Whatcha Up To???

[ErnieCopp]

I do not see that would make any difference to the Raspberries. Mine have always been in rows, but they can grow in clumps, but i think you will need to provide some support about 3 feet above the ground for the canes. They will multiply each year, so the clump will grow much wider. You can attach stakes to your planter box sides to provide that support, or tie them together.

A mature clump, three or four years old, might have 20 or 30 canes which would equal about six feet of one of my rows. That would provide you with some fresh berries for breakfast but probably not give you enough to make very much jam or jelly with.

What i do, when i become interested in a new item, i plant some and decide as i go along how much i like them and whether or not i want to expand or remove them. Some things do very well in one area and fail in another. I tried and failed three times trying to establish a Hitachi Japaneese persimmon tree here, as that variety was susceptible to a black leaf spot that seemed to come from a nearby Pecan tree. I switched to a Fuyu type Japanese persimmon and it is working and producing fine. My daughter lives 80 miles away and has had perfect results from the Hitachi that i cannot grow here.

So a lot of the answers to your questions will only be available from your test results.

Ernie

 

[ErnieCopp]

Whistech,

You might try slipping a sharp edged shovel in a foot or so from the plants and cut a root here and there, where ever you would like to have another plant.. If they are anything like the ones i have, a plant will grow from the cut end. I am having the opposite problem because we transplanted these from close to the fence, so there are lots of cut roots in the ground. I am also seeing BB sprouts 6 and 8 feet from the plants, coming up in some ground cover.

Ernie

 

[w_r_ranch]

Made the rows & planted all the melons (watermelons, honeydews & ogens).

Replanted the sweet corn that didn't germinate & replanted 1 of the tomatoes that died from shock.

Planted the all the marigolds (garden & flowerbeds).

Applied 13-13-13 to the garden as I'm sure all the rain has leached everything out...

 

[ErnieCopp]

We were just granted a reprieve. While it appeared definite that everyone in CA had to abide by Moonbeam's mandate. just to confirm before we let the grass die, we called the little local water company.
They said they have plenty of water as of now, so i can follow the every other day routine we had last year, and if there is a change they will notify us.

So yesterday i picked up the rainbirds, and tomorrow i will put them back out.

Ernie

 

[whistech]

Thank you Ernie.

 

[w_r_ranch]

Didn't do anything in the garden today, just puttered around the house waiting for the rains to start... Over the next 3 days they're forecasting another 2.18"...

Made bread (combination of white & whole wheat this time).

Clean & prepped the spider plant's stands for painting.

Trimmed up the brisket & had to cut it in half to fit in a pot as it was too big. Then I made the brine for the pastrami since I didn't do that yesterday. It too will need to sit in the brine for a couple of weeks.

 

[Mike]

That's what I want to do, make bread again. Learned a lot the first time I did it but haven't done it since. It's been doing nothing but raining for the last few weeks so this could give me something to do . This is the second most wet April on record so far at 9+ inches of rain.

 

[ErnieCopp]

Spot watered a few places that showed stress from lack of water, and once I get those spots soaked, i will start a round of rainbirds.
Picked the last of this crops of beets. For those of you that boil or steam your beets, i suggest you try roasting some to taste. I much prefer the texture of the roasted ones, whether they wind up as pickles or a side dish.

Onions are mostly big enough now to dig, but waiting for the tops to fall over, so i am sure they are mature.

All of my melons, Cranshaw, Hale's Best, Persian and Watermelons are up and growing, including the couple i had to replant.

I pruned the lime, tangerines Kumquat, and Orange yesterday, as i am trying to keep them as smalll as possible. Will wait until after fruit is picked to prune the Nectarine and Peach, and the rest will not need much pruning until Winter time.

Gophers are coming in from two neighbors, as neither of them try to control theri gophers.

I mowed the grass, too this morning, before i started watering, so am done for the day.

Ernie

 

[w_r_ranch]

A bad storm hit us about 1530 hrs... No telling how much rain fell as it was coming down sideways. Also had quarter-sized hail, driven by 60 MPH winds. From the back porch I can see a 3' diameter oak tree uprooted & the potatoes, onions & garlic in the garden are flatten/shredded. I'm not sure about the rest of it... I'm too PO'd to go down to the garden right now... GRRRR.

 

[ErnieCopp]

Tough luck Sam. I know how you feel. Do you still have time to restart everythng that is lost?

Ernie

 

[w_r_ranch]

Ernie, I do have spare tomatoes & a few peppers in the green house. I'll assess the situation later today if I have time... My priority is to count cattle & calves & then check/repair any fence damage. More of the same weather is expected this afternoon. This is 2 years in a row...

Wind/hail (from dime to golf ball-sized) damage was wide spread in our county per Emergency Management. The say that there are lots of trees down along I-10. I imagine that there will be a lot of dented vehicles here, as many people don't park them inside...

 

[w_r_ranch]

This morning, I checked the other 2 rain gauges here (non-computerized) & both showed 1.80" yesterday.

Spent the day chainsawing & burning downed tree limbs. Clean up is going to take a while...

After getting cleaned up, I just checked the forecast for the rest of the day & they increased the rain to 2.44"... And it's almost here:

 

[Mr_Yan]

Well my family and I spent last week in Beaufort South Carolina. Wow was that place nice and the fresh seafood was great. It was weird sitting out in the screened in porch with a rum and coke in hand having our phones constantly buzzing with tornado warnings from 1000 miles away.

That week and a half vacation really messed with my seed starting this year. Today I got the pots ready and tomorrow I'll conscript my daughter to place seeds in them. 4 weeks until last frost.

The spinach I direct seeded Easter weekend came up. And today about half a dozen peach blossoms were open on my tree.

 

[wolffman]

Wow, what a brutal storm we had here yesterday evening. We got over 3" of rain in about 2 hours. The wind was ridiculous. When my 5 year old asked "why is the sky green?" , it was time to move them into the middle of the house. Hearing reports of a twister that missed us by a couple miles, barns knocked down, etc.

I have one garden completely submerged right now. It has the corn, cucumbers, squash and okra. We'll see if it can survive this.

 

[w_r_ranch]

We got another 1.07", but didn't have the wind like on Thursday...

All the cow/calves were accounted for, the perimeter fences are intact, but there are 4 down trees on my cross fencing. The cleanup will take weeks... Some of it will be cut for firewood although a lot of it is smaller stuff will have to be burned.

The forecast shows a 40% today, but the black lab says it going to rain & he is much better at predicting than the weather services (he is uncannily accurate)...

Mrs. Ranch started trimming up the potatoes, but many of the onions/garlic are broken over & I'm not sure if they will continue growing... we'll see.

I'm going to smoke a Boston Butt (pulled pork) for supper. I already made the bread... Mrs. Ranch made macaroni salad to go with it.

 

[ErnieCopp]

Very sorry to hear about all the storm damage you folks have had. and relieved it was not worse. I lived in twister country up in Kansas until i was ten years old, but we firmly believed tornadoes would never strike us because we lived in side the forks of of where the Potawatomie and Marais de Cygne rivers joined. You could throw a rock across either river, but apparently our faith worked, because it had never been struck.

I started some grape vines by tip layering, two years ago, Himrod and Concord. I kept one of each for myself, transplanted to 15 gallon containers last Spring, and grew them out last year and planted last fall. I was out tying them up this morning, and both are healthy with small grapes on them, but the Himrod is at least 4 times bigger and has many times as many grapes. Tremendous difference in their vigor and productivity, as both have had identical treatment.

Neighbor has been sending me over some gophers every night, messing up my Poppy bed, but only option i have is to kill the gophers since shooting the neighbor is not politically correct.

I cut down one big palm tree a few weeks ago and learned enough about it that i hired a tree man to take down the other 3. The cutting down only took a few minutes but the clean up and disposal was something else.

Ernie

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[Mike]

Planted dwarf little henry, dwarf goldenrod, and swamp milkweed in the back yard.

 

[w_r_ranch]

Paint the plant stands.

Pulled the onions that were broke over from the storm. Getter to have small onions than to let them rot. These will be processed/vacuum packed in a few days.

Cleaned the front porches, windows & shutters. I started out just removing the handy work of some barn swallows that think squatting is acceptable & figured I do it all.

 

[Mr_Yan]

Mowed the lawn for the first time in 2015.

 

[ErnieCopp]

I was out marking the cut lines for the Palm trees that will be taken out this week. Rather than tear the yard up grinding out the stumps, I find it looks good to cut the stumps about 4.5' above the ground, paint them green, and put a flower pot on them. I have two bird feeders and a bird bath on the first three i cut off, and flower pots on the last three. I built the grape arbor around the tenth one, and have a slab of Marble on it for table. The three we are taking out this week will be the last of them. Dirtiest, nastiest trees i have ever shared my yard with.

Gave the Gophers another ticket to heaven, in case there are still any left in the old tunnels beneath the poppies. The horizontal tunnels are too deap to pound shut, so the only access is around their vertical shafts. I never needed to know much about gophers until i moved here, but finally getting them under control.

Tied up some tomato vines. Seeing ample blossoms but do not think i am getting as many to sef truit as i deserve. Melon plants up at every hill, Watermelons ahead of the others with their leafing out.

Picked a small box of Loquats yesterday, but not enough to start processing them, so will wait until more get ripe. Plenty for me and the birds this year, it looks like. Bunches are so thick the birds can only reach the ones on top, so do not need to put nets on.

Ernie

 

[w_r_ranch]

Got hit with hail again yesterday evening (nickle-size) & .07" of rain... The dog was right again...

Cut the grass today, as the forecast shows more rain on Wednesday - Friday.

All the honeydews are up!!!

 

[wolffman]

More rain last night. Gardens are looking terrible, probably the worst garden I've had in the last 15 years. Potatoes/tomatoes now showing signs of drowning out. Weeds everywhere as I haven't been able to mulch or get in there with a hoe. Mother nature is kicking my butt right now.

 

[ErnieCopp]

We mowed the Palm trees today, so no more drooping fronds that we could not reach with a 16 foot ladder, no more piles of seeds the size of marbles, no more litter, and best of all, no more moisture sucking rhyzomes, or whatever they call the masses of palm roots.

Did not do much else, but will get to watering tomorrow. I let the lawn dry out some so the tree removal traffic would not have, or cause, problems.

Ernie

 

[Mr_Yan]

Lite rain and low 50's as a high.

I checked on my seeds upstairs (that sounds wrong) and nothing above the soil yet.

 

[ErnieCopp]

Fed the birds, started deep watering the lawn, as i let it dry out so the tree removers would have a hard surface to work on, used the post hole digger to transplant a volunteer cantaloupe to a place where it will get more water from the drip lines. That is good way to transplant if the plant does not have a tap root.
Also worked on the Rosemary hedge.

Ernie