How does your garden grow?

[Onoff]

2 hours ago, SteamyTea said:

So all that helpful carbon, that could go into the soil, is to be sent into the atmosphere, where we have more than enough.

Shame on you.

 

Ash is to sprinkle. I'm not poisoning everything else with pellets.

[SteamyTea]

1 minute ago, Onoff said:

I'm not poisoning everything else with pellets.

Can get anti-thieving-slug spray now.

Going try it on neighbours black cat.

[saveasteading]

That pile of sticks on the left looks very attractive for invertebrates.

 

My beans and courgettes are still attracting night time nibbling. 1 slug found under an adjacent  pot today. 

growth = munched area so far.

Perhaps a torch-lit inspection is required.

[Onoff]

39 minutes ago, saveasteading said:

That pile of sticks on the left looks very attractive for invertebrates.

 

Not any more! This is to be my sleeper staging area! Just burnt off masses of the neighbour's invasive ground ivy I ripped up. Left the conifers to dry out a bit:

 

 

[saveasteading]

Charcoal left in the ash is good for the ground so don't overdo it.

[SteamyTea]

1 hour ago, Onoff said:

Wrap a pipe around it and pump some water though.

Slugs, squirrels and dogs burn well.

[Marvin]

On 15/05/2022 at 11:33, Onoff said:

Right or wrong I've started stringing the frame with coir rope. Round turn and two half hitches top and bottom. I've left a 6" tail at the bottom:

 

 

 

Are you going to grow any man get out?

[Onoff]

42/50:

 

[Onoff]

7 minutes ago, Marvin said:

Are you going to grow any man get out?

 

Sorry?

[Onoff]

Reckon I need to be planting these soon'ish. Haven't even done my sleeper surround yet! For now I think I'll just "fence" off the bean area.
 

Plan is burn off the rest of the conifers tonight then I'll have an area of "dead" ground I can haul the sleepers over to and sort them into light/heavy, straight etc. That'll free up the lawn where they're currently sat.

Incinerator loaded, conifers chopped into bite sized bits! 1 can British Bulldog, one of Spirit of Kent, I'm partially loaded:

 

[Marvin]

1 hour ago, Onoff said:

 

Sorry?

Mangetout peas? Silly!

[Onoff]

1 minute ago, Marvin said:

Mangetout peas? Silly!

 

You gardening types and your in jokes! 😂

[Pocster]

1 hour ago, Onoff said:

 

Sorry?

He’s saying “ Your penis is really small , can’t you grow it larger ? “ 

[Onoff]

Conifers burn really well!

 

[saveasteading]

30 slugs and snails on or around my courgettes last night. 3 on the courgette, most happy with the old daffodil leaves.

3 or 4 or 5 big snails appeared to be in a slimy entanglement, so good timing moving them on.

 

They have gone to visit the shrubbery.

 

I had cut back the daffodils thinking they were a likely lurking place, and so it seems to have been.

 

Hoping for just a few tonight. Very soon 🤞 the plants will be tougher and higher and so safe.

[SteamyTea]

34 minutes ago, saveasteading said:

They have gone to visit the shrubbery.

High Wycombe's old maternity unit was called The Shrubbery.

 

[Onoff]

47/50 beans:

 

 

Shifted all the sleepers:

 

 

Unscrewed / cut off the screws in them:
 

 

Each is nom 2.6m long. The veg patch will thus be nom 5.2m wide.

 

The rough plan is this:

 

Level sleepers surrounding the beans. A 25mm square box section frame, put together with 3D printed connectors. This to be meshed over to deter the rabbits, deer, pigeons etc but let the pollinators through.

Then a close spaced, 2 copper wire "loop" attached to a battery, possibly solar charged. This for a slug/snail barrier as seen all over YouTube.

Not sure how the stripped copper wire will fare as in going green and tarnishing? Periodic cleaning?

Maybe too a 25x3 copper strip all the way round the base frame as well. Or do away with the wires and have 2 copper strips on the vertical side with a slight gap between and connect that to the battery?

[Gone West]

Snails and slugs just don't like copper so it isn't necessary to connect to a battery. Some of the 'copper' tapes sold as anti snail are poor quality and I hadn't thought of using stripped copper wire which is a good idea.

[SteamyTea]

5 minutes ago, Gone West said:

Snails and slugs just don't like copper so it isn't necessary to connect to a battery. Some of the 'copper' tapes sold as anti snail are poor quality and I hadn't thought of using stripped copper wire which is a good idea.

Bit in last week's comic about if they are hungry, they will cross a copper barrier.

Plug it into the mains, will stop the scrumpers.

[Onoff]

8 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

Bit in last week's comic about if they are hungry, they will cross a copper barrier.

Plug it into the mains, will stop the scrumpers.

 

I've a reel of copper bus bar tape, I think it's 25x3. Will dig it out and check. Figuring to tack it to the sleepers with copper nails. Biggest worry is if it shorts during wet weather and becomes ineffective. 

[Gone West]

29 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

Bit in last week's comic about if they are hungry, they will cross a copper barrier.

Just looked at a website that reckons the copper strip should be at least 40mm wide and suggests using electric guitar shielding tape.

 

https://www.growlikegrandad.co.uk/in-the-garden/pests-diseases-in-the-garden/copper-tape-stop-slugs-snails-heres-video-evidence.html

 

[Onoff]

3 minutes ago, Gone West said:

Just looked at a website that reckons the copper strip should be at least 40mm wide and suggests using electric guitar shielding tape.

 

https://www.growlikegrandad.co.uk/in-the-garden/pests-diseases-in-the-garden/copper-tape-stop-slugs-snails-heres-video-evidence.html

 

 

40mm, no chance!

 

I've just dug the reel out and it's not 25x3 but 9x1! Could have sworn there's a reel of bigger stuff somewhere here. Unlike me to exaggerate about size...

 

 

 

[SteamyTea]

Worms not slugs

 

Hungry worms will risk being hurt if it helps them reach a meal

When enticed by the smell of buttered popcorn, food-deprived nematodes are more willing to cross a toxic copper barrier to reach the smell of a snack compared to their well-fed counterparts

 

LIFE 5 May 2022

By Corryn Wetzel

 

Nematodes are willing to take risks to follow the smell of a snack

STEVE GSCHMEISSNER/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

 

Hungry worms are more willing than satiated worms to cross a toxic barrier of copper to reach the scent of a meal.

While there is plenty of anecdotal evidence that hunger can make animals act impulsively, less is known about how hunger is signalled in the brain and how that signal shapes choices.

To better understand how hunger changes behaviour, Sreekanth Chalasani at the Salk Institute in California and his team turned to transparent roundworms called nematodes. They aimed to answer three key questions: how does hunger affect what is happening in the worm’s body, how is that change relayed to the brain and how does that ultimately shape choices?

 

The researchers placed around 60 nematodes (Caenorhabditis elegans) on one side of a barrier made of copper, which is toxic to them, with the smell of buttered popcorn wafting over from the other side. Half of the worms hadn’t eaten for 3 hours, while the others had eaten a recent meal.

Chalasani and his colleagues found that around 80 per cent of the hungry worms crossed the repellent copper to reach the food compared with around 20 per cent of their well-fed counterparts. When the hungry worms were fed, they reverted to the less-risky behaviour of satiated worms.

“If [the worm] is food deprived, it thinks, ‘I’m going to take that risk, because I’m getting hungrier, and so I have to make an effort to cross that barrier’,” says Chalasani.

 

After demonstrating that the starved worms take bold action to reach the smell of food, Chalasani wanted to find out what mechanism was triggering the hunger signal to the brain.

A genetic and imaging analysis pointed to certain proteins in the worms’ intestinal cells that may tell the brain that the gut needs food. The researchers also identified a receptor in the brain that they suspect is picking up the signal.

“The intestine then tells the brain, and the brain then changes behaviour,” says Chalasani. “That was a little bit surprising. We didn’t expect that the worm would have this level of sophistication.”

The work could help explain why some people behave irrationally when they have skipped a meal, as underlying biological patterns in nematodes often translate to humans. But Chalasani notes that being “hangry” doesn’t excuse poor behaviour. “I could be hungry and still not show it because [unlike a worm] my brain has the sophistication to suppress some of those feelings.”

 

Journal reference: PLOS Genetics, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1010178

[saveasteading]

On 20/05/2022 at 09:13, Onoff said:

47/50 beans:

Impressive and much taller than mine, although maybe they are putting roots down.

Any idea why they are so much bigger at one end of the tray?

 

After 2 nights of deporting the snugs and slails, the next night was lashing down and I didn't do it.

Wet conditions, unguarded plants, so I feared the worst, but all was well. Found 3 litlle slugs under stones and no damage. 

 

I have planted 20 beans and got 6!!! Grrr. Some were very old.  I think I over watered them and they rotted.

I will be asking your advice next year.

What compost for example?

[Onoff]

1 hour ago, saveasteading said:

What compost for example?

 

That's 50/50 now, just looked.

 

 

I used either Wickes own compost or whatever the well known make is that they do. Water from the rain butt. 

 

Interesting theories on why the size differences. I thought it was because I'd put the seeds in different ways up. Someone else said quality & amount of the soil in the pot. The one I favour is plant pheromones. The first plants give something off to delay the other's growth. The risk being a predator comes along and wolfs the lot or a bad weather event destroys them all in one hit. 

 

I need to get these in quick 'ish as they're rooting out the bottom now:

 

 

Struggling with getting their "enclosure" ready. These things are damn heavy. Got to do some digging to get them in level. I'll probably need the 2 high on the low sides.

 

I'll end up with an area nom. 2.6 x 5.2m to start with and I'll clear that of all vegetation and relocate any inhabitants. Got the reel of 9x1 copper so as aforementioned I'm going to run two loops around the sleepers and connect a battery!