What type of incubator?
What type and brand of incubator did you buy, and do you recommend it? What criteria did you use when selecting it, and did it meet your needs?
Sam Allen
Bessemer City, North Carolina
Our incubator is a Miller Deluxe circulating air incubator with an additional automatic egg turner. We bought it from NASCO. The incubator was about $78. The egg turner was $42. We also bought a plastic tray that fits beneath the eggs and that made cleanup a breeze. We had a 75 percent hatch rate the first time we used it on chicken eggs. We bought it because of the low watt usage and found we easily could run it on our battery bank. We are now getting ready to run a batch of turkey eggs in it. (Our turkeys are laying inconsistently due to the extreme fluctuations in the weather; snow and heat.) — Jackie
Powdered cheese and butter
Where do you get your powdered cheese and butter from? You have such good things to say about it and we are putting together a list of such things to get.
Margie Buchwalter
Palmer, Alaska
I get mine from Emergency Essentials and I find their prices and service very good. — Jackie
Poison ivy in asparagus patch
Last Fall I found an old asparagus patch and put on some old manure and this Spring was rewarded with great asparagus. However, the poison ivy really liked my manure, too. Now, what can I put on the ivy to kill it that won’t hurt the asparagus? I am VERY sensitive to the ivy. I started a new asparagus patch in my garden last year, but will have to wait another year to enjoy it. Can the old asparagus patch be moved? If so, how and when?
What is the name of the asparagus plants that you ordered from Nourse? Mind sharing?
J from Missouri
I’m a very non-chemical person. But I would certainly use Roundup on your poison ivy. Use care, though. It will also kill your asparagus if you get it on it. I would carefully gear up with long pants, long sleeves and gloves. Then just as carefully, cut off the poison ivy vines with a shovel, below the soil level. Then when the new sprouts start showing up, pick a warm, sunny, non-windy day and spray the new leaves well with the more concentrated poison ivy Roundup. Watch like a hawk for new sprouts of ivy. Each time it shows up, spray it. You can get rid of it that way. In the fall, carefully gather the dead vines with a pitchfork and stout gloves and take them off to an isolated spot. Don’t burn them (the smoke could bother you a lot). I’m pretty sure you can save the old patch that way. You can move it if you need to. It is a chore because the roots are extensive and intertwined. Dig up a clump, removing a lot more dirt than you think you need to. Then work the dirt and any grass away from the tentacle-like roots. You may need to soak them in a tub of water to help this. Then carefully work the smaller crowns and roots apart from the older mother plant. Then plant as you would “regular” asparagus roots. Early fall is a good time to move asparagus as the ferns have already strengthened the roots and they’ll establish well before winter comes on.
We ordered Jersey Supreme, which does well on our sandy/gravel loam soil. The plants we got last year are producing very well this spring. We’ve already eaten asparagus three times, and nice big, fat spears, too! — Jackie
A trick an old timer in NC told me for getting poison ivy out of a tight spot (ie next to your asparagus) is to take an old margarine tub or something similar, cut a slit in the lid and put about 1/2 or so of Roundup in the bottom. Then carefully, while wearing gloves of course, cut the end off a poison ivy vine and slide the vine into the slit on the plastic tub with the end of the vine inside the tub and down in the Roundup. This way the vine will take up the Roundup and kill the whole plant. Works like a charm!
If anyone should by chance burn poison ivy stay away from the smoke. Many years ago some rural firefighters ended up in really rough shape after fighting a grass fire with poison ivy in it. They inhaled the smoke and were they SICK. Probably best not to burn it.
You can also use a foam brush to put round-up on your poison ivy. That way there will be no possibility of over-spray. I have some in a small container with a lid and keep the foam brush in an old fruit jar with a lid, and always wear disposable gloves.
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