Southern Planter
Well-Known Member
Thursday the twentieth of June:
Traded a dozen and a half of homemade snickerdoodle cookies for a hydroflat of two hundred KT 209 burley seedlings on a whim. I had cleared out a plot of honeysuckle shrub that had not seen a photon in years. I wanted to plant something on the barren ground, but the seed house folks told me it was to late in the year to plant timothy. Then I saw the add in the paper for bacca transplants, and I called the guy. I asked the price, and he said $150 for an acre. I told him I was thinking more like 30 plants, he laughed and said he'd give them to me. I drove to his farm and green house and handed him the cookies. He told me they were tough little buggers, and they would be OK until I prepped the plot. The county agent is a friend of mine, and he talked me into "no till". On the advice of the farmer I stopped at Tractor Supply and bought a hose sprayer filled with Miracle Grow and a bulb planter. When I got home, I sprayed Permethrin to kill the ground bugs and ants, then sprayed the Miracle Grow. That was my first mistake.
Friday June 21:
At 0600 started setting the plants, sitting on my butt, using a bulb planter. Finished planting them 2100 the next day. Wife built a nice little "willow" fence using sticks from the murdered honeysuckle to keep the dogs out.
Sunday 23:
After church I change into my Kentucky Colonel outfit, sit in my rocking chair on the front porch and announce to the wife that I am a bacca farmer. She roles her eyes and goes upstairs to her sewing room. My brother, who has planted, grown, cut, housed, and stripped bacca all his life tells me to keep my trap shut about the miracle grow "lest I get laughed out of the county".
Monday:
I run off with the agent and watch a demonstration of no till planting on a real tobacco farm. The old boy was in his 80's and was a third generation bacca farmer. He gave me a lot of advice, and that's when I learned that the transplants like dry ground the first day they are planted, and I could have killed them by hosing the plot the night before like I did. That afternoon deer tasted five of the plants and spit them out.
June 27th:
The rain Elder "Brother Baldhead" asked for in prayer arrived with 1.9 inches of rain.
Thursday 18th of July:
The weeds in the bacca patch thank me for the miracle grow.
Friday July 26th:
Finished weeding bacca. Sat on my butt and used a hula-hoe by pressing it horizontally and pulling. Enough weeds were pulled to feed a mastodon.
Thursday August 15th:
Weeded again. Found one small worm.
Sept 4th:
Too many worms, sprayed first ortheen application.
Sept 13th:
Forty some plants are about chest high, no blooms, the plants in the back row where there is too much shade are less than knee high.
Traded a dozen and a half of homemade snickerdoodle cookies for a hydroflat of two hundred KT 209 burley seedlings on a whim. I had cleared out a plot of honeysuckle shrub that had not seen a photon in years. I wanted to plant something on the barren ground, but the seed house folks told me it was to late in the year to plant timothy. Then I saw the add in the paper for bacca transplants, and I called the guy. I asked the price, and he said $150 for an acre. I told him I was thinking more like 30 plants, he laughed and said he'd give them to me. I drove to his farm and green house and handed him the cookies. He told me they were tough little buggers, and they would be OK until I prepped the plot. The county agent is a friend of mine, and he talked me into "no till". On the advice of the farmer I stopped at Tractor Supply and bought a hose sprayer filled with Miracle Grow and a bulb planter. When I got home, I sprayed Permethrin to kill the ground bugs and ants, then sprayed the Miracle Grow. That was my first mistake.
Friday June 21:
At 0600 started setting the plants, sitting on my butt, using a bulb planter. Finished planting them 2100 the next day. Wife built a nice little "willow" fence using sticks from the murdered honeysuckle to keep the dogs out.
Sunday 23:
After church I change into my Kentucky Colonel outfit, sit in my rocking chair on the front porch and announce to the wife that I am a bacca farmer. She roles her eyes and goes upstairs to her sewing room. My brother, who has planted, grown, cut, housed, and stripped bacca all his life tells me to keep my trap shut about the miracle grow "lest I get laughed out of the county".
Monday:
I run off with the agent and watch a demonstration of no till planting on a real tobacco farm. The old boy was in his 80's and was a third generation bacca farmer. He gave me a lot of advice, and that's when I learned that the transplants like dry ground the first day they are planted, and I could have killed them by hosing the plot the night before like I did. That afternoon deer tasted five of the plants and spit them out.
June 27th:
The rain Elder "Brother Baldhead" asked for in prayer arrived with 1.9 inches of rain.
Thursday 18th of July:
The weeds in the bacca patch thank me for the miracle grow.
Friday July 26th:
Finished weeding bacca. Sat on my butt and used a hula-hoe by pressing it horizontally and pulling. Enough weeds were pulled to feed a mastodon.
Thursday August 15th:
Weeded again. Found one small worm.
Sept 4th:
Too many worms, sprayed first ortheen application.
Sept 13th:
Forty some plants are about chest high, no blooms, the plants in the back row where there is too much shade are less than knee high.
