If it makes you feel better, I'm working and I'm not even being paid for last year's crop yet, but to make up for it, they cut the grower price in half lol. Stupid Covid. 

What's wrong with wedding gigs?

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Hitting it with about 5 different chemistries tonight so I'll either kill the bugs or melt the vines. I'll know by Monday.

Why all the disease? Was it a wet spring?

Myriad diseases overwinter on woody tissue and any measurable rain will inoculate them so they're basically always ready to explode. It's more cool(ish) humid weather the causes problems. We've had 3-4 cool stretches so far that really caused problems. 

We had a trifecta of rain at bloom, cool weather, and incomplete capfall and possibly slightly over-vegetative vines.

Also there is a lot of interplay between many of these diseases. Mildew or esca will cause a berry to split. Maybe that berry is towards the top of the bunch so it juices the rest of the berries in the bunch which introduces fungal rot, which then attracts drosophila flies which help sporulate sour rot, and on and on. 

Seems to be a weird year because I've talked to growers in France and Chile that are having problems as well. Looking better tonight though, less hairy lol.

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Why all the disease? Was it a wet spring?

Myriad diseases overwinter on woody tissue and any measurable rain will inoculate them so they're basically always ready to explode. It's more cool(ish) humid weather the causes problems. We've had 3-4 cool stretches so far that really caused problems. 

We had a trifecta of rain at bloom, cool weather, and incomplete capfall and possibly slightly over-vegetative vines.

Also there is a lot of interplay between many of these diseases. Mildew or esca will cause a berry to split. Maybe that berry is towards the top of the bunch so it juices the rest of the berries in the bunch which introduces fungal rot, which then attracts drosophila flies which help sporulate sour rot, and on and on. 

Seems to be a weird year because I've talked to growers in France and Chile that are having problems as well. Looking better tonight though, less hairy lol.

Farmer life is hard. Good luck. I hope everything works out for you.

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Myriad diseases overwinter on woody tissue and any measurable rain will inoculate them so they're basically always ready to explode. It's more cool(ish) humid weather the causes problems. We've had 3-4 cool stretches so far that really caused problems. 

We had a trifecta of rain at bloom, cool weather, and incomplete capfall and possibly slightly over-vegetative vines.

Also there is a lot of interplay between many of these diseases. Mildew or esca will cause a berry to split. Maybe that berry is towards the top of the bunch so it juices the rest of the berries in the bunch which introduces fungal rot, which then attracts drosophila flies which help sporulate sour rot, and on and on. 

Seems to be a weird year because I've talked to growers in France and Chile that are having problems as well. Looking better tonight though, less hairy lol.

Farmer life is hard. Good luck. I hope everything works out for you.

Thanks HB. It's kind of an annual problem with this particular block, a thin-skinned varietal famous for these rot mechanisms. 

But man they produce a lot of grapes.

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Wow. 

Good luck mitigating those. 

I haven't worked in 13 weeks, but I'll be performing for two weddings this weekend. 
(I hate wedding gigs but I'm grateful to have any work right now)

On a related note, FL dept. of unemployment actually approved this self-employed gig-worker for a whopping $125 per week which has begun to trickle in retroactively. 
So - I'm rich now - which is nice. 

Hold up -  Shad Khan is getting back to me about renting the Kismet for the month of July...

If it makes you feel better, I'm working and I'm not even being paid for last year's crop yet, but to make up for it, they cut the grower price in half lol. Stupid Covid. 

What's wrong with wedding gigs?

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Said my doctor after the Tijuana weekend.

Hitting it with about 5 different chemistries tonight so I'll either kill the bugs or melt the vines. I'll know by Monday.

The wedding gigs are fine.  I'm just whining.

I definitely prefer playing concerts of original music to playing dance music for wedding crowds, but I'll take what I can get right now. 

Hope Monday reveals healthy vines for you.

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How does a mosquito know to not buzz in your ear until a golf backswing? They’re smarter than they look.

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How does a mosquito know to not buzz in your ear until a golf backswing? They’re smarter than they look.

devilish bastards

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Why all the disease? Was it a wet spring?

Myriad diseases overwinter on woody tissue and any measurable rain will inoculate them so they're basically always ready to explode. It's more cool(ish) humid weather the causes problems. We've had 3-4 cool stretches so far that really caused problems. 

We had a trifecta of rain at bloom, cool weather, and incomplete capfall and possibly slightly over-vegetative vines.

Also there is a lot of interplay between many of these diseases. Mildew or esca will cause a berry to split. Maybe that berry is towards the top of the bunch so it juices the rest of the berries in the bunch which introduces fungal rot, which then attracts drosophila flies which help sporulate sour rot, and on and on. 

Seems to be a weird year because I've talked to growers in France and Chile that are having problems as well. Looking better tonight though, less hairy lol.

We had a frost in early April, ruined a lot of gardens planted during an unusually early warm period in March.

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If something can corrupt you, you're corrupted already.
- Bob Marley


 

How does a mosquito know to not buzz in your ear until a golf backswing? They’re smarter than they look.

I've blamed a lot of errant tee shots on a lot of different things, but mosquito never occurred to me........I'll add it to the list.

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When you get into the endzone, act like you've been there before.

Myriad diseases overwinter on woody tissue and any measurable rain will inoculate them so they're basically always ready to explode. It's more cool(ish) humid weather the causes problems. We've had 3-4 cool stretches so far that really caused problems. 

We had a trifecta of rain at bloom, cool weather, and incomplete capfall and possibly slightly over-vegetative vines.

Also there is a lot of interplay between many of these diseases. Mildew or esca will cause a berry to split. Maybe that berry is towards the top of the bunch so it juices the rest of the berries in the bunch which introduces fungal rot, which then attracts drosophila flies which help sporulate sour rot, and on and on. 

Seems to be a weird year because I've talked to growers in France and Chile that are having problems as well. Looking better tonight though, less hairy lol.

We had a frost in early April, ruined a lot of gardens planted during an unusually early warm period in March.

Yeah, a lot of weird weather variations at critical times over the last 2 years.

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How does a mosquito know to not buzz in your ear until a golf backswing? They’re smarter than they look.

I've blamed a lot of errant tee shots on a lot of different things, but mosquito never occurred to me........I'll add it to the list.

When you play as badly as I do, a panoply of creative excuses is a must.

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If it makes you feel better, I'm working and I'm not even being paid for last year's crop yet, but to make up for it, they cut the grower price in half lol. Stupid Covid. 

What's wrong with wedding gigs?

---

Hitting it with about 5 different chemistries tonight so I'll either kill the bugs or melt the vines. I'll know by Monday.

The wedding gigs are fine.  I'm just whining.

I definitely prefer playing concerts of original music to playing dance music for wedding crowds, but I'll take what I can get right now. 

Hope Monday reveals healthy vines for you.

I always hated playing covers, but it's what gets you the gigs. Partying people love to hear the songs they know. They tip well, too, if you play it to their satisfaction. I once had a guy put a one hundred dollar bill into the tip jar for playing "Comfortably Numb" complete with both solos. I was stunned. What people will pay for a good time will buzzed is crazy sometimes.

---

Myriad diseases overwinter on woody tissue and any measurable rain will inoculate them so they're basically always ready to explode. It's more cool(ish) humid weather the causes problems. We've had 3-4 cool stretches so far that really caused problems. 

We had a trifecta of rain at bloom, cool weather, and incomplete capfall and possibly slightly over-vegetative vines.

Also there is a lot of interplay between many of these diseases. Mildew or esca will cause a berry to split. Maybe that berry is towards the top of the bunch so it juices the rest of the berries in the bunch which introduces fungal rot, which then attracts drosophila flies which help sporulate sour rot, and on and on. 

Seems to be a weird year because I've talked to growers in France and Chile that are having problems as well. Looking better tonight though, less hairy lol.

Farmer life is hard. Good luck. I hope everything works out for you.

Every year, we plant a backyard 4x4 with some kind of really easy to grow vegetable like cucumbers or collard greens or something.  I'm talking 4 feet by 4 feet.  And every year, we have bugs, drought, weeds, wrong soil conditions, birds and squirrels, you name it.  

We can't even manage a 4 by 4 foot crop.  I can't imagine what it must be like to grow on hundreds or thousands of acres.

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Farmer life is hard. Good luck. I hope everything works out for you.

Every year, we plant a backyard 4x4 with some kind of really easy to grow vegetable like cucumbers or collard greens or something.  I'm talking 4 feet by 4 feet.  And every year, we have bugs, drought, weeds, wrong soil conditions, birds and squirrels, you name it.  

We can't even manage a 4 by 4 foot crop.  I can't imagine what it must be like to grow on hundreds or thousands of acres.

That's Florida. This isn't real soil, it's filthy sand. Unless you fortify the hell out of it, nothing good will grow to any productive size. It doesn't even smell like real dirt when it's turned.

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Every year, we plant a backyard 4x4 with some kind of really easy to grow vegetable like cucumbers or collard greens or something.  I'm talking 4 feet by 4 feet.  And every year, we have bugs, drought, weeds, wrong soil conditions, birds and squirrels, you name it.  

We can't even manage a 4 by 4 foot crop.  I can't imagine what it must be like to grow on hundreds or thousands of acres.

That's Florida. This isn't real soil, it's filthy sand. Unless you fortify the hell out of it, nothing good will grow to any productive size. It doesn't even smell like real dirt when it's turned.

You need to check out my place sometime.  I have roughly 5 acres of organic peat.  The soil is pretty much black and looks like "potting soil" which is what we have used it for.  I have several large palm trees (the kind that people pay big bucks for) that grew naturally there as well as lots of maple, hickory, oak and pine trees.

We also have another roughly 15 or so acres of very rich soil that we hope to start growing on soon.  It was once a blueberry farm that got overtaken by vines that we have been cleaning up and clearing.  I don't have a lot of sandy soil until I get up towards the top of the hill of our property where we are building our retirement home.

As far as the lot here in Jagsonville where we live, yes it's only good for growing weeds and [BLEEP] Bahia grass that needs mowing twice a week.

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There are 10 kinds of people in this world.  Those who understand binary and those who don't.

I played golf at Eagle Harbor today...

 ...or something loosely resembling golf.

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I played golf at Eagle Harbor today...

 ...or something loosely resembling golf.

Does this sum it up?

https://twitter.com/Skratch/status/12773...12961?s=20

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I played golf at Eagle Harbor today...

 ...or something loosely resembling golf.

Does this sum it up?

https://twitter.com/Skratch/status/12773...12961?s=20

What is that short grass where the ball landed?

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Does this sum it up?

https://twitter.com/Skratch/status/12773...12961?s=20

What is that short grass where the ball landed?

The adjacent fairway.

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I played golf at Eagle Harbor today...

 ...or something loosely resembling golf.

........well, as long as you rallied late and brought your A game to the 19th hole......

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When you get into the endzone, act like you've been there before.

Every year, we plant a backyard 4x4 with some kind of really easy to grow vegetable like cucumbers or collard greens or something.  I'm talking 4 feet by 4 feet.  And every year, we have bugs, drought, weeds, wrong soil conditions, birds and squirrels, you name it.  

We can't even manage a 4 by 4 foot crop.  I can't imagine what it must be like to grow on hundreds or thousands of acres.

That's Florida. This isn't real soil, it's filthy sand. Unless you fortify the hell out of it, nothing good will grow to any productive size. It doesn't even smell like real dirt when it's turned.

True but you have to be careful in fertilizing a sandy soil. Sandy soils generally mean you have a low Cation Exchange Capacity. Clay and organic matter hold a negative charge in soil which attracts many important positively charged cations like magnesium or potassium. The more sandy the soil the weaker it's ability to hold these cations in the soil profile due to the absence of the clay and OM.

In turn, the lower your CEC the more you should break up any soil amendments into smaller and more frequent applications or you'll risk it leaching out of the root zone before the plant can make use of it. 

Tldr, don't just dump a ton of compost in the hole and call it a day.

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