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I'll be planting tomorrow. I have no idea how I lasted this long inside but everything is looking great. I put most stuff in pots and the green beans are already flowing. Need to get these guys pollinated. Storms supposed to roll in this evening so give ill give them one more day, looks like we shouldn't dip below freezing again. 

I got some gear to put in a drip irrigation system so that's gonna be nice to have

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I need to clear weeds from the garden enclosure.  I have some beds defined in a parallel form with cedar logs and topsoil inside.  Imagine a pair of 20 foot runs with a walkway in between.

Now the weeds are growing like crazy, and are about 2 feet high at this point.  Given the beds, I can't just roll a mower through it.  Even a rented tiller probably won't do the job.  Trying to avoid spending 10 hours pulling all that mass by hand.

 

Any suggestions?

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20 minutes ago, AlDente67 said:

I need to clear weeds from the garden enclosure.  I have some beds defined in a parallel form with cedar logs and topsoil inside.  Imagine a pair of 20 foot runs with a walkway in between.

Now the weeds are growing like crazy, and are about 2 feet high at this point.  Given the beds, I can't just roll a mower through it.  Even a rented tiller probably won't do the job.  Trying to avoid spending 10 hours pulling all that mass by hand.

 

Any suggestions?

Just pull it.  It won't take that long.   If you want, leave a couple nailed to a board, hanging by the roots as a warning to the others.

 

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1 hour ago, AlDente67 said:

I need to clear weeds from the garden enclosure.  I have some beds defined in a parallel form with cedar logs and topsoil inside.  Imagine a pair of 20 foot runs with a walkway in between.

Now the weeds are growing like crazy, and are about 2 feet high at this point.  Given the beds, I can't just roll a mower through it.  Even a rented tiller probably won't do the job.  Trying to avoid spending 10 hours pulling all that mass by hand.

 

Any suggestions?

Got a Hoe? Is @Zeke for rent? 

 

they will grow back, but pulling weeds is part of the chore. 

I know someone who sprays their garden down with roundup in early may, im well aware of the concerns with its use. I use it all over my property but not in the garden. Although, if you can give yourself a few weeks before planting in there I don't see it being that big of an issue...  but who knows, Monsanto isn't the most honest. 

Unfortunately, good organic gardens require a ton of your attention.  

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Yeah, I was looking for an easy way out.  :p  Weeding by hand really sucks.

The funny thing is that my crops barely grew at all after all that bed construction (and rabbit fencing), but the weeds come on like gangbusters.

 

I can't justify paying Zeke to clear it out until my covid bribes start coming in.

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1 hour ago, AlDente67 said:

Any suggestions?

 If the beds have been tilled or turned regularly in past years, the soil should be fairly loose.  Large clumps of grass and weeds should pull right out or come out easily with a hoe.  Pull the big stuff, then turn the soil and rake it out.  Give it a couple of days If anything sprouts up, nuke it with glyphosate, wait a couple of days before planting.  You can also use a pre-emergent like Preen to prevent new sprouts.

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20 hours ago, gleninjersey said:

Pull the largest ones by hand.  Then get a pitch fork or shovel and turn the entire thing over and rake up what you can.  Add in some gardening soil while you are at it.

i'm on my way out to do exactly that.

Great!  Please lock my gate on the way out so the dog doesn't escape.

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2 minutes ago, Scorpio64 said:

Anyone doing corn?  This week I'll be planting a 12x20 plot of Silver Queen.  See how it works out.  Never tried it before.

I don't have the room for it. Otherwise I would. 

 

If anyone needs a good pesticide, I used this stuff call nuke em, by Flying Skull. It worked really well last year for me. I searched all over for something that wouldn't have anything bad in it for consumption. 

 https://www.flyingskull.net/OMRI-Listed-NukeEm.html

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15 minutes ago, Scorpio64 said:

Anyone doing corn?  This week I'll be planting a 12x20 plot of Silver Queen.  See how it works out.  Never tried it before.

I did it one year. And because of the space it takes, the yield and quality, corn may be the one vegetable I thought it was better just to buy it instead of growing it. It grew fine,  produced fine and it tasted fine but it takes a lot of space and it didn't taste any better than the store bought.

 

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55 minutes ago, WP22 said:

I did it one year. And because of the space it takes, the yield and quality, corn may be the one vegetable I thought it was better just to buy it instead of growing it. It grew fine,  produced fine and it tasted fine but it takes a lot of space and it didn't taste any better than the store bought.

 

Silver Queen is the best.  The issue is how long it takes to grow and how much bad can befall it before it's ready.   It wouldn't be my first choice had I never planted sweet corn before.  It's one of those you need to build up to, but hey, good luck.  If you get a good crop, it's awesome.

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Corn is both plentiful and cheap at farm stands out here in Hunterdon, so even if I had more garden space, I probably wouldn't grow it. But, oh my, there is nothing better than fresh-picked sweet corn! Good luck with it, @Scorpio64. You'll have to let us know how it turned out.

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2 minutes ago, Malsua said:

The issue is how long it takes to grow

According to the package, SQ is a 90 day crop, which puts me at August for harvest.  I may be able to get a second crop in.  I wonder if I can stagger the planting and still get effective pollination.

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4 minutes ago, Mrs. Peel said:

Corn is both plentiful and cheap at farm stands

All the farms (agra and horse), and orchards around here have been developed.  It's very sad.  I'm growing it pretty much just for the hell of it.  There's a good chance deer will decimate the crop.  I dunno, maybe I'll find out what corn fed venison tastes like.

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8 minutes ago, Scorpio64 said:

According to the package, SQ is a 90 day crop, which puts me at August for harvest.  I may be able to get a second crop in.  I wonder if I can stagger the planting and still get effective pollination.

Start counting days when you see the silk turn brown.   If it correlates with your planting time, you're good.  If it's different, believe the silk.  It's been a long time since I planted silver queen, but 3 weeks  after silk browns is what I remember.  I'm too lazy to go look it up

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Take it to the next level now......its going in....hopefully God and good weather helps it grow...and we all get s good yield...this fall winter is going to possibly be bad...really bad ..like ....bad.

How r you going to store, save, prepare your harvest for the winter....

 

Canning? Other ways?

What's the plan stan?

Will.you augment from farmers markets to create a good baseload of food for the winter.

 

 

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1 hour ago, Scorpio64 said:

According to the package, SQ is a 90 day crop, which puts me at August for harvest.  I may be able to get a second crop in.  I wonder if I can stagger the planting and still get effective pollination.

Corn needs a certain " critical mass" if you will to properly polinate. Planting in squares is preferably to planting in long narrow rows, for example. I would do a 12x10 square now and do a second square a couple weeks later. 

The worst it can happen is that you will end up with a bunch of Halloween decorations.

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9 minutes ago, WP22 said:

The worst it can happen is that you will end up with a bunch of Halloween decorations.

Way ahead of ya.  I'm going to dress up like a scarecrow for Halloween, and have corn stalks all over my front yard.   Jack o' lanterns, crows, maybe a giant spider.

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I have about a month left till frost free up here, I tarped my raised beds after the snow melted so the weeds haven't got any sunlight. Much easier than having to pull weeds. Ill be starting seeds indoors this week. I had planted snow pees and they started to come up but the new puppy dug them all up in less than a millisecond........so no snow pees 

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I think it was Jack who mocked me for trying corn.  I went to the local nursery for my usual tomato plants as more of a hobby.  They had little corn plant shoots for sale so I bought about 5 of them at a buck and a half each.

2 months later, I had 5 dismal ears of corn.  :p

Found out they need mass plantings close together to grow properly.  Now I just go to the farm and spend 50 cents and be done with it, lol.  Agriculture is not my strong suite apparently.  Or spelling.  Or anything.

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If ya really want to grow corn but don't have allot of room, get a pair of cotton gloves and rub down the corn every day when its flowering. I did it one season when I was giving silver queen seeds. Out of a 5×5 plot I got a 2 or 3 dozen medium sized ears out of it.

All in all it was not worth all the time spent jerking off corn flowers especially since I drove past a farm stand every day. But it can be done if you really want to 

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On 5/17/2020 at 8:21 PM, Mrs. Peel said:

Corn is both plentiful and cheap at farm stands out here in Hunterdon, so even if I had more garden space, I probably wouldn't grow it. But, oh my, there is nothing better than fresh-picked sweet corn! Good luck with it, @Scorpio64. You'll have to let us know how it turned out.

Yes.  Corn sucks soo many nutrients out of the ground.  I did a 6/12’ raised bed of asparagus 3 years ago.  Soo much asparagus.  Its a perennial.  Lasts for about 20 years. 

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Garden is in.  Usual assortment of tomatoes, peppers, and cucs.  

Got a few hybrid tomato plants for entertainment purposes. We'll see how they do. 

Also picked up some blue Jade corn seed. We put some in a big planter on our deck. Stalks grow to 4-5' and produces these 5-6" blue/purple ears of corn.  We'll see how that goes. Lol

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8 minutes ago, DaddyNick said:

Garden is in.  Usual assortment of tomatoes, peppers, and cucs.  

Got a few hybrid tomato plants for entertainment purposes. We'll see how they do. 

Also picked up some blue Jade corn seed. We put some in a big planter on our deck. Stalks grow to 4-5' and produces these 5-6" blue/purple ears of corn.  We'll see how that goes. Lol

What’s a hybrid mater?

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1 minute ago, Zeke said:

What’s a hybrid mater?

From what I've read it's a cross pollination of some heirloom (fancy) tomatoes.  My boys got 3 different ones.  They got Big Zac, Biltmore, and mountain magic.  The big Zac's apparently produce tomatoes that are 4-5lb. Further reading says they average about 2lbs each. Still a big mater! Lol. 

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