We spent part of the afternoon out on the Erie Canal with the kids today. We were gathering mulberry cuttings to propagate. Here are the gates they use to shut off the water for the winter to drain the canal: A little closer: The path is the old tow path the mules would use to pull the barges. They still is the canal to transport large items too big for the road. Here is the mulberry cutting haul. We should hopefully get 20 trees out of these: #grownostr #propagation #nursery #plantstr

On #nostr, you define your own algorithm of notes you see by who you follow and your filters, rather than someone else deciding for you. #grownostr #plebchain

I've been organizing cuttings in groups of 10 in cell packs while propagating in the #nursery. This helps keep them tidy and all going the same way for when I dip them in rooting hormone and stick in the sand. Always looking for ways to make things more efficient. These cuttings are variegated weigelia. #plantstr #permacuture #propagation #grownostr

When taking cuttings for your #nursery, be sure to remove reproductive parts like these flowers so the cutting will put its energy into rooting instead of reproducing. From Goldmound Spirea. #propagation #plantstr #grownostr #garden #permaculture

My wife made a sausage roll up today. I don't know what else you'd call it. It's a layer of bread dough covered in sausage, rolled up, and baked. Here is a cross section: I then turned it into a grilled cheese sandwich: #grownostr #dinner

Proof of #kids: a little path into a clump of raspberries so they can reach more. Little things like this will be missed when the kids grow up. #parenting #homeschooling #kidstr

Here is one way I'm stacking functions here at our farm. I finally got the #biogas system up for this year, and it's starting to bubble away and I'm finally got enough pressure to supply a trickle of gas. I haven't tried to ignite it yet. This is the Homebiogas 4 anerobic digester. I've been feeding it cow and pig poop. The "main" output is biogas, but the other output is this effluent rich in microbes (in the 5 gallon bucket), which goes into the worm bin for production of worms and castings. I'm hauling the effluent to the worms by hand every couple days, but I set up the anerobic digester purposefully uphill of the worms so eventually I can gravity feed the effluent to the worms automatically. #grownostr #permaculture #biogas #vermiculture #worms

Let's talk tree #propagation in your #nursery by hardwood cuttings. Like @Nunya Bidness had mentioned... this is like printing money out of nothing, but we're printing value through biological processes and our own resources. Hardwood cuttings are pretty simple. You just cut a dormant branch into a size you want and stick them in the ground, literally. Make sure they are the right side up!!! Trees such as poplars and willows can be propagated by this method. Here are some basket willows planted from 8" cuttings to get you thinking. I use them as a wind break: About a month ago, I planted some 1' OP-367 Hybrid Poplars. Here they are planted into some landscape fabric to keep down the weeds, about a month ago: Now here they are 1 month later, I'd say average 2 stems, each 18" to 2' tall: Here are some Silky Willows (Steamco) I planted last Thursday. Already putting on growth. Planted in 3' wide landscape fabric with drip irrigation under the fabric. That's a black walnut in the background. Printing more trees via propagation from nuts. Now let's look at the economics. 1 month in I have 4x'ed my cutting length on the poplars, which I bought for $2.50. In the fall if they grow no taller than they are now, I have $10 worth of cuttings. This is the 2nd year for those basket willows. I cut them down to the ground in March and they've put on 7-8' of growth already on conservatively 30 stems on each plant. Say conservatively we have 210, 1' cuttings. So now I have $500 worth of cuttings per year possible from that one plant. Let's say we pot them up and sell them like "fastgrowingtrees.com" does for $86.95 a plant! Now we have our single "parent" plant making us $15,000+. At this point it's a marketing game. Or all you chicken and duck farmers, use these plants in your chicken and duck yard for cover for your birds as well as to soak up the nitrogen in their poop. The birds will weed the trees for you and help them grow faster. Stack functions in your businesses and life. Also as an aside.... these cuttings should go in the ground earlier than July! But they still work. Pretty forgiving. #permaculture #grownostr #propagation #nursery #business #plantstr #garden