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No, equal opportunity leaf munchers it seems

The rain and windy weather had finally let up and last night I got a chance to spray last night. Picked up one of those Harbor Freight 4 gallon backpack sprayers. It did a great job applying my Sevin to all them dirty, dirty caterpillars! Took a few shots this evening; nary a caterpillar to be...

By moisture content...

Tank temperature does not matter, the regulator will do its job.

Squished A LOT of critters tonight, then went to Menard's and bought a load of Sevin.

The boy and I squished more caterpillars and freed some tangled bones. Cascades are definitely winning the race now, side arms are coming in. Chinook not far behind. Centennial continue to straggle. Weeds need mowing/tilling.

Didn't have much time this week to do anything. Rain, rain, rain, then a busy weekend serving homebrew and obeying the SWMBO. I scooted over to the yard tonight for a quick walk around. Plants are looking great, got several pushing 12' at this point. The plants are largely healthy, but I...

Did a quick walk through tonight, things are looking good, you can tell that (overnight) the plants have started their growth phase. Pictured here isn't even one of the strongest plants, but it was marked with a twist tie about 27 hours ago. There are many plants that showed even more growth...

My spin on the norm.

Mowing the grass makes the focal point look bigger, if you catch my drift... So I dragged the mower out to the yard to knock back the ridiculous weeds. It might be a hopyard, but it's also my zen garden, and I want to feel like my plants are making more progress than the weeds! That...

The straps between the eye-bolts, for grounding? For what it's worth, my turnbuckles were hand tightened until the cables went reasonably taught (until movement was negligible in high wind). Mine is a first-year hopyard and I want to have as much adjustment as possible for once there are...

That is fascinating. Completely flies in the face of the old-wive's tale that the plants rotate as they follow the sun East to West each day

It's been 16 days since I've posted last. Nothing incredible to update, but for fear of people suspecting premature failure, I thought I would pass along the transpirings of the last 2 weeks. All the plants are in the ground and getting over the initial shock of transplant. In fact, they have...

Them's hops.

Let it ride, they can recover. The plant will let you know if it can't heal itself, clip it when the leaves actually wilt/die. As a first year plant, you don't want to remove any green stuff that you don't have to. Every functional leaf supports more growth.

Not all varieities are going to have the same optimal harvest time. Are they all on different trellises? If so, the yes, lowering the pole will work. That's how it was done here in WI in the 1800s, men lowered the poles so women and children could harvest. +1 to harvesting the hole plant at one...

Finally got the irrigation sorted out. Here's a little vid I that I shot. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rc9lsuoNJQ Numbers were timed out on the other two barrels. It takes 4:30 to fill the blue transfer barrel. It then takes about 9:30 to transfer that into the black drums. There's a...

The physics of the above link bother me. I agree that the soil in line with the anchor would be disturbed, and thus the weakest soil. However, by design, the anchor *itself* is strongest when you pull in line with it (and perpendicular to the to the greatest friction surface, like the auger on...

Today was a busy day, yet I wish I had more to report. All the ropes are up and tied, both top and bottom. The irrigation is in. The remaining plants still wait, pending successful testing of the irrigation. I have not completed the water transfer barrel. My buddy Bill came down from Green Bay...

Awesome, thanks for the vid! I didn't think to soak the ropes. I see that the wet rope makes it easier for them to whip and tie one handed. That's neat! I stopped at the yard after work today just to check on things, snapped this pic of the neighboring apple orchard (that I'm renting the field...