What did you do in the garden today?

[ChicksnMore]

Papaya's are just tempermental cuss' and the fact the leaves do NOT grow back, and they pretty much never branch, just makes them look more atrocious when you DO - do things to them. Once I got a few of them and the shock thought of OMG you want to do WHAT !! was no longer there, I topped a few of them. They were about 6 foot tall and I whacked the top off it down to about a 2 foot stump. Did this about June - July. Then put a dixie cup in the hole to keep the goobers and gomers out of it while it healed and did it's thing. Took a few months but slowly it branched out, and has the short stubby stump with 4 branches hanging out pretty much equidirectional, each with it's own top now and fruit bearing. Much easier to work with, and since I lobbed it when it was mature, it was 'Mature' so as soon as first rows of new leaves started and it was growing in earnest again, make that about month 3 after beheading, it was blooming again.

Another benefit I found was, being a hermaphrodite, it'd get it's flowers at different times, but seemingly NEVER overlapping. So it'd get male flowers, then female flowers, but they wouldn't ever overlap and pollinate each other, so the fruit was always barren. By having multi branches now, that kind of unsynched it a bit so there ARE flowers of different sexes now and it does self p and seed for me. It's getting tall again, and fruit 'up there', this is year 3 for it, so I am tempted to whack it again, with a bigger fatter trunk this time of course, but way low, and see if we can do this AGAIN, with the branches down low and workable again,

Moving into the future, IF I find out that YES you CAN double whack them over the years and they successfully re head themselves, my next experiment (ok now were talking 5 years down the road, so hopefully im still alive !!) but get one, with a healthy head on it, so all 3 or 4 of the first severing branches are healthy, and whack THEM. That way each of THEM gets a new multi branched head on it, so it turns into like a Papaya Tree Canopy where the one tree, is tall, branches, taller and more branches and has like a bush head on it of maybe 10 tree heads or something. If that works i think it'd be an awesomely beautiful tree - to keep in the corner of my green house permanently !!

When I do finally die, someone is going to get a wonderful already established garden here! with a rotten cussing bird to keep watch on it

Aaron

A hermaphrodite! How lucky! Mine are all male or female. I left them out with a cover last year and nature topped them for me . One ended up rotting down almost to death...I finally got the rot to stop but by then I had less then a foot of trunk left. It has branched out nice from there though. The other only lost its tip and branched out well too. Hoping they make it through this winter in the bleeping east window...my west windows are both full til after Christmas. But they are looking so sad right now! Hard to believe that was a gorgeous full canopy a week ago!

I used to have a Mollacan cockatoo too. Loved how she'd flare her feathers, bob her head and make that laughing sound they do. Best birds ever!

 

[Ascholten]

Yep thats about how my papaya looks now, a nekkid stump with a sideshow bob tuft if leaves on top. hopefully it grows back some come spring time.

aaron

 

[chickengr]

I just read a book on how to grow a strong Better Boy tomato plant and it gave me some ideas. I will prune all the suckers and flowers off my Better Boy until it reaches 3 to 4 feet and let it bush out from there, up to the top of my 10ft cage. I will try feeding them once a week with 5-1-1 Alaskan fish emulsion and 0-10-10 Alaskan Bloom on different 3 day intervals. This is in addition to the 10-10-10 chemical fertilizer and granular lime I mixed with my potting mix. I tried testing the ph of the granular lime and peat moss separately and both came out neutral 7, so I will add 1/4 tsp of citric acid to the 2 gallons fish emulsion water mix to drop the ph to 6. I am also adding pressure cooked garlic water. Hopefully, the tomato plant will absorb the garlic water and repel the aphid and white fly.

I always prune tomato plants in order to get bigger fruits. I like the idea about garlic water but instead of cooking I think it is better to chop it and leave it in water overnight.

 

[chickengr]

While we're on the subject of citrus...I have a citrus tree next to my satsumas that is either a blood orange or a grapefruit...I've planted both but one died and I don't know which this is. It produced its first and only fruit this year and I just cut it open...I can't decide which it is based on flavor but I'm leaning towards blood orange that isn't fully ripe. Thoughts?


View attachment 3356630

looks like blood orange to me.

 

[chickengr]

Wow! It is COLD!

The WIND just adds to the experience.

Took husband 30+ min to shovel a fairly short area so his car could get to the road, due to the winds, it had drifted quite heavily. He’s an essential employee, so gotta get to work. He will be late but he’ll there all day, until later tonight.

Now teen is trying to patch together a solution for the goats. They are shivering, so we will put them into a large carrier with straw in the barn or workshop. I’ll go check on that project soon. Too bad the electrical to the goat pen was not finished yet-we could have had a heat lamp for them. Next time we will be ready.

Actually did some garden work yesterday- cut back the asparagus above ground (dead and dried) and covered with straw then some old chain link fencing and rocks. Brought the tomato cages into the barn.

Winds are coming straight on -directly full on front of house. The front door was never installed great, but we sealed up the gaps behind the trim, however, there are a couple areas where the door and frame have some tiny gaps we can’t fix easily. I put blue painters tape around the door to minimize the air being forced in. But now I have frost:

View attachment 3356708View attachment 3356709View attachment 3356710


Yes, it’s freaking cold for today thru Sunday.

I wonder if you help your goats if you feed them some whole corn in the afternoon as we do with chickens.

 

[chickengr]

Here's the windows in my sunroom this morning. I actually need new windows in the whole house because these suck... But I've never had them frost up like this before.
View attachment 3356783

The power is out in the surrounding countryside, including our street, but not in the towns. Of course I have a whole house generator so we are fine. We also have a fire going so the house is toasty warm. I feel bad for my neighbors. It's currently -10 below zero F. All the animals are staying inside except the ducks. I swear they are stupid. They have multiple sheds and wind blocks in addition to their coop and they choose to hunker down on the ground in the open. Smh...

ducks don't mind cold weather. when I had 2 wo muscovie ducklings I tried to keep them out of the very cold water. they kept going back and enjoyed their bath although they didn't feather up yet. ok, mother duck was around but I didn't see them going under her to warm up.

 

[CNJ]

I always prune tomato plants in order to get bigger fruits. I like the idea about garlic water but instead of cooking I think it is better to chop it and leave it in water overnight.

This guy has been growing 2 better Boy tomato plants to 15ft every year and has been harvesting more than 150lbs of tomatoes per plant. I am going to use fish emulsion instead of his fertilizer with out his water stick and I will be happy if I can get half of his production.

 

[chickengr]

I made some homemade apple cider. Mixed my glass with a touch of spiced rum. Just the cure for this crappy cold weather.

View attachment 3357187

recipe, please!

 

[Sueby]

Hey all. Surgery went well, nerve was super compressed so I have some instant relief. But man, this surgery was much more painful than the first. I have decided no garden this year for sure, it will just be too soon with the new back. Looks like strawberries & garlic it is, lol. oh & of course the volunteer cherry golds that will come up.

I can’t believe how cold its been for some of you! I think we’re in single digits & neg windchill but I have no intentions of leaving the house to find out! It did turn to snow when the temps plummeted, hopefully it didn’t turn out to be anything.

i wish DH would get up, I’m hungry! Stay warm all!

 

[Acre4Me]

Zero degrees out. Windchills to -26F. Gusts to 36mph today. But, overall, the wind has died down compared to yesterday when it was hard to walk into the wind.

Husband never made it to work yesterday. Had to call an alternate that lives closer to go in -luckily that person could go in for him, and do now he will work a shift for they person later this week, most likely.

Today, husband has a friend with truck who will drive him to work and then pick him up later. Our road is still terrible despite several passes by plows yesterday. The drifting snow is the worst- despite only receiving a few inches of snow, there are 2-3 foot drifts to contend with, being created by the non-stop winds. Husband will walk 1/4 Mile to the intersection to get to his ride, since our road is a no-go right now.

Two vehicles have been stuck all night on our road. For a time there was a third one stuck, but that car managed to back up out of the drift I guess, or somehow managed to travel out of our sight. Hoping things improve greatly today.