Why not, Jovial?

Did you watch the 4Corners report on the soon-to-be billion dollar medicinal and recreational marijuana industry?

Medicinal marijuana is projected to become a major export industry with huge profits and genuine palliative care benefits for its patients.

Jovial Monk wrote on Apr 26^th, 2018 at 1:06am:


Medicinal marijuana contains no THC, and therefore can't give you a high, but it does have palliative benefits regards chronic pain, epilepsy, etc.

Jovial Monk wrote on Apr 26^th, 2018 at 2:17am:


Try e-Bay. 

Monk - you're not going to grow much in cold Tasmania.

It will likely snow most of the time between May & December.
Frost will kill any seedlings of any plant.
You'll wish you'd gone to somewhere warmer like the Gold Coast - you fool - trying to grow things when there is a proven mini ice age already here & getting worse every year with extreme cold events.

In 2014
I was in Tassie & it was freezing - it snowed near Hobart.
I thought Melbourne was cold.

Bobby. wrote on Apr 26^th, 2018 at 8:32pm:


It snowed on the Mountain, I am sure about that!

Aussie wrote on Apr 26^th, 2018 at 8:59pm:



Actually just in the hills above Hobart.
I was there and could see Hobart in the distance.
I wasn't high in altitude.
Sometimes the snow comes down to the beach in Hobart.
Monk must have been in Tassie on a few odd warm days.
Tassie would freeze the balls off a brass monkey
for about 7 months of the year.

See?  Booby cannot do other than lie!

Yes, Booby you pathetic dupe, believer in comforting fairy tales, it does get cold in Tassie in winter. Hmmm, you have made it clear winter in Melbourne is cold, too.

Stop lying to yourself, idiot!

This is getting offensive.

Pity there is no GMod worthy of the name.

Saying that I am going to break the bloody law would see some stiff suspensions handed out. Alas, not in this degraded forum.

Where Booby lives is not THAT much warmer than Tassie—Booby WAS arguing vociferously that Mornington Pen. pinot noir was superior to the Tassie product—needs cold to make a great pinot noir.

Aussie wrote on Apr 26^th, 2018 at 9:18pm:



Monk will sell up in less than 2 years & move to the Gold Coast.

Booby is REALLY sucked in by the snake oil seller. Christ!

Go away Anus!

Aussie wrote on Apr 26^th, 2018 at 9:38pm:



Hi Aussie,
you better get a spare room ready for Monk this winter.
He'll be at your place & drive you mad.

Jovial Monk wrote on Apr 26^th, 2018 at 9:49pm:

I don't do back door action mr monk - please keep your wishful (Dr Freudian  )type slips to yourself- ?

Bobby. wrote on Apr 26^th, 2018 at 9:53pm:


Oh well....I am sure I could accommodate him if necessary. 

Margie loves a nifty little edit as you well know and Mr Frogen ( my best friend agnes tells me) said you had no special names- just aussie- and there were 3 forums between JJJ and FDs- so were you lying then or lying now Mr Fred Nerk ?

strolling bones wrote on Apr 26^th, 2018 at 10:03pm:


I had no "special name....just Aussie"
...where?  And, no.  There were two.  Shrink's and then Mattus/Romeo...then FD.

Tell Agnes to go to bed. She is making a fool of herself.

Nah.  He drank coffee while I had a VB.

I walked one time in Bavaria in January 1979, about midday I suppose. Each twig on every tree there had a white line of snow above it. Was fine, had a coat on but was fine.

Heh, West Germany was mostly all fine and modern and high tech—more so there back in 1979 then Australia is now—but the last train I caught to get to my destination, Mad Ludwig’s Schloss Neueschwanstein, was so slow there were signs all along the rail line “You may not pick flowers while the train is moving” not that there were any flowers there in mid winter.

Jovial Monk wrote on Apr 27^th, 2018 at 10:44am:



I wish you luck - I really do.

Heh, there was a letter in the post (Goon show skit: there was a letter in my letterbox. I opened it, inside was an envelope  )

It was from the council where my block is. I thought it might be a rates notice. Nup!

The people who have the block next to mine have made a planning application to build a house. Once that house is built it should increase the value of my block!

Yippee! Yeah, I know that will mean more rates but not for 5 years.

Part of the planning approval process, I guess.

I thought something was about to happen—one day I rock up to my block and saw that a line had been spray painted across the adjacent block marking out the building line.

Yeah, it gets advertised and if you don’t like it you can object.

It is zoned residential so I have no idea why neighbors have to approve.

Single dwelling, ’Erbert. The people concerned actually own over a hectare of land there. Their block is to the south of mine so no shading issues—that comes with their land some of which is over my back fence.

Must remove the barbed wire top strand from the fence, farked if I know why they put barbed wire there anyway.

I need to stake my cider apple trees, it seems.

Reckon a dozen tomato stakes (do people grow backyard tomatoes in Tassie?) will do plus the necessary tree ties, of course. Stake is hammered in at a 45° angle after the tree is planted so you don’t drive the stake into the tree roots! Tie will be low, no higher than a metre, even less for the two year old trees. —aha, quick google showed plenty grow tomatoes in Tassie.

The cherries will be espaliered into a fan pattern. Star droppers and wire to make the structure then fasten bamboo poles at 45° to horizontal to the wires to guide the training of the branches.

Basic fan espalier:


Belgian fence:


With espalier almost anyone can grow fruit trees. Type of fruit tree depends on climate, soil, orientation of your block etc. Plenty of information available

Once I am living there I will plant a shitload of raspberries! 20 each of 3-4 varieties that ripen in spring, summer and fall, extend the time I can pick ripe juicy raspberries. Or I might just plant the tastiest variety etc. Plenty of info available, e.g. https://perfectplants.co.uk/blog/train-a-tree-for-free/

Red currants too. Red currants eaten fresh, yum! Red currant jelly useful in decorating cheesecakes etc. Such a short season you have to preserve them.

Oops, was looking at the wrong rootstock. MM111, does not need staking, good!

Have a weary feeling I will need to dig drainage ditches   But will see how waterlogged the soil is first.

I had given up on the idea of having a productive hedgerow along my back fence because the cider apple trees would shade that boundary too much. So, getting sick of apple trees just for the moment I looked through the book on growing fruit—and landed on the page for white and red currants. Perfect!

The currants need protection from wind—the 3 rows of apple trees will do that—and protection from the hot afternoon sun—the 3 rows of apple trees will do that!

LOVE redcurrants and tried growing them here but even with shade—too hot! Perfect on my eastern boundary of my Tassie block! There are native Tasmanian edible berries and they too can go along the eastern boundary/back fence. I eat them raw—with a couple of forks remove the currants from the stem, sprinkle with a little bit of sugar, let stand for an hour, eat. Great just straight, provides a nice red color in a fruit salad.

And of course—red currant jelly.

The Tassie native berries (except for the pepperberry  ) are great cooked into a sweet pie etc. So many things to try! Can’t wait!

List of edible native Tassie fruits: http://www.potn.com.au/edible_plants.html

Don’t think I will plant the kangaroo apple:
Quote:

Can just see some kid stealing a fruit and getting sick, no thanks!

Reading that last, I will get a dozen bales of peastraw or similar and put it on top of the acid mulch of pine chips (the soil on my block is fairly alkaline) to get a really thick bed of mulch and encourage plenty soil critters to live there and they will amend the clay for me. Sounds good.

Also means won’t need weedmat, a useful saving!

Red currants:



Mix:


The bush:


Can dry the things too I suppose.

Such a short season for them, 1-2 weeks at the Central Market if that. At Christmass time which is nice.

Ummm stuffed up something in my garden plan: the cherries (and I bought two more cherry trees this year 

The cherries will take up a LOT more room than I had planned, like one whole deep–ripped strip. I can get some of the space back:



dwarf apples or perry pears in between the fan–trained cherry trees:


I CAN grow the cherries as “minarettes” or small trees then can space them less than a metre apart. However, minarettes give the smallest amount of fruit.

Just going to have to winnow my list of preferred cooking apples or put them in the front yard etc. Front yard is likely where the vege patch will go. OK, panic over 

OK, going to grow the dwarf cherry trees as trees. Means the dwarf apples and perry pears are moved to the front yard: less lawn to mow!

Hmmmm

Going to plant the cherry trees at 2m spacing—advice from miketrees.

No dwarf apples, will plant some semi-dwarf culinary apples (granny smith, coxs orange pippin, Belle de Boskoop etc) semi-dwarf trees among the cider apple trees (which are also semi dwarfed.) Means 2.15m spacing—bees will be buzzing happily along the rows, pollinating my apples.

Will still plant the perry pears in the front yard, maybe 2 rows of them, oh yeah!

Interesting. I thought rain split cherries by the water sitting on the skin of the cherries. Nope—too much water in the soil and then in the cherry.

Plenty of mulch up to the drip line is the answer.

Jovial Monk wrote on May 7^th, 2018 at 7:24pm:


Why?

Ah, as well a currants and gooseberries the blackthorn, a tiny plum usually referred to as sloe, can be grown on the backfence of my block. Sloe gin!

Quote:


I bet some useful birds and insects will make that tree their home. Or use the tree as a sacrificial tree—not planning on drinking heaps of sloe gin!

Two bottles Tassie gin and a heap of sloes will likely do me for a few years—not a big spirit drinker. I guess I am intrigued by making my own sloe gin because living in Tassie I can grow sloes and make the sloe gin I have read about in many books, from Agatha Christie to more modern novels.

Can make a windbreak from them—plant them in 2-3 rows at an angle, angled one way in one row, angled the opposite way in the next. Nah, one will do. They do attract pollinating insects and birds love them (and mybe leave my other trees alone? Nah. . .damn birds!

Bought a simple soil testing kit, tests pH, and levels of Potassium, Nitrogen and Phosphorus. The nitrogen content of the soil is movable so only a rough estimate can be made.

Test kit allows 1o tests for each of pH and N, P & K.

Can see selecting 3 spots: at the front where nothing has been done, one of the rotary-hoed strips spread with gypsum, one in one of the mounds I made last month, should be higher in N, K, P and lower in pH (added pot sulphate and blood and bone plus sheepshit and sand and compost. Can do each test at two depths and still have two tests I can do—of the loam I am buying, say. do I need to boost the K, the potassium etc.

I will do some simple soil tests—do a Google and a range of simple tests will be found—as well as the ph+NPK tests.

Gawd, hope the work I have had done and the work I did last month have broken that @#%&* clay down a bit.

I scraped up most of the heap of compost that was left and put that in the shed. One good use of it: make a compost tea, good spadeful of compost, 10L water on top, let stand a few days, dig the hole for a tree, pour the bucket of “tea” in the hole, let it drain out, plant the tree. The tree roots that make contact with the bottom of the hole will grow downwards, following the trail of the compost tea. Will buy 10 buckets so always have some on hand.

Anyone for tea?

More tests than that can be done!

Been reading about simple (no chemicals/microscope etc.)

Interesting. About 6-7 tests can be done with little gear: spade, sheet of cardboard, hand trowel

Now I know my soil is clay and definitely alkaline but I want to see how it progresses as I work it.

I also have a simple chemical kit to test soil pH and potassium, phosphorus and nitrogen content. Can do 10 tests of each, 1 test of 3 or 4 locations in Sep, repeat next March. I have enough chemicals to stuff up and repeat a couple of tests. Can buy replacement chemicals for the next two visits.

Ribbon test: http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/resources/alpineresorts/20070596App13.pdf
NSW Environment and Primary Industries departments have some good info (the DPI website has a great section on cider apples.

A YouTube I will look at soon:



Applied Environmentalism.

OK have the tests selected and itemised, procedure written down etc.

Not going to bother much with using the soil testing kit to measure pH but will do it for a couple of sampling sites to see how accurate the pH meter is.

Be interested to see how the treated strips and mounds compare with the untreated control site and be interested in how the soil varies with time—improving hopefully!

Jovial Monk wrote on May 15^th, 2018 at 4:36pm:


Yes.  In Qld, at the Main Roads Department, there was a specialist job called 'Soil tester.'  Good cricketing mate of mine was one.

Got a dozen tests plus the ones I need my chemical soil kit for.

Been writing all the steps for each test in a hard covered notebook, quite exhausting, trying to write neatly etc. Very nearly done, finish writing test 11 then test 12.

Then some notes from a website about using the chemical test kit.

Next is selecting the sites on the block to test: a control (untreated) area and a couple more-or-less treated spots. Do the tests each visit, see how the soil is progressing.

Fun! Learning!

Humph, if the soil is as wet as I think it will be I can’t dig. {Snif} and I was gonna do so much work!

Well, dig swales to drain water, make mounds with bought loam, dig holes to plant the trees all while walking on soggy wet “soil.” Also do what soil tests I can—soil too wet for some tests and too hard to sundry it—where could I spread newspapers to dry the soil? Papers would be wet as soon as I put them on the ground!

Reading the book I borrowed from the local library

Organic Fruit growing by Annette McFarlane.

All about the trace elements etc. One GOOD thing about clay soils—they are full of mineral nutrients.

However, having the nutrients there does not necessarily mean that the plants can access them.

Moisture obviously, doubt a plant can extract nutrients from totally dry soil, even cacti and succulents likely have nutrients with the water they store in their tissues.

Another way moisture affects nutrient uptake: if the soil is too moist for too long there is no oxygen around the roots the plant will die—no nutrient uptake. Roots can stand being totally dry for longer than they can stand being deprived of oxygen by soils that are too wet. I have spent over $2100 having the soil amended plus my trip and work there last month to avoid that fate for my trees

Another factor influencing nutrient uptake: does the soil have the right fungii present to symbiose with the tree roots. I will bring 1.4Kg of Mycorrhizal fungal culture. I might buy another kilogram before then. The fungus and tree roots enter into a symbiotic relationship (a parasite acts on a host for its own benefit, even to killing the host, think tapeworms etc but with symbiosis the host and the invading organism work to mutual benefit—think the bugs in your gut.)

But there is one more, probably more important factor. Some moisture, some beneficial microbes are probably around in most soils most of the time. No, there is another factor. Can you guess?

It is ph! pH, the power of the hydrogen ion or, more prosaically, the acidity or alkalinity of the soil.

Generally, and there are exceptions, a ph of 6.5–7.2 is best.

My “soil” is more alkaline than that. I will be doing LOTS of pH testing and then trying to amend the pH.

LOTS of sulphur and iron sulfate. Acidic pine chip mulch on top. Pea or alfafa straw on top of that. But there is one weary certainty: a soil returns to its innate pH.

So—I have to change to innate pH of my soil. Easy!

How the hell do I do that? H e e l l l l p p p p p p ! ! ! ! ! !

I don’t think fruit trees work too well at ground zero and I am SURE the council would send me a stiff note about nukes when they can emerge above ground again.

Hmmm Read the latest Cider Group digest, think Tassie will be too cold for much of a codling moth problem. Chooks should keep the buggers under control alright.

Compost tea is easy to make and beneficial to all plants. I bought the fish hydrolosate from the company in Perth but bought the powdered kelp on Ebay at a significant saving.

Quote:


http://www.greenlifesoil.com.au/lawns/fish-hydrolysate-20l

Fish hydrolysate is much superior to stuff like Charlie Carp because it still has the fish oils in it.

I will make the orchard compost tea then dig a planting hole, pour in 10L of the “tea” and let that drain. Plant the tree—and the roots will follow the compost tea down into the soil.

Had a bit of a shock. I had assumed, based on the description in my tree supplier’s website, 3m high etc that the cherry trees I have bought were on a dwarfing rootstock. I was half right.

My cherry trees are on semi dwarfing rootstock, Colt rootstock to be exact. Height more like 4-5 metres! Gadzooks!

However, by a bit of pruning and bending the branches and trunk down (and holding them in position with ties, etc) I can keep them below 3 metre and still get a healthy crop of delicious fresh cherries. Yum!

One row covered with pine chips, spread midwinter.

Where is the snow and ice, Booby?

What is pathetic Punk, is that you have submitted nearly a whole thread yourself........and the last page is certainly confined to your continual whining about two idiots who have been banned.......yes YOU are pathetic........

One row covered with pine chips, spread midwinter.

Where is the snow and ice, Booby?

Getting close to having all the information to draw up the final version of my planting plan:

1. Training cherries on Colt rootstock to a fan:

Quote:

https://www.chrisbowers.co.uk/article/cherry-tree-growing-methods-rootstocks/

2.
Quote:

The nursery said the height of the tree grown as a tree was 3m—it is TWICE that!

I think I will go back to my initital thought to grow them as a fan—they need permanent staking anyway!

3.
Quote:


I like the “no ladders” bit being inherently lazy and not getting any younger!

More good news:
Quote:



So 2.4-5m high, assume foliage 3m diameter. So can plant at 2.5m spacing in row, 2.5m space between rows. One more deep rip. The cherry trees a bit higher than the espaliered pear trees will go on the south side of rows 4 & 5, they will be less in the shade line of my house.

Phew, now to put my non–existent draughting skills to use!

Except for my hedgerow!

Bought a Organic Gardening mag—had an article on brambleberries. These include:

Boysenberries—delicious BUT canes can grow 3m a season. Know where I can put some of these, nice windbreak!

Lawtonberry

Loganberry—great for jam. Leave to fully ripen, one of the best things about growing some fruit yourself. A dewberry–raspberry hybrid.

Marionberry—a hybrid like Loganberry, very soft so not available in the greengrocer.

And smoothstem blackberry, Tayberry, Youngberry and native Tasmanian brambleberries.

LOTS of raspberries all along north boundary. the bramble berries can go on east and southern boundaries apart from the boysenberries.

Any good stuff going around

I have found a source of yellow raspberry canes in Tassie. There is also a black raspberry that I am trying to find a source of canes for. Apparently has superb flavor.

Jovial Monk wrote on Aug 24^th, 2018 at 9:50pm:

I must have missed that ad on gumtree, yields would be low in Tassie, mull plants grow better in the desert. Better off sticking to apples.