Brian Cady

Mary Cook wrote:<snip> One thing I'd like to breed for is resistance to the thing that causes moldy tips in a wet year. <snip>...maybe there's a genetic solution--ears tipped down, maybe?

Mary, I've seen drooping, loose-husked silage corn ears nearby - I really think this could work.

Brian
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David Wieland wrote:<snip>If you want a bit more height inside, the hoop "bones" can be raised onto low walls (which can even be insulated with foamboard such as Styrofoam).

Aside the long sides of a gothic arch greenhouse that I built, grow massive snow piles in winter which have torn loose the long-lived greenhouse polyethylene-plus film glazing it, so now I shovel snow away often.

In hindsight, lifting the entire arched frame atop, say, pallets or such would spare my this shoveling work, provide more headroom and allow lower cross-bracing within the greenhouse

So I say to David Wieland: "Brilliant!".

Here's to next time,

Brian
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Hi Meredith and son,

In case these thoughts helps:

- Perhaps a (temporary?) move to drier climes might ease mold issues.

- In Montana, Paul (powerful force behind 'Permies.com' ) and folks invite stays at their
(admittedly not East Coast) permaculture community.

Brian
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John Weiland wrote:<snip> Additionally, the roots of oat produce avenicins which are compounds known to suppress certain disease-causing fungi. <snip>

John, which fungal diseases are suppressed by avinicins?

I wonder if one might target specific fungal diseases  via oat cultivar selection, if given specific avinicins content of oat varieties.

There's Black Medic, a low-growing alfalfa genus legume that's less vigorous than White Clover: Medicago lupulina. It is difficult now to buy seed in USA, but black medic is common, and seeding now, so I've gathered a little seed - perhaps you could too. You can select for prostrate forms when gathering. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicago_lupulina

There's also Matweed ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guilleminea ), which spontaneusly formed a living mulch when I grew black beans on freshly-tilled ground here.

There's Matbean, but this maybe more tropical. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vigna_aconitifolia

And there's Purslane.

Brian
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https://www.canr.msu.edu/chestnuts/uploads/files/E3538_MI-Chestnut_COP_AA.pdf

Brian
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Possibly aligned farm:

https://newenglandfarmlandfinder.org/property/bally-fox-farm-62-acres-cooperative-housing-waldoboro-maine

Brian
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https://waggl.dance/explore

Brian
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bruce Fine wrote:also another note on growing chestnuts. DO NOT plant chestnut trees where you would have any livestock except maybe birds. sheep, goats, cattle and horses CANNOT be in area with chestnuts. better check with a vet if your animals would be safe if they tried to eat chestnut.

Bruce, at Badgersett research farm, horses were grazed under 15-20 foot tall chestnut to mow down the weeds and such, with no harm to the horses or trees. Also, sheep grazed under mature chestnuts in Leverett, Massachusetts year-after-year, with no harm done, at the farm of a friend. These are not horse chestnut; they are Castanea species.

Bruce, also, one can kill chestnut weevils in-shell without killing/cooking the nuts by holding the nuts in 120 degree Fahrenheit water for 20 minutes. If one holds them in that 120F water for 40 minutes, it discourages brown rot of the kernel, I understand.

Brian
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Tom Wahl of Red Fern says in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAf1lUrqSq4 that typical pasture mixes of grasses and such compete with his chinese chestnuts too much, so he finds that planting lower-vigor grasses and such that compete through persistence, not vigor, works better, and saves mowing, as they need less mowing to leave a clean, low surface that his PYO pickers can harvest chestnuts off of.

I've been searching out acid-soil-tolerant nitrogen-fixing low- and slow-growing groundcovers to complement chestnuts.

Prospects include:
Ceanothus prostratus Mahala Mat - seed is doubly-dormant from plant; needs both cold- and heat-treatment, reportedly. Reportedly found in high and thus winter-cold, well-watered areas of the coast range of the West coast.

Lupinus brewerii Brewer's Lupin: A low-growing lupin adapted to acid soils.

Lupinus bicolor Miniature Lupin: I have these growing in chestnut seedling's pots, for future grandcover use.

Trifolium brewerii Forest Clover: low-growing and shade tolerant, I believe.

Trifolium repens White Clover cv. 'Microclover': Low-growing, acid-soil tolerance uncertain.

Lotus corniculatus Birdsfoot Trefoil cv. 'Plena'/Pleniflorus'/'Empire' These are prostrate or nearly so.

Medicago lupulina Black Medic cv. 'George' I have not yet found a seed source for this University of Montana-bred release.

What has worked for you?