Hmm. global warming?
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It looks like early black locust or cottonwood seed puffs to GW advocates. Most of whom never lived at a place with a lawn that big.
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Well we got to 38F at the house last night Jan and the garden is about a hundred feet lower in elevation and always at least 5 degreesF colder in the mornings so very possible we got frost down there last night. I put up a tent and moved all my starts into it yesterday but I have lost a lot of cucumbers in the greenhouse they were in earlier with temps that never got below 40ās. Growing food is not for the weak willed.
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Yes, itās the same here, when I have 3.5c 38f on the upper side of the cabin, I have frost on the other side down towards the pond.
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A few tips for this time of year. just now able to plant out my starts because it has been so cool to cold this year. Not all bad. the cucumbers are a little large for their containers but on the plus side, we are getting past the time when cucumber beetles are the worse and even it we get some the plants are large enough to better deal with them. Can also plant another bunch of starts and semi-direct sow them. Any curcubit can still be started but I like to start them out side in something like small yogurt cups or 2 inch cells with the bottoms cut out. If the seed sprouts and does well then you can just stick the container in a bed and leave the cel or cup on as a collar rather than sticking a hit or miss seed in valuable ground. Just a couple simple tricks Iāve picked up over the years.
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Hb Nematodes attack cucumber beetles in the larvae stage.
Since they are found naturally, aerobic, and they arenāt super cheap, it is one of the reasons why I chose the aerated soil wash so they donāt drown. You can multiply them if you get larvae like wax worms, or some other grub as a host. These also feed on ticks, but only the gorged females.
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Here Ill post this. If you take a leaf, crush it to squeeze the juice out of it,likke using a garlic press and then you use a refractometer (the cheap ones are like 25 dollars) to measure the bricks content. You can get a rough idea of your plant health.
And what I havenāt ever seen in a LONG time is the nice chart that goes along with that measurement. 
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I had not heard of that table before and as much as I like messing with things like hydroponics I shy away from to much technicality in growing food. Of course PH must be monitored but otherwise if a human spends enough time growing and tending plants, a symbiosis develops where you sense what a plant needs to be healthy. I know this sounds pretty Woo but ask anyone who really enjoys growing and they will comfirm this. I do not get that same sense from growing hydro in the greenhouse in chemical fertilizers. The soil is the essential element to facilitate that communication between man and plant. This is not to say that I have a disdain for hydro and really enjoy working with it but have to wonder if there is not something spiritual added to food tended in the earth. Too far out? Iād be interested in knowing if anyone else knows what Iām talking about.
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Tom, I wouldnt call it spiritual but more small amounts of something. Soil is complete, compared to hydroponics. If you want to get spiritual, then soil is how the Big Creator meant it. And some soil is better then other, it is up to you to ad or remove the last details for your purpose. That is my thing against hydroponics, you just cant deliver the whole package.
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That is pretty much the philosophy the people who developed Korean Natural Farming and JADAM have promoted and why I have pretty much shifted my view of growing to theirs, Joep. Everything I need can be found in the materials around me. I was not always aware of the mycorrhizal network that ties everything that grows in the soil together. Once I understood it I abandoned tilling and fighting weeds and started growing in beds of soils I assembled out of decomposed plants, leaves, bio-char- and humus gathered from the forest. Iām old now and it took me a whole lifetime to understand that everything we need to live well and prosper was always at our fingertips, including fuels and power.
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It isnāt new and it is very low tech. It first gained popularity in fruit farmers in the 50s, and corn in the 60s-70sā¦
The refractometers were expensive. like the first one I used was like 300 dollars back in the 70sā¦ ādonāt drop it!ā. probably the cheap ones are better then the 300 dollar ones from the 70s,
This guy gives an explanation of why bugs donāt eat healthy plants and relates it to the sugar levels of the plant. Bugs canāt tolerate too much sugar.
Once you know your sugar levels, if they are low, it is up to you to figure out why. Leaf testing is a more popular way to help figure out what nutrients are missing. That is much higher tech and some of it is cutting edge tech.
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Yumā¦ It got so hot and dry here my tops started bolting almost right away.
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This is a neat video. It is 1/8 acre feeding 6 people, with a combination of raised beds, vertical gardens, and some is directly in the groundā¦
Here is growing potatoes in a cardboard box, which is container gardening but with amazon boxesā¦
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Iām copying this from the life goes on thread because it may go on some this time of year.
Anthony Breaks
The JADAM system soaks plants in water with various decomposing bugs (fungus, bacteria, etc). It doesnāt create nutrients out of thin airā¦ itās just taking the plant matter and decomposing it back into its parts, like compost but done differently. What is useful is that those nutrients are bio-available and dissolved into the water for easy application to the garden or what not.
Different plants will have different nutrients, though all plants will have N/P/K and micronutrients that the JADAM āfermentationā type system releases. The ratio will be a little different though. Plants take what they need, though extra nitrogen (N) encourages leafy growth vs extra phosphorous and potassium (P/K ) which encourages fruit/flower production. Some plants like onions need extra sulfur or whatever but the amounts are small.
My plan would be to use low/no input feedstock to JADAM and use the resulting āchargedā water on plants I actually want. āFeedstockā plants on my list are comfrey, azolla, moringa, switchgrass. Each one can fix nitrogen from the air and concentrate other needed nutrients from the soil/water. So āNā comes from the air. P, K and other minerals would come from cheap, effectively permanent rock flour / lime / sulfur amendments. These plants can absorb P and K in particular from the rock flour and concentrate it in their tissues. JADAM then releases those nutrients in a form that is easy to get in the right places.
Like Tom said, you would struggle to scale this kind of system up for use with bulk grains. For a garden it can be practical. The nutrients are dilute but highly bio available. Itās enough if used right. Iād use bio char to keep the soil charged with life and hold on to nutrients as well as possible so that they stay put versus wash away.
Tom, one thing I havenāt been able to test is if JADAM water can work in an āollaā pot. It would virtually eliminate nutrient run off and leaching. Andā¦ keep funky JADAM smells in pots- haha. Look up ollas; itās an ancient technology. If the JADAM nutrients can diffuse through terracotta, it should work. The JADAM ābugsā should/would not get through the pores in the pot so some direct application still makes sense. End of Anthonyās post.
I havenāt done any growing in clay pots Anthony but generally, with the diluted nutrients in the JADAM solutiion the plants will take what they can use and if the rest is absorbed then no harm. This is not true with most fertilizers which can overload the soil. I mix my soils with 15 per cent Bio-char pre-charged with wood ash, epsom salts, and worm casting tea all soaked for a couple weeks and then strained. In the soil it gets constantly reinvigorated with the applications of the fertilizer mix.
I see no difference in the greenhouse Jan. Basically you are just adding nutrients to your irrigation water. Because of light issues I only grow things like beets and leafy crops in my greenhouse. I was growing hydro tomatoes with grow lights but skipped that last year. I will probably do more this year but thatās using Master Blend mix and is not JADAM.
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I didnāt know this could be done.
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oh that is interesting, since it is a microbe that breaks it downā¦ The million dollar question is what microbe is it. And yeah I donāt have time to go down this rabbit hole at this moment.
isnāt sour krout made with just putting vinegar and cabbage in a pot, similar to jadam system?
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This thread is pretty long now but Iām sure I posted a link to the MHPgardener somewhat early on. I thought I would refresh it for members that are into alternate ways to grow and may not have seen it. This guy no longer posts on youtube as far as I can see but he was the one that got me interested in Kratky and Dutch Buckets. Does some more conventional growing as well but more of the videos are inside his hoop houses. A very likeable, no bullshit, guy.
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You can preserve cabbage with vinegar, but sauerkraut is usually (I think) fermented. Salt seems to help keep the proper bacteria ahead of the bad ones. The fermentation produces the acid that does the preserving. Weāve had much better luck with home-grown cabbage, or organic cabbage. They seem to have the right bacteria, which store-bought may lack.
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Ahhā¦ Sauerkrautā¦ I spelled it way wrong. Apparently there are multiple ways to make it but you are right, it doesnāt use vinegar. It looks like the difference is whether you mash to get the juices out for the brine, or just cover it in brine water.
Apparently it is also a multi-stage process to ferment the cabbage, and none of the organisms seem to cross reference the organisms that break down glyphosphate.
Key Organisms and Process:
- Initial Stage: Leuconostoc mesenteroides initiates fermentation, rapidly producing lactic acid, acetic acid, and carbon dioxide, which creates an oxygen-free environment.
- Intermediate/Final Stages: As the environment becomes more acidic, Lactobacillus plantarum and Lactobacillus brevis take over to continue the fermentation until the pH drops further.
- Other Microbes: While bacteria dominate, some yeasts like Debaryomyces hansenii can be active in the initial phases.
The fermentation relies on a 2ā3% salt concentration to inhibit spoilage microbes while allowing these lactic acid bacteria to thrive.
Key Microorganisms in Glyphosate Breakdown:
- Bacteria: Pseudomonas spp., Achromobacter sp., Agrobacterium radiobacter, Bacillus cereus, Ochrobactrum spp., and Arthrobacter spp. are among the most active degraders.
- Fungi: Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus oryzae, Trichoderma harzianum, and Penicillium chrysogenum also contribute significantly.
- Microbial Action: These organisms use enzymes, notably glyphosate oxidoreductase (GOX), to utilize glyphosate as a source of phosphorus, nitrogen, or carbon.
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