OregonHorn

Alchemy has to fit in there somewhere as well. Their only mistake was that they figured out how to make pot metal out of gold instead of the other way around. Bad metal judging.

There are a couple of effective plant-derived pesticides that kill spider mites on contact but won't penetrate the plant or fruit: azadirachtin derived from neem seed oil and pyrethrins originally derived from pyrethrum daisies. You can apply them frequently, and they're tank-compatible. You have to hit the actual bugs, so make sure to get full coverage on the undersides of leaves. Start before you see any leaf perforations or webs for best effect. There are some very effective products only labeled for ornamentals that you can use on neighboring trap plants all growing season. I'll use a product called Avid on hibiscus plants that I mix in with anything subject to mites. They go straight for the hibiscus first, dine & die. Avid will persist in the plant for about 30-40 days, but it has to be applied to any new growth. Its action in plants is called locally systemic. It penetrates the leaf surface, travels a short distance through intracellular spaces, then parks for the rest of its time. Keep trap plants in. pots that can be moved away from edibles before reapplications. If you ever have issues with aphids, nasturtiums are very good trap plants.

My bad - I didn't provide context. I was born and raised in Houston. The day in the blast furnace here in Oregon that I was posting about was 4f hotter than the all time record high in Houston. It was 20f+ warmer here that particular day plus rain forest humidity. It was the only summer day in 25 years that I would have traded for Houston weather.

Ethanol saturated tissues would be good fuel, but you'd want to measure that against the likely exposure to radioactive waste.

True, I'd be wishing myself straight into the middle of hurricane season. I haven't been through one of those since Alicia.

Squirrels hate safflower meal. I top dress with it, and it keeps them out of the garden. I also mix it with chicken feed. It's cheap and makes a decent high N fert.

While movie credits were rolling, my wife asked me if lead paint was still legal. When I told her no, she asked me why every movie has a lead painter.

It's over 100f in the fucking coast mountains of Oregon right now. 113f yesterday set an all time high for my area, breaking a 120 yr old record just like in Death Valley. I've only seen it over 100f once in 25 years before this week. At least the ocean and rivers provide relief, but I'd still trade with Houston right now. Never thought I'd say that about a summer day.

The best gardening book I know of for our climate is Steve Solomon's Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades. He's the founder of Territorial Seeds. He did a whole lot of trials and selected what grew best here. His farm was just south of Eugene. It's definitely a lot different here. I'm in the coast mountains where we get 100" of rain a year, sometimes zero hard freezes. I have 30+ blueberries, raspberries & marionberries. All but a runt survived our rare January ice storm that encased everything in a couple inches of ice for 4 days with a 3 of the nights getting down to 16f. Warm weather loving plants generally aren't safe outside until mid-May. Even then peppers are at risk of stunting. I've been here for 25 years. The latest dusting of snow was May 1. It's only been over 100f twice. I have average PNW soil: low N, low P, high K, high S, low Cal-Mag. I apply dolomite every fall for the C-M and Neptune's Harvest Fish/Kelp for everything else. There's an inexpensive granulated chicken manure that works well too. at only $10 for 50lbs.

Maybe it's a regional thing, but I see black bears daily when blackberries begin to ripen. They never want human contact. I've only had one get testy with me, and it was my fault. I saw a tiny bear looking at me from about 10' up a bank, so I walked up the logging road to get a better look. That made it flee about 30' up a fir tree. Mom heard its claws on the bark and came around a turn right at me. Luckily she didn't pursue me when I retreated. Once when I was out for an early morning walk, I had one young bear, probably a 30 pounder, flip out when a log truck went by. It wanted to get out of the berries and into the safety of the woods, so it crossed the highway. It was only paying attention to the truck, so it didn't see me. It plowed right into my leg and then really flipped out.

Interesting. I read the composition of a couple of the simulants. They were inert wrt organic plant nutrients, so this demonstration of chickpea growth in an inert substrate with the addition of worm castings and beneficial microbes is not a revelation. It's not worth mention. aggy interest in space hummus is, though. But when they run short on tahini..

Me too. Tell me how aggy simulated moondust is somehow relevant to the topic, though.

This is hardly groundbreaking. Hydroponic plant culture using inert media like regolith has been in practice for decades. "Simulated" regolith is just some bullshit.

For them, tampering is foreplay. Hitting the portal hard is what's important.

She's the one who tells you where you can find the doctor of neighborhood.