Taters
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Backwoods Savage
Minister of Fire
BeGreen said:
Do not plant buckwheat in the fall where Dave lives. Buckwheat is extremely intolerant of frost for sure! It is good to plant earlier in the summer as a green manure crop if you can keep the deer and turkeys away from it. I usually plant some every year but here we have to wait until into June to plant it because of late frosts. Dave probably would not be able to plant until mid June for sure. He can also expect frosts sometimes even before fall! Rye is good and many times we do leave it through the winter and then either till it in the following spring or just let it grow to produce another crop.
Leaves are indeed good but then plan on adding some extra lime and nitrogen.
Backwoods Savage
Minister of Fire
PapaDave said:
Dave, those are red pontiac taters and those are the ones that seem to do best in the sand. Very easy to grow too. Get those raspberries before the bears or coons get them. Ours are about done as the heat took a heavy toll on them.
For sure you should be able to get some straw around Fairview or Mio as there are farmers besides the Amish there. Many years ago we got tired of hoeing weeds so started covering the garden with straw after the crops come up. It works like a charm and also does help with the moisture control. Still, on this sand you have to continue watering if you want a good crop of anything.
One more think you can plant as a green manure crop is plain old wheat. You can plant that in October and it will come up in the fall and then by the time you want to work the garden in the spring it is a good size to till in. Again, you won't have to go far to find seed or straw. Good luck.
Thanks for all that info Dennis. I had a feeling you'd have geographically relevant knowledge.
We can actually get straw a little closer than Fairview or Mio. Green Acres Farm is south on 65 and a bit east of there. They also have a retail outlet just before getting into Alpena. Numerous small farms nearby too.
Question re: rye seed. Can any rye be used, or does it have to be specifically winter rye. I've been trying to find someplace that sells winter rye since we lived downstate w/o luck. Maybe it's called something else around here.
The idea of mulching with the hay is as you mentioned: to retain moisture and also to keep the weeds from taking over. Straw is very inexpensive for this and biodegradable. Win-win. I do have a couple of compost piles working all the time, but not enough unless I go ALL raised beds. That was the plan last year, but I got too busy and only made one. That's where the taters came from.
BeGreen nailed the green thing too,......maybe BB isn't a gardener?
It's all good, and I'm working in the right direction with the help from all who've posted. I've had a few gardens over the years, and will never forget the year many moons ago when I thought we needed a lot of tomato plants. They did well......so well that we had to keep giving them away, canned a few gallons and made toasted mater sammiches for a while. Made quite a bit of spaghetti sauce that year too. :coolsmile:
We can actually get straw a little closer than Fairview or Mio. Green Acres Farm is south on 65 and a bit east of there. They also have a retail outlet just before getting into Alpena. Numerous small farms nearby too.
Question re: rye seed. Can any rye be used, or does it have to be specifically winter rye. I've been trying to find someplace that sells winter rye since we lived downstate w/o luck. Maybe it's called something else around here.
The idea of mulching with the hay is as you mentioned: to retain moisture and also to keep the weeds from taking over. Straw is very inexpensive for this and biodegradable. Win-win. I do have a couple of compost piles working all the time, but not enough unless I go ALL raised beds. That was the plan last year, but I got too busy and only made one. That's where the taters came from.
BeGreen nailed the green thing too,......maybe BB isn't a gardener?
It's all good, and I'm working in the right direction with the help from all who've posted. I've had a few gardens over the years, and will never forget the year many moons ago when I thought we needed a lot of tomato plants. They did well......so well that we had to keep giving them away, canned a few gallons and made toasted mater sammiches for a while. Made quite a bit of spaghetti sauce that year too. :coolsmile:
Backwoods Savage
Minister of Fire
Dave, I have never planted winter rye; just regular field rye but don't buy rye grass as it won't do what you want. Mulch with straw but if you use hay rather than straw you may get more weeds than you want for sure! As for seeds, ask around or even stop at some farmer's place and tell him you want some rye seed. He may have some or at least will tell you the best place to get it. I'm not familiar with the Green Acres Farm as that must be something that got started after we left the area.
The compost is good and I'd suggest doing with that the same as straw. Put it on after the crop comes up and the nutrients will leak down into the ground. Or you can put it on and till it in if you prefer.
Here is what we do, or I'll just tell you what I did last fall. The first thing is to use a fork and gather as much of the straw as I can but I'm not real fussy so some is just left between the rows. I pile the straw up in 3 or 4 places and just leave it until the next spring. Where we had a lot of sweet corn, I just took a corn knife and chopped all the corn stalks. I do this by chopping a couple stalks near ground level and then holding them in one hand, chop them down into about 6" pieces and just let them fall to the ground. At that point it is just a matter of waiting until spring.
When spring rolled around I just tilled one patch between the old corn rows. That is where we planted this year's sweet corn and peas. That left the old corn stubble standing but that is okay. We then took last year's straw to cover the ground as soon as the new crop was up. Yes, we had to add to the straw and we do every year but that is fine as, like BG stated, the straw in the ground is good to hold some moisture.
Since that time all we have done is to water the corn and peas. There is barely any weeds or grass there but we did not plant the entire plot this year so where we didn't plant, that, of course, is loaded with weeds. We'll take care of that very easily though.
btw, we also have straw all through the raspberries and strawberries. It saves a lot of weeding and holds moisture better but we still have to do a lot of watering because, as you stated, the sand just does not hold moisture worth a hoot. Straw is getting more expensive but is still a bargain. I'm also lucky that a friend of ours has a farm and he also uses straw bales to put around his basement windows every winter. In March every year I go get those straw bales and there is no charge. Works like a charm!
The compost is good and I'd suggest doing with that the same as straw. Put it on after the crop comes up and the nutrients will leak down into the ground. Or you can put it on and till it in if you prefer.
Here is what we do, or I'll just tell you what I did last fall. The first thing is to use a fork and gather as much of the straw as I can but I'm not real fussy so some is just left between the rows. I pile the straw up in 3 or 4 places and just leave it until the next spring. Where we had a lot of sweet corn, I just took a corn knife and chopped all the corn stalks. I do this by chopping a couple stalks near ground level and then holding them in one hand, chop them down into about 6" pieces and just let them fall to the ground. At that point it is just a matter of waiting until spring.
When spring rolled around I just tilled one patch between the old corn rows. That is where we planted this year's sweet corn and peas. That left the old corn stubble standing but that is okay. We then took last year's straw to cover the ground as soon as the new crop was up. Yes, we had to add to the straw and we do every year but that is fine as, like BG stated, the straw in the ground is good to hold some moisture.
Since that time all we have done is to water the corn and peas. There is barely any weeds or grass there but we did not plant the entire plot this year so where we didn't plant, that, of course, is loaded with weeds. We'll take care of that very easily though.
btw, we also have straw all through the raspberries and strawberries. It saves a lot of weeding and holds moisture better but we still have to do a lot of watering because, as you stated, the sand just does not hold moisture worth a hoot. Straw is getting more expensive but is still a bargain. I'm also lucky that a friend of ours has a farm and he also uses straw bales to put around his basement windows every winter. In March every year I go get those straw bales and there is no charge. Works like a charm!
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