Old Time Grower Tricks

[RedDirtWarrior]

food is great fertilizer.

I like to take a bunch of old fruit, veggies, pizza, whatever. blend it all up and then pour in the bottom of my planting holes helps a lot!!

another great tip is mimic nature. bottom watering is an easy way to do this, stick your planted pot in a shallow pan of water and water from the bottom up.

Plants leaves direct the flow of rainwater to the sides and make a watering circle around their bases. Directly underneath the plant are the roots that exude harmful salts. Dont water this area it will wash the salts back down to the root zone. best way to water would be to mimic rainwater but this takes forever hence bottom watering.

and critters generally dont dig if you seal off the food well with a clay like soil, or just water it in well. charcoal would work good too.

 

[beta]

This thread should be re-named 'old wives tales'.

 

[TychoMonolyth]

This thread should be re-named 'old wives tales'.

Is using rice to capture microorganisms from my forest an old wives tale, or an old korean fairytale?

If it is then should I throw away the Mycelium I collected? Just asking.

 

[Mithridate]

So I was reading this 1996 "1001 gardening tricks" book and they show that you can fill a tub with rain water then you add chicken feathers and cover with rocks so they sink.
then let it soak for 2 months away from sunlight/light.

its full of nitrogen and micro nutrients

chinese farmers been doing it for centuries.
states that mix is good for all plants

 

[St. Phatty]

I read an old Army Handbook where they talk about how to mine Potassium Nitrate from a mixture of Cow Manure and Wood Ash.

 

[Mithridate]

Interesting

For a quick compost layer sawdust and chicken manure. The sawdust acidity will balance the manures alkalinity.


To get rid of aphids keep your potato water when you boil some, let cool and spray on plants.
Or
soak rhubarb leaves for 24hrs, then boil for 20 to 30 mins, let cool and spray
Or
​​​​dust some wood ash with a saltshaker
Rince with water the next day
You can also attract predators by planting absinthe


Against slugs and snail
apply ashes around the stalk, anything rough will work, sandpaper, used grinder disks, eggshells, sand, pine needles etc
They hate fennel's odor, plant some around the garden

Lay a can on its side with 2 spoons of sugar, spoon of jam, spoon of lemon and fill halfway with water. They will drown in it.

This is fun, i'll be back

 

[therevverend]

Instead of burying an egg underneath your plants you can eat the inside part and save the egg shells. Soak them in water then apply the shell water to your plants for calcium. This is the problem with this thread. Instead of burying a fish under your plants, you can put your fish skin, bones, and guts in your compost along with the egg shells, sawdust, manure, leaves, and food. Then it breaks down properly into a form the plant can utilize and you can apply to each plant instead of having to worry about possums, dogs, and raccoons digging your plants up.

I bury my cat's kills in the garden. Deep, at least a foot if not deeper because I don't want to get flesh eating bacteria on me. Not near a creek or well. And not near potatoes I'm going to consume. Somewhere it can break down for at least six months to a year. Last summer I buried a rabbit, a bird, and a few rats. Not in the same hole. This spring when I dug in the burial spots they were completely consumed by the worms and bacteria. Death is good for dirt. Piss, shit, corpses, it's all useful but it needs to decompose for a long time. The bigger the beast or turd the longer it takes..

 

[Great outdoors]

The whole nail in the stalk thing comes from old lore of Columbian Gold. Supposedly they would put the nail in the stalk in the last few weeks to give the gold color.
Makes sense if you drive a nail through the stalk it would cause early senescence and cause it to go yellow/ gold.