Tim Mackson

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since Mar 12, 2018
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Recent posts by Tim Mackson

Anne Miller wrote:The best suggestion would be to put the seeds in the freezer to kill the bugs like is done with mesquite seed pods.

Are you going to grow mimosa trees or do something else with the seeds?




Hi Anne,   I was going to grow them.  I took the bag outside and just let the bugs fly away.   By good fortune I had sealed them in a zip lock bag so the bugs were all contained and not flying through the house.  I'll have to check to see how many seeds are still viable.   I'm assuming that they hatched from one per individual seed but I'm not sure yet.  I used an image search and found out that the bugs are actually bean weevils.  I think that I'm going to have to get more seeds so that I have enough.  I was just planning on getting a ton of seeds, very crudely scarifying them, and throwing the whole batch in a pot of dirt this spring to get seedlings to transplant.   I do this with redbud and it works out well for that.   I'll have to try your freezer suggestion.  Thank you.
3 months ago
Hi!

Just wanted to warn anyone who might be thinking about collecting Mimosa tree seeds that they might contain a hidden surprise:
3 months ago
I just wanted to thank you all for the awesome replies.   So much good information.  Thank you all!
3 months ago

Anne Miller wrote:I never heard of making donuts with some sort of bake ware.

We make donuts with a cooky cutter similar to this:

https://www.amazon.com/HULISEN-Stainless-Doughnut-Biscuit-Professional/dp/B08DHT9B14/ref=asc_df_B08DHT9B14/




Lol.  I should have checked with you or my wife before ordering what I did.   I had no idea how to make donuts and just ordered it for her because she was busy.  
This is what I ordered:

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Trudeau-Silicone-12-Count-Donut-Pan-Multicolor-Confetti/995049596
I thought that you had to pour batter into the pan.
When my mother made donuts she just dropped globs of batter into hot oil  They never had a donut shape.  .


Seems like I was stressing out over nothing.
Thank you Anne.

3 months ago
Hello,

So my wife wanted to make donuts for her mother and I jumped online looking for a safe way to bake them since I'm totally against Teflon coatings on cookware.  I knew that most donut pans would be coated in Teflon.  I've been wary of this coating long before it was "discovered" that Teflon was dangerous.

I've always felt the same about silicone cookware, but never researched it.  It just didn't seem like a good idea to cook or bake with with it.

To make a long story short,  I found several articles saying that the silicone in bakeware was totally inert and very safe to bake with.  Because of these articles I decided to order a silicone donut pan which is being delivered today.

Of course, after ordering, I started finding articles saying that silicone breaks down under high heat and that it releases harmful compounds called  Siloxanes.  Supposedly some silicone cookware is of lesser quality and can break down sooner.  The lower quality silicone also might have additives making it even worse.  

The breakdown temp of silicone cookware is supposed to be 200 degrees Celsius (392 F) but this number seemed to somewhat arbitrary.  Because of this I've decided to return the donut pan.  Of course, no real testing has been done on this.  Apparently the way that this toxin release was discovered was by weighing the silicone cookware before and after using it to bake with.  Each time the cookware was used it weighed less than it did before being used. It was deduced that compounds were leaving the cookware.

My problem is that after several hours of searching I've discovered that I cannot find a single donut pan that isn't covered with some sort of nonstick coating.  I even found a company supposedly selling plain steel pans that were supposed to be pure and healthy -  These also turned out to be coated with some non stick coating.

Not sure what to do.  I guess forget about baking donuts?

Thanks.  Have a good day.  :)
3 months ago
Hello,  Lately I've become interested in producing my own peach rootstocks and I'm confused by what I seem to be finding on the internet about doing so.  

I wanted to make a stooling bed to cause suckers to form on Peach tree rootstock material (I was mostly thinking of Lovell rootstock) but I'm starting to think that this isn't the way that it's done.  I'm starting to think that Lovell rootstock is grown from seed somehow.  Is this true?  

There are a couple of things that I don't understand about this.  First, how can a rootstock supplier afford to grow enough rootstock to supply the market by using seed?  Second, how can a rootstock that is grown from seed be genetically the same as the parent rootstock?.  

It took me a while to realize that there must be something different with peaches compared to apples, because there is a ton of information about apple stooling beds, but very little information about growing peaches in stooling beds.

I guess my final questions are about a peach rootstock stooling beds:
Are peach tree stooling beds used in the industry?
Is there a type of common Peach rootstock that is royalty free that produces suckers and can be used in a stooling bed?
Is there something different about peaches where I can just gather peach seeds and start planting them for rootstock?
Thanks in advance to anyone who can clear up my confusion. I really appreciate the help.  :)

Take care
Tim
4 months ago
Hello,   I was wondering if someone could clear up a point of confusion for me?  

This really isn't a composting question really, but it does involve pure sawdust composting in a raised bed called a "stooling bed".

For those who don't know a stooling bed is a bed that you allow woody plants to become established in while slowly covering the base of the plant with sawdust.  This covering of sawdust mimics soil and causes the plant to send out a root system in the sawdust which is then removed after the root system forms with the new rooted pant then being planted in a proper soil mixture.

I intend to make a apple stooling bed and I've been doing research and it seems that most stooling beds are using what appears to be fresh sawdust at least a foot thick.  

I was wondering how this works?  I've always read that you should never use fresh sawdust or woodchips for any composting.  It's stated that the carbon in the sawdust robs nitrogen from the plant.  Is this just another one of those things that you shouldn't do in theory,  but that everyone does without any real consequence?  I plan on getting the oldest sawdust that I can find and hope that it makes a difference, but maybe there is no problem in this situation?

Thank you for any input.  I greatly appreciate the help.
Have a great day!
4 months ago

Mark Reynolds wrote:I don't have an orchard so I can't say for sure, but.....

I would say 'no' to summer as trees have largely stopped growing for the year by that point and are sequestering food for the next year. Not a good time to initiate growth. I'd say 'no' to the fall as well. I suspect you would get a lot of die back over the winter which isn't something you want. Winter would be better than fall, but you will probably still get some dieback, and you are removing most all buds for the next year. Maybe early spring before bud break? Yu won't get much dieback, but again, removing all the new buds. I'd say cut it sometime after buds have become active but way before the tree stops growing for the year, which translates to somewhat early to mid spring. The tree will interpret this as a growing leaf loss and will immediately generate new growth from the remaining stump with lots of growing season left. Cutting at this time in this way might produce what I coined as 'compensatory growth' which is growth above and beyond what would be expected had the tree not been defoliated. I did my MS thesis on browse utilization and researched that browsing often results in more twig growth produced for the year than if no browsing had taken place to begin with.

That's my best guess, theory, and explanation.



Thank you Mark,  You gave me a lot of good information that I didn't know.  It certainly changed my direction because I had planned on cutting down the tree as soon as it went dormant.  Now I think that I'm going to do it just a little after I finish my grafting for the season.  Sort of a lie in a way because I have very little left to graft to and I have grafts almost everywhere now.  That's why I need a stooling bed.

I got to thinking about cutting the tree and how I should do it.  I can't think that it would matter, but would cutting the stump low to the ground change how the tree reacts?  The reason that I ask is because the orchard that I'm involved with has many trees that were cut with no signs of  rootstock suckers ever appearing.   Maybe it was the time of year that the trees were cut,  maybe the root system was already sick and dying - I'm not sure.  All that I do know is that there are stumps about two feet high and barren.

Thank you again!  Stay awesome!  Tim
4 months ago
Hello,  I would like to make a stool bed to propagate apple rootstock.   I have several older trees that I would like to cut down to obtain suckers from the roots for grafting.

It's coming to the end of the growing season, and I was wondering when would be the best time to cut the tree to maximize my chances of getting the most (if any) amount of suckers from the root base.

Is it best to cut the tree in the spring when the tree is just waking up?  Would it be better in the summer when the tree is fully in leaf?  In the fall/ winter when the tree is fully dormant?  It seems like any of these times might be good times but I'm not sure.  Summer seems like the worst idea, but I could be wrong about that.

Thank for any suggestions.  I would really appreciate any help.

Have a good day!
Tim

4 months ago