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Plant Farm 2016

plantingplants

Active member
Yea I didn't realize just how much seed you need to really get a thick mulch. Also should have covered the deed more after sowing. I'll definitely be getting some bales of rice straw.
 

slownickel

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Have you watered with micro sprinklers before? I would be a bit worried about relative humidity being brought up real high with all those leaves getting wet. I would do a pruning job down below and try to get a lot of the leaves that get no light removed. They only pull energy, they produce very little. Detipping the dominant center branches might help you get some of those branches evened out to maximize light.

If there is an issue of disease where you are located, I would also think about taking out some branches. Air flow is critical.
 

plantingplants

Active member
Yea the low branches are getting in the way of the sprayers anyway. I'll clean them out tomorrow as well as the insides.

I used them last year and I think they contributed to killing two plants. I couldn't tell for sure but they had mushy stems. I don't like the sprayers hitting the stems directly but I've seen six 99 plant gardens with no stem issues from sprayers, though. So who knows.
 

slownickel

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Collar rot

Collar rot

I think the idea of microsprinklers in your grow is actually a great idea. I also think it killed those plants because you are using 360 degree sprinklers.

Go to https://www.jainsusa.com/ and check out their catalog. They have the models 7000-8000, Jain Jet Performance heads C, G and H, as well as the Smart Jet Performance black head with the C pattern. We are trying all of those currently in Oregon. All are 180 degrees each and have minimum misting as the sprays are more of a stream if you look at the patterns. Our trials should be done by the end of the week.

The issue is whether one can handle these flow rates and pressure requirements.

This way you can put one on either side of the plant, next to the trunk and never wet the trunk. To shorten the spray, just jam that stake w/head further into the soil.
 
B

blue_tick

plantingplants

just found this one. looking good man. i'll be back in the back row watching this for sure


peace
 

HillMizer

Member
I've been doing well with microsprinklers in greenhouse and outdoor for years, only issue I had was plants that were topped low for indoor. Moisture gathered in the crotch and got a little soggy. Best at wetting topdress and mulch, easiest to confirm that they are functioning properly, quick installation and adjustment. No brainier for me. I use Jaine DAN modular microsprinklers that allow you to chain orifice size and remove orifice to clear debris.
 

plantingplants

Active member
Mizer, any trouble when you're spraying the stem?

flboy, thanks man. I'm always peekin at your progress.

Slow, I've been meaning to devise something to guard the stem. I'll have to check out the Jain products. The Antelco's I use are only 50 cents but hopefully next year I'll have the funds to spend money on dialing it in further. I'm still unsure about sprayers for anything other than flat beds. I have to pay close attention to placement to make sure the sprayers hit the sides of my mounds as they're pretty steep. Why do you like micro sprinklers as opposed to drip?
 

slownickel

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Planting

Check out my sprinklers on my avocadoes and limes in these albums. You can also see some gravity fed raised beds (that was fun). Note the salt build ups in the low part of the roads. The conductivity there is over 6. Some of the saltier areas have white salt that you can scrape up.

The reason for raised beds is to maximize air to the roots and have a way to get the salts away from the plant quickly and forever.

The reason that I prefer microsprinklers is that with a non pressure compensated microsprinkler, I can change the length of the throw by changing my pressure at the valve. I realize you all don't have irrigation valves. The regulate pressure at the field level. I have 36 valve in my fields. We adjust the pressure depending upon the distance we want to apply water. On the beds you see, we wet about 1/2 of the way down from the top of the bed where the tree is located. We can go all the way to the drains in the middle of the road if I open the pressure full and take away one sector (5 to 6 sectors per valve) from that valve.

The advantages are many using micro sprinklers instead of drip. In sand and medium, the wetted area away from the dripper say 5 or 6 inches has in many cases, less than half the water compared to 2 inches away from the dripper. This makes both nutrient and water gradients in the field, especially if you don't know what you are doing with drip lines.

With micro sprinklers you can throw organic material on top of the crop and have it wash in and assist in the constant degradation of the material. Drip you have to lift up the hose and hope that the water will get to where you want it, and it never does.

Roots that extend past the limit of the dripper (another good reason for raised beds that limit lateral root growth like mine) establish a salt line, where from that point on, no more water unless it rains of course (it doesn't rain in Peru where I am). The roots that venture into that dry soil will hit nasty salts deposits at high conductivity and become a sink (a loss) for nutrients, water and worst of all, plant hormones as the plant will translocate all of these from roots that have them to the roots that don't. Not good.

https://1drv.ms/f/s!As21OnsnOYwQaDH7grzOZYQiuWQ
 

plantingplants

Active member
I didn't realize roots in bad zones could become sinks. I have poor unamended soil underneath my good soil as I thought more space for roots is good either way. So having roots in nasty soil is sort of like not pruning the center of the plant and letting all the inner growth become a sink?

My sprayers are individually adjustable which is nice. I Can also vary the distance by adjusting the water pump throttle.
 

HillMizer

Member
Mizer, any trouble when you're spraying the stem?

flboy, thanks man. I'm always peekin at your progress.

Slow, I've been meaning to devise something to guard the stem. I'll have to check out the Jain products. The Antelco's I use are only 50 cents but hopefully next year I'll have the funds to spend money on dialing it in further. I'm still unsure about sprayers for anything other than flat beds. I have to pay close attention to placement to make sure the sprayers hit the sides of my mounds as they're pretty steep. Why do you like micro sprinklers as opposed to drip?

No problem with spraying the stems, under these conditions.

#1 Plant High

#2 Plant High

#3 Pack the soil under root ball while transplanting so you can PLANT HIGH without the plant sinking.

#4 Keep stem clear of mulch.

These are my rules for fruit trees too. If the root ball sticks out you can always cover it with mulch and/or soil
 

slownickel

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With all that said Mize, won't your water distribution to the other side of the mound be horrible? You need two sprinklers then? And the deposit of water against the mound where the sprinkler hits direct is going make for a very lopsided distribution of water, no?

Two 180 sprays would be ideal I would think for mounds.

In my citrus and avocado, we start out with one sprinkler under the tree. Once the tree is established we put the sprinkler in the middle of the two trees or 1.25 mts(4.5 feet) away. My distance between trees is 2.5 meters (9 feet).

Could you post a photo of your sprinker/trunk up close and maybe another of the other side where the water doesn't hit? Or maybe I am confused...
 

HillMizer

Member
I use 3 sprinklers per big plant my pots are 7' in diameter I may add a 4th tomorrow if the math works. I may run six per plant next year with little valves on the spaghetti lines to customize the delivery.
Smaller light dep pots are excellent with one sprinklerMy beds in greenhouse look like this
picture.php


I don't use mounds, but in my setup the mulch makes up for any distribution evenness issues. The drip coils are awesome and water more evenly. I just like my sprinklers. I'm going to cover crop the space between plants at the end of the year.....just move the sprayers out of the pots to water the cover crop.

I often start with my sprayers close to tree then move them outward as the plant gets bigger, at that point the shade is helping and the roots move water around too.
 

slownickel

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Looks like your sprinkers throw streams downward vs a spinning head that throws water all around. Am I correct? This is the type of pattern that should be used.

Do you know which head you are using from Jain? I really like that pattern from what I can see.
 

HillMizer

Member
Looks like your sprinkers throw streams downward vs a spinning head that throws water all around. Am I correct? This is the type of pattern that should be used.

Do you know which head you are using from Jain? I really like that pattern from what I can see.

DAN sprayer. With orange concave spreader, violet orifice. No spinning head.
 

plantingplants

Active member
slownickel, would you say if you have a poor soil (not high salt, just unamended and maybe compacted) underneath good soil, it would act as a sink, and the plants would be better off without that bad root space? I guess I'm asking if there's anything else besides high salt that can turn roots into sinks.

Mizer, thanks for sharing that photo. I wanted to show mine as I wonder if I have them in the wrong spots. Mine do not spray down by the way and they adjust by twisting the top piece.

2008%20hi%20res%20034x450.jpg


efWTfxT.jpg




I also wanted to share a photo of some sad plants. On the left is a nice Legend OG x Snow Lotus for comparison, but in the middle we're looking at two stunted plants. There's a close up of the one on the left after the first picture. It was transplanted (it was in a mound, then I ripped it out by the gopher cage and moved it), and a few of the transplants are doing the same thing-- overall yellowing and stunted. I tried a top dressing of steer manure, as well as foliar spray of insect frass water extract (2-2-2), micropak, and calcium. No change. My only hypothesis now is that it's run out of N in the gopher cage it was transplanted in (which I think has happened to all the others that I ripped out and have out of the mounds still), and hasn't grown enough roots to find the soil with enough N for it, so it needs a stronger N supplement than manure. Although the overall chlorosis makes me think it's not N. Any ideas?

PvtfAE5.jpg


svkNURH.jpg
 

slownickel

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A couple of things come to mind. Sulfur for one. Phosphorus for another. Manganese another. Obviously calcium..... but those are all best guesses.

Do you have a soil analysis?
 

plantingplants

Active member
Yea I think you looked at it.

https://www.icmag.com/ic/attachment.php?attachmentid=362973&d=1463088535

That was before planting. The oyster shell breaks down slow (this same soil used by shcrews after one grow went up to 76% Ca) so maybe I could apply a very quick acting Ca like Microna?

I also just watered in some micros like boron, mn, cu etc but as I said the mn and cu are just sitting at he bottom of my tank undissolved. Maybe since you think P and plus a few of my plants have purple veins running through and purple where the petiole meets the leaf, I'll lower my pH 8 water with phosphoric acid to get the mn and cu into solution.
 

slownickel

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I say phosphorus because of low energy and the plants are probably twanged on potassium, phosphorus is part of the basic energy molecule ATP.

I can look at a corn field and see waves in the heights of the corn. That is normally a huge P problem. Text book stuff...

Some cocacola foliar would do wonders... haha. phosphoric acid and sugar. Yes, seriously.
 
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