I don't understand it either. My Dad was a farmer, and had farming chemicals and dust from seeds and soil dust breathed in and on his skin for decades. He said as much, regretting some of his exposures. He lived to 91. Yes RoundUp, yes pesticides, yes herbicides. Because the insects and the weeds simply cannot be eradicated by human labor, in order to make a living in agriculture! If you do not agree, just TRY IT! The invasives are insidious! The insects and the weeds and the deer etc., want it ALL and would leave nothing for the humans who made their crops available, which the pests would not otherwise have had to survive and thrive on.
In our garden, it was of course different. Organic.
We converted that crop land into a tree farm. Mow between the rows. But the invasives! I have pulled off vines, careful to pull back the underground roots, etc. as far as I could. The invasive plants will simply not stop. The deer will not stop nibbling on the trees and rubbing them to death. There is not enough human labor in the life of me to stop it. And I have TRIED and spent hundreds of hours of labor and sweat on my knees fighting!
What are humans supposed to do? Just asking! I am not defending chemicals. But properly used, some of them are necessary for food production. What is a human being to DO?
I came across a video a while back where a tractor pulled a video-guided laser across the rows of crops. The video system identified weeds from crop and directed the laser on what to zap (and zap quick it did!).
We have great technologies. What we lack is good people in the high positions working FOR us rather than the satan-worshipping idiots that followed corruption ladders into those positions, and like putting chemical laden "anti-consumer" payloads into our foods.
My family history was also farming. A couple of my uncles continued to farm their entire lives. One ended with Parkinson's and the other cancer. They both used the chemicals. Their father, my grandfather, also farmed. He didn't use chemicals and refused to use them when the government started pushing them back in the day. He had a system that did not involve continued growth of single species crops year after year on the same parcel of land. He rotated what he planted every year in a particular field. He also allowed particular parcels of land to rest every 7 years - which he also rotated. The livestock was allowed into certain fields which he rotated. He grew a variety of crops. Enough to feed his family of 10 kids and his regular hired help, as well as having enough to sell. It worked for him. But doing this on a large commercial scale, I don't know. But the principles are there.
I have a friend that works for a company that educates people in agriculture on how to implement some of these same methods my grandfather used - only more up to date and science based. The focus is to utilize farming practices that significantly reduces the amount of chemicals needed, if not eliminate them all together. It's not only good for the land and the crops grown on that land, but also for the people that eat that food and still make a profit. There has to be a better way to grow the food we need but also to grow food that doesn't harm us at the same time. Balance is the key and working with nature instead of fighting against it.
This is the natural way to farm and it also holds within it the natural ebbs and flows of seasons; IMO the way to do this is to NOT farm in a large commercial scale— it’s clearly impossible. We are meant to live more communally, there should be farms that supply their villages for less than 100 miles radius. And people should understand that sometimes, we can’t have eggs or dairy. Sometimes we can’t have meat. Sometimes we can’t have veggies. IMO all this comes down to human greed, not just money but greed of the soul. We should be eating less food as well…
You are so right on so many things. I remember as a kid, produce was seasonal. Things were more locally sourced unlike now where it is internationally sourced. During the colder months you just could not get certain produce. When the chickens were not laying, the availability of eggs was reduced. The milk tasted different when the herds seasonally changed from winter feed to spring grazing. The farming was focused more locally like you stated and the quality of the food was far better than what is usually available today that is shipped long distances. This shift to focus on exports was part of the reason commercial farming moved towards large scale single crop farming that is extremely destructive to the land and ultimately us. Modern farming treats the land as a resource to be exploited for profit instead of a partner in survival.
My concrete guy said he used muriatic acid on stubborn weeds and they never came back...
Gonna try it. I won't use that cancer juice on my property (except for stubborn invasive vines - the end of the vine goes right into a jug of it and it wicks it up & kills the whole vine)
Long... stone driveways suck with these weeds... dragging it and regrading it sucks. Hopefully the acid works. White vinegar and salt worked just okay...
yeah and grass has taken over our nice driveway-side French drain for the rain water flow! During covid I tried to dig out between the rocks and dig out the drains across the end of the driveway. Guess what, the grass grew back and the drains are filled again! So we had a gully-washer and water got into the basement!
One thing that might help a little is put down a pre-emergent in the spring. I have a gravel driveway and the weeds suck. I hand pull most of them since I have a big pine tree I don't want to kill. One variety does seem to have gotten better with that method, not as many growing. I did a pre-emergent this year and at least there were a lot fewer dandelions in that area. Still have some of the other weeds though. (Edit, my driveway is only about 45', your 700' has me beat!) 2nd edit - see if there's someplace that rents out goats to eat the vegetation. They have that around here.
What's "pre-emergent" exactly? Time release RoundUp or something? I really don't want to use any type of gylosphate
Just unloaded a few dozen goats. Too cute to kill...AND goats don't work the way most think they do...They browse. Sheep graze in a straight line/formation - goats do whatever the hell they want - mostly something naughty...like climbing on top of buildings...and making lots of milk duds
It’s specifically called a pre-emergent, and they don’t contain glyphosate. Preen is probably the most well known example. A natural one is corn gluten meal, but that costs more than others. That’s what I used in my backyard, I used Preen and another granular type one on my gravel area.
Based on your experience, do you think shifting to individual/neighborhood growing of food would be more realistic? If you are trying to grow food at a large scale out of season industrial volume it seems to be impossible without some type of chemical assistance because we are trying to cheat nature. I hesitate to say there are too many people, but I want to believe there is a way to do this better without poisoning the producers and consumers.
This is exactly what I said haha. There aren’t too many people, there are too many people relying on not enough people to provide food. And also we eat way too much.
I don't understand it either. My Dad was a farmer, and had farming chemicals and dust from seeds and soil dust breathed in and on his skin for decades. He said as much, regretting some of his exposures. He lived to 91. Yes RoundUp, yes pesticides, yes herbicides. Because the insects and the weeds simply cannot be eradicated by human labor, in order to make a living in agriculture! If you do not agree, just TRY IT! The invasives are insidious! The insects and the weeds and the deer etc., want it ALL and would leave nothing for the humans who made their crops available, which the pests would not otherwise have had to survive and thrive on.
In our garden, it was of course different. Organic.
We converted that crop land into a tree farm. Mow between the rows. But the invasives! I have pulled off vines, careful to pull back the underground roots, etc. as far as I could. The invasive plants will simply not stop. The deer will not stop nibbling on the trees and rubbing them to death. There is not enough human labor in the life of me to stop it. And I have TRIED and spent hundreds of hours of labor and sweat on my knees fighting!
What are humans supposed to do? Just asking! I am not defending chemicals. But properly used, some of them are necessary for food production. What is a human being to DO?
I came across a video a while back where a tractor pulled a video-guided laser across the rows of crops. The video system identified weeds from crop and directed the laser on what to zap (and zap quick it did!).
We have great technologies. What we lack is good people in the high positions working FOR us rather than the satan-worshipping idiots that followed corruption ladders into those positions, and like putting chemical laden "anti-consumer" payloads into our foods.
https://www.rutgers.edu/news/blast-them-rutgers-scientist-uses-lasers-kill-weeds
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016816992501110X
My family history was also farming. A couple of my uncles continued to farm their entire lives. One ended with Parkinson's and the other cancer. They both used the chemicals. Their father, my grandfather, also farmed. He didn't use chemicals and refused to use them when the government started pushing them back in the day. He had a system that did not involve continued growth of single species crops year after year on the same parcel of land. He rotated what he planted every year in a particular field. He also allowed particular parcels of land to rest every 7 years - which he also rotated. The livestock was allowed into certain fields which he rotated. He grew a variety of crops. Enough to feed his family of 10 kids and his regular hired help, as well as having enough to sell. It worked for him. But doing this on a large commercial scale, I don't know. But the principles are there.
I have a friend that works for a company that educates people in agriculture on how to implement some of these same methods my grandfather used - only more up to date and science based. The focus is to utilize farming practices that significantly reduces the amount of chemicals needed, if not eliminate them all together. It's not only good for the land and the crops grown on that land, but also for the people that eat that food and still make a profit. There has to be a better way to grow the food we need but also to grow food that doesn't harm us at the same time. Balance is the key and working with nature instead of fighting against it.
This is the natural way to farm and it also holds within it the natural ebbs and flows of seasons; IMO the way to do this is to NOT farm in a large commercial scale— it’s clearly impossible. We are meant to live more communally, there should be farms that supply their villages for less than 100 miles radius. And people should understand that sometimes, we can’t have eggs or dairy. Sometimes we can’t have meat. Sometimes we can’t have veggies. IMO all this comes down to human greed, not just money but greed of the soul. We should be eating less food as well…
You are so right on so many things. I remember as a kid, produce was seasonal. Things were more locally sourced unlike now where it is internationally sourced. During the colder months you just could not get certain produce. When the chickens were not laying, the availability of eggs was reduced. The milk tasted different when the herds seasonally changed from winter feed to spring grazing. The farming was focused more locally like you stated and the quality of the food was far better than what is usually available today that is shipped long distances. This shift to focus on exports was part of the reason commercial farming moved towards large scale single crop farming that is extremely destructive to the land and ultimately us. Modern farming treats the land as a resource to be exploited for profit instead of a partner in survival.
My concrete guy said he used muriatic acid on stubborn weeds and they never came back...
Gonna try it. I won't use that cancer juice on my property (except for stubborn invasive vines - the end of the vine goes right into a jug of it and it wicks it up & kills the whole vine)
Long... stone driveways suck with these weeds... dragging it and regrading it sucks. Hopefully the acid works. White vinegar and salt worked just okay...
Careful with the muriatic acid! Had some leak onto my travertine and put a nice small crater on my nice big travertine 😭
Yeah...they were out of hydrofluoric...so yanno
yes stuff like that works on landscapes; we haven't used stuff on our lawn for decades. I like the clover and dandelions!
I don't care about the lawn....It's too big - mostly dandelions & onions lol
But the stone driveway...yeah...Gotta keep that knocked down.
yeah and grass has taken over our nice driveway-side French drain for the rain water flow! During covid I tried to dig out between the rocks and dig out the drains across the end of the driveway. Guess what, the grass grew back and the drains are filled again! So we had a gully-washer and water got into the basement!
Gasoline works fine.
You can also burn them with a large propane torch.
700' long driveway....I'd have to start over once I got all the way down to the end again...
Just use gas in your garden sprayer or put the propane bottle in the back of your side by side or 4- wheeler.
One thing that might help a little is put down a pre-emergent in the spring. I have a gravel driveway and the weeds suck. I hand pull most of them since I have a big pine tree I don't want to kill. One variety does seem to have gotten better with that method, not as many growing. I did a pre-emergent this year and at least there were a lot fewer dandelions in that area. Still have some of the other weeds though. (Edit, my driveway is only about 45', your 700' has me beat!) 2nd edit - see if there's someplace that rents out goats to eat the vegetation. They have that around here.
What's "pre-emergent" exactly? Time release RoundUp or something? I really don't want to use any type of gylosphate
Just unloaded a few dozen goats. Too cute to kill...AND goats don't work the way most think they do...They browse. Sheep graze in a straight line/formation - goats do whatever the hell they want - mostly something naughty...like climbing on top of buildings...and making lots of milk duds
Based on your experience, do you think shifting to individual/neighborhood growing of food would be more realistic? If you are trying to grow food at a large scale out of season industrial volume it seems to be impossible without some type of chemical assistance because we are trying to cheat nature. I hesitate to say there are too many people, but I want to believe there is a way to do this better without poisoning the producers and consumers.
This is exactly what I said haha. There aren’t too many people, there are too many people relying on not enough people to provide food. And also we eat way too much.
subsistence farming . . . who wants to live that way though?
We have new sprayers that use optical sensors and only spray on the weeds. They use up to 90% less roundup.
great~!