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Post by jack on Jul 23, 2007 16:18:29 GMT -6
Gidday
Hey Douglas, I don't know anything about your pests and diseases up there but that sounds a bit like they got some fungus going on.
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Post by jack on Jul 27, 2007 2:30:48 GMT -6
Gidday
Sothern Spirit, it is only if you have heaps of very green plant material hard agains the plants that they could possibly burn, the main thing is not to compress the stuff against the palnts.
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Post by jack on Jul 24, 2007 4:42:09 GMT -6
Gidday
There aint nuthin better you can do for your garden than to grow a cover crop. But here's where I differ from whats said so far. I reckon you only need to cutt the cover crop sos it wont keep growin and leave it on the soil, then you can plant straight into it ifin you are setting out plants. If you are sowing seeds, just drag the litter out from where you are wowing the seeds then when theys a growin bring it back in.
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Post by jack on Mar 19, 2007 0:00:26 GMT -6
Gidday
Most hybrids are not viable so they will not cross with your other breeds.
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Post by jack on Mar 21, 2007 2:39:25 GMT -6
Gidday
It could help them if you get a clear drink bottle or something similar and cut the bottom out then put the bottle over where the seeds are to make like a little green house.
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Post by jack on Mar 11, 2007 18:27:40 GMT -6
Gidday
No it is definately not organic.
Personally I wouldn't bother about it but that's up to you.
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Post by jack on Mar 10, 2007 4:27:58 GMT -6
Gidday
Hey Doug I think from how I read this that it is actually seed of potatoes and not seed potatoes. Therefore you would plant in a seed tray to get em started.
I think the hills would mean mounding up around the growng spuds. I always plant my spud straight into the soil and only just cover them. Then as they grow I mound the soil up around the plants which help keep more light out from the roots and allows more tubers to swell into spuds. It also keeps the weeds out too.
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Post by jack on Mar 9, 2007 14:28:45 GMT -6
Gidday
The only people who ever grow spuds from seeds down here are those who are trying to breed new varieties because they very rarely grow true from seed. I would do just what you were told and plant them in seed trays indoor then when the are gowing plant out and treat like any old spud.
The onions, I would have though you were a bit late for them from seed as they take 6 months to mature. Well the breeds we have down here anyway.
Your soil sounds like it needs heaps of organic matter added. Like straw and don't skimp on the amout. You don't need to dig it in but let your little livestock do the for you. I mean worms and all those things down in your soil that you caint see. So mulch as much as you can with good organic matter, as long as your plants can see the daylight out the top you caint put too much on.
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Post by jack on Mar 4, 2007 21:27:35 GMT -6
Gidday
Ewe jokers won't send us any of your global warming. I just heard one of our top weather guru's on the radio at lunchtime. He says that February was the 5th. consecutive moth that we have had seriously below normal temperatures.
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Post by jack on Mar 4, 2007 15:08:40 GMT -6
Gidday
Bloody terrible mate.
The outdoor ones have given us 2 small tomatoes and that's all. The glass house ones are at least 6 to 8 weeks behing and we are already heading into autumn.
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Post by jack on Mar 3, 2007 18:11:15 GMT -6
Gidday
Nope. I just sold the domain name of the craft site I was running.
If any of ewe jokers want to get an AquaJack you will just have to win that tomato growing contest.
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Post by jack on Mar 3, 2007 14:05:05 GMT -6
Gidday
Now this is great, a good discussion.
Firstly though, what do you mean by no link? Link to what.
I'm a funny old bugger and this is just what I believe and have picked up over too many years, it is not a cut and past from someone else if that's what you meant.
If it's just a link to the AquaJack well at this stage I can't do that because I have sold my website and it no longer exists. Thanks for reminding me about that. However, I can, I think, email anyone what was on the website, or what Phil has on the pamphlet with the one he has.
A lot of what I now believe about soil has been developed and adapted from the principles in the book "Ploughman's Folly" which was written in 1943. It is a basic science that has been suppressed by the chemical industry simply because it shows that no chemicals at all are needed in good healthy sustainable agriculture, so a multi billion dollar industry is worse than useless but downright dangerous.
Now your fall idea about covering the soil with organic matter is spot on if there is nothing actively growing in it. To me that is the job for compost. But if you want the healthiest food for you from your garden you need to incorporate uncomposted organic matter into the surface area of the soil when you plant you food plants. You need decomposition going on amoungst your growing plant roots so that there is the production of carbon dioxide right there.
But don't, like do bloody not, dig you green feed or whatever too deeply. If you do that or put plastic on the soil the decomposition will be without oxygen or anaerobic and instead of producing carbon dioxide it will produce methane which is poisonous to both us and the plants.
Plants are the opposite to us, in that they breathe in carbopn dioxide and breathe out oxygen so for their normal growth they get their carbon dioxide from the air. But to get those trace ellements they need carbon dioxide to be released into the soil in the presence of soil water, and the trouble with compost is that that stage of decomposition have already finished. Hence the need for animal poop or green feed in the soil while the plants are activly growing.
I told you I was a funny old bugger with way out ideas.
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Post by jack on Mar 3, 2007 4:08:41 GMT -6
Gidday
Great post there X.
Of course the most efficient way to put water where it's wanted is with an AquaJack.
Now may I please take the liberty of adding to this.
You say the water passing downwards through the soil is percolation, but really that is no more than simple old fashioned gravity. In a mineral soil there is absolutely nothing to stop that downward movement of water except the surface tension of the water and then that will only be one or two molocules of water thickness around each bit of soil, and will soon dry or the tension give way and the soil is once again dry. Mineral soil cannot store any water.
In a soil with a high percentage of organic matter in, the organic matter is porous so it will soak up many times it's own weight in water like blotting paper and there is extremely little percolation or loss of water because the organic matter also resists evapouration.
Better still, if the organic matter is still in the process of decomposition, then the water aids the bacteria in doing this. Decomposition causes the release of carbon dioxide but CO2 is a heavier than air gas so stays in the soil and disolves in the water forming carbonic acid. Now here's where most people go wrong, they add lime to lower the acidity, but the carbonic acid is one of the best acids for disolving rock and that is all the mineral content of the soil is, small bits of rock.
The rock/carbonic acid solution is full of all the nutrients from the rock, including the much needed trace ellements which are vital to the healh of both the plants and anything that eats them, like us. The acidity of a soil caused by decomposition will never be any harm to any plant, even though it may not grow as fast, but because of the greater uptake of trace ellements both the plant and anything living off it will be far healther too. If the mineral/carbonic acid solution is not taken up by the roots of growing plants, then it being heavier than pure water will move down through the soil and those minerals will be lost forever.
This is why it is so important to make sure you add as much organic matter as you can to your soil. It is also the reason why since the use of man made chemical fertilizers and even the adding of just crushed lime, will deplete our soils of so much of the goodness that they should be yeilding to us.
And here is my first disaggreement with a lot that has been said on this forum. Do not add your organic matter to the soil in the autumn and wait till spring before you plant. To do so allows the precious minerals released from the rock component of the soil by the carbinic acid to be washed out with the winter rains. This is why our modern world is so full of sickness and disease, because even when you are eating a ballanced diet, those veges do not have the benifit of all the trace ellements that you have allowed to be washed away, even though you may have religiously followed apparently strict organic gardening methods.
Now, where I strongly disagree with old X, in that he said that plastic is a good mulch. Not so because it prevents the movement of both water and gasses (oxcygen and cabon dioxide). Anything to be a good mulch in my opinion must allow the free movment of these two things.
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Post by jack on Feb 21, 2007 13:40:05 GMT -6
Gidday
As far as I know you just make sure they are cut with a good long angle on the bottom and bung em in a good composty soil and keep moist.
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Post by jack on Feb 24, 2007 23:36:41 GMT -6
Gidday
Well I had a raw onion samish on homemade bread with that red one. Bloody beauty Eh!
Now Phil, what da ya mean with this here long day short day and day neutral?
And what are sets?
Down here it is normal to plant on the shortest day and they are normally rerady or at least nearly on the longest day.
I planted seedling at the end of June and because we haven't had a summer cos you buggers aren't sending down any of that global warming, this year the oinions just didn't stop growing at the end of the 6 months.
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Post by jack on Feb 23, 2007 4:12:18 GMT -6
Gidday With no summer heat this year me onions have just kept growing. I have bent the tops over to help them dry off;- See the birdies and bunnies did leave me some. But what do you do with onions this size? A bit of a handful Eh!
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Post by jack on Feb 14, 2007 15:26:56 GMT -6
Gidday
Like die, like real dead, or just fallen over?
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Post by jack on Feb 13, 2007 22:46:44 GMT -6
Gidday
Can someone tell me what is the best stage to harvest onions for the longest keeping.
They're lookin goooood.
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Post by jack on Apr 4, 2008 4:04:21 GMT -6
Gidday
Thanks for that mate. It don't seem very strong mix but peroxide sure is a great stuff and this is the first time I have heard of it being used as a garden spray.
A bottle of 50% sure would go a long way at those dilution rates Eh!
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Post by jack on Apr 3, 2008 3:45:17 GMT -6
Gidday
Hey Phil,what strength hydrogen peroxide to you buy. Like is it a commercial strength of 50% or just the old 6% stuff. And by one cup tp could you please tell me how much that is, like in mls or ounces.
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Post by jack on Jan 10, 2007 3:25:16 GMT -6
Gidday
Hey Amish, I didn't think you were farming in Queen Street, perhaps Karangahape Road though. But without giving your exact address, what part of the country. Your questions about the horses and things interest me, that's all.
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Post by jack on Jan 10, 2007 3:22:31 GMT -6
Gidday
Thanks Beagle Talker. A very well answered post. And by the way, our winters here, this year at least, are lasting about 9 or 10 months it seems. We have had 20 degree frosts this year and snow on the ground a couple of times, one of wjhich was for 2 weeks. So not your sorta winter but cool anyway.
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Post by jack on Jan 9, 2007 3:04:44 GMT -6
Gidday
Hey NZAmish, are you in an area where any cropping is done? or do I remember right in thinkin you are near the big sin city, Auckland?
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Post by jack on Jan 9, 2007 3:03:14 GMT -6
Gidday
Thank ewe jokers.
Unfortunately, the farmers in this area are too hell bent on following the chemical way. Would you believe that they still burn off their stublle.
I was told by someone ages ago that there was a crop that could be used, I think it was some sorta cash crop, that was supposed to clean up soil by killing off or at least detering all the little bugs and thing or should I say buggers. I caint for the life of me even remember where I heard that let alone what the drop was.
Down here we plant our oinions in the middle of winter, apparently they are supposed to develope a good root mass before spring and then they just spring outa the ground. Or at least that's the theory.
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Post by jack on Jan 6, 2007 5:32:48 GMT -6
Gidday
Yep that's right I was talkin about a cover crop. Would 4 months running from late summer be long enough and would it help to clean the soil any so that I could grow the same crope successively?
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Post by jack on Jan 5, 2007 20:31:50 GMT -6
Gidday
I am not sure of what ewe jokers call it but I will soon be harvesting my onion. Yes very late but we have had a real crappy season so far.
What I am wanting to know is:-
Can I grow a cover crop to hoe in between crops of onion. Like from late summer to about mid winter. I am wondering if there is something that can not only keep the soil covered as well as being used to add organic matter to the soil and also if such thing exists, to clean up the ground so I can follow with another crop of onions.
Or am I asking too much.
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Post by jack on Jan 5, 2007 1:19:14 GMT -6
Gidday
Well we have just had the coldest December for over 50 years.
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Post by jack on Apr 4, 2008 4:08:29 GMT -6
Gidday
I personally would not like to use those things or the crystals for anything that I would want to eat later. Simply because I don't know ezactly what they are made of.
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Post by jack on Dec 29, 2006 3:33:54 GMT -6
Gidday
Good onya mate.
There is such a thing as cold fusion which has been achieved by scientist and has produced up to 600 times more energy than was put in in the form of electricity. When this was reported in our newspapers in the early 1990's it was dubbed as fusion in a tea cup because it was done in such small vesels that the whole experiment was done on an ordinary work bench in a lab. Now 600 times more energy out than in and to be achieved on a benchtop ain't too bad for a start to gettin rid of the need for fossil fuels.
Then there was a young joker called Pacheco from Bolivia who in 1943 made a hydrogen generator. It was small enough to go under the bonnet of a car but he was prevented from developing it because it was said there was enough oil and it was cheap enough to make his invention not worth while.
Then there was another joker called Sam Leach of Los Angeles who in the 1970's made a hydrogen geneator small enough to go under the bonnet of a car and the rights to that were bought by M.J. Mirkin. But that one was never developed any further either.
Then in 1994 a young joker called Dylan Whitford had the sh!t beaten out of him in Wanganui and never said another word about the water fueled engine he had something to do with.
And again, a 30 year old New Zealand mechanic M. Malcolm Vincent of Nelson sold the rights to a water powered engine for $25,600,000. He was luck because he took the money and ran.
And I remember reading in the news paper of a bloke from Taranaki who converted an old car to run on water. He was reported to drive from New Plymouth to Auckland and back with nothing but tap water being put into the car. A few weeks later he was killed in a car accident that look suspicious. His son got the car and was still driving around in it for a while and then he had a bloody big truck run into him and nearly killed him. The car dissapeared and he was smart enough never to talk about it again.
And what happened to the car that Robert Alexander made, that ran without any fuel at all. U.S. patent No. 3913004.
So you see, if you do enough digging you can find that many things are possible with alternative energy, but it just won't be safe to make too much of them untill all that bloody oil does run out.
So Bscamo, I'm with you on this one. When you get that there tree growin please tell me how.
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Post by jack on Dec 24, 2006 23:44:20 GMT -6
Gidday
Msbsgblue, it's amazing how some folks don't believe some things even when you have seen it work yourself Eh!
If you do get the formula worked out please let us know.
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