Log Date:
2026-05-16 00:00:00
- Work done:
- Watering and weeding for the past ten days.
- Planted more black eyed peas.
- Planted a huge amount of cantaloupes in swale #5 in a V pattern.
- Preparing south side swale (#19?) for watermelons.
- Bought another 50' Zero-G hose, just installed it.
- Observations:
- Rapid growth of cactus pads on ficus indica. New pads are growing out of first tier pads from this season.
- Robusta fruit is sizing up to be pretty large. No color change yet, still early in the season. This fruit will be red and should be good.
- Sorghum growing more rapidly now. Top heights are around 18 inches.
- Millet is now sprouting everywhere. I think it needs more heat to sprout than sorghum, which comes up right away.
- Jerusalem artichoke is now all growing and sprouting. I'm hoping it will spread rapidly through swale #14. It seems feeding these leaves to the chickens eliminates parasites, though I'm supplementing with huauzontle. I'll continue with both for the time being.
- Cactus on swale berms growing well. I think it will be harder to establish due to difficulty in getting enough water to it. Once root field penetrates berms, it will be getting water from inside the swale.
- I'm slowing observing the lobe pattern the pyramid and climate control are outputting.
- I'm considering spreading millet in between cactus rows after I finish weeding to act as a decoy crop for rabbits and other critters.
- Observed a bull snake on the grounds looking for critters, it ducked into a rodent hole when it saw me.
- Ideas:
- I am going to spread millet in between the cactus rows. Monsoon season is approaching. When the millet starts growing, it will demonstrate via growth rate what the pyramid lobe patterns are.
Farm Log Grow Site:
Sunizona, Arizona, USA: Site #0001
This is the first grow site and plant breeding site. Expansion is under way to have a stock of four thousand (4,000) growing opuntia ficus indica and other varieties.
Our main goal here is to create hard freeze resistant stock and to open a nursery (wholesale and retail).