What did you do in the garden today?

[Ascholten]

Tuesday morning we'll see a hard freeze of 21. That will put an end to the pumpkins in the fields for the kids, the late season apples on the trees, done. I'll put the mums in the garage.

Is that normal this time of year? granted ive been southernized for many years but it seems a bit early for that cold already. geez I sure don't miss chicago.

Aaron

 

[WthrLady]

We're still swinging to near 80 during the day.

 

[Elyrian1]

Okay on that note just ordered my frost cloth for the season. It'll be here Monday. Our Tuesday night low is 42, very unlikely to frost but I'd rather not walk out to "Surprise!!!!" ya' know?

Today may have been our last 90F for the year, we'll see. Got a bunch of okra picked and processed, grabbed every cherry tomato that was starting to ripen ad brought those in, and now it is raining as the cold front moves through. Not getting over 70 tomorrow with thunderstorms expected. Perfect day to busy myself indoors.

I have a bunch of extremely happy Egyptian Walking Onions getting about 5-6 inches tall already. Sure do grow! Fall greens garden is doing okay. It could be better though. The collards and cabbage can't seem to get themselves in order, and the kale hasn't taken off yet, but the lettuce is producing strong and I need to eat another big salad tomorrow, lol.

 

[Chold05]

We spread 2 yards of mushroom manure and 2 yards of wood chips! Bringing us to a total of 24 yards of compost and 5 yards of wood chips so far!

We are switching to no till gardening next year. Looking forward to seeing how it does.

 

[chickengr]

Look at your daily electric consumption. Either at the meter just running these things, or you can buy plugs that you plug in and it tells you how much comes thru the plug, add them all up, and figure out the kwh you will need for a week. from there you can size your battery bank and panels to fit your needs. The dish washer is going to be a killer with that heater element / drying element in it.

www.altenergystore.com is a good place to look for articles and how to's on that

aaron

I will use hot water from solar boiler. I cannot find information if I can use 12v and 2v batteries in the same system. to get 24v I could use 1x12 v and 6x2v batteries - that would be the cheapest option. but is that possible?

 

[chickengr]

I'm currently set up on net metering but this setup isn't what I THOUGHT I was buying. Currently I get all my daily electricity from the grid. The power my panels generate goes straight to the grid. Essentially it runs my meter backwards. So I'm not really using any of the power I generate myself. If the power grid goes down, my house defaults to the backup generator which runs the entire house on propane.

So here's what I REALLY wanted to do and a subsequent question... I really would like to use my own power to run my house. I realize I need a battery wall to store the power to do that. But what I'd like to know is if I can set my system up as such -

Use my own power FIRST. If I don't have enough stored or available, then pull energy from the grid. If my battery wall is full, then send excess electricity to the grid. So basically keep the net metering but allow me to use the energy I create first. That way if the grid goes down, I can still use the power my panels are creating even if the grid is down. Then, my house will not fail over to the generator unless the battery wall is depleted AND the grid is down.

The question is if this is possible...

that was my idea too but not possible here. that's why I decided to go off grid (I will also escape tons of taxes).

 

[chickengr]

I planted my multiplier (potato) onions and garlic today. The ground was nice and damp from the 2" of rain we've had in the past few days, so they can root. I covered them with a few inches of fluffy mulch. Another garden task done.

My neighbor doesn't want her pine needles, so I'm raking them up and using them as mulch. Wow, are white pines shedding a LOT this year! I raked the area yesterday, and you couldn't tell this afternoon. We did get some heavy rain last night, and it's windy, so that's bringing them down fast this year.

I'd still like to get some mulch spread around the garden, but if I don't, it's ok. I feel pretty good about what's going to be waiting for me in the spring.

Oh. Right. I still need to move a couple asparagus plants yet. Just waiting for them to go night-night for the year.

I use pine needles in my coops and runs. at some point I bring poopy needles to my garden.

 

[igorsMistress]

Good morning gardeners. Nothing happening outside this weekend. We had a series of thunderstorms yesterday with sunny periods in between. Mother Nature was kind enough to drop an inch of rain in my yard

 

[Ascholten]

I will use hot water from solar boiler. I cannot find information if I can use 12v and 2v batteries in the same system. to get 24v I could use 1x12 v and 6x2v batteries - that would be the cheapest option. but is that possible?

Yes it's doable, BUT it's not advisable.
They'd need to be the same chemistry, ie Lithium, Lead acid etc you can NOT mix types.
you'd need a cell equalizer across the 2 volt portion.
they should be from the same manufacturer and really close to the same age.

Id recommend this ONLY if you already have the batteries and are just looking for how to make it work, Id NOT buy them and do this.

Aaron

 

[Ascholten]

Folks:

So we don't totally clog this topic up, and to keep the info all in one place.
I have started a new thread about Solar Power, Alt Energy Etc.

If you wish, please post there and I'd be more than happy to answer your questions, try to help you out etc. Some of this stuff can get detailed and I really don't want to clog up the gardening thread with 20 pages of Solar Battery Maintenance and Dancing Chicken Opinions

Aaron

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/solar-power-stuffs-questions-and-answers.1552086/