Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 49 Entries. Wednesday, February 15 View Page LanTerrA, Incredible February have spent two solid days in the patch this week. Loved turning over the winters dread. Then let stand a spray water mix of several ounces of Humic Acid with Fish with soluble 20-20-20. Spread bales of Promix and sprayed with my moron concoction of added organic and high nitrogen ferts to inoculate all of this new inert material.   Thursday, February 16 View Page LanTerrA, Ok then here we go with a much relived rain that today is washing away all the brown snow from my frozen moron applied organic salts. A bit less than Two Months to Wapner! Will record each days adventures right here. Wapner is defined as purely perceived and misplaced pumpkin pleasurement.   Sunday, March 5 View Page LanTerrA Update, Seed selection plans completed. Primary option is the 2537 Crews. Pollinator uncertain but could be a 2365 offspring or sib. Plus one squash 1402* Kline or 1144* Sproule. Both are sibbed 1109's. Will let the strongest survive at planting time while the other becomes the pollinator.   Thursday, March 16 View Page LanTerrA > Sprayed on top of snow several ounces per 1,000 of Humic Acid, Corn Syrup, Fish & Epsom Salts...   Friday, March 17 View Page LanTerrA Update > All in for first attempt at AG's since 2015. Been out deep digging, trenching, draining & drenching the patch with Humic and hitch hiker micros and macros. Best possible description of LanTerrA is ready and ripe after a two truckload purchase of Premier Promix.   Monday, March 20 View Page Nice sunny day and weather, fits right into a growers options. Drying conditions arriving so spring planting is back on schedule and cleanup continues. Several hours of patch edge digging by hand today. Vine burying compost piles are well turn over. Both planting sites are just about ready. Spraying Corn Syrup on anything and everything again today.   Tuesday, March 21 View Page Another nice day in the low 50's.. Nice little micro climate in the patch drives it up higher still. Again manual labor with dirty hands that are shovel encrusted. Only a few more days of turmoil on the edging. I like to do this by hand exercise and its pretty easy in a small patch to keep ahead of the cores. The East planting site is completed and awaits its hoop house. Installed approx. 6 feet of 3" perforated and screen protected sub drainage tile 18" deep under the AG plant bed with two vertical riser pipes 36" apart, poking above the surface on each side of the plant location. Plan is to use temp monitoring and force heat the sub air chambers. Blowing warm air using USB fans may make an early difference.   Tuesday, March 21 View Page 2537 is slowly coming around. started to vine normally now. Cold temps had got it damaged pretty good. The hoop house is opened up completely now. Warmth & twice morning drenches and evening sprays of IBA, Mg, N seams to be the cure. Decided to direct sow FP's seeds into the opposite end of the 2537 patch just in case the worst happens. Also using numerous sacrificial FP's in a perimeter inoculation WOW ring with a Rootshield ring around the plants.   Wednesday, March 22 View Page Another nice but raw day. Finished up the east patch site and planted spring mustard (pacific blend) then drenched with myco's, corn syrup, fish and humic acid. Covered over the mustard with a robust top coat of - Peat, Perlite and Vermiculite. Set out the first clear tarps of the season over the east patch. Heating & Lighting season begins shortly. Still have a lot of my old equipment left over for this. Note applying all known full moron tactics to the front lawn this year. Love a nice Green Lawn.   Wednesday, March 22 View Page Hoop House update; first test night, set the temperature to about 50. Remote thermometer was placed hanging 18" off the ground. The electronic heater working well this morning. Frost outside this morning so the electric meter is spinning hard now at .075 cent a kwh at night.   Friday, March 24 View Page Chilly 40f but the sun is trying today. Here its often lake effect clouds and North winds off Lake Huron in the spring. So, its a bit slower here than most of southern Michigan to warm up. Still cleaning up the last of the trees from the ice storms this winter. Pretty wet today and still waiting for the hoop houses to arrive. Have nail file, heaters and lights waiting to go. :-) https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B09WYC1HZQ?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details   Friday, March 24 View Page Did manage a small dual strong patch spray as today was Moe-Lasses, Epsom Salts, Fish and Humic Day. I put that stuff on everything. Shannon, bought some pansies for the front yard, so I thickly spray coated all the soils and stuff in front too. Have a nice topiary shrub that loves this cocktail.   Saturday, March 25 View Page Rain again today. Makes 3 out of last 4. No northern lights can be seen here tonight. May get snow. reloaded today on several items. Top of the list is Organic kelps and Fish. Bought three different kinds today from a couple of local sources and found bulk perlite too. Next jobs on tap are setting up a small the outdoor green house for hardening off. Then its brew time making my own bacterial tees. Have various sizes of tubs for brews. Important for me as always is irrigation water quality. Hope to mostly use Manual wand watering done with premixed acid injected water. Firmly believe that suitable water treatment is the key to ensuring maximum uptake of negative cations. The goal here is large and very heavy.   Sunday, March 26 View Page Found an old jug of Fulvic acid in the garage yesterday. Prepped another batch of high sugar and humic sprays for all the compost piles. Drenched patches again last night. Rain has completed the drenching with puddles in the drainage channels. Raising CEC is my dedicated focus now. Brewing the first batch of compost tea with Wow Humic, Fish, Worm Castings and Corn Syrup. Woke up at 1am listening to the bubbling brewing away in the backyard.   Sunday, March 26 View Page Brewing away looks like LanTerrA needs a new brew tube. Pine needle heaven on the compost piles. Raked and fertilized the lawn using blend of High N Scotts with a MG granular Organic Kelp. Want heavy duty clippings for the piles this year. Shannon starting again to realize how serious the the pursuit of pumpkin pleasurement is. She heard the hum of the air pump having coffee this morning. Her comment do you need that? ah yup. LOL I am moron Dear. So yes, so I Admit its pretty loud from the side yard patches. Will have to fix that.   Monday, March 27 View Page 12 year old mater seeds off the 7.33 Hunt jumping out of the cup.   Monday, March 27 View Page Figured out the pictures. East patch, filled with perlite. Heavily worried about low CEC but at the same time concerned about effective aeration. Two 3" vertical riser pipes to the left approximate the planting location.   Tuesday, March 28 View Page LanTerrA Update > Planting sites completed. Hoop houses are up and heated with oscillating fans & LED lights. Installed the USB sub air fans in the riser pipes. The air movement from underground and back to surface works remarkably well. First C02 readings are in the mid 950's.   Wednesday, March 29 View Page Here we go. I like the 1144* Sproule> Harely sibbed it so it should have lots of vitality coming from his patch. The 2537 Crews is gonna see a lot of Ontario dirt this spring...   Wednesday, March 29 View Page Home made planting site Sub Air System. Curious if anyone has experimented with this. Just reviewing the Youtubes videos. Really takes weeping tile to a wghole new level. So currently the system is running wide open and frankly using hoop house ambient air is slow to warm the soil. Considering preheating the air and pressurizing the pipe with an air flow restrictor of some type. Seeing how this works tremendously well on golf courses is believing. In fact believe this may work terrifically well on a small patch scale encompassing the full crown area or larger. May try to expand on this idea more for next year. Sub Air https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA7Bwj5A1U0   Thursday, March 30 View Page Abner's Opening Day - Huh, oh stop the pitch clock there's ice on the playing field today! The Pumpkin Ground crew needs to bye a heater. Cold weather makes an estimated in ground date of April 16th risky.   Friday, March 31 View Page Playing with the app. Like the graphs. Learning the flux of temperature control is going to be tricky. Compost tea got an upgrade with installation of a 100W aquarium heater today. No more ice for the Fungi. Game ON *Relief, and success in germination of the two primary plants. Potted up both the 1144* and the 2537.   Monday, April 10 View Page LanTerra Update - planting day. Happy Pumpkinating Day.. Plenty of good Easter news. Completed the French drain before the Midwest tornado outbreak of thunderstorms ran trough town last week. The rains came with thunder but the patch stayed wet and this time did not flood. So we have everything going and growing so well. Heaters been in the hoop houses for more than a week and the spring mustard has germinated. The 14 day weather forecast is amazingly nice. April 10th the Crews and Sproule seedlings hit the dirt. With highs in the seventies all week it’s show time. Planted with WOW and Azos watered compost tea supplemented with IBA and Kelp then set the heaters and fans to maximum grow and crossed my arthritic fingers. As I slowly lumbered away I though about loosing these plants to frost in this silly false summer event. Mother Mature’s Mysterious weather swings at this time of year gives my early planting date a fear factor that is definitely pushing the envelope.   Saturday, April 15 View Page GVGO seminar with Heavy Hitters Andy Wolfe, Todd Kline GPC & Don Crews presenting. World Record holders Jim Bryson, John Vincent & multiple category World Record holder, Al Eaton. Al was getting his amazing 173.75" GPC long gourd rewards.   Saturday, April 15 View Page Attended the GVGO seminar today and boy was it a along day. 9 hours on the road was well worth the drive. Kirk did a fine job and the GVGO is in terrific hands with a healthy and strong membership. My chief take away was Al's chat with me about the necessity of soil tests. Clearly over the years of talking with him Soil and its constituent's are his prime concern. Soil Balance was his past and singular NEW guidance to me. He has grown records for generations and has helped many Ontario and Quebec growers. I'm listening.   Wednesday, April 19 View Page Both AG & Squash plants survived the first snow showers of hoop house season. Set minimum at 57*F on Sunday evening and been fine since. Spread 1/2 bag per patch Black Earth Humic acid. Spread another 4 lbs per patch organic ferts with kelp and worm castings.\ Spread more Promix and then waited for the rain and warm front.   Thursday, April 20 View Page Happy 420 - a nice day opened up the hoop houses and chopped down the first ring of inoculated Mustard around the 2537. Soil sampled the west patch just around the plant perimeter and off to A&L. Finished the day off trying a natural chelator. Tried this before with good results. So a heaping table spoon of powdered Lecithin was added to the compost tea. Foamy and fully emulsified tea now. Also spread 1/4 or more box of Borax on the two patch's and then the same amount of Epsom Salts.   Thursday, April 20 View Page Sub air update: was surprised to learn on the weekend that the 2537 was grown in a similar way. The first two weeks in use are mostly positive. Its very easy to pressure circulate air under ground. Either to damper and force push warm air down or move cool air up into the hoop house. Great for inducing Air & Oxygen up into the soil it marvels no other. Draw back is definitely moisture and humidity. External venting may be needed. Will promote PM in the fall so its a big issue. Want to try a bigger system next year or right Now! Imagining a header pipe running underneath the main vine with intermediate wings. Thinking it May also be a great way to add CO2   Thursday, May 4 View Page Weatherman must have gotten fired yesterday! So finally the sun shows up today. Opened up the hoop houses and turned off the heaters. Both plants are days from setting down. Been working hard on the vine burying piles.. Added this week several layers of organic ferts with granular Humic acid, vermiculite & perlite. Then clay & loamy soil mixed in with leave mold and other general brown waste. Then distributed grass clippings into the piles. Watering regularly with extra fish Molasses or Maple Syrup and little N and high PK. Prolly will have about 4 to 5 yards of finished vine burying material by in a month or so.   Thursday, May 4 View Page Hoop houses and soil temperatures are fine now but it was a long two week battle with the weather. The plants are a bit smaller for it but are very squat and sturdy looking. Now that they are bigger just began using daytime added grass clippings to the hoop houses to manage and boost CO2 above 800ppm. Although the method is nor really controllable it does provide a means of elevation in CO2. The east patch hoop house most of the mustard has been felled around the plant in a two foot dia. All system are good.   Thursday, May 4 View Page Maters and such... The first 5 gallon Mater, 3.82 Landry 11 plant was potted up yesterday and put into this mornings bright sunshine. Placed it in a self watering pail with a 1.5L jug in the bottom fed by a surface riser pipe. Drained and or flushable by a petcock valve. Have plans to aerate these as well. The second type of mater setup going with is modified Kratky with aeration. 7.88 Lyons 21 and 7.88 Butler are the selected seeds. Lyons are germinating now . So includes 5 gallon pail with integrated 6 inch screened clay filled pots . Also will have a few plane ole dirt plants two These are not flushable but are refillable and easy to view levels with installed sight glasses. Tracking TDS at below 900 ppm with this setup.   Wednesday, May 10 View Page The Sproule Squash plant has landed easily and is running. A bit of persistent daytime flagging prevails. So a new shade structure was erected over both patches using wire ropes and turnbuckles. Protected the sunny spots with shade cloth hanging vertically. Placed on order 30% shade cloth. However with some cool weather ahead yet decided to setup the overhead canopy to greenhouse mode. Each plant to have a 13’ x 20’ area overhead fully protected. GLTA   Thursday, May 11 View Page Possibly the cause of plant flags is cool soil temperature. Thinking what is Needed is more roots? First Drenched with high phos and probed to open up roots area soil. Stepped up the temperature at night and with flagging an issue with in the springtime heatwave decided to start a morning and evening spray regime of a weak TDS solution with IBA, HA, Kelp & fish. Hopefully they grow out of this soon.   Friday, May 12 View Page Pleasant surprise with Co2. The last four mornings the routine is at 6:15 checked on the plants temps, water and air. Found the half to Quarter bucket grass clipping and sugary mix method works remarkably well. Tues was 875ppm Wed 815, Thurs 1016 and today 656. This mornings low number was due to not recharging the clippings with water or Molasses. It rebounded to 867ppm a 1/2 hour after recharging with a few new handfuls of fresh Clippings and compost.,   Thursday, May 18 View Page 1144* Sproule. > motoring along at 5' with the first female appearing today. May 18 is darn early. Pre-pollination strategy has been to effectively implement some of the data in the latest studies. Fostering Phloem Sieve tube development is a fundamental key leading to bud development of the pathways and plumbing into the new fruiting sink. So daily moderate dose TDS drenching's of low pH water at 5.5 to 6 and HA with Kelp. Often added in is P & K seams to work fine.... Note : Never used these large quantities of soluble HA and Kelp or this much K before. Always in the past used a lot of Phos for fruit set and K for finishing. Also really have worked hard on low TDS < 1,000ppm sprays. Have used IBA sparingly 1/4 dose or less three or four times. Steve Jepson would be proud as he was often a discussion leader here with Doc Gipe gawking his ear off. The theories of sink source relationship are finally become understood thanks to Savage and friends.. The new research has from my view indicated lowered future peduncle resistance can be overcome using a smattering of tools early and often. First observation appears this regime causes no harm. Can't tell you all how Its good to be back in the game!   Thursday, May 18 View Page Overhead canopy is fully erected now. Essentially have a pretend greenhouse with protection over the entire 1144* is a great addition. The plant is growing fast now. Kicking into gear, have begun hopscotching the hoop house ahead with main vine growth each day. 30% Shade cloth has arrived. Had to settle for black, aluminet was hard to find. First Mega's start to appear on the 5 gallon 3.85 Mater's. Will be buzzing & flicking the blossoms with each walk by all season long. Have one in a self watering 5 pail. One in a 2 gallon open bottom air pot. So far 4 Maters on the go for early weighing. 3 - 3.85' and a 2.12. On the go with just germinated two 7.88 Lyons 21. One in a Kratky 5 gallon pot and the other TBD location. Germinating are two each 5.30 Butler 20 and 7.88 Butler 22. Dutch plants look good > 3 are still fully F. Noob at this so not sure what these plants are. Some type of auto flower.   Sunday, May 21 View Page Pre inoculation of the 1144* patch starts. Both immediate left & right side wings of the main are treated with root a shield component and WOW. Then watered in with fresh fish and sugary laden compost tea, IBA, high soluble P & K. Then spread other a cover layer of Ha and Promix then broadcasted mustard. Pre-inoculation is a old Linderman trick. Back in my pre splitting days. We had a 1420 offspring that grew so fast it blew up. That plant was the only time that was ever pre inoculated with a spring cover crop. The cover used was generic AG's. Pulling the small plants ahead of vine growth worked well. This was much like chopping down buckwheat just ahead of the vine growth.   Monday, May 22 View Page Elicitor day in the patches. Heavy drenches of Chitosan with Compost Tea, using HA and Lethicin as chelators with Fish today around the Sproule squash. The 1144* is 10 nodes long now and has three females. Flowers occupy the 5th, 7th and 8th nodes on the main. So far a pretty remarkable plant considering the lack of sunshine. The 2537 looks to be a multi short node ribbon. Will wait a bit yet as there's no backup. Possible direct sown FP's may take its place.   Monday, May 22 View Page Lecithin - awaiting the first prepackaged products on this stuff. For now using a full strength Sunflower powered from Amazon . A cure for traffic problems along "The Calcium Highway" "A favorable route for administrating active ingredients to plants is directly to the foliage; however many agricultural ingredients cannot be administered in this manner due to poor leaf penetration and intra-plant mobility20. Nanoparticles have proven to be effective carriers of a wide scope of compounds, capable of enhancing biological targeting, delivery and uptake (#17,21,22). Here, we tested medical nanoparticles, specifically – 100?nm PEGylated liposomes, for their potential agricultural use, as carriers of agricultural ingredients to plants. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5958142/   Monday, May 22 View Page Amazon makes them every day. Placed on order a Hanna soil EC tester after watching Chad New and his channel on the you tubes. Great channel Chad. In true Moron status my drenches have been creeping up the ppm's. So handy is Chads EC/TDS chart. This will help me stay in control of the solutions. Foliar sprays have all been under 1000 ppm. This will be handy to monitor the soil conditions. Other buys this week include Insect Frass & Alaska Fish and a new air pump due to a blown diaphragm.   Tuesday, May 23 View Page 1144* update. Photo shows the squash plant from a distance in its open hoop house with the canopy above. The south west side is bathed in Red light while the other side has white reflective light also. Taking this grow to a new level with a white perlite top side dressing > This mornings application is Espoma seed starter with 4 types Bacillus bacteria and fungi. Spread liberally around the main trunk and crown area of both the 2537 & 1144*. Maters recieved around the main stem of all competition plants all watered in with fresh compost tea ladened with Lecithin and worm castings.   Tuesday, May 23 View Page 2537 is slowly coming around. started to vine normally now. Cold temps had got it damaged pretty good. The hoop house is opened up completely now. Warmth & twice morning drenches and evening sprays of IBA, Mg, N seams to be the cure. Decided to direct sow FP's seeds into the opposite end of the 2537 patch just in case the worst happens. Also using numerous sacrificial FP's in a perimeter inoculation WOW ring with a Rootshield ring around the 1144* plant. Wonder if all these newly rotting roots will be detrimental? Soil disease always lingers in a wet thunder storm filled summer.   Wednesday, May 24 View Page > Weatherman produces strong gusty Lake Effect Wind - Very, very Blustery cool day with strong North winds swopping straight down from Lake Huron. Fixed the tarps in the patch numerous times today. Canopy over the 1144* in the west patch keeps the temperatures elevated by 10 to 15F* underneath the structure. Mid eighties next week! 2537 East patch, Chopped down the spring mustard a bit early. Hand dug it in then watered in and capped off a layer of fresh compost then topped with landscape fabric. Nematodes should fry now. Then ready for the mother of all vines .. :-)   Wednesday, May 24 View Page Believe that burring vines is or should be essentially be like transplanting vegetables or bedding flowers & seedlings into treated solarized & fumigated beds > So normally this usually occurs two to three weeks after fumigation, depending on warmth, soil moisture, and soil temperature. Keeping the soil moist & covered or referred to as sealed, this is key for at least 3 to 7 or several more days. Studies have shown the active biology will somewhat suffer. Possibly losing up to 10% of the bacteria and fungi. Still in the long run pre inoculation works cuz Linderman said it does. The side wings of both plants should have very little root knot issues.   Thursday, June 1 View Page Very early Maters on the go. 1 - 2.12 Landry. 5 gallons self watering. Started buzzing first double blossom on May 30th. 1 - 3.85 Landry. 5 gallons self watering. Started buzzing first triple blossom on May 26th. 1 - 3.85 Landry. 7 gallons self watering. Started buzzing first triple blossom on June 1st. 1 - 7.88 Landry. Multi gallon open bottom air pot. First blossoms culled. 1 - 7.88 Lyons 22. 5 gallo1 - 3.85 Landry. 7 gallons self watering. Started buzzing first triple blossom on June 1st. First Blossoms culled.ns Kraty with 6" clay pots. at first leaf set. 1 - 7.88 Lyons 22. 1 gallon pot awaiting transplant at soil location. 2 - 5.30 Butler 20. Germinated awaiting transplant. 1 slated for Kratky, 1 for soil 3 - 7.88 Butler 22. Germinated awaiting transplant. 1 slated for Kratky, 2 for soil   Thursday, June 1 View Page Happy the 2537 is out of its funk and out of its hoop house. Behind this years benchmark plants, in a normal year for an outdoor grow its ok and is gaining fast now. Was throwing multiple females. Picked off five females already. Three perfectly shaped. So Very strong buds and main vine apical dominance. Almost like on the edge of multiple conjoined vines. Maybe this Indicate perhaps it can support strong sinks. Kinda like this plant. The 2537 patch spring Mustard is all chopped down and was used to fumigate the compost & vine burying pile. First flip was this morning. watered in with Added fresh greens then drenched with High organic N, Maple syrup, Bacillus and high soluble Phos , K and Epsom salts. Same for the 1144* Sproule. Demonstrated far stronger apical dominance with less female bud expression. This is a good plant with now aggressive side vines and no shortage of N. Have a strong patch path lad out. Have in place automated by phone app 1/4" overhead misting and above canopy irrigation. 30% shade cloth awaiting installation. Running two 15 Gallon Compost tea brewers. 1144 patch is spring cover mustard inoculated with WOW and Root shield. Patch Fails so far. Main vine growth is stronger than expected. Some Wind damage on the 1144*. What looks to be severe wilt or necrotic Ozone damage on a couple of the 1144* leaves. Cold soil temperatures really set back the 2537. Damaged equipment Electric extension cords are sad looking and have burnt out and toasted a fan and a air pump. Best purchase on a budget was a soil EC tester very helpful.   Friday, June 2 View Page LanTerra Update. Drenching the newly covered nodes and vines of both plants with Promix > Root Booster with IBA mixed with extra Fish and 20% Fresh Tea . Elicitor spray of everything in the garden last evening. TEA with Alaska Fish, Chitosan & Kelp. Yum... First try of the liquid Hyshield 1% Chitosan product. Below is a link to the original unobtainium product called YEA. Chris Lyons, Phil Hunt and several members of the GVGO had a good first year with this stuff a long time ago. Neil Anderson had given us the heads up on this. The product was tried by NASA in space plant experiment's. https://www.forestrydistributing.com/colloidal-chitosan-odc-yea-agrihouse   Thursday, June 8 View Page Patch update - No rain for three weeks and only once in the last five. No wonder the forests are on Fire! No bees, bugs or moths. In fact no pest pressure at all. Hung out three sticky traps with the first flowers opening Cucumber beetle season is fast approaching. Drenching daily as soil permits with heavy worm compost teas, Humic acid, Kelp & Fish. Pre-charging the patch soil with soluble P & K in the still bare areas. 2537 is completely out of its funk. May go with a female on the 14th node. Despite short node lengths at the crown plus a single doubled side vine its doing well now. 1144* main vine is well out there. Female a day or so away at node 17. A few of the side vines have doubled out to the first or second node.   Thursday, June 8 View Page 10 - Maters on the go. Change of plans. Only going with one Kratky setup after a chipmunk pulled out the first one.. 1 - 2.12 Landry. 5 gallons self watering. First double blossom pollinated. 1 - 3.85 Landry. 5 gallons self watering. First triple blossom pollinated. 1 - 3.85 Landry. 7 gallons self watering. First triple blossom pollinated. 1 - 7.88 Lyons 22. Multi gallon open bottom air pot. No update. 1 - 3.85 Landry. 7 gallons self watering. First triple blossom pollinated. 1 - 7.88 Lyons 22. Transplanted into on ground open bottom three gallon pot at garden soil location. 2 - 5.30 Butler 20. Transplanted into garden soil 2 - 7.88 Butler 22. Transplanted into garden soil