Life goes on - Summer 2018

Garry if that plant is what we call pig weed be very careful and don’t let it go to seed. It is probably my one single biggest weed here. Pig weed and sugar weed are two of my biggest problems or atleast that is what my grandfather called them. You can eat the pig weed here as a spring green and it isn’t bad when the plants are small my grandfather always said once the other plants came in they would feed it to the pigs I always assumed that was where the name came from but it is the weed which over took my garden this year and is already about 6 feet tall. Well ok both pig and sugar weeds.

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Thank you. You live and you learn. They do get scabs from time to time. I always thought it had to do with rainy summers so I wasn’t expecting any this year :smile: I will soon find out.
We don’t have any other pests or bugs disturbing the potatoes that I know of. That’s why I like growing them. Also, since we eat potatoes just about every day, it’s the most bang for the buck crop.

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Ha, didnt know you are a inovator on agrocultural feald too :smile: we have a saying here, “if you cant move the mountain closer to you, you can get closer to the mountain your self”. Thats just what you did planting the potatoes on the river bank :smile:

On your sistem of planting, l use a similar one. Here people traditionaly plant potatoes in trenches rather deep. Then hill once or twice, and then the potatoes are wery deep when harvest comes. A lot of extra work. I usualy just put potatoes on the leveled feald, and just slightly cover them with soil. They sprout fast and when they do, l hill them once, rarely twice.

This is my second planting about a month ago, winter reserves. Our main crop is finished due to rain triggered blight, it needs to come out soon.

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Thank you, thank you! I’m honored :smile: I could never dream of being called an inovator in the agricultural field :smile:
Next year I think I may try your method with just a thin layer of dirt on top of the potatoes until they sprout, and then put on the grass clippings. They sometimes have a hard time braking the hard surface of watered clippings.
So, you manage to squeeze two harvests in even with a lousy summer. Here it’s usually no point putting any potatoes down until mid June. They don’t sprout until the ground is warmed up anyway. Maybe this year would have been possible to start a month earlier.

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Oh, and while on potatoes. You guys ever cut the seed? Its a tradition in some parts of Slovenia to cut the butt of the potato (l guess thats the part it was atached on the plant), not sure what benefits it has.

I on the other hand am cheap :smile: the tubers on the pic are old dry last years potatoes so l didnt bother cuting since they are preety worthless anyway, but when l buy seeds l usualy cut them at least in two. Never had a problem, but spared a couple of beers wort of money :wink:

Ha, when buying seeds this year, l mentioned this to the sailswoman at the agricultural store. She rolled her eyes and changed face colour like a gobler :smile:

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Cutting potato seed is standard commercial practice unless you are dealing with rather small potatoes.

Never heard of cutting the end off, all the tuber portions will serve as food to grow the new plant. The main point is to have eyes on the cut portion.

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Yup you just need to have one eye in each part you cut and about 1 square cm of volume minimum 2 cm would be better. The eye is the depression where the potatoe will sprout. If a section doesn’t have an eye it will not grow a top. Cut them at night and let them dry over the cut over night about 12 hours for them to skin over before planting. My grandfather claimed that they rot if you don’t let them skin over before planting. He also claimed you get potatoes by cutting big potatoes then by planting them hole.

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they will definately rot faster here than cooler places I think. We try to use whole small potatoes whenever possible. But if not, cut and sprout before we put them out. Either in water or under the house in a brown bag. or the root cellar.

Barely worth growing here usually, but every few years I just can’t help myself. …:blush::grin::sunglasses:

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And up here in cold ground, it doesn’t matter how they are planted, or cut, they always seem to grow very well.

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Wish i could say the same for over here in Australia , spuds are on average around the $3 a Kg with some of the better ones costing much much more , buying the real nasty cheap ones, $1.50 upwards we end up losing half in weight once peeled and cutting out the rot .

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We used black plastic for a while, but it really gets too hot and it bakes the soil, and worms and stuff. Cardboard is probably a better barrier but I just use green grass clippings and spread lime over the top. It mats up well if you get about a foot of them. It, however, does introduce weed seed. My nemisis weed has changed from pigweed to foxtail. but the soil has really improved over the last several years. The no-till doesn’t work that well. I don’t think the dirt gets warm enough in the spring when I want to plant. :slight_smile:

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Hi Michael,
Have you tried zucchini bread? Once you have, you 'll give away a little less. Need the recipe
let me know.
Pepe

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Yes and zucchini casarole, baked zucchini, etc
Love em, but my 8 plants are producing WAY more than me and all my neighbors can eat

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Sounds like you need a pig to feed then to. The pig will improve the flavor more anyways when you try the zucchini bacon.

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Only 2 of 4 hills I planted survived this year. I think the wildlife snacked on them or it was really just too wet and cold to plant. Maybe I need black plastic for the spring…but I picked the first one today…

I had time to take a picture this morning halfway through the market today.

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Thats one Cool car koen, what kind of a model is the car.? And you caint be char gassing that one.?

Hi Kevin,

This beauty will be tested with Bamboo Gasoline, AKA wood alcohol…

Don’t ask me the model type, i just know its a Ferrari :grin:

I haven’t drove it yet, they just popped the question if it could… i said “yes we can”… now waiting for the next …

More important about the owner and the group i was with:
They all make Tapioca starch and rice starch… They own the 3 biggest and newest company’s…

They want to use gasification for the drying process… That is where i come in the game…

The purest gas flame will be used for direct drying, the less pure for indirect heating, running engines , generating electric power and the least quality for boiler heating…

In some bypass, Fischer Tropsch Process like, will produce substitute fossil fuels as synthetic gasoline, synthetic Diesel, synthetic LPG a DME

To note: gasification of wood has 1 mayor advantage: it does not contain as much sulphur as fossil coal, so a lot less cumbersome and less expensive to use in a FT process or direct heating…

Second plus is: The sustainable use of wood is actual cleaning the air…

3 th: emission from engines running on woodgas is far less polluting then fossil fuels… ( university tests in progress )

As i was busy before Argos, surely after, work hell broke loose… but enjoying every moment…

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Hello Koen,

Do not forget that it takes a preheater for alcohol before it goes into carburetion for increased efficiency.

The first Ford Ts rolled in alcohol before rolling on gasoline from oil,

here is a document from a French company working in the same field as you,
http://cogebio.com/en/home/,

Good research

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I had not hit it right away, making starch, a chance for you, charcoal dusted with starch, a cannonball with a ton per cubic meter of density 15 millimeters in diameter, and you’re the King of oil, in addition to evaporation as with gasoline, carbonite is a fuel that keeps its properties indefinitely. One liter equals 8000 calories, like gasoline.

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