THE FARM 3

[Tad]

David, I did, and the hogzilla thread was one of the best threads ever, I completely miss those arguing in good nature threads. please be extra careful when dealing with jumbo washies, eyes on the tree at all times!

[FRITO]

Tad, great work as usual.  

The asian scale that attacks the sagos was way more prevelant in lake county florida(200 mile trip south) when I was there this past weekend.  I am starting to see it more up here in Tally. I have a 25 yr old or so revoluta I dug 2 years ago from a yard. looking great.

since your ranch hands manually dig these specimen trees. the right spade shovel is key.  anything special about these? the rootballs on the removed plants look "sculpted"

also explain the pry bar if you could. any photos of these aresenal of tools would be great.

Luke

[Tad]

no pry bars, I buy each man a spade, they then take the stock wooden handles off, and have a welder put a thick wall pipe about 4 and a half feet long wleded to the handle, and they keep them razor sharp, they stop about every ten or fifteen minutes and sharpen them, never let them throw one of these at you it will cleave right thru bone.

when I hubt I usually givethese guys hlaf of what I kill, I have seen them quarter a javelina using a spade.

[Tad]

have a small opening for a little over a thousand palms, so todays flavor is washingtonia hybrid, and med fan palms.

[Tad]

orchids blooming like crazy

[Tad]

[Tad]

2 tons of fertilizer waiting to be spread, thiswill be the first application of spring and we will put it out about 250 pounds to the acre, not much but we do it six times a year so it adds up it, is not a slow release item.

[Tad]

bismarkia seedlings waitng to get bumped up

[Tad]

by september these babys will be in the field doing there thang!

[Tad]

they grow up so fast, never enough room tho, I may have to build another shade house soon ???

[Tad]

washies dug and waiting for the loading crew

these babys are El Paso bound.

[Tad]

we need to clear a spot for the truck to park, get after it guys!!

[Tad]

a nice double

[Tad]

tying up the heads

[Tad]

move them off to the side

[Tad]

stacking them up for when the truck gets here.

[Tad]

using the ditch blade to fill in the bomb craters from digging trees

[Tad]

a mix of sizes, this load is for 100 palms, all washies

[Tad]

notice some of the interior fronds are cut, this is done by a company who harvests the leaves for palm sunday, they have been cutting my palms for 10 years now evry year they show up and cut thousands of leaves..

[Tad]

now we have an area slicked off where we can park the truck and not have to run so far back and forth, between truck and palm.

[palmsrgreat]

Tad,

These pics are great! Please keep them coming.

I also had a few questions, how much soil do you usually need to bring back in to fill all the holes and get it ready for the next group of planting?

Secondly, what about the roots from previous trees and the ones left behind once you dig them? Do they simply compost in a short amount of time, or do you till up eveything pretty deep and rake it out?

Looks like you've got a lot of work going, keep palming dude and hang up the rapping, hahaha, although I do have to give you props on the verbage.

[Tad]

heres what we had yesterday morning, now today all thats cleared out and sitting on a truck.

[Tad]

Like so, Mr. Smith, thanks for your support, we dont bring dirt in. the area will be disked a few times, chopping up and incorporating a large amount of the old leaves and petiole stems, then we run a float over it to pull it down and level it off, at this point all the old leaf stems and petioles that didnt chop down will be raked up into piles and burned off, as un eco friendly as that sounds I justify it by the amount of green trees produced per year  should at least cover my small sin of torching a few piles, usually not very many and not very big. then its rowed up holes drilled and re planted as soon as possible, I will probobly go bag in with phoenix dacts in this area.

[Tad]

this is the grad all float, excellent tool!

[Tad]

this is what the field will look like after its been drug down and graded and the next step would be rowing it up, the roots from the palms deteriorate quite rapidly  after a few irrigations.

[Tad]

100 washingtonia palms in the field

100 washingtonia palms

you dig one out and toss it  about

99 washingtonia palms in the field

[Tad]

cidp's these will be the next thing to get blown out of this field, I am hoping to move a whole bunch of these at a knockout price this spring and summer.

[steve 9atx]

Tad

How big are your S uresana's?  I may be in the market for quite a few of them.  PM me.

Steve

[Tad]

one gallons, I thought I had already sent you a pic?!??! they are ready to be bumped, but still ones, no true leaves yet but nice blue color!

[Tad]

loading is the ardest part

[Tad]

this big pile of trsh will get pushed around and stacked up, when the prevailing wind is right so as not to smoke out the neighbors we will torch it up after getting a burn permit from the county and alerting the local fire dept, it will burn out in about an hour, quick and extremely hot.

[Tad]

we had a coldfront pop thru last night it's a balmy 60 degrees this morning and we anticipate being done loading shortly after lunch

[Tad]

the BIG BOSS coming in to check on me.

[Tad]

today is all hands on deck, the sound of chainsaws and tractors with the staedy chip chip chip of the shovel and a little tejano music sprinkled in, the suns coming up and we are diggin some palm trees this morning!

[Exotic Life]

Those washies, are that filifera?

[Tad]

hybrids from a local source,

[Tad]

almost

[Tad]

out in the west Texas town of el paso, I sent some palms to landscape compaaaaannnyy......... sorry marty couldnt resist

[Tad]

just a few more to go, we got a little behind ,slipped in a sall order for cool cuts in Austin Tx.

[freakypalmguy]

(palmotrafficante @ Mar. 11 2008,15:53)

QUOTE

out in the west Texas town of el paso, I sent some palms to landscape compaaaaannnyy......... sorry marty couldnt resist

Thanks Tad, I'll be whistling that song for the rest of the day, unless I get in an elevator.