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Stovepipe
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Almost time to get mater seeds planted in the green house!  I've used florescent tubes in the past but I'm gonna try to find some cheap LED lights on Amazon this go around.  Planning to go probably 2/3rds Cherokee Purples and 1/3rd Pink Brandywines.  The Purples seem to be more disease resistant at my location.  Last year the Brandywines got that yellow blight and never did really recover properly.  I'll supplement the seedlings with some other purchased plants from Lowes but I'm aiming for 100 or more in the ground this year.

:guitar:

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53 minutes ago, Stovepipe said:

Almost time to get mater seeds planted in the green house!  I've used florescent tubes in the past but I'm gonna try to find some cheap LED lights on Amazon this go around.  Planning to go probably 2/3rds Cherokee Purples and 1/3rd Pink Brandywines.  The Purples seem to be more disease resistant at my location.  Last year the Brandywines got that yellow blight and never did really recover properly.  I'll supplement the seedlings with some other purchased plants from Lowes but I'm aiming for 100 or more in the ground this year.

:guitar:

I love the Cherokee Purples.  I haven't been able to put out a garden for the last 2 years but if I get a chance to grow a few tomatoes this year, Cherokee Purples it is.

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  • 2 months later...
  • 4 months later...

@Stovepipe, my garden remained fallow this year.  Going to plant a fall cover crop which I have not done prior.  Going to roll with a mix and see how it works.  Likely will order some garlic as well...was awesome a couple of years ago.  Here is what I am using...thoughts?  Hey, and how has your gradient been this summer.  I am glad to not be watering through this heat!

https://www.johnnyseeds.com/farm-seed/cover-crop-mixes/fall-green-manure/fall-green-manure-mix-cover-crop-seed-2613.36.html

Probably going to add some fall salad stuff and definitely some garlic.  

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2 hours ago, Carvers Gap said:

@Stovepipe, my garden remained fallow this year.  Going to plant a fall cover crop which I have not done prior.  Going to roll with a mix and see how it works.  Likely will order some garlic as well...was awesome a couple of years ago.  Here is what I am using...thoughts?  Hey, and how has your gradient been this summer.  I am glad to not be watering through this heat!

https://www.johnnyseeds.com/farm-seed/cover-crop-mixes/fall-green-manure/fall-green-manure-mix-cover-crop-seed-2613.36.html

Probably going to add some fall salad stuff and definitely some garlic.  

That cover crop mix looks pretty good.  Hairy Vetch is very good for the soil but can be sort of hard to get rid of.  If you plan on tilling the area up next spring then probably not an issue.  My main mix for the cool season this year will be turnips and winter rye.  I'll dress crimson clover around berry bushes and fruit trees.

Right now I've got sunn hemp that is 10 to 12 feet high and growing.  It is one hell of a biomass producer and will make a large amount of compost.  I put 120 mater plants in the ground this year, staggered over several weeks.  Yield has been overwhelming.  I've canned until I'm sick of it and am giving them away now.  Next year I'll be scaling those back in a big way. 

I've decided to go all in on CBD hemp.  Got my license and several clones already growing indoors.  Planning several hundred plants outdoors next season growing in compost made from cover crop.

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19 hours ago, Stovepipe said:

That cover crop mix looks pretty good.  Hairy Vetch is very good for the soil but can be sort of hard to get rid of.  If you plan on tilling the area up next spring then probably not an issue.  My main mix for the cool season this year will be turnips and winter rye.  I'll dress crimson clover around berry bushes and fruit trees.

Right now I've got sunn hemp that is 10 to 12 feet high and growing.  It is one hell of a biomass producer and will make a large amount of compost.  I put 120 mater plants in the ground this year, staggered over several weeks.  Yield has been overwhelming.  I've canned until I'm sick of it and am giving them away now.  Next year I'll be scaling those back in a big way. 

I've decided to go all in on CBD hemp.  Got my license and several clones already growing indoors.  Planning several hundred plants outdoors next season growing in compost made from cover crop.

Yeah, I was worried about that vetch...I already have it in my garden anyway!   LOL.  120!?  Wow.  I assume you are hosting the TN Valley Wx Spaghetti dinner with that much tomato action!  Keep us updated on the hemp situation.  How do you market that?  I am assuming that is the for the oil which is a big time product right now.  Hey, at least you won't have to can all that hemp.   Definitely going to need a pic of 10-12 foot plants!  

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16 minutes ago, Carvers Gap said:

Yeah, I was worried about that vetch...I already have it in my garden anyway!   LOL.  120!?  Wow.  I assume you are hosting the TN Valley Wx Spaghetti dinner with that much tomato action!  Keep us updated on the hemp situation.  How do you market that?  I am assuming that is the for the oil which is a big time product right now.  Hey, at least you won't have to can all that hemp.   Definitely going to need a pic of 10-12 foot plants!  

I can't compete in the extract market where people are growing 100's of acres.  My niche will be trimmed smokable flower to be sold from smaller shops.  It remains to be seen how profitable it will be but I'm going to find out.

Here's some pics of the warm season cover crop which is mostly sunn hemp taken last week.

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1 hour ago, Stovepipe said:

I can't compete in the extract market where people are growing 100's of acres.  My niche will be trimmed smokable flower to be sold from smaller shops.  It remains to be seen how profitable it will be but I'm going to find out.

Here's some pics of the warm season cover crop which is mostly sunn hemp taken last week.

x1JniuE.jpg

XzR61FP.jpg

OTabl5u.jpg

Impressive and thanks for the information and the share.  That is A LOT of compost volume standing there.  

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  • 2 weeks later...

@Stovepipe, I put my cover crop in the ground on Sunday and it was up on Tuesday morning!!!  36 hour germination rate....I have never seen anything like it.  I think the warm ground temps and steady rain in combination were just about perfect.  Some of the stuff(whatever is in the grass family in that mix) today is ~2" out to the ground.  

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  • 2 weeks later...

Cover crop consisting of rye, winter wrye, winter peas, crimson clover, and vetch are growing like they are on steroids.  Probably will turn that under in December or very early spring.  Mustard greens are up.  That stuff has some pop(spicy).  I am also trying some Pak Choi this fall.  It is purple and green.  I am a big fan of William Woys Weaver who is known as someone trying to preserve heirlooms with great taste.  My fall lettuce is from his collection at Baker's Heirloom seeds.  Hopefully the cool weather stuff doesn't fry this week in the heat.  When all of that is harvested later during the fall, I will plant those rows with winter wheat.  Trying to get the soil ready for next spring as it has been fallow for twelve months.  

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On 9/13/2019 at 4:11 PM, Stovepipe said:

Glad to hear your cover crop is off to a good start Carvers!

One nice thing about this friggin heat, I may still be harvesting maters in November.  I'm also going to try to get several auto flowering hemp plants done before frost.  Seedlings just coming up now.

You should be good to go.  I am kicking myself for not putting out a late season crop of beans.  They would be loving this weather.  My cool weather crops are doing OK despite the record heat.  Maybe the days getting shorter and longer nights is giving them just enough of a break.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I put my garlic and shallots into one of my raised beds yesterday.  Figured the upcoming seasonal to AN(but not extreme) wx will get them off to a good start before the first inevitable freeze hits at some point during the next few weeks.  My garlic is definitely a testament to @Stovepipe's sharing about his garlic harvest a few years back. This is my second year growing.  I had never attempted it prior to reading his post.  Shallots are a new venture.(probably tried some during the wrong time of year several years ago)  Some folks call them multiplier or potato onions, because one bulb will produce many over the winter and early spring.  I am still shocked that my "cool weather" crops have done so well given the record temps of the last few weeks.  The only thing that just came up and was like, "Nope..." was spinach.  Everything else has done very well considering the temps and drought.  I think it is due to an odd, but useful setup in my garden in relation to sun angle.  During the summer, the angle of the sun provides direct sunlight all summer.  However, during the fall, it drops just enough into the southwest that the tops of some tall trees shade the garden in the afternoon.   Anyway, if you all garden...this is perfect time to plant garlic.  Just let it sit all winter, grow during the spring, and harvest as the tops brown and fall over next summer.   Filaree Farms has a great site for pretty much all root crops, but especially for garlic.  They have a growing guide as well.  

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  • 4 months later...

@Stovepipe, tomato seedlings are up.  Peppers always take longer, but a few of those are up.  Eggplant, dill, and basil are up on the seed starting racks.  My tomato varieties this year are some early season heirlooms combined with varieties with strong disease resistance.  Shooting for some earlier varieties to avoid late season blight and septoria.  Since I am starting my own plants from seeds this year, I am hoping that my variety choices and seed starting practices will eliminate some of the disease in my tomatoes a couple of years ago.  I also left the garden fallow last summer.  I know that stuff stays in the soil for a long time, so hoping this will up my chances for a better harvest of the red fruit.

Garlic and bunching onions from the fall are going to be a strong harvest.  They are looking really good.  

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  • 1 month later...

I gambled and put out damn near 70 hemp plants and 40 maters figuring we were over the frost.  Tonight is my fresh hell.  I've basically buried the hemp in what I could find in packaged wheat straw at Lowes.  Maters, peppers, basil, cucumbers, etc covered in a redneck array of tarps, buckets, coffee cans, whatever for the time being.  I'm reasonably confident I can survive the night, but the GFS was advertising inches of snow next week lol, so who knows.  

:guitar:

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  • 4 weeks later...
I have some heirloom Hickory Cane Corn to put out.   Should I wait out the cold snap this weekend or go for it now?  Thoughts?

Unfortunately, I would wait. Chances are increasing of a several significant frosts and perhaps even freeze event into next week. We really need this beast of a -NAO signal to flip positive by late-May. It will, it's just being stubborn.
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1 hour ago, EastKnox said:

I have some heirloom Hickory Cane Corn to put out.   Should I wait out the cold snap this weekend or go for it now?  Thoughts?

I have some of that on order.  First year trying that type of corn.  Do you like it?  Probably won't get here until next week, so I am stuck planting it next week pretty much no matter what.  Plus, my real fight is with raccoons later in the summer.  LOL.   I am probably going to have to break down and put an electric fence around the garden.  

Yeah, I would probably wait.  It is unlikely the corn would be up by the time it frosts/freezes.  However, the ground would be pretty cold and might hurt germination rates.  If it isn't the cold that is a problem, it is the really wet fields.  Tougher call in Knox Co.  NE TN is an easier call as the cold looks likely this weekend.  The problem with planting later is if the season goes really dry while it is producing corn. Tough start to a very important growing season in the SE.  Keep us updated on how it does this summer!

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3 hours ago, Carvers Gap said:

I have some of that on order.  First year trying that type of corn.  Do you like it?  Probably won't get here until next week, so I am stuck planting it next week pretty much no matter what.  Plus, my real fight is with raccoons later in the summer.  LOL.   I am probably going to have to break down and put an electric fence around the garden.  

This is my first year growing it myself.  My stepdad gave me the seed a few years ago from his crop and it's been in my freezer since.  This is my first garden in 4 years, so I'm excited about it.  I'm just a couple of miles east of downtown Knoxville, so it's a difficult decision.  From what I understand, the first 48 hours are critical for germination, so I either need to go now or wait until it warms up again.

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I don't even understand how I'll be able to help my folks in north Murfreesboro cover everything Friday night. Not just the garden veggies, but annuals, perennials getting ready to bloom, and some crape myrtles that are short enough to cover. 

I does appear in the longer range ensembles that we'll have a short grace period of spring weather and then comes the torch. 

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Alright, let's see y'all's frost covering pics.  I'm dreading having to take all of this down and then put it up again tomorrow evening but that is 2020 for ya.  Hope it works.

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I did hold off on planting the rest of the root bound seedlings.  So probably 30% of my maters are in the garage tonight.  

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This is what it looked like Thursday night.  Getting ready to head out now and get it ready - in the driving wind and drizzle.  Was trying to let the wind dry things off a bit, but looks like this upslope stuff is going to be here off and on.   For scale, the hoop house is about four feet tall and the fence is 6' tall.

IMG_4472.jpg

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2 minutes ago, Carvers Gap said:

This is what it looked like Thursday night.  Getting ready to head out now and get it ready - in the driving wind and drizzle.  Was trying to let the wind dry things off a bit, but looks like this upslope stuff is going to be here off and on.   For scale, the hoop house is about four feet tall and the fence is 6' tall.

IMG_4472.jpg

I like your setup Carvers!  You should be able to anchor that down nicely.

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45 minutes ago, Stovepipe said:

I like your setup Carvers!  You should be able to anchor that down nicely.

Yours looks good as well!  Just finished.  Whew.  We extended the edges of those tarps that are doubled over above.  Used big splits from the woodpile as anchors.  Our set-ups look remarkably similar!  I use wheat straw to hill-up my potatoes since I don't have a don't of ton of extra dirt.  We put it down earlier this week - hoping that provides support for the tarp and extra insulation.  The wind is a pain.  Unfortunately, it has gone to dead calm for now - right as we finished!   Sets the stage for quite a cold night up here.  Need some wind to help with mixing to shorten the time below freezing.  Good luck, Stovepipe and to our other gardeners and farmers!

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