North Central Tennessee Here

[jgalt52]

I am an engineer/bizmgr and the wife is a surgery nurse. Both retired. I'm into growing tomatoes, cukes, blueberries along with grandkids, energy production, software and amateur radio.  Learning machining.

About 10 years ago we moved from out of state to the Tennessee Cumberland Plateau Exurbs (best Skousen Strategic Relocation Rating east of the Mississippi - 4/5). The plan was to put about 90 miles between us and the big TN metros, but still be 20 from regional city medical/university/restaurant/full services and 6 miles from a milk/bread Mayberry type town.   We bought a nice sized, but disused farm that needed massive clearing, cleanup, dozing and drainage work.

Our prime motivators were to get away from:  State Income Tax, tripling property taxes, exploding city prices, severe political corruption (Equally Dems/Repubs), traffic overload, exponentially growing crime (weekly home invasions in our neighborhood plus MS13 gang bang murders in the local Walmartian store), police speed traps/confiscating cash in traffic stops, psycho neighbors one-upping/screaming/complaining about nothing that have never held a power tool in their lifetime, lack of ethics in general, etc. 

Our new county has 635 sq miles and only 8 deputies per shift are needed to hold things down. Peace Officers vs Police. Total population:  People=22,000 Cattle=66,000.  97% of folks here are of a self sufficient, hard working, spiritual, freedom loving culture that gets things done and want to be left alone. Lots of ex-cops, ex-military and tech people. Don't know of a single HOA. TN Building Codes apply, but septic/electrice/HVAC inspections are all that are required. When I first met the three county commissioners in our district, one was a housewife, the second was a pipeline welder passing out pocket Constitutions and the third was a long time, retired MI expat that told me "This is where we make our stand, there is no place else to go."   Gig fiber went in two years ago which was not available in our last row house neighborhood. The sheriff recently auctioned an AR for a widow's charity. We have met a good number of expats like us moving in from all over and I am happy to say that all have been the type to want breathing space, freedom and see the value of hard work driving small to medium agriculture. Woke Manbuns and Purple Karens view our country culture as redneck, horrifyingly uncivilized, fraught with dirty, sweaty, hard work and keep on driving. Covid came though, but living out on the land pretty much makes it a non-issue 99% of the time.

There are very productive Amish and Mennonite Communities nearby. It is not unusual to find vegetable displays attended only by an Honor Box. The Mennonite Dairy 'slow batch pasteurizes only' so milk tastes like it did in the 1950s.

We are finally home.

[JohnyMac]

Welcome jgalt52 to Unchainedpreppers.

There is a great group of folks here, eclectic yes and their knowledge is wide depending on different subjects. Don't be hesitant asking question nor a wall flower if you have experience with an item a UP subscriber needs help with.

Looking forward to hearing more about you growing your tomatoes, cukes, and other things in your garden.

Welcome 
 

[Jackalope]

   Welcome jgalt52 to Unchained preppers.  The Plateau really is a special place, and Tennessee is a great State in so many ways.  I can't imagine living anywhere else.

    Johny, we're going to have fresh tomatoes for Christmas, thanks to our heated greenhouse.  I was suppose to plant garlic the past few days, but I've been off working on other projects.  Rototilled one of gardens a couple of days ago. Nothing like a mild southern climate.

    jgalt52, you're fortunate to have a fiber connection, we're still on DSL.  Hope to chat jgalt52 soon either in person or on the radio!  Welcome again!

[RB in GA]

Welcome aboard from NE GA

[jgalt52]

Thanks for the greetings!  This forum setup is definitely a cut well above from other forums I have been to based on quality of info, ease of use and features.

Going to spend a little time reading up.   I like it!

I like that heated greenhouse idea, Jackalope.  My daughter bought me a lemon tree about 5 years ago and we bring it into a covered porch every winter. It's about 5' tall now and starting to fruit. Sounds crazy, but it works and got me to buy a small orange tree to match it. Tennessee Citrus ... LOL!  We're hoping to have lemonade for Christmas.  I need to sell that land we are not really using and use the cash to build that before 2x4s hit $80. 

[Jackalope]

    We have a lemon, a lime and an orange tree, all dwarves, bananas and some other semi-tropical plants.  We do like you do, they go out in the summer and back in the house in the fall.  Visitors during the winter are surprised by the amount of plants we have in the house.  The plants help keep up the humidity during the winter months. The greenhouse currently has a tomato plant, some eggplants, and something my wife planted.  She's always growing some weird tropical herbal medicinal plants.  We mostly use the greenhouse for early propagation.  Our discussion topic during the dinner tonight was how to heat the greenhouse in a grid down situation.  We're thinking of putting in a 55 gallon drum painted black, and using water as a thermal mass.  The other idea would be to heat large rocks in a fire during the day and place them in the greenhouse at night.

   Regarding lumber, bought a sheet of 3/4" treated plywood yesterday... $52.00 !  Ouch!

   jgalt52, this forum is great, not only due to the excellent forum members, but also because Johny puts his heart and soul into it.  He's an awesome forum administrator, and a scholar and a gentleman.

[jgalt52]

Wow, we are really on the same wave.  Very cool!!!

I had thought about bananas after adding the Valencia, because of how much we love/need those minerals.  I'm ready to buy.

Where did you get the start and what kind (dwarf)?  Is yours producing yet?

I heard that the Cavendish banana tree was having big problems in the tropics threatening their species.

[Jackalope]

    I'll have to research where we got ours, we bought them at the same place where we bought our citrus trees.  It's their second winter in the house, and they haven't started producing yet.  One of the guys in our local MAG had some that produced a crop.  He says the bananas were finger sized.

     Lowes sells a banana plant, but it doesn't produce a fruit.  My wife was all excited when she bought them, as she had visions of harvesting bunches of bananas.  I don't recall how she found that they are non-fruit bearing, but she was decidedly unhappy.  Anways, the non-bearing banana plants are on our porch, while the fruit bearing ones currently reside in our dining room.

      The bananas is Sri Lanka are amazingly good, nothing like the bananas here.  I've never had a bad banana in Sri Lanka.  (They have incredible coconuts over there too).

[Jackalope]

Looks like we got our bananas from Gurneys: https://www.gurneys.com/product/dwarf_banana 

[jgalt52]

I had a friend that has a medium sized greenhouse and he developed problems with pests/mold/etc in the soil that finally required him to let it freeze and sit idle for a year to knock the problem out.

Most of my small growing has be centered around pots where I recycle the soil almost every year from outside. That has seemed to work reliably for the little we have done so far. Part of me is thinking about going with a concrete floor fed with hydronic heat pipes and growing entirely from pots.

Do you plant directly in the greenhouse soil or did you go with planters?  Ever try hydroponics or fish?

Be interested to know your opinion.

Bruce

[grizz]

Welcome from Alaska

[Sir John Honeybucket]

Welcome from coastal Virginia!  It's a good group here, a USEFUL ham radio plan/weekly nets and much more.

>>>  We only have a small, unheated greenhouse, but it's so useful for the transition from early season INDOOR seed starts when we transition then into greenhouse for a few weeks early in the season and finally full plating of the healthiest plants. I hope to add some tobacco to the mix this year for personal consumption and for raw material for home spun insecticide    (do NOT use on nightshade family, I am told). 
Home tobacco book:  https://www.amazon.com/Survival-Gardeners-Growing-Tobacco-Medicine-ebook/dp/B015OUWN46/ref=sr_1_1?crid=213XCHYW63XRT&keywords=Tobacco+David+the+Good&qid=1640306212&sprefix=tobacco+david+the+good%2Caps%2C101&sr=8-1


Sir John Honeybucket

[Felix]

Moving to high intensity/small area cultivation absolutely invites trouble.  But given the conditions and resources at hand, dealing with such problems is part of the... deal.
My greenhouse tomatoes were infected this year with a mold that severely impacted their output.   Solution?   Removal of all soils and placing them far away to nurture other unlike crops, burning (not composting) the plant material involved and BLEACHING the entire greenhouse before another pot or plant is re-introduced.
Mother Nature can be a bitch.   And if you'd like to one-up her by pushing the "rules", than prepare to be an uncompromising God.

[Jackalope]

   Bruce, we do a combination.  We have raised beds, and we also use pots, it depends upon the plant.  The past two winters we've had everything freeze at some point, which seems to help with pest control.  After New Years, I may let everything freeze again, and start up the planting cycle at the end of February or early March.  We're still getting accustomed to the longer growing season in the South.  I noticed the greenhouseautomatic roof vents were open today, due to the mild temperatures.

    The hydronic heat system is interesting, but I prefer to keep things simple.  In a grid down scenario, sophisticated solutions could be fatal solutions.

    I've researched hydroponics and aquaponics, but don't have any practical experience.  My step-son has expressed interest in hydroponics, so I'll let him take the lead on that project.   

[FeedingFreedom]

Welcome! Great bunch of people here with a lot of diverse knowledge.

[jgalt52]

More great information and posts!  Thanks!

Felix,
I couldn't agree more with your "High Intensity/Small Area" leading to trouble in the greenhouse. That's kind of a universal truism. Just look at our cities. This is why I was wondering about going 'pot only' and changing soil/compost with each crop. I have no idea if that would work en masse, but it's not a lot of effort and seem like a potential possibility.  Still, I could see bringing in some pest that eats my lunch too.  So time to experiment I guess.  Your point about an "uncompromising God" is spot on.  Just this subject came up in a discussion with some old friends and we agreed that none of us have ever seen any successful engineers that, out of ego or ignorance, trespassed against Natural Law. One fellow in our group noted that "Natural Law is a law that does not need a policeman."   That quite an interesting point of philosophy when you think about it.  Uncompromising ... could be an understatement!

Weather has been our real problem last year with such a wet, late spring. Japanese Beetles were a constant battle among others.  Pears and Blueberries are about the only two things we have found that seem mostly immune from attack in our area. We put out 20 Blueberry bushes about 4 yr ago, mulch them with pinebark annually and they have just gone great. The wife works them down to jam and I'm out there with the toaster every night before bed. Can't get enough ... LOL. 

If the changes in the Sun indeed move us to even worse weather in another Grand Solar Minimum, growing outside could get even more challenging. There has been some very impressive solar physics research that warns of potential food production risk.  That the researchers are coming under censorship is a bit eyebrow raising.   This is especially concerning in that empty slots on grocery shelves are becoming noticeably more frequent ... among other supply chain issues. 

[Felix]

Merry Christmas jgalt52 and all!

Few things are more absorbing than the details (because, that's where the Devil is found?)   :-)
Generally, my experience with "home gardening" hasn't experienced too many setbacks.  But they have occurred and are teachable events.  Plus I have a friend (went to high school together) that studied entomology and became an ag advisor - a handy source of advice where bugs'n bad enter the picture.
One of the things that sticks in my mind is to diversify - not only varieties (heirloom) and species but location as well.   A network of like minds who can share seed if one crop at one or another location fails.
The tumbled down remains of stone housing with stone fencing surrounding small plots in Ireland are mute but powerful testament to the dangers of relying too much on a monoculture.
I'm still trying to master three food sources grown in a short and capricious climate location - northern Arizona, the Colorado Plateau/Mogollon Rim.    Corn, beans, squash, potatoes.    All have historic presence, all can be stored/replanted in successive seasons.  As I have done, on a limited scale.
Scaling up, not putting eggs in one basket, networking garden plots...   only wish I lived where the soil and seasons and water was a bit more "for" me than "against" me.   ;-) 

PS 52 was a great year to be born...  don't I know.

[jgalt52]

Seeing the grandkids for Christmas brought a smile to old man 52.

Being mostly Scotch-Irish made the Potato Blight history interesting and it?s still a good learning opp as you inferred. Abnormally cold, wet weather washed tons of spores into the soil setting up the rot, but the famine really was also largely a result of systemic mismanagement by the absentee Limey landlords and their political cronies. Ignorance and poor housing unquestionably added to the death toll, but food exports out of Ireland actually increased during the famine and even Tony Blair was moved to apologize for the mismanagement. (Sound familiar?)

https://mises.org/library/what-caused-irish-potato-famine

Family folklore says our ancestors couldn?t afford to buy tickets in lowly steerage to cross the pond, so we got quarter price rides in the ballast. It?s a pretty humble starting position when you can?t even qualify to be owned as a capital asset by big money. LOL!

After two years of poor results trying Russets (high moistureI think), this past season we hit a consistent 3:1 yield with Yukon Golds in a bunch of pots. We were expecting 5:1 so we will be improving soil and timing next spring. One success last year was a friend?s recco to try Fortex Pole Beans. They produced foot-long pods that tasted great. We had to reinforce the poles due to heavy growth. We also planted Empress bush beans, but only about half thrived. Diversifying, as you say, looks smart in hindsight.

All in all, it?s still pretty humbling that after several years I still can?t do what my grandparents (with 11 kids) did in the early 1900s. It?s a higher bar than I anticipated. Good times make weak men. Hard times makes strong men.

With grocery shelves showing regular holes, inflation increasing and leadership reclassifying useful idiots as useless eaters, it?s clear I really need to up my game.

[grizz]

52?? You may be the baby of the group lol

[jgalt52]

Whoa, would I love to be 52.

Think 1952. 

Fortunately 70 is the new 50 in our time warp exurb.

We gave a lift to a guy with tire trouble at the end of our driveway. He had just turned 92. When we arrived at his place, he had this big dually JD tractor with front/back spears w 1500# bales on both ends.

I admired his nearly new machine and he just said it ?comes in handy?. Not seeing any animals, I asked how many he fed.

He smiled and said, ?Don?t have as many as I used to, but on Dad?s old home place I?m running about 650.?

After I got my jaw closed, I thought, This is great. 90 is the new 70   

[Felix]

LOL, "baby of the family" at age 52.
Nope no such baby here and yes, 70 is the new 52 (if you've taken your meds as might be needed, are gifted genetically and don't pay much mind to pain).
Thanks for the Famine link.   I'd some sketchy history about it prior to riding the "Ring of Kerry" horseback and the horse-walk pace along minor roads and trails gave plenty of time to observe and think, (at about, you guessed it, age 52)    :-)
I'll look into the varieties mentioned, seed ordering time is past due.   Primary concern is variety maturation specs.   I live at 7,000 elevation in the "desert southwest" where freezes come irregularly 'till June and restart around mid September.