Lol, that's what we got around here: corn, soy, peaches, and okra. I'm surrounded by woods, so I'm hoping that acts as a physical barrier between me and the roundup. There are problems occuring now where organic-certified farms are getting polluted by pesticides travelling from neighboring farms, causing them to lose their certification. There's gotta be research being done on how long pesticides stay in soil because of instances like these. Pesticide Drift and Organic Production
It's annoying to me that they're not required to inform everyone in the area when they're spraying. I think in most places they're even able to spray from airplanes without informing anybody. Those sprays have been linked to miscarriages, birth defects, and increased rates of cancers, even up to a half-mile away from where they're spraying with tractor mosquitoes. There was a recent study showing that cancer deaths are greatly increased around the areas where agrochemicals are used: http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_round_up/2525411/cancer_deaths_double_in_argentinas_gmo_agribusiness_areas.html
Jerry Concentrates carries non-GMO soybean meal (aka defatted soybean meal) and like the majority of non-GMO seed meals it's out of Canada. Were it not for having adults in charge in Canada organic farmers & gardeners in the USA would be in a world of hurt - flaxseed meal, canola seed meal, etc. Even our favorite soil amendment, kelp meal, ships from Canada.
CC - do you have a strong opinion about the "organic" certification of canola meal? I understand there's some controversy and debate about canola always being a GMO product, with some people claiming that it has some strong poisonous properties. Do you think canola meal can be useful in organic gardening, and maybe even in livestock feed?
PP117 "Conflicted" would be the best description about using canola seed meal as a soil amendment. It's not something that I seek out like say flaxseed meal. "Certified organic" for me personally simply means that it is a material worth investigating but not a 'pass' for doing my homework and that includes soybean meal in general irrespective of whether it's non-GMO or not. Another meal out of Canada, Camelina meal that is a questionable material from my perspective. I'll stick with the old standards - alfalfa meal, kelp meal, organic fish meal (Naturox) and organic fish bone meal (Scoular) and of course one of my favorites, organic neem or karanja meal. CC
Hey everybody I am starting a new journal now that I have a perpetual set up rolling... Here is the link. I hope to add a couple Mars II's to this before i finish flowering this batch of seeds I just planted. http://forum.grassci...-adventure.html
Does anyone know how I could add boron to my soil, I have had all my tiny little oranges fall off my tree, not a single 1 left and have read lack off boron could be playing a part. If anyone has any idea thank you in advance.
Oz Bushman Hanky The Borax company has two boron fertilizer products - Granubor and Solubor which you can investigate. Differences in Boron Fertilizer Sources HTH CC
So the veggie garden is dying off. We've had at least one night down to 32 degrees so the foliage on most plants is pretty shabby. It's expected of course and it's fine. My question is; I've got a half dozen? canteloupes that I left on the vine because the last time I picked one it wasn't quite ripe and that was a few weeks ago. Y'all think the cantaloupes are still good even tho the foliage is dying back? The fruits still look fine. I'm sure the only way to tell is to cut one in half but I was just wondering if anyone knew. I actually still have a nice watermelon out there in the same situation. J
I drive past a crop dusting facility twice a day during the work week, and you can see those planes buzzing around for miles and miles. One day while heading home, I see a plane on the west side of the highway spraying, he was doing his first pass on the edge of the field. Directly across from him on the east side, a little league baseball game playing at the local school. I was dumbfounded! I can't believe there isn't and regulation on how close they can spray to large groups of people.
I've had squash and cucumbers that were still good even though the leaves were all dying; I'm going to assume cantaloupes are the same deal, but there's only one way to really find out...
Hey Steve, the cantaloupes (8 of them) were picked yesterday so I cut one in half and it was totally ripe. This late in the season is have to imagine it would have to be but they didn't get planted until late June. Anyhow - super sweet and juicy! I put a similar pic up in Da Lounge but what the hey - we also dug up the last 4 hills of potatoes and did really well! We must have (I'm guessing) 150 pounds now. I took tree doggs advice and left the last batch in room temp for a week and a half and now they are in boxes down in the root cellar. I picked the last of the eggplants too. We ended up with quite a few this year! J
Nice haul on the taters Jerry! Its kind of bittersweet..........all the organic veggies from a fruitful summer but it means winter will be here before we know it.
Update on the zolushka potato seeds! 2/5 Almost time for a transplant. Who knows, maybe the other 3 are just late to the party Potatoes are funny that way...
I'm going to save mine also. This is an old neighborhood and they bulldozed around the trees rather than (like now), bulldozing everything and planting puny saplings. I do have 2 Chestnut saplings, but the pine and sweet gum tree out front are over 75' tall, as are the hickory and oaks in the back. I'll have to check, the city comes along once or twice a week after the first killing frost and vacuum's up the leaves next to the street. They do this for a couple months at least, just leaves, and dumb-o me never thought to ask what they do with all those leaves. Really nice mix of hardwoods and pine, no preponderance of either. Never seen such big pines though, not in Fl. anyway. Across the street they are well over 100' tall. Love the Piedmont. Wet
I've been looking at this plant for about a month, calling it edemame. I decided to drop more seeds last night since it's time to do some outdoor planting here. I go to open the only edemame seed pack i thought i used before and find the pack has never been opened....wth? Then it dawns on me...this is a damn Malabar spinach plant!! I'm a complete pothead! :lol:
Hey everyone. It is supposed to get down to 36F/Real Feel says 26F here tonight. Do you think I should pick all my green tomatoes now?