:)
Posted on 02/24/2024 6:13:55 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
Raised bed w galvanized metal roofing
Something like that. If high enough it might keep the rabbits out. (Not your goats of course!)
Buying or scraping up enough dirt to fill them might be the biggest expense, but it sounds like you were going to buy compost in any case.
:)
Anyway, I wanted to find out what it would take to grow a papaya for fruit. They take about 13months to grow and require, of course, warm weather. I think that you can top them off to force fruiting, but you also need to know that there are male, female, and hermaphodite trees. Males do not, of course bear, but the other two will. (Hermaphadite is preferred because its self fertile.) If anyone in the warmer zones is interested here is a link to an article from the University of Hawaii extension on growing Papayas.
Why some papaya fail to fruit.
A you tube about growing Papaya
2:03 / 10:49 How to grow Papaya in Pots - Complete Growing Guide
The only thing I have to report today is our continuing Weird Weather. Hitting 71 today, then rain turning to snow, and a low tonight in the 20’s, so a FIFTY degree drop in temps. Wind chills tonight -5!
Then, back to the 60’s by Saturday. My Magnolia is ready to bloom and the Maple trees are leafing out so Beau is done harvesting sap - onlg got about 50 gallons this season.
It’s February 27th!
Yikes. We’re still 20” below average on snow, so we’ll get that all on April 1st, I’m sure. *Rolleyes*
Highest temp in the greenhouse has been 100 degrees so far, but at the 71 degrees we’re going to hit today, I’ll bet it will hit 110 in there. (Nothing is in there - just used for storage this time of year.)
Papayas are marginal where I live in So Cal (as are bananas, they are able to be grown but if we get a good, hard frost, it kills the entire tree).
My neighbors across the street had a beautiful papaya with large fruit on it - don’t know if the fruit ever ripened or not - they had their gardener take it out, unfortunately.
I had thought of that. Only thing is I'd have to cut them lengthwise because their 2 foot wide and I don't want to deal with with the cost and work of filling something that tall. I have cut sheets like that lengthwise and it's no fun at all.
I cut those three 2x8 boards for the top, shortest bed already. Going to do two more 30" beds, each one slightly longer because one end of the little front yard garden is at an angle.
Then I'm going to basically treat then like Square Foot Gardening and get my feet wet with succession gardening and rotation. It's the next natural progression and will help when I do get to growing in the tunnel.
As soon the fruit is ripe I might try starting a few of them and cutting them low and see if I can force them.
Looks like our garlic is about the same height.
Its 33 F right now and expected to get down to 18 F with a little snow. I did cover everything else including one bed with chinese cabbage,
turnips, and radishes. I think it will survive. next week should be warm, after that,
who knows....
I took care of the rabbits last year by wrapping the fence with a layer of poultry netting.
Talked to my new(lottery winner) neighbors this weekend and they went to the second aquifer for their well and it ended up being 440 feet. Cost them $21,000.
Their well is 5-700 feet away from where mine will be and at the same feet-above-sea-level so mine will likely have to be about the same.
Now I’m wondering what kind of used drill rig I could get for $20k.
The first aquifer here is 150-220 foot but the water has a high lime content and you go through water heaters fast because the heat separates the lime and chunks build up inside. Use cold tap water to fill your coffee maker and the last sip of coffee will have chunks. Plus there’s tales of a couple of people having their well run dry.
I made my smoker out of water heaters I got for free that were full of lime. I repurposed one as a water heater by pulling the heating elements and all plumbing fittings out and rinsing while poking and prodding in the holes with a coat hanger to help get the chunks out. Had to replace the lower element because the lime had made it that high and caused it to burn out.
Maybe I should invent a pre-water heater; water heater with an easy to drain and an easy remove/open bottom. A lime separator unit.
Reverse osmosis is the only known way to get the lime out but it also takes every other mineral out. Then you have to add some back in for taste if you want drinking water. That’s what most bottled water is. I think Nestle does a good mix of re-added minerals with their Nestle Pure Life water.
The guy who used to own the land across from me with the big spring on it, was set up to bottle spring water to sell. Had the spring approved by the state but when the first bottles sat on the shelf for a couple of months, it had little white chunks because the lime separated. The state approved the water as potable but come to find out, it was not presentable after sitting. He priced a reverse osmosis unit big enough for the operation and looked into adding back minerals and gave up on the idea.
That’s the water I fill my tank with but I get it from the creek several hundred feet down stream. We don’t drink it but I’ve been known to make creek water coffee in a pinch.
When it’s not sub-freezing temps, I have a clean 55 gallon drum and get drinking water from a neighbor down the road who was a 350 foot well. He likes to talk though so what should take 25 minutes takes an hour. He also repeats stories. Good guy though.
The new neighbors said I can get water from them. Gonna have to make a joke about; How much pipe do ya think I’d need and how much a month do you want? (I’d gladly pay $25/mth)
Good luck!
There is an “exotic” fruit tree exhibit that I visit every year at the Orange County Fair - love looking at the trees (permanent exhibit) - and have mulled over trying to grow a few. Lost two avocados, I’ll never plant one again.
I’m considering a cherimoya - we had several at my workplace that actually produced fruit - but I’ve never seen one anywhere else around here. Might be my next fruit tree project...
Hope your papaya thrives.
Not much human interaction I suppose. Probably how it gets when you don't live in town.
Yeah, he’s retired so it’s just him and his wife. Some guy talk is probably a good break.
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4221267/posts
"WEF Pushes Ban on Home-Grown Food to ‘Fight Climate Change’"
Can't distribute engineered pharma in home garden plots vegetables! Every one has to receive vaccine and modified passivity genes in your lettuce!
(You will enjoy your your blackfly larva and vegemite protein bars and be happy! )
You could grow turnips.
I cleared out my garlic bed last Aug and was just going to let it go fallow, so threw compost, coffee grounds, wood ash, you name it, on there and let it go. Then I noticed some green and figured it was just weeds.
On closer inspection, it was turnips from when they went to see last summer and the biggest ones I ever saw to boot.
Lettuce might wok, too. Something with a short growing season.
“blackfly larva and vegemite protein bars”
hhhmmm .... but I don’t live in Florida ?
Around here I suppose we’ll get lighting bugs (in season), a combination of red wigglers and night crawlers, then of course the ration of powdered kay-dy-dids/cykadas/crickets with a fire ant kick, for everyday baking and such.
I’ll want to make sure I eat my whole portion every day .... to get ALL my “vitamins”.
It’s been raining around here.... I hope to turn some dirt soon. I need to decide on a couple of big trees to take down.
I try to be selective, it’s hard to put them back.
I’ll use them for boards,fire wood ...
But I want the hole in the canopy to be just right...
Just reading through this thread ... it looks like a lot of folks are doing a lot of the same things I am.
Building a barn
live stock
gardens
thanks for the ping ...
And I thought I had hard water troubles. Ruins all the faucets.
Winter ended a week ago here in Central Connecticut. It’s now early spring.
Time to get out there
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