MotherLode Gardens 2016

[Shcrews]

Happy solstice everyone! the full moon made it even better

Plants look great brother.

Word to the wise, I would start pulling the buckwheat out of the cover crop. It gets big, and blocks everything else out, and gets unruly. Next year, no buckwheat in my mix. Was great when first starting, but too vigorous in the end.

it's honestly all the same to me, i'm not very educated about the various benefits of each individual cover crop species.
I do really like how my cover crop is keeping the soil moist on the surface. very noticeable in this hot weather.

Shcrews, lookin' good!

I have a question: once the season is over and/or next season rolls around, are you at any point going to till the soil in/under the mounds? I imagine after a year the dirt might get pretty compact.

will probably just let nature do its thing, and then put more soil on them next year.

 

[Shcrews]

Second round of support already? shit. I have one 4.5 ft plant now but mine don't even have the first layer! I need to get on that.

You have a jungle under those plants man. Looks great. I bet you see all sorts of life in there. Are you seeing any pests in the mulch or just lots of beneficials? I had some treehoppers, but just introduced lacewings and have been seeing less hoppers and now some praying mantises.

i just had to google treehoppers, those are some strange looking bugs! lots of different types too it seems. idk if i've had those in my garden. I'm seeing lots of spiders and ladybugs but not much else. The leafhoppers seem to be mostly gone for now. Not sure what pests to look out for on the cover crop.

definitely get your supports up soon, wouldn't want any casualties! the first cage is the main support for my plants and i've seen a 8-footer get ripped out of the ground by wind when it wasnt caged and pinned down properly. The second layer of support is crucial too but after that it depends how much they stretch

 

[Shcrews]

i'm kind of disappointed with how i've been handling some stuff. I got a soil consultation from Leadsled but didnt get the micronutrients that he recommended before planting, and i havent sent any additional soil tests or even followed up on my consultation at all.

As per MilkyJoe's advice (and Leadsled of course) i'm going to order the recommended; Sodium Molybdate, Potassium Sulfate, Manganese Sulfate, and Cobalt Sulfate. I dont know how to properly apply each one at this point though. I just really want to do what i can to make sure the soil is as good as it can be right now.

I also have been neglecting the sap analysis. I have a refractometer, a sap PH meter, and soon will have a Potassium Ion meter, none of which i have any idea how to use/interpret/apply. lots of reading to do but just figured i'd vent here , my frustrations with myself and my distraction/procrastination

and on that note, here are some abnormalities i observed in the garden today; one or two plants are showing slight twisting/rippling on fan leaves and slightly twisted new growth. This kind of stuff really worries me because of the issues i had last year with freaky twisted growth and stunted plants:

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one plant has some leaf-curl / taco:

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one plant appears slightly yellowish, slightly clawed leaves:

not sure exactly what any of these growth abnormalities are caused by but i want to make sure they dont get worse

 

[Shcrews]

and now some healthy looking plants

Digital Yoga (WiFi#3 x Snow Lotus)

Tiger Mountain:

Ancient OG:

Strawberry Milk:

 

[Shcrews]

7:40pm, lower plot:

sunset, upper plot:

 

[cannascholar]

Plants look great to me. You could water in those amendments over several applications. I didn't see any issues after applying MnSo4 at 2g/gallon. A humic acid product would be good to add while applying the amendments.

 

[Hemphrey Bogart]

Hang in there, schrews. It can be daunting learning new tech, but you're a hard worker and you just gotta eat that elephant one bite at a time. You have some excellent resources here and you're using them, so keep your chin up and spend some time reading...you'll figure it all out eventually. You're a smart dude and this stuff ain't rocket science.

Most importantly, don't forget to enjoy what you're doing! Farming is fun and you've got some beautiful scenery there!

I'm pulling for you to make this your best season yet!

HB.

 

[Rolling Stoner]

Hey Shcrews. I have some leaf twisting/curling stuff going on too (BBHP and Sunshine Daydream). It's mainly effecting the main stem, although some branches as well. Other branches look completely healthy and are starting to pass up the main branch. I have been over all the plants with the 100x scope and can't find anything, like nothing (I dealt with Russet mites last year).

I looked back on your thread from last year to see what peps thought about your issue for some help. Lots of Google searches etc. Everything kept pointing me to the soil. PH issues or large clumps of composted material that wasn't composted or broken apart well.

I have been working overtime to try to add as much microbial life and such to the soil as possible to try and correct any imbalances. Mainly AACT. I have two small brewers and have kept them running every three days. PITA getting all that back to my spot so often but I really think it is helping.

Keep us posted and keep working as hard as possible. The only failure is not doing everything you can to succeed.

 

[Bradley_Danks]

they're getting water once per day usually, about 40-60 gallons per plant. on really hot days i water them once in the morning and once in afternoon

Thanks for answering and just in time cus I just bought a hose timer. I'm gonna try setting the intervals to every 6 hours for fifteen minutes since I'm getting about a gallon a minute I figure. Nobody replied to my drip interval thread so your my only resource at this point...lol... What do you think about that?

 

[TheSilverMullet]

40-60 gallons per plant each day seems like a lot to me.

everyone was crying broad mites last year but my guess was root issues.

specifically root issues due to over watering.

it was never confirmed broad mites and remains somewhat of a mystery if I recall.

did you ever get one of those $30 - 17" reotemp moisture meters I recommended last year?

 

[milkyjoe]

on K...http://blog.nutri-tech.com.au/potassium-1/

he shows how to use the meter next week. but essentially you realize K is a very mobile mineral. If you have any shortage at all it will move from old (bottom leaves) to new growth. So what you do is measure a lower and top leaf. If the bottom leaf is much higher you have too much, if the bottom leaf has much less than the top then you need more K..

After a little playing around you can find out the goldilocks number for your crop for yourself

 

[Mr Chocolate]

40-60 gallons per plant each day seems like a lot to me.

everyone was crying broad mites last year but my guess was root issues.

specifically root issues due to over watering.

Agreed. I had some leaves do that claw and twist a couple weeks ago. My worker was just hammering the mounds with water because the rootbase was drying out. Since the majority of the mound was saturated and not developed with roots yet we chilled hard on the watering and let the roots stretch their legs. They bounced right out of it. I would say I'm giving about 60 gal per plant every 4 days now and they are 6-8' tall.

 

[Bradley_Danks]

I'm gonna dial it back to 5 gals every 6 hours and see how it goes. That would roughly be watering 2.5% of its container size in 24 hours.

 

[HillMizer]

40-60 gallons is mind boggling to me. I'm not here to say much about it, not to disagree with doing it. I figured big planters would use less water.

It has been that case for me. In My world a 10# plant still only gets 20 gallons at the most every, and that's watering 2 yard planter 2-3x a day. I'm surprised that folks use more than that already. Does it ramp up to 100 gallons in August?

 

[milkyjoe]

yup, it does.

 

[Mendogrowing]

Wow, that is an amazing amount of water. I definitely feel it's a limiting factor at my place.

 

[EastBayGrower]

Yeah man I see people woth 8 footers already, im like damn im slipping! theyll still come around im sure, best of luck on learning how to use the meters, let us know what u think at the end of season

 

[Shcrews]

im givng each plant about 50 gal per day now, split into morning and afternoon.

theyre getting almost 14hrs of direct sunlight and its 100+ degrees so the soil dries out quick even with the cover crop.

most are 4-5 ft tall and growing fast. a couple AOG's are almost 6ft already

 

[DunHav`nFun]

Gotta remember the "living mulch" is suckin juice to stay alive as well , so here`s hopin your mounds do as well as your containers last yr bro....water is life ....and.....cheap from da well....cuz....

The spice must flow..........

Over here on my bucket digging the scenery....won`t bother yas anymore....Hope this yr surpasses last yrs Harvey.....

Peace....DHF.........

 

[hobbyhorse]

Hey shcrews looking good mate. I did mounds here last year for the first time I noticed they took abit more water than pots the same size. Have u thought about another layer of maybe mulch on top of ur cover crop?