Picking apples, free fertilizer and killing grubs in seed nuts

 

The 8' step ladder with about 15' of plastic drain-tile tied to one upright continues to be an awesome productivity aid. Climbing up-and-down the ladder is non-value added work. I have the top of the drain-tile sticking about 18" above the top of the ladder.

The black bucket is a 7 gallon nursery planter. Two "sets" of the ladder filled the bucket to the level you see. The third "set" produced the scatter of apples on that you see on the ground.

Somebody wanted to give me some fertilizer. I gratefully accepted 175 pounds of this and 220 pounds of high-nitrogen fertilizer. At current prices the water-soluble "plug" fertilizer costs about $250 and 220 pounds of high nitrogen fertilizer would run about $150.

The gentleman is moving to Florida. He also has a bunch of metal halide lighting to give away if anybody is interested. Obviously, it has been a while since he grew whatever he had been growing.

Sanitizing seed-nuts

Unfortunately, acorns and chestnuts are likely to be harboring various kinds of weevils. The protocol for sanitizing the nuts is to soak them in 120 degree F water for 20 or 30 minutes.

The literature says that 20 minutes only kills 85% of the weevils, so I would go with the 30 minutes. 

Quite the bargain at approximately $40

It occurred to me that a sous vide cooker would be the cat's meow for taking care of business.