Robert Shimon

This is not strictly hugelkultur, but I thought I'd post because it was an interesting (accidental) experiment.  My father owns some property in Florida a mile south of the Alabama border (well, more a collection of sand and pine trees...).  After having some timber harvested, there was a series of discarded slash pine trunks left to rot in what was a staging area for the timber loading trucks.  We planted a little orchard there a couple years later, with one fig tree right atop a rotting trunk, one with a good bit of of rotting wood mixed in with the soil, and one more distant from this, so more of the "true" Florida sand-hill "soil".  These figs are same variety (Celeste) all planted February 2020, cloned from the same tree at the same time - in one photo you see the monster atop the stump (already bearing figs!), and in the background of the other (sorry for dad's crummy photography skills) you see the other two, with the edge of the "monster" on the left hand side.

Anyway, I just thought it was an interesting, unintentionally "controlled study" of the benefits of organic matter addition and quasi-hugelkultur in particular fopr any of you contemplating it.

I am considering building a little timber frame cabin with wattle and daub walls, (plus lime plaster and whitewash) and covering the outside with wood siding to protect it further from weather.  I’m right on the Florida/Alabama line, so very humid, hot, rainy subtropical climate.  I’ll be under a good canopy of oaks, and will insulate my roof well.  Kind of like Mr. Chickadee’s workshop on YouTube (awesomely educational, btw).

I’m wondering if anyone has experience building like this; there’s very little online about it for hot, humid climates.  Is it reasonably comfortable with air conditioning (assuming adequate a/c)? (I’m not at all worried about it being warm enough, I have a wood stove for the few nights a year I’ll need heat).

How high can a 6-inch wattle and daub wall be before it needs a horizontal beam to start a new support? Any issues with rot around the wood beams? I kind of assume not since they have centuries old structures built this way.  Anything else I should consider?  Really just hoping to get feedback, input and thoughts or even alternative ideas since you all are such a wealth of knowledge and amazing resource.

I am attempting to plan a timber framed cabin (small, 16x24) and want to use posts anchored to concrete footings.  I was thinking of using 6x6 posts (thoughts welcome), and because they’re exposed to the elements in north Florida, getting commercially pressure treated posts. I’d like to use as much of my own lumber as possible, though, partly because I have a sawmill and unlimited supply of good quality southern yellow pine.

So my question is: is it safe/advisable to use commercial pressure treated lumber for the lower portion of the posts, and vertically join my own lumber to make the remainder of the post’s height? Given the size of the cabin and that it’s in Florida where it may well face hurricane force winds more than once, I am concerned about tipping if there’s failure at that joint.  Any thoughts or guidelines on this? I have seen posts vertically joined before, but I’m skeptical. I’m also wondering about the effect on the integrity of the joint as my lumber dries around a joint with already dried lumber.

Hi folks, I figure this is the closest forum for what I have a question about.  I am planning on building a simple pole frame cabin with 8 inch round posts as the framing (basically an enclosed pole barn).  The issue is this: because I need to use my own timber (economic reasons), I either have to figure out a way to get it pressure treated (not looking very likely or economically viable), or set the posts above ground to avoid them rotting in a few years (southern yellow pine).  All the pole framing stuff I see talks about and depicts poles actually set in the ground after pressure treatment.  Is it possible, though, from a structural/safety standpoint to instead mount the poles on concrete footings with a large bracket? It would be basically be a bigger version of the pier-and-post construction under wood decks, where the post is mounted onto the concrete pier with a bracket sunk into the pier while the concrete is still wet.  I’d of course sink the piers maybe 3 feet down (it’s north Florida so I’m not worried about frost heaving), and then mount the posts on them with appropriate termite treatment and a barrier between the bottom of the post and the pier to avoid conducting moisture.  I’ve seen some do-it-yourself treatments like paint on creosote or motor oil, but I don’t want to risk my future home on something that I can’t find much data to support.  Does anyone have thoughts on this approach or a different alternative to getting my posts professionally pressure treated or creosoted? Any experience, good or bad, is much much appreciated.

On second thought, could that be the rooting hormone powder I used? If so, I wonder what killed my plant?

I have some pomegranate cuttings in coconut coir/potting soil mix. One died after gradually dropping its leaves and had this white fungus on the roots when I pulled it up.  Does anyone happen to know if the fungus here is the cause of the cutting dying, or just a saprophytic fungus that took hold on an already struggling cutting? Any info would be much appreciated.

I have a bunch of 4-7 inch diameter, straight and tall Southern yellow pine (loblolly) that I need to remove for garden and field space.  I don’t really want to just pile them up and burn them, but I’m at a loss for what to use them for.  Has anyone built small buildings like chicken coops or corn cribs with small diameter poles? Does anyone have ideas for non-building uses, like something in the garden?  I’m open to any ideas, I just don’t want them to go to waste.

Something keeps severing (biting off? Cutting?) the thin limbs of my young Apple trees. I can’t for the of me figure out what. I don’t have deer (inside a fence). Do common rats do this? I’m in Northern California, wondering if there’s fkneyhbh here in particular thstvdies this since I can’t seem to find other examples of it. Any ideas would be appreciated (I already made little hardware cloth baffles that go around the trees, but if it’s rats, they’ve figured out how to climb over them!)

I have some 1-2 foot fruit trees (apple, pomegranates) that I grafted/rooted for my dad’s homestead, which is across the country from me.  He and I want to plant them in 2 weeks when I can visit.

The problem is, they have already started pushing buds, and one of the Apple trees never even lost all its leaves.  Is shipping these fellas UPS a sure death sentence, or can trees breaking dormancy make it a few days in shipping across the country?  Any tips for how to handle/ship them?

Btw, after the shipping it’ll end up costing about the same as just buying nursery trees even though the scions and rootstocks were free.  But I had the fun of grafting these, planning it out with my dad (he thinks grafting is absolute magic), and picking exactly what I wanted for varieties and rootstock in a challenging environment for temperate fruits (north Florida).  So I kind of broke even over just buying from a nursery.

I have a few little apple saplings growing in pots. Two have had their growing tips sheared off by something, I suspect a caterpillar.  I applied a pyrethrin/neem spray with added capsaicin in case it was a mammal.  Now, less than a day later, the culprit has returned and sheared off even more growing shoots!  They look like someone just primed them off (not a person - I live in the middle of nowhere).  Any ideas?

I’m in Northern California.