First time garden pictorial, 56k warning. FALL garden begins Page 12

I have some pics spread over 3-4 threads in this forum, so I have decided to consolidate so that I can keep track of thing as as they develop.

This is my first 'real' garden, and it has been a work in progress. I started with nothing but a box blade, and began using it as a chisel plow to break up my East Texas soil.

My plan was to plant corn, tomatoes, squash and other household vegetables. I also wanted to plant my pasture full of watermelons to sell this summer.

As for the box blade, itworked, but, after getting some advice from a buddy in my office, I purchased a 3 bottom plow:

(sorry for the blur:)



The plow cost 200.00 and I purchased it from a local bail bondsman.

Not knowing how to use it brought me back to this forum, when I got the advice I needed to level the plow and do this:



I was pretty proud of myself, until I realized I was supposed to have turned the soil in the Fall not the spring, but, no worries,. plowed it again to help mix the soil.

I also purchased a cultivator from Craig's List:







By using the cultivator, and by plowing twice, I turned part of my pasture in to this watermelon patch:





The cultivator and the plow were alos used to turn over the soil in part of my vegetable patch, this is the row of corn after the first seeds sprouted:



The hand pushed seeded I purchased left patchy areas with no seed, so, about 10 days after the first sprouts came up, I re-seeded the bare spots.

This is what the corn looked like this morning:




Along the way, I realized that my house well is no enough water to irrigate the watermelons and the vegetables. So I purchased a pump to run on my smaller tractor. We are also in the middle of a severe drought now in Texas. The smaller tractor's 15HP 3-cyl diesel gives me a very, very, economical method for watering the vegetables and melons.



I needed to put the intake in the creek that is about 350' from my garden.



I found that I could pump about 10 GPM from the creek, but when I spun the pump at 1000 RPM, it was sucking in some air. I have added sandbags to form a small dam now, but will have to add pics later.

This was the flow rate from a hose, with another hose feeding a sprinkler.



This is the color of the water from my creek. It is not sandy, it does not clear up or settle.



I've had some very minor problems with worms and bugs:





But, I have begun using Gordon's bug powder, Sevin Dust and Neem oil to help mitigate this issue:

The greens in the above pic are now fuller and almost pest free, they are in the middle of this pic:





I needed to pump at a higher flow rate, because I set up a storage tank to help increase my watering efficiency. This is my friend filling it. His kid is inside playing.



this is the watermelon patch this morning:



UPDATE, May 11th ..



And the corn, you can also see the tomatoes and peppers on the left rows:



This is a row of radishes, I have already picked two dozen. On the mounds, you will see small sprouts of a second planting of radishes. I planted these about Wednesday last week, so they came up pretty quick.



This was this morning:



This was March 15th



Garden 4/25/2001:



May 02, 2011





Garden May 11th:







EDIT to add a few things.

First on tractors. I own a 1954 Super M. It has an aftermarket 3-pt hitch. I paid 3000.00 for tractor in the summer of 2006. It was fully re-built, primed, ready for paint. I have spent about 900.00 on some general repairs for it. The main repair being the 3-pt system's cylinder and hoses were missing when I purchased the tractor.

I also own the smaller (blue white) Satoh Beaver. To purchase it, used, you would pay about 2500.00. I paid less, but it was purchased last summer from an Arfcommer.

I also purchased a box blade (450.00), a Cultivator (200.00 on CL) and the 3 bottom plow (200.00 roadside find).

The pump cost me 150.00, and then the intake hoses and valves were another 50.00.

I had to purchase several hundred feet of waterhoses at Wal-Mart. I think I bought 10 hoses @ 50' each for $7.97 ea. I had some other hoses laying around that I could use as well. Even though these are the 'cheap' Wal-mart hoses, they hold pressure fine, and are not too bad about kinking.

Seeds are cheap, about 1.00 per pack. I bought some extras to store for the fall.

Corn was given to me in seed form from a co-worker and a neighbor.

Overall, I only have about 25.00 in actual seeds.

Fertilizer was about 60.00. The bags of 10-20-10 cost 9.99 and I was told by my neighbor to mix it 50/50 with cotton seed meal. The meal was also 9.99 for a 50lb bag.

The storage tank was a roadside find for 30.00, but I needed another 30.00 in fitting to attach a waterhose to the drain.

Fuel has been about 100.00 (although some of this is stored for the Farmall later this summer.)

Misc expenses have been hoes, WD-40, grease, handheld grinder, bug spray, bug powder ... 100.00 or so.

Not counting the price of the tractors, and box blade ( I had them prior to gardening for mowing and brush clearing) I have spent just under 1200.00 for the garden this year.

If I sell watermelons, I hope to sell them for 4.00 each to a local produce stand (1/2 mile away). I need to sell about 300 melons to break even.

I also intend to sell the excess tomatoes (I have 27 plants @ .50 each) and peppers (24 @ .65 each)

TRG

Doing good. I've been working in my grandmother's garden for my fresh foods. Already gotten buckets of radishes and onions, enough to last me the rest of the year. You'll be getting a nice harvest off that nice setup you got. I noticed you said you were in East Texas, I'm in Commerce.

My wife goes to A&M up there.

My onions were put in late, but they are beginning to get bulbs. I really don't like radishes, and have begun to give some away.

I planted more of them to sell. How are you storing your excess radishes?

TRG

We all just eat the radishes. We eat them for lunch and supper, and a few of my friends like them. Once I cut and clean them, I put them in airtight containers and they seem to last until we eat them all.

I'm a sophmore at Commerce here, going to get my degree in Wildlife Management / Cons, planning on being a Game Warden after being a LEO for a few years.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/quick-pickled-radishes-recipe/index.html

Gonna give this a try later this week.

TRG

Do you know if your local water is high in iron or manganese? If it is, the agitation of the water by your pump can cause it to color up like that.

Might be high in iron. I can get some discoloration from my well if a faucet is left dripping in a tub. Green/red stains.

I should add this...The pump is now a 'critical' part of my garden. I would have lost the watermelon field (and did lose some) to the drought.

We received only 1/100th of an inch of rain in March. We had some storms last night, but I had fertilized at dusk. there were still traces of fertilizer above ground this morning.

If you are planning a garden, and you are new at it, water is a primary concern. My office-buddy that gardens, was lamenting the price of his water for his garden. I can water my entire vegetable patch in under an hour. It takes less than a quart of diesel to water BOTH the watermelons and the vegetables combined.

I underestimated my need for a secondary water source. I assumed rainfall would do most of the watering for me, and the house-water well would be supplemental only.

Pump water is now my primary source, and rainfall is supplemental, at best.

TRG

I have tried to do the same thing (plant tomatoes,corn,cabbage,etc) and nothing comes up. If I plant tomato,pepper plants and others, they die or the bugs and animals eat them, so I gave up on gardening for a while.

That's a relatively big plow. Which tractor did you use it on? I am sure the little one couldn't pull it


ETA Good luck with the garden

Super M pulled the plow. John Deere model 810a-Special Trash three-bottom mouldboard plow. It is missing two coulters (round things in front of the mouldboard). However, my sandy soil makes them optional. The 'Special Trash' is not because it belongs to me, this means that it is built to handle larger stumps and rocks. I have no idea how, but supposedly, the large blades can flip out/back instead of breaking anything.

All I knew, when I bought it, was that it was 'a plow.'

I am 100% new at this farming stuff.

My '54 Super M was sold as a 'true 3 bottom plow' in the marketing material. It pulled it fine, but it could still get stuck on occasion. I had my work cut out for me.

On the peppers and maters, I've always just grown a few in a raised bed, or containers. I expect to wake up one morning and see them all on the ground from bugs.

Folks in this forum have been Johnny-on-the-Spot though about answering questions and steering me in the right direction.

TRG

You mention buying seeds for $1 a pack... Are you buying from the display racks at walmart/home depot/etc.? I assume there isn't a feed store nearby that carries seed? Just curious, as it's much cheaper(here anyway) to buy seed at the feed store than buying the packets.


I've had some problems with a push planter myself, though I figured out a couple of them. One was similar to yours with irregular seeding. I figured out that the plate I was using wasn't really correct for the seed I was planting. Some of the seeds were small enough to go through and others were not or had to be at just the right angle. The second problem was a result of me soaking the seed in an effort to get them to sprout a little faster. I didn't drain the excess water off and then let the seed "dry" before trying to run it through the planter. It basically stuck together and either refused to go through the plate or jammed up the feed chute.

Yes, Wal-mart for the seed. I have seen them at the feed store, but, I like the packets because they tell me spacing and planting depths. Still learning what/when/where on the plants.

I seem to have radishes down pat. Beets and cabbage still growing, but, apparently the heat will soon take them.

I was told that the issue with my planter was because of the irregular corn sizes. Some are too big for this type of planter.

Currently I am planning/Designing a hand planter to use this fall.

Something like this?



PVC, a couple of T's, two caps...

Drop the seed down the tube and it should go pretty quick. Should mark my holes, set my depth, and keep me going straight down the row.

TRG

Yep, some seed won't go through the plate, even if the plate is marked for that type of seed. I don't know if the manufacturer(s) offer extra plates, but if they do you could buy an extra and modify it. Or use the device you've designed, it should work fine. I considered something similar myself, but I'm just too lazy to build it, and I'd be too lazy to use it.

Our local feed stores hand out charts with plant spacing/row spacing/depth/time/time to maturity/seeds per 100 ft/avg crop per 100 ft and a couple other data points on them. I don't have a working scanner or I'd scan it in and upload to photobucket for you. I'll see if I can get my wife to help me operate the openoffice.org version of word or excel to create it myself.

Example:

vegetable	Seed/Plants per 100 ft	Planting depth(in)	Distance between rows(inches)	distance between plants(inches)	Avg. crop height(ft)	Spring planting as to avg. frost free date	Fall Planting as to avg. freeze date	Days to maturity	Avg. harvest season(days)	Avg Crop (per 100 ft)
watermelon	1 ounce	1-2	72-96	36-72	1	Mar 17-Apr 28	July 28- Aug 11	80-100	30	40 fruits

Don't worry about scanning it. I'll ask the co-op if they have the information.

I appreciate the advice.

TRG

Very nice, TRG. I'm scrambling against the season to get the tractor and equipment together this year in time. We are still hitting the low to mid- 20s at night, but I should have my beets and some other stuff in already. Oh well, this is my first year at this house so I'm working frantically to get everything ready. We've been here 6 moths next week.

Thanks for posting your costs, interesting to see what equipment goes for there.

No problem on adding the costs. It has been eye-opening for me as well to see the price of equipment. Keep in mind, I normally will not buy a piece of equipment at retail, and if I find it used, it better be half-off the standard/accepted price before I will buy.

"Cheaper to grow your own." is something that I have found to be untrue.

I know that I will amortize some of this equipment over the years, and as long as I don't break a plow, overheat a tractor, or blow a tire, my costs should go down next year.

The only real 'problem' is I need more room already for peas, beans, squash ... and I think I should have added more melons for late summer, and a pumpkin patch, maybe some gourds...

TRG

I've learned to plant more of the stuff the critters don't like too much. Asparagus, taters, garlic, cabbage, ect and don't even bother with corn or peas. No way to keep the deer and coon out of the corn here.

My two dogs were out the door at 2AM last night to chase animals.

It will be a toss-up to see what does more damage, deer and coons, or two 100lb Rott-mixes blasting through there after them.

TRG

Harvested my first batch of greens this morning.

Two Wal-Mart bags stuffed full that I gave away at work. I have enough still to harvest this afternoon for salads all weekend.

TRG

It's small, and it's a tight fit, but, I like it.



TRG

Toss my... Awe man!!! Tech forum rules apply!!!! <sigh>

Hands off of my Beaver! I've damn near killed myself twice on that little bitch, so we have a special relationship!

Seat cushion is still a little pinched in the middle.

TRG

Sounds like you need some recipes for greens. They can be used in about any recipe calling for spinach.

We've used them in salads and in the pan cooked with lard from the feral I fed over the winter.

The main problem is getting all the dirt off them greens.

I'm going to try and fashion some sort of wash/rinse table near the garden so that I can clean them better before bringing them inside.

TRG

These are the pics from this morning.

I am having some trouble out of my tomatoes. I think it was too much fertilizer. Going to need to replace about 8 plants.

This one seems to be healthy:



But these are the adjacent plants:





Same fertilizer, same rain and hand-watering.

I watered the watermelon patch yesterday and added more seed to the spots that have zero-to-one sprouts showing. Combination of too little rainfall, and bugs means that some mounds are bare. Not a big deal, just means a staggered harvest, I hope.

I also ran the cultivator through the melon patch to stop the early growth of some grass and weeds. This meant detaching the irrigation pump.



This is the same melon plant picture earlier to show the amount of growth. I think planted them around march 14th.



This is the garden this morning. Anyone need some greens? Mine are going crazy from fertilizer and water.



And this is the corn this morning as well. Hard to tell from this pic, but some stalks are now 12" tall.



TRG

When I was taking pictures, some of the onions started clowning around and hamming it up for the camera:



TRG

Looks like the garden and watermelon patch are coming right along. The farmers where I grew up would say corn stalks should be as high as an elephant's eye by the 4th of July. I suspect you will see the truth of those words.

We'll see.

Up close, the corn appears to be struggling, I think a steady rain would help them, but everyone I talk to has a horror story called, "the one time I tried to grow corn..." followed by tales of woe, worms, bugs, wilt, drought, etc.

TRG

In Utah it's 'knee high by the 4th of July', but we have a much shorter growing season.

The Mormon pioneers hit the Salt Lake Valley on July 24 1847 and started planting corn immediately. They got a harvest that year, but it was small. I think that's a pretty short season, so I want to try it this year and see if it's possible to plant corn after some of the early vegetables and still get a corn crop out of it.

I recently moved to 6000ft, I haven't even plowed yet and we hit lows of 23 twice last week. I don't know about you warm climate guys with all the green stuff growing wild and long growing seasons.

Saw your other thread with snow in the pics. I was shaking my head, wondering how you were able to grow anything at all.

TRG

I bet you could use some cheap immigrant labor for the summer....

TXL

An electric wire fence, works pretty well.

I thought about this. So far, I have zero indication that anything likes my garden other than a few cut worms and a couple of squash beetles.

No deer tracks, no rabbit tracks.

I have some CDs hanging in the nearby trees to spook the deer. I keep the grass and weeds mowed, and fencelines poisoned to reduce the cover for rabbits, and my two mutts like to chase squirrels that are foolish enough to leave the safety of the trees.

TRG

TRG
What did you spread the fertilizer with? You are probably a month ahead of me. I am still trying to get the garden area cleaned up from the land clearing. I procrastinated on getting soil samples tested and now may not get them back before having to take a "SWAG" on lime and fertilizer.

Right now all I have is a Craftsman spreader to pull behind my ATV.

The bottoms are spring-tripped rather than shear-pinned. If the plow encounters a large unmovable obstacle, the bottom will trip and swing up out of the way of the obstacle. It's a safety feature.

We had the same plow for a while, if memory serves resetting (we plowed a lot of river bottom filled with large sandstone, shearing a pin was a common occurrence) wasn't that bad. Going on memory, the last bottom would trip most often. We would usually reset by backing up on a stump.

I have fertilized everything by hand.

In order to reduce my costs, I have not used a broadcast spreader. My thinking is that I can target just the watermelons, and not the surrounding weeds.

On the vegetables, I have used the same logic.

I mix up my fertilizer, fill a pint glass jar, and walk to each plant. I can normally fertilize half the row (50-70') with one jar. Then I simply refill and repeat.

It takes a little more time, but I am not using very much fertilizer.

I harvested a 15 gallon trash bag full of greens this morning. Cutting 2-3 large leaves from each plant. This is the row of greens post-harvest:



TRG

I am glad you posted this. I was showing the plow to a buddy on Sunday and explained to him that the plow was designed to trip if a large object was hit. I have sprayed penetrating oil in to the joint, and I saw a loose bolt (big one) that appeared to be out of place. I suspect it is supposed to be a shear pin after reading your post.

TRG

If you're referring to the large bolt sticking out of the second bottom in this photo



That isn't a shear pin. It's far too large to be a shear pin. The plow would break before that bolt broke.

Yup, that's the pin I was talking about.

I'll add 'get better pics of the plow' to my agenda for tomorrow so you can help me see what I have and how to use it and service it.

TRG

I believe that large bolt works like the "lock" to keep the bottom in the plowing position. When the plow trips the front of the bottom will tip down and rotate back towards the rear of the plow. To reset it you have to stop and back up the bottom should click back into the ready to plow position. It has been a long time since I have used a trip plow so my memory may be a little off. We only run auto reset plows now, no more stopping and backing up. On a side note, it will be to your benefit to either put a light coat of paint or grease on your mouldboards. The plow will pull much easier when you go to use it the next time if you don't have to scour them. (the soil rolls over better) YMMV

I saw someone else here post about the rust and I sprayed mine down with oil right after I plowed. It's one of the few things I got right.

I've got a good collection of head sized rocks out of the watermelon patch, but, so far nothing has tripped the plow.

I think burley or SCW also mentioned the stump and back up method. I'll keep it in mind when I plow this fall.

TRG

Yep, which makes me think the spring trip mechanism on that bottom may be bad. The previous owner just shoved a bolt in there.

You want the things to trip, otherwise you're going to damage your plow. With that bolt in there, there's just no give.

I'm the absolute last person you should ask about that. I have general knowledge, but that's about it. We kept that plow for 2-3 years and I don't think I ever used it.

These are pics from the back deck this morning. A misty rain, but still no appreciable rainfall here.
That raised bed has 'edible' cactus in it, but nothing else (except a dying blueberry start). Ideas for it?



Same angle, but a closer view of the new 'wash table'. Two wire baskets on top so I can spray off the mud and grime. Well water from the house, on a hose sprayer.



And my main squirrel getters. They also demolished 8' of corn yesterday digging for a mole. Some days, I just don't know whether to kiss 'em or kill 'em.



Squash and beans beginning to sprout in the corn rows. All the vegetables got watered yesterday (not the melons).

The irrigation water hoses were moved to the north one of the garden so that I would no longer need to walk in the middle of the melons and vegetables dragging a hose to water.

TRG

A few pics of plows. From another thread, I learned that there is more to a plow than just a piece of metal cutting the soil. You farmers are going to rue the day when I finally crack this code and learn your secret signs!

Bedding plow? Middle buster? Potato plow? I dunno anymore, but I paid 40.00 for it at a swap meet and I think I can plant and dig potatoes with it.



The big plow. Can someone identify the purpose of the large bolt?



I would also like an assessment of the plow's share(s). Do they need to be replaced, or can the simply be cleaned up and used for the next 10-15 years?





TRG

It looks like a middlebuster to me. Sometimes the "foot" is removable and then it becomes a Subsoiler.

http://www.lowerymanufacturing.com/Middle%20Buster-Subsoiler-Towbar.htm

The fuck is this? What do I pay you for? How was I supposed to know about this thread.....


Jesus.....




Tag.

Avatar makes that even funnier!

TRG

What a difference. Here it's "Knee high by the 4th of July".

ETA: Guess we ain't the only ones!

I have some that is knee high right now. The second planting is shorter though.

TRG

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