[Homestead] ants
Leslie
cayadopi at yahoo.com
Fri Mar 6 06:30:17 EST 2009
Thanks. I don't think it was birds, but only because I had the seeds planted in flats which were inside an enclosed cold frame (glass top, wood sides). But underneath the flats I found ant tunnels. Last year when I planted seeds direct into soil first thing I noticed was the birds attacked them :-) so I figured I needed to start in flats so the birds wouldn't get into the seed.
I replanted day before yesterday, and this time won't move the flats outside to the cold frame until the seeds sprout. I suppose another explanation could be temps either too cold or too warm, or inconsistent moisture - although I was checking on temps & moisture every 3 hrs.
The guy in the earthship is growing potatoes here, and says he planted 2 weeks ago.
I have mine in, experimenting between tires method and rows. I used some bean straw as mulch over the potatoes in the tires.... and have discovered that there are a lot of "free" pinto beans in the bean straw.... so I started shaking the straw out and have been collecting the beans. So far 1/2 pound out of just 1/4 of a bale of straw... Looks like I'm going to get a good yield of free beans out of 4 bales, just for the efforts of shaking the straw and using eagle eyes. I wound up planting a bunch of the beans since the ones that had gotten wet were sprouting already. Its probably too soon to plant though.... the mesquite trees haven't started new growth yet, and the locals say don't plant outside until then as somehow the mesquite trees know when the last frost is. I've accidently fallen asleep a few times the last last with the windows open, and I definitely haven't been cold.
I moved to the desert 1 year ago, At the moment it seems about 10 degrees warmer overnight and about the same as last year during the day. At least there aren't the daily sandstorms like last year, not yet. Haven't seen a drop of rain here in a while, maybe 2 months or so. That part I don't mind at the moment because I've been busy outside raking up dried weeds making a very wide fire break around the property since there is a high fire danger this year and there was some weird outbreak of some kind of awful weed. No rain makes it easier to work outside as the soil get pretty soft with rain.
Looking forward to getting everything in the ground.
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“All political thinking for years past has been vitiated in the same way. People can foresee the future only when it coincides with their own wishes, and the most grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome. Political language... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.” ~ George Orwell
--- On Thu, 3/5/09, bobf <bobford79 at yahoo.com> wrote:
From: bobf <bobford79 at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Homestead] ants
To: cayadopi at yahoo.com, homestead at lists.ibiblio.org
Date: Thursday, March 5, 2009, 6:13 AM
Leslie, no=one more knowledgeable answered, so ,as a fellow desert gardener,
I'll give you my best idea. Right at the break of dawn, (and other times
during the day, also), little chi-chi- birds (that is what I call all little
birds I don't bother to identify) come down and eat grass seed, seed from
weeds, and if the seeds aren't well protected, they will eat your garden
seed. I think you would see ant activity if it was enough activity to get every
seed, but that is just a guess.............
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--- On Wed, 3/4/09, Leslie <cayadopi at yahoo.com> wrote:
> From: Leslie <cayadopi at yahoo.com>
> Subject: [Homestead] ants
> To: homestead at lists.ibiblio.org
> Date: Wednesday, March 4, 2009, 12:26 PM
> Do they "steal" small seeds?
>
> I planted in started TP & a few in peat cups.
>
> Everything that was a small seed didn't come up.
> Larger seeds about 80% sprouted.
>
> I found an ant tunnel underneath on of the trays of seeds
> in the cold frame, so wondering if they steal small
> seeds....
>
> :-)
>
>
>
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