Texas Spring/Summer Thread

[Kyle_in_Tex]

 

[txdon]

Kyle, none of my bushes look that full in this poor sand.

Bird, Those look like the berry bushes my Mom had before the drought. They look like jumbo dewberries and were called boysenberries.

 

[Bird]

Don, I learned from Texas A&M that the stalks that grow this year produce berries next year, and the stalks that produce berries this year die. So the "best" thing to do is to cut out the producing stalks as soon as they're through producing, but of course the thorns make that a rather unpleasant job. The next best thing to do is to mow everything down and that's what I did. Each year I'd have some stalks 4 to 6 feet tall, but when the berries were gone, I'd mow everything down with the brush hog, then go over it again with the lawnmower to get it down very short and to pretty finely mulch the clippings. Then I'd apply fertilizer just one time and water it in. And we had more berries than we could use every year. A neighbor also started some berry vines at his place with clippings from mine.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Don, I learned from Texas A&M that the stalks that grow this year produce berries next year, and the stalks that produce berries this year die. So the "best" thing to do is to cut out the producing stalks as soon as they're through producing, but of course the thorns make that a rather unpleasant job. The next best thing to do is to mow everything down and that's what I did. Each year I'd have some stalks 4 to 6 feet tall, but when the berries were gone, I'd mow everything down with the brush hog, then go over it again with the lawnmower to get it down very short and to pretty finely mulch the clippings. Then I'd apply fertilizer just one time and water it in. And we had more berries than we could use every year. A neighbor also started some berry vines at his place with clippings from mine.

So if you cut down the branches that would make berries the next year, it would still produce annually after the total shredding down?

 

[Bird]

So if you cut down the branches that would make berries the next year, it would still produce annually after the total shredding down?

Yes, if you mow everything down immediately after they finish producing, stalks grow back this year to produce next year. In the picture I posted, those stalks are, for the most part, about 3' tall and grew to that size between the mowing and blooming. I just looked at some of my old records and I mowed everything down on June 8, 2001, so what you see grew back after that and had the blossoms on April 16, 2002, when that picture was made.

You might also find this article interesting: http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/fruit-nut/files/2010/10/blackberries.pdf

On page 4 you'll see a brief mention of mowing everything down.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Good info. Thanks Bird. Always impressed at your calendar memory.

 

[Bird]

Kyle, unfortunately, my memory isn't all that great, but my computer's memory is pretty good.:laughing:

 

[houstonscott]

Yes, if you mow everything down immediately after they finish producing, stalks grow back this year to produce next year. In the picture I posted, those stalks are, for the most part, about 3' tall and grew to that size between the mowing and blooming. I just looked at some of my old records and I mowed everything down on June 8, 2001, so what you see grew back after that and had the blossoms on April 16, 2002, when that picture was made. You might also find this article interesting: http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/fruit-nut/files/2010/10/blackberries.pdf On page 4 you'll see a brief mention of mowing everything down.

Bird, do you keep a property log? What do you track? I keep a brief property log, rain fall, purchases, feed, general observations and live stock tracked too. Guess it's the military in me, I've been institutionalized. HS

 

[Bird]

Bird, do you keep a property log? What do you track? I keep a brief property log, rain fall, purchases, feed, general observations and live stock tracked too. Guess it's the military in me, I've been institutionalized. HS

I keep a sort of a diary on the computer; separate file for each year. I keep all the financial stuff on Quicken. I keep spreadsheets on all my vehicle mileage and expense, electricity usage, lawnmower usage, rainfall we've gotten, our medical records, etc. When I was raising rabbits, I kept track of breeding, sales (very little sales), and I kept records on my garden from 1995 to 2002; what was planted in which rows on which date, etc. Now I also track expenses related to our little dog just for my own information (nine and a half years old and just a little more than $10k invested in the little mutt:laughing. I'm sorry to say that I've let my home inventory get badly out of date.

Institutionalized in the military? Part of my habits are probably because I was Commander of the Planning & Budget Division in the police department when I retired. It had been Planning & Research, but changed the name when they gave me the Fiscal Affairs Division, fleet management (which I'd had in the past), the quartermaster unit, etc. Part of it may be because I read a book about full time RVing when I retired and went full time RVing for 6 years. I thought about writing one myself, since the one I read, while having some good information, was also a bit out of date.

 

[txdon]

Bird, what variety of blackberries are those?

Interesting about the mowing. Since I'm taking down the fence where the dewberries are on I might mow a section in a few weeks and see if it works.

 

[Bird]

Don, I really have no idea just what variety of blackberries those were. They were there when I bought the place and I never asked the prior owner. They were nice, big, sweet berries; made great blackberry jelly, cobblers, and blackberry syrup for the pancakes and waffles.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

We had yummy dewberry cobbler last night. Used an oatmeal, brown sugar combo for the crust.

 

[Bird]

The most plentiful, and some of the biggest and best, blackberries we've ever seen were along the Oregon coast in August of 1991. We were gradually drifting south from Alaska, had spent a week at an RV park in Canon Beach, OR, then started south again. On August 18, we stopped to pick blackberries along the road right-of-way, then stopped at a grocery store for Certo (fruit pectin) and jar lids. I washed the berries and froze two bags for cobblers, then we made 4 pints of blackberry jelly (and had 3/4 cup of juice left). We could easily have gotten a lot more, but you don't have a lot of room in a 32' fifth-wheel with 6 cu. ft. refrigerator.:laughing:

 

[Bird]

We had yummy dewberry cobbler last night. Used an oatmeal, brown sugar combo for the crust.

Sure sounds good, and that would be a different kind of crust to me. I grew up eating cobblers made with regular pie crust. In later years, we used to have a recipe in which we made a rising dough, put it in the bottom of the pan, then put the berries on top and when you baked it, the crust would rise up through the berries leaving the berries on the bottom and crust on top.

 

[sseelhoff]

Heck of a storm blew through last night/this morning. Power was out and just came back on about an hour ago. 1 inch of rain in the gauge when I last checked over an hour ago, and the rain is just now winding down. Lots of wind and lightening. That makes about 4 inches in the last 24 hours. Once this clears out, should be a beautiful day, with some really nice weather coming our way this week.

 

[Bird]

We got a total of about 2.78" of rain yesterday and fortunately no wind or hail; very light breeze at most.

 

[bindian]

As if I don't have enough fences to build for myself.
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/projects/336054-my-daughters-fence.html#post4119840
hugs, Brandi

 

[sseelhoff]

Another heavy front pushed through last night. Quite the light show. Big boomers real close. .5" in the guage this morning. Our ground is saturated. As much as I appreciate the rain, we need a few days to let things dry out.

 

[houstonscott]

Another heavy front pushed through last night. Quite the light show. Big boomers real close. .5" in the guage this morning. Our ground is saturated. As much as I appreciate the rain, we need a few days to let things dry out.

Yup same here, .6 in gauge this morning. Got to get mowing as soon as it drys. HS

 

[txdon]

My ground is soaking this rain up like a wave on a sandy beach. .68" last night and monthly total at 6.59".