TOPIC: Efforts to save seed producing bed plants...

Hugh Hartsell wrote:

Tn,
It sure looks like you have put a lot of work into salvaging the plants that have been under so much stress. It almost looks like I'm looking into a mirror of my own beds. I have a spot or two that is stressed more than yours and plants are going down:( Every time you lose a tree, it makes a difference and they don't grow back so quickly.
The one thing that I have noticed on my seed producing plants is that the stress is causing the berry pods to not fill out very well and that means less production overall. I planted another handful yesterday and I just about croaked because it was so hot and the humidity was almost unbearable.
I have been going over in my mind what I can use to provide some shade and I'm afraid to try anything as big as a tarp because of these strong storms. Maybe we'll get some relief starting Monday.
Hugh

Hugh, military style camo netting might provide you enough shade to make a difference and with all the holes should be ok in the wind storms.

TN - That seed producing bed is looking pretty good considering all the heat and drought. I know you've put a lot of time and effort into it.

What are your plans for keeping the rodents from getting your berries this year. I've had a few big plants browsed by deer this year and was thinking of building a frame to enclose a few of them with chicken wire next spring. Chicken wire would not be small enough to keep mice and similar sized critters out, but some 1/2 inch hardware cloth might do the trick.

Hey Guys...

After Church this morning, and Lunch.. I went down to the seed bed to see how that tarp shade was working out.

It was 1:30 and the edge of the shade the tarp was providing was just getting to the top edge of the bed.

So that should work nicely, to block a couple hours of the hottest evening sun from the bed completely.

Hugh... no doubt a bad wind is going to make it hard on that tarp. It is stretched out like a big sail, but we'll see how long it last.

Would be nice if it would last until fall and then I can look at doing something more wind tollerent over the winter months.

5Prong... below is what I have cooked up for the field mice or what ever it was that wiped out my berries last year.

I have it made and ready to install, and will get that done here in the next day or two.

The landscape nails will ancor it to the ground, and the plastic flex drain pipe will keep the bait dry. I am just going to put a handfull of decon back in the middle, and let them come in and feed from either end. That flex drain pipe has ridges which will help keep the decon from spilling out.

I think that should work nicely..



I may also try to rig up a 5 gal bucket with water in the bottom type trap too. Below is a good example on youtube.



TNhunter

TN - That was my other thought on dealing with them. If I had a bed set up like yours I think that the deer would have them all browsed off. As I've put on here before my plants are scattered out on a hillside. most of them are in groups of 3-5 plants. I had 3 of the largest plants grouped together. 2 of them were completely browsed and the other one lost two of four prongs but still has a berry pod and is continuing berry production. I was thinking of boxing in this group of plants to protect them from the deer. From the looks of the seed pods they would have produced 40+ berries each.

5Prong,
The military netting looks like something that might work. I don't know whether to try it this season or not. I looked at my plants this morning and so many of them are turning yellow from the intense heat that I wonder if they will not go ahead and go dormant for the season. I thought that I would wait until this upcoming rain event is over this week before I do any thing.
TN, I looked at the upcoming weather this morning and they are forecasting some serious rain for Middle Tennessee. I believe that I saw 4-8 inches predicted for you fellows in that area. You should get some real relief.

Another thing that I thought that I would mention without making a new post is that I am noticing some serious changes in the soil texture from all of the Gypsum that I have put down this year. Like Rootman mentioned in another thread, I felt that my soil was too tight and after repeated applications of the Gypsum , it seems like the ground has loosened up and almost moves under your feet when you walk on a slope and when I dig to plant the new seeds that are ripe. Even in this hot dry ground that we have right now, there is a difference. I still plan to add more as the plants go dormant and again in the early Spring. I want to bring those calcium levels up.
Hugh

Camo netting,would be a good shade and a person should try to install some effective mouse traps on locations that they can. I think the 5 gallon bucket would work well and put a flat weight in the bottom also for the wind.

Now on the deer browsing you almost have to have some kind of chicken wire unless you can find some kind of repellant. But I'm afraid of damaging the plants. Now I did cut some undesirable trees last year for firewood and left the tops on some of my ginseng.This was in the fall after the seng had died down. This gave protection and the seng seem to really like the coverage that it gave this year. So I'm thinking this might help by just adding brush on some places.

rootman

5Prong...

My seed producing bed does have a 3' tall chicken wire fence around it. It is not so easy to see in the pics, but you can see it in the first and even better in the second pic on this thread. So far that has done the job on keeping the deer out and other larger critters out.

Before I put that fence up, as I was still planting roots in there, I noticed both deer and turkey tracks in the bed. Also my daughters Australian Shephard got in there and actually dug up a root.

Since I put that little chicken wire fence arouund it nothing has bothered it except the mice last year on the berries.

On the Gypsum, loosening up the soil - I can say a big yes to that. I have been putting it on my garden beds the past two springs. I dig them by hand with a old fashoned tool called a broad foark, and I use a hoe too. My soil is mostly clay which is bad to compact and be just hard to dig. It can sort of set up like concrete after a rain or two. But afer a good dose of gypsum, it just works real easy. Best way I can describe it would be if you worked in hundreds of pounds of sand in the clay soil, it sort of works like that, even though you only put maby 10-20 lbs of gypsum on the bed. My garden plants have been extra happy the past couple years, and no blossom end rot on my tomatoes either. The extra calcium helps with that on tomatoes.

I just checked out my 10 day and wow - it sure looks like the next 10 days is going to be a lot different than the previous 30.

TNhunter

rootman wrote:

Camo netting,would be a good shade and a person should try to install some effective mouse traps on locations that they can. I think the 5 gallon bucket would work well and put a flat weight in the bottom also for the wind.

Now on the deer browsing you almost have to have some kind of chicken wire unless you can find some kind of repellant. But I'm afraid of damaging the plants. Now I did cut some undesirable trees last year for firewood and left the tops on some of my ginseng.This was in the fall after the seng had died down. This gave protection and the seng seem to really like the coverage that it gave this year. So I'm thinking this might help by just adding brush on some places.

rootman

I've thought of using branches and limbs as baricades too. I'll probably use this approach in a few spots, but am leaning toward the use of chicken wire around the one area with some very large plants in it. There are also some smaller 2 and 3 prong plants growing nearby. I really havent put a lot of thought into this yet. My first thought was that a deer would have no problem jumping a 4 foot high chicken wire fence, but I doubt that they would bother jumping a small 8x10 enclosed area. I think that I could enclose about 20 plants altogether including the 3 larger plants and several other decent seed producing 3 prong plants. I'm hoping that they dont regress too much as result of being browsed on top of getting transplanted last fall. I'll probably wait until spring and see how they look before I make a final decision on this. Just thinking out loud here (actually in print). If any of you guys have any input on this, feel free to share.

Hey Guys...

I decided not to put the poision out yet, and put the bucket trap in place first.

I want to see the critters...

Here are a couple of pics.

I used used a planters mixed peanut container for the spinning center part and covered it with brown shipping tape to tone the color down some, and used a coat hanger wire for the spindel.

Spread on a layer of peanut butter then pushed in some peanuts and cheese...

I smeared a little cheese on my climb up board too to lure them in...

I have about 4\" of water in the bottom of the bucket.

I bet there will be some berry eaters taking their last swim there soon

TNhunter