Ducks4you for 2022

[ducks4you]

Sharing this video ONLY for his direct sow beans method. Watch from 3:31 to 5:10/10:38

Also, who here can remember a Great Spring planting season with perfect weather?!?!?

 

[ducks4you]

I think I posted this video in 2021 BUT, I am going to take her advice this year. I was out weeding purslane, crabgrass, and some other weeds in my beds north of the garage. I spotted MORE basil that I had direct sown AND a little patch of white allysium. After awhile you begin to recognize copycat weeds. There is one that grows on my property that Looks like an allysium, I Think it is hoary allyssum, which grows tall with white flowers on the tips. Allysium stay short and flowers low. It's exciting bc I haven't had an luck direct sowing them before.
Anyway, I am about to go out and direct seed cilantro. I don't like it, tastes like soap to Me, but it will make a nice filler and fit the theme for these two beds this year. Btw, I am growing right on the "county road line" dividing line between zones 5b and 6a.

 

[heirloomgal]

Continued soaking rain overnight and this morning. We Really needed it! There were inch wide cracks in the clay every place without vegetation, and some places in the lawn.
There is a short break until a few hours of rain coming in this evening and I will put in 30-60 minutes outside.
Started nicotiana seeds wrong. Still have another package that came in a small ziplock bag, so I will Try to get the handful of tiny plants going. I will need to start them a lot earlier next year, and I have posted @heirloomgal for seed starting advice, since she has some growing in her 2022 garden. I read that most are viable up to 5 years.
So...I think I will need to put my sweet peppers around the cistern, instead of the tobacco. It needs weeding, but a good afternoon should have most of them transplanted.
DH is pushing me to transplant the 10 privets, since he paid $165 for them, so tomorrow is slated for That chore.
Still the privets have leafed out nicely and are living in a little bit of soil and air. They ought to take off once planted.
I have one golf ball sized tomato and a pea sized one. I have started to train 4 of them to the fencing and will need to start tying them up soon. ALL 24 have survived. Now, I need to figure out where to transplant the 20+ reserves bc some in their small pots have started to flower.
Btw, haven't broken the news about the nicotiana to DH...yet.

You may still have time ducks, they do grow really big, really fast in high heat with good fertility. Your season is longer than mine, so you might even get it to the seed stage as well. Mine (transplants) have been in the ground just over a month and the flower buds are starting - and we did NOT have a great start to summer. The main thing is to not cover the seed with any soil, just keep the surface moist. Yes, the seeds are so tiny! So sow lightly and then thin them. Not sure if you've grown them before but they can get huge! Up to 6 feet, very likely for you given your okra last year! Lol My seeds were old, and they still sprouted well, though the older they get the longer they take to sprout, that's all. Good luck! 🌱

 

[Ridgerunner]

Dad grew Burley tobacco as a crash crop. Tobacco and nicotiana are in the same family so I am familiar with the size of the seeds. How much he could grow was restricted to a certain allotment to keep the prices up. It was an important cash crop to a lot of farmers, if the price collapsed it would have been very bad for a lot of small farmers just getting by. He started out with an allotment of about 0.9 acres, by the time he quit growing it the allotment was down to about a half acre. The allotment was reduced as growing methods and varieties improved. When he started out with 0,9 acres he'd grow about a ton each year. When he finished at 0,5 acres he'd grow about a ton. An acre is 43,560 square feet.

He's start off preparing a bed maybe 5 feet wide and 20 to 25 feet long by burning wood, mainly brush, to kill seeds, then lightly raking it, trying to not disturb it too deep. I don't remember him turning that soil first. He'd frame the bed with wood, I can't remember the details. Then he'd mix the tobacco seed really well with fertilizer, probably 13-13-13, and broadcast it over that bed. You could use a fine sand instead f fetilizer. Then he's cover it with what he called "canvas" but was a fine mesh white cotton fabric, essentially making a cold frame. East Tennessee was wet enough in early spring that we didn't have to water it for germination and early growth, but sometimes later in spring we might have to carry water from the pond to water the bed.

He'd get enough off of that to plant his acreage and often give neighbors free plants after his was patch was set. I remember just one year his bed didn't do well and he got free plants from neighbors.

It took a little effort to find a photo of a full nicotiana plant, most online photos are just the flowers. You can tell they are in the same family but the plants are a little different. Burley tobacco flowers have a strong smell, I'd guess nicotiana is similar. When you worked in tobacco you'd get a tar on you. We'd walk those rows, often with the plants taller than we were, removing tobacco horn worms or bud worms, topping the plants so the growth would go into leaves instead of seeds, and removing suckers. That was hot dirty work.

Dad had the education that he could measure his field and calculate square feet. He was high school senior class president and had one semester of college. Some of our neighbors couldn't so they'd get Dad to measure their fields. I helped him measure them with a tape measure but I remember one neighbor would measure his field himself with a ten feet long pole and bring sketches to Dad to calculate. You wanted to plant all your allotment but not go over. The government would send someone out to measure your field and you had to destroy any excess plants. This was later in the season after you have time and fertilizer invested. It was a labor intensive crop so you didn't want to put in the labor just to destroy it.

 

[ducks4you]

You may still have time ducks, they do grow really big, really fast in high heat with good fertility. Your season is longer than mine, so you might even get it to the seed stage as well. Mine (transplants) have been in the ground just over a month and the flower buds are starting - and we did NOT have a great start to summer. The main thing is to not cover the seed with any soil, just keep the surface moist. Yes, the seeds are so tiny! So sow lightly and then thin them. Not sure if you've grown them before but they can get huge! Up to 6 feet, very likely for you given your okra last year! Lol My seeds were old, and they still sprouted well, though the older they get the longer they take to sprout, that's all. Good luck! 🌱

Thanks so much for your quick reply! Both you AND @Ridgerunner.
You have encouraged me to start them in a flat that has some ventilation holes in the plastic lid. I think it will fit in one of my fish tanks on the porch.

 

[ducks4you]

Dad grew Burley tobacco as a crash crop. Tobacco and nicotiana are in the same family so I am familiar with the size of the seeds. How much he could grow was restricted to a certain allotment to keep the prices up. It was an important cash crop to a lot of farmers, if the price collapsed it would have been very bad for a lot of small farmers just getting by. He started out with an allotment of about 0.9 acres, by the time he quit growing it the allotment was down to about a half acre. The allotment was reduced as growing methods and varieties improved. When he started out with 0,9 acres he'd grow about a ton each year. When he finished at 0,5 acres he'd grow about a ton. An acre is 43,560 square feet.

He's start off preparing a bed maybe 5 feet wide and 20 to 25 feet long by burning wood, mainly brush, to kill seeds, then lightly raking it, trying to not disturb it too deep. I don't remember him turning that soil first. He'd frame the bed with wood, I can't remember the details. Then he'd mix the tobacco seed really well with fertilizer, probably 13-13-13, and broadcast it over that bed. You could use a fine sand instead f fetilizer. Then he's cover it with what he called "canvas" but was a fine mesh white cotton fabric, essentially making a cold frame. East Tennessee was wet enough in early spring that we didn't have to water it for germination and early growth, but sometimes later in spring we might have to carry water from the pond to water the bed.

He'd get enough off of that to plant his acreage and often give neighbors free plants after his was patch was set. I remember just one year his bed didn't do well and he got free plants from neighbors.

It took a little effort to find a photo of a full nicotiana plant, most online photos are just the flowers. You can tell they are in the same family but the plants are a little different. Burley tobacco flowers have a strong smell, I'd guess nicotiana is similar. When you worked in tobacco you'd get a tar on you. We'd walk those rows, often with the plants taller than we were, removing tobacco horn worms or bud worms, topping the plants so the growth would go into leaves instead of seeds, and removing suckers. That was hot dirty work.

Dad had the education that he could measure his field and calculate square feet. He was high school senior class president and had one semester of college. Some of our neighbors couldn't so they'd get Dad to measure their fields. I helped him measure them with a tape measure but I remember one neighbor would measure his field himself with a ten feet long pole and bring sketches to Dad to calculate. You wanted to plant all your allotment but not go over. The government would send someone out to measure your field and you had to destroy any excess plants. This was later in the season after you have time and fertilizer invested. It was a labor intensive crop so you didn't want to put in the labor just to destroy it.

Thanks so much for your quick reply!
I Like the idea of mixing with fertilizer. I think I will try a small batch with some 2 yr old compost that I have saved. Sounds a Lot like growing carrots from seed.
That is an interesting history. We need an overhaul on teaching mathematics in our schools. When I took all of the coursework to be a certified teach--ALL 100 HOURS--one comment stood out, children in the ghettos of Rio de Janiero, who hawked goods, needed to learn math.
WHAT the fudge was this professor thinking?!?!?
These children's ability to calculate addition and subtraction meant/means life or death.'
Familiarity brings ability and comprehension.
It's like this in education:
1) exposure
2) memorization
3) practice
4) comprehension
Just my two cents...
AGAIN, thanks for the encouragement!!

 

[ducks4you]

I was able to clear weeds, waterspouts (from a bush/tree I'm trying to kill) and trim my yews on the south side of the house yesterday. I dug out some of the weeds, pulled some and tilled around the cistern yesterday and got 8/17 of my sweet peppers in the ground. Since I mow close I caged them, too and watered heavily this morning. I even loaded up the yard trash and moved it to my new weed pile.

 

[heirloomgal]

I was able to clear weeds, waterspouts (from a bush/tree I'm trying to kill) and trim my yews on the south side of the house yesterday. I dug out some of the weeds, pulled some and tilled around the cistern yesterday and got 8/17 of my sweet peppers in the ground. Since I mow close I caged them, too and watered heavily this morning. I even loaded up the yard trash and moved it to my new weed pile.
View attachment 50216

Until I read it on your thread I'd never heard of a cistern, is that the square top of it in the picture? Curious how that works?

 

[ducks4you]

Until I read it on your thread I'd never heard of a cistern, is that the square top of it in the picture? Curious how that works?

Yep. A cistern has a cement bottom and it is fed from water that percolates down into it. The one with the peppers is about 15 ft deep. I am Told that the larger one, in front of my barn, is 25 ft deep. Gutters were put on the barn to direct rainwater straight down into pipes where the rainwater travels to directly fill That cistern.
A cistern is NOT a well, but you can use it Like a well.

How Does a Cistern Work?

A cistern is one option to consider as a water source for your home. Whether your home already has a cistern or you’re thinking of installing one yourself, here’s what a cistern is used for and how it works.

www.angi.com

 

[ducks4you]

How to Attract Toads and Frogs to the Garden

Yes, toads and frogs are good for the garden! See a few you might be familiar with--and find out how to put out the welcome mat!

www.almanac.com