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Phil Stevens wrote: Something tells me you may not have tried putting mesquite through a chipper :-) Making biochar from it can be as simple as piling it up in a pit or trench, lighting it on fire, and putting it out before it all turns to ash.
And in terms of holding water and making soil better, you're going to have a hard time getting more bang for the buck than biochar.
Douglas Alpenstock wrote:This has possibilities! I guess my personal caution would be that the 'hoppers are as clean as what they eat. If it's treated with "gick" they would become accumulators, and the chickens would concentrate it up the food chain, leading to hoomans. Maybe paranoid, but it's worth watching.
Also, I vaguely recall reading that chickens gorging themselves on 'hoppers in the 1930's dust bowl gave the meat and eggs an unpleasant flavour. I'll see if I can dig up the reference. It may be better to catch them live and feed them on good stuff for a little while before sending them to freezer heaven.
Nick Williams wrote:Friend of a friend has an ATV that has two springy pieces of steel out at a 45 in front, and a high powered blower at the bottom of the vee blowing into a big bag. Drives through fields, the wires kick the grass up, and the grasshoppers jump inwards towards the middle of the vee where they get sucked into the bag.
In a more low-tech version, I saw a book once that had plans for what I think was called a "grasshopper tractor". Basically two skids. At the front of the two skids was a wire stretched that does the same thing, causes grasshoppers to jump. Mounted towards the back of the skids was a wide, flat pan filled with water with a thin coat of oil. There were vertical posts to push the contraption at the very back, and a screen between the operator and the pan, so grasshoppers jumped up as the tractor is pushed, bounce against the screen and fall into the oily water to drown. Might be something to tinker with...
craig howard wrote:Many suggested biochar but maybe a wood chipper might turn them into something that will hold water and make soil better.
Doesn't tell you how to get rid of them but how to use them when they are removed.
Biochar can be some work to set up compared to a chipper.
If not, mesquite wood chips are used for BBQ flavor:
https://www.fireandflavor.com/products/fire-flavor-mesquite-smoking-chips-2lb-bag?srsltid=AfmBOoreeb7l0FZFZa3P9dWOvXUB95v8w_FwOOG-Svzz08eCkRJPxOXO
$7 for 2 lbs. with free shipping but the price varies.
https://www.firewoodnm.com/oldwoodshop/Mesquite-grilling-smoking-chips-and-chunks-12lb-bag-p103651769
8.25 for 12.5 lbs.
Mark Reynolds wrote:
Found it! Well, not the mesquite pictures, but the exact process I am talking about. It even has a couple references.
https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-8137.2011.04039.x
It's possibly a bit on the 'grandiose' side as to the effects, but it outlines the process and what I was describing with an explanation.
The accepted term for this process, (It's not 'leaky roots') is Hydraulic Redistribution.
Hydraulic redistribution (HR) is the passive movement of water between different soil parts via plant root systems, driven by water potential gradients in the soil–plant interface.
Deep-rooted species may shed water overnight through HR, potentially benefiting other species, but they also compete with their neighbours for water during the daytime. Ludwig et al. (2004) reported an intense competition for water between Acacia tortilis and three grass species in its understorey. Grasses effectively took up water redistributed by A. tortilis but when tree roots were experimentally removed, preventing access to redistributed water by grasses, the biomass of the latter was greater. Thus, although grasses effectively took up redistributed water, competition between tree and grasses outweighed the potential positive effect of HR. Other studies using grass species have reported similar results (Table 2). However, in mesic ecosystems where water is not as limiting, positive effects have been reported (Dawson, 1993). Grass species usually have shallow root systems (Schenk & Jackson, 2002a) and a great capacity to extract soil water, which makes them great competitors, especially in dry ecosystems where water sources are scarce (Armas & Pugnaire, 2011). In association with a species engaged in HR, the amount of water redistributed may not be enough to meet the grass requirements, and depletion of water by the nurse during daytime would exert a greater negative effect on the grass. In this case, competition would be the predominant outcome of the interaction (Ludwig et al., 2004). On the other hand, grasses usually senesce when soil water potential becomes low and HR may benefit grass species by lengthening the period before soil moisture depletion and senescence occurs (Meinzer et al., 2004), although direct evidence of this effect is scarce (Hirota et al., 2004).
Alder Burns wrote:Years ago when I lived in California there was a huge outbreak of them, and so I made a big sweep net with some of the fine netting that I was using to protect my young trees. The veggies were a lost cause, although judicious use of row covers might have saved the day. A few sweeps of the net over the garden area would procure a full handful of hoppers, and that year we were raising some new layers from chicks and they thrived.
Matt McSpadden wrote:Hi Blake,
I do not mean to disparage your chickens in any way... but my flock would decimate the ones in their pen. They had no trouble catching them. Maybe texas grasshoppers are faster :)... but I imagine if they decided they wanted some, the chickens would be able to figure it out.
Mark Reynolds wrote:
I'm looking and can't find quite what I'm looking for, but here are two terms that give a glimpse of what I'm talking about. "Root exudation" and "guttation". I know guttation is a process occurring in leaves and not specifically roots, but when you couple that with root exudation and the process seen there, that serves to partially explain my "leaky roots" observation.