Chillards FTT Need For Seed Grow Outs 2014

[DGBAMA]

Going to be as busy as your BEES.

 

[Knucklehead]

Good luck with your season Will.

 

[chillardbee]

Wow, everyones starting the blogs now, I counted 14 grow blogs for 2014 so far.

Well, I'm going to get the pots and trays out soon and give them a good cleaning and even a little clorine disinfectant soak. I have the little (4 cells square) containers (48 per tray) I started in from last year and I'll be using those again to save time and space. I'll be doing a direct sowing into the pots, once again to save time and space. One variety per each square ought to do the trick. I will have 11 trays on the go then. I'm grunting just thinking about it but I'll get'er done. The plan so far is to do a april 7th +/- sowing, I'm looking forward to that day.

 

[Knucklehead]

Wow, everyones starting the blogs now, I counted 14 grow blogs for 2014 so far.

Well, I'm going to get the pots and trays out soon and give them a good cleaning and even a little clorine disinfectant soak. I have the little (4 cells square) containers (48 per tray) I started in from last year and I'll be using those again to save time and space. I'll be doing a direct sowing into the pots, once again to save time and space. One variety per each square ought to do the trick. I will have 11 trays on the go then. I'm grunting just thinking about it but I'll get'er done. The plan so far is to do a april 7th +/- sowing, I'm looking forward to that day.

I used the 48 cell inserts last year and really liked them, but switched to 72 cell inserts this year to utilize the same space under my lights with more plants. They fit the same 1020 tray, just more but smaller cells. The starts are doing great so far. It may be something to consider to make the best use of your space with fewer lights. http://www.greenhousemegastore.com/product/traditional-inserts-hobby-pack/s

 

[chillardbee]

No lights for me this year. They'll all be outdoor starts right from germination. I will have them under glass though. I did it like that in 2012 and they worked find. They took longer to come up but that'd be fine by me this year too, anything to buy me some time.

this weekend I'm putting on the last feed to the bees. next weekend I'll be reversing the hives, the following weekend or friday will be the sowing of the seeds, then the following weekend will be queenrearing time and supering up for the maple flow...you guys do speak beekeeper talk, don't you?

 

[Knucklehead]

Reversing the hives got me. What is that?

 

[Jitterbugdude]

Reversing is where you put the top box on the bottom and the bottom box on the top. During the winter the bees slowly migrate to the top box and basically will not go back down. In theory this makes for an overcrowded hive causing them to swarm. In reality it only really provides minimal swarm control. If you want to control swarming you need to checkerboard... now look that one up! ...
Checkerboarding is time consuming, if you have more than a few hives I do not think it is worth the effort

 

[Knucklehead]

So, up north you have two main hives under the supers? We just have one and close the entrance a little bit.

 

[chillardbee]

Through the winter, the bees eat the stored honey. they cluster at the bottom and work they way up. by this time of year, all the bees are in the top box where they are brooding and carrying on all the activity while the bottom box is fairly empty apart from maybe some good frames of pollen. Reversing them allows the bees to expand into the empty box quicker and make use of that pollen for making more brood. It also puts the remaining honey in the bottom box. the bees will try to move this honey back into the top box and when they do this, it simulates a honey flow (funny how that works) but it does kick the queen up to level of egg laying.

Swarm control this year will be done using a variant of the demaree method. It is the stone thats going to kill many birds at once and free up time so I can manage my baccy plants.

 

[Knucklehead]

Through the winter, the bees eat the stored honey. they cluster at the bottom and work they way up. by this time of year, all the bees are in the top box where they are brooding and carrying on all the activity while the bottom box is fairly empty apart from maybe some good frames of pollen. Reversing them allows the bees to expand into the empty box quicker and make use of that pollen for making more brood. It also puts the remaining honey in the bottom box. the bees will try to move this honey back into the top box and when they do this, it simulates a honey flow (funny how that works) but it does kick the queen up to level of egg laying.

yeah, that different from warmer weather bee farming. We just have one hive with supers on top of it for the honey. We usually leave one full super for them to eat through the winter. Down here 10 qts. of honey is plenty to get them through the winter. For weather proofing, we just close off the entrance to a tiny slit. Just enough for them to enter and leave through, that helps keep the temps inside the hive. The worker bees go off or are run off to die and that leaves less bees to eat the honey through the winter, and less chance of swarming right away.

Swarm control this year will be done using a variant of the demaree method. It is the stone thats going to kill many birds at once and free up time so I can manage my baccy plants.

The demaree method sound similar to my "it was Dem or Me method".

 

[chillardbee]

I've been out in the garden the last couple of days cleaning up. doing some measuring for my rows, and doing some weed control.

I used vinegar and formic acid and more or less devestated all manner of vegetative growth. So, I'll be buying a test kit and lime to counter act the acid. the good thing is that the acids are organic with oxygen, carbon, and hydrogen the only atoms that make up the molecule on both acids, formic being CH2O2 and vinegar (acetic acid) being C2H4O2. It should break down pretty quickly as well and one of the perks may be makeing some more mineral available.

The weather is beautiful here now. sunny to overcast, mild to warm. I think were past any frost danger now. the out look is a mixture of rain and sun, emphasis on the rain as typical for the wet coast.

As fortune would have it, I found my sheet of ply wood that I'll be setting all my trays on while starting and the glass for my make shift cold frame. everthings coming together.

I should mention that I got a good while to get the soil into good shape.

 

[chillardbee]

We bought the #4 sunshine mix yesterday and some steer manure, looking forward to getting the ball rolling. I'm going to ask the land owners at a couple of my bee yards if I can plant baccy near my bees. I think they'll let me and if they do, I think Ill plant about 70-80 between the two yards. I'll use these plants as my main production plants. I'm thinking of a nice balance of 20 orientals, 20 burleys, and 40 bright leafs.

I will be marking everthing in my patch but just in case the markings fade, I will draw a map with names and such so that I'll always be sure what is what out there, I consider it a back up system.

 

[Mad Oshea]

A map and count of each is a great idea. I forget sometimes and scatch My head at what I was thinking, then pull out the map. My markers some how end up gone or un-readable.

 

[chillardbee]

I've busy in the patch. I got the 5 rows rototilled and everything cleaned up. Got all the trays sterilized and clean. I'm thinking that tomorrow will be a good a day as any to sow. I am going to use numbers instead of names to mark each section since everything is numbered and name on the map, it's just easier that way.

Looking at my patch, I was originally thinking of doing another grow out for 2015 but the rows in my patch are so nice, I think next year I'm going to do a proper grow with a 4' row to row spacing and 1.5-2' in row spacing.

I made sure that I have my first row 3' from neighbour grumpy nutts easement line so no worries this year.

Things are getting really busy around here.

 

[Knucklehead]

I like this time of year, the weather is nice, I'm outside playing in the dirt without too many bugs or too much heat. It won't be this way for long so I'm making hay while the sun shines. We have some storms coming at us this week so I won't get to play outside too much.

I see you're thinking ahead to 2015 also. We are a couple of nuts. I've already started my 2015 grow list. Isn't that just pitiful? Reckon we should go ahead and start a 2015 Grow Blog? lol (First on next years list is Costello Negro, Sky tells me it's his favorite plant of all time. A single variety cigarette smoke that beats even his blends. I already got me some seed for next year. Told ya: crazy)

 

[springheal]

Include me in the "crazy" club. My 2015 grow is planned out to.

 

[chillardbee]

Yeah, I know how I'm gonna do it in 2015, I just haven't made a selection yet. I'm going to wait until this season is over and form an opinion on all that I have grown this year. Although I don't know what varieties will get into the ground next year I think I will try 2 types of oriental, 2 types of burley, 1 dark air cured, 1 maryland, 4 types of fluecured.

 

[grgfinney]

I guess i'm not in the crazy club next year if i get my projected harvest i am not growing next year.i'm doing things a little different this year making the patch 25 ft wider and going to plant like varieties in thier own spot within the patch i think it will be easier to keep straight that way with 32 strains going i see some seed exchange going on anyway good luck Chillard on your grow and keeping them all separated

 

[chillardbee]

HEAR,HEAR!!!!

Let it be known that on this day, April 4th, in the year of of our Lord, 2014, That I have sown the seeds of 125 varieties with each variety being planted into an insert holding 4 cells and within the 4 corners of each cell.

I like these grow blogs, I can keep record of everything I do.

 

[Mad Oshea]

Yup! Yer SICK like the rest of Us this year! 125 is more sick than most of Us this time.........