LGBTQ+ Poultry Keepers

[SnapdragonQ]

OMG @jolenesdad the memes are hilarious!!

Hi, I've seen this thread pop up many times but figured I probably did not have much to offer contribution wise so I never read it before today. Now I realize that maybe (hopefully?) I do have something to offer...love and support!

There were so many good posts and I apologize for not giving them all likes, but I'm pretty sure my finger would be broken and the clicker would be trashed if I had.

 

[jolenesdad]

OMG @jolenesdad the memes are hilarious!!

Hi, I've seen this thread pop up many times but figured I probably did not have much to offer contribution wise so I never read it before today. Now I realize that maybe (hopefully?) I do have something to offer...love and support!

There were so many good posts and I apologize for not giving them all likes, but I'm pretty sure my finger would be broken and the clicker would be trashed if I had.

We are all happy you’re here!!!


hope everyone had a great weekend. We got like the slightest reprieve from our 80 degree nights for a day and It will be almost 70 in the morning, mid 70s now, and I feel like I have a new lease on life.

here’s to August heat not frying us all up.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

I actually want it to heat up and get dry for august here.. We've had a cold, wet summer relatively speaking and my tomatoes seem to refuse to ripen when it's only 70s out.

 

[Kusanar]

I actually want it to heat up and get dry for august here.. We've had a cold, wet summer relatively speaking and my tomatoes seem to refuse to ripen when it's only 70s out.

It has been in the high 80's to 90's... Perfect for ripening tomatoes, but tomatoes and peppers won't set new fruit at those temps, I need it a bit cooler here so I can get some new stuff on the plants...

 

[ChocolateMouse]

@Kusanar, I'd trade you. My plants are so heavy with fruit they're collapsing and all of it is green, green, green! I have a foot long Anaheim pepper out there without a drop of color on it, just chillin' 'cause it got down to 63*F last night and there's just no sun. Everything is huge, heavy, and VERY green.

 

[Kusanar]

@Kusanar, I'd trade you. My plants are so heavy with fruit they're collapsing and all of it is green, green, green! I have a foot long Anaheim pepper out there without a drop of color on it, just chillin' 'cause it got down to 63*F last night and there's just no sun. Everything is huge, heavy, and VERY green.

I have 1 tiny jalipeno left to do it's thing, flowers are just falling off right now. Cherry tomatoes are loaded down and only changing 1-2 at a time which is a little irritating... the Big Boys only have 2-3 tomatoes between the 3 of them since something picked the 2 biggest ones and left them half eaten on the ground... sigh...

 

[SnapdragonQ]

It has been in the high 80's to 90's... Perfect for ripening tomatoes, but tomatoes and peppers won't set new fruit at those temps, I need it a bit cooler here so I can get some new stuff on the plants...

I'm a few hours south of you, got my tomatoes out late, and they are setting new fruits. But our night temps cool off decently (upper 60 to mid 70). Are your overnight temps staying too high?

...dontcha hate it when you find half eaten tomatoes. Like whoever the marauder was couldn't have eaten one whole one...oh no, they gotta sample three or four and just enough to ruin all of them.

 

[Kusanar]

I'm a few hours south of you, got my tomatoes out late, and they are setting new fruits. But our night temps cool off decently (upper 60 to mid 70). Are your overnight temps staying too high?

...dontcha hate it when you find half eaten tomatoes. Like whoever the marauder was couldn't have eaten one whole one...oh no, they gotta sample three or four and just enough to ruin all of them.

Right now our nightly temps are looking like 69-70 as the low. I have had some mornings where my car was reading in the 80's at 7am so not sure exactly the temps those nights but still hot.

Mine were set out May 2nd, then we got freezing temps for the next 2 weeks so they had to be covered and all for a while.

Yeah, something was nibbling on some of the cherry tomatoes as well, found half of one on the ground and 2 half ones on the vine. At least they are only eating the green ones, if they were eating the ripe ones after I waited that long for them to turn colors I would really be hot...

Corn is doing great still, hoping that nothing decides to destroy it before it's ready to harvest. My yeild this year will determine how tight I'm planting them next year. Not sure if they are planted too close to properly pollinate in the middle of the patch. When I harvest I will take the outermost layer out and put it in a pile, then the next layer, etc so I can see if it's just the outside that produced or all of it did ok.

Going to do 2 modified 3 sisters gardens next year so need to get that planned out as to where to place each plant.

 

[SnapdragonQ]

Even though my gardens up north were good sized, I never put in corn, I hope yours does really well! Sounds like you have some room to work with.
I looked at property up your way but ended up getting something further down 81. I'm at 2000' and on red clay. Thankfully I brought my experience of bed making with me so was able to start gardening right away, but mine are smaller here and I can't yet plant all the things I used to.
Have you put in any fruits trees or brambles? (Sorry, I can't remember from the gardening thread what all you had) I did that the first year and maybe I could see some fruit on the trees this year. **fingers crossed** The berries put out a modest amount this year. Not really enough for jam making, but I'll bet next year's harvest will be good.

Oddly enough with all the bunnies I have here, it seems to be the opossums and groundhogs that are the worst for munching on stuff in the gardens here. I got some electric netting up this year and it's helped a bunch.

 

[Kusanar]

Even though my gardens up north were good sized, I never put in corn, I hope yours does really well! Sounds like you have some room to work with.
I looked at property up your way but ended up getting something further down 81. I'm at 2000' and on red clay. Thankfully I brought my experience of bed making with me so was able to start gardening right away, but mine are smaller here and I can't yet plant all the things I used to.
Have you put in any fruits trees or brambles? (Sorry, I can't remember from the gardening thread what all you had) I did that the first year and maybe I could see some fruit on the trees this year. **fingers crossed** The berries put out a modest amount this year. Not really enough for jam making, but I'll bet next year's harvest will be good.

Oddly enough with all the bunnies I have here, it seems to be the opossums and groundhogs that are the worst for munching on stuff in the gardens here. I got some electric netting up this year and it's helped a bunch.

This is the first year I've started gardening out there.

I am snickering about you talking about good size gardens and me having a lot of space... I'm a nut who has corn in 1 corner of an 4x8 garden... lol

Right now the way my 4x8 is:
8 sq ft is popcorn (4 / ft, 2 seeds in each hole not thinned)
4 sq ft cherry tomatoes ( 1 / ft, 2 died but have not been replaced)
4 sq ft "Big Boy" tomatoes (1 / ft, died and was replaced with cutting)
6 sq ft Jalepenos (1 / ft, 2 died I believe, none replaced)
2 sq ft Bell Pepper (1 / ft, 1 died leaving 1 plant, not replaced)
8 sq ft was planted with carrots, harvested entire harvest of 3 carrots, re-planted 4 sq ft with cilantro, has not come up yet.

So I still have a solid 4 sq ft block that is empty as well as the spots where the tomatoes and peppers died.

Next year:
Putting a cattle panel hoop over the 4x8 garden.
Making 2 modified 3 sisters gardens, likely 4x4 ft each. One will be corn and beans, the other will be sunflowers and beans. No squash as I want to be able to get into the garden to pick the beans.
Putting up another cattle panel like a fence with 3 supporting t-posts to put summer squash on.
Will re-plant the 4x8 garden with tomatoes and peppers, and that may be all that goes in there during the hot part of the year. Apparently Basil grows well under tomatoes, so may do that on the south side. The hoop is to drop strings from and train the tomatoes and peppers up so stakes and cages are not needed.

I do have 11ish acres, but most is pasture for the horses and trees. Working with what used to be the lawn for the old rundown house that is out there as the garden area.

I do have plans for the area wrapping around the house to make a "secret garden" with fruit trees and eatable flowering plants. I want to put in an 8 foot privacy fence made by stringing high tinsel from wood posts and then training blackberry bushes up them to make a living wall. I figure that will be more effective at keeping things out than a real fence would be plus berries!