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Daniels 2012 grow log

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jimispanna

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worm farms are great, they will eat almost anything, i use a compost bin with a plastic removable container with plenty of holes in the bottom, this holds the worm food, the worms come up through the holes eat go back down and give you good soil. but if you do keep worms in a compost bin, be sure not to let it get too hot or too soggy, i found out the hard way, cooked worms and drowned worms dont do as good a job as healthy worms. the noise of a few thousand worms in a bin is amazing too.
 

BarG

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Daniel

How does the existing soil feel when you dig it up ?
Dig up some and squeeze a ball of it in your hand , then break it apart let us know how well it falls apart or doesn't fall apart .Make sure it isn't too wet or about any soil will ball up and not fall apart .
Good soil should crumble not to a fine powder but should bust apart easy .

That is about the extent of my soil testing, pick up a good handful ofsoil[not to dry or wet] squeeze tightly and see how it comes apart to see how much sandy loam and clay is present. Too much clay and it will stick together in large clumps ,to much sand and it will break apart in fine particles, just right and it will slowly crumble apart into loose small chuncks. I,m adding mushroom mulch to all my growing areas this year because I use the same areas year after year, staggering different small crops. Just to replenish the soil to some extent.
 

BigBonner

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Daniel

I see what you mean now about it being clay . I think sand won't do you much good . Raised beds or bukets may be your only choice money wise .
It would be exspensive to have to compost 2/3 rds of a acre .
I did have a pile of old composted soil where I was feeding cattle that I brought to my house for flowers and elephant ears . I recieved some Perique last summer that were small . I put them with my regular tobacco soil to get them growing .Then I planted them in the mound of soil . They grew out great and I never watered them onece during the summer . I wish I had of taken a picture of them .

Worm casings . Here where I live there are alot of night crawlers and red worms in our soil . Some place there is alot some places there is none.

FM, I cannot remember where but I read somewhere that the ideal soil for tobacco was 40% silt 40% sand and 20% clay. That is what I shot for last year when making soil for my buckets and it worked. So just staying with what I know.

BB, I can take a shovel and just scoop off the top 3 to 6 inches. It is a dry powdery silt that feels more like sand. So I will call it a gritty silt. then it is solid rock hard clay and rock. Volcanic rock as well as rock from erosion from the surrounding hills. This clay that is locally called hard pan will soften up when gotten wet. but as soon as it dries it hardens again.

I am not saying this is a soil with a high clay content. I don't even like calling it soil. It is clay, and it acts like clay. make a 100 lb pile of modeling clay and then try digging in it. when it is wet you have a chance. when it dries out go find some dynamite.

The top layer will form a ball when moist and break apart as you describe. I do know what you are describing. the underlying clay will just squish into shapes in your hand but not fall apart unless it is so muddy it will run between your fingers. I also no what good soil is like. As I said I don't even consider this soil. it is dirt.
 

Daniel

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I just have to get to know this guy. This is just one of several piles he has. This is a small one.
compost-1.jpg
 

Daniel

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Compost, This guy makes mountains of it. In the thread this photo came from he talks about adding cow and horse carcasses to his piles.
 

BigBonner

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I know about composting animals . They have a government cost share program here that will pay half of the money to set animal composting .

I burry all the animals that die on my farm .
Here is a article on composting , go all the way to the bottom for another link .
http://www.kystandard.com/content/local-farmer-chooses-animal-composting-over-landfill

http://www.ca.uky.edu/agc/pubs/id/id166/id166.pdf

Compost, This guy makes mountains of it. In the thread this photo came from he talks about adding cow and horse carcasses to his piles.
 

Chicken

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well i know where the ol'lady is going if she dies on me,,,,

the compost pile,:)
 

johnlee1933

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Larry,

What do we poor devils with a very small unchangeable plot do? Quit growing for two years? I've heard about "gassing" for nematodes and a lot of other stuff I don't think I can afford. I'm pretty sure I can't afford two years of waiting. This will be my third year on one 9 X 12 plot and the first year on another, 8 X 14.

Any help is welcome. Thanks,

John
 

BigBonner

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Chicken

You can put any kind of animal in the compost mouse , dogs , cats even a chicken .
I wouldn't tell my wife about this kind of composting that would save her several dollars with burial exspenses .

well i know where the ol'lady is going if she dies on me,,,,

the compost pile,:)
 

BigBonner

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Johnlee1933

I wouldn't worry too much about letting the ground rest This is mainly for large producers .Rotation keeps down disease , black shank is one of them .
I do know that if I sow a field of good hay and rotate it after two years the soil will be a whole lot easier to work and will raise a better crop .
Roots from certain legumes will break the soil adding natural nitrogen , air and bust the soil layer down deep . Most Legumes roots will grow as deep down in the soil as they are tall sometimes more .

However A neighbor has raised tobacco in the same field for 10 years now . He has limited space to grow tobacco . His crop doesn't grow nearly as good as it did in the first few years .

Comercial tobacco seeds have been developed to withstand certain diseases from bad practices of farming . Black shank is one example , Tobacco has been developed to with stand typ 1 and 2 black shank . Some fields are now getting to the point where black shank resistant tobacco doesn't work .

With a smaller tobacco plotlike you have , you can add compost and manage the plant nutrients better than a 20 acre field .

Here is a copy / paste from wikipedia


Root nodules occur on the roots of plants (primarily Fabaceae) that associate with symbiotic nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Under nitrogen-limiting conditions, capable plants form a symbiotic relationship with a host-specific strain of bacteria known as rhizobia. This process has evolved multiple times within the Fabaceae, as well as in other species found within the Rosid clade.[1]

Within legume nodules, nitrogen gas from the atmosphere is converted into ammonia, which is then assimilated into amino acids (the building blocks of proteins), nucleotides (the building blocks of DNA and RNA as well as the important energy molecule ATP), and other cellular constituents such as vitamins, flavones, and hormones. Their ability to fix gaseous nitrogen makes legumes an ideal agricultural organism as their requirement for nitrogen fertilizer is reduced. Indeed high nitrogen content blocks nodule development as there is no benefit for the plant of forming the symbiosis. The energy for splitting the nitrogen gas in the nodule comes from sugar that is translocated from the leaf (a product of photosynthesis). Malate as a breakdown product of sucrose is the direct carbon source for the bacteroid. Nitrogen fixation in the nodule is very oxygen sensitive. Legume nodules harbor an iron containing protein called leghaemoglobin, closely related to animal myoglobin, to facilitate the conversion of nitrogen gas to ammonia.



Larry,

What do we poor devils with a very small unchangeable plot do? Quit growing for two years? I've heard about "gassing" for nematodes and a lot of other stuff I don't think I can afford. I'm pretty sure I can't afford two years of waiting. This will be my third year on one 9 X 12 plot and the first year on another, 8 X 14.

Any help is welcome. Thanks,

John
 

dkh2

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worm farms are great, they will eat almost anything, i use a compost bin with a plastic removable container with plenty of holes in the bottom, this holds the worm food, the worms come up through the holes eat go back down and give you good soil. but if you do keep worms in a compost bin, be sure not to let it get too hot or too soggy, i found out the hard way, cooked worms and drowned worms dont do as good a job as healthy worms. the noise of a few thousand worms in a bin is amazing too.

Here's my home made worm bin

Worm Bin.jpg Worm Bin 3.jpg

Worm Bin 2.jpg Worm Bin 4.jpg
 

dkh2

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Cow manure works good but you got to use Red Worms though, Horse manure has so much undigested hay in it
that it isn't all that great for worm bins, but it works Now Elephant manure is the best, and you can get it from
zoo's but they want money for it now a days, Red Worms eat manure and composting matter and there manure smells like fresh dirt
I throw all my coffee grounds and other kitchen stuff in it and they eat it right up they really like potato peelings
Night Crawlers are good for gardens but they just eat dirt
 

BarG

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Cow manure works good but you got to use Red Worms though, Horse manure has so much undigested hay in it
that it isn't all that great for worm bins, but it works Now Elephant manure is the best, and you can get it from
zoo's but they want money for it now a days, Red Worms eat manure and composting matter and there manure smells like fresh dirt
I throw all my coffee grounds and other kitchen stuff in it and they eat it right up they really like potato peelings
Night Crawlers are good for gardens but they just eat dirt

Lets go FISHING everything else can wait.
 

johnlee1933

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Thanks Larry,

I plan to fertilize and till in more compost and manure the way I usually do. I will then check Ph and add wood ashes as necessary.
Last year I chopped my stalks and dug them back in to retain phosphorous . This springs tilling should finish the job.

That's about the best I can do except pray for no hair storm this year.

John
 

BarG

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What kind of usage has your land had in the past johnlee, for instance many moons ago farmers used to grow corn on my open land. Aint no telling what might be burryed out there? Good ground though.
 

Daniel

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Thanks for the plans, I am just finishing up a beehive in my shop and the worm bin is next on my list. Looks simple to make.
 

johnlee1933

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BarG,

Both plots are built up. I got some dead telephone poles. I dragged and cut them to size and pinned them down with scrap sections of re bar.
The dirt inside is a combination of commercial top soil I scrounged, sand and well rotted tree chippings. It is about 12" deep set on top of a sandy, rocky
substrate. Each year I add fertilizer, manure, compost and cotton seed meal.

John
 
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