Member Squashmania
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Usually with the animals you can put it out as a free choice item. They know when they need some detox. And the microbiome in the animal’s gut charges it for you, so when it is redeposited on the ground, it is garden ready. I just found out that you can innoculate biochar with DFSW (I put a lengthy description of that elsewhere in this discussion)
OR.
JMS (JADAM microbial solution) made with leaf mould and boiled potato.
I feel like I am such a powerhouse of potential with the combination of these techniques. This is going to be an amazing season.
All the best! Grow ’em while you can!
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This reply was modified 1 year, 10 months ago by Squashmania.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 10 months ago by Squashmania.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 10 months ago by
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What an intelligent post. I learn so much from all the massive intellect this site attracts. Thanks to all.
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This gives best wheat varieties by region. I hope this helps. It is TX A&M research, so it should be pretty legit.
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Tarps and feed sacks did wonders for the fig that set fruit late last year. Your plan sounds genius. I hope it worked out!
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Zone 6, Yes!!
Mainly herbs and cool weather crops.
I couldn’t help myself. It’s a sickness.
On the plus plus side, a friend pointed me to the app FARMISH showing with pin drops on a map where local resources have the “good stuff”. I have found everything from herdshares to salves to so much oval chicken crack.
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This is why I gave multiple reasons. The first of which was a change in ingredients. I didn’t know about those whose flocks stopped laying in summer. That is very suspicious, I agree.
My husband thinks everything is a conspiracy, so I have become an amateur debunker. He also thinks the world is flat, Donald Trump is coming back (but that was last March), there are ppl under the 3 gorges dam being experimented on who haven’t seen daylight in 30 years, or maybe ever, gravity doesn’t exist, we live on a flat disc under a dome, etc. Yet he eats junk food, chews nicorette, and drinks little else but Mtn Dew.
Please forgive my less than informed answer. I will delete it. I get weary of ” the sky is falling”. Lately, my reply is , “must be Tuesday”.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 10 months ago by Squashmania.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 10 months ago by
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I have heard several theories.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 10 months ago by Squashmania.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 10 months ago by
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The Tin Man biochar retort system going strong on day 2. Day 1 batch is getting charged with DFSW. We have a lot to go, but we have a lot to burn. This system was the permaculture answer to all the brush we have around the property. Something good to do with honeysuckle.
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David the Good has a t-shirt (and a song) about composting your enemies. What he really means by that isn’t returning your ex to the land, but using weeds as fertilizer (cue the creepy music and the deep echoing bwahahaha laughter from deep inside the castle)
HOW TO MAKE:
I have a 55 gallon pickle barrel that is dark colored with a well-fitted lid. I had it filled 2/3 with water. A smaller barrel could be used (30 gallon plastic barrels are somewhat common) Putting this beauty near a hose is more than ideal.
I have a LOT of weeds. As I pulled weeds (mostly the green parts because I didn’t trust this process to deactivate the seeds) You throw weeds, urine, animal manure…heck, I chopped up a bluegill and put that in. And then you add something heavy to keep all that stuff under the surface of the water. I used a nursery stock pot with some dirt in it. A piece of firewood, etc, would also work.
You want this weedy wonderland under the water because you are now looking for ANAEROBIC breakdown of the aforementioned weeds.
Y’know how compost tea requires water, compost in a net bag, and an aquarium bubbler to encourage aerobic microbiota proliferation?
Well, DFSW isn’t like that at All. It’s easier. It is a set it and write a date on the calendar kinda thing. He recommends 3 weeks to let this elixir of the land rot down and become worthy.
So you have filled the vessel with water, put in your bunches and handfuls and bags of the corpses of the enemy (weeds), and weighed it down. Next, that tight fitting lid goes on, so your property doesn’t turn into a mosquito refuge and breeding colony.
Then walk away.
Write a date 3 weeks from now on the calendar or in your phone app.
–3 weeks has passed–
You go to the barrel. It looks like when you left it. You are now going to gird your loins. Really. Because anaerobic breakdown isn’t for the faint of heart. And when you open that barrel, you will want to flip off the lid and like a fine wine… Let it breathe. It isn’t the bog of eternal stench, but could get a runner-up nomination. Important point. This stuff is only stinky when the barrel is open. When it is dilute and on the garden, the smell is much less noticeable, and after 24 hours, can’t really be appreciated.
Decanting this eau de vie (water of life) is a challenge for me. I don’t have my barrel on a platform, or have a fancy spigot in the bottom, which are all permutations on design. A large ladle or pot to pull the DFSW out is pretty ideal. You can dilute it as much as you want, but David recommends from 3:1 to 10:1. So, 3 parts water, to one part DFSW. I think of the scoop I am using as “one”, so I know how much water to add.
Important point. Because the anaerobic bacteria are different from aerobic bacteria, you don’t want to put it directly on plants you are about to consume. ( Like pouring it on the whole bean plant, then picking beans) Instead, fertilize at the BASE of the plant or around the root zone. If you have used this in the last 24 hours, just make sure to wash your garden goodies before eating. This is SO hard for me to remember, and I am a garden grazer while I am picking.
I leave all the weedy bits in the water to continue to rot, while adding more weeds and water and continuing a perpetual cycle throughout the season. I have dumped a barrel out and put all that in the compost pile and started fresh. I have overwintered a batch to have a Spring jump start ready.
I hope this helps, or it was at least entertaining.
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Marthale 7! I have gone down the rabbit hole of biochar with Jack Spirko of The Survival Podcast. He was saying that charged biochar (pre-loaded by mixing with compost or soaking in compost tea before mixing in the garden) It doesn’t float away like Perlite will, and can last a thousand years. The surface area for microbial life is just out of this world, and I am going to make a retort to make this. Who needs a fertilizer shortage when you can anaerobically compost weeds in water and make biochar? The answers are all around us. How cool is that? (Pretty stinkin’ cool, I say!)
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Way to use your initiative and gain skills. That whole, “teach a man to fish” analogy
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Who PAYS for all these chemicals and aviation fuel and pilots flying without a conscience as to what they are spreading in the skies? We can’t feed our own people, but this is going on? What in the world, as Danny would say.
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I’m sorry for your vertigo. It is truly crippling. I tend to have migraines with big swings in the weather. Typically Spring and Fall, but this winter has been a doozy. Feels like we’ve already been through February.
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I have random people bringing egg cartons in to work and leaving them in the community “dead drop” area of a windowsill in a break room. I do the same with eggs, but I think I am going to start putting names on them. Value has increased so much, I am getting crazy requests, and with only 6 hens, my production is limited. I have a few doofuses that break their eggs occasionally. Three this week😫 My quail are getting to production age, so I may see if I can sway ppl into trying them.