deluxestogie Grow Log 2014

[rainmax]

Is there any young dog around the house?
My brother in law has one and since than I have lost few precious plants. He doesn't eat them, its just for the game.
I found one day he took two years old Pinus sibirica. My heart stops. I catch him and replant my precious plant. Week later pinus disappeared again. For good.

Should you have hardened-off your plants?

I believe is good but if they survive three days on full sun they are hardened enough. Bravo.

 

[Planter]

Some wooden skewers around the plants discourage birds. But starlings and the likes just seem to clip the top, not cleanly at the ground, in my observation.

 

[deluxestogie]

Subsequent plantings have gone under Agribon-AG15. No further losses. By the way, just my tops are cleanly at the ground. No deer tracks. No rabbit tracks. Just bird destruction. I can't speak for starlings in Nepal.

Bob

 

[Jitterbugdude]

I had the same thing happen last year, Bob. The bird explanation makes sense. I couldn't figure out why there wasn't any markings or paw prints around the plants.

That's why I use Diatomaceous Earth on my tobacco for about the first 2 weeks. It's a pain in the ass sometimes because it has to be applied after it rains and sometimes it rains a lot. I buy a 50# bag from the Ag store and that lasts me quite a few years.

 

[deluxestogie]

Since I till all my beds by hand, I often see the bright, silver-white cutworms in the loose soil. They get tossed out in the grass, where the birds can find them, or they roast in the full sun.

My only real success with diatomaceous earth (DE) is in zapping earwigs, which seem to congregate only in specific locations.

Bob

 

[Mad Oshea]

Got grass hoppers now! WAAAA. Garlic is all I am useing. Used talc to stop them and went to the garlic to start the regement to get them at hand. Hope any thing I share helped?

 

[deluxestogie]

It's been something of a slow start this season. I still have 7 (out of an initial 30) varieties to put in. The bed in the foreground will be beans and corn. Beyond it you can see the tomato cages. Some of the tobacco varieties have just been slow to reach a transplantable size this year. I think the persistent cold weather this spring was just enough to bring the porch temp a bit low at night.

All that I get to look at for a few weeks.

As soon as the tobacco goes into the ground, I cover it with Agribon-AG15, to keep the gremlins away. Once the plants start pushing it up, I will remove it. Since adding the Agribon this year, I've lost only two plants, and those were to cutworms.

Chive blossoms.

Chives overwinter well. Before the blossom scapes shoot up, I give the chives a haircut. These long, round leaves are then snipped into tiny sections with scissors, and dried in a bag of Agribon. This spring's chive harvest, after drying, filled a large Parmesan cheese jar.

I'm hoping to have everything in the ground by Memorial Day.

Bob

 

[Gdaddy]

Chive blossoms.

Chives overwinter well. Before the blossom scapes shoot up, I give the chives a haircut. These long, round leaves are then snipped into tiny sections with scissors, and dried in a bag of Agribon. This spring's chive harvest, after drying, filled a large Parmesan cheese jar.

I make a great Chive omlette. Classic French style. Love'um fresh cut. I gleaked on the monitor when I saw them!

 

[deluxestogie]

Chives are one of the few herbs that I actually enjoy fresh from the garden. Many others (e.g. oregano) just don't seem right, until they are dried.

I also have a small bed of Broadleaf Czech garlic that will be ready to dig in a couple of weeks. I'm considering slicing up the (otherwise discarded) leaves to dry like chives. I'll get a pic. The Czech garlic is mild when cooked, but has a potent zing when used raw.

Bob

 

[BarG]

It may be a slow start on setting out Bob, but you always seem to have a good finish.
The pic of your landscape shows a good slope , does that effect the different beds much?

 

[deluxestogie]

Only the lowest beds--mostly the one in the foreground--flood, and only with truly extreme rain. (The garden beds are only about 200 yards from the Eastern Continental Divide, so there's a fairly limited watershed. My garden drains into the Gulf of Mexico, via the Ohio River and into the Mississippi. Two hundred yards from me, it drains into the Atlantic.) The proximity of roots from nearby large trees seems to be the most significant factor in differences from bed to bed. And, of course, the sod that separates the beds prevents any erosion or streaming from heavy rain.

I rotate the tobacco and veggies as much as I can, from year to year, but it's not quite enough rotation. Too much tobacco.

One distinct benefit of the separate beds (each of which can hold 16 full-size plants, 24 Little Dutch) is that I come to know each variety by name early in each season. I think that enhances my recognition of their differences of growth habit and problems that are unique to different varieties.

Bob

 

[BarG]

I think I am narrowing it down to my best areas for tobacco. It has been trial and error. I am about fairly certain mine drains down to the gulf of mexico. A myriad of creeks around here.

 

[Mad Oshea]

It's been something of a slow start this season. I still have 7 (out of an initial 30) varieties to put in. The bed in the foreground will be beans and corn. Beyond it you can see the tomato cages. Some of the tobacco varieties have just been slow to reach a transplantable size this year. I think the persistent cold weather this spring was just enough to bring the porch temp a bit low at night.

All that I get to look at for a few weeks.

As soon as the tobacco goes into the ground, I cover it with Agribon-AG15, to keep the gremlins away. Once the plants start pushing it up, I will remove it. Since adding the Agribon this year, I've lost only two plants, and those were to cutworms.

Chive blossoms.

Chives overwinter well. Before the blossom scapes shoot up, I give the chives a haircut. These long, round leaves are then snipped into tiny sections with scissors, and dried in a bag of Agribon. This spring's chive harvest, after drying, filled a large Parmesan cheese jar.

I'm hoping to have everything in the ground by Memorial Day.

Bob

Your garlic and chives are one of the best plants to share with Your tobacco. They are a perfect buddy plant for any grow. I wish dill were the same, but not in this case. Great call delux.

 

[deluxestogie]

Lawn Chair Moth

Not content to rest anywhere on this lawn chair, a meticulous moth carefully aligns it's horizontal stripe pattern to that of the front edge of the seat. Probably not a wise strategy on a surface that someone may sit on without notice.

Moth viewed from above.

A slightly different view angle.

Bob

 

[Rickey60]

I hope she is not off to the tobacco patch to lay eggs next....

 

[deluxestogie]

I hope she is not off to the tobacco patch to lay eggs next....

Caterpillars typically grow no bigger than the body of the moth, so it wouldn't eat much. Its wingspan was about 1/2"--maybe the size of my pinkie fingernail. A sphinx moth would have sat in the middle of the chair, leaned back with a beer, and rested its wings on the armrests.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

I was supposed to get thundershowers today through the next 4 days. So far, only about 1/16". Bummer. I'll have to water the tobacco this evening.

Today, I put in all but the Djebel, which is still just too damn tiny to survive in the world. The Djebel goes into the Orientals bed behind the house, so the main planting area is done.

PHOTO: just imagine dirty white bedsheets spaced nicely across the lawn, and held down by stones.

Also showing...my Broadleaf Czech Garlic will be ready to dig next week.

Broadleaf Czech Garlic in a triangular bed.

Since I've decided to lengthen my blackberry bed, which abuts the little triangular garlic bed, I'm allowing blackberry canes to surface through the garlic bed. In 2015, that will just be a part of the blackberries. And yes, the garlic is nearly as tall as my house.

See that green garden hose coiled on the shed? I'll have to drag out all 150' of it to do the watering. I have little plastic roller dealies hammered into the ground at strategic bed corners to guide the hose around the corners of the beds. It's quite an ordeal to carefully drag the hose between every other set of beds to reach the farthest ones. It weighs a lot, with water in it, but the spigot is up near the hose spool, so it's either drag the heavy hose in and out of the aisles, or walk back and forth, allowing it to drain between each pair of aisles. If it would just rain....

Bob

 

[cotillion]

That's some lovely looking garlic, you make me want to grow some again. I've done it twice - the first time was a great success but the second attempt failed and I have no idea why. That was a few years ago. My favourite thing to do is pull some out of the ground, trim the very top off some heads so the cloves are just exposed. Put them on foil with the cut end facing up. Salt and pepper on them and a generous drizzling of olive oil. Then wrap them up good and place them on the bbq while cooking some chicken, ribs, etc. Just make sure they don't burn. It also works in the oven at 350 degrees for about an hour. Great, now I'm hungry and supper is a couple of hours away!

 

[leverhead]

I was supposed to get thundershowers today through the next 4 days. So far, only about 1/16". Bummer...

I'm sorry! I didn't think I was taking it all.

 

[DGBAMA]

You can put stakes at the corners of the beds to guide the hose.