A beginning farmer attempts to learn permaculture in a real, hands-on way. No armchair permaculture here; this is real-world trial-and-error, but I hope to share so we can all learn together.
Hi there, I think this trap is more geared towards ground squirrels; in my mind, I think ground squirrels are used to crawling into tight/confined spaces that tree squirrels aren't used to. People who have used this trap for tree squirrels tend to report poor results :(
when I was in san diego, I went to farmer's market and bought mulberry. after eat most of the basket, I direct put the rest of the mulberry in the small plant pot. (yes just bury the fruits in the soil) soak the soil twice everyday and high temperature (July), no direct sunlight. after 2-3 weeks I have almost 10 baby mulberry plants. just a personal experience.
I wished this worked for us. We only caught one. The other squirrels realized the first squirrel was trapped (as did he). So they would come up to the trap but NOT go in. The trapped squirrel seemed to communicate with them: Don't do it! Maybe we have gifted squirrels?
Hi there, I use chicken feed. It's nothing fancy, any should work fine. If they aren't going into the trap, you might feed them a bit without the trap to get them to like the feed. Then you could put the trap out with feed inside after free feeding them for a few days. I've heard that some species of squirrels are much harder to trap than others.
I layered a 50/50 chicken manure wood chip mix in between layers of 100% wood chips. Its been a couple weeks now and all of the manure layers have mushrooms growing out everywhere. Hoping those will help breakdown some of the surface crust. I'm still on the fence on whether or not to turn
Subbed, no question! I love what you're doing and your attitude to make it work with what you have lying around - you clearly have a good understanding of forces at play and where you need to add strength. You'd probably get a kick out of some of my stuff too, but I'm not yet as comfortable talking to the camera as you are. Keep up the good work!
Thanks for this very kind message! I'm glad you like the "make it work" approach to projects like this. I know some people like pristine builds (like Mike Festiva), but I think rough and tumble builds like this have their place. If you ever share your projects, let me know, I'd love to check them out!
I built one of these. Works like a charm. I let the tree squirrels go. They keep the yard free of crickets and other bugs and I like watching them play with the birds. The ground squirrels however, they go back in the ground, just differently than they came out.
I should add, I've tried and failed to germinate Green Ash many times. I always let the seeds dry out... However, every nook and cranny in my yard sprouts seedlings sown by wind and water. They transplant easily. :-)
Yes, they are somewhat difficult to germinate. Your technique made it more difficult. Biggest issue, TOO DEEP! The seeds are designed to be scattered with the wind in winter and carried by runoff with melting snow. They are not intended to be buried, just set on damp soil or some damp crevice. The cotyledons are huge and not easily pushed up through soil. To keep seeds from drying during stratification do it indoors in plastic bags. To keep seeds from drying outdoors, mulch with shallow sand, water/mist a few times per day and keep them out of wind and sun. If you just need a few trees, take 1000 seeds and just soak/rinse them a long time in room temperature water. A few percent will germinate. You can also scatter lots of seed on good ground out of sun and wind and keep them moist. A few percent will germinate. See USDA Woody Plant Seed Manual, file F for Fraxinus... www.fs.usda.gov/nsl/nsl_wpsm.html
Man Brian you have no idea how happy and sad I am to watch this video. If I just watched this clip 10 years ago. I had so many unlucky attempts to grow sequoia trees. But your let the seeds in the jar method is awesome!!!
This week put in the garden the last few transplants, i had a little compost leftover and i decided to use it all to then move the compost bin in another area of the garden. I sifted everything and probably had 200+ nighcrawlers hiding in there. I put them back in my garden but since i want to build a worm bin as well i'll just recover them from my compost pile and save money.
I have two huge piles of woodchips from trees cut down on our property thata been sitting for a couple of years. There is more soil in some of that than in " sOiL MiXeS " i bought from big box stores 😂 .plus is teaming with life so i feel like a "rich man " at least when it comes to mulchint mu garden hahaha
I did some trials with a similar technique. The stuff isn't rly ready for a veggie garden yet. give it another 2-3 years for that, as the mix is still too fungal dominated and bacterial life hasn't been established. I filled a experimental bed with that stuff and grew peas in to fix some more nitrogen and having it covered. Followed up by potatoes, which rly thrive in this fluffy stuff. 14 months in, there are still minimal weeds growing in it, which tells me it's still not ready yet. But yeah, it makes a great Potato Pile 😉
Found your video after purchasing some mulberry seeds, and I am so glad I did. Followed your exact method of three 24 hour soakings, changing the water in between. Now I've got ~20 white mulberry seedlings sprouted in a seed tray. Thank you very much for doing and sharing this research!
the side to side weld is not the best option. Try to cut the hammer bit shorter and weld the cut end to the driver plate in-line. This will allow the energy to be transferred from the jack hammer to the post along a much more efficient path.
Brian... Leucaena is pretty easy to grow and does not need a lot of inputs. Its a 4 month old video but the white lead tree (another name for this plant) grows well to really good height in one season. If you do grow it directly outside perhaps grow it between plants and keep a warm water barrel. next to it. Once it grows a meter then you can leave them alone. They are amazing fodder for goats.
Hello, yes, depending on whether they are male or female. We are getting our first big harvest this year, from seeds planted about four years ago. Apparently red mulberries are female at a ratio of 4 to 1, female to male, when grown from seed. I'm not sure about the other varieties.
Why do you sow these? They'll become invasive all these trees will sow themselves out. Most Paulownia growers buy plants that don't form seeds for that reason.
Tip 2 - do not plant these bags, they do not rapidly biodegrade and whilst some roots will go through them they do so in an uneven manner hampering growth compared to what might had been. At point of planting just tear the bag off so that the roots have an open path to full growth.
