Stephen Dobek

I know how planting seeds vs. grafting/cloning works.  I'm trying to roll the genetic dice and see what I get. I'm interested in growing trees for livestock feed, not necessarily human consumption.

Does anyone have suggestions for protecting a free range flock from hawks?

I have used scare tape and a number of other shiny/spinning things attached to my egg mobile to varying degrees of success, but I've lost several birds recently.  I've never really had problems with dogs or other mammals eating on them here, it's always been raptors.

Is a guardian animal the way to go?  Geese?  Guinea fowl?

Does anyone know where I can find seeds from old southern apple varieties for sale?

Is my understanding that you shouldn't use native seed as rootstock incorrect?  It makes sense that you would want to use native seed but I swear I read something that said otherwise.

I'm searching for seed.

I thought there was a reason you wouldn't want to use native seed as a rootstock, difficulty accepting a graft or something like that.

There are tons of trees all over the place in Atlanta, I always identify new ones when I'm visiting my girlfriend there, but I don't know if I have the time to collect many thousands of seeds.

Project is in its infancy right now.  I'm working with a gentleman that manages several thousand acres across Georgia, everything from row crops to pasture to hunting land.  He's been working with a company that is interested in getting into the pecan game.  He knows me through my day job and knows I am obsessed with trees and asked me to help.  We have several acres to use, fenced and irrigated and I have access to a plastic layer and a good compost tea brewer.  Instead of buying seedlings we are thinking it might be cheaper to produce grafted stock on our own and supply this large scale planting.

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for a place or places to get southern pecan seed stock.  I am starting a 2-3 acre nursery project in the fall and I'll need several thousand nuts.  I'd prefer seed from the Southeast, more specifically from GA and if possible from an orchard that is hands-off in terms of chemical inputs.

Not sure if there's an easy answer to this.  It seems like this is a case where knowing a grower is very helpful, and unfortunately I don't really have a connection at this point.

Thanks!

Yeah I was gonna try that. I have a room on the inside of the mobile that can be closed off and they spent 3 days in there when I moved them outside, but apparently they didn't get the picture.

Hi all,

I put some new birds out in my egg mobile about a month or so a go and I still have a bunch that refuse to go inside each night. I have an automatic door, and have never had an issue getting new birds to learn when it's time to go to bed. These new ones are underneath the mobile every night, but they just wont climb the ladder and go inside. Does anyone know something I can try to get them to go to bed? Having to corral 50 chickens every night and throw them inside is starting to suck.

Thanks!

Hi Everyone,

I'm not sure if I'm posting this in the right place, but here goes. For the past couple of weeks I've been aerating a 3 gallon plastic container full of water and clippings from my comfrey and stinging nettle plants.

I'm not sure exactly what my final product is. Should I dilute it when I use? Should I just dump everything into my backpack sprayer?

Thanks for the advice

I use a loose mineral. I've used something like this before but it was really heavy and needed to be dragged with a truck:

http://lhmfg.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/LowProfileMineralFeeder.jpg

Portability is what I'm most interested in.