General Discussions - 2011 - Chapter 35

Let's pick up here.

Well, guess who. And I haven't been on all day. Where is everybody?

Just finished dinner and checking D G out before kicking back .

Been gone a couple days myself. Went over to Boone IA for another garden reunion, this week end. a little over 130 miles one way. Had a great time, but sure will be good to be in our own bed tonight.
I think I may be able to take some fishing tackle with as well. I better check with DNR Colorado to see what non resident fees are. Don't think my IA. lifetime would be any good there.
Well just heard I should cover my tomatoes, frost warning tonight.
Well will rest up and get back to work on preparations.
Russ

Russ, the thoughts of frost this late makes me want to cry... how 'bout you, digger?

Learned something, I think. Of the 12 bales, one of them was just about rotted and falling apart. THAT's the one growing the biggest tomato plant. It is also the only one sprouting green grass. Guess it says something about how aged the bales need to be.

The squash and cukes are doing well, and those bales have been loaded with mushrooms. Maybe that means they're alive.

I put a pic on line of the okra in the wagon, and those containers dry out much faster than anything else. They are up higher and the wind can blow underneath them, so I have to keep them watered, even when nothing else needs it. I'm still wondering if I should have thinned those plants. They just all seem too healthy to pull out. But I'm new at this so all advice heeded.

Linny

I would think if the roots have room to grow , they should be ok . Let this year be a learning experience . Those up side down planters need a lot more water . Mushrooms are good sign .

Yep; Digger is right the mushrooms don't hurt a thing. They are a little messy is all. They will disappear after a while.
Don't think we had frost, I didn't wake up till 7:00 it was 35 at that time. I had everything covered anyway, so think I got by. So far I have 30 hills of potatoes have sprouts above ground, frost could nip them but won't kill them. I'll go out after bit and check their leaves and see if any of them were blackened but I really don't think it went below 35.
Yeah, gardening here is a little different than in the warmer zones but then it's not bad. Jeanette has a shorter season and later frosts than I do here so we have to respect the weather a little more.
I tried a couple of the upside down tomatoes but I wasn't able to keep up with their demand I guess. I probably had too many irons in the fire and fell down on the job. This year would not be the year for me to try again either, as they would be on their own for the better part of July. lol

COME on July.

Sounds like you are ready to go Sally. Think you might want to wait until it warms up a little first.

Get DH off his duff . Got my "taking with me list " . July is the perfect month in Colorado .

Don't know if I mentioned , but anyone want to come by our camp and visit or stay , come on .

My granddaughter is going to Colorado for the summer. She just graduated HS.

Where will you be, digger?

I didn't mean to give the impression I'm growing upside down tomatoes. I have okra in a wagon. The wind blows underneath. It sure has been cool and windy both.

Here are the bales.

We'll be on the Arkansas river just north of Buena Vista .

It's been so damp here (NOT complaining!); not hot yet, but 70s during the days, high 50s-60s at night. My bales are so covered with my funny little mushrooms - they make me laugh every day when I head down to the garden! My peas aren't doing real well- too advanced when I put them in the bales . . but everyone else is doing great! Waiting 'til the nights are consistantly in the mid-high 60s, probably another week or 2, before I set them out.

Duh! In my post (above), I was referring to my tomato plants.

I got this in another forum I am on:

"I cringe every time I think of that wet straw and heat. I remember so many times barns catching on fire due to hay and straw being too wet and smoldering into a blazing fire.
I lost a horse in one of those fires many years ago. Her name was Commander's Melody."

Have any of you heard of, or had any problems with your bales? I am assuming she is talking about hay that has not been properly dried stacked in barns. I am wondering if having it in the hoophouse is such a smart idea?

What do you think?

begonianinny: your bales are looking good. Keep up the good work.

Jeanette: IMHO a straw bale sitting in a hoop house that is constantly getting watered is not going to catch on fire. A stack of wet bales packed tightly in a closed area could be a problem under the right conditions, but that's not what any bale gardener is going to face.

My thoughts exactly Kent. Thanks

I agree with Kent Jnette.... Have had years of hay in my barn and on occasion have had it be to damp. (had to unload that out of the barn) The fire issue is as Kent explained, hay piled high and tight that is too damp (not properly cured hay). Think of it as a really great compost pile. One can make compost by just dumping any combinations of leaves manure and hay in a loose pile.... but really pile that puppy up nice and tall with enough dampness and that pile will really heat up and cook. I have had bales get hot, but never heard of one bale actually combusting. Hope that helps.....

Thanks nini.

Speaking of bales catching on fire, all the newbies do need to watch how much nitrogen you put on those bales during pre-treatment.

A buddy of mine over-did it and got this result.

I'm glad he was not standing close by when the bales blew!

Kent

Shame on you Kent; Some of these newbies might believe you lol

Funny!!!!

Just feeling a little mischievous! :-)

I wasn't going to ask any questions !

The bale bomber strikes again

I hate it when that happens!!!

You guys are nuts!!

I think it is the only thing that keeps us all sane.. thought the pic was a hoot. But back to the thread... after having throughly chastising the part pit bull for her exploratory surgery on my beans and replanting the bales the next day (and adding green wire fencing to keep her out) I have been thwarted again by yet another four-legged family member. Although I felt the green fencing would discourage any further forays among the bales, I found my 29 lbs pug decided to tip toe through the tulips right down the middle of the beans and the okra. (how he managed to get between the openings, only Houdini knows that answer) Fortunately his specialty was only dancing along the bales and no digging, sooooo a little thinning for the beans (complements of Sunny fat feet) and a little smoothing of the dents and the bales seems no worse for wear. :) Good thing, I was running out of bean seeds!

I took my tomato plants out 4 days ago to the hoophouse an planted 2 of them. I went out the next day and they all looked like they had a disease. I thought maybe the heat from the hh got to them, it gets so hot in there even tho I have both ends open, and then the next day they were really bad. Almost all curled up and brown.

So, I went down to Spokane and bought a dozen more plants. Bob said he went down and watered the plants today and they don't look too bad. Wouldn't you know it. Don't know what it was. Night time temps are in the 40s. Shouldn't be too cold for them. Any ideas?

Not really Jeanette, but sounds like you may be right as 40 degrees won,t hurt them. Unless there was too much nitrogen. "That" could burn them.

I'm gonna miss my fresh mater sandwiches this year . A friend served store bought toms on sandwiches a few years ago . Delish . She said she dipped them in scalding , not boiling , water for a few seconds . Not long enough to skin them . ,let them set in fridge till cooled off then sliced them .It worked for the juice and flavor, a good subsitute . Not the real thing , but better than straight out of the store .

Maybe if I get some tomatoes this year I will sell you some for some of that gold you are going to get digger. LOL, good trade. At least about then you will think so.

I hope the new tomatoes do ok. I planted them in my bales today in the hoophouse.

One of the people here gave up his tomatoes (boy he grew good ones. Right in the ground in his greenhouse) and he went after gold. He is getting the gold and sitting on it, but hasn't had a good mater since. He will probably sell the gold when it gets real low.

I can see digger now. Doing the same thing. Don't think Russ and Barb will get the fever that bad tho. Only for one year. LOL

Jnette , You're funny .I moved here 20 years ago because I'm in the middle of the highest grade gold in the country . Actually , I've been setting on my gold for all those years plus . Never sold a gram of it . Bought some back years ago when It was cheap tho .
This trip is going to be the first vacation We've had in years . When we go to Tex doesn't count because we work on my sons place or ours all winter , between fishing . Septic lines to replace and chain link fence to finish and two porches to build this coming trip .But this time, I'm going to play in the water , eat stew and sandwiches off paper plates and enjoy coffee around the fire pit early in the morning .The gold will be a bonus .Russ and Barb will be doing whatever they want at the time . He will play in the water , learn to pan , and keep the gold he finds . I know he may find gold fever a little tiring , but for me , it isn't fun when it gets to be hard work .He'll have a little something to show the grandkids . The gold isn't big , like in California,we may go there next year, but Russ will know enough when he goes back home to play around with it closer to home if he likes .
It's the comradrie and just doing nothing , no responsibility for awhile that counts for me . It would be nice if you and D H could join us . I wish all my D G friends could be there . What a reunion that would be !Save me some of those maters , I'll probably pay a good price for "real" toms , I'm sure gonna miss not having them for sure .

First fried squash of the year!!!

Battered and fried to a golden brown with House of Autry chicken breader and olive oil.

Take those babies and slap them on some fresh Pepperidge Farms sourdough bread.

Mmmmmmmmm!

Hi Kent,
We had some of last years butternut squash with a little butter some onion and seasoning and a mess of this years asparagus, with a few morel mushrooms, for supper. Bet I gained a couple pounds for that
Still have one or two squash left

Sally. We might surprise ya next year. We get enough of that " color" We might roost on your door step fer a week or two. They say there is some flour here but probably not enough to pay for the labor involved. So I doubt there will be much fever involved, I'm probably a little too old for that much work, day in and day out.
I know I will need to either overhaul the van engine or get a better vehicle before I put many more miles on any of my vehicles. the van only has 371,000 miles on it with only a valve job for that many miles. We get back from this trip, I may have to get a job to play catch up, before I start on a overhaul. But I think the enjoyment will be worth all of that. Heh Heh, Kids think I'm nuts for trying but they forget some of the things they did.
I'm going to have tomatoes but I might have a jungle of weeds trying to choke them out when we get back lol I'm going to put a bunch of preen down on both sides of the row. going to do the same for the potatoes and the sweet corn.That should cut down some of the weed growth.
I wouldn't be able to have a bale garden and not water it for a month, so I guess this will have to do.

Jeanette; How are this latest bunch of maters doing? No more dying off I hope.

Russ: we still have a few squash casseroles left over that we froze. We need to make up a bunch more, and with this year's crop looking pretty good, we should have enough to last a couple of years.

Nope Russ, so far so good. We'll see. I am trying a couple on the deck in an Earthbox. I had a couple of those years ago and gave them to my daughter. She uses them for everything so I am going to try one this year just to see how they do.

Other than that I planted about 20. Everything from Jelly Beans, Sun Sugars, to EArly Bush Beefsteaks and everything in between. Those will be interesting. They are suppose to be good for our short season. We'll see.

I am getting very envious of your trip. Haven't been camping in years. Used to do a lot. I'm with you Russ. Sally would probably be wondering how she got involved in this with us that don't have all the energy we used to.

371K isn't too bad on that van. Just hope you make it back before you need to do more than the valves. I am sure the kids think you are crazy. They will have you registered in the "home" when you return. LOL

We crossposted Kent. Are these plants from the seeds you planted this spring? How did that go for you?