Bernie Clark

Bernie Clark wrote:

Matt McSpadden wrote:Hi Bernie,
Most of the vigorous growing perennials will probably go through the rocks with only a little trouble. Perhaps annual vining plants like beans or peas? Maybe a climbing flower?

Thank you for the feedback and  you have given me reason to reconsider. Do you think even with a dwarf vining variety such as Issai or Anna I would encounter problems? Hypothetically, I grow a male hardy kiwi in a large 25 gallon + container on the deck and then keep Issai and Anna in the 8'x'4'x1.5' raised bed with rocks at the bottom.

Very interesting, I would consider it. The biggest issue is we are looking for shade on our pergola and thus front deck.

Matt McSpadden wrote:Hi Bernie,
Most of the vigorous growing perennials will probably go through the rocks with only a little trouble. Perhaps annual vining plants like beans or peas? Maybe a climbing flower?

Thank you for the feedback and  you have given me reason to reconsider. Do you think even with a dwarf vining variety such as Issai or Anna I would encounter problems? Hypothetically, I grow a male hardy kiwi in a large 25 gallon + container on the deck and then keep Issai and Anna in the 8'x'4'x1.5' raised bed with rocks at the bottom.

Angela Wilcox wrote:What kind of vine did you plant?

Right now I have the Eastern Prince cultivar of schisandra but I did not realize how much it dislikes full 12-14 hour days of intense blazing sun so I will probably have to end up moving it. I was looking for something shallow rooted that didn't grow more than 15' .

Now, here me out. I live in zone 5 at 2,700' elevation. Last winter it got -15 F. I have recently completed a deck and attached to that deck a pergola. This deck is also roughly 12' away from my septic tank. I also have built a raised bed attached to the front of my deck next to my pergola. The planter is 8'x4'x1.5' and has roughly 6"-8" of basalt rock, river rock, and concrete at the bottom. Why did I do this you ask? So that I could plant a vining plant and not have it invade my septic tank.

What do you think? Is this feasible? Will that much rock and concrete keep the vine's roots circling in my raised bed? Do you have any recommendations for a vine to survive in this raised bed and also 10-12 hours of scorching hot central Washington sun? Thank you very much for your ideas.

I was inspired by this forum and some research to buy a bundle of Antonovka rootstock and grow them on for the trees themselves so that I could have a cold-hardy, reliable source of apples regardless of what modern taste says about the fruit. As I'm reading through this forum, I realize there are other varieties as well that have the potential for growing in the home orchard. I've learned of Duchess of Oldenburg/Borowinka for example.

Now, I understand the beauty of growing these from seed but I'm impatient and would like something with actual roots.

Does anybody know of any other cold-hardy varieties, probably Russian, that can be bought on the cheap in bulk and then grown on for their fruit?

Any online nurseries have these available?

Thank you!

I found this interesting link for anybody who needs help further clarifying and responding to the problem: https://plantwiseplusknowledgebank.org/doi/10.1079/pwkb.species.9907

If I'm reading this right, soaking dry soup peas for an extended period of time prior to eating them will crack the pea  and release any pest inside? I don't mind split peas...

Now, there is also a recommendation on planting early to avoid the pest reaching adult stages: "Timely harvesting and threshing reduced the number of seeds with weevil emergence windows (Mihiretu and Wale, 2013)."

I'd be curious to know what are key temperatures as far as pea germination, flowering, and then attraction to pea pollen and actual laying of eggs leading to development of larvae, etc.

My biggest concern with the pea weevils is actually stopping them before they become larvae and burrow into the pea. I'm curious at what point will the larvae actually start burrowing and wonder if I can salvage the pea by harvesting dry while the larvae is still on the outside of the pod. I believe that I harvest early enough to prevent any larvae from becoming mature adults, however, the notion of eating the larvae that has already burrowed into the pea is not the most appetizing in my humble opinion. Please, someone dispel me of this idea and assure me it's all going to be ok.

Question regarding pea weevils and soup peas. Apologies if this belongs in a different pest forum.

I live in an area of south central Washington state at 2700' elevation where very little in the way of a hardy or short-season dry keeping legume will grow hence I grow a pole variety of soup peas. This is especially helpful for a meal during Lent. However, last year, I had these dried out, harvested, threshed and winnowed in a dry storage and lo and behold pea weevils had gotten into and decimated our crop. I never knew this was a problem and now want to be very vigilant for this spring/summer 2024's soup pea crop. Sadly, I can forgo keeping seeds for future landrace growth if it means feeding my family.

Thus, I am under the impression that after you let the crop dry out completely, you should immediately freeze the dry soup peas and this will kill any pea weevil larvae before it burrows and destroys the soup pea? Or is there a better way to handle this? Thank you for the feedback. My little girls, bless their hearts, are not very fond of eating extra protein in the cooked soup peas.

I appreciate the reply. We raised the separate smaller boar intact because the previous intact boars we butchered and were littermates of our alpha breeding boar. They did not taste worse nor provoke the same level of aggression.

As far as the other alpha boar being out of sight, he is out of sight but his sense of smell must be spot on right now because he is focused in on this smaller boar and trying to have a go at him. Part of me wonders if the alpha boar should've been kept with this little one all along just so he has someone to fight?

I do agree that I'm going to just raise females for pork now or start castrating and only keep one intact male on the farm from here on out if this dedication to violence is going to be common from our big boar. He is nice enough to us, likes to be petted and be rubbed but with other males a completely different story. Sort of like the Anatolian Shepherd we keep...

Now, my concern is, if this is a heat cycle problem (It's happened for two months now) my sow must not be impregnated. I'm going to have reinforce this fencing now.

My family and I are raising American Guinea Hogs. We currently have a breeding pair with a boar and sow, and a separate intact boar we are raising for pork. The separate intact boar is the offspring of our breeding pair.

Now, the intact boar is roughly 11 months old and has been raising the ire of his father. We have these boars in separated pens roughly 75 yards apart and yet at certainly monthly intervals, this father boar will do everything in his power to get at his son 75 yards away and kick the crap out of him. I suspect this is coinciding with our sow going into heat. I apologize if there are other sources that reference this scenario but everything I see regarding pig aggression is either over food or wild pigs. Strangely, doesn't seem to be much specific literature on boars fighting on a schedule.

Questions

1. Will boars go full aggro around the time the breeding sow goes into heat even if there is an already dominant boar?
2. If one boar is castrated thus a barrow will the other intact boar still go full aggro on him?
3. Much like two roosters who will eventually give up, when boars fight, will they eventually give up once one is the dominant winner? How often is this too the death?

I appreciate the feedback. We are learning a lot and thinking with the next litter to sell all our male piglets and keep only female piglets for raising on for pork.