Mark Reed

Michael Helmersson wrote:Has anyone tried this? I did this years ago with some slight variations when planting Plum trees but I don't see any noticeably different results. I realize there are some odd features to her method but I can't resist the allure of anything contrarian:

Ellen White Method

That is funny, but I certainly do agree with the odd features part. It is good to carefully separate the roots of a bare root tree, but a hump of dirt or a chunk of rotting wood in the bottom of the hole works fine.  Unless of course a person enjoys digging big holes and hauling rocks.

Martha Stephens wrote:Mark Reed, can you please share your methods of just seed planting for trees please? I have about 90 acres, 50 or so of which were logged heavily before I acquired it. I would like to replant from seed oaks, evergreens, maples, poplars, trees that were logged and try to reduce/eliminate much of the brushy privet that has taken over in place of the Hardwoods that were logged. Thanks!

A long time ago I would start trees in pots or in the ground and transplant the seedlings but that got pretty tiresome and if you do that large scale, just planting and forgetting a lot of them don't make it.  I started planting oak, walnut, pecan and hickory seed using a hand shovel fixed to a piece of pvc pipe. Just basically made a crack in the ground and dropped the seed down the pipe and moved on. That also got a bit tiresome after a while, but I discovered when the squirrels got into my stash that a lot of the nuts they stole ended up growing all over the place a year or two later. Then I just started letting them do most of the work. The little town where I grew up and most of the other little towns near the river have lots of large, old oak and pecan trees. There are so many sometimes that I can collect them from sidewalks and parking lots with push broom and a snow shovel. One of my favorite trees is in a fenced yard with a long shed running by the alley. There is no gutter on the shed, so lots of pecans end up in a long pile, easy to scoop up.

Smaller seeds like poplar, maple, apple, pear and so on don't work as well like that, so I still start and transplant them. I've scattered the nut and oak trees all over the state-owned hunting ground nearby and all over back-forty parts of my and my neighbor's lands.  I'm amazed that it really worked but young trees are everywhere within a mile or so of my house and I'm hopeful they will replace all of our wonderful ash trees that died some years ago.

I love those big, sweet cherries from the store and didn't know if they would grow here, but they do. Our own wild black cherries, pawpaws, plumbs as well as adapted wild peaches and pears are much harder to collect in quantity like I do with the nuts and acorns, so I either start them to transplant or spend a bit of time preparing a spot to plant. I never go back to check them, not that I would remember where they are but years later, I see them here and there, especially when they bloom. Actually, most all of those I start to transplant now, I sell at the flea market or farmer's market for a few dollars apiece.

Evergreen trees except for native Eastern red ceder and American holly are much harder to establish in numbers, so I don't mess much with them except for very close by. Holly is actually pretty hard too and ceder just does its own thing. I clone a lot of grape vines, but they of course have to be panted so my range for them is much smaller. I'm learning to clone Southern Magnolia trees which grow fine here but they will just be for my own land and to sell.

I don't know what brushy privet is, but large acorn and nut trees do pretty well in tall weeds and grubby areas. If you can source the seeds and if you have squirrels, you can just dump them out in piles and a few years later you will notice some of your trees claiming canopy space above the shorter stuff. The squirrels will eat some of course, which is their due and some won't make it to crown out above the shorter stuff but if you plant a thousand and five percent make it that's fifty trees. Fifty oak or pecan trees can go along way on occupying fifty acres. Plant ten thousand and you have a forest. Well, you probably won't but someone or something later on will.

I'm convinced overall that my methods, along with being much easier is far more effective at establishing new trees than shoving little bare root sticks in the ground, especially if you have a large area to work on. I think people mostly believe you will get bigger trees sooner by planting trees and that's great for a front yard tree or an orchard but to plant lots of trees, seeds is where it's at.

*I don't think squirrels range very far especially if there is big pile of food in one spot so dump you seeds in smaller piles well-spaced. More than they can eat at once, so they bury some but not too many so they don't plant them too crowded.

I guess it might depend on the river and what is upstream. I live near the Ohio River which commonly floods the boat ramps and adjacent parking lots and leaves behind thick layers of silt. Those floods over centuries created the deep super fertile bottom land of the flood plain.  It would be easy to collect that silt and add it to the garden but now the sewage and city run-off of thirty million people, not to mention whatever is left from the Fernald uranium processing facility is in that silt. I won't even touch it.

add - Anything dredged up from the bottom I imagine, would be even worse.

A cat showed up at my house, I named him Stanley. I had a dog named Ethel and a dog named Wilbur. I have a fish named Carl and a pair of semi-tame crows named Percey and Lucille. The neighbor's dog answers best to Critter. Past pets include cats, Cleopatra, Geremia and Pete. Dogs include Lad, Thief and Wheezy.  

I sometimes sell black locust bark on eBay. It's useful in various crafts like making natural looking bird houses. It is excellent for growing mounted orchids as the rough surface is perfect for their roots to hold on to, and it lasts or years.  When I cut a big tree I run the saw lengthwise, just through the bark before chunking it up. By time it seasons good, the bark easily removes in a solid piece. Other types of bark just get composted, used in paths or burned.  

Joylynn Hardesty wrote:

...but we do get lots of tasty leaves, bloom stems and stalks. Harvested at the right time the stalks are very good.

Can you please describe when is the right time? How do they look?

I think it's mostly weather/maturity related. Large stalks stay good as long as the weather is cooler and there is plenty of moisture. By July seeds are starting to mature, and the stalks start getting tough and don't taste as good. The smaller branches of the seed stalks are a bit like asparagus in that if you just bend them, they break at just the right spot. Bigger stalks are good sliced into coins about 1/2 inch thick, sauteed in butter or olive oil. As they mature more the skin starts getting tough and stringy, but they aren't hard to peel.  You can harvest a lot and over a several weeks just make sure to leave enough for seed.

If you ever enjoyed eating the core of a cabbage head, you would probably like the big stalks. They are fantastic grilled.

Sometimes a plant grows lots little brussel sprout like things except they are very loose but they sure are good. Same when one grows what looks like a head of cabbage but also very loose. You can harvest the cabbage looking ones and the plant blooms anyway, you can harvest as many of the brussel sprout ones as you want and it just grows more. The all grow flower clusters, like very loose broccoli.

I don't remember how many kinds I originally planted but I'm pretty sure most all that survived the first winter were cabbage and brussels sprouts and maybe some broccoli. No collards or cauliflowers lived. O' and kale, lots of it lived but I don't let bloom much. Kale was already plenty hardy here and we don't like it as much and I don't what my new vegetable to be overwhelmed with it.

I originally thought I would like the seed pods, but they are not good as they are usually tough and stringy. Mustard, turnip and especially radish pods are very good.

I quit growing cabbage, broccoli and similar crops in a traditional way. I got seed of as many different things as possible and planted them in fall. Got some little harvest of leaves before winter and those that survived winter grew very well early the next season, before the bugs arrived. I kept at it, letting them all cross and replanting each fall until they just went kind of wild. I don't get cabbage heads or broccoli or Brussels sprouts, but we do get lots of tasty leaves, bloom stems and stalks. Harvested at the right time the stalks are very good.
The cabbage flies and worms don't arrive until later in the season and by then the temperatures are hotter and the flavor and tenderness of the stalks and leaves is declining anyway. At that point as long as the worms don't completely kill the pants and prevent seeds, I'm ok withe them eating the leaves. Swarms of the little butterflies are quite pretty and great pollinators of any anything else in bloom.

I select mostly for flavorful, tender stalks. I call it broccolish.

Sounds like you did a pretty good job collecting and drying them. It is fine to seal them up in something once they are dry. Glass is great but I often use hard plastic bottles of various types saved from the trash. My favorite for long storage is those stainless-steel water bottles or canisters often seen on shelves at flea markets, get the ones without the sipping spout and with a rubber O-ring intact if possible. They are lighter and more durable than glass.

20 F as a morning low isn't much of a concern for me but this storm has potential for a few days of 20 F or lower as the daytime high and that does get my attention because it may come with sub-zero lows.  I may be blocking off the upstairs from the heat entirely; I don't mind sleeping in the cold and better to keep the living area comfortable. Already brought in more than the normal amount of firewood and completely restocked the supply under cover on the porch so I don't have to go out to the big stack in the snow.  

I actually like winter, but I have limits. Our forecast is calling for some days with highs in the low teens. That could mean lows in the minus teens and that is outside my limits of what's enjoyable. The bad ice and power outages are projected to stay south of us, I hope so, but you never know.

I'm definitely not the one judge a permaculture project but do I have a couple of questions. Curious because I'm all about water and growing stuff in water and things that live in water and playing in water.  

Pool conversion? Do you mean you are converting the existing pool into a more natural one? As in plants and fish living in it as well as recreation? Went back and watched closer, it is going to be a natural pool! You mentioned wildlife quite a bit. Do that with that pool and I imagine you'll have lots of wildlife moving in.

What exactly is the aquaculture shed and why does it cost so much? In my mind it would be something mostly to protect from freezing in winter but sounds like that may not be an issue for you.