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Home › Forums › All StateFansNation › It's Time to Plow and Time to Plant — Spring 2017 Garden Thread….
Tagged: argiculture, farming, spring garden
highstick.
tractor57There was also a turning plow that had huge discs. My grandpa bought a 2 bottom one to pull with his A-C D-14 to plow some newly cleared land. He had that field cleared by a dozer but there were still a lot of roots, etc that would have caught the moldboard plow. Some day I hope to have the tractor restored as it was the one I learned to drive as a kid. Today for my personal use I have a sub compact New Holland with a front end loader and a Massey Ferguson 35 diesel that I bought about 30 years ago. Neither really get enough excercise. I am however headed out to play in my garden with the NH in a few minutes. Relocation a 3’x50′ raised bed then doing some prep work on the “flat” portion of my 50’x50′ garden. Soon will be time to set out some ‘mater plants.
packplantpathBill, we are almost 100% strip till corn, cotton, and beans. No till on wheat except where it follows tobacco.
We have two 8 row planters with rippers strippers mounted up front. One for cotton, one for beans and corn.
Unless It? is before or after tobacco, a disk never touched the field. We have a 30′ field cultivator we drag around to get any ruts out in spots where it got too wet. The longer we use strip till the better it gets. And adding cover crop to the mix is even better. Soil structure improves annually, better fertility, and far less fuel burned tilling. But we could not do that without GMO herbicide tolerance.
McCallum
highstick
One of the funny things ’bout farm implements is that when you go down the road the name of things change…
Moldboard plow
Turn plowback home… the top plow was called a bottom plow…
In the Piedmont… this is called a “harrow”…
Down East …. it’s called a disc…
My Dad has been dead since 58, but some of the guys who knew him in his younger days on my Granddad’s farm said he could take the “mule version of that and plow the straightest line that you’ve ever seen”.
"Whomp 'em, Up, Side the Head"!
Heelh8rTaking Bermuda out of zoysia would be a stretch.
Fusillade maybe?
You really are a turf man, McCallum. There is a potion using fusalade and triclopyr for removing bermuda from zoysia, but I haven’t seen it work. The rates have to be very exact, but what you end up with is damaging the zoysia enough so that the bermuda comes back stronger, or you kill them both and end up sodding the area, which is what you might as well have done to start with.
Every time I have ever sodded zoysia to replace bermuda, some of the bermuda ALWAYS comes back, no matter how hard I attempt to kill all of the bermuda beforehand. I like BotB suppestion to sod the zoysia TIGHT, but the bermuda will grow through, around, and over the zoysia.
Instead of a sod cutter, I suggest using a tiller to prep the soil. It is a lot less work, and you will not be removing the existing soil. You will have to rake the trash out, but you will have a lot less waste by tilling and a better sod bed. If you can till some good topsoil into the existing soil, you increase your chance for success exponentially. I’ll let BotB handle the nutrients and ratios, but basically, it you till lime in and add some starter fertilizer, you will be fine. The biggest key is DO NOT LET THE ROOTS GET DRY UNTIL ESTABLISHED. Check them. You may think you are watering good, but it takes a lot to get the root zone moist and keep it there.
pakfanistanDown East …. it’s called a disc…
‘Diss’ 😉
TheCOWDOGFoxgloves, Amaranth, Zinna till the cows come home.
Veggies in the backyard, all was kept fine on the spring training run!
Planting everything after the scrimmage, Saturday.
bill.onthebeachMore ’bout Zoysia over bermuda…
Getting it tight…
1. order your sod cut thick maybe 1-1.5″, instead of 3/4″…
2. after installation — minimum 2″ of water…
3. immediately after you turn the water off — with a heavy roller — roll it twice — second time perpendicular to the first….
Turf Dormancy…
somewhat of a myth…
I planted a 4-5% sloping field of fescue one time in October… got 3-4″ rain before we could get the netting down… which means “ruts”, which also means – no harvestable sod….
Came back the next February to replant… long “ruts” 12″ deep running straight down the hill by then… fescue about 1″ tall and green between the “ruts”…
Took the “Diss” out to the field and starting cutting it up….
1″ tall Green fescue when turned over by the “Diss”… had 6” “roots”…
Point is ROOTS grow all Winter, even when the turf is yellow or brown….
Which brings us back to Zoysia over Bermuda… it ain’t too late, if you hadn’t done it… but in eastern NC for best results that job needed to be done around the first of December or the end of February…
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Planted some more spinach, carrots, radishes, beets, sugar snaps over the weekend on the Urban Farm….
Beans, Cukes and squash this week…
Farming is Fun!
YogiNCIf this was taking muda out of centipede this would be easy, Poast. Kills muda, to quote Jerry Clower, “Grave yard dead”. Not sure if you could do that before doing the Zo sod.
Smarter than the average bear
YogiNCFrom UGA, alternative to fusalade
Acclaim. When Acclaim was applied at 0.18 lb ai/A in four applications, common bermudagrass population was reduced from 35 to 23% after the first year. When the treatments were repeated on the same plots the second year, the population was reduced to 3%. During this period, zoysiagrass density increased at the same proportion common bermudagrass was reduced. This data shows the importance in using a program for suppressing common bermudagrass over a 2-year period. Small amounts of common bermudagrass left in plots after treatment for 2 years will grow and expand if left untreated during the third year.
Smarter than the average bear
highstickI don’t have a bermuda lawn guys…It’s fescue, but I do get some intrusion from the crap from my neighbor that blows across the street.
And the dates you guys are talking about are totally “out of whack” with what I’m reading on sodding Zoysia and have also been told by the turfgrass supplier..
Also do any of you have any experience with Zenith cause I’m not sure we’re talking apples and apples.
"Whomp 'em, Up, Side the Head"!
Heelh8r“The Book” says do not sod when the grass is dormant, but actually it works great. Nothing wrong with doing it in the spring when it is ready to grow though. That is the conventional way. I have used Zenith, but ZEON is the one that is most recommended and most popular, and also most expensive.
bill.onthebeach“The Book” was written by professors, many at NCState…
all fine fellas… and smart too…
BUT… when you got to have sod on the ground and to get a CO and you ain’t getting paid twice to do the job twice… sod –all flavors– still goes down 12 months out of the year… and the guys handling it know some “tricks” the Smart Guys won’t publish….
As I said above…
“Roots grow all winter, except when the ground is frozen…”
Zoysia on Fescue is a nobrainer…
If the ground is right….just mow the fescue down to 1″ or less and lay your Zoysia tight…
rthomas44One more cold spell to come.
McCallumIf the sod boys had any sense, which I’m not sure they do, they would rapidly move toward zoysia varieties.
Shade tolerant, disease tolerant, somewhat low fertility needs and……this is the kicker…….low water usage.
Fescue will be a thing of the past for corporate and municipal landscapes as water resources are pushed. Zoysia fills that void nicely.
McCallum
bill.onthebeachMc… It’s not the Sod Guys… they know the value of Zoysia… add cold tolerant and heat tolerant to your list of benefits..
It’s the “Customers”… Zoysia is about $1.00 a sqyd more than Bermuda or Fescue on the truck… It will pay for itself in about two seasons… but “Customers”, especially Commercial, typically don’t want to spend extra money at the end of the job…
McCallumbill,
There are some grower co-ops out there, Buy Sod is an example, which are designed to keep the price up. The sod guys always feared people like the Winslows of Halifax County (only an example) getting into the business and cutting price to gain market. The Winslows are an example I choose because they were big row crop guys, had lots of pivots and water, got into the business in the mid 90s and had all the infrastructure to make an impact. The old man snorted at the cost of getting into turf by saying, “that cotton picker cost me $350,000.00 and it runs 1 month out of the year”.
Now the co-op will say they can consistently source quality turf but they are also curbing the market price through market share. A form of stability to the turf business so to speak. They have always sought it, reasonable for sure but I set up more than a few people in the business and they are doing fine. No, I did not relocate to Scotland Neck either.
Zoysia is expensive because it is limited. The environmental demand will be, and expect it to be written into county and city bids, for vegetation that requires limited water inputs. The upsides are tremendous, the marketing just needs to align with production. The issue is the worry about price.
A little lobbying never hurts but I’d be planting zoysia at a rate of 200-400 acres/year until I hit 2,000 acres. It is coming, count on it.
McCallum
bill.onthebeachMacCallum…
All good points…
Zoysia is “expensive” because you can only make a crop once every 18months at best…
Guys like Joe Livingston in South Carolina have been getting two crops a year in the same field with fescue for 20 yrs and plenty of Bermuda guys to South get two crops a year from the same field… and the “Green Industry” always grows South and ships North, rarely the other way around….
Factoring all the fixed costs of farming back into equation makes Zoysia “expensive”….
You may find it interesting however… that I had a “niche” crop that paid good money… Fescue 90/10 with no netting… basically takes two years to do that, but it can be done …
The co-ops make prices worse for the grower and better for the customer… that may make sense for growers who are weak in marketing their turf…
I’m 100& agreed regardless… Zoysia is the most environmental friendly / lowest cost long term turf you can get…
That’s what I put in my yard back home 15yrs ago…
bill.onthebeachRThomas has got a damn good weatherman…
Low forties Fri and Sat am or colder to the North this week…
Might need to hold back on setting out ‘maters and peppers…
Everything else is coming up good so far…
Picked a few strawberries this weekend…
Any of all got any experience with New Zealand Spinach ???
WataugaWolf4-Star PG Lavar Batts Flips from VCU to NC State >>> Bleacher Report
Looks like Keatts has transplanted a 4 Star from VCU’s garden.
highstick“The Book” says do not sod when the grass is dormant, but actually it works great. Nothing wrong with doing it in the spring when it is ready to grow though. That is the conventional way. I have used Zenith, but ZEON is the one that is most recommended and most popular, and also most expensive.
While what I have read since the Zeon variety was mentioned and I did a little research, none of you guys specify the soil type or where you’re having such good results. From what I’ve read in the last couple of days, it does have a deeper root system which is very appealing to me because of the bermuda intrusion that I’m having in my fescue and makes sense that it would be very drought resistant. But, I live just south of Charlotte and while my soil is pretty good, it still is clay based and we’ve been subject to drought over the past few years.
I’ve talked to Supersod about Zenith(both sod and seed), but apparently Zeon is “only sod”…Not a bad thing assuming, I can sod part of the yard and plug with Zeon plugs that I can cut from sod. Zeon seems to be more aggressive and spread faster. I have no intention of sodding dormant sod though. I’m gonna check with Super Sod next week and check on the pallet price. I’m intending on doing this myself as my yard really isn’t that yard, I’m retired and have time, but I see this as a 2 year process(front yard in the first year, back yard the second which is smaller).
What advice given these facts?
"Whomp 'em, Up, Side the Head"!
TheCOWDOGGrass! You talkin’ grass?
Gotta frost advisory for tonight and y’all frettin bout grass.
Me too, but it ain’t yo granddad’s.
wirogersA question for all you sod guys. Us damn Yankees have issues seeding a yard with a warm season grass (still not enough global warming) since it will be brown 9 months out of the year. Is there any warm season grasses becoming adapted for us Yankees and out high fertility soils?
As for planting a garden, takes too much work compared to driving down the road to the local Amish farm vegetable stand. They grow all that I want, have it readily available, and a damn good price (cheaper if you pay with cash). The only thing I plant in the garden is Okra, they have not learned the value of cooking up a good pot of ‘boogers’.
bill.onthebeachwir… I would recommend “Low Mow Kentucky Bluegrass” for anyone living between New York and Chicago, especially if they had an irrigation system… That’s what’s on most MLB fields and a lot of fairways…
You get all the “benefits” of warm season grasses… it’s a spreading grass, not a clumpy grass, very fine, blue/black-green blades and will tolerate mowing heights below one inch….
and all the benefits of cool season grass … lower maintenance costs, less invasive, will grow anyway but in the darkest shade and it stays green most of the year…
In the yard… I’d mow it at 2″….
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Very few grow gardens for the $$$…
highstickMy next door neighbor’s wife doesn’t know the difference between okra and “the other grass”. One year my wife told her that our okra plants were really “the other grass”. She went home and told her husband what we were doing…He got a big chuckle…
"Whomp 'em, Up, Side the Head"!
