Carbons No-Till Try Out

[Carbcon]

Dutch cream in first pic killing it, them Dutch eh....

 

Have lots of Dutch varieties, some us and Aus stuff too.

 

Have over 10 varieties and it's a post in itself.

 

That bed under construction is finished now in front. That will be all Kennebec

 

Doing a line of 10x comfrey @ 1m spacing beneath all these

 

Waiting on some buckwheat seed to fill the hollow logs and please the bees.

 

Have some yarrow to transplant in along with some borage etc too.

 

Plan is to reamend these beds with the comfrey, I will cover crop the lot and let sit for a while/rotate, but have the circle going up and down the hill.

 

Pretty blown away with the return from spuds.

[Carbcon]

Ruby Lou

 

Bred in Victoria I read.

 

A slow starter, it bolts to 600mm and towers a good 100mm above any next tallest variety.

 

Only Sebago beat these to flower.

 

Not sure whether it's a symptom of their size or location on the edge of a bed but they didn't like the wind and heat today more than any other. Was 30c

 

Pretty flower though.

They say roughly a month from flower is a good indicator of when to harvest.

[itchybromusic]

your def enjoying this farming thing 

 

looks great mate well done 

[Carbcon]

Cheers itchy.

Lots of work and lots to do.

 

Hoping to get the comfrey in asap and get some marigolds seeded too.

 

Going to need all the help I can get to fight off the insect avalanche that will come with the stinking heat

[DoNothingGarden]

Dutch cream in first pic killing it, them Dutch eh....

 

Have lots of Dutch varieties, some us and Aus stuff too.

 

Have over 10 varieties and it's a post in itself.

 

That bed under construction is finished now in front. That will be all Kennebec

 

Doing a line of 10x comfrey @ 1m spacing beneath all these

 

Waiting on some buckwheat seed to fill the hollow logs and please the bees.

 

Have some yarrow to transplant in along with some borage etc too.

 

Plan is to reamend these beds with the comfrey, I will cover crop the lot and let sit for a while/rotate, but have the circle going up and down the hill.

 

Pretty blown away with the return from spuds.

Awesome garden!

[itchybromusic]

Cheers itchy.

Lots of work and lots to do.

 

Hoping to get the comfrey in asap and get some marigolds seeded too.

 

Going to need all the help I can get to fight off the insect avalanche that will come with the stinking heat

you might wanna have a listen to John Kempf from Advancing Eco Agriculture 

on his Plant Health Pyramid https://youtu.be/D1wJefaFrVI

just to know it's achievable to resist bugs though plant health 

 

he has another vid showing bugs doing what there meant to do 

aphid infesting weeds right beside healthy tomato plants 

https://youtu.be/ZNVI-ZNNKi4 

 

resistant seed or cultivar selection is also an important factor 

along with producing your own seed in your neck of the woods 

[Mr Brown]

Nice work carbcon, lot of work gone into those beds you must really love your spuds mate (). In a few months time you'll have a tub of spuds and I'll have a tub of buds.

[emoji28][emoji28]

 

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[Carbcon]

Thanks all for the kind words.

 

The bath base was a fairly weak blend so I chucked a full recharge into that mix as it was easier than mixing everything.

 

I will check out those links itchy, it does ring a bell. My current eating spuds are from tubers I produced.

 

I also have Dutch cream s1s and Dutch cream X Desiree I assume too.

Potatoes make seed along with the tubers that can be used as seed too.

I have the seed pods but haven't done anything with them yet.

 

There are those that advise to grow new certified each year in case of soil pathogens or disease etc.

 

Bed they came from has just been amended and is sitting ATM.

 

Busy with other stuff but got the comfrey in today.

 

I do like spuds mr. Brown, who doesn't?

 

These taste nothing like the watery shit they sell in the supermarkets...nothing.

Those spuds are treated with growth inhibitors post harvest to stop them sprouting too. Who knows what else while they are growing.

 

I read somewhere spuds outgun even grain in terms of yield.

Spuds are the big crop now but these beds will be rotated.

[itchybromusic]

just some thinking that might show how much i know about potatoes more than anything else but

 

not sure i buy using new certified each year carb , my thinking is

in the wild mother nature is not going to move wild growing potatoes to another area 

to rotate them , with natural selection only the strongest potatoes will out compete 

the not so strong plants to produce the following year 

 

also there would def be different seeds sprouting around the same area the potatoes are 

growing in as the environment moves through the seasons which would attract diff sets 

of organisms to root zones 

 

assuming conditions stay normal good organisms out compete any bad group that might

try to mussel in 

 

but farming would naturally plant different food crops seasonally in beds that had whatever in it 

the summer or winter before 

 

i was listening to a small US no till farmer on youtube & he was talking bout carrots & the best 

time to plant them , he suggested they don't like to much nitrogen otherwise the carrots become 

deformed , i'm sure you've seen pics of carrots looking like a cock & balls or something similar

that's a sign of to much N , best time to plant carrots in a no till system is after corn or a N heavy

plant , never tried it but i thought that was interesting 

[Carbcon]

I know what you mean.

 

Don't want too much N for spuds either,bit more potassium they say being a root crop. I have been using the gyspum a bit more recently too and also relying on the sulfer in that instead of neat sulfer.

 

With regard to the seed. I have bought a lot in, mainly to try different varieties.

 

They say rotate but .like a lot of rules, it's a general one for all.

 

I have used half a bed for spuds. Then the full bed, then a full mix and amend and it's going to have full spuds set by weekend.

 

First harvest was good, good yield and saved some for seed (big ones).

 

I was lazy and the smaller spuds sprouted so I let them and planted rest of bed with the saved seed.

 

I'm eating that harvest now but will be saving some for seed. The yield was down a touch but half the seeds were from what was left behind with the stronger seeds doing most of the work.

 

I harvested early, I wanted the bed clear. I didn't notice any blight or anything. I am probably watching that particular bed most closely.

 

This big run is the first so hopefully learn more about what grows well and tastes good and zone in on them. Save those varieties for seed and start running just those.

 

 

Small seed tuber doesn't start as strong as bigger ones, I realise you only need one shoot but I don't cut them.

 

Depending how new beds go, slightly tighter spacing shades out ground completely.

 

I am feeding the soil I feel a lil bit while growing. After an initial light mulch at planting. Once up, I spread on average a small square bale over 12-15 M2.

 

I'd like 2-4 varieties that I can depend on in winter and hopefully also find what goes the best in summer if that can take the heat and I can keep the water up to them, and keep insect loss down.

 

At least the roos don't eat em.

I reckon the roos are starting to feel guilty for all the plant and car damage they have caused me over the years.

 

Sometimes they dig a small hole thru the mulch on the side, then they shit on the mulch, don't disturb plant or soil that much and go.

 

Good deal I reckon. Not having to fence off potatoes is huge for me