Anne Sony

I would be interested in this type of situation but for me location is key, as is the property. Building infrastructure takes time so does Building business. Taxes must be paid and you're looking in different places 2 hours away from the city. So for me the hurdle is there is no work to make money until a year or 2 in. Im debt free but can't simply trust that the nearby town/whatever it may be will have enough of a job to pay unknown taxes for an unknown property in an unknown state to live with unknown people with unknown skills for an unknown number of years.

I wish you luck and hope you are successful.

I have nothing particularly useful to say, just good luck. I live in Spring and will be watching this thread with much interest!

Hi all,

I'm newly becoming interested in grafting and really want to create a multi citrus tree. I don't have any of it started yet and have some questions about Rootstock.

I don't necessarily need the tree dwarfed, but I wouldn't mind it either.

I think I could just plant some seeds I got out of a local lemon, and graft onto that.

Other options I see are buying a grafted variety and grafting further on it.

Do citrus cuttings root well? (I know I can Google that, it just occurred to me)

Anyhow, how do most folks go about getting rootstock and does it really matter what seeds I plant for it?

This last season I put a mushy tomato in my worm bin. I made my starting mix with the vermicompost. I'm weeding tomato plants out of everything.

I also have half my bed that won't grow. No idea what's gone wrong... nothing shows signs of stress. No discoloring. Little pest damage, but nothing major. The other half of the bed is growing and producing fine.

I just built a no dig bed last night since it was going to rain (yay clean free water!!) I planned on planting it out today with what's left of my compost. This morning I checked the bed and it seems to be generating a bit of heat. My compost usually ramps up on day 2 or 3... and most of what I read days it's safe to plant directly into compost pockets with no waiting period, So I wasn't expecting the heat. Is it really ok to plant into?


I know in some places it's early still and the heat would be a good thing. I'm in the Houston area, zone 9a and my tomatoes are 5 ft tall and setting fruit already. Lettuce is still doing good though.  I have plugs ready to go in, not starting seeds. The plants in question are heat lovers... peppers, cucumbers, and okra. As im writing this im thinking it should be fine...

Any advise?

I wouldn't worry about allelopathic wood chips, mulch is mulch in my opinion.  

Just make sure you do get good compost to build on and grow in.

Thanks Kirk that was all great info. I appreciate the time you have taken to help me out. I may take you up on your offer of cuttings down the road, in the meantime if you do some serious pruning let me know. I'd hate to have you take cuttings just for me to kill them, but if they're coming off anyway... Well, it'll be a learning experience.

Thanks!

I am planning to go to urban harvest's plant sale, but didn't realize the amount of outreach they have; they'll be an amazing resource. I have also taken the advice to get out and talk to other people here. I went to a composting class, and joined a local facebook group that does a swap twice a year. I have the bed filled with a mix of my compost, "organic garden soil", and my native soil. Most of what I planted is sprouting, and beans have their first set of true leaves. If the plants are not happy with the mix what should I be looking for? just general poor performance? I'm still concerned with whether or not my compost is finished. My perennial onions seem very happy, but that might just be because they were getting a bit root bound in a pot.


I'll have to look into gypsum, never really heard of it. I've heard a ton of talk about green sand, Anyone have experience with it?

I have a fig in the ground for about a year now, Can't wait for it to produce for me, I'm dreaming of that first fig, hopefully next year I'll get a few. I'm dying to get a pomegranate tree, Hoping I have enough sun though. Blackberries sound good, but I've heard they can become invasive bramble patches, Is there any particular variety you'd recommend? Low maintenance, and shade tolerant sounds like my kind of plant. PawPaw is also pretty high on my list of must get perennials.

Thanks everybody! I really appreciate the help, and with it I have a new and improved plan.

Step 1 Build bed, add coffee grounds to wood chips directly under the bed, then cardboard, and layers of stuff. Each planting hole gets a good (finished) mix.
Step 2 Trap the organic matter, and dig giant pits to improve over time. Keep mulched and don't disturb once finished.
Step 3 Try to find a good nursery, and other local people to see what they're doing.


continually work coffee grounds around the yard and in the heaps. Keep adding wood chips over time.

I'm looking forward to getting to grow some more things, and learn new lessons.

Thanks for the inputs. Life long learning is inevitable, why fight it? I do take heart in the fact that we all started somewhere, and all still have failures. Casie, that was absolutely, very helpful. I've never seen the term caliche before but that sounds like the stuff I'm dealing with. Giant composting pits are now part of my plan, and In the event that things do start growing, I've bookmarked it.

My yard has been in progress for a few years already, All organic matter seems to disappear from the surface. With all these trees you'd expect to find some rich nice soil, but not so. I don't pickup any of the organic matter, just leave it alone thinking that compost happens. In the photo below, that's not a stick, but a tree root that couldn't make it below grade any further. I cleared leaf litter with my foot and there you have what my yard is comprised of. It's like moist concrete that turns to slimy mud in the rain. I really am hoping the woodchips do something to help over time. Maybe the key is to incorporate it, not just leave it...?

The other picture is of the sunny spot I'm working on. Maybe it would be best to just fill a bed with soil. I considered it, then decided against that route because I thought it would just wash away, without constant input from me. Is just filling a bed with soil enough? I know it sounds dumb but, I honestly have no idea. In CA as a kid I just put some seeds in dirt, add water, and eat delicious veggies. Since that didn't work here maybe I've gone overboard and jumped right over a very logical solution.

I was almost thinking of the bed in this area like a nursery bed, if that makes sense... Not just for my perennials and as a seasonal bed, but for the soil too. If I continually re-fill the bed with decomposing matter, get my perennials started, and then transport the whole established soil and plant to a more permanent home, maybe the organic matter en masse would stay put longer, and spread the love throughout, I don't know, maybe that is nuts too.

This seems crazy even to me, the leaves must go somewhere!