The Bunkhouse

Here is where I stay when on the farm. It is a charming little room. Everyone calls it the bunkhouse. Looking south - the fridge and sink.

The Bunkhouse Again

Looking north. A bed, stove and refrigerator.

Oh, Happy Day

This was planted in two days. I can't even guess how many plants are there. This is the finished field of broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower. It was planted with the tools shown in earlier posts. Of particular importance is the vegetable planter.

Vegetable Planter - A New Angle

Here is a close-up view of the vegetable planter. Shown in greater detail, is the planting wheel. It works like this. When the tool is lowered onto the raised bed, the two operators (seats not shown in this picture) turn on the water. Water drops from the tank above (also not shown). It flows down the hose, through the regulator, into the open center of the green planting wheel. Then as the planter moves down the row, the planting wheel turns. The spikes on the planting wheel puncture the plastic covering the raised bed. This creates a small hole. Water is added in the same motion by way of a hole at the base of each spike. This is a very effective way for a few people to plant thousands of plants in one day.

Two Bottom Plow

I realized I hadn't shown the plow. Farmer Jim calls it a two-bottom plow. It will work fresh ground. But I think it works better when used after the ground has been chiseled. Basically, it flips the ground over.

Hiller - A New Angle

Shown here is the hill-making tool. This picture should help give a better understanding of how this tool works. Making hills can make the difference between success and crop failure. We have had some violent rainstorms recently. The rows between the raised beds have standing water. Were it not for those raised planting beds, certain crops would quickly rot - like onions for instance.

Potato Planter - A New Angle

Here, again, is the potato planter. Now that it has been removed from the tractor, I couldn't pass up a chance to show it from a different angle. Shown prominently are the front discs which open the furrow. It is that furrow into which potato chunks are planted. The operator simply drops a section of potato down the white PVC pipe. The rear discs then gather the sides of the furrow - thus covering and planting the piece of potato. Really I can't say it enough. This tool makes planting potatoes almost effortless.

KATY Trail

On Sunday, I made a trip up to Roucheport, Missouri. It's a small town of 200 on the banks of the Missouri River just west of Columbia, Missouri. Seen here is the KATY trail which passes through town. KATY derives from MKT which is an abbreviation of Missouri-Kansas-Texas. These where the states that a rail line ran through a hundred years ago. Just to note, the rail line ran through present day Oklahoma, but at the time the area was still a territory. Well, fast forward to the present day. The rail line has been removed and the graded surface has been turned into a hike/bike trail which runs most of the length of the state of Missouri. Around Roucheport it is particularly spectacular. High bluffs with the Mighty Mo flowing just past the tree line.

Potato Planter

This is by far my favorite tool of this spring. It is a potato planter. Jim and Robbins formerly planted potato seed with the vegetable planter shown below. It worked they said, but it was awkward. So Jim and his son Lonnie made this tool just for planting potatoes. It works on the same principle of the vegetable planter. One person drives the tractor. Another person sitting in back plants. So let me explain more in detail. Before starting, all the potato seed is cut up into chunks - each with the necessary 'eye' sprout. Once that step is done, the boxes of cut up potatoes are loaded onto the black metal frame seen in the upper left corner. Three boxes can be loaded - each with up to a hundred pounds of potatoes. Next the driver positions the tractor over the raised bed of soil. Then the potato planter is lowered so that it contacts the ground. Once moving a set of discs in front (barely visible in this picture) opens a furrow. Then the person in back simply drops in a piece of potato. It falls down the white pipe into the furrow. Finally, a set of discs in back cover up the furrow. With this tool two people can plant literally a ton of potatoes in a day. The one thing Jim said he would change is to add a bigger set of discs to the back. Pretty much, this potato planter is just awesome.

Vegetable Planter

Another invaluable tool for the small farmer is the vegetable planter. Any gardener can tell you a full days work on your hands and knees, with all the bending over, can be terribly hard on your body. Now imagine planting ten acres or more. That is where this tool comes in. With it two or three people (one to drive the tractor and one or two to plant) can plant acres of vegetable plugs without much effort. The basic parts are this: a water tank on top, metal framing to hold the trays of vegetable plugs, a seat for the planters, and a specialized wheel. The wheel - seen here in green - rolls over the top of the raised bed. It has spokes which penetrate the ground thereby creating a small hole and delivering a small amount of water. It is into this hole that the planter places the vegetable plug. It is all a very fluid motion. In short this is the tool that allows two or three people to run a small vegetable farm. Without it, a farmer would need to hire a small army of human labor.

Plastic Layer

An important tool for organic gardening in the Midwest is a plastic layer. Why? Here in the Midwest, weeds are a terrible nuisance to the successful cultivation of crops. The answer to them in the past half century has been to spray chemical herbicide. In order to get away for these sprays, organic farmers plant into a raised bed that has been covered with a very thin film of plastic. That is where this tool comes in. It does just about everything. Once the operator starts the row, the tractor driver takes off. And from there the plastic layer completes all the remaining necessary steps. In one motion, it gathers soil, lays the plastic and hills the sides of the beds.

Jim and Robbins

Here are my friends, Jim and Robbins Hail. They farm near Osceola, Missouri. They have very graciously provided me with a site to establish an orchard and tree nursery. This whole year would not be possible without their incredible generosity. They also just recently became first time grandparents. Congratulations.

2011 Fruit Tree Nursery Rows

After three days sweat and toil, here is what I have to show for it. 11 rows of trees and cuttings. Each row is about seventy feet long. There are 6 rows of grafted fruit trees, 3 rows of grape cuttings and 2 rows of one and two year old trees being held until the orchard site is ready. Each grafted fruit tree is about six inches apart. After this picture was taken, I went through and hoed up each side of the furrow a bit more. And most importantly I made an inventory. I can guarantee with the wind and sun we have in the midwest, the plastic loop-lock tags will blow away and fade fast. Wow, I can't wait until the buds open and everything turns green.

When All Else Fails

Ok, so my plan didn't work. I had figured on planting a double row of trees into raised beds. My initial idea was simple I thought. Work the soil. Hill it. Till it. And plant. But I couldn't plant deep enough. So when all else failed, chain a metal bar to a skid steer bucket. With the bucket tilted, I could make a single long furrow down the center of the raised beds. After three passes, it worked good enough. It got me the depth I needed. But I still needed to shovel out the loose soil by hand. That was a pain. Pretty much Nick Botner has got it figured out. Use a ditch witch. It makes a nicer planting hole and it's so much faster. But in a pinch this works too.

Tilling Time

After the chisel plow and hiller comes the roto-tiller. This is a PTO driven tool that turns clods of dirt into nice fluffy, easily sculpted soil. Inside is a long rotating shaft of curved blades that chop the ground. I've had some experience working this tool, so Farmer Jim let me do the driving. I used it to work the tops of the hills that were made with the hilling tool shown below. Basically, I turned what would look like a pyramid into a mesa. When I was done it was a raised bed of dirt with a flat working surface on top. Works good and works fast. My idea is to plant a double row of trees into this raised bed.

The Hiller

Don't let looks deceive. This is an amazing tool. It is a farm-made hiller. Two sets of discs on the front and back work to gather soil. The three points allow it to be hitched to and pulled by a tractor. Three passes will make a mound of soil up to my knee. Jim used this tool after chiseling the soil. Into these hills will go the nursery trees. That is the plan anyways.

Chisel Plowing

The first step in preparing hard packed soil is to chisel plow. The curved steel 'fingers' reach below the depth of a plow or tiller. Farmer Jim seen here makes north to south, east to west and diagonal passes to really get the ground worked. This particular site will be the nursery bed for the grafted fruit trees.

Orchard Site

This is the orchard site. It is a gradually sloping, north facing, former cow pasture. Barely visible is the five strand barb wire fence surrounding it all. The fence does a good job of keeping cows out but I have had to chase out a rogue calf. Since this photo was taken, the ground has been chiseled and subsequently plowed.

Ah, What the Hail

Last night, a big storm front rolled through. The temperature dropped suddenly. The storm brought a deluge of quarter-sized, damaging hail stones. Thankfully, most of my grafted trees were inside the garage in 20 gallon plastic tubs. However, a few new varieties grafted onto the quince tree did not fare so well. I attempted to re-graft the one shown here. I am doubtful it will make it. Yet I count my blessings. Had most of the grafted trees been planted outside, the situation would be much worse.

Grafting in the Garage

After a week of enjoyable work, I've got 546 grafted trees. If memory serves me right there are 88 varieties of pears, 68 varieties of apples and 33 varieties of plums. Though it can be tedious at times working with so many varieties I would have it no other way. Diversity is so important to me. Remember the potato famine. A lack of genetic diversity lead to widespread crop failure. The same lessons hold true for tree crops. Additionally, I find it rewarding to help preserve some of the best varieties from Nick Botner's orchard. Hopefully, next year will see twice as many trees grafted.

Caught Blue Handed

It is grafting time. The rootstock has arrived. The scion wood has been collected. But before any further steps are taken, here I can be seen disinfecting the scion wood. Each variety is dipped into a mixture of water and bleach. The recipe is two capfuls of bleach to one gallon of lukewarm water. This is time consuming but vital work because it destroys any disease-causing fungal spores. After being dipped, each bundle was air dried. Once dry they were then washed in a water only tub.