Keep your eye on the ball folks. National crop report indicates $78 billion plus disaster is on the

Not surprised.I'm in MI.and only remember a couple of brief spritzes of rain and ridiculous heat for like weeks now.The lawn of my apartment complex has been dead brown for almost as long.

reply to post by Ex_MislTech


I would not say I have given up, rather that I realized I needed to curb my enthusiasm. As I said with the gardening it's easy to think it's easy... until you realize you have no idea what the hell you are doing. I plan to do some more research so as to go about things properly. I have not given up - not yet!

reply to post by Ameilia


Anyone can forest garden and you don't need those lto do it. Learn the edible plants in your area and see what does and could grow in your own woods. Gather seeds and root cuttings in fall and plant. Not much to it really. Much of the woodland areas where I live have lost many species of edible plants due to development and fracturing of the landscape in to tiny plots. Just because certain plants aren't there now doesn't mean they won't grow - they will.
Don't forget about the primary food products of forests either; acorns, hickory, walnuts, hazelnuts, etc. The natives ground all of those into flour for mulitple uses and we may have to as well. Remember that acorns have high levels of tannins that must be leached out in water before they are edible. See my thread here for more information - www.abovetopsecret.com...

Originally posted by amatrine
Only thing that grows in Arizona this time of year is tumble weed and cotton. I think im out of luck there.
Hopefully fall I can grow some squash, if the bugs do not get it again. Tomatoes do not do to well her either.

I despise squash bugs and I fight them every year. Get yourself some Neem Oil. You have to apply it rather regularly and either VERY early in the a.m. or VERY late in the p.m. (not over 85 deg); be sure you never get it on a blossom as you do not want to harm the bees. It's a little specific to use, but it will get rid of bugs on your squash.

You might also want to try Baker Heirloom Seeds and dig around for heat/drought resistant tomatoes (and other heat/drought resistant veggies). We've been well in drought conditions here in Texas and I've found the best performers to be Cherokee Purple and the heritage yellow ones.

Cotton is a member of the mallow family; so is okra. If cotton will grow, so will okra - the hotter it is, the better okra grows. Okra is a thickener in stews; it can be sliced, battered and fried or boiled whole; it can be canned whole, pickled and dehydrated.

Tips for a Drought Friendly Vegetable Garden

reply to post by murch


what companies will be affected by this negatively or positively?

Famine has come... god help us all.

Looks like another slow down in economic activity. Gas transportation and food taking up more of the slack On top of everything, drought. Where have we see this before. One thing on top of another just piling up. It's the straws that get you. Just ask the camel. It's bad times ahead boys and girls. Forget standard of living, think survival. this time dieoff will be of special interest.

Then again there is a lot of food out there. Might not be that bad here. Once again it's the very poor in the very poor countries that is going to take it on. When will we become the very poor country. I don't know we produce a lot food here. So were not poor. Then again prolonged drought can change that.Time to start worrying or time to get ready. Do we have a plan? Can we make a plan? Is a plan possible? A good steady walking gait might be our best asset.

Originally posted by votan
reply to post by murch

 

what companies will be affected by this negatively or positively?

Short term meat agri will drop as quick sell off occurs i.e. beef steer, pork, lamb as getting the animals through the summer will incur negative equity due to feed prices.

Short term corn. soy futures will rise. This will not last though. defaults will begin to impact in the the next month and prices will drop due to suppliers not being able to make targets meaning that confidence in investment will drop.

Fast food industries probably wont see a significant rise until next year due to stockpiles held to avoid market fluctuations.

Petro industry will see sharp increase over next 2 months or so as they trade on a volatile market. Expect increases then decreases as they dump loyalties.

Overall the impact will take about a year to be fully realised. Not an issue, you say. By that time so many farmers will be bust that the industry could take years to recover.

New drought report will be issued tomorrow.

This will indicate the areas that are the most concerning.

forget about corn, its gone, too late in season for recovery.

Soy might rally if it rains where its needed.

Doubt it though.

Got me a box of heritage seeds ... only problem is planting them .. Mom and Dad grew up poor and we lived on an urban farm, 1/2 acre in the city, and it kept us fed most of the year .. my problem ? I know how much work is involved !!! and I`m not looking forward to tilling virgin land. Tried it over the years.... but weeds weeds and more weeds .. stop weeding for a couple days and you`re toast. I understand now why it was a family affair when I was young. Looks like I may bite the bullet and try again very shortly. wonder if I can interest my kids ......lol

I'm glad I live out in the country right about now. All you city folk are F'd. Just don't expect us to support you when your wal-mart runs out of frankenfoods.

reply to post by Ex_MislTech


I really would only feel comfortable starting something like that if I had an internship to see how everything works. That's a sizable investment and requires constant attention. I mean, if the pump breaks in the middle of the night, it probably needs to fixed immediately. I am sure there are scaled down versions.

Man...just eating rice seems so much easier. This is ...a wake up call for sure.

There is a giant aquifer under the most western of the Midwest plains that is being dried up by factory farming. States along a stretch from the Dakotas to Texas are no longer going to be able to draw from this huge source of under ground water. It probably won't replenish itself for a very long time. There is an excellent article in this months issue of Harper's magazine.

reply to post by Asktheanimals


In the US and UK with the policy of quantitative easing there is also the increased issue of currency devaluation, that in imports will not also cost more but locally the money will buy less...

reply to post by tatankasoul


I'm planning on doing some fall tomatoes- Roma & cherry (my cherry tomatoes never stop....they make all the way to Christmas, or until the first freeze)

I'm also doing some pinto beans, as I waited too late to plant them this summer. They won't make once it gets too hot, the blooms will just fall off. But pintos are fairly easy to start & once you eat fresh pintos, ...NOM NOM NOM.....

I've heard broccoli, cabbage and asparagus were good fall/winter crops. Personally, I'll never fool with cabbage again. I have no idea how people can actually grow an entire head of cabbage before the bugs & worms eat it up.

And I totally feel the pain of the poster who mentioned their tomatoes getting obliterated by the caterpillars. We have large pecan trees on our property, so I assumed that's where most of the worms came from. I had the large,. fat green caterpillars (I can't kill those because they turn into butterflies, so I just take them off and move them somewhere else), small black ones, and I think there are some tiny white ones too. All I know is that worm poop and spider-web stuff is all over my plants.
Like, I walked out there one morning and it looked like someone took a weed-eater to one of them, only thing left were some masticated branches

All my peppers have done well this year, jalapenos, pimentios, cajun bells, tabasco. I usually don't have much luck with sweet bell peppers (green, yellow or red)

My surprise "performer" this year has been my eggplant. Purple and white, both of 'em have made like crazy!

Okra is always good, but I have had some aphid issues with some of them. Thankfully we have plenty of ants to go around so it's just a matter of time before they balance everything out. I usually only use insecticidal soap if I have to.

And I had ONE friggin watermelon plant over by my cucumbers, which are still steady making as of today, and that watermelon plant is the most pitiful thing I've ever seen I think I had maybe 2 or 3 blooms on it since I planted it and they all fell off

I ordered some wheat seed that is typically used to make wheat grass juice, but I'm gonna plant a little square of it over on the far side of our property and try my hand at growing some grain! Never done it, never even seen a wheat or oat or barley plant, but I'm gonna attempt it!

Anyone ever grown wheat before? Any pointers/advice? I live in USDA zone 9, will wheat even grow down here?

Originally posted by fleabit
It's not good for the folks who grow corn.. but thinking a drought will cause a war is ridiculous.

You are probably right, that sort of thing has never happened before. Ever.

Well the report is out and it appears to go from bad to worse.

The actual report makes for hard reading so I have linked to a site that breaks it down a bit.

www.weather.com...

Some salient facts to absorb:

While the area covered by the overall drought grew only slightly, the intensity increased alarmingly. Nationally, the percentage of the country in "extreme" to "exceptional" drought – the two worst categories on the scale – jumped from 13.53% to 20.57%.

Thats right. A fifth of the US is in severe drought.

The overall percentage of the country in drought grew for the tenth week in a row, inching up from 63.54% to 63.86%.

So thats nearly 2/3 of the country in drought.

On July 25, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack designated 76 additional counties in six states as drought disaster areas, bringing the total for the 2012 crop year to 1,369 counties in 31 states.

So you have 1,369 counties declared disaster areas. Not in the US so would like to hear how much coverage this is getting.

Will probably start a new thread focusing on the drought conditions.

Originally posted by gtbobcat
Got me a box of heritage seeds ... only problem is planting them .. Mom and Dad grew up poor and we lived on an urban farm, 1/2 acre in the city, and it kept us fed most of the year .. my problem ? I know how much work is involved !!! and I`m not looking forward to tilling virgin land. Tried it over the years.... but weeds weeds and more weeds .. stop weeding for a couple days and you`re toast. I understand now why it was a family affair when I was young. Looks like I may bite the bullet and try again very shortly. wonder if I can interest my kids ......lol

You can make it much easier on yourself several different ways.

1, Right now, while it is HOT, mow the area you would want to garden just as low as you can possibly mow it - go back over it with a weedeater to fully 'scalp' it; next, stake down sheets of heavy mil opaque plastic. It will act as a magnifying glass, killing all vegetation under it as well as baking weed seeds to near nothing. You want to stake the edges with landscape pins close together and put several landscape pins randomly from the center outward, too. It your area is hot enough, it often will also have a similar effect as frost heave does - fluffing the dirt. Leave the plastic in place until you're ready to work the soil.

2) Begin saving all lawn clippings. Bag your leaves this Fall and go around collecting bagged leaves from others. Put an ad on CraigsList asking for bagged grass clippings and weeds. You can speed up the composting aspect of dry leaves by putting them in a 55 gal drum or trash can and running a weedeater up and down to shred them. Set the bagged grass clippings in a spot that gets really hot and DON'T open them 'cause it's gonna stink like the dickens until they're composted.

3) Call any and all local large animal Veterinarians, dairy farms and/or feed lots and ask if you can have the stall cleaning from the well animal barns/stalls. Know anyone that raises goats, rabbits or alpacas? The manure from those 3 can go straight from the critter to the garden. Get all you can now, pile it up, it'll be ready by next spring.

Next February, combine all those ingredients - the de-vegetated areas, the mulched leaves, the natural fertilizer and work it gently into the soil. If you work it too vigorously into the soil, you're going to stir up weed seeds that were farther down than the heat penetrated. If you want to get even more of a step ahead, sprinkle the worked soil with a pre-emergent; the downside to that is you'll have to start your seeds in small pots, newspaper 'cups' or starting trays and transplant the seedlings into the garden the first year. The upside is you've reduced your weeding. Just remember to keep a wide area around your garden weed-free so as few seeds as possible blow in.

4) From an old Mother Earth News article: Find a local tractor "graveyard." Most will give you the old tractor tires for nothing. Lay them flat where you want them, leaving the side on the ground intacxt; using a saws-all, cut out the top side to about 2-3" from the edge. You now have a raised bed using a recycled material and that will last about 20 years or so. You can control soil, control amendments, have much fewer weeds, conserve water and practice square-foot gardening for more yield per space.

5) You can also smother weeds by 'mulching' your garden with layers of old newspaper. It will decompose and compost, improving your soil as time goes by and you can continue to just add more layers of it. Keeping it damp for the first few days helps it mold to the dirt and rows.

You might try getting the kids interested by helping each of them to grow their favorite thing and/or looking up and taking them to a pick-your-own type farm. Find One In Your Area

Maybe the corn thing isn't so bad after all. Thats less corn syrup they can throw in everything we eat.
Your body gets damn near no nutritional value from it anyways.

Corn tortillas though... yum

reply to post by SeesFar

Thanks SeesFar .. a very usefull and well written reply .. your signature makes a lot of sense