Whatcha Up To???

[ErnieCopp]

My blackberries intruded from a patch on the other side of the board fence. They are huge berries, twice as big as the wild ones in Oregon, but the thorns are twice as long, too.
I grew Raspberries in Idaho, so knowing how upright the canes grow, i spread the wires on 16" arms for them. So with the blackberries is wil be Live, Get Scratched, and Learn.

ernie

 

[45 ACP]

Nice spread majorcatfish!!

I havent done anything in a couple weeks. My garden has been prepped and just waiting to plant. It's pretty much just a sand box for the kids right now.

 

[w_r_ranch]

Next 10 days are looking to be much cooler & pretty wet here... I cut & split more firewood yesterday.

 

[Mike]

I really worked up a sweat yesterday... I went to Home Depot and bought some Spax lag screws for the new garden bed. It was hard work but someone had to do it.

 

[majorcatfish]

Bet those beds are going to nice looking.

Yup know about working up a sweat. been doing that all day
There is a driver out so I am covering his route today, nothing like slinging truck tires all day. finished my 30 min break time to hit the road.

 

[w_r_ranch]

Picked up (5) 20'X5' bull panels for the garden trellises. I may still need to pick up additional re-bar before starting the welding...

 

[ErnieCopp]

Sorry you boys are sweating. i sat on my tractor and used my long handled pruner to pick a coffee can full of asparagus. Still small, but very tender. The larger ones are starting to come up, but still too short to harvest.

I need to soak some dissolved fertilizer in the bed, as asparagus is a heavy eater.

Lots of blossoms on the early peach, one breaking bud on the Nectarine, but nothing showing on the Apricots, persimmons or figs yet. No jsign of life Friday on teh Grapes, but this morning several leaves almost an inch long. Soaking dry spots in the lawn trying to even the moisture, and will probably do that this summer instead of overwatering some areas in order to keep the hard spots growing good.

Ernie

 

[majorcatfish]

"pick a coffee can full of asparagus"... that's plain mean to post that we still have a month and a half till we might see ours coming up.
figure in a couple weeks remove the straw and put down a health dose of 10-10-10 with a extra nitrate of soda to give them a kick.
heres a photo from last april when they where just starting to get going...

planted 10 jersey giants 11 years ago since then they have spread throughout the whole bed.

the dw keeps asking when am i going to put up a arbor for the pole beans, and my yearly reply is
when we expand and who is going to spend a half a day pulling out all the vines. her reply.. you grow it, i can it..
hum thats why it's keep it as simple as possible at this time, don't get me wrong would love to have grand entry to the garden but at this time it would take up to much room.
so for now till the expansion the main garden as small as it is, every square foot has to be used to the maximum production.
more photos on the setup that we have been doing for years.


dw has informed me that we are down to the last case of tomatoes and 3 cases of green beans.
looks like will have to move the beans out of the main garden and plant them around the fence line of the potato patch to make more room for the tomatos...

 

[ErnieCopp]

Good looking bed, for sure. You did not make the mistake i did. You apparently planted all Male plants, I was not aware and did not check that when i bought at a local Chain Nursery, and got some female plants that produce seed. So I have far too many tiny plants coming up amongst the good big ones.

Ernie

 

[majorcatfish]

Good looking bed, for sure. You did not make the mistake i did. You apparently planted all Male plants, I was not aware and did not check that when i bought at a local Chain Nursery, and got some female plants that produce seed. So I have far too many tiny plants coming up amongst the good big ones.

Ernie

nope there is one female in there, keep telling myself someday will start my own from seed, but when that bed expansion does happen
going to plant purple passion asparagus....
personally and i could be wrong, do not think the nurseries can tell the difference between male and female crowns.

 

[ErnieCopp]

If you can identify and remove that female plant, you will be way ahead. Mine produce thousand of seeds. I cut the ferns with the seeds on them and dispose, but still the seeds i miss come up like hair on a dog's back. Seeds would work okay if they were sprouted in pots, but the ones that fall and sprout are way to close together.

Ernie

 

[majorcatfish]

Oh yeah I know which it is you can't miss the differance in the ferns. Heck have found sprouts all over the property every year.

 

[ErnieCopp]

I have too many female plants to ever get them all removed. Last year i cut all the good asparagus and weed whacked the small, but tall ferns, before the berries ripened, and will do so again. We removed thousands of berries but still hundreds sprouted. I may try cutting out the big ferns and then use roundup on the female ferns, to see if that will kill the small roots. Just not sure if i will ever be able to stop them. Of course with out long growing season, both a spring and fall crop, a lot more of the berries sprout, too.

Ernie

 

[majorcatfish]

Out here we harvest from mid April til mid June after that we let them go to fern for the rest of the season.
Sounds like you have a lot of females sorry to hear that...

 

[ErnieCopp]

I only got one harvest in Idaho, so was surprised when this one produced almost continuously. After the Ferns are about five or six feet tall and look fairly mature, i mulch them down with a weed whackeer by starting at the top, and then another strong fall crop emerges.
But after eatiing it all summer the fall crop is not as delicious as the Spring Crop.

Ernie

 

[w_r_ranch]

Picked up the tiller from the repair shop & as my luck would have it, the chance of rain is 60% today, 80% tonight & 90% tomorrow. The new cold front is suppose to pass through around midnight tonight & stay cold for all of Weds. & Thurs.

 

[majorcatfish]

I only got one harvest in Idaho, so was surprised when this one produced almost continuously. After the Ferns are about five or six feet tall and look fairly mature, i mulch them down with a weed whackeer by starting at the top, and then another strong fall crop emerges.
But after eatiing it all summer the fall crop is not as delicious as the Spring Crop.

Ernie

ernie have a question for you... does your asparagus go dormant in southern cal ?

 

[ErnieCopp]

It depends. This past year the ferns stayed green, and i cut them down, but it was cold enough the bed stopped producing, so i guess i would call it dormant, but the year before, it was colder with a couple of hard frosts, and the ferns died from the cold. So that was clearly dormant, but some of the seeds sprouted through the winter, got about 4 or 5 inches tall. No edible shoots showing so Mid February, i was using Roundup and sprayed some of the seedlings. I am thinking I may try that method to thin out and stop seedlings. Pick all edibles, weed whack or prune good strong ferns, and then spray the thin new ones, and hope it carries enough roundup down to kill the root of the seedlings. I am going to have to try to stop those seedlings some way. And will continue pruning female ferns while berries are still green.

Ernie

 

[majorcatfish]

It depends. This past year the ferns stayed green, and i cut them down, but it was cold enough the bed stopped producing, so i guess i would call it dormant, but the year before, it was colder with a couple of hard frosts, and the ferns died from the cold. So that was clearly dormant, but some of the seeds sprouted through the winter, got about 4 or 5 inches tall. No edible shoots showing so Mid February, i was using Roundup and sprayed some of the seedlings. I am thinking I may try that method to thin out and stop seedlings. Pick all edibles, weed whack or prune good strong ferns, and then spray the thin new ones, and hope it carries enough roundup down to kill the root of the seedlings. I am going to have to try to stop those seedlings some way. And will continue pruning female ferns while berries are still green.

Ernie

interesting on able to pick almost year round.. good luck on your battle.

 

[ErnieCopp]

I got my potatoes planted today, but not a big time operator there. I just planted 2 cuts in each of 5 15 gal Nursery containere. I will set them on the edge of the melon patch and irrigate with drip tube on the Garden circuit. My soil sets up too tight for root veggies to do well, So carrots and beets will go in containers later. I will have to dig each of the onions out as they cannot be pulled.

Very rich soil, but has its drawbacks, too,
Ernie

 

[ErnieCopp]

Sitting inside watering my garden today, with some help from above. about an inch already, so just what has fallen on my yard is worth about a hundred dollars, as that is more than one fourth of what i put on a month during the summer.

it is raining sideways now, so i do not know if that will add to the water in the rain guage or not. Wioll just continue to wonder about it as i do not plan to go out and see for myself.

Ernie

 

[45 ACP]

I haven't had anything to do in the garden. Just chompin' at the bit to get it planted. As bad as I want to get everything in the ground, I think I'm going to wait a couple more weeks.

 

[ErnieCopp]

I am not going to be in any hurry to either plant seeds or plants. Last year i monitored the soil temp for Melon seeds, and melon and tomato plants and nothing really seemed to happen until the soil temp got up to fifty. Some of the veggie seeds did okay earlier, but the ones i mentioend that were planted later soon caught up with the early plants.
I just use a pocket meat thermometer to check the soil with.

Ernie

 

[ErnieCopp]

2.5" of badly needed rain, and not a puddle any where. Every dropped soaked in. Cleared off and chance has dropped to 50%, but with the break, i think the ground can absord some more. Already the grass and plants look better, and the whole world looks fresher.

Ernie

 

[majorcatfish]

2.5" of badly needed rain, and not a puddle any where. Every dropped soaked in. Cleared off and chance has dropped to 50%, but with the break, i think the ground can absord some more. Already the grass and plants look better, and the whole world looks fresher.

Ernie

glad to hear that the ground soaked it up...