I could almost not live without. By far and away, for me, the front loader has been the most used implement. I am older, and it allows me to accomplish a huge amount of work: hauling everything, digging and moving dirt, unloading trucks, loading trucks, lifting, an on and on. No walk behind is going to do any of that for me.
Gary Numan wrote:I wish I had known ... to start planting trees. Immediately. And don't stop.
I moved to this present farm in 2010, and planted ... I think all of *six* trees the first eight years here. The four that made it, all look very nice, wish I had 40 instead of just the four.
Plant trees.
Totally, absolutely, undoubtedly sound advice. 15+ years after moving to 15 acres of barren pasture land (llamas) surrounded by timberland, one of my biggest regrets is not planting more trees sooner. By now, I've planted over 400 trees including about 150 fruit trees and I still continue to plant more. Sure, we can't eat all the fruit, but friends, the foodbank, and the wildlife take care of it all (no llamas). Elk and beavers have taken their toll on the trees, and I have to cage all the fruit trees while they're small (trunks of all permanently for the beaver), but it's worth the effort for food, firewood, and watching the wildlife.
Since the enzymes that lead to the release of hydrogen cyanide from amygdalin are destroyed by temperatures above 40°C, and since syrup making requires prolonged boiling (100°C for pure water - higher with solutes) which is well above 40°C, syrup made from fruit trees in the rose family should be safe to eat. See: Islamyat F. Bolarinwa et al, 2014, Food Chemistry. If you plan to use plants that contain cyanogenic compounds, and, as the previous writer pointed out, many, many kinds of plants do, do some research to determine if their use is safe.
So, running the steam through pipes in the walls of a building (shop. house, etc.) like a still condenser unit and, at the same time heating the building, but also collecting the liquid for consumption (water).
"...a lot like distilling..." How so? Am I missing something? I thought boiling sap was done in an open container to evaporate the water - more akin to boiling water. I thought distilling was an art and science that requires careful attention. Don't you have to dump the first bit of distillate as it contains toxic compounds? Maybe not. Maybe someone was trying to scare me? You can tell I don't know anything about distilling, but thought it was much more involved than boiling water?
Paul Young wrote:
I've always heard that you shouldn't tap trees less than 10'' in diameter in order not to harm them by taking too much sap. More taps on larger trees.
There's a way to tap younger trees, but I've never used the method myself. I have no idea if or how it'll effect the longevity of the tree.
You'll need a flexible tube of some sort, a pipe clamp, and pruning shears or a pruning saw.
To tap a young tree, choose a branch that is the right thickness to just barely fit the inside of your tube. Cut the end off the branch, slip the tube over it, and secure the tube in place using the pipe clamp. I recommend choosing a branch that is healthy, but is positioned where you would prune it off eventually anyway. It also helps if the branch is pointed slightly downward, so that gravity helps the sap drain.
The cut on the branch will leak sap into the tube, and the tube carries that sap to your container. In the article I read that described this method, they also used some kind of vacuum pump to pull the sap out faster, but you'll still get some amount of sap without that.
Later, after the sap has stopped running, you can prune the rest of the branch back properly.
(In the article, this was done with trees as young as 5 years.)
Thank you Ellendra! This method never crossed my mind. It seems it should be useful on the branches of older trees as well, I like the idea of not having to drill a hole in the bark that, it seems, could easily allow insect or disease entry.
Has anyone done this?
Also in the PNW, lots of big Big Leaf Maple at about a 30+:1 return. But, probably not quite as big as eastern maples.
I've always heard that you shouldn't tap trees less than 10'' in diameter in order not to harm them by taking too much sap. More taps on larger trees.
Just in case someone is interested, here are the how's and why's of my pruning timing. Obviously, there's a lot more to pruning than timing. Learn what you can about what a tree is doing throughout the year and how it will respond to your pruning at any given time of year.
First, one good method of timing pruning is to closely observe the condition of the lateral and terminal buds on the tree.
Note: The months listed are meant to be only approximate. Climate region and yearly regional weather variations will affect pruning timing.
1. Minimal or no pruning while the buds are completely dormant:
~November to ~January
Pruning is not ideal because an
inactive cambium means no
healing occurs during this period
which leaves cuts exposed to
disease entry for a prolonged
period.
It is OK to prune damaged, dead,
and diseased wood.
2. Spring pruning is done just before or just as the buds begin to swell in Spring:
~February and ~March
Prune now for changing tree
shape by encouraging the growth
of new limbs.
Pruning at this time stimulates
growth which can be vigorous
and produce numerous water
sprouts (Especially in stone fruits
such as plums.).
To a degree, the heavier the
pruning, the heavier the growth
of new shoots this year.
Don't over prune - remove no
more than about 1/3 of the tree.
If you don't need to Spring prune,
it might be better to save it for
the Summer.
The Good:
Abundant, vigorous growth
provides many new limbs for
reshaping and revitalizing the
tree.
Without leaves, the structure of
the tree can be clearly seen, and
access for pruning is easy..
No fruit present to damage or
knock off the tree.
The Bad:
Pruning at this time encourages
heavy growth.
Expect a lot of water sprouts,
especially with stone fruit trees.
More cuts increases the chance
of disease entry.
Rainy, humid, cool weather
increases the chance of disease
entry.
High insect activity increases
the chance of disease entry.
3. Summer pruning is done when shoot growth has stopped and the buds are beginning to harden off, or have hardened off. They are now enclosed in bud scales and look like a tight little bud. The cambium should still be active enough to heal and seal the cuts.
~July to ~August (September)
Pruning now does not encourage
new growth this year, but affects
the new growth next Spring.
Prune now to minimize the
number of new limbs that sprout
next Spring, especially water
sprouts.
Well located water sprouts can
be left to become useful fruiting
limbs.
The Good:
Fewer water sprouts and less
rampant growth.
This is the best time to remove
or head-back this year's water
sprouts.
The growth of fewer new shoots
(ie. water sprouts) reduces the
chance of disease entry since
less corrective pruning will be
needed.
Lower insect activity decreases
the chance of disease entry.
The Bad:
Leaves make it hard to see the
structure of the tree and make
access for pruning more
difficult.
Presence of fruit means it can
be damaged or knocked off the
tree, and some will be cut off.
Some fruit loss occurs.
My wife made a batch of apple butter last Fall and then hot water bath canned it. To me, it seems like a thickened apple sauce rather than the thick apple butter I knew as a kid. Steve Edholm at Skillcult has a great Youtube.com video on pre-1900 apple butter. Apparently, apple butter back then was often made in large quantities and stored on a shelf and slowly consumed over a period of up to several years without a problem. The video is well done and well worth watching - especially for those who like apple butter, and it includes how to make old-time apple butter.
ted agens wrote: I have been told by "old timers" to not prune in the spring as it could cause rot and other issues. Of course it could be different for you in Texas (I ma in NCentral PA)
Yes, yes, yes, and especially YES!!!
The effects of pruning and the level of cambium activity are directly correlated.
The cambium layer is at its highest level of activity from early Spring to mid Summer (climate dependent). Buds become active and growth is vigorous during this period. Apical dominance directs most growth, but not all growth, to the shoot tip. Cutting off the shoot tip during this period will induce buds further down the shoot to start growing - many of them! Water sprouts will form readily. But, an active cambium means the cuts will heal quickly. Also, the "Spring wood" of this year's growth ring forms by cambium activity.
Cambial activity slows greatly in mid Summer to early Fall (climate dependent). In mid Summer, the level of cambium activity decreases, but the cambium does not become inactive. Growth of shoots slows and almost stops, and this year's buds start to harden for dormancy. The "Summer wood" of this year's growth ring forms by cambium activity during this period. To me, this is the best time to prune: dry weather, rapid healing, less rampant growth of water sprouts (cutting off water sprouts also means more cuts exposed to disease), etc.
During Winter, there is no cambial activity (an active cambium would be producing new cells which are highly vulnerable to death by freezing) and the tree remains dormant waiting for the warmer weather of Spring to start a flush of new growth.
So, pruning in Winter is, in at least one way, like pruning in Spring with regard to the eager growth of water sprouts as the tree is just waiting a bit longer to start growth with cabium activity renewal in the warmer weather of Spring.
Patrick Mann wrote:
For apples, my rule of thumb is you can prune anytime, except late fall if you have hard freezes in your climate that would freeze new growth. Summer pruning tends to dampen the trees regrowth response and is good for e.g. managing vigorous trees; winter pruning tends to stimulate growth and is good for less vigorous trees.
Good points Patrick.
Since this post is about the differences in pruning during different seasons, I thought I would add a few twigs to the fire. The effects of pruning and the level of cambium activity are directly correlated.
The cambium layer is at its highest level of activity from early Spring to mid Summer (climate dependent). Buds become active and growth is vigorous during this period. Apical dominance directs most growth, but not all growth, to the shoot tip. Cut off the shoot tip during this period will induce buds further down the shoot to start growing - many of them! Water sprouts will form readily. But, an active cambium means the cuts will heal quickly. Also, the "Spring wood" of this year's growth ring forms.
Cambial activity slows greatly in mid Summer to early Fall (climate dependent). In mid Summer, the level of cambium activity decreases, but the cambium does not become inactive. Growth of shoots slows and almost stops, and this year's buds start to harden for dormancy. The"Summer wood" of this year's growth ring forms during this period. To me, this is the best time to prune: dry weather, rapid healing, less rampant growth and water sprouts (which also mean more cuts exposed to disease), etc.
During Winter, there is no cambial activity (an active cambium would be producing new cells which are highly vulnerable to death by freezing) and the tree remains dormant waiting for the warmer weather of Spring to start a flush of new growth.
So, pruning in Winter is, in at least one way, like pruning in Spring with regard to the eager growth of water sprouts as the tree is just waiting a bit longer to start growth with the warmer weather of Spring.
Bryant RedHawk wrote:
In France I have seen Apple trees that were pollarded every winter. These trees grow a Nob at the termination point of the trunk, from which all the new branches sprout in the spring, the varieties were all tip bearing trees.
I've never tried to accomplish this type of pollarding because it seems healthier, in my own opinion, for the tree to retain the main branches from a pruning session.
The area where I live had a large number of Swiss settlers and, their preferred pruning style here is as you described. I see Swiss Method (as it is called here and in Canada - it was first described by a Swiss horticulturalist) pruned apple trees throughout the area. Coincidentally, I started a new post about this method this morning. I know little about it - reason for the post - so I just ordered "Ecological Production of Fruit in the North" which is a book about the Swiss Method. (It does have other names elsewhere.).
I would like to hear about the methods involved in Swiss-style pruning. This valley in Washington had a high percentage of Swiss settlers consequently I see a lot of Swiss-style pruned apple trees. From what I see, it appears that several branches from the trunk that are at a convenient height are bent in a bow shape so their tips point towards the ground. They then are pruned, it seems, by a modified form of pollarding.
So a mature tree will be pollarded one year and it will send up hundreds of water sprouts and look like a porcupine. The water sprouts are allowed to grow for a year and then they are thinned leaving far fewer to become fruiting branches close to the main arching (scaffold?) branches. These sprouts are allowed to fruit for several years and then the pollarding process is repeated (to renew fruiting wood?). Or, so it seems this is the process. These are just distant observations. What is the actual process and reasoning behind it? It seems quite productive, open to air circulation, and keeps the trees at a convenient picking height. I have never seen it in a large commercial orchard. It seems to take advantage of the higher fruit production that occurs on horizontal branches (compared to less production on vertical branches). Is there anyone knowledgeable and experienced with Swiss-style apple tree pruning out there that can explain it?
I should have mentioned fermentation as it is so important in food preservation. Fermentation spans two of the preservation methods listed: 4) acidification, and 5) addition of toxins because there are 2 types of fermentation: anaerobic and aerobic. Anaerobic, or lactic acid, fermentation by certain types of bacteria produces lactic acid as an end product and is used in pickling. Aerobic, or alcohol fermentation by certain types of yeasts produces carbon dioxide and ethyl alcohol (a toxic compound) as end products and is used in making beer, wine, etc. An interesting point about fermentation is that neither the lactic acid nor the ethanol are directly added to the food being preserved, but, rather, we depend upon the metabolic activity of living organisms (that are present naturally or are added to the food) to do this for us.
[quote=tom olofsson] I had presumed it was because the manufacturers started using corn syrup in place of sugar. I checked a jar of fruit spread which is made with sugar. It bore the same refrigerator warning. (likr the 1960s).[/quote]
That, too, may be a factor. The USDA, though, now states that home canners should always process jams and jellies in a water bath canner. Even if they use only sugar. My Mom, and I, have always poured the hot jams or jellies directly into hot sterilized jars. We both used sugar, and mold was still a problem.
People preserve foods in mostly 7 ways: 1) drying, 2) creating a high Osmotic Potential (OP) by adding mostly sugar or salt, 3) canning to kill in situ organisms and sealing off any reentry (as Louis Pasteur did), 4) acidification, 5) the addition of toxic compounds as in smoking or the addition of preservatives, 6) freezing, and 7) irradiation. Most preservation is a combination of 2 or more of these seven methods.
Simple fruit jams and jellies depend upon a high OP and a little acidity. As a side note, jams and jellies and other high OP substances such as honey will pull water out of the air at the surface of exposure. This lowers the OP at the surface to the level that mold can grow. So, besides using a clean spoon, keep jams, jellies, honey, etc. tightly covered for storage even in the refrigerator. The most common mold, Penicillium, can grow at refrigerator temperatures.
Back to corn syrup. I don't know (haven't researched it), but it could, quite possibly, have an OP that is too low for adequate preservation.
.
IMHO, the guidelines about water canning jams and jellies came about as an extra safety precaution. Especially since people started making jams and jellies out of low acid foods - garlic jelly? - really, can't imagine it. Fruits do have some acid and that combined with sugar creates an environment that is not friendly to the growth of harmful bacteria. The previous post explained how to raise the acidity at the surface of a jam or jelly. Thanks for the great hint. Mold growth on the surface of jams and jellies was common when I was a kid. I remember prying the paraffin layer off and finding mold which was just scraped off. However, I don't think I would feel comfortable eating some kinds of non-fruit, home processed jams and jellies that were not water bath canned.
The "Refrigerate after opening" labelling may be an FDA requirement. The FDA also changed the safe canning suggestion to water bath canning for jams and jellies whereas hot liquid in sterilized jars was previously considered adequate.
I don't know, but since people now turn just about anything into jam/jelly - garlic, pepper, etc. - maybe safety in how jams/jellies are processed is a bigger issue. I'll never forget the account the instructor told in the food safety class about a chef who made up aioli sauce using fresh garlic and mayonnaise, but did not refrigerate it overnight. The next evening he killed 10 people who ate aioli at the restaurant by botulinum poisoning.
The blue mold you see on jam, bread, cheese, etc. is a species of Penicillium, a fungus, whereas botulinum poisoning is caused by a species of Clostridium, a bacterium. Quite deadly, but the toxin it produces is heat labile so heating the food to boiling THROUGHOUT, THROUGHOUT, THROUGHOUT, as in THROUGH AND THROUGH, and then holding the food at boiling for at least 10 minutes will destroy the toxin and render the food non-toxic. This is why people always boil certain categories of home-canned food.. Just to be safe. Don't eat your home canned beans cold out of the jar. You may be lucky many times, but it only takes once. As mentioned in the previous post, jam with an appropriately high sugar content and acid content, does not support the growth of Clostridium so you won't get botulinum poisoning from properly processed jam.
When I was a kid, my Mom made all of our jam by boiling the fruit/sugar mix, and while quite hot, pouring it into sterilized jars and then immediately pouring a 1/2 inch layer of melted wax on top of the hot jam. The jars of jam, when cool, were placed on a cupboard shelf and left there until needed. Rarely, when the wax disk was pried off, there would be mold on the surface of the jam. This was removed by taking the top 1/2 inch of jam off with a spoon before the jam was eaten. Sometimes she would add pectin to the boil if the jam was thin - like berry jam tended to be.
Everyone is right that this is a multifactorial issue, but, as most have said, the two most important factors are sugar content (for sweetness and to give the jam/jelly a really high osmotic potential) and acid content. Pectin is just a thickener or jelling agent. Most preservation of food consists of heating the food to kill any bacteria and/or fungi, providing a high osmotic potential (mostly with sugar and/or salt), creating an acidic environment as with lemon juice (not Meyer lemons which are a lemon X orange hybrid that is low in acid - just use the bottled lemon juice to be safe) or 5% vinegar, and preventing airborne bacterial and fungal spores from recontaminating the food (cooked, salted meat while hot was placed in crocks and covered with hot oil such as lard to preserve it in the past - don't do this at home)
Chris Kott wrote: Do we know if the CO2 concentrations dip appreciably under the canopy of a forest? I mean, do the plants in the understory experience lower CO2 levels than, say, the field right next door with no trees?
The answer is "Yes.". CO2 and O2 levels around plants has been carefully monitored. One does not often think about it, but plants obtain adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the ubiquitous energy currency molecule, in a manner almost identical to animals. This process, cellular respiration, uses = requires O2 and releases CO2 into the air or water. So, 24/7 both animals AND plants are taking in O2 and releasing CO2. BUT, most plants do photosynthesis during daylight hours (not 24 hours, but averaging about 12 hours per day = 12/7). In the process of photosynthesis, CO2 is required by the plant to convert light energy into sugar while O2 is released as a byproduct - only during periods of light.
During daylight hours the rate of photosynthesis is MUCH greater than the rate of cellular respiration. The outcome is that, during daylight hours, plants release much more O2 than they take in, while at night they don't release O2. So, research shows that the O2 level in the air around plants goes up during daylight hours and then the O2 level drops at night. Conversely, the CO2 level in the air around plants drops during daylight hours and then the CO2 level goes up at night.
I had a walk-in tub some years ago. I would towel dry above the water line and put on a warm robe above the water line and then progress downwards as the tub drained. Stayed warm and relaxed.
Diane Woiak) "Illness and injury have taught me to keep pushing and keep moving. Sitting too much will age you faster. Doing different activities for shorter stints feels better than hours at one. Being outside is crucial. ... A bad break I was told may lead to loss of use of that arm, was an unacceptable idea. Soaking in the lake and pushing myself to swim just 5' more everyday. I often thought of an elderly relative , told she would never use her arm again , spent her days lifting trays of bread, then went back and threatened that doc with a punch in the nose with that arm. Don't ever steal hope, it becomes a self fulfilling professy. ... (quote wrote:
At nearly 80, I too have noticed the need to spend one or two hours on a project and then move onto other projects throughout the day. So, for example, I do about two hours of weeding each morning (weather permitting; difficult with a layer of snow) and then move on to something else. I used to think I was developing ADD until I read Diane's post. Sitting too much WILL age you faster, but an occasional 5-10 minute sit throughout the day helps to revitalize me. I don't sit to weed (yet) as the grub hoe, hand hoe, and long-handled hoe are my favorite weeding tools - don't do much weed pulling as it is hard on the back (acute spondylolysthesis). Both of my shoulders have torn rotator cuffs and one has a severed major muscle that has atrophied, but, though severely weakened, I have regained almost full motion because, I believe, I kept pushing the limit (as Diane stated) to regain it. You have to accept some pain to do this while also being careful not to overdo it and cause further injury. Growing old is a challenge that requires dogged determination, stubborness, good problem solving skills, a bit of luck, and more.
I'll be 80 on my next birthday and was diagnosed with diabetes 20 years ago. I don't diet and I don't do formal exercise. The energy of my youth is certainly gone so I, like others here, find it takes me 3 or 4 times longer to do tasks that were a breeze years ago. One thing I've also noticed is that the daily pain load has gone way up. Arthritis and injuries I got doing stupid things as a younger person account for much of the pain. Working in spite of pain requires real mental commitment, but I don't think I can stop and sit in the rocker all day though. I'm convinced that would result in an earlier death. I feel that daily physical labor (in my thinking = exercise) helps to keep me alive and kicking (knock on wood here). I live on a small 15 acre farm. The stock had to go a few years ago - too much work and too high a chance of injury. I've been working for several years now to convert this place to a mixed native forest and meadows that are intermixed with a food forest. I have planted - in a somewhat scattered pattern, dozens upon dozens of apple, plum, cherry, persimmon, fig, blueberry, and other fruiting trees and shrubs. Also many native trees and shrubs. This all takes a lot of time, but I am still planting (I know, someone else at a later date will benefit from the fruits, but I am now benefiting from the labor.)
So, bottom line, have a dream/goal that you are passionate about, keep working towards your dream/goal, don't spend your days sitting on your behind watching TV or with your nose on the computer screen, and you're likely to stay healthier and never be bored.
With regard to the porosity of ollas, low fired clay vessels are usually quite porous. Probably no problem letting small organic and inorganic molecules pass through. Check it out by filling an olla with sugar water to see if sugar crystals form on the outside of an olla. Sugar is a small molecule in the world of organic molecules, but its a lot larger than plant nutrient molecules. If sugar goes through, no problem with using compost tea.
And, this site states that compost tea can be used in ollas to feed surrounding plant roots. Check ollas and compost tea on: farmhouse-bc.com
But, it does seem a possibility that these pores could become clogged over time though.
I have a suggestion for reducing the number of water reservoirs you need by using a wick. I have done wicking containers, but not olllas, however, the principles are similar. One wicked reservoir should be enough for a small plant, probably more for larger plants. The reservoir does not have to be porous so it could be a recycled jug or lidded 5 gallon bucket. Repurpose plastic.
The wick should be buried in a 2-6 inch deep trench that goes AROUND THE PLANT within the root zone. Don't cut roots. Shallow rooted plants like blueberries need the wick to be covered (Such as sheet plastic covered with mulch.) and on the surface during your absence. Do not dig a hole straight down and place the wick in it. Having the wick go around the plant is more efficient watering. If the wick is shallow, 2", then a layer of mulch over the wick will reduce evaporation to the air. If you place the wick and reservoir on the surface, cover both the wick and the base of the reservoir with sheet plastic and mulch both well. The idea is to have the water go down and not up into the air.
There may be a problem with water pressure and rapid loss of water if the wick is placed at the bottom of the reservoir. In wicking containers the water is wicked upwards. So having the wick hole near the top of the reservoir with the wick extending to the bottom of the reservoir may be necessary - but I don't know if siphoning would then be a problem. Sorry, nothing definitive here, just ideas.
