Garden time...Oh boy!

[jinman]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Here's a pic of the cultivator I use. Who knows how old it is, rows up nice. )</font>

Rob, that's a dead ringer for mine. I see a nameplate on the left A-frame. I'd bet it says Dearborn somewhere on there. You have two more long feet on the ends of yours that I don't have that give you a little closer sweep spacing. When you don't need them, do you ever take the sweeps out and turn them upside down in the adjustable feet? I do that so I don't put them someplace and forget where they are. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I also have a nice middle-buster for mine. If you look at the picture of me putting the sweep on, you can see where the front angle has been beefed up. When my Dad first put the middle buster on the cultivator, the frame was not stong enough and crumpled. A little reinforcement and it works perfectly. That middle-buster sure saved a lot of work when it came to digging Irish potatoes. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

Doc Bob: A cultivator is used to lay out row crops and to plow them after they come up until they get so big you would knock them over running over them. There have been many rows of cotton plowed with this style cultivator and young vegetable crops also respond well. By plowing next to the young plants you keep the soil loose and pull in loose dirt around the base of the plant to encourage root growth. Only when the plants get too big to plow do you have to hoe and weed by hand. This type plowing is normally done only once or twice at most until the plants get too big. At least that's how we always used our cultivator.

Oh... and my Dad was too cheap to buy a 3PH planter for use only once per year, so we had a horse-drawn planter with a 3-gallon hopper. we'd chain it behind the center sweep on the tractor and pull it. Either me or my brother had to walk behind the tractor when planting. He and I get a big laugh about the knock-down dragout fights we had out in the middle of the field over who would drive the tractor and who would eat dust behind the tractor. I didn't want to do all the walking and he didn't want to have to straighten out my crooked rows. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif One of our neighbors used to tell my brother that he should not get upset at me because you can get a lot more planted in a crooked row than a straight one. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Egon]

Of course I beleive you Jinman! It's the well tuned muscular help I'm in need of. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Shucks, there's even an evening lakeside firehill to enjoy after a nice swim to cool off and remove all the sweat. And if its a good evening the loons and owls will do some talking

Many onions are biennials. The flower head and seed pod of some look very nice. Try putting a few grocerystore onions in the ground for an experiment. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif



For the small green onions starting from seed works well.

Also note that onions prefer cooler weather.

Egon

 

[chili]

Jinman, I recently bought a cultivator like yours from one of my elderly friend down the road. It was missing one shaft that the sweep attaches to. Do you know where i could find one? I could not find one locally. Thanks for any info.

 

[jinman]

Here's a few more pictures we shot last night. The first is the entire garden area now that it is planted. Notice the end of the soaker hose on the left. I bought 800' of soaker hose in 50'sections. The hoses work great for watering with very little water wasted.

 

[jinman]

This is the section where we planted sets: squash, peppers, tomatoes, onions, and cantaloupe in hills. Our sad looking little fence went up quickly to keep out the cottontail rabbits. One rabbit can devastate a garden very quickly. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif At the end of the season, we'll roll up the chicken wire for use year-after-year.

 

[jinman]

A close-up of the tomatoes. We planted them about 5' apart so disease can't move from plant to plant. We cut the bottoms out of plastic pots and put them around the tomatoes to help prevent cutworms. I hope the little pots are to the cutworms what the chicken wire is to rabbits. We'll also dust with insecticide at the first indication of any infestation.

 

[jinman]

Finally for today, here is a picture of our "garden guards" on the job watching out for deer. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Egon]

Looking good Jinman. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

we also use cans with the bottom cut out for our seedlings.

Picture of last years town garden. Kinda sick when compared with yours. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Egon /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[PineRidge]

Great looking garden Jim. You need to post more pictures as your plants start to mature a bit. Looks like you're going to be eating a lot of fresh veggies real soon.

 

[jinman]

Chili, I don't know for sure where to tell you to look, but you might try to keep your eyes open for farm estate auctions in your area. You might find something there. I also would check with a large tractor dealer. My New Holland dealer has a whole aisle in his strore dedicated to sweeps and chisel feet. I haven't noticed the sweep mounting shafts, but he might know where to order them. I'd also check with a dealer in your area. Other than that, you'll probably end up having to fabricate something. I know I don't have any extras and I hope I don't lose any of the ones I have.

 

[gsganzer]

I noticed you planted the tomato's at grade. We normally bury about 75% of the plant (in fact the tag on the plants say to bury them up to 80%). It makes for more vigorous tomato bushes. Does anyone else plant them deep?

 

[oliver28472]

Yes. Take off all but the top leaves and lay in a trench. The stem will throw out feeder roots.

 

[Bird]

The nursery owner where I bought most of my plants told me to lay them horizontally in the trench or hole, then bend the stem up and pack the dirt around them. I got better results that way.

 

[jinman]

I've never noticed that on the tags, probably because I've never read them. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif It's always been my practice to set out tomatoes, protect them from cutworms until they get established, and then pull the soil in three to four inches up the stem after a good dusting with insecticide. Burying the plants as much as everyone mentions is new to me. Maybe I should pay better attention and not assume the "way we always did it" is the best. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[BB_TX]

<font color="blue"> lay them horizontally in the trench or hole, then bend the stem up and pack the dirt around them</font>

That's the way I always do mine, Bird. Pinch off all but the top few leaves, then put them in just like that.

 

[jinman]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( That's the way I always do mine, Bird. Pinch off all but the top few leaves, then put them in just like that.
)</font>

Well, the evidence is just too overwhelming. I didn't plant my tomatoes correctly. I mentioned this to my wife and she said, "Don't you remember me reading to you that the plants were supposed to be buried 80%?" /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

Silly me... I had thought the 80% she read meant 80% of the rootball in the pot. I thought I was burying them too deep as it was. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

So, last night my 24 tomato plants got dug up and replanted. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif They had only been in the ground for a week, but the roots were already starting to spread out. The plants I bought were pretty long and spindly and I discovered that many of them had been buried at least 50% of the plant height. Now they are down in that 75% to 80% range. I'm sure glad the soil is still very soft and loose. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

Anybody else see anything I've screwed up? /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif It's been 40 years since I planted a garden like this and there are lots of things I remember, but many I've obviously forgotten. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[MF1455v]

Jim, one thing I forgot after planting our little garden in that it takes ran to make it grow. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif We got a flood the weekend after planting ours and nothing else. Having to water before even comes up is not looking promising.

Thats sure a nice looking garden. Wishing you the best of luck with it. We may all need it for anything to produce.

James

 

[Egon]

Jinman:

No way you can mess up. It's your garden and it goes on your plans.

You may note that the deeply buried plant sets will appear to sit and do nothing for the longest of times. Then they suddenly start a very vigrous growing cycle.

Egon /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[EddieWalker]

Hi Jim,

I do enjoy your projects and look forward to them. This one is no exception!!!!

I was wondering about all your silt. Did you use any of that for you garden? Is it any good for gardening?

I've never done the garden thing, so it's outside my comprehension, but the fencing has me interesed.

Chicken wire is only as good as you make it. I'm sure the dogs will do a comendable job of keeping the animals out for awhile, but dogs and deer have a way of making friends with each other after awhile. They also fall asleep and if the winds right, won't wake up to chase off rabits and such.

My brother trains dogs for all sorts of things including security. Rots are very good at hurting people, but terrible at staying allert. Most setups will have a Rot or two with a little dog of some sort to wake up the Rotweiler. Of course, your dogs aren't the same and I'm sure most any breed is more allert and not as lazy as a Rot, but they also all sleep on the job. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Eddie

 

[jinman]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I was wondering about all your silt. Did you use any of that for you garden? Is it any good for gardening? )</font>

I used to think that the silt would make an excellent garden until I talked to someone in this area. The silt here is primarily clay and dries hard as a brick. I literally think I could bake this stuff and make bricks with it. I think the sand and organic matter tend to get filtered out of the runoff water, but the clay goes into solution and then slowly deposits into the silt to form sticky pudge that drys rock-hard. I have great soil in the valley before my pond, but the pond silt is the pits. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Chicken wire is only as good as you make it. I'm sure the dogs will do a comendable job of keeping the animals out for awhile, but dogs and deer have a way of making friends with each other after awhile. They also fall asleep and if the winds right, won't wake up to chase off rabits and such. )</font>

Ha! You are so right about this chicken wire. It can probably be made to look good, but I'm just not that good. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif Mine looks like heck. It is just loosely wired to a few cheap little T-posts at the corners and 3/8" rebar laced through the wire between. The rabbits are more prone to dig under than jump over it. That was Kathy's experience in her last garden. It seems the coyotes and bobcats keep the population within tolerable limits anyway. The dogs also do a good job of catching any rabbit or skunk that wanders into their fenced-in acre. Skunks are their favorite. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif They are outside dogs and pretty darn attentive.

The chicken wire is not to keep out the dogs. We have 3' 2"x4" welded wire fencing to put up around the garden perimeter to keep the dogs from getting in there and digging. We already have most of the outside fence done with field fence and barb wire. The dogs will stay in this area at night just to get away from the worthless donkey who pesters them to no end. I haven't shown any pictures of the old house that's behind the garden (Kathy would kill me.). The dogs will probably take up residence there. There is a neighbor close by who also has too darn many dogs (5 or 6) and they roam the area. The deer just don't come around as evidenced by no tracks in the area. With a tasty garden, they may be tempted, but Kathy's garden was never hit by the deer, just rabbits and raccoons. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif