Deluxestogie Grow Log 2020
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The whole point of using glyphosate correctly is to not be exposed at all. I am intimately familiar with the science.
Bob
Bob
Pipe7
Member
Awesome! For a newbie, what steps should I take to protect myself if I want to use it?
Pipe7
Member
Thank you, Bob. I'll review all of the labeling. I still have a lot to learn. I didn't mean to imply that you don't know what you're doing, and I apologize if I gave that impression. This community is super helpful. Thanks again!
Every activity in growing comes with a cost. For commercial producers of any horticultural product, the cost is in money. With tight (or non-existent) profit margins, if an agrichemical can safely accomplish a task which would be more expensive if accomplished with labor, then the choice for them is obvious.
For me, the significant cost is my own labor. I always till my garden beds by hand. It takes me several weeks to get it done. That's just the reality of being a codger. I used to pluck up each weed by hand, all season long. I used to use non-chemical methods to manually cope with aphids and flea beetles. I would walk the tobacco twice a day, all summer long, to remove hornworm eggs and squish hornworms. Until recently, I also used a gazillion bags of composted manure for my fertilizer. If I had to continue doing those maintenance chores by hand, I would simply stop growing tobacco.
I continue to till by hand, and take pride in the resulting back aches. All the heavy work of using composted cow manure has been replaced by a single application of 10-10-10 low-chloride fertilizer. But I use glyphosate, well ahead of transplanting, to eliminate the deep weeds in each bed. At transplant, I add imidacloprid to the transplant water (just that single application), and that eliminates nearly all the bugs until shortly before blossom time. And I also spray the foliage with BT (Bacillus thuringiensis) about once a week, which eliminates hornworms. Beds with signs of slugs will be sprinkled with Sluggo. These are concessions to my reduced capacity for labor.
I also spray permethrin on the blossom head, immediately prior to tying an Agribon AG-15 bag over it. This eliminates various caterpillars that will eat every last seed from every pod within the bagged head.
If the health risks to me or to my wildlife-rich environment (or to my neighbor's bee hives) from the chemicals I choose were significant, then I would not use them. I have fruit trees that I do not spray with anything, because the risks are greater.
Bob
For me, the significant cost is my own labor. I always till my garden beds by hand. It takes me several weeks to get it done. That's just the reality of being a codger. I used to pluck up each weed by hand, all season long. I used to use non-chemical methods to manually cope with aphids and flea beetles. I would walk the tobacco twice a day, all summer long, to remove hornworm eggs and squish hornworms. Until recently, I also used a gazillion bags of composted manure for my fertilizer. If I had to continue doing those maintenance chores by hand, I would simply stop growing tobacco.
I continue to till by hand, and take pride in the resulting back aches. All the heavy work of using composted cow manure has been replaced by a single application of 10-10-10 low-chloride fertilizer. But I use glyphosate, well ahead of transplanting, to eliminate the deep weeds in each bed. At transplant, I add imidacloprid to the transplant water (just that single application), and that eliminates nearly all the bugs until shortly before blossom time. And I also spray the foliage with BT (Bacillus thuringiensis) about once a week, which eliminates hornworms. Beds with signs of slugs will be sprinkled with Sluggo. These are concessions to my reduced capacity for labor.
I also spray permethrin on the blossom head, immediately prior to tying an Agribon AG-15 bag over it. This eliminates various caterpillars that will eat every last seed from every pod within the bagged head.
If the health risks to me or to my wildlife-rich environment (or to my neighbor's bee hives) from the chemicals I choose were significant, then I would not use them. I have fruit trees that I do not spray with anything, because the risks are greater.
Bob
Well, that wasn't fun. I arose at 6 a.m. this morning, quickly dressed, and before my coffee, spent a half-hour repeatedly squeezing the small handle of a spray bottle hundreds of times, to dispense death and destruction onto my garden beds. The air was cool and still. No rain in the forecast.
The newly mowed grass was still wet with dew. So once I was finished spraying glyphosate onto my garden beds, I returned to my front porch, and with both forearms throbbing with fatigue, spent another ten minutes brushing the adhered clumps of grass clippings from the deeply grooved soles of my boots--using the head of a broom, with its long handle swinging wildly against any object in its path. (For several years, I've tried to remember to purchase a shop hand-brush the next time I visit a store. For several years, I have not remembered until I walked through wet, newly mowed grass again.) Then I got to sweep all the grass clippings off my porch and steps.
Coffee! Yay!
Oops. The weather graph now (9:00 a.m.) says it's raining here. I look outside. The sky is indeed gray, but my car windshield is dry as a bone. The weather map interpolation for my exact spot never takes into account that the eastern continental divide is just 100+ yards away from me. Weather systems tend to split a bit as they pass over.
Although everyone can always do something about the weather, I choose not to. What will be will be. The weeds and grass in my garden beds will either die now, or be hacked to bits later. In a couple of weeks, I'll apply my 10-10-10 low-chloride fertilizer, and begin tilling.
Bob
The newly mowed grass was still wet with dew. So once I was finished spraying glyphosate onto my garden beds, I returned to my front porch, and with both forearms throbbing with fatigue, spent another ten minutes brushing the adhered clumps of grass clippings from the deeply grooved soles of my boots--using the head of a broom, with its long handle swinging wildly against any object in its path. (For several years, I've tried to remember to purchase a shop hand-brush the next time I visit a store. For several years, I have not remembered until I walked through wet, newly mowed grass again.) Then I got to sweep all the grass clippings off my porch and steps.
Coffee! Yay!
Oops. The weather graph now (9:00 a.m.) says it's raining here. I look outside. The sky is indeed gray, but my car windshield is dry as a bone. The weather map interpolation for my exact spot never takes into account that the eastern continental divide is just 100+ yards away from me. Weather systems tend to split a bit as they pass over.
Although everyone can always do something about the weather, I choose not to. What will be will be. The weeds and grass in my garden beds will either die now, or be hacked to bits later. In a couple of weeks, I'll apply my 10-10-10 low-chloride fertilizer, and begin tilling.
Bob
Tutu
Well-Known Member
Like like like, beautiful postcards, very excited!
Getty Museum challenges quarantined people to recreate famous works of art, with hilarious results
Stuck indoors? It’s time to unleash your inner artist . . . and maybe dive into a bit of spring cleaning.
www.fastcompany.com
The kind and friendly Bob vs. the kind and friendly Snitznoodle.
Quarantine Porn
I hope this isn't stepping outside the bounds of propriety on this forum.
Naturally, this will need to sit, untouched, for several days, in order to allow the fungating slime, that surely coats the packaging, to die a painful death.
Bob
I hope this isn't stepping outside the bounds of propriety on this forum.
Naturally, this will need to sit, untouched, for several days, in order to allow the fungating slime, that surely coats the packaging, to die a painful death.
Bob
Bob
Ho-hum Cigar, but a Magical Hour
I left my laptop inside, and sat out on my porch for the hour around sunset. I grabbed a factory cigar that was a gift from one of my brothers. I lit it, and smoked it, while simply listening to my surroundings, and observing the creatures that felt at home in my yard.
The cigar wasn't bad, but wasn't great either. (I had smoked too many wonderful, home-rolled cigars earlier in the day, so the contrast was apparent.) On the positive side, this factory cigar came with the three bonus items, shown below.
There was one moment (not captured in the photo below) that made my day.
Within the view from my porch chair, in a single gaze, I took in a nearly full moon about 30° above the horizon, two crows soaring past, three sparrows pecking bugs from my gravel driveway, a pair of Carolina Blue Birds in the large maple tree, a pair of cat birds snagging bigger game beneath the rear of my car, a bevy of finches shifting their perches in the maple, a house wren nibbling bugs beside my porch steps, a groundhog way out in the pasture, popping up its head above the grass, a red-winged blackbird zooming past the groundhog, a rabbit eating the freshly mowed grass beside the maple, a couple of honeybees that had not yet figured out that the day was over, all accompanied by the songs of a half-dozen songbirds that I could not see. There were no mosquitoes or moths buzzing about my face, and there was practically no road noise or purring lawn mowers.
Of course, similar moments happen all the time. For all of us. But I'm usually plinking computer keys, or reading news stories or emails or forum posts. It's nice to do none of the above for a time.
Bob
I left my laptop inside, and sat out on my porch for the hour around sunset. I grabbed a factory cigar that was a gift from one of my brothers. I lit it, and smoked it, while simply listening to my surroundings, and observing the creatures that felt at home in my yard.
The cigar wasn't bad, but wasn't great either. (I had smoked too many wonderful, home-rolled cigars earlier in the day, so the contrast was apparent.) On the positive side, this factory cigar came with the three bonus items, shown below.
There was one moment (not captured in the photo below) that made my day.
Within the view from my porch chair, in a single gaze, I took in a nearly full moon about 30° above the horizon, two crows soaring past, three sparrows pecking bugs from my gravel driveway, a pair of Carolina Blue Birds in the large maple tree, a pair of cat birds snagging bigger game beneath the rear of my car, a bevy of finches shifting their perches in the maple, a house wren nibbling bugs beside my porch steps, a groundhog way out in the pasture, popping up its head above the grass, a red-winged blackbird zooming past the groundhog, a rabbit eating the freshly mowed grass beside the maple, a couple of honeybees that had not yet figured out that the day was over, all accompanied by the songs of a half-dozen songbirds that I could not see. There were no mosquitoes or moths buzzing about my face, and there was practically no road noise or purring lawn mowers.
Of course, similar moments happen all the time. For all of us. But I'm usually plinking computer keys, or reading news stories or emails or forum posts. It's nice to do none of the above for a time.
Bob
Tutu
Well-Known Member
Cheers on the Undercrown, had one last night!
GreenDragon
Well-Known Member
The magical l'heure bleue.
Settle for nothing less.
Instead of watching the Aquarid meteor "shower", I saw the real thing: aqua shower.
Bob
Instead of watching the Aquarid meteor "shower", I saw the real thing: aqua shower.
Bob
Just a light touch of mascara to define the beds. After the previous season's intrusion of grass into the margins of the beds, I find it handy to mark the boundaries again with a garden torch. If it's a little sloppy, from flame spreading a bit through the thatch, that doesn't matter, since the grass will have no difficulty filling in the margin. But identifying the corners, and attempting to align the beds with one another makes for a tidier yard.
Next week, I'll begin fertilizing and tilling the beds, with a current plan of transplanting during the first week of June.
Bob
I tilled the outer margin of my long bed against the house. I can't use a torch near there. (Well, I can, but it would be foolish.) Maybe once I till more, it won't make my back feel so bad.
Besides, there are bigger things to worry about:
Bob
Besides, there are bigger things to worry about:
- Murder Hornets
- No burgers at Wendy's
- Low quality toilet paper
- Whether or not I've flattened the curve on my asparagus bed weeds
- If the Super Flower Moon is a true supermoon
- The best time to re-open my porch corner garden
- How to pronounce Elon Musk's baby's name
- Why there is still a flood of sports "news", when there are no sports
- Why, after the Big Bang, the universe became something rather than nothing
- Whether or not I should hire security guards to protect me from lunging vegans
- How much damage to my grapes, blackberries, apples and pears will be caused by the crappy ass weather I'm about to get over the next 3 days
Bob
GreenDragon
Well-Known Member
I'm still stuck on the Murder Hornets... 
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