[Private_Cluck]

We are in zone 8b. I plant garlic in October and harvest May/June. For the first time, I will be planting bunching onion seeds this year in October/November. Will see how these do.

[Private_Cluck]

You have to make the connection with the member before you can message them. At the moment, you will have to type in each member’s nickname to send a message to multiple members at the same time. Hopefully, in the future there will be a way to select multiple members or a group of members at one time.

[Private_Cluck]

We use sub-irrigated double 5 gal buckets for all of our tomatoes, squash, and peppers. Currently, we have around 250 sets. Some of them are 4+ years old and are still in good condition. We did have some early failures of the yellow “Homer” buckets from Home Depot. About 3 years ago, we started purchasing food safe, preferably, black ones manufactured by Argee from Home Depot. They have held up great so far. We just purchased a high tunnel and plant to outfit it with more buckets (around 100-200). I used drip irrigation for watering the buckets. Works great.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 3 months ago by  Private_Cluck.

[Private_Cluck]

Many states/counties have beekeepers associations. We are members of the Montgomery County, Texas Beekeepers Association. The local county agriculture extension office can be a good source of information also. A good YouTube channel to check out is Kamon Reynolds – Tennessee Bees.

[Private_Cluck]

After retiring, I did part-time contract consulting for 4-5 years, but Covid shut that down in 2020. My wife has a small garden / landscape consulting company which adds a little side income. We are beekeepers, but up to now used any honey for personal consumption and the bees for pollination. That will change next year. We will be selling honey (and maybe bees) to the public. Also. later this year, we will start a weekend farmstand to sell overages of vegetables from our garden, plants, trees, worms/worm castings, and other homemade items like soaps, candles, dried medicinal herbs, etc.

[Private_Cluck]

I would like to participate with the forums.

[Private_Cluck]

We have been watching Deep South Homestead for over 2 years and love the channel. Picked up many tips and believe they have been a big reason that our garden has increased yields.

[Private_Cluck]

I currently order seeds from four sources: Baker Creek, Gurneys, Totally Tomatoes, and Hoss Tool.

Recently, I’ve noticed that seed germination rate from Baker Creek seeds have gone down. No problems with the other three sources in that respect.

For my tomato plants, I currently only use seeds from Totally Tomatoes.

[Private_Cluck]

We have gotten a quote from Growers Solutions for a 20×60 and will be placing the order on Monday. We are getting the same one that Kevin and Sarah at Living Traditions Homestead has. They really like theirs. This is our first high tunnel. We are in Texas and plan to use it for fruit trees and vegetables. Big selling point was using it for the fruit (mainly citrus) trees after we lost most of ours in the big freeze a couple of years ago. No in-ground planting is planned for it. Self-wicking container buckets for the veggies and large pots for the trees.

[Private_Cluck]

With a welder, water well, air compressor, and dryer you are right to go with an LF inverter. Victrons are hard to beat. SOK batteries are really good (presume you are getting LifePo4), but you may want to check out EG4 batteries at Signature Solar. These are really good as well and may be slightly less expensive. Also, they have a better rack system in my opinion. Signature Solar is in Texas. SanTan is a good source for used panels. I believe they are actually in Georgia & Arizona. Good luck on your system build.

[Private_Cluck]

We recently had what looks like similar issues with our black-eyed peas. Found small fuzzy worms on the underneath side of the leaves. The worms created large white areas that became large holes and finally the leaf turned brown. A bit of BT took care of them and plants are back to thriving.

[Private_Cluck]

You really don’t want to start a new hive this late in the year. I don’t know where you are or your local climate, but the bees likely would not survive the winter. The is little or no nectar flow right now. Bees won’t have enough time to draw comb and store honey, even if you feed them sugar syrup heavily. You should look locally for a source of bees. Check with your local government agriculture extension office. Also, see if there are any local beekeeper associations (they can usually supply training for keeping bees). Extension office can help with that too or search online for a state organization. There are a number of YouTube channels of beekeepers. I recommend watching Kamon Reynolds – Tennessee’s Bees.

[Private_Cluck]

To message a member, you and that member must have made a connection between yourselves.

[Private_Cluck]

I was sold on the sub-irrigated double bucket system when my wife did an experiment. She planted some tomatoes in a single bucket with drain holes and some in the double buckets at the same time. Then cared for each exactly the way – watering, feeding, etc. The ones in the sub-irrigated buckets ended up triple the size of the ones in the single bucket and produced far more tomatoes. That blew me away. Since, that’s all we use for tomatoes, peppers, squash, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, cucumbers, and such. We’ve been doing this for 3-4 years with great success. We do have some raised beds as well for our beans, peas, and root crops like carrots and potatoes.

[Private_Cluck]

If you need some help, send me a connection request. I’d be glad to answer your questions. I have experience with installing a solar power system for my house.