Saturday, January 2, 2016

2015 Experiments Recap and Thoughts on 2016





Last year's growing experiments were suppose to be two approximately half acre patches of Buckwheat, a Pumpkin patch of about a quarter acre and a line of grapes not only for production but to act as a barrier so the hives by the house couldn't see me when I was out in the garden.

Right off the bat the continual rains caused me to only get one of the Buckwheat fields tilled up.  By the time the ground dried up enough to get the second Buckwheat field tilled I was so far behind on the fencing project I just let it go.

The first field and the Pumpkin patch were just totally drown down to nothing. At first both of them appeared to be growing like gangbusters but the constant rain and super saturated ground just stunted the Buckwheat and the Pumpkin plants and then allowed the weeds to grow like something out of a fairy tale with a giant involved and a guy named Jack.

I must say however that the bees did get some good forage from the Buckwheat plants despite them being rather stunted. Unfortunately the weeds pretty much killed the poor stunted plants off before they could produce any grains at all.

The Pumpkin patch was pretty much the same except no bees got any forage off the Pumpkin plants. They simply ceased to exist under the weeds. My theory is that the weeds ate em. The patch was so wet there was literally nothing I could do about the weeds unless I wore hip waders anyway.




The new Grape trellis/barrier however really took off. I had planted a few of the grape plants as little sticks back in 2014 but the rabbits had gnawed on them a bit so I didn't know if they survived the Winter. I had also put a raised bed type border around the Grape plants and filled it with barn mulch to keep the weeds down.

Well the plants survived and thrived. Because of the rabbit attack I did a small patrol against the VarmintCong forces about early February and there was no more damage. By July I just removed the raised bed border because the Johnsongrass was coming in too fast. Didn't matter much anyway by that time the main vines had gotten thick enough that protecting them was not an issue anymore and I could pretty safely mow right up to them and weed eat around them.

I ended up using the freed up wood for barn repairs too!!!

The grapes actually produced quite well. We didn't make anything out of them this year but I was constantly munching on grapes while working outside during the late Summer. About the time they started getting a bit too ripe I picked all that were left and fed em to the chickens.

The chickens loved em!!!

So for 2016 my plan is to give these experiments another try. I don't think it is fair to judge em by that one bad year. I may not have gotten the back Buckwheat field tilled but I did manage to keep it mowed and cleared so it is ready to be tilled this Spring when I get the chance. The Pumpkins are proving a harder problem to crack though. The Johnson Grass weeds can over come any suppression attempts by the anything and the way the Pumpkin vines spread makes any kind of mechanical weed control impossible. Still not sure how to attack that problem other than plain old fashioned hoe work and sweat.

As a continuation of the Grape Vine experiment I am now learnign how to prune the vines for increased production next year. More on that later though.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!!!


25 comments:

  1. The weather was brutal this year, and as a homestead, even failures can bring knowledge. Maybe a hoop PVC pipe green house in the future to protect the garden?

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    1. K - A hoop house around here would be somewhere in Illinois within a week after putting it up. Our wind is always bad here on the edge of the Southern Plains. I didn't really do much of a garden this year anyway the crops that failed were larger than a garden really.

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  2. I'm learning so much here! We're hoping to get our first beekeeping supplies this week. My first attempt at grapes failed due to poison ivy but hopefully I'll get another chance to try to raise them.

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    1. HG - Bees are going to be a post here soon again. 2015 wasa good year for bees this time. Not great for plants though :(

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  3. for the pumpkin patch....try covering the ground with black plastic...it's fairly cheap..and cutting 5 gallon bucket sized holes where you want to plant pumpkins. the plastic will keep the weeds under control aand the large holes will allow enough rain in to keep watering to aa minimum. good luck

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    1. xtron - Thanks for commenting!! I thought about a ground cover but I was really hoping to get the re-rooting action the pumpkin vines will do going. On a good year I can get a much better harvest if the vines root themselves as they spread. On a bad year well...I get nothing :(

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  4. I was just over at a guys place who has bees and he had similar buckwheat results only he finally got some up in time for frost to kill it. I think he is down to one hive and not sure about that, it is hard to raise them around here. I was telling him about how the bees do better out your way and that you had tried buckwheat. I was out there to pick up an old sickle bar and boom that should fit the ferguson, both were free but the mower is going to take some work to get it back into action.

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    1. Sf - That's cool with the mower and boom. My mower needs some TLC that's for sure. The bees got some forage off the Buckwheat blooms but then it all died before it could produce me any more seeds.

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  5. with xtron. know it is a big area . we have a few raised beds. use that landscape cloth and if you can affordd it and put it down now you will be way ahead.

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    1. DH - Like I mentioned above I was hoping to get the vines to re-root themselves. On a good year when they do that the Pumpkins just explode.

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  6. and it's honest posts like these and on a few other blogs, and hopefully our blog, too, that prove that you cannot just go out and throw a few seeds around in a collapse of society. you need years of experience with different growing situations, climates, tons of rain one year, no rain the next year, same with snow, same with temperature - you have to learn how to deal with a variety of different pests and bugs - it's called practicing - year in and year out. only after you have several years under your belt can you predict how much food you can grow and how much you need to make it to the next season. good post buddy!

    sending much love your way! your friend,
    kymber

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    1. kymber - you are 100% correct. Experience is the only answer!!!

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  7. We had lots of crops that did well and some failures as well, our problem has been the wind it flattens everything, so priority is wind breaks we need to plant up fast growing ones, we are also getting another poly tunnel, growing under cover is the way we have to go

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    1. Dawn - Wind is a big problem here as well. Only large patches of corn can survive the Spring and early Summer storms around here.

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  8. Weeds, don't ya just love them!? Maybe mulch real heavy around the pumpkins to keep the weeds down with either grass clippings or from out of the barn (sheep poop + straw = happy plants). Only downside is that if there is any kind of seed in the straw it will probably grow, too, but once the pumpkin vines are established well they'll cover the ground and not many weeds will grow real well.

    Gardening is always a crap shoot. Good post.

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    1. hobo - the real problem is Johnson Grass and bindweed. Mulch won't do much against them since they come up from the rhizomes only a thick ground cover seems to stop them.

      I hate Johnson grass but it makes pretty good hay.

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  9. It was the nutsedge that was killing us this past summer. Senior has now been continued to persistently plow. We read doing this will kill the nutsedge. Weather for everyone not good, you would get too much or not enough of one thing. Just sacked all the way around.

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    1. JuGM - Johnson grass here is the bane of my growing. There is just no killing that stuff and the rhizomes are so deep. I hate it.

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  10. Do you grow pumpkins for sale? I have toyed with doing that in an area of my acre

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  11. Do you grow pumpkins for sale? I have toyed with doing that in an area of my acre

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  12. Any good links on grapes would be wonderful. I tried pruning my old vines back a few years ago, and have not had many grapes since. They grow along the split rail fence. I am just going to leave them this winter see what happens

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  13. I agree with Kymber... every year we learn more and more. This is a good thing!

    I have finally purchased two hive boxes, two supers, my smoker, my hive tool. Paint to paint the boxes. Well I say I.. Dh got them for me for my Birthday! :O). I had hoped to order bees for this spring but I may not make it. Its time to order now and I don't even have my boxes painted or my stands ready etc. BUT the good news is I will have two hives and supers for them as soon as I get them painted. Oh the foundations and frames etc.. All that :O)...

    I am about to start my first batch of Blackberry Merlot in my wine set up. Its only taken me nearly a year, again as Kymber said nothing is a over night thing... it all takes time and experimenting and learning!

    I would love for you to figure out the pumpkin thing. I would love to have a big patch out in the field myself, but I have not figured out a way to over come the issues I would face doing them that way.

    My grapes have not made grapes yet. I use the leaves for canning in pickled stuff. They have tannin in them which makes pickled foods crisper :O). So they have come in handy for that. Not sure why I am not getting grapes. I too need to learn about how to property prune them.

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  14. It would be so nice to have a grape set up established. Hopefully the other crops will do better this year.

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  15. I've brought some buckwheat seed so I'm going to try a few patches as well. Sounds like a good plan to keep land from lying bare.

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  16. We have plant eating weeds too.

    I've had both good and bad years with buckwheat. When it takes it makes a gorgeous field. I may try it again this year just for the bees.

    I like that you're going to give your experiments another go. Weather is so unpredictable that it's hard to tell whether conditions are good or not. Even things that ordinarily do well in an area can have a bad year.

    So here's hoping for a better year for us all.

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