Posted on 08/21/2015 12:55:47 PM PDT by greeneyes
Hmmm, I wonder if that’s sort of what adding azomite does, is it mineral supplements?
Thinking of getting some azomite and putting it under my onion/garlic mulch before I do it.
Me, either, but a few years ago, I had this intense urge to buy a heavy coat. Made no sense, so I didn’t. We’ve been having unusually low sunspot activity for quite a while (about a decade). yeesh. I hate the cold.
I didn’t know that about New Madrid. Not good. I know volcanic activity is supposed to be ticking up, but earthquakes don’t seem to be- yet. Or at least that much on this side of the globe. Wild times.
I have a question for all regarding spaghetti squash.
Grew a few mounds in close proximity to watermelon, crookneck, acorn and patty pan squashes.
The spaghetti squash was of three colors. Some were white, some were yellow and some were watermelon colored (mottled green/white)
The first spaghetti squashes were very spaghetti like on the insides. The latter ones didn’t have good development on their spaghetti strands as they were more like an acorn squash texture.
Do you think it’s possible that the squash cross bred with its surrounding cousins which changed the texture?
I’m hearing the same from our farmers market. Even zukes! Several are going to the city or to the nearest Amish community to get zukes and tomatoes.
I don’t know, but it sounds possible that the squash might have done so.
Well, if true, I’ll probably be cold the rest of my days, since I’m approaching 70. LOL I might have to move one or two states south if it gets too frigid in Missouri.
At some point the size of the garden or the height of the plants preclude daily beetle drowning (better twice daily.) I have reached that point.
And I have plots at a community garden that I don’t visit daily.
So I am doing the experiment next year, having seen good results locally. But I am interested in the experience of other gardeners on this thread.
IME the JBs don’t drown quickly. They cluster up in a raft, and try to climb out on top of each other. They’ll chain up like the barrel of monkeys game.
But at least the water mostly keeps them from flying off. Then I pour them out onto a flat stone and crush them. For a few days the ants would clean off the stone, and then they got tired of JB.
I’ve got lots of birds. They never eat the JBs.
Once I spent half an hour trying to feed a JB to a praying mantis. Finally annoyed it enough to stab the beetle - it took one taste and shook its claw violently to dislodge the beetle.
They must have some protective chemical but they don’t smell noxious.
You’re only about 10 years older than me. Come to Texas, greeneyes. It’s awfully hot- & usually dry, in the southern parts during the Summer, but we probably have every kind of climate & terrain you can imagine. The only real downside is that if you’re trying to get to another state, it can take more than half a day, depending on where you are. East Texas is just beautiful.
Tums??? You got me, never heard of that one. Why? Calcium?
I’ve been posting some info about that, look into it. Look up Dark Winter. I’ve seen the documentary on Newsmax a couple of times, interesting stuff. Same fellow John Casey wrote a book, same name about what is happening. Solar energy declining, we just entered a new 206 year cycle, and this one is going into a long decrease in solar activity. The next 30 years at least we should see more severe winters.
My mother just told me she looked at an almanac, it said a harsh winter again this year. Last 2 were bad, record snowfall in the northeast last winter, Atlanta frozen over for a week the year before, it’s already started.
During these solar minimum periods, geological activity seems to increase to extremes. The worst volcanoes and earthquakes on record were during the last minimum, the New Madrid is one of the ones he mentioned in Dark Winter. And if you notice, we’ve already seen several recent earthquakes and volcanoes all over the place, and renewed activity in formerly dormant locations like Oregon.
We’ll all see differences in gardening, both small and large scale. All agriculture should be moving south, northern areas will be too cold for crops that presently do well. We’ll probably see a lot of corn being grown in Texas and Louisiana, where it’s currently a minor crop. Just as an example.
Several good articles here
https://nextgrandminimum.wordpress.com/category/history/dalton/page/3/
Another good article here, and some good info abotu the book Dark Winter.
http://johnhartnett.org/2015/03/29/the-coming-long-dark-winter/
Lots of rain early in the year, but it dried out pretty well before the tomatoes went to hell. I don’t think it was blossom end rot, I’ve seen that. Usually rots out the bottom of the fruit. This didn’t look the same, just rotted out random spots. Nothing grew well, tomatoes half the size they usually are, most plants small...even the Tabascos are not the same, they should be 5 feet tall right now, they might be 3. They are producing plenty peppers, but a little late, and the plants didn’t do well, they sometimes get as taller than I am, 5’9”, this time maybe 3 feet at best, some are only about 2 feet. Same for everyone around here, not just me. Puny plants, low production, small everything...if it ripens at all...
I might have to fence the garden, didn’t want to, but plan to try (again) and thin out the squirrels this winter. Last winter every time I went outside with my .22, not a squirrel in sight. Walk out the door without it and 5 would scatter...They wiped out peaches and pears just before they ripened. I didn’t get a half dozen peaches...maybe 10 pears...pear tree was loaded. Peach trees had plenty, but not as good as last year.
It sounds like th hey did cross. I did spaghetti squash for the first time this year. One plant and I have plenty. Hubby took 6 into work, I gave away 2 and should have about 7 more. As they get more mature they get more yellow outside. I never plant more than one squash so they don’t cross. I always have zucchini but I never have a problem. You may just want to cut off any weird looking ones early so the plants don’t waste any energy maturing them.
OMG! The landscapers cut down all of the banana trees!
I know that they weren’t a very nice variety of bananas, but it was cool to watch them develop.
Salt.
Ya.
Sorry about your corn. Looks like it was pretty good crop too.
Raccoons got the entire crop of heirloom Cherokee white flour corn I grew 2 years ago.
Now we have ‘fort corn’ that’s electrified strong enough to blast mr. raccoon’s behind into the next country. Haven’t lost an ear since.
It has been mentioned on this board...
Oh yummy. My cukes didn’t handle the 100F days we had for a week or two. I thought about replanting but, meh.
They were delish while they lasted. Now seeing yours I’m regretting not replanting. We love ours with homemade Italian dressing.
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