The big chore today was clearing brush. It was chainsaw work. Spray the cut trunk with herbicide. Then drag the brush out of the way.
I got 50 feet of windbreak mostly cleared of Autumn Olive. The last time they had been cut was 2017(ish) and the stumps had not been hit with herbicide. I will have to wait a few weeks to see which shoots stay green and I will go back and deal with them.
The stretch of windbreak is 185 feet long. There are two hazelnut bushes that I will leave. I will also leave one or two mulberry trees that are well positioned and of a graftable size. So far, I ran into two species of Grapevines, Poison Ivy, Virginia Creeper, Multiflora Rose, Hackberry, Ash and Black Walnut seedlings.
Regarding the hazelnut bushes, they must be EFB resistant because all of their siblings got hammered. Even though they are plenty big enough to have nuts and set loads of catkins, they don't set any nuts so I suspect that I have a pollination issue. The current plan is to add some Jefferson and Yamhill bushes. Jefferson has S1S3 alleles and Yamhill has S8S23. Alleles are used to predict pollen compatibility. "Like" alleles will not pollinate each other.
Work-hardening
One huge advantage of the distance walking is that the heat didn't bother me. It wasn't super-hot by mid-Western standards with the heat-index plateauing at about 87F but the people across the road doing yard-work were wilting. They would work for half an hour and then take a half-hour break in the AC.
The walking helped me dial-in a routine. Work an hour, drink 20 oz of "sports-drink", set a timer, work another hour...
The brush cutting lasted about three hours and, while not as fresh-as-a-daisy, I was not incapacitated.
Equipment failure
I lost the handle to the valve on the sprayer wand. A replacement wand costs about $20 and a new sprayer costs about $15.
I will look through my collection of sprayers to see if I have something I can cannibalize.
Update on wilting tomato vines
One advantage of posting anonymously is that I am less hesitant to share when I do something stupid.
Several (but not all) of the stakes I used to hold up the tomato cages look like they were cut from Black Walnut saplings. Not all of the wilted tomatoes had wooden stakes holding the cages so it is not a total slam-dunk, but it was still a stupid thing to do.
Photos
The site that hosts this blog is coughing up a hairball on posting pictures. Actually, the site runs very well for one that doesn't charge any fees so I am not going to bitch.
So the gist is Black Walnut stakes are bad for "maters?" Last year I used cone shaped wire cages for my plants.
ReplyDeleteIt looks that way.
DeleteI built some from Eastern Red Cedar this year. Rabbits weren't bothered a bit by the wood!
DeleteCompatibility etween sprayers is about like finding interchangeable fuel can spouts.
ReplyDeleteBlack walnut- I had a tree service dump 8 loads of wood chips and then used these to mulch blackberry plants and fig trees. Result, most of the blackberries dies as did 2 figs, I suspect lack walnut was part of the wood clippings.
Jugglone is being reconsidered. I think it's doubtful there is ant effect. Do Black Walnut Trees Have Allelopathic Effects on Other Plants? click on download now https://pubs.extension.wsu.edu/download/sample/3522
ReplyDeleteHaven't read the WSU article yet, but I will. I took a class from an Extension fruit agent several years ago. He was talking about black walnut toxicity and told an anecdote about a fruit tree farmer who had a spot in his field where apple trees kept dying. No one could figure out what was going on, until the farmer's father looked at the area and said there used to be a black walnut tree in that location. The Extension agent used this story to indicate how long black walnut roots persist in the soil.
DeleteAbout 15 years back I cut up a bunch if walnut firewood,used tarps to catch sawdust and put down around where I stack firewood as well as scrap metal; except for the occasional rose, honeysuckle and walnut tree nothing's come up there.
ReplyDelete