More Rain Once Again

All my good intentions of mowing several trashcanfuls of grass clippings and mulching the taro and potato patches have flown the coop. It was on my morning job list, along with tilling in the rabbit manure into the greenhouse beds and numerous garden beds. Along with mulching the onions, getting the seedlings out of the mini greenhouses and into the garden. Yup, I woke up today to pounding rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Yuck. Double yuck. My morning schedule is blown to smithereens. Looks like I'll be cleaning the refrigerator, defrosting the freezer, working on the taxes. Barf. Heaven forbid I might even have to resort to housecleaning. 

(Above, rain on a taro leaf. I took the opportunity of a break in the rain to run out and get a few photos.) 

Weather has a big bearing on the ability to farm. Not that farmers can simply take the time off during inclement weather, but it changes things. Working is more difficult and not as fun. In my case, I can't make mulch or till the soil today. I could work in the rain to do other tasks, but quite frankly, I'm not going to do that today. When rains are light, I've been known to be out there weeding, sowing seeds into trays, harvesting, clearing brush, gathering firewood. But some days I can't can't stomach the idea of getting soaking wet, having wet clothes clinging to my body, getting chilled to the bone. Not today.

 (Above, a potato patch that will have to wait for another day to be mulched.) 

I'm listening to the pounding rain (already got a half inch this early morning) and thinking......how about doing a little blogging. I normally write my entries in the evening after dinner. It sounded good to me. 

(Above, puddles in the garden. This garden sits atop a concrete slab, thus the slow drainage in a heavy downpour.)

There are still farm tasks that I cannot brush aside regardless of how unpleasant the weather is. The livestock need attention. This morning I've already tended the dogs and cats, although no one got played with or brushed. The sheep and donkey got hay today instead of fresh grass. I emptied out their water trough, brushed it clean. With this rain, it will quickly refill. The chickens won't get the opportunity to free forage in this rain today, so I gave them an extra bucket of mom's famous slop & glop. I'll check them later this afternoon to see if they need a refill. 

Most of my farming friends aren't in as good a situation as I am. They live in areas experiencing difficult weather at the moment. There are delays in getting out into the fields, which are still too wet or still too frozen. Other friends are tending livestock in the cold, and still experiencing regular snows. Yes, it's a late spring in many places. Being a farmer can be difficult and unpleasant. Listening to what my friends are putting up with makes me appreciate living where I do. It turned out to be a good choice for us. 

Above, a closeup of the water collecting in a bromeliad. The bromeliads are beautify the landscape, but they are water collectors, thus mosquito havens. I have to treat the bromeliads monthly to control mosquitoes. 

 

Planting Bananas & How I Grow Them

I'm really pleased. Looks like three of my newest bananas keiki have taken. I'm still not sure about the fourth one, but I have a gut feeling that it will survive too. So why do I think that the 3 have transplanted successfully? I'm seeing leaf regrowth, plus by gently tugging on the plant, I can feel that it has sent out new anchoring roots. All looks well. No rot, no mold. 

Here's a photo of one of the successful new trees. The truck is about 5 foot tall, topped by a 2 foot long new leaf shoot, still tightly curled up. Yes, it's difficult to see in this lousy photo. 

Here's a close up of the new leaf shoot. It will grow at least another foot before unfurling into a beautiful new banana leaf. 

Here's a photo of another young tree just sending up its new leaf shoot. It's about 6 inches long and still has a week or so of growing before it starts to open as a leaf. 

I've been getting some banana questions lately, so I'd like to take the time to give out more information on how I grow bananas in order to cover everyone's questions. Keep in mind that this is how I do it. I'm sure that there are other ways to be successful too. 

When I plant new bananas, I bury the root base a good 8" deep. By that I mean that the top of the root area is 8 inches below the soil surface. They do just fine being planted this deep. They don't require this depth as they will often grow even if I had just laid them down on the soil surface, but then the tree wouldn't have good support. It would be in danger of blowing over in a brisk wind. Planting deeper gives them the opportunity of sending support roots deeper and under the lava chunks. Planting deep like this means that I don't usually need to support the young tree with stakes. But sometimes if the tradewinds are blowing strongly, I'll brace the tree for the first few weeks until it is solidly rooted. In addition, I usually remove most of the current roots before planting. The plant sends out new roots within a couple days, anchoring the tree within one to two weeks, depending upon the weather and soil moisture. That sounds brutal and bad to be removing the current roots, but the trees do just fine. The old roots die and rot away anyway, so by removing them I'm reducing the amount of rot that will build up around the root base. 

I normally don't do any preparation on the hole before planting the young banana tree. No fertilizer, lime, compost, etc. I think the trees transplant better without the hole being prepped, BUT that's how it works for my own particular soil. Maybe if I were planting into lava rock, I'd do a different approach. After the tree appears to have taken, I will apply a generous layer of compost that includes livestock manures, around the tree, about 6' in circumference around the trunk. Because of my acidic condition, plus the fact that bananas require potassium, I will apply wood ashes. I'll work this in lightly with my tiller. That's about it for the next several months. After a few months I will need to mulch to control weeds, so I use compost (which includes livestock manures) for the mulching job, then top it with a light layer of grass clippings. I'll check the soil pH and add wood ashes as needed. From thence on, I'll just apply compost (with manure) or mulch as need to control weeds, retain moisture, and keep the soil covered. And keep an eye on the pH and wood ash applications. Why do I keep saying compost with manure? Because bananas appear to be big nitrogen feeders. 

Another thing I'll sometimes do is dig a trench about 1-2 foot deep about 6' away from the trunk. If not a trench, then a hole. Why? To fill with organic material such as garbage, waste fruits, coffee waste pulp, dog poop, cat box cleanings, other manures, road kill, and whatever else I need to get rid of that will rot down. This all will eventually provide nutrients to the clump without destabilizing the soil that supports the heavy trucks. And it's a good use for things I don't wish to use in the other food gardens, such as the pet waste. 

For the first few weeks I keep the soil around the newly planted bananas moist but not soaking wet. I take care not to let it dry out. Letting the soil get dry often results in transplanting failure. I'll check the baby trees daily, giving them a gallon of water if I haven't had any rain. From then on, I try to keep my bananas well supplied with moisture. When things get dry, the trees grow very slowly or even stop growing. Their fruit production goes way down. Bananas prefer good soil moisture. They are a good place to divert greywater to, driveway runoff, waste water, etc. My greywater and wash machine discharge never appear to be detrimental to the bananas. The clumps that get this water grow and produce far better than the clumps that don't. 

An experiment I did was planting bananas atop a hugelpit filled with old tree trunks & branches, brush trimmings, cardboard, coarse weeds, and layers of chipped up organic waste. The pit soaks up and retains an amazing amount of water from the driveway run off. As a result, the bananas thrive there, are amazingly productive, and never require irrigation even during a drought year. That hugelpit has been maintaining the bananas for several years so far, although I do add more organic material as needed to maintain the surface level. I'm so impressed with the results that I now plant my bananas on fill areas like that, reserving the open soil areas for other fruit trees. 

Puppy Update

Noodles --- Happy boy, riding home in the car after visiting a doggy friend. 

Anyone who has raised a puppy knows that there is a time where the pup becomes a teenager, with behavior that tries one's patience. In fact, sadly many people give up on their pups when they are around 8-9 months of age, dumping them at the local pound or kicking them out of the car some place. But if one would persevere and take some steps back on the training process to reinforce previous training habits, most pups get through this stage and grow up to be great adults. 

Noodles is now at this stage. Grrrr. He suddenly knows better than us about everything. Everything! But of course I was expecting this, so it's something I can deal with and work though. I only have to last another month or two for his brain to reconnect. 

... Sit? What's that, Mom? I never heard the word before. 

... Come? Well, you're not yelling yet. 

... What's wrong with you Mom? Shoes have always been my play toys! Don't you remember? Going a bit senile are you? 

Yup, hubby has lost 3 pairs of shoes. I've had two pairs of Crocs modified, but still wearable as garden shoes. All shoes now reside atop tables. The trash can is no longer considered sacred off limits. So it too sits atop a table. And those tables need to be higher than coffee table height since Noodles is now tall enough to look down upon coffee tables. If it's within mouth reach, he's willing to try it. 

(Above, this is the very first time I lowered the roof on the convertible. Noodles isn't sure what to make of it. He slithered into the front seats, unnerved by the disappearing roof. He's still a bit of a puppy, not too sure of strange things.) 

His newest fixation is tearing up cardboard. That's certainly better than shoes! Since I know that he's going to tear up something or other, I prefer it to be cardboard. So I keep a collection of small boxes and cardboard egg cartons handy to keep his mind and mouth occupied. 

He's recently become deaf not only to the come command, but he's now ignoring the high pitched whistle that I used to get his attention. So we're back to reinforcing his attention by only feeding him when he comes to the whistle. No cookies, no meals, no rawhide chews unless he comes running to my whistle. No riding in the truck to visit his doggy friends unless he snappily comes to the whistle. 

When he was 5-6 months old, he started showing watchdog tendencies. So his guard dog training basics started. With his change into a teenager, he's getting carried away. I'm seeing some charging behavior and uncontrolled barking. So we're back to basic obedience. The charging tendency is mostly gone, but the barking beyond the alert stage is still an issue. I expect it to be a couple of months before he finally figures out how to alert but not be excessive. 

(He's now comfortable with the car's roof disappearing. I haven't let him ride with the top down, but I wanted him to learn that it's something that happens to the car at times, it's nothing to be worried about.) 

Like other puppy owners, I'll be glad when he gets past this stage. From 12 months of age to 24 months will still be an important training period, so it's not like he becomes a perfect dog on his one year old birthday. Somewhere around 24 months of age he should finally be a good family member, cooperative, knowledgable in his job, though still in possession of a good zest for life. Looks to me that Noodles is going to be a great dog......some day eventually. But oh lord, will we survive the coming year? Groan. 

Direct Seeding - a Follow Up

Funny thing, but I posted my recent blog entry about direct seeding and lo & behold, I get some emails from seed companies about direct seeding stuff. Coincidence or is somebody reading my blog???? Is there a computer robot scanning the blog for key words then tailoring the advertising emails? Honestly, it doesn't bother me. Perhaps the robot will learn how to grow good! But on the other hand, it's spring and time for most people to start their gardens. Maybe it's just the right timing. Anyway, here's some juicy ideas I scavenged from the emails ....

1- crops for direct seeding. The seed companies are mentioning carrots, beets, chard, lettuce, spinach, okra, corn, beans, peas, radishes, cucumbers, squash, pumpkins, watermelons. Most gardeners in the mainland states can probably do these. But in my location, I limit my direct seeding to beans, cowpeas, pigeon peas, peas, corn, squash, pumpkins, and watermelons. I do better starting the rest in trays in the mini greenhouses and transplanting the seedlings. Funny thing, but none of the companies mentioned herbs. Some of them are suited to direct seeding, though I start all mine in the mini greenhouses. Whether to opt for direct seeding or starting in trays depends upon one's environment, climate, experience, and personal preference. There isn't just one "right" method. 

2- soil preparation. All the companies mentioned something about preparing the soil prior to seed sowing. Some went into more detail than others, but the general gist was to have no weeds, have the soil loosened, and make sure there was good soil contact (or coverage) for the seeds. 

3- soil moisture. Every company instructed to water after sowing the seeds. Some said that the soil should be moist, but not soaking wet, before planting seeds. I like to have my soil nicely moist because when I water afterward, the water soaks in rather than running off. So I time my seed sowing after a nightly rain, or else I irrigate the ground the day before. 

4- temperature of the soil and air. Not all the seed companies mentioned this. Some seeds require warm soil to germinate. At my location, most beans won't germinate during the winter because night temperatures are always in the 50's. And okra needs even warmer conditions for germination, so I plant it later in the spring when soil is consistently warmer. 

5- thinning and spacing. Most seed companies were recommending close seeding, then thinning the seedlings to the desired spacing. The exceptions were beans, peas, and corn where the suggestion was to plant the seeds on the desired end spacing. 

6- follow packet instructions. Not all seed companies print instructions in their packets. Those that do advised gardeners to read the packet and follow instructions. I wonder how many gardeners read those instructions? 

7- label. Here's one suggestion that, in hindsight, I wish I had always adhered to : when finished sowing the seeds, label the row with the plant name and the date. These past couple years I've gotten much better at labeling things. But I'm guilty of not always getting the date on the label. 

8- mulch. Some of the companies warned about applying mulch too soon. They suggested waiting until the seedlings were well developed. Yes, mulch can smother the very plants we are trying to grow. 

Direct Seeding

Ah-ha, the weather is finally improving and I getting ready to replant the gardens. This past week I direct seeded potatoes (I used home produced seed potatoes) and 3 kinds of beans. If things go well, I'll get 3 kinds of peas in the next day or two, all by direct seeding. 

Here in this farm I do a fair amount of direct seeding, as apposed to growing seedlings in the greenhouses for transplanting. But I do both, depending upon the crop. Beans, peas, and tuber crops like potatoes and yacon, are directly planted. Sweet potatoes, Okinawan spinach, and cholesterol spinach are different in that I plant fresh cuttings right into the soil. Other crops that I direct seed include cowpeas, pigeon peas, lima beans, fava beans, wing beans, corn, gourds, squash, watermelons, radishes, and pumpkins. Just about all other crops are started with seedlings grown in the mini greenhouses, then transplanted later out into the garden beds. 

When I sit down to think about it, there's lots of different methods lumped under the label "direct seeded". Techniques I use, depending upon the crop and situation, include......

... The finger poke. On a prepared bed I'll lay out the seed where I want the plants to be. Then I'll simply poke the seed into the depth that I want it, flick or pinch the soil to cover the seed. Wallah -- done. Sounds ideal, but it has its drawbacks. It's time consuming to plant a large area this way, plus my finger rapidly gets sore. Planting 50 bean seeds is fine, but more than that I want to use a different approach. Yeah, I'm an old finger poker from way back when. It's a quick way to plant that one pack of pea, bean, or corn seed. 

... Trough. I'll use a rake or hoe to create a shallow trough, say 2" deep for big seeds. It's kind of quick to make a couple of rows of troughs in my standard sized bed. Then I'll space out the seeds, perhaps every three inches for beans. Then I'll finish up by using the tool to pull a bit of soil over the seeds. 

... Broadcast and rake in. I've used this method when seeding oats into soft ground. I'll rake (or lightly till) to loosen the surface, broadcast the oats, then lightly rake to area with short strokes to get some of the seed covered with soil. Then I'll water the area if rain isn't expected. This method can be used for a variety of crops, not just oats. A variation of this is to use a hose on "jet spray" to drive the seed into the soil. It's a one step method to bury the seed and water it at the same time. 

Methods I seldom use, or haven't.......

... Small handheld seeder tools. Some look like weird syringes, others like strange funnels. Some vibrate. Others poof air. Some simply control the number of seeds that can pass through a hole. They help with precision so that the gardener doesn't drop too many seeds in one spot. 

... Seed tape. I seldom use seed tape because of the expense. But it is a method of direct seeding. Some people make homemade seed tapes, but I find it to be too time consuming. But for small gardens, it's a fun way to plant. 

... Seed gel. Another homemade method is to make a cornstarch gel, add seeds, shake well to evenly distribute the seeds in the gel. Then using a squirt bottle, like a mustard or matchup dispenser, just squirt the gel/seed mix into a trough and cover it with a bit of soil. I've never used this method, but I bet it would work well with small seeds.  A variation would be to mix the seeds I with a fine material like vermiculite, then plant using that. 

... Seed balls. A fad right now among some homesteader types is to plant using seed balls. Seeds are mixed with a clayish soil and kneaded into balls. (There are variations of this method, but the idea is to have seeds mixed with something biodegradable that can be molded into a ball the size from ping pong to hardball size.) Then sowing consists of throwing the seed balls about with the intent of the ball breaking up upon landing. I've never used this method. 

... Seeders. Seeders can range from something simple and homemade to something huge, expensive, complex and pulled by a tractor. Homemade ones can be as simple as a shaker can with enlarged holes to correspond to the seed size, or a piece of pcv pipe to drop seeds down. It all depends on the need. The idea is to get the seed into the ground without bending over, and do it quickly. I've seen some old style hand held corn seed planters in antique stores. Homemade but efficient and quick. 

    There's a large selection of mechanical seeders available. Some are hand pushed down a row of prepared soil, such as the Planet Junior. Others are designed to pull behind an ATV. From there the complexity, size, and cost goes up. Large commercial seeders can actually open a furrow in unplowed ground, plant the seed, close the furrow, and apply fertilizer or other chemicals in one pass, of course pulled and powered by a tractor. Or if broadcasting, can cast the seed quite a distance in a set pattern and density. Some operations use hydro seeding, the sowing of seed via irrigation-like apparatus. And for something entirely different, there are situations where seed is broadcast via helicopter or airplane. 

Over the years I've seen some nifty, and sometimes weird, homemade contraptions for direct seeding. The variations seem endless. It turns out that there are a lot of gardeners out there who like to experiment and tinker, especially when it comes to getting the seeds into the ground. 

My Busy Non-farm Day

Some days just aren't farming days. Not that I want them this way, but it's just how they turn out. Today was one of those. My wwoofer thinks all days should be farming days, and he's a bit frustrated when things interfere with his farm plans. I see this frustration in other young farmer wannabes around here. But days often don't unfold according to plan. I've learned to roll with it so that it doesn't stress me out. Remember, I ran away from the stressful life. I ran to a rural life, a homesteading life. I don't need to fall back into the old habits of getting frustrated and stressed out. 

The only farming chore that got done today was caring for the livestock. That's the basic "must do" list around here. I will never skip the animals, never neglect them. They rely upon me for their care and welfare, so it's one task that can't be neglected. 

So what the heck was I up to today? Life. 

... Care for livestock.

... Headed over to Pahala to get my annual blood tests taken. Hungry as heck. No food and water before the blood draw. Hit the town restaurant for breakfast right afterward. Had a great omelet, but I think being super hungry had an influence on my opinion of that omelet. 

... Picked up hubby's prescription at the pharmacy. 

... Back home -- cared for the cats that I had taken to the spay/neuter clinic yesterday. Took "Grey" back the Hana Hou restaurant where she lives under the building. Delivered "Pumpkin" and "Sugar Baby" to their newly adopted home outside of town. Those two are very lucky feral cats. They've been adopted. 

... Picked up the trash from a number of elderly residents who can't get their trash to the dump. So I made a dump run. 

... Checked on a neighbor's ailing goat. 

... Back to town to have lunch with hubby. 

... Picked up a truckload of cardboard from a local business and took it back to the farm. Unloaded it, of course. 

... Picked up propane and gasoline to replenish my supply. 

... Cut down a banana bunch and delivered it to a person I had promised it to. 

... Helped a neighbor repair their gate, a two person job. 

... Picked up a UPS package at the drop box. 

... Dinner

... Checked on neighbor's ailing goat. 

... Wrote blog entry. 

Full day. Whew! Hopefully I'll get to some farm work tomorrow. 

Garden Advice That Didn't Work For Me

There's lots of gardening advice out there, some old lore passed for generations, others newly created and circulated via the Internet. Lots of the tidbits work, but I've come across many that didn't work for me at all. Here's a list of those failures that come to mind........

...spread wood ashes (or diatomaceous earth, or coffee grounds, or sharp sand, or broken egg shells) to prevent slugs. Doesn't work at all.

...interplant marigolds with tomatoes to keep bugs off the tomatoes. Doesn't work. 

...plant according to the moon charts. I never saw it make a difference in my gardens. 

...never plant the same crop in the same spot twice. Actually good advice if you have insect or disease problem, but I often repeat crops twice unless I see a problem.

...only sow peas during the dark of the moon. Supposedly they wouldn't produce peas otherwise. But I've never seen any differences. 

...lay down cardboard or newspaper in garden aisles to control weeds. I found that it gets slippery as heck after a few rains. Way too dangerous to walk on, especially when wet. 

...use old carpet for weed control. The backing eventually rots away then you are left with miles of tangled yarn that is a nightmare to remove. Tried it once and never did it again. 

...lay down landscape fabric. Just don't! It's a nightmare to remove and it doesn't control weeds. 

...keep ducks in the garden for slug control. Mine were selective about slug eating, plus ate half the garden at the same time. Even just letting them in for a short period of time didn't stop them from wiping out the lettuce and spinach before looking for worms, bugs, and slugs. 

...mix black pepper with your seeds before sowing them. It is suppose to control cutworms. Doesn't work. 

...plant a morning glory vine among your pole beans. Supposed to draw bees, thus resulting in more pollination and a bigger bean crop. In reality, beans self pollinate and don't need bees. So it's worthless advice. 

...add "water crystals" to the soil to maintain soil moisture. They didn't work. 

...use shredded paper in the chicken pen. I find that they will eat it and thus poop paper mache. Nasty. 

...use boiling water to kill weeds. While this might work, it takes a lot, lot, lot of boiling water. A very expensive and time consuming method to control weeds. Not worth it. 

...use egg cartons for seed starting. Yes, the seeds germinate but the seedlings are stunted due to lack of room for root growth and never quite recover. Along this same line, one tidbit of advice says use eggshells to sow seeds in. First of all, I'd have to eat dozens and dozens of eggs to get enough shells, and besides, the shells are delicate and don't drain water. They would be very tedious to work with, a nightmare to water the seedlings without any drainage, and the seedlings would be root bound if the gardener failed to crack the shell when the seedling was planted into the garden. Seedlings will all be growth stunted because of the small container for their root growth. .... Oh yes, I just saw that idea of using scooped out orange peel halves for seed starting. Basically they would have all the same issues (no drainage, shallow volume for root growth) with the added benefit of getting moldy on the outside, rotting on the inside against the soil, plus inhibiting seedling root growth due the orange oil in the rind. My, my, a great suggestion over using a re-usable pot, eh? 

...don't till the soil. No till hasn't worked for me. I suspect my soil composition is not suitable for no till approach. And besides, just about all the gardeners claiming to use no till actually do till in some fashion, such as forking in their old mulch layer, using a broadfork, raking the top few inches to loosen it for planting, etc. They claim to be able to easily plunge their hands many inches deep into their garden soil. I find that my soil settles and becomes too dense to do that after less than a month. Even after 10 years of adding lots and lots of compost and other soil amendments, my soil is not light and friable enough to productively grow food doing the no till approach. While plants will indeed grow, they aren't anywhere near as productive as those grown in tilled soil. 

...interplant garlic and chives to repel insects. Doesn't work for me. 

...feed cornmeal to ants to kill them. Doesn't work. 

...use tobacco as an insecticide. Don't! Tobacco water and dust is toxic to humans too, and can be absorbed through your skin. Plus it will kill the pollinating insects too. It's a real bad suggestion, along the lines of suggesting you make your own firebricks out of asbestos. 

...don't overhead water when the sun shines or it will burn the plant leaves. Supposedly the rains drops act as convex lenses. False. Dead spots on leaves aren't caused this way. Besides, Mother Nature creates "sun showers" all the time without ill effects.