Thekla McDaniels

Any chance you could store rainwater just for watering your acid loving kiwis (and blueberries if you try them again)?

I used to live in a region with calcium and other minerals in the deep well water… and there was no other water.   When we boiled water to make tea, a lot of minerals precipitated out.  There was sediment on the bottom and deposits on the inside of the stainless steel pan.  I never checked the pH after boiling the water, so I don’t know if it changed.

I don’t know how much water your kiwis will need, maybe more than you can boil cool and filter… but it might get you by in a pinch!

Thanks, everyone.

Here’s what I’m thinking:  For the worms to show up, they would either need to already be dormant in the “soil”.  Or they would have had to cross a broad expanse of dry, compacted alkaline clay soil.

I will probably start the habitat development, then when things have cooled down, I can add worms if no worms have shown up.

First make a depression in the ground, maybe dig a few post holes a few feet down.  I will spread various organics such as alfalfa and corn stalks before the spruce and pine wood chips arrive, and I will inoculate all that with fungi… most mushrooms prefer hardwoods and deciduous chips. I am researching that as I have read that the resins in pines and spruce suppress fungal growth.

I will admit I am skeptical about the worms showing up.  They aren’t native in most of North America, came with European settlers.  They would have to cross an expanse of dry alkaline clay, hot in the summer, frozen in the winter, unless there’s a protective layer of snow.  But more significantly, I have dug irrigation furrows through neglected but living pasture and planted more than 50 trees, and not encountered worm one.  I started a tree plot, digging woodchips in, and covering with more wood chips.  In addition to the tree seedlings, I planted tons and tons of seeds.  I put a goat barrier around the 16 foot square plot.  I have faithfully watered since April.

🤷🏻‍♀️ no worms.  Does it take longer?

Anyway, as I said, I won’t introduce worms until fall, or as late as next spring, just to see.  I’m thinking I will get some red worms as well as the deep burrowing night crawlers.

As I write this, it occurs to me I could make two worm plots .  One adjacent to the tree plot, to which I would introduce worms and one at a distance, to which I would not introduce worms.  Eventually the plots will become connected.  (That’s my objective anyway). But I could probably keep that plot where I didn’t introduce worms isolated for a few years.

But, I might be too tired or not have enough time.

Is your climate pretty similar to Olympia Washington?  There are too many details to explain how I was in the situation, but I once had lunch in Olympia.  It included locally grown (in someone’s back yard) hardy kiwi, a gift to the hostess from a friend.

A couple ideas, how would perennial comfrey work, in combination with the white clover?  Would it grow through the winter?  

Or, what about adding worms and the  kind of kitchen waste they like…

Which brings me to an important question, will the pots be sitting out in the rain all winter?  Or, do you cover them, to keep most of the leaching rain water from washing away your precious fertility?

I know tarps are not your thing, but could a leaky roof such as boards laid parallel across the top, and sloping to shed most of the water create a worm habitat?  Or fungal habitat, or both?

Thanks!  Found it, and tried it.  It looks very familiar, from before I got a cell phone, and my laptop died.

But I switched back because mobile view works a lot better.  There are times when I need the desktop and I am glad I now know how.

Chance Lunceford wrote:

We have "bad years" here most years, but I did the research and it's a lot of fertility they're leaving behind throughout the season via their waste and their bodies are, as has been mentioned, excellent fertilizer and it is a "slow release formula."

That’s encouraging, that all the plant material that gets chomped up by grasshoppers becomes essentially precompost, pulverized with enzymes and microbes added!

The’ve eaten huge volumes of plants here.  Last year they ate the leaves off the mature crabapple and aspen trees.

This year I planted hollyhocks, lots and lots, and had great germination.  But there are hardly any seedlings left, but all the vanished plant material is still here as soil amendment!

Ah!  Diatomaceous earth.  That might help, and I already have a bag.

How is it most effectively applied?

The slope is pretty gradual, didn’t you say 10%?

I’m located at 38 north latitude, I looked at the latitude for Tasmania, it said 42 south.  My place is only a little closer to the equator tjan this property you are considering.  We get very intense sunlight.  We’re dry, and 7000 feet elevation.

My land slopes north and eastward.

Orhers have mentioned the slight delay in stone fruit breaking dormancy a little later.  I think thats the biggest effect your aspect will have:  the ground warms a little later.

You could create some earlier warming spots, by creating north facing slopes.  The back sides would be more suitable for cooler crops, like spinach.  Or by building a north facing curved wall heat mass and put you peppers and tomatoes there.  

I would go ahead with it, if the slope is your only concern.

First photo is of the general appearance of the ground.

The second shows the soil profile.  It’s a prairie dog burrow.  

The third is a glimpse of the subsoil.  This is what I see whenever the prairie dogs get busy with an excavation.  Plenty of clay, some gravel.

To me it looks like it could be transformed into marvelous rich fertile soil.

We’re in our hottest part of summer.  Beginning in mid august I can probably begin to wet the ground which will be beneath the wood chips.