Mrs ERJ helped troubleshoot the electric fence issues.
I was walking the fence and disconnecting various sections. Mrs ERJ was at the energizer a quarter-mile away turning it on-and-off.
I would call on the cell phone and ask her to turn it off. I would disconnect or isolate a section and then ask her to turn it back on. Then she would tell me if it was still exhibiting a short.
Since part of what I was doing required that I crawl under or scramble over the fence, I had her turning the fence off when crossing and then turn it back on in the hopes of hearing arcing across air-gaps.
I found two shorts by sound but had her turn the fence on-off at least ten times. By my figuring, that saved me AT LEAST five miles of walking at (1/4 mile one way) * (2 ways) times ( 10 round trips).
The fence is now as hot as a popcorn-fart and I am happy.
Planting nuts
One challenge in planting seed-nuts is that squirrels can dig them up faster than you can plant them.
Seeds are much faster and cheaper to plant than seedlings but if none of them survive the squirrels...what is the point.
Torreya
Torreya (Nutmeg Yew) is a tiny Genus with just a few species and those species are very, very rare.
A few very passionate people are attempting to expand the range of the Florida Nutmeg Yew (Torreya taxifolia) by planting seeds in areas far from its current range...about 50 square miles where Alabama, Georgia and Florida come together.
To virtually everybody's surprise, the Florida Nutmeg Yew very happily grows in the mid-West...including Michigan. The small island of plants in AGF is a legacy of when the glaciers pushed plant species south. For various reasons, the Florida Nutmeg Yew was not able to follow the glaciers as they retreated north and they were stranded in a small, vulnerable river valley.
Cutting to the chase, the people planting the seed-nuts of the Florida Nutmeg Yew determined that the way to avoid depredations of squirrels and rodents was to plant the seeds at least 4" deep. Some insist that 6" deep is even better.
This is a very big deal because hither-to-fore nobody could tell you HOW DEEP to plant nuts to avoid the majority of squirrel losses.
The fact that nuts are large and have a lot of resources in them guarantees that they can punch through a great deal of overburden. And there you have it: The characteristic that makes them so desirable for squirrels as food is key to planting them in a way that makes them less vulnerable to being eaten by squirrels.
I have some pecans stratifying. I intend to plant them in mid-May to minimize the time they are vulnerable to squirrels. I also intend to plant them a full 6" below ground level.
I planted a lot of acorns in my woods and along field edges in past years and I noticed that squirrels will dig in disturbed ground thinking another squirrel, or other critter, has buried something there. So I found that if I am careful to cause minimal surface disturbance when planting the squirrels are less likely to dig them up. Just scratching up the ground will stimulate them to dig to see what's been buried there. ---ken
ReplyDeleteGood to know!
DeleteThanks for the tip.
I've got some wood from the Japanese Torreya. A fellow woodworker sent it to me from California in a trade for a species we have here called Mountain Laurel. Mountain Laurel is akin to the Manzanita that grows out in the west.
ReplyDelete"By my figuring, that saved me AT LEAST five miles of walking..."
ReplyDeleteTHIS from the guy that straps a 50 lb sack to his back and goes walkabout for kicks. LOL. Humans are funny creatures.
I assume you found that in the torreya stuff I sent. I noticed the planting depth note but I have seen papers on planting depth before for oaks, etc. It is a trade off. The oaks want to be where jays plant them which is shallow. I have have planted a lot that were 4 inches deep. I have no data but I think I lost a fair number that way. I often wish I knew. Easy to test but it takes time I am not committed to. I agree hiding the planting site with leaves, etc is wise.
ReplyDelete