Bamboo House

[Nearingsfault]

I think the Arab spring would be an appropriate example.  I'm out of my comfort zone but how much has the average country dwellers life really changed in that one? The first two I don't think are appropriate because they are more empty world revolutions.  There was enough to go around it just needed redistributing.  That is not how I see the future.  I see a definitive lack of resources.

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[jdwheeler42]

Again, all true, and seed producing is a bitch.  Just take the potato as an example.  I don't even know how they do it.  I know it takes a lot of land and a lot of know how.

Producing seed potatoes is really simple.  All you need to do is save the small ones.  They come true to form and take up no more space than what is required to grow.  The hard part is getting them through the winter without sprouting, molding, drying out, etc., until it really is time to plant them out again.

Potato seeds are an entirely different beast.  It generally takes two years to get up to a harvestable size.  The nice part is you really don't need to deal with them unless you are trying to develop a new variety.

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[luciddreams]

Again, all true, and seed producing is a bitch.  Just take the potato as an example.  I don't even know how they do it.  I know it takes a lot of land and a lot of know how.

Producing seed potatoes is really simple.  All you need to do is save the small ones.  They come true to form and take up no more space than what is required to grow.  The hard part is getting them through the winter without sprouting, molding, drying out, etc., until it really is time to plant them out again.

Potato seeds are an entirely different beast.  It generally takes two years to get up to a harvestable size.  The nice part is you really don't need to deal with them unless you are trying to develop a new variety.

What are your credentials again JDW? 

Dr. Savant Botanist in Charge? 

 I'm always amazed at your plant knowledge sir!   

As for the speed of collapse.  I like David's style on that one, and I want to believe he is correct.  And seeing as how predicting this shit is sort of hard to do, as chaos, and the unpredictable nature of complex systems shows, I choose to have more optimism and a little bit of realistic hopium to help me through.  Just like I choose to believe that Druidry and Buddhism and Mythology are all true and in agreement with one another. 

As far as speed of collapse; I think it's fast collapse in local clusters.  In others it's BAU, until it's not.  People will willingly ignore the facts.  Basically until the electricity blinks off in your locality your in the game.  ***SG question, did I use that semicolon correctly? 

It's already fuckin' nutzo out there in the Matrix.  People are crazy, the shit they believe astounds me, and there they all are...shopping for groceries and whatever else tickles their fancy. 

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[Eddie]

Potatoes will be the staff of life post collapse. Nothing is easier to save than seed potatoes, and potatoes give a great yield for not much work.The storage issues are not such a big deal. When I was a kid, my dad spread them out in a single layer on the ground, under our pier and beam house that was a couple of feet off the ground, and they lasted all year.

Unfortunately, the temperature is a problem here (I'm further south and west than where I grew up, by a couple of hundred miles) , and I think potatoes need to be planted in December at the latest. I haven't had good luck with them so far. They need weeks of temps in the 40's F to make a lot of yield. They can survive a freeze, but they die way back. They haven't done well in my raised beds. I do intend to plant some in the field  using regular row-crop methods and see how that works out. I am slowly gathering old single row implements. Because this is the edge of cotton country, most used farm equipment is bigger stuff. Much of the old stuff has gone for scrap.

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[luciddreams]

Potatoes will be the staff of life post collapse. Nothing is easier to save than seed potatoes, and potatoes give a great yield for not much work.The storage issues are not such a big deal. When I was a kid, my dad spread them out in a single layer on the ground, under our pier and beam house that was a couple of feet off the ground, and they lasted all year.

Unfortunately, the temperature is a problem here (I'm further south and west than where I grew up, by a couple of hundred miles) , and I think potatoes need to be planted in December at the latest. I haven't had good luck with them so far. They need weeks of temps in the 40's F to make a lot of yield. They can survive a freeze, but they die way back. They haven't done well in my raised beds. I do intend to plant some in the field  using regular row-crop methods and see how that works out. I am slowly gathering old single row implements. Because this is the edge of cotton country, most used farm equipment is bigger stuff. Much of the old stuff has gone for scrap.

I've always had really good luck with potatoes.  I usually grow them in hugelkultur, sweet potatoes to.  I've never saved seed potatoes before.  However I did save the sweet potatoes that I grew last year.  I kept them in a bucket on top of the cabinetry in the kitchen.  They've all sprouted and I intend on planting them soon. 

It seems like I've read that saving seed potatoes can get tricky over time?  You're saying you can save seed potatoes year after year and keep the line going with no troubles?  I think I read that blight can become a problem. 

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[Farmer McGregor]

***SG question, did I use that semicolon correctly? 

No. Should have been a colon.

It's already fuckin' nutzo out there in the Matrix.  People are crazy, the shit they believe astounds me, and there they all are...shopping for groceries and whatever else tickles their fancy.

Boy, ain't that the truth!
I have estimated that at least half -- more like 70 or 80 percent -- of the people that frequent our store are on the spectrum of 'out-of-touch all the way to fully psychotic'.  Smart people even, not just the low IQ folks; in fact, some of the dumber ones are the most in touch with reality probably because they have to be to survive.  The middle class types can afford to live in their twisted personal delusions because they don't suffer, and suffering forces us to see life differently.

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[Nearingsfault]

We store our potatoes in a hole bellow frost level.  End of January I choose the potatoes to use as seed stock.  Bring them in let them warm up and keep them in the dark.  Et voila. The picture shows 3 varieties.  Kenebecs, Yukon gold and red russet.  All fast varieties which I think you should look into Eddie.

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[RE]

Have any of you Green Thumbs tried Potato Towers yet?  I really like this idea for growing a lot of potatoes in a small square footage.



RE

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[monsta666]

I think the Arab spring would be an appropriate example.  I'm out of my comfort zone but how much has the average country dwellers life really changed in that one? The first two I don't think are appropriate because they are more empty world revolutions.  There was enough to go around it just needed redistributing.  That is not how I see the future.  I see a definitive lack of resources.

Quite often it is not about resources or even available resources. What is more important is the ability of the local population to afford those resources. If the income is not to sufficient then it doesn't really matter how abundant that resource is. Plenty of potatoes in Ireland but the Irish could not afford it so they starved and the produce went to England. Part of the aggravation of social revolutions isn't centred on the scarcity (although that does play a big role) but the fact that some sections of the population are shielded from the disaster whilst others suffer the full consequences. It is this lack of fairness, injustice that makes people take action about the unfair practices in society.

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[Nearingsfault]

I tried the two years ago in the hoophouse.  I chose the wrong variety.  Some potatoes like Idaho will set several layers of potatoes and work well in a tower when you progressively bury them.  My season is too short which is why we concentrate on the varieties I mentioned above. Hotter climates also use my varieties as a spring or fall option.

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[luciddreams]

I planted Yukon Gold's and red potatoes with good results.  Last year I tried Irish cobbler and a Russian variety called Nikali (I think that's how it's spelled) and they all did really well.  I can pretty much grow any potato in my climate. 

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[Nearingsfault]

[/quote]

I've always had really good luck with potatoes.  I usually grow them in hugelkultur, sweet potatoes to.  I've never saved seed potatoes before.  However I did save the sweet potatoes that I grew last year.  I kept them in a bucket on top of the cabinetry in the kitchen.  They've all sprouted and I intend on planting them soon. 

It seems like I've read that saving seed potatoes can get tricky over time?  You're saying you can save seed potatoes year after year and keep the line going with no troubles?  I think I read that blight can become a problem.
[/quote]
To avoid blight or at least minimise the severity tradition would have you exchange a portion of your potatoes with distant neighbours.  Purchasing a portion of your seed stock every year a
Or fully replacing it every x amount of years should keep you covered.

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[knarf]

  We have very good luck with planting seed potatoes. Our present gardens use compost from pig bedding and all kinds of foods scraps. We let the manure cook for about a year and it turns into great compost. We love sweet corn, and it does rather well here. With just two of us here now, we don't garden as extensively as we once did. The guy that started this church died in 2004, and we had 4 monks here a few years before that. Man, did we garden. Three fields of corn, 25 tomato plants of various kinds, row of carrots, a couple rows of beets ( all these long rows), 4 kinds of lettuce, 5 cabbage plants, turnips, sweet peas, and regular peas, cantaloupes, watermelons , Swiss chard, special kind of bush beans, onions, garlic, 5 kinds peppers, squash, zucchini, radishes, daikons, spinach, gourds, asparagus, Jerusalem artichokes, collard and mustard greens, parsnips, kohlrabi, broccoli, brussel sprouts and trellised green beans. Probably more but that gives a description of how intense we gardened. He planted three apple trees, two cherry trees, a pear tree, a plum tree, peach and nectarine trees, and 3 kinds of nut trees, and Blueberries and Gooseberries. We have lots of wild Blackberries, occasionally some Morels, and Oyster mushrooms. He was a "master gardener", having passed the local course here. We could almost eat entirely from the gardens. We canned tons of vegetables, and jams also. He loved to cook, especially Chinese, and Japanese foods.
  But, what got my attention to this thread was the Bamboo House. He also planted Yellow Groove bamboo, it is a running bamboo, and let me tell you, it runs. I think he planted it as a kind of joke. Really the stuff doesn't grow bigger than an inch in diameter and is taking over much of our acreage. We use some to feed the goats, and some for gardening posts, but the rest just keeps spreading. I can contain it to about a half acre if I brush hog the perimeters.

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[RE]

  We have very good luck with planting seed potatoes. Our present gardens use compost from pig bedding and all kinds of foods scraps. We let the manure cook for about a year and it turns into great compost. We love sweet corn, and it does rather well here. With just two of us here now, we don't garden as extensively as we once did. The guy that started this church died in 2004, and we had 4 monks here a few years before that. Man, did we garden. Three fields of corn, 25 tomato plants of various kinds, row of carrots, a couple rows of beets ( all these long rows), 4 kinds of lettuce, 5 cabbage plants, turnips, sweet peas, and regular peas, cantaloupes, watermelons , Swiss chard, special kind of bush beans, onions, garlic, 5 kinds peppers, squash, zucchini, radishes, daikons, spinach, gourds, asparagus, Jerusalem artichokes, collard and mustard greens, parsnips, kohlrabi, broccoli, brussel sprouts and trellised green beans. Probably more but that gives a description of how intense we gardened. He planted three apple trees, two cherry trees, a pear tree, a plum tree, peach and nectarine trees, and 3 kinds of nut trees, and Blueberries and Gooseberries. We have lots of wild Blackberries, occasionally some Morels, and Oyster mushrooms. He was a "master gardener", having passed the local course here. We could almost eat entirely from the gardens. We canned tons of vegetables, and jams also. He loved to cook, especially Chinese, and Japanese foods.
  But, what got my attention to this thread was the Bamboo House. He also planted Yellow Groove bamboo, it is a running bamboo, and let me tell you, it runs. I think he planted it as a kind of joke. Really the stuff doesn't grow bigger than an inch in diameter and is taking over much of our acreage. We use some to feed the goats, and some for gardening posts, but the rest just keeps spreading. I can contain it to about a half acre if I brush hog the perimeters.

How many acres does the Monastery have to cultivate?

Only 2 Monks currently on site?

RE

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[knarf]

  We have very good luck with planting seed potatoes. Our present gardens use compost from pig bedding and all kinds of foods scraps. We let the manure cook for about a year and it turns into great compost. We love sweet corn, and it does rather well here. With just two of us here now, we don't garden as extensively as we once did. The guy that started this church died in 2004, and we had 4 monks here a few years before that. Man, did we garden. Three fields of corn, 25 tomato plants of various kinds, row of carrots, a couple rows of beets ( all these long rows), 4 kinds of lettuce, 5 cabbage plants, turnips, sweet peas, and regular peas, cantaloupes, watermelons , Swiss chard, special kind of bush beans, onions, garlic, 5 kinds peppers, squash, zucchini, radishes, daikons, spinach, gourds, asparagus, Jerusalem artichokes, collard and mustard greens, parsnips, kohlrabi, broccoli, brussel sprouts and trellised green beans. Probably more but that gives a description of how intense we gardened. He planted three apple trees, two cherry trees, a pear tree, a plum tree, peach and nectarine trees, and 3 kinds of nut trees, and Blueberries and Gooseberries. We have lots of wild Blackberries, occasionally some Morels, and Oyster mushrooms. He was a "master gardener", having passed the local course here. We could almost eat entirely from the gardens. We canned tons of vegetables, and jams also. He loved to cook, especially Chinese, and Japanese foods.
  But, what got my attention to this thread was the Bamboo House. He also planted Yellow Groove bamboo, it is a running bamboo, and let me tell you, it runs. I think he planted it as a kind of joke. Really the stuff doesn't grow bigger than an inch in diameter and is taking over much of our acreage. We use some to feed the goats, and some for gardening posts, but the rest just keeps spreading. I can contain it to about a half acre if I brush hog the perimeters.

How many acres does the Monastery have to cultivate?

Only 2 Monks currently on site?

RE

I did have, around 1990, about 3 acres we could cultivate. That is down to about 1/2 an acre now.

Yes, there are two of us left. I think this is the end of the Church. A few people have come to visit and see if they would like to join, but they seemed to not be willing to give up their personal possessions. I am 64, and the other monk is 58. I don't advertise, even on our blog, there is no address, or indication of us trying to recruit. I would be happy if other like minded people could build small communities such as ours all over the country.

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