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location of this planting on the farm. click for bigger version
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I've got a couple of spots on my farm that are hard to use. they're narrow, or too small to hay, or just a nuisance, but I'd like them to produce something. So today I worked on planting a quarter acre of
table/juice/wine grapes; 4 varieties in all, 100 vines.
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Piles of composted manure surface-applied, about to be plowed in |
Grapes are a relatively permanent crop; so any soil amendment I do is best done now. I put composted manure down at a rate of 16 tons per acre, which sounds like a lot, but we're only talking about 1/4 acre, so I put down a little over 4 tons of compost. Just brought it over with a dump truck and then used the front loader on the tractor to distribute it around the area to be planted.
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Plowing in the compost |
Once the manure is down, I run the plow over the ground to mix the compost with the soil.
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Driving post with bucket of trackhoe |
I grab Sean and he and I work on driving the posts in; a chainsaw carves a point into an 8" treated post, and the trackhoe bucket pushes it into the soil about 5' (they're 10' posts).
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Smoothing soil and creating seedbed with harley rake |
once the posts are down, a couple of passes over it with the harley rake smooths out the tire tracks and breaks up the dirt clods and further mixes the compost and soil.
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on right is plowed ground, on left harley rake finished seedbed |
it leaves a smooth seedbed behind. I finished today by putting in the ground anchors that will hold the end-of-line posts down. I'll finish the prep and planting tommorow. Partly sunny day; nice working weather. maybe 60 degrees. Very pleasant. Greenhouse at 90 degrees again today -- good for the plants that are germinating right now.
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