Homestead General /hsg/> Garden plot > Thread #08Talk gardening, farming, livestock, beekeeping, building, electricity and plumbing, earthworks, waterworks, permaculture, raising children, market gardening, selling produce, barter, home economics, composting, mulching, pest control, diet, health.Anything relevant to living on site, making a home out of the land.Old Thread: >>2724333
FIRST! anyone have any recommendations for a viable place in SW wa state to homestead or at least just innawoods? outside aberdeen maybe? longview? somewhere off highway 12 (ideally that isn't on fire). I could probably drop $100k on something at the moment.
>>2763583Does anyone have recommendations on growing stuff in climates like Alaska? The only resource I know of is It Grows in Alaska.
>>2763672>Alaska's hardiness zones range from 1a to 8b, depending on the region:>Northern and central Alaska: Zones 1a to 2b>Coastal regions: Zones 2b to 4a>Southeast Alaska: Zones 4a to 7b That's a lot better than I expected. You can grow just about anything depending on where you are. I recommend figuring out which zone you're in and then looking up a list of crops for that zone. If you are in one of the colder zones then you might want to look into aero/aqua/hydro-ponics and microgreens so you can grow a few things inside.
My chickens free range in my back yard, a fenced off enclosure about 1/4 of an acre (i have about an acre total land). I put a decoy owl on the chicken coop last fall and that deterred this one halk for about a year. But today i heard the chickens freaking out and a halk was trying to get under the big droopy bush my chickens like to hide under and it snagged a 7 day old chick the mom took out to teach how to scratch at dirt and stuff. Just picked it up with its talons and flew away.Then I heard the hawk startling the neighbors chickens across the woods.How do i deter hawks even more? I read fishing line 3-4 feet apart but its too much land to cover and it would be an eyesore for myself and neighbors
Cows, goats, or sheep for milk?Which is least maintainance and most nutritious/delicious?
>>2763883A scarecrow might help.Although you'd probably need to move it around regularly. Or rig it up to move around by itself.
>>2763883You can't just put something up and leave it be because they'll figure out it's not alive. Move it twice a week and it will work better. Other things you can do are>Get a rooster>If a quarter or more of your birds are black then hawks mistake them for crows and leave them alone>Encourage a flock of crows to roost on your property. >Put up scare crows or bird scares>Paint the eyes from bird scares on things >Put out small shelters like tablesCombining multiple strategies will always be more effective than using one strategy
>>2764019>>Get a roosteri have one but its a silkie and kind of a pansy>>If a quarter or more of your birds are black then hawks mistake them for crows and leave them alonemost of my chickens are white, since my only rooster is a white silkie and i let them reproduce and go broody every few months to keep giving me a fresh supply of chickens>>Encourage a flock of crows to roost on your property. idk how to do that>>Put up scare crows or bird scareswouldnt that scare away the flock of crows you suggested?>>Paint the eyes from bird scares on things what does this even mean?>>Put out small shelters like tablesim not litering my backyard with tables. The chickens already have bushes which provide both cover and concealment, but the hawk went under it anyway. It dragged the chick out from under a big bush, a table will be even less effective.I also have a massive lumbering beast of a hen, a Brahma, but she is very docile and doesnt do much
>>2764055>most of my chickens are white, since my only rooster is a white silkieWhite chickens are the greatest hawk bait. If your chickens are free-ranging you should only have camoflaged chickens. Back when I was a noob I saw a hawk divebomb from the sky and snatch a white/silver/meme-color chicken from the ground and completely ignore the camoflaged chickens. This happened maybe 3 times and then I began the process of getting rid of the meme colorsIt's been over 3 years now and to this day I have never lost a brown, dark wheaten, or black chicken to predationAlso>vegetation>having tough chickens instead of silkiesChickens are descendants from junglefowl, not lawnfowl. The more thick the vegetation on your property the safer they'll beIf I were you I'd get a single camoflaged American Game or Asil hen to introduce tough genetics into your flock and brood chicks regularly. Nothing compares to their motherhood skills. I've watched a game hen drive off a fox before
>>2764055>i have one but its a silkie and kind of a pansyGet a better rooster. Something aggressive and ideally all black. Make sure you socialize them properly or your silkie is fucking done.>most of my chickens are white, See>>2764201In general birds consider white = weak and black = strong. Camouflage is great, but if you have enough black birds then you won't need camouflage.>idk how to do thatIt was a fairly popular trend for a while so you can probably find some videos. Basically feed them, provide extra large bird baths, emulate their calls, and reward them for hanging around.>wouldnt that scare away the flock of crows you suggested?Nah, corvids are a lot smarter than birds of prey. Bird scares didn't get rid of my magpies. The rooster will be a bigger problem.>what does this even mean?Pic related. It's supposed to look like predator eyes.>im not litering my backyard with tables. Then plant more bushes.>I also have a massive lumbering beast of a hen, a Brahma, but she is very docile and doesnt do muchSounds like Brahmas. If you want a big chicken that flies around and fucks shit up then get malays. They only lay like 60 eggs a year though. They're game chickens. Maybe you could use a couple malay hens instead of a new rooster.
>>2764204>If you want a big chicken that flies around and fucks shit up then get malaysMy Asil eats snakes and tries hunting squirrels heh. Reminds me of something prehistoric the way she watches them from the side and tries innocently walking towards them
>>2764206I just looked up the breed and it said they were bred for cockfights but not to hurt their owners. I guess they're also supposed to look like an extinct ancestor to chickens. They sound pretty cool, but I wouldn't add them to my flock. Can you post some webms of your clever girl hunting?
>>2764293>Can you post some webms of your clever girl hunting?Amusing moments of chickens hunting are uncommon and I don't sit around waiting to film all day. Not that I would film an animal murdering another in the first place. Best I can do for you is her with a clutch of babies she hatched
>>2764351I was more interested in watching her stalk something. She's pretty and those chicks look very healthy. Can asil chickens fly like malays?
still terraforming in vegas. will reply later today with some updated photos. tall fescue is 100% dead and gone and probably soil now. bermuda is fine for the time being. clover finally popped off. got a few mature clover seed heads developed over the past month, so im doing something correct. still taking neighbors' landscape wastes and tossing around strategically (and for free). placing old logs from my tree trimming activities at the base of the cmu block wall has 100% decreased the surrounding soil temperature by some amount. bermuda encroaches up to the logs now. i need more.
>>2764363>Can asil chickens fly like malays?Not familiar with Malay, but Asil flight is what I would describe as mediocre. My chickens all roost in trees. The highest roost about 20 feet up, but the Asil roosts around 8 feet, in usually two different leaps to get thereMalay sound like the chaotic evil counterpart to Asil from what I've been reading. This chicken here is both the kindest and more ferocious one I have>>2764374I would sling prickly pears everywhere
>>2763583i have been homesteading for 4 years now. i have learned alot the hard way. i have done every part of my homestead myself except drilling the well. ama
>>2764381>Malay sound like the chaotic evil counterpart to Asil from what I've been reading. This chicken here is both the kindest and more ferocious one I haveThat makes sense. Malays weren't bred to respect their owners. I wonder if they've ever killed someone. Eventually I want to get some and breed them into my flock.
>>2764374
>>2764447
>>2764449corn. well, kinda. corn plant, no corn.
>>2764457based, your gonna make it
Still waiting on confirmation wether I have deed access on 40 acres I have under contract. This wait is frustrating.
>>2764466you have no access until the contract is complete.
>>2764447and close up of the corner. birds hang here. neighbor has some sort of acacia or ash i think. the nut/grains it drops are tasty and full of calories. >>2764381good instinct. currently growing a couple cuttings in my front yard, in addition to my boss cactus. i toss prickly pear trimmings from boss cactus strategically around the backyard. however, i personally want to keep the prickly pear controlled. it stays in the front yard.
>>2764469Deeded access as in wether the road that connects it is actually a road or part of the neighboring properties land. Plus some survey shanagagins. That's what I'm waiting on.
three engelmann prickly pear cuttings. all three ~3 months old, and rooted. im expecting growth come ~october
I sold my 7 acre larpstead.It's over.
>>2765297Why?
>>2765336he is a fake niggercattle larpsteader just like all the faggots itt who are worrying about which breed of chickens to get, just get barred rocks or rhode island reds.
>>2764637omg bro you will live forever off that.
>>2765297>larpsteadLmao
>>2765392>barred rocks or rhode island redsWeak, bitch chickens that can't make it on a real homestead. Not that you would know
>>2763614There's an entire WA state thread up right now; they probably know more
im trying to find land to buy, planning to start my own larpstead.
Is it worth raising chickens for slaughter?Or are pigs basically the only efficient animal for meat?
>>2767668from videos ive seen chickens are pretty easy but pigs are easier and give like 10x more meat watch some youtube channels of homesteaders going over it
>>2767668It’s easy and way better than hogs. Source: I raise chickens and live near the hog capitol of the world. We have a hog queen every year.
>>2767820They don’t publicize it but she’s most definitely the hog queen and has to kiss the hog king publicly who is an actual pig.
>>2763583Every summer I eat an insane number of cherries because I love them, but lets say I wanted to save all of the pits and grow each one into a small sapling and then guerilla garden them all over town in forgotten spots where they're likely to remain unmolested. What would be the best process to sprout and grow upwards of 250 cherry pits? I live in Climate Zone 4>inb4 erm they're not going to be the same cherries you bought I know and I dont care >inb4 erm they arent meant for your climate zone Unfortunately, I dont really care and I will be doing it anyway
>>2767867Make them into clay seed balls with some crushed lump charcoal and mycorrhizal fungi
>>2767873I was thinking of this for plan B, where should I source the clay from? Is there any better/worse clay I should avoid?
>>2767887You can just use your own soil. Put some in a jar, shake it, and then let it settle and the proportions of each layer will show you roughly the proportions of the sand, silt, and clay in your soil. As long as you have a decent band on top you can make clay from the soil. If the top band is about 60% of the total thickness of the whole sample then you can use it without extracting the clay and you can skip the charcoal. There's tons of guides on how to extract clay online. Avoid sodium bentonite which you can find at farm supply stores. If they have calcium bentonite then you can use that. You should also look into ways to extend the planting zone of fruit trees. Planting next to a wall that retains heat could be enough to get it to bear fruit. I'm sure you know, but the fruit won't just taste different, it might taste horrible. It could be sour, or bitter, or mealy and tasteless. It could also taste better than any cherry on the market, but that's not very likely. Good luck.
>>2767936>You should also look into ways to extend the planting zone of fruit trees. Planting next to a wall that retains heat could be enough to get it to bear fruit. I'm sure you know, but the fruit won't just taste different, it might taste horrible. It could be sour, or bitter, or mealy and tasteless. It could also taste better than any cherry on the market, but that's not very likely. Good luckA king among men, thank you for the excellent advice
>>2767936Interesting
Bros I need some advice. I have a half acre lot of land that I currently mow with a brush cutter. The land is not smooth enough for a regular mower and doing it all by hand every few weeks in the summer sucks ass. Are there any mowers that can chew through thick-ish growth on an uneven surface but don't cost 15k?
>>2763883shoot it
From personal experience, sungold tomatoes grown in certain growing conditions taste like fruit.
I think the following plants might be a good idea to grow in a small space for vitamin c or entertainment:Vitamin C:>greens, maybe lettuce or bokchoi>dwarf peas if they fitEntertainment:>microdwarf tomatoes>herbsI've heard microdwarfs tend to taste bad, but that there are some average tasting ones.
>>2763672I know that it can be unexpectedly beneficial for farming if you do it just right. Wife's family used to have a huge farm pretty far north in Canada.Growing season is short, but ~20 hours of direct sunlight a day makes the right crops grow insanely fast during that short growing season.
>>2768618The herbs and the greens are great for small spaces. You could try growing a larger variety of tomatoes in a hanging planter.
>>2768618Strawberries could also work for small spaces.
>>2768273I would also like to know this.I've got about half an acre of land behind the house where I sold all the big trees for lumber.What remains is some small trees and a bunch of weeds. I want to use a chunk of it for a big garden. Wife wants some of it to be grass so the kid has a place to play. But right now it's way too uneven and overgrown for a regular mower.Are there any options here other than rending some heaving equipment to level it?
>>2763672you need to know your zone. >>2763883there is no absolute protection from hawks, that's what the hawk is, it's what hawks do. We don't let our chicks out for uh....reasons.>>2767409move onto someone elses for a few months >>2768273Just get a ride on and set the catcher high.You might just want to grade your lot, because think about it how many years are you gong to put up with before you're going to wish you graded it/>>2769404no matter how high grass is you can clear it with a line trimmer, the line trimmer can be used to mulch grass and light undergrowth.A ride behind skid is probably sufficient
Todays work:Chainsawed up three ton of tree which fell on my shed, did some line trimming, started fixing a fence.There's just too much work, it's not fair.Vegetable garden has now gone totally to shit, chicken coop ruined, garden is overgrown. Too much work.Just can't do it on top of a job, can't pay bills if I'm not working full time, failed to monitize six different things in a row
>>2769522Learn strategies to minimize your labor. Try reading Ruth Stout's "No Work Garden Book". What happened to your chicken coop?
>>2769521>there is no absolute protection from hawks, that's what the hawk is, it's what hawks do. We don't let our chicks out for uh....reasons.Imprisoning animals is cope for low IQ>>2769522Coops are completely non-essential. Just keep healthy breeds in a healthy environment and they can handle themselves fine
places in the western US that will likely stay red in the coming decades?
Red what?
Has anyone here grown wild boar farms tomatoes?
>>2768273can you just rent heavy machinery for a day and flatten it all up?
>>2763950>least maintenanceSheep>most delicious?This is subjective, but it surely isn't sheep.Cow is the highest maintenance.
>>2769948???
>>2769948
I want an underground concrete domed house so bad bros
>>2769948I hate californians and easterners moving here so fucking much bros. I feel bad for thr carolinas as well. They've been completely overrun with disgusting new york and new jersey people. Why is ot so hard to just stay in your fucking containment zone
>>2770488
got the chickensgot the rabbitswhat next?
>>2770488As far as CA goes, jerks from every where else moved here and priced us out. We don't want to leave, but we can't stay if want anything resembling the American Dream.
talk me out of getting some guineas
>>2770501A dog to guard them
>>2770501Quail for meat? They need a pretty high protein diet though.>>2770530They are very fucking loud and annoying in their warning call. Deafening when you get like a few dozen together.
>>2770501How much space and yard do you have? If you have a grass lawn or field I'd suggest goats. If you have a large family and lots of food scraps get pigs. You can also take the pigs into nearby woods, they'll gorge on fungus and nuts.
>>2770501Mealworms.
Anyone here ever mixed alfalfa into a wildflower planting? Really want to put wildflowers and native grass in under my foodplot trees but would like to dilute it with alfalfa to increase forage and decrease cost.>>2763883Go to harbor freight or similar and get a cheap shade net. Rig it up about 3 foot above the ground so they can run under it>>2763950Goats by a mile. The milk tastes like shit, but sheep are labor intensive retards and cows are resource intensive. >>2764204>>2764206>>2764381At least in my experience anything hard feathered and especially the oriental breeds absolutely suck in the cold so remember your climate. I bought a trio of yellow leg hatch a few years ago and have been breeding hatch over rc brown leghorn hens. They do better than anything else I've ever raised in the yard. True gamefowl can be hard to find and expensive, but if you ever bump into some cheap then they are 100% worth it to play around with their genetics.>>2767668Chickens are better than hogs in my opinion, but rabbits are way better than either. Hay is cheap and it takes all of 90 seconds to process a rabbit, fuck plucking. Also the ONLY chickens worth raising for meat are cornish cross, don't buy the bullshit about dual purpose breeds.>>2770530Loud assholes that are hard to pluck and taste like shit. But I have roughly 30, so I can't tell you not to. The do make a good alarm.
>>2765392>just like all the faggots itt who are worrying about which breed of chickens to get, just get barred rocks or rhode island reds.You are correct, and also completely wrong. The absolute best thing about chickens is the incredible genetic diversity available. With the right starting stock and enough time you can mix and match to create the perfect bird for any environment/management style. Br/rir are both great breeds, and if you are just starting off with birds definitely get them (or pretty much any feedstore breed), but it's also a lot of fun to go to poultry shows and find other breeds. I go to 4-5 shows a year just to see what's available, and I'll buy anything I think will help my birds. Started with a black jersey giant cock and was so impressed with his chicks that I decided to make it a rule to bring home a rooster every time I go to a show. I've bred in black jersey giant, white rock, buff orpington, gold laced Wyandotte, blue langshan, dark cornish, dark brahma, and black australorp over the years. I keep the hens I like, I sell the ones I don't, and after 7 years I love my birds more than any true breed. Two years ago I started a "light flock" when I got my hatch. Bought a bunch of brown leghorns to breed him to and I love the results. Just this weekend I picked up a brown red old English cock hoping to add a little more hardiness and body to them. No idea what comes next, but I'm sure it will be something not single combed because I hate single combs. Start with something basic, but you should definitely be adding better every chance you get.
>>2769602sometimes i read these threads and think>that's the stupidest fucking thing i'll ever readthen this fucker comes along and just destroys my entire reality.
>>2769948none of them
>>2770710Malding
Moved into a new little house, this is is a portion of the garden, there's a lot of debris in it from the construction. Can I improve this soil without digging away a whole layer? It's a rental so I don't want to go overboard.There's going to be a hedge around the perimeter, I'm thinking of planting some stuff that's useful for butterflies and small birds, nothing high maintenance. Location is The Netherlands.
>>2770680>Anyone here ever mixed alfalfa into a wildflower planting?I have alfalfa in my lawn and growing around the property because it used to be used to grow hay. Unless you mow it regularly it will get 2-3' tall. If you mow it then it behaves just like clovers do. I see my chickens forage from it occasionally, but mostly it feeds grasshoppers.
>>2771119Sure. Kill the weeds or smother them with a mulch and water the soil with compost/manure tea or diluted expired milk products until the fertility is restored. You might want to broadfork it to relieve compaction, but the microbes in the tea/milk should help alleviate minor compaction already.
>>2771119>>2771124Planting radishes is an alternative to broadforking the soil. Either harvest them or let them rot.
>>2771124>>2771125Interesting, thanks.
Are electric weed burners worth a damn?
>>2771124I was thinking of renting or maybe buying 2nd hand one of these things to process the soil. Could I use this to maul the weed and at the same time incorporate fertilizer into the ground?
>>2771139Yes, they work just fine for ripping out bullshit. HOWEVER, it's a bit of a chore to continually have to stop to cut the accumulated material off the axle (it gets wound up pretty tight on it as it spins)
>>2771139You can, but make sure to call and have the utilities marked before you use it so you don't cut any lines. I forgot to say that watering a mycorrhizal inoculant into the soil will also help with soil fertility. Tilling will kill soil fungi so out it down afterwards.
>>2771119Be mindful of not planting shit there that you'd eat, in case they poisoned the perimeter for bugs and shit.
Lost almost all my corn to earwigs. How do I prevent this in the future?
>>2771300Earwigs eat a lot of pests so getting rid of them might make your problem worse. Are you sure the earwigs are eating your corn and not just living in ears damaged by other pests?
>>2771315To my knowledge earlier wigs will eat the little hair like strands in the ears, which allows microorganisms and other insects in. You could be right though.
Do you guys actually make money off your homesteads or is this just poverty with extra steps?
>>2771474The biggest problem with the silk being eaten is that it fucks up pollination. You can try building earwig nests/traps and moving them to the perimeter of your field so you aren't outright killing them. If you see less damage then it was definitely the earwigs. Worms are another common pest that eats silks. Try adding a drop of oil to the base of the silk where it emerges from the corn on some section of your field and if that stops the damage then you have some kind of worm. It could also be flea beetles since you said your leaves are getting eaten too
>>2771486Both can be true. People who are into homesteading usually prize the self sufficiency, or at least it's illusion, over monetary gain. Homesteaders would make more money by growing cash crops instead of raising sheep or whatever, but they like that they have meat and wool and such more than they would like to have the money from the cash crops. Ideally you'd have enough land for all of your homesteading projects with a decent amount of space left over for cash crops.
I have a thought:>get big chunk of land that gets adequate rainfall>seed bomb thornless blackberries>??Free berries I guess. Maybe good for lazy gardening.
>>2771605Thornless blackberries can turn thorny with time.Also if you have so many of them you'll inevitably attract a ton of blackberry pests, monoculture cropping requires a ton of pesticides for a reason.You are always better off planting diverse edibles if you want to be lazy.
>>2771605Make a whole food forest. Fruit trees, berry bushes, random vegetables and leafy greens, root vegetables, herb ground covers, ect. Sheet compost in the forest instead of turning a pile. Forage every day and store whatever is in season for as long as you can and you'll could have a huge variety of meals year round. Look into edible native plants too. Those can definitely grow without much care.
>>2771631can you post a picture of yours, for some inspiration?>t. has 7 acres of random shit growing, might as well use it productively.
>>2771679not them but this inspired the heck out of me:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1HWOQg8-L4There is a whole series of Bill Mollison "The global gardener" where he establishes permaculture all over the world before people in America even had heard of it.This guy is more reticent and actually visits the sites started by Bill Mollison.https://www.youtube.com/@amillisonThere is also the dude in Saudi Arabia that used permaculture methods to re-green parts of coastal Saudi Arabia.https://english.alarabiya.net/News/gulf/2022/05/30/Saudi-Arabia-s-NEOM-launches-regreening-initiative-to-plant-100-mln-trees-by-2030
>>2771679I wish I had a food forest. I'm not living on my own land so I don't have full control over what I can do. I just made a bunch of cider and vinegar from the apple tree we have here and next spring I'll air layer some of the higher branches so we can have more trees that are easier to pick from. The berry patch should be ready to start harvesting from next year too. I've got raspberries and blackberries with strawberries in between. That's the closest I've been able to come to making a food forest so far. Once I get my own land I can start really getting into it.
cut up a bunch of wood for next year. fuck that tree. weeding and mulching as to get done ASAP and I still need to buy plants in.
>>2763883It's almost Halloween.Get one of those ghost/skeletons/ghouls that move around and adapt it into a scarecrow. You can get one with just head and arms for like 10 bucks.Plug in an AC adapted and jump the switch so it's always moving.
>>2772548Or get an inflatable tube man
Is keeping bees in your garden as based as it appears?
>>2772552There's quite a bit of a learning curve if you're doing European honey bees and plan to harvest the honey. There's a lot of potential for disease that can fuck over other people's bees too, there's a lot of maintenance, a ton of equipment you have to get. But the honey is nice, although it will probably be a year or so before they produce a meaningful amount, you will likely produce more than enough for yourself.If you're talking about just attracting bees, that's based and easy.
>>2772574>If you're talking about just attracting bees, that's based and easy.Yeah the harvesting thing is probably a bit much. I'm starting to lean towards going for a 'wild garden'. Indigenous plants/flowers, maybe a little wall of stacked chopped wood to leave to rot and such things.I'm this guy >>2771119 btw.
>>2772577Drill a bunch of holes in some wood so native solitary bees can use them
>>2772608good idea
what's your favourite green manure to seed in september?
>>2763883Get a rooster. Preferably from a cockfighting breed, or Marans, Brahma, Ayam Cemani (or any other breed with strong fighting genes) if you're somewhere where you can't get fighters.My Marans rooster (from a french / belgian fighting line) is perfectly docile most of the time, but doesn't hesitate to attack cats and dogs. Though it also attacked me the one time I had to get an injured hen (with a prolapse) out of the yard and to the vet. Hawks and buzzards sit in the trees in my backyards every now and then, but they never dare to attack.>>2772552Only if your garden is large. Unless you want to go all in and start breeding bees, they'll turn more and more aggressive over the years. Though on the plus side, they'll also get more honey, and be less likely to get killed by wasps and hornets.During summer, most bees around where I am (mine included) will patrol around the hive and attack anything within 10m or so.If you have the space though, keeping them is easy. Just have to learn about how to treat varroa (formic acid is easiest and safest, oxalic acid aerosol is most reliable, but can kill you if you mess up), when to harvest (when 2/3 of comb is closed and no honey drips out when shaking) and how much to feed after harvest (to 15-20kg, depending on how strong the hive is). And if you're using magazine hives, when to add another box (depends on climate and breed - from 75-90% of comb covered in bees)
Goddamn so much debris
>>2772795>>2772797SIEVE.
>>2772913I know, not looking forward to a fuck tonne of work, or having to rent machinery.
>>2770501Try pasturing your rabbits. Salatin style seems to work best where the kits are in cage for the first 5 weeks and finish the last 7 weeks on grass. I've tried a couple of rabbit tractors and the Salatin design is the best. The wood slats on the bottom are critical, the grazing impact is much better with slats than with cage wire floor.
>>2771486I keep records of everything to make sure I make a "profit" (even when I don't sell, it needs to make more food per hour worked than my engineering job).For people who don't make a profit, there are still so many benefits that I wouldn't think of it like a hobby for entertainment. Done right, the health effects are unmatched. I see billionaires all the time who theoretically should be the healthiest and yet farmers and homesteaders are healthier. It's helped me a lot more than the gym or sports on their own we're doing for me.
>>2771486If you are in just for profit it just isn't worth it.Some grifters will claim you can make a lot of money by putting a few hours per week but that's simply not true, just taking overtime or second job will give you better monetary return on time with none of capital investment and risk of crop failure.While you can break even or make small profit, the actual benefits are healthy food and very enjoyable outdoors hobby, not money.To make actual money, not just poverty with extra steps you need to do industrial mono crop agriculture like all the large farms but it's not easy line of work and you need a ton of capital investment.
>>2773204No you just have to specialize in overpriced hipster varieties or weed. You can make money by rasing things like sprouts and produce that is unavailable in grocery stores.Or just grow weed
>>2771486There's a reason we call it LARPsteading
>>2773255Most small farms are hobby farms run by idiot boomers so they can brag about being farmers.They use awful farming practices and put farms where they absolutely don't belong.Idaho/WA forests are loaded with clearcuts kept barren because some idiot wants to rase 4 cows.
>>2772577Yeah that changes a lot. Actual honey harvesting is honestly a rabbit hole of learning the intricacies of the brutal bee ways. Just having native bees around is a lot less work. Most people are going to assume you're looking to harvest honey, so unless you clarify you're just looking to attract natives, bee keepers are probably gonna give you a ton of advice you won't need. If you want to attract bees, make sure you're getting native flowers and the correct type of flowers; some flowers are more geared towards birds and shit. Also they need a bit of water. I know some people despise bees, I've never been bothered by bees or wasps>wild gardenbased. I'm doing my landscape that way after our normally wet af swamp had back-to-back droughts that killed everyone's expensive bushes and flowers. Know what didn't die though? the fuckin 'weeds'.>>2773285>run by idiot boomersI'm so glad I'm not the only one with this experience. It really gave me hope that this is doable. I'm not looking to make a profit, just hopefully not be too much in the hole. The way boomers still do shit the way their parents did, before the ability to search a world full of knowledge, is fucking infuriating.
>>2773360There are lots of examples of dudes that make a living off of two city lots. Mushroom farmers need even less space. Livestock aren't profitable unless you have a LOT of livestock--otherwise the FDA regs will regulate you out of profitability.The only way to make money off of cattle with a small farm is to harvest magic mushrooms.
>>2773175>it needs to make more food per hour worked than my engineering job)i'm with you on the health benefits and the general satisfaction, but more food per hour worked an engineering job sounds like a big stretch
Bros my wife is too lazy to learn anything about anything even sewing
>>2773562>2024>Getting marriedWhy would you enter a contract that benefits the other party when broken and is of no benefit to you at all?
>>2773565Idk I was drunk
>>2771119Godspeed
>tfw my room is like a 200m away from my own kitchen>dont feel like taking a mini hike from my room in middle of the night when I facny couple of snacks>get fridge in my room>microwave>get heatpad stove>camp pot>cookware/dishes>before I know it its like a mini kitchen up in my bedroomhave to put my fryer in the bathroom tho cause it will stank up the whole room
Is there a general guide that /hsg/ has or a list of recommended resources? Trying to start gardening and would love to eventually try homesteading but am an utterly ignorant urbanite with zero experience. Someone recommended this as a good book to start with.https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/529041.How_to_Grow_More_Vegetables
>>2773752Check >>2768315
>>2773753I mean the pastebin, it has a lot of books
>>2773755Fug, I was looking for a pastebin link but never checked the previous thread. Thanks, anon.
>>2773758It's not the same general, /HGM/ is just about growing stuff
>>2773752Make sure you have decent soil to grow in. I assume you're buying some, but you could test and amend whatever soil you have available. The best book I've read in the subject is "Building Soils for Better Crops" by Fred Magdoff and Harold Van Es. You should find out what zone you're in and pull up a planting calendar for your zone. You should be able to get a couple harvests of radishes and some brassicas in. You can plant onions, garlic, and other alliums to harvest next year. Asparagus, horseradish, and other perennials grown from roots or crowns are good to get in the ground soon. It wouldn't be a bad time to start experimenting with an indoor herb garden, especially if you intend to start your own seeds a month or two before last frost.What are your goals?
hey all, I got a bestnestbox rollout chicken box and the chickens HATE the padding in it. It's been a month and they ignored it, so I replaced it with some cheap walmart pads and now they love the box.The problem is these nest pads are torn apart instantly so the eggs don't roll.What can I put in there instead?
>>2773873Maybe a coir mat?
>>2763583You think I could homeless homestead?
>>2773882>coir matI just bought some fake turf, if it doesn't work out then I'll go that route, thanks.
>>2773903No problem. Let us know how it works out.
>>2773886Yeah pretty easily
Any good 3d garden design software?
Good Morning, /hsg/, do yall know of any chart or directory where I can see what mycorrhizal fungi goes with what crops? I've seen a lot of research on the benefits of a strong fungi network in gardens but I haven't seen any real consistent source on finding what species goes well with what.
At this point I figured I had deserved a hot shower and a couple beers. Can't even fit it all in the container.
>>2775464The species isn't really important. The most important feature for mycorrhizae is whether it's endomycorrhizal or ectomycorrhizal. A lot of people consider collecting local, wild fungi to be better than buying an inoculant. Most inoculants are glomus species and glomus doesn't really have species because they're highly multinucleate and trade their nuclei around freely, so you have to worry about it even less. I just use an inoculant on plants that are not in non-mycorrhizal families. This is the list I use for that.https://mycorrhizas.info/nmplants.html#nmlistI hope some of that helps.
What's the easiest to install edging? In this case to keep wood chips from leaving the area.
>>2775820Cinder blocks filled with dirt and planted in
Okay, I'm new to gardening and need some advice.I'm using jiffy pods, and put three seeds in each jiffy pod to make sure at least one sprouts. When should I kill two of the seedlings in the pods that three sprouted in? A good amount of pods, 3 seedlings sprouted, some only 2, and some only 1. How should I destroy the extra seedlings? Yanking them out seems like a bad idea.
>>2776354Just leave them. Most plants do better growing as a pair. If you really feel the need then just pinch the stem near the bottom. Jiffy pods have a plastic collar around them and they're made from peat moss, so next time consider using a coconut coir based product. There's pellets that you can put in seed starting trays that fill the cells when they're hydrated. You can also get a block of it and make your own seeds starting mix. I recommend adding crushed lump charcoal soaked for a couple weeks in a liquid fertilizer like compost tea. It will act as a slow release fertilizer. Adding a mycorrhizal inoculant will help stimulation germination.
>>2776451Well the jiffy pods are small so the seedlings are very close together. Wouldn't they be heavily competing for nutrients that close and it would hamper growth?
>>2776459Kind of, but not really. Usually they produce better when they grow like that. Tomatoes and peppers do better as pairs, and spring onions and herbs do better as small bunches to give a few examples. You might be interested in reading about intercropping as well.
How much garden space do you need to feed a family of 4? What types of plants do you recommend growing in zone 6 for that purpose?
>>2776506Whatever the deer like to eat most
>>2768289Sadly, they're Federally Protected. So that's not "actionable advice" if you catch my drift. Also, unlike Racoons, it won't deter future attacks from other ones in the slightest. >>2763883My dog is best buds with the chickens. They love to follow him around the yard. Obviously he keeps danger birds away.
>>2773576As good a reason as any.At least kids are a great source of free labor once they grow up enough to stop crapping themselves.
>>2776506Depends on what you grow. A cash crop that you grow and sell will usually take less space to feed you all year than growing the vegetables. Google "yield per acre" and "plants per acre" for anything you want to grow and use that to decide how much space to devote to how many plants. Intercropping can also help to reduce the area you need to devote to crops. Make sure you know how to store your vegetables all year. You might want to read the "No Work Garden Book" by Ruth Stout. Her method of mulching saves quite a bit of labor.
do these things stay upright well? I feel like the spikes should be longer. I could have something like this lasercut at work out of stainless.
>>2763950I have a small bread of cow, mixed from swiss grey mountain ones. Meat is hard and tasteless, milk and chese is bleah. Butter is the only worth product out of it.Goat milk and meat are bleah... they tend to be a pain to grow them... On the other hand i always enjoy sheep meat, cheese and yoghurt. Newer had my own but if it would depend on me to decide alone. Some good breed of sheep will do the job for a private person
>want a 1.5 acre property in nj so I don't have to leave my 80k job.>the cheapest lots are 350k
>mfw digging through a garden bed I left for a couple of years, where I tried to keep weeds down with old amazon boxesTape aside, I'm not really convinced. The soil looks worse than before.
Quick questionI have a bunch of 2 gallon pots. How many roses could I plant in each pot? The more, the better, but when does it become too many?
>>2777605
>>2777639Ultimately a 2 gallon container isn't going to be big enough for a mature rose so I would say 1 per planter and then transplant them again when they outgrow it.
>>2777615Cardboard isn't supposed to improve your soil, it's supposed to smother really bad weeds like grass.
>>2777924Cardboard can be okay in compost, earth worms like it if you soak it enough.
>>2778021Any carbon source will be great in compost, but it won't help kill your grass.
I have a fuckton of sawdust from coconut wood and I want to compost it with urine. Will it reek of my piss, and if so how do I keep it from smelling? I'm worried about my neighbors complaining
>>2778112is it on the ground and can flow out into dirt? i piss into my 64 sqft garden every other night and it smells great desu
>>2778112If it smells like piss add more carbon
>>2778112If I had a ton of sawdust I would dump it into plastic bags and inoculate with oyster mushroom
>>2778164You should go to a coffee shop or gas station and ask the manager if they'll hold their used coffee grounds for you and then grow mushrooms on that.
quail or rabbits for a tiny ass garden?
>>2778454Do you want meat and pelts, or meat and eggs? Quail will probably be less destructive if they get into your garden. Either way add 2% crushed lump charcoal to their feed and they won't smell as bad.
>>2778454Rabbits cost less to feed but no eggs.
>>2778459>>2778511I feel like quail might be easier to butcher, is that true?
>>2777605350k is cheap bro. My House was that before covid, but its 500k after it.
>>2778574That's for undeveloped land retard
>>2778571I've never raised quail. I feel like their bones would be easier to break and slice through
saw this at a thrift storeits pretty old, the rubber gasket is hard as a rock & fused to the lid, can't exactly tell how old though; i'm guessing at least 10 years, could be up to 20 evenits about 1' tall, so theres a lot of seeds, i think they're all popcorni wonder how viable they still are
>>2778571I think they're easier. You can guillotine them with a good sharp pair of shears. Their feathers are like built to be pulled off. I think Coturnix quail have been bred for meat for so long they've been made fairly easy to butcher. Rabbits are a lot cheaper to feed though, especially if you're looking to make your own feed.
besides quail/duck/geese/turkey any other non chicken birds worth raising?guinea seems like... n of birds?
>>2779184guineas are good, rheas too
How hard would it be for a novice to install edging nice and straight?
>>2779306If you don't trust your eyes you can just use a string, so not hard
>>2779184Guineas are inferior to chickens in all ways. I don't understand why people keep these annoying meme birds that scream obnoxiously and die easily
>>2779184Squab.
>>2779438Pest control
I could have something like this laser cut at work, out of stainless or otherwise. You think it would make for convenient edging to keep my wood chips from traveling? I could put some holes/slots at the ends to screw them together.
Is it possible to grow fruit and veggies in your office cubicle? Yes I'm a wage cuck
>>2779747You could grow some hostas. They're edible and grow in the poor light of an office.
>>2779747Coffee berriesCoffee plant needs little light being natural understory plant, in fact if you put them in full sun or partial shade their leaves will scald.Makes sure to not get Coffea Robusta, it's not self-fertile like Coffea Arabica Also unless you have a source of fresh coffee berries don't even try growing from seeds, coffee seeds lose viability very fast unless stored in perfect conditions.
>>2779747Not without grow lights. Try herbs. They need a lot less light.
>>2779747Not really, you are asking for very narrow set of requirements:>Needs very little light>Grows without any chill hours>Thrives in dry, stale office air >Small enough to fit inside cubicle>Must be productive in first few years>Must be self fertileThere are very few plants that meet those requirements, coffee maybe idk but they take at least 3-4 years to bear fruits, likely way more in those conditionsAs the other anon said you really need grow lights if you want to get anything in reasonable time frame
>>277943899% for ticks.>>2779184Depends on what you want em for. I know some people that raise doves and pigeon for meat, but I think you covered your top producers there. So unless you just really like pigeon meat, probably better to stick with the meat birds.If there's any demand in your area, some places will rent out peacocks and doves to venues, usually for weddings. Idk the logistics of this though, how you'd get them back.>>2778923I'm not a plant person, but no one has replied yet so I figured I'd add my 2 cents; I don't think seeds in that container would be viable after even a few years. I've had seeds that were preserved vacuum sealed which weren't viable after 5 years. But like I said I'm not a plant person. It wouldn't hurt to try.
>>2778923Do a germination test. Pull ten kernels and germinate them in a flat. The number of sprouts will show you roughly the proportion of seeds that are viable.
>>2779487>>2779788My gamefowl have cleared all of my land from ticks and other pests. They lay more eggs than guinea, they're less annoying, and they're far tougherI've never heard of an established guinea flock. They all need their numbers manually replenished. Meanwhile my flock doubles in size every year
>>2779805They eat more insects per bird than chickens because they have different dietary requirements
anybody here who makes their own butter? I got a slab from the farmer's market last week and honestly it's offensively sweet. it's true that I'm much too used to store bought butter but it's almost as if they put sugar or honey in it, when I use it for frying the entire house smells like ice cream and to a sickening degree. Is this normal?
>>2779871Its called sweet cream butter. What did you expect? The store bought stuff is probably just watered down or maybe they slipped some s.oy in there (no shit)
I want to get into fungi but it scares me a little if I pick the wrong one.Is something like picrel a good way to enter the fungi realm?
>>2780185Get books on growing mushrooms.
>>2780185Fuck no, this is overpriced garbage, you can buy a bale of straw already inoculated with fungi wrapped in plastic for way less than that.If you want to do it yourself all you need is a plastic bag, something to disinfect it, food for fungi like coffee grounds, straw, sawdust, etc and fungi itself.The other anon is right get a book on growing shrooms before you buy anything.
I need help.I have 100 jiffy pods with seedlings under a grow light. My seedlings have 1-2 inch of growth. They're under a LED grow light. At first, the seedlings directly under the grow light turned yellow and withered. I thought maybe the light is too much intensity, so I cut the growth light down to 70% luminosity. But now more of my seedlings are turning yellow.I'm watering the seedlings by soaking the pods in water then taking them out of the water so I don't think it could be overwatering. I've been watering them every 3 days. I was using Schultz all purpose plant food at 1/4 dilution but I've stopped watering them with that today. I have the seedlings in batch containers with about 15 pods per container, and it seems like mostly the seedlings are turning yellow in the same batches rather than randomly all over.I may have been giving them too much light forgetting to turn the lights off a bunch of nights. Could that be the culprit? Or maybe it's the fertilizer, but I was using the fertilizer at a very low dilution.
>>2780185that contraption seems kinda neat but like the other anon said you can do it for a lot cheaper. lions mane mushroom though is a good idea to start with, it fruits readily and is pretty forgiving. i grew it in buckets of leftover coffee grounds from starbucks lol
>>2780185You can literally use any plastic tub you buy at walmart. Watch Boomer Shroomer
anyone have experience growing cushaw squash?i nabbed like 300 seeds off a fuckin huge one i saw on displaything was about the size of those decorative jackolanterns, but with a huge thick neck to boot, so i'd like to grow them next yearshould i try out the 3 sisters method?i got some really good climbing bean & would like to grow some flint corn, so it seems like it would even out
>>2764423Advice for starters?
>>2780185>>2780194>>2780208>>2780361>>2780387These. You can use crushed lump charcoal in place of vermiculite in any mushroom medium recipe. It's a lot cheaper. If you aren't going to sterilize it then make sure you at least pasteurize the charcoal.
>>2780360>it seems like mostly the seedlings are turning yellow in the same batches rather than randomly all over.This sounds like some kind of soilborne disease spreading through your seedlings, but there shouldn't be any disease in the jiffy pods or your fertilizer. Plants shouldn't turn yellow from too much light unless they're really being fried either. It could be that you aren't giving them enough fertilizer. How many true leaves do they have?
>>2779871Milk is sweet from lactose, if the butter is less pure, it could contain more lactose I guess. I have never made butter, made cheese though.
>>2780912
>>2780913
>>2780916
>>2780917
>>2780920
>>2780923
>>2780924
Cultivation is one of the most fundamental and uniquely human activities.Someone who isn't willing to garden and looks down on farming is a lower animal, not a human.It's equivalent to refusing to walk on two legs.
>>2779772Have you grown coffee plants yourself?If so which varieties? Thinking of getting a hawaii (Coffea arabica 'Kona') and a wild bengali (Coffea benghalensis).
>>2781172Yes but I don't know the variety. I bought it on a whim 4 years ago back then I didn't know anything about coffee plants, it was only marked as Coffea Arabica.
Daily reminder all "homesteaders" and land owners in america are rich nepo kids(see video) or baby boomers hoarding being greedy trying to resell it to offload it to zoomers stuck living in their cars. It's been decades since truly free homesteading has been an actual thing where you could just settle on a piece of land. https://youtu.be/4_W6MSyTCO8
>>2781298You're not wrong. It's nearly impossible to get a decent piece of land for a reasonable price.
>>2781298Nahhh, you're just poor and naive I guess.Staunchly middle class here and own land, nothing too special about it.
>>2781355Hello Kyle.
>>2781355>Nahhh, you're just poor and naive I guess.Holy retardo.
>>2781426Bitch please, saying that the ONLY PEOPLE who own land are some class of mythical shabbos goy boomers or trust fundies is just on its face, dumb.The anon I replied too is probably a nihilstic, absolutely insufferable 19 year old CUNT who somehow believes he's entitled to everything in life with zero effort or ability; and when pressed will screech about:>boomers>jewsI fucking guarantee.
>>2781298I've got land but I'm almost 30, it's in a shithole, and I have terrible neighbors. Granted, I also wouldn't call myself a larpsteader. Got the money for the land, and now I'm housepoor and have no money for larpsteading.
>>2781520This>>2781433>>2781355Bad larp
>>2781520>now I'm housepoorYou are now aware that this term was invented by boomers to describe themselves.
>>27815412019:>find 3.x acres of land for 58k>quote from builder for 142k to build house>~30k for site dev/well>10k for permits>get building loan; converted to conventional mortgage after completion, 242k financed @ ~4.5%. >Appraised at 390k2021>house + land now valued at ~550k (thanks covid)>cash out refinance @ 2.875%, take 60k and buy adjacent 4 acre plotI make 90k, wife makes 75k, our mortgage on just shy of 7 acres and a 2019 house is about 1,400 a month. Neither of us come from any kind of family money and aren't particularly lucky. We don't do the whole larpstead thing, it's too hilly and I like having trees on the property too much to clear any of it. >inb4 flyover country
stupid question but anything useful worth buying on amadong you'd recommend? got a bunch of gift cards recently
>>2781668Depends on what you grow/raise and what you already have. I recently bought an apple press from Amazon. It's canning season so you could get lids or a canner and a rack. If you have animals to slaughter then you could get a vacuum sealer or a bunch of freezer paper.
>>2781668Depends what you need man, I bought extendable pole saw there and it's great
>>2763583any good resources for how to get started gardening? I want to get into growing my favorite foods like strawberries, potatoes, carrots, and tomatoes and I've been kinda down too and thought this would help.
>>2781910Check pastebin from >>2775485 , there is a lot of stuff therehttps://pastebin.com/Mvfh8b87
>>2781910Heirloom tomatoes. You will never want "normal" tomatoes ever again, they are like how it should be. Generic tomatoes are not the most flavourful type by a longshot, but they take longer to spoil and are therefore more cost-effective to produce. But trust me, heirlooms are the real deal.Next season i am going to grow a ton of them myself, as well as various species of chillis from sweet and flavourful to extremely hot.
>>2776569>federally protectednot if you bury it in the ground and burn the locator on the side of a road
>>2776570great way to make them resent you and abandon you once they become capable adults while you'll be shitting your pants all alone kek
>>2776569>They love to follow him around the yard.They are working out whether they can eat him.
>>2781974Brandywines ftw
Cool gardening thread!
>>2781668Don't buy seeds from amabong, you'll never know what you're actually getting. There are also a lot of stores that pretend to be well-known brands, they'll add an extra space or underscore to try and trick people.I've got a johnny apple peeler, I'm pretty pleased with it. If you make a lot of bread sweets, maybe a bread maker or a kitchenaid with a kneading attachment. I make a loaf weekly and my bread machine makes it fast as fuck, I plop the ingredients in and leave.
>>2763583>plant Romanesco broccoli for the first time because of neat spiral florets> monster broccoli with dreams of being a palm tree grows 4 feet>average height supposed to be 2 feet>local town's famous garden show is this week>Fuck yeah am I gonna show off pictures of it to gardeners who enter the annual competition for biggest and prettiest vegetables>Internally scream I have to wait a whole year for a flower to grow so I can harvest a behemoth of a broccoli stalk to enter in to the show next year6 year old for scale
>>2781974Korean chillis are delicious. Incredibly sweet and spicy.
>>2781910>Look up your gardening zone>Look up heirloom varieties for [insert plant you want to grow]> If hot dry environment look up drought tolerant and slow bolt heirloom varieties>If cold look up cold tolerant varieties>If short growing season, look up fast growing varieties>If small space or container garden, look up heirloom small space varieties and choose the most prolific and disease resistant >If you don't want to deal with diseases, look up heirloom varieties that are disease resistantI've tricked people into thinking I'm an amazing gardener with little effort. I look for varieties that are hardy and won't die from rookie mistakes.Plant garlic and scallions all around the edges of your garden. Do not mix them though because they fight. They will help repel insects. Here's a companion gardening chart to help plant things even closer together if space is an issue.https://extension.wvu.edu/lawn-gardening-pests/gardening/garden-management/companion-planting
>>2784030kek forgive me, I also frequent /hsg/ the Home Server General.
Where do you guys get your seeds? I'm about enter possession on a home over an acre and I'm hyped as fuck to supersize my gardening but I've only really bought small quantities, not seeds for food like 2000sqft patches or suchIn coastal California so it's pretty blessed temps, excited to get started
>>2784182I buy mine online from places that offer their seeds in ounce quantities. The particular place I order from has a local place for will call orders so I don't have to worry about delivery. Don't just get them from the grocery store. The mark up is insane. You should also look into different cultivars for each plant that you want to grow. Rareseeds.com has some really cool cultivars available, but they will be much cheaper if you can find them somewhere else. A good example is glass gem corn. I bought a pack of 50 seeds for $5 and a year or two later you could find glass gem corn seeds offered in pound sizes from other sites for cheap.
>>2784231I'm used to rareseeds for my loke 100sqft garden but that's what I figured for actual volume.Your local guy much cheaper than the online? I could try to hunt around for one if so but I imagine the variety dies down with local guy
>>2784237They're online, but the local will call saves me on shipping. Being cheaper depends on what you're after and how much, but they have a pretty good selection of most food plants and flowers. Check them out.https://www.trueleafmarket.com/
>>2782484That's impressive.
>>2763583is this the spiritual continuation of hgm?
>>2784509/hgm/ is still around; the last OP just forgot to put it in the title >>2775485
Need advice, /out/Bought 30 acres of cropland surrounded by woods in 5a.There's a house in great repair on the lot, and I'll be living there for the foreseeable future. Primary drive to get out there was easy hunting (deer/duck/turkey) and because it's a reasonable commute to my place of work.The tillable area is currently covered in alfalfa/fescue from the last time it was harvested for hay 2 years ago. The farmer that had leased the land prior to my acquisition tried to convince me that the dirt is too poor for high-yield crops and low-ball offered 35 USA shekels per acre per year to either continue hay or switch to some grain.I currently don't have the equipment or capital to farm the whole space, and keeping it in use would delay me needing to clear it myself, but 1k a year is hardly worth giving neighbors access to my lot for the majority of the year. Should I advertise or counteroffer, or let it go wild/plant a few low-maintenance fruit & nuts trees to attract game long term?
>>2763950Sheep are easiest to deal with, except they eat the grass down to nothing, you need to shear them, and you need to rotate them to prevent damage to the grass. Also predators.Goats produce tons of milk, but they’re a huge pain in the ass with parasites and escapes. Also predators.Cows are expensive and take tons of space, but you basically just put them outside and forget about them, but if something goes wrong you’re out of a lot of money.
>>2784837Alfalfa can be harvested 4 times a year so $35 per acre is very low. You can hire people with tractors to harvest your field and you will end up with a lot more than $35. If you want to convert part of it to orchard or garden space then I'd say skip the tilling and use the alfalfa as a living mulch. A few applications of manure and biochar should improve the soil in a few years, but given that alfalfa has been growing there for years and wasn't harvested for a couple years I'd bet that soil is in great shape. You can get a soil test to find out what condition your soil is actually in. I wouldn't trust your neighbor. He sounds like he's trying to take advantage of you.
>>2763883I just have two Great Pyrenees and a mean ass RIR rooster name Jorge, half my chickens are White and I’ve never had one snatched. I live deep innawoods and see hawks and owls daily.
>>2784905I don't have a proper barn to store hay, but there are a ton of dairy & beef farms near me, so maybe they'd buy all at once. Does alfalfa become less valuable if it bolts before harvest? Is it more valuable live for grazing or as bales?I'll certainly get a proper soil test. When I was walking the grounds, I could already tell it was sandy but dark, and it's not irrigated but the water table isn't too low. Water test from the well was "high" in nitrate, so either fertilizer has leached pretty far down or the rhizobia are going nuts.
>>2785011Check out your local university agricultural extension office. The good ones will have lots of resources this sort of stuff
>>2780920>>2780916I aim for something between these, but removing the pigs since I'm not interested in them, maybe switching that space and some traditional crops for a green house with aquaponics systems
Hi /hsg/. I'm thinking of getting a wood chipper because I have tons of wood on my property that I'd like to use for mulching (and, later, in a charcoal retort).Commercial sized wood chippers are extremely expensive. I can get one that can handle 3inch branches, though, for a reasonable price. What would be the best, most cost-effective means of taking a fat 10inch+ tree trunk and breaking it into 3inch or less width pieces that I could shove through the cheap wood chipper?I own a circular saw (doesn't seem like it would be big enough) and a couple of chain saws. I wonder if I could jerry rig something viable, but I'm very new to this kind of thing and I feel like I'm going to accidentally chop my dick off if I start doing redneck engineering.
>>2786224Sledge and wedges? It would take a long time doing it that way. Maybe you should set that one aside until you have a bigger chipper.
im planning on starting a mediterranean garden with some australian natives, how should i prepare the soil for it? it's mostly sand and can't sustain anything besides succulents and weeds at the moment
>>2786761Tomatoes should love it. Add tons of organic matter to improve the soil structure and increase the CEC with crushed lump charcoal. Try to put down 1" of compost mixed with 20% charcoal, preferably mixed before composting. Use manure as your fertilizer. Spray any plat that looks like it's struggling with compost tea. Sow a nitrogen fixing green mulch and put down a mycorrhizal inoculant with nitrogen fixing bacteria. Alfalfa will work best because of its deep roots, but any legume will work. You could even use alder trees and coppice them when you need more light for your plants. Return the mulch to the field. In a few years, after the organic matter has had time to integrate and the roots have done their work, it should be a very fertile plot, but you can start growing on it right after you put down your manure.
/hsg/, can anyone send me the plans for the chicken coop on wheels? I saw schematics posted here for a /diy/ chicken coop tractor a couple years back, should have saved the build for when I was ready, didn't expect to have the garden fully finished so soon and I need my own eggs come springtime to maximize my proton intake.
>>2768273>mow every few weeksWhy?
>>2787165I think you want a chicken tractor. This anon has an open sided one he's building in the /egg/ general >>>/an/4904405Chicken tractors generally come in two types: the A frame, and the Joe Salatin style. I'll try to find links for both.https://www.greenwillowhomestead.com/mobile-chicken-tractor-build-plans.htmlhttps://www.flipflopbarnyard.com/chicken-tractor/I just have a few roosters to keep an eye on the girls and it's worked out for me so far. Good luck, anon.
>>2787199Thanks anon, I'll post an update when I get it together.
>>2787208I'll look forward to it. You should try fermenting your chicken feed overnight with some crushed lump charcoal and a probiotic like greek yogurt or lightly shaken apple cider vinegar. Your chickens will be healthier and their manure will make better fertilizer.
What kinds of seeds can I get for free from fresh vegetables straight from the grocery? Assuming they aren't irradiated or whatever, of course. I've grown tomatoes and garlic that way before as a grade school science project, but what about other vegetables?>don't bother hybrids do not come true to seedI'm very well aware of it
>>2787579Pretty much anything with seeds. You can slice off the bottom half inch of an onion and bury it in soil and it will regrow. Transplant it somewhere to mature or harvest the scapes. Mature vegetables have more viable seeds. For example, red bell pepper will have more viable seeds than green bell peppers. Check your hardiness zone and the zone of whatever you're trying to grow. I doubt you can grow avocados or lemons outside without quite a bit of effort, but the Russians managed to grow lemon trees so it is possible. You'll get more interesting varieties if you buy your seeds instead of just using whatever it as the store.
>>2763583Quick question to any chicken Anons here.Assuming I eat one chicken per week, how big of a flock do I need to sustain my dining needs?
>>2787683You'll need to hatch 52 chicks each year. You'll want either meat birds or dual purpose birds that you get eggs from and eat after 2 or 3 years. Meat birds can be eaten when they're 2-3 months old, so you'd need enough laying hens to provide you which could be done by one hen and a rooster, but that rooster would beat the hell out of that hen so expect closer to 8-12 hens and a rooster, plus the chicks you're raising for slaughter. Those hens will need to be replaced when they stop producing eggs at the rate you need them At that point it depends on how you want to stagger your chicks. 12 meat birds will lay roughly 5 eggs a day so you could keep putting them in an incubator or and hatch all 52 at once. You'd need a lot of freezer space though. That means that the maximum for meat birds would be 65 chickens for 2 months of the year and 13 for the rest. Dual purpose birds will lay nearly twice as many eggs and if you keep them until they stop laying then you'd need about 156 hens and 13-20 roosters. You could eat the other roosters when they're a few months old instead so you could can reasonably those numbers in half and have a flock of 78 hens and have 7-10 roosters plus the roosters you're going to eat. With 78 laying hens you'd also get 23,400 eggs a year minus the 52 that you'd hatch each year. It would also be easier to use broody hens to hatch your eggs. Also keep in mind that not every egg will hatch. You'll need to incubate extras or hatch them in batches.Either way you should ferment your chickens' feed overnight by covering it with water in a bucket and adding some greek yogurt and 2% crushed lump charcoal by weight. It will reduce your feed costs by up to 20%, your chickens will be healthier, and their manure will be better fertilizer and won't smell as bad.
>>2787683>>2787732Also older chickens have tougher meat so the meat birds will be more tender than the dual purpose birds.
>>2787732I’m autistic about my chooks and this is some next level autism. Can we be frens?
>>2787765Absolutely. I'm going to get more into breeding soon, but I'm not going to bother learning about the genetics or worry about maintaining true breeds. I'm just picking breeds that I think are neat and mixing them together. What are your breeding goals?Also I just reread that last post I made when I was a bit drunk and it's full of grammar and spelling errors. At least it was (mostly) coherent.
>>2787768I’d like to be like the original anon that asked the question. Fully sustainable genetically viable breeding population of chickens. I’ve got a rainbow mix right now but someday I’d love to develop my own specific breed with the original five I got as a basis. This years babies. At one time I had close to 50 birds but hav scaled back considerably to two dozen… and about half of those probably need to go.
>>2787772I’m retarded. Better pic.
>>2787732Thanks for in-depth reply.>52 chicks/y>3m for meatchick to growThats 13 chicks growing simultaneously(staggered) in those 3m specifically for meat purposes, getting fifo'd every week with some new incubations. In addition of hens and rooster to replace population(and maybe provide few eggs in the meantime), would 20 chickens total be enough? 13 destined for death at 3m mark, 7 as a breeding base?If 12 meaties lay 5egg/day, then those 6+1 breeders would give about 17 eggs/week, more than enough to incubate a single chicken and have some spare to eat, right? I know egglaying takes a dive in winter, but no idea just how big of a dive. Would 6+1 breeder stock be enough to pop out a chick/week, even winter time?Also, this setup does not take into account any unfortunate accidents, so here is another question, how long does it take for a meathen to start laying from the moment it hatches? I assume I would have to rise a replacement for any that die or go missing, and it shouldn't be too hard with 17 eggs/week, at least if I don't lose too many chickens at once.
>>2787772>>2787773I'm probably going to scale up, but I'm not sure what a reasonable end point is. Next year I'll get a new breed to mix into the flock. I'm planning on raising them from eggs because I started with one rooster and he's had two sons. The three of them make a great team, but I need more genetic diversity. That clan system won't work if all three roosters are related.>>27877877 hens and a rooster can work. If he beats up the hens too much then you'll have to find a way to protect them or train the rooster. You should look into the specifics for the breed you pick. Some breeds only lay for part of the year. Egg production doesn't have to drop during the winter for breeds that lay year round. You'd just need to supplement their light. It takes about 10 hours of light a day to stimulate egg laying. Not only will you have to plan for accidents, but you'll have to plan on replacing the whole breeding group periodically. About every 2-3 years, unless you're willing to let their egg production drop and then you can push it as long as you need. The big problem with having one rooster is preventing inbreeding. He'd be the sire of every hen and so his son would be half brother to each of his hens. You could try sourcing a new rooster, possibly by trading with a neighbor, but roosters can be hard to find. If you get three roosters and use a clan system like in this post >>2787765 then the problem of inbreeding is effectively eliminated, but it's recommended that you have 8-12 hens per rooster to prevent cock fights and accidental injury to the hens. You should also consider raising the chicks to be eaten away from your breeding flock because those chicks disappearing can stress them out and potentially disrupt egg laying.
>>2764374I've heard that composing in the desert is significantly harder because of the relative lack of mycelium and detritovores. Wood just don't break down as fast. And every time it rains, it washes all your work away. Build check dams along every low path where water would go to promote sediment deposition.
>>2787829You can use charcoal to alleviate a lot of those issues. It provides a home for microbes, holds water, and prevents nutrients from running off.
>>2787801>roosters can be hard to findTons of roosters are being given away for free everywhere. Clan mating is retarded. Just get a new roo every 3 years
>>2787945I think you’re missing the point fella… on like several fronts here. >dur just check Craigslist or go to tractor supply Not exactly homesteading for sufficiency there pal.
>>2787995Do you smelt your own metal too? Don't be a faggot. Use the resources available.
>>2787801I went back and looked… you’re definitely the anon that recommended charcoal for my duck aren’t you? Check out The Mating and Breeding of Poultry. It’s a definitive source on how to do it right. I also recommend The Farming Ladder by George Henderson and five acres and a dream by Leigh Tate. I’m going to assume you know all about Sallatin and Coleman and the like. >>2787787I’ve got about a week before things get cold cold and am woefully unprepared for the cold this year. I’m considering running a couple lights out with an extension cord but it’s all a factor of time and money. I may have to just secure them in place and hope for the best.
>>2787945Anon will probably want the same breed of rooster and not whatever random bird is being given away
>>2788046I am that anon. Did you give it a try? I'll check out those books.
>>2788046>$20 for a book in public domainhttps://archive.org/details/matingbreedingof00lamo
>>2788062I did and things work great. She’s probably six months old now. >>2788064King. I’m checking the garden now. It’s November 15th and I have new tomatoes and peppers coming on. I’ll grow maters till December… 5a here.
>>2788064My little homesteader library.
>>2788027What the fuck do I know right?!>>2788066The carrots I grew last Jan.
>>2788066How do you grow tomatoes until December in 5a?
>>2788066What kind of wizardry is this, I'm in zone 7 and all my peppers and tomatoes already died from frost
>>2788072>>2788073I got a giant roll of painters plastic for like 30 bucks? 12ftx400ft, four passes covers the whole garden on cold nights. I also inherited about 20 table clothes and those cover the plastic on the mor sensitive plants like the maters. Oh and I watch the weather like a fucking hawk and start container planting and transplant into buckets late sept to mid oct. The buckets I can cover and keep going till Christmas or so but once we get a couple days where the temps never get close to or above freezing then it’s game over for the year… still I’ve eaten a BLT with a fresh tomato for New Years the last five years running. Pic related… im going to eat this when the ball drops.
>>2788088I didn't know those things are so effective at keeping frost out, I need to get some for next year
>>2788091I forget if he talks about it here but it’s a good intro to Coleman.https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1VhH_JnEnCIEvery layer of cover you add takes you one zone lower. If you can high tunnel, caterpillar tunnel, and have cold frames you can turn a Milwaukee winter into a Montgomery winter.
>>2769948Utah because Mormons ain't putting up with any of that shit
>>2788313Rural Utah. The cities are all blue.
