Homesteading/gardening

[polymoog]

Mulberry tress grow to zone 4. Kinda a blackberry on a tree.

most. not all. the pakistani big purple mulberry is to zone 7. the rest range from zone 4 to zone 10, which is really impressive. i only know of one other that can have a wider range, and thats the ginko tree.

if you get the mulberry, get the everbearing variety. very easy propagation: branches stuck into the ground will sprout as long as the soil is kept moist. theres a white and red variety also- the red is native to the US.

Citrus (orange, tangerine, grapefruit more so than lemon/lime) needs some good cold just before they're ripe to make them sweet and juicy.

not sure i agree.

 

[justjess]

It is August and it’s only 50degrees out here right now. I’m wearing a hoodie and socks. This shits nuts.. it was cold until almost June and now it’s getting colder again before August is even over. Recommendations for cold weather plants - trees, fruits, vegetables greatly appreciated since it seems I have the opposite of global warming going on up in this mountain.

 

[justjess]

I might just switch out some of my garden bed (can you do that?) - take out the failed eggplant and plant some broccoli or broccoli raab not a bad idea.
Are maple trees worth it? Already established ones on a property I know that planting them isn’t cuz they don’t mature for decades.:

 

[polymoog]

Are maple trees worth it? Already established ones on a property I know that planting them isn’t cuz they don’t mature for decades.:

you can tap em for maple water and then boil it down for syrup. its pretty easy to do-- its just that no one does it.

youre going to have to think long-term with that farm. even if you dont get to benefit from the tree, your kids or successive generations will, and youll also be increasing the value of the property if you ever sell it.

fruit trees youll want:
blueberries (need acid soil and full sun)
jostaberry
serviceberry
mulberry (look into illinois everbearing)
fig (one variety might be ok-- rest can grow there, but youll have to mulch like hell and plant it south facing and wrap it up with burlap like theres no tomorrow
persimmon (theres one that should work up there in zone 5 or 6)
elderberry
aronia (vit. c)
willow (get one-- the plant has natural rooting hormones in it which will come in handy later on if you want to try to root some cuttings)
pawpaw (check to see if this clears your USDA freeze zone)
pear, apple, asian pear, cherry (sweet and tart), plum...
do NOT go for those basic crappy cultivars like red delicious. orange pippin is supposed to be great, but i havent seen it for sale. honeycrisp, jazz, and fuji are all very good. youll have to do your homework so you can get fruiting varieties over a long period of time. same goes with the pear, plum, and cherry.
raspberry/blackberry will grow easy, but youll need to prune them if you want a good yield.
oaks have edible acorns for acorn flour. get used to working with it. free food that all you have to do is collect it from the ground. if the squirrels come around, youve got a side dish.
i think theres a plant there called new jersey tea.... that should grow there. its supposed to be a good tea substitute.

with the cooler weather, i would work on growing mushrooms. check out how sepp holzer does it. yields are good. if i was there, id innoculate logs with the chicken of the woods mushroom as well. great taste.

osage orange is useful, but not edible. witch hazel will grow in that zone. id look into growing american ginsing if the conditions are right. get a male and 2 female ginkgos. slippery elm.

this should be a separate topic, but its tree related, so....
if youre starting some kind of community/commune there, you should browse this selection of medicinal plants: https://strictlymedicinalseeds.com/ or get the catalog.
dont count on hospitals to fix you. youll be on your own, so youll need someone there to make your own natural medicines.

 

[justjess]

you can tap em for maple water and then boil it down for syrup. its pretty easy to do-- its just that no one does it.

youre going to have to think long-term with that farm. even if you dont get to benefit from the tree, your kids or successive generations will, and youll also be increasing the value of the property if you ever sell it.

fruit trees youll want:
blueberries (need acid soil and full sun)
jostaberry
serviceberry
mulberry (look into illinois everbearing)
fig (one variety might be ok-- rest can grow there, but youll have to mulch like hell and plant it south facing and wrap it up with burlap like theres no tomorrow
persimmon (theres one that should work up there in zone 5 or 6)
elderberry
aronia (vit. c)
willow (get one-- the plant has natural rooting hormones in it which will come in handy later on if you want to try to root some cuttings)
pawpaw (check to see if this clears your USDA freeze zone)
pear, apple, asian pear, cherry (sweet and tart), plum...
do NOT go for those basic crappy cultivars like red delicious. orange pippin is supposed to be great, but i havent seen it for sale. honeycrisp, jazz, and fuji are all very good. youll have to do your homework so you can get fruiting varieties over a long period of time. same goes with the pear, plum, and cherry.
raspberry/blackberry will grow easy, but youll need to prune them if you want a good yield.
oaks have edible acorns for acorn flour. get used to working with it. free food that all you have to do is collect it from the ground. if the squirrels come around, youve got a side dish.
i think theres a plant there called new jersey tea.... that should grow there. its supposed to be a good tea substitute.

with the cooler weather, i would work on growing mushrooms. check out how sepp holzer does it. yields are good. if i was there, id innoculate logs with the chicken of the woods mushroom as well. great taste.

osage orange is useful, but not edible. witch hazel will grow in that zone. id look into growing american ginsing if the conditions are right. get a male and 2 female ginkgos. slippery elm.

this should be a separate topic, but its tree related, so....
if youre starting some kind of community/commune there, you should browse this selection of medicinal plants: https://strictlymedicinalseeds.com/ or get the catalog.
dont count on hospitals to fix you. youll be on your own, so youll need someone there to make your own natural medicines.

Maples and black walnuts. Long term investments. Got it. I was looking at a property that already has established maples which I’d love but it’s smaller than I’d like.

I had a lot of those trees on my list but there’s definately some I haven’t heard of that I will look into thank you

not a community or commune... just an escape/retirement plan for some close relatives and a full time home for us. Starting small unless they’re going to put in some funds and work to cover their own needs too. unless I hit the lotto/our app makes mad bank and then maybe it will be something more and I can hire someone to come help/live there. But medicinal plants are also a fantastic idea I hadn’t considered before so thanks

 

[justjess]

Go for it. The only thing is days to maturity. Do you have enough days before a hard freeze would be expected? Most, if not all, cool season crops will tolerate frost/light freeze.

What is considered a hard freeze? And how many days do you need before that? Lol.. I’m a newbie clearly

 

[justjess]

This is the little fucker that killed my eggplants. Anyone know what it is?

 

[justjess]

Striped cucumber beetle is my best guess.

False potato beetle - I found it on google. I guess unlike potato beetles they don’t like potato’s or tomato’s only eggplant. Little bastards

 

[justjess]

It's a shame because otherwise it looks like it was doing well. Black beauty?

Yeah. We got one really awesome eggplant and then those little shits went to town. Very sad. And it didn’t make sense because I have a million tomato’s and peppers and stuff and they haven’t touched any of them.

I literally just picked a whole box full of them this morning. I’ve got three huge bowls in my fridge plus the box. I’m running out of room lol. I didn’t think anything would grow so wasn’t prepared for the whole canning thing this season... I figured I’d just be learning the “don’t kill the plant” part.

 

[polymoog]

It seems better to post this here rather than the marketplace. The Razorback line of tools (shovels, bow rakes and such) are well worth the money. I am very thankful that I replaced my post hole digger with this brand, even if I only dig two holes with it.

speaking ONLY with respect to electroculture, the only shovels you should use should be copper. iron implements (shovels, etc.) are supposed to disrupt the electrical field.

this guy says hes got a solution for it:

 

[free2018]

So I’m looking into buying some land with a couple relatives - for us to live on and for them as an escape plan from NYC and possibly retirement/vacations if not needed before then.

My question is how much land do you need to sustain yourself - minimum sustenance, I’m not talking luxury here... It’s a group of between 13-20 people realistically, we would need four seperate houses to start because we love each other but can’t be on top of each other like that. And then I’m thinking fruit and nut trees, vegetables, some sort of grain, chickens, and maybe pigs and/or goats. I’ve Already decided horses and cows are a no go because they require to much land and upkeep. I’ve seen ranges of an acre for four people to an acre per person to ten acres per person.. the lower end involving permaculture of some sort usually. We are hoping to purchase this and start moving over there by November and while a couple months ago there was a ton of land available options are limited right now.. seems lots of people had similar ideas. There’s either way to small or really large lots available but I found one that’s 22 acres and already has a home on it (which helps with financing - different programs apparantly) I’m just not sure 22 acres is enough if I’m being honest but telling a bunch of New Yorkers that is going over like a ton of bricks because it sounds like it’s own country to them lol.

any input welcome. Also any prepping/homesteading related stuff is welcome too. I love that kinda thing and I definately think it’s a good use of time at the moment because we may need it sooner rather than later

Good for you. This has become my goal as well.

 

[justjess]

Good for you. This has become my goal as well.

I wish you well with it. Its been my goal for years now I just finally got people to stop laughing at it and get on board lol. I hope it happens for you soon

tip: do it yourself or find smarter people then I did lol. They are convinced novice gardeners will be able to plant a crowd sustaining eden on like 5 acres (with three houses) it’s a tough uphill battle to convince them otherwise.

 

[free2018]

I wish you well with it. Its been my goal for years now I just finally got people to stop laughing at it and get on board lol. I hope it happens for you soon

tip: do it yourself or find smarter people then I did lol. They are convinced novice gardeners will be able to plant a crowd sustaining eden on like 5 acres (with three houses) it’s a tough uphill battle to convince them otherwise.

Thanks. It may take a while.
PS: Thanks. Will do. I thought you guys were buying more land. What happened? They chicken out?

 

[justjess]

Thanks. It may take a while.
PS: Thanks. Will do. I thought you guys were buying more land. What happened? They chicken out?

Oh no... they are still “in” but it seems like they are larping (not sure if right word). We went away together this weekend and we were sitting outside and I was like “oh I’m trying to figure out how much land we really need... I’m not sure these lots we are looking at are big enough for the amount of people” and apparantly my brother in law read a book last week and they are now convinced all we need is 5 acres cuz permaculture (which is great but realistically I’m the only one who’s ever grown anything and I’m a novice, perma is pretty advanced). I tried to tell them that we need 2 acres just for chickens in a post civilization world and they seemed incredulous and more concerned how they might make homemade wine cuz can’t survive without that!!

Lmao... I’ve been left in charge of looking for land anyway so I’m just going to keep proposing larger acreage and if they don’t figure it out I’ll just buy it myself. And charge them when they show up.

 

[justjess]

Talk some sense into him. With your short growing season, you'll need more...likely much more.

That would be enough room for 80 or more chickens humanely. Plenty of space for the layers and the meat birds would be harvested right about the same time confinement becomes an issue.

Weak spot. The fruit, grapes and berries require more space.

All my arguments. Exactly. Thank you lol. Like I said I’m the one looking at plots and I am not forwarding any less than 20acres. So either they will get on board or we will go out separate ways and do it differently. I’m not going to buy too little land

 

[Maes17]

Oh no... they are still “in” but it seems like they are larping (not sure if right word). We went away together this weekend and we were sitting outside and I was like “oh I’m trying to figure out how much land we really need... I’m not sure these lots we are looking at are big enough for the amount of people” and apparantly my brother in law read a book last week and they are now convinced all we need is 5 acres cuz permaculture (which is great but realistically I’m the only one who’s ever grown anything and I’m a novice, perma is pretty advanced). I tried to tell them that we need 2 acres just for chickens in a post civilization world and they seemed incredulous and more concerned how they might make homemade wine cuz can’t survive without that!!

Lmao... I’ve been left in charge of looking for land anyway so I’m just going to keep proposing larger acreage and if they don’t figure it out I’ll just buy it myself. And charge them when they show up.

Put up a barbed wire fence, while society is still on grid - drones. Plenty of drones.


Send some wine this way too. I’ll do the taste test.

 

[justjess]

Was going to post in the Good Things thread but wanted to bump this one.... got our first egg day before yesterday. Another today. It's starting.

Congratulations!! That has to be very exciting

 

[free2018]

Everyone I know is going to beat me to buying land.

 

[Maes17]

Everyone I know is going to beat me to buying land.

Time to buy land

 

[Maes17]

Was going to post in the Good Things thread but wanted to bump this one.... got our first egg day before yesterday. Another today. It's starting.

So breakfast at your house?