Huffen'Snuff 2025 Grow Log S2

[Huffen'Snuff]

It's been a long hard road out of winter. Here in Pittsburgh it's been a cold one, with a lot of snow fall, and I am looking forward to having the garden in. Last frost is near May 10th but there is some stuff needing prepped, before I thaw the bales of Pro-Mix.

I need to try and (fabricate a broad-fork) to prep without a rototiller. A broad-fork should be a an improved way to work in the compost, it was hell last year using a matic and shovel. So that will qualify as (task #1)

 

[Huffen'Snuff]

It's taking me some time to source the metal for the broad-fork. I have actually been working on finding it while I'm working a few hrs in the auto scrap yard. If I can locate a spring possibly a leaf or maybe a torsion spring shaped like round bar, I think it should make a pretty resilient tine. I found some nice 1.25 inch hollow stainless steel hand rails from a city bus to use as the bottom of the handles (the part that must resist folding the most), towards the top of the handles I can use these tuff fiberglass poles (used for hot-poles or hanger poles) used on the power lines. So I'm still taking time to be picky about materials that luxury will expire eventually.

I can't wait till the weather breaks near may 10 here

 

[Huffen'Snuff]

This is the kind of took I'm trying to make because they are a couple hundred dollars plus tax, shipping, and pre-paid charge card fees. NetSpend is 3.95 to load and 1.99 per purchase, so it goes without saying that this "Cash App" is alleged to be cheaper with only a ONE dollar load fee, and zero per purchase. I still have not used it to find out what the hidden fees are.

The tool will be super handy I think, you just stab, pry, step back, repeat.

 

[johnny108]

I just hand tilled 75 square meters of heavy, wet, German silt loam this week, with a shovel.
The next 75 square meters has had grass growing on it for 20+ years. I’m renting a rototiller for that.
Next year, I’m thinking of planting “forage radishes”:

Forage Radishes — A hard-working cover crop – Piedmont Master Gardeners

And now I might think about picking up a broad fork.

 

[Bottenslam]

Forage Radishes — A hard-working cover crop – Piedmont Master Gardeners

Damn that Guy really refused to get to the point haha

 

[Huffen'Snuff]

I just hand tilled 75 square meters of heavy, wet, German silt loam this week, with a shovel.
The next 75 square meters has had grass growing on it for 20+ years. I’m renting a rototiller for that.
Next year, I’m thinking of planting “forage radishes”:

Forage Radishes — A hard-working cover crop – Piedmont Master Gardeners

And now I might think about picking up a broad fork.

I did a pretty large patch last year, by hand and my yard where I rent is pretty rocky, anyways I used a matic because it's to hard to break up using a spade shovel. I get it, when there is no other option, and you want to develop garden soil. I turned my whole palm on both hands to blister, just to turn the soil, separate the stone and incorporate compost.
My wish to garden was greater than my wish to give up, but 75 square meters of my yard? I would have worn down my hands well past my wrist. A square meter is about 9 square feet, that would take an hour to and hour and a half in my yard with a matic and a trench shovel, plus I use a flat shovel to add compost from the back of my truck.

I think the broad-forks for sale are pretty wide, the one I make may be a little more narrow, maybe about 15" maximum. I don't know how many tines I can drive into the soil. Maybe I will start with 3 and possibly add two more tines, or move one and add one? It's going to take some R&D to see what my soil:stone ratio necessitates.

johnny108, how long till your last frost? I'm looking forward to the season gearing up, this year I hope to develop at least as much square footage as last year. I'm going to grow larger plants that will yeild more tobacco per square foot. Maybe they should call it a square hand since you wearing your hands to the knub, lol!

 

[Huffen'Snuff]

Next year, I’m thinking of planting “forage radishes”:

Forage Radishes — A hard-working cover crop – Piedmont Master Gardeners

That's very interesting about the forage radishes, neat how they retrieve the n-p-k and bring it back to the top 20 inches of soil. I could see how that would work for your soil.

My soil needs added biomass, my soil is fairly shallow, it turns to solid rock, it was all strip mined for coal, around the early 90's. Once I build the soil, I will more or less do no-till, top dress etc.

At the local recycling center compost is free if you hand load it, or it's 5.00 a skid steer bucket.

 

[johnny108]

I did a pretty large patch last year, by hand and my yard where I rent is pretty rocky, anyways I used a matic because it's to hard to break up using a spade shovel. I get it, when there is no other option, and you want to develop garden soil. I turned my whole palm on both hands to blister, just to turn the soil, separate the stone and incorporate compost.
My wish to garden was greater than my wish to give up, but 75 square meters of my yard? I would have worn down my hands well past my wrist. A square meter is about 9 square feet, that would take an hour to and hour and a half in my yard with a matic and a trench shovel, plus I use a flat shovel to add compost from the back of my truck.

I think the broad-forks for sale are pretty wide, the one I make may be a little more narrow, maybe about 15" maximum. I don't know how many tines I can drive into the soil. Maybe I will start with 3 and possibly add two more tines, or move one and add one? It's going to take some R&D to see what my soil:stone ratio necessitates.

johnny108, how long till your last frost? I'm looking forward to the season gearing up, this year I hope to develop at least as much square footage as last year. I'm going to grow larger plants that will yeild more tobacco per square foot. Maybe they should call it a square hand since you wearing your hands to the knub, lol!

Last frost date in Hannover, Germany is May 1-10.
I tilled the 75sq meters in 3 days only about 2 hours per day- not a single rock, but I did get one vole, and a few blisters, despite the gloves. It’s now snowing, but it was raining when I tilled it- soggy mud and clay.
Gotta get a lot of manure (free from the neighboring horse ranch), and compost at €5 for 400kg, which is all my trailer can hold, anyway. Might need 2 trips. This isn’t my yard- we bought a “garden house” this year- kind of like an allotment, but it’s a privately owned club, and each plot of land has a miniature house you can sleep and bbq in.

If I had your ground, I’d probably go back to my old career (Army EOD), and try some HANFO (Heavy ANFO), or a slurry blasting agent…it wouldn’t shatter the rock, but it would move it, and churn up the ground!

 

[deluxestogie]

all strip mined for coal

That soil is likely what is know as the "Pennsylvanian era" stratum. Scan through your annoying bits of rock for lovely fossils.

Pennsylvanian Period, Fossils of Kentucky by Geologic Region, Kentucky Geological Survey, University of Kentucky

www.uky.edu

My tilling practice, for years, has been to not dig until after a substantial rain. After the rain, I wait 2 days for the soil to dry. Then I dig. Not too muddy; not too hard.

Bob

EDIT:

Pennsylvanian Plant Fossils of Illinois, by Charles Collinson and Romayne Skartvedt—a Project Gutenberg eBook

 

[Huffen'Snuff]

Last frost date in Hannover, Germany is May 1-10.
I tilled the 75sq meters in 3 days only about 2 hours per day- not a single rock, but I did get one vole, and a few blisters, despite the gloves. It’s now snowing, but it was raining when I tilled it- soggy mud and clay.
Gotta get a lot of manure (free from the neighboring horse ranch), and compost at €5 for 400kg, which is all my trailer can hold, anyway. Might need 2 trips. This isn’t my yard- we bought a “garden house” this year- kind of like an allotment, but it’s a privately owned club, and each plot of land has a miniature house you can sleep and bbq in.

If I had your ground, I’d probably go back to my old career (Army EOD), and try some HANFO (Heavy ANFO), or a slurry blasting agent…it wouldn’t shatter the rock, but it would move it, and churn up the ground!

ANFO should bust up rock if you drilled it, right? I'm lucky it's all fist size and smaller since it was all mined sand stone, the coal wasn't even 5 feet deep. The property owner asked the dozer operator if he called for trucks on the first dozer shift on the property, he thought my landlord was bullshitting him. But did end up calling in coal trucks on the first shift. My landlords grandfather had his own shaft dug it was so shallow if it caved in you would go back to the one part, there was daylight near the most shallow coal seams

 

[Huffen'Snuff]

How long before last frost should I start my Burley and Virgina seeds?

DeluxeStogie, I have heard of a crocodile fossil in a Pennsylvania coal mine. But there are a tons of ferns, snails, clams, tree stumps and I think trilobites fossilized in high numbers round here, in pa!

 

[Huffen'Snuff]

How many weeks do you plant tobacco seeds before outdoor transplant, is is 8 weeks indoors.

 

[Huffen'Snuff]

Ok it says to start seeds indoors 6-8 weeks before last frost date.

I need to keep track and see what day they top 6inches tall. This way I will know specifically how long it takes my set up, to prep them

 

[Huffen'Snuff]

I put seeds in petri dishes full of coco coir yesterday morning/Feb 27 @0700

 

[Huffen'Snuff]

Costello Negro-Cherry Red- Virginia
Yellow Twist Bud-KY17-TA30-Burley
I'm hoping the Limonka Rustica will self seed.

 

[loui loui]

This is the kind of took I'm trying to make because they are a couple hundred dollars plus tax, shipping, and pre-paid charge card fees. NetSpend is 3.95 to load and 1.99 per purchase, so it goes without saying that this "Cash App" is alleged to be cheaper with only a ONE dollar load fee, and zero per purchase. I still have not used it to find out what the hidden fees are.

The tool will be super handy I think, you just stab, pry, step back, repeat.
View attachment 54524

Looks like a pitchfork and a pitchfork may be easier to find and cheaper too.
A shovel and a pitchfork is a nice combo.

 

[Huffen'Snuff]

Last night I bought a fancy Italian walk behind two wheeled tractor, with a 20" rototiller attachment for 175.00, about 45.00 cheaper than a new broad-fork.
Well I have 195.00 in it with the gas I burned in the 95' f150, to drive an hour away and back.
It's a "BCS 205- with the rototiller on it. There is a hitch behind the tines where you can but in a thing that hills the soil on both sides while it's lower in the center. I guess the tine speed is twice that of a craftsman or something, so it travels half the distance per tine revolution, resulting in smaller bites. I guess the 205 is between something like 1985-1995, and they alleged to last a lifetime, and the parts are all available at Earth Tool plus there is a rotory- a sickle- and flail mower (3 different mowers available) a snow blower- a fixed blade like a pitch able snow plow- a rotory- plow for Snow?- a seat with wheels- a generator-a water pump looks to be 2.5"- a seat with two more wheels.
I guess imagine a Gravely with a million different implements.
(BCS 205) and it still starts in one pull and rototills.

 

[Huffen'Snuff]

Looks like a pitchfork and a pitchfork may be easier to find and cheaper too.
A shovel and a pitchfork is a nice combo.

I got in a single row about 35 feet long by hand last year. It's pretty ruff where I'm working the soil.

 

[Huffen'Snuff]

The four knuckles to the center of my palm was all one blister on right hand, and just the four knuckles was a single blister on my left hand last may.

 

[Huffen'Snuff]

I got KY17 and Costello seeds up, bought Big Boy Hybrid tomatoes and some carrots, they're Ferry Morse. It will be nice to have them in too.