I give up

[Alan L.]

I am trying to build my soil. Two years ago I planted cowpeas and by the end of the summer there was more Johnson grass then cowpeas. Last year I sprayed roundup and wiped out the Johnson grass. I planted the cowpeas. It rain a little and they came up to about 4" tall. Never rained again all summer and they were totally wiped out.

This year I planted the cowpeas and we got two good rains a couple weeks apart. They came up to about 2" and this infestation of grasshoppers totally wiped them out. Nothing left but the tiny little stalks. All of my wife's plants are totally eaten up. The grasshoppers at every plum and every leaf off 2 plum trees, nothing left but stems. They ate all the tops off the onions in the garden, most of the greenery of the tomato plants, and have eaten most of the tomatoes themselves - they look like they have been sliced.

These alien creatures can't be controlled. You can even mow over them in the grass and half of them that come out of the chute survive.

I am just about ready to sell out and move to town.

 

[Bird]

Sounds like what all farmers contend with. It can sure be frustrating. But next year may be better.

 

[greasemonkeyok]

Alan, Bird is correct. Its like the stock market having a good measure of gamble in it every year. Best to look at the long term. If you save during the flush years to cover the bad years, and your operating costs aren't too high, you'll come out OK in the long run.

Look at it this way, consider equipment depreciation as part entertainment, part mental health, and it is easier to justify. I believe they call it cognitive dissonance.

 

[Egon]

Be of Good Cheer and accept many of the Character Building challenges of Life.

 

[Western]

Sounds like what all farmers contend with. It can sure be frustrating. But next year may be better.

:thumbsup: What Bird said, some years they are thick, some years you cant find one to take the G-kids fishing.

You might look into Permethrin in a pump sprayer to protect your fruit trees and garden. As far as where your planting the peas, how big of an area are we talking about?? You may want to find a legume to plant that will grow into, or out of cooler weather to give it a better shot of building nitrogen in your dirt. If you just trying to get "silage or bio-mass into your dirt, plant cheap stuff like BOB oats in the fall, till in the ground in Spring, then plant Milo for summer and use commercial fertilizer when needed. Oats and Milo are cheap.

 

[Jstpssng]

I am trying to build my soil. Two years ago I planted cowpeas and by the end of the summer there was more Johnson grass then cowpeas. Last year I sprayed roundup and wiped out the Johnson grass. I planted the cowpeas. It rain a little and they came up to about 4" tall. Never rained again all summer and they were totally wiped out.

This year I planted the cowpeas and we got two good rains a couple weeks apart. They came up to about 2" and this infestation of grasshoppers totally wiped them out. Nothing left but the tiny little stalks. All of my wife's plants are totally eaten up. The grasshoppers at every plum and every leaf off 2 plum trees, nothing left but stems. They ate all the tops off the onions in the garden, most of the greenery of the tomato plants, and have eaten most of the tomatoes themselves - they look like they have been sliced.

These alien creatures can't be controlled. You can even mow over them in the grass and half of them that come out of the chute survive.

I am just about ready to sell out and move to town.

Ah, a kindred spirit. You sound the way I was feeling last night. A week and a half ago I came home to find my entire flock of 32 young chicks had been slaughtered by weasels.

Planted my peas twice... they never came up. (bad seed?) My snow peas were looking good; the crows came through and snipped them all off. I waited too long to get my cucumber plants in the ground... they're diseased and dying.

I put the backhoe on last night, to dig a trench for the rhubarb and horseradish; neglected
to snap down a lynch pin so when I hit a bump I lost the hoe. I couldn't unhook it and was about ready to use a sledgehammer when I realised it was time to walk away. I said "To heck with it, I'm going to start buying everything from the farmer's market."

Yet this morning I went up with a jack and easily popped the backhoe off. My grapes look good, as do the 375 strawberries I planted. Also the tomaotes, peppers, and other items.

tonight when I get home I'm building a scarecrow... and I'm going to start storing a shotgun in the truck for the crows.

It's frustrating for sure, but as other's have said that's just part of the game.

 

[pennwalk]

I am so thankful that we live in a country where you an get what ever you need at the grocery store. If I had to count on my luck and farming ability we would starve.

Chris

 

[Alan L.]

I don't want to leave the impression that I am a farmer nor that I depend on any income from farming. The cowpeas is only about 4 acres. I wish to have some kind of hybrid bermuda at some point but because of dirt work early on I wasn't left with much topsoil and so am trying build it. I was trying to do cowpeas on the summer for the green manure and to fix the nitrogen. I did have a great annual rye crop over the winter.

Planting consists of tilling, broadcasting, and dragging. Can I plant milo this way? The grains around here are brown and harvested by now, do I wait for that and then till them in? What about sudangrass? I have done that before with some success, but really one big reason for the cowpeas on top of fixing the nitrogen was that the deer love it. I have wildlife management ag exemption (which by the way is costing considerably more than the tax savings) and we are trying to increase the populations in this part of the county. Any kind of hunting pressure right now would wipe them out.

And, I suspect the grasshoppers would wipe out whatever I plant.... I wish there was some way to know if the hoppers are going to be here this year so we could just save our money. My wife keeps about 25 pot plants on the back porch and all were wiped out. She spends at least $1000 - $1500 on new plants there and in her flower beds. All of this was wiped out.

Not being able to have a garden....its just frustrating.

There are of course worse things that can happen, but whats the use of having some acreage if you can't grow anything?

Its not just the hoppers. EVERY year my shop and porches are inundated with cob webs and dirt dobbers. My shop accumulates layers of dirt, dead insects, and cob webs about as quick as you can clean it up. Plus the dirt dobbers put thousands of nests everywhere - inside the shop, inside the engine compartment of my truck, inside bbq grills and smokers, all over the fishing equipment. Virtually anything in the shop, garage, or on the porch gets covered inside and out with dirt dobber nests. You basically can't use anything around here without first removing the nests. It makes a huge mess.

My father in law has an identical building in southern Missouri and his is always pristine. He even has books in shelves in his, all hardly even dusty. Books in my shop with be covered first in cobwebs, then totaly destroyed by the dirt dobbers.

wo is me

 

[Western]

Alan, Milo is easy to plant and would work the way you described. Since your looking for cover rather than harvest, less of a concern. (Deer will eat the Milo seed head big time too). Mow around 2 weeks prior to dove season and you'll be likely covered with dove too.

I also think you could probably go ahead with the Bermuda, after a soil test and proper fertilizer. Bermuda will almost grow on concrete and isn't to picky. try killing it out sometime. It does love moisture and fertilization with warm temps but is quite hardy once established.

I had a buddy that would use a no-till drill to plant Oats in the fall in his Bermuda grass for the deer, not as good as a dedicated "food plot" but did the job.

 

[Mike Costello]

Well, I live in Southwest Missouri and my shop is a constant battleground with mud dobbers, spiders, and insects they don't even have names for yet. Yesterday, I had to clean out an RC plane box that a dobber had built a nest in--evan after I had destroyed the nest the day before! My shop equipment is fair game too, as they will get into any nook and cranny thay can.

My solution is to bomb my shop about twice a year. I set the bug bombs off when I close up for the night and sweep up the carnage in the morning. Now, I'm dealing with still another problem---a family of skunks in my horse barn. I still love the country life, even if it has its challenges. Mike.