@shane0911 , if your tomatoes are flowering and not making fruit, you probably have a pollination problem. If you don't have any bees in the area, you can hand pollinate. A quick google will teach you what you need to know. Pretty easy.
Kyle, I'd like to hear more about the financial and human elements of this project. IOW, who's paying for the seeds? How many people are doing the actual work? Is it a daily project for those involved? And are you finding tiga's prediction (lots of grasshoppers, not many ants, to paraphrase Aesop) coming true?
Thus far, 3 of us have paid out of pocket for everything. As we were cleaning the site, we kept creating scrap metal piles to take to the recycling center. Our plan was to recoup some of our expenses this way. Unfortunately, every time we would get a sizable pile, some well meaning citizen would come in and remove all of that unsightly metal. sigh... Surprisingly, our biggest expense so far has been diesel fuel. We have been using a John Deere 650 dozer, a Case skid steer, a Kobelco excavator and a couple of different tractors. This equipment has all been borrowed from friends of mine and has made this project doable. That said, we probably spent 175 bucks on diesel. Soil enhancements have been about $150 (we have only been fertilizing holes, not the entire lot). Seeds are cheap. We are probably at around $100 for seed. Our tomatoes and onions were free. One of my partners is a retired guy who raises the tomatoes from seed and uses onions from one season to the next. One other expense was having a hydraulic hose replaced on the skid steer. That was a couple hundred bucks. I work my day job about 50 hours per week, so its mostly weekends for me. Jim (retired guy) comes during the week when he can and comes 1/2 days on Saturdays. Another of us, Whit, is a doctor. The hospital is a block away and he comes over after work and puts in a little time several days per week. So, thus far this spring we have 3 of us who have worked, but the 4th will start this week. He is a contractor and has had a big job going. As to Tiga's prediction, we want grasshoppers. That's the whole point. Anyone who has a need and wants to come get vegetables is welcome to come get them. If anyone wants to make a donation, that is great but not required. The 4 of us are comfortable with underwriting it. As to labor, hopefully, those that partake of the veggies, if they are able, will pull a few weeds or do something to contribute. However, again, it's not required. Our main focus is just a community project that anyone can participate in and/or partake of.
Thanks. You would think that is it but after watching a couple of videos it seems that the wind should take care of that right? You do know where I live right? I will watch them this year and see what is up, if I still see the same thing I will go give them a shake and see what happens.
Just tap on them. If you have the same problem with your squash, they have separate male/female and you can rub one on the other. Squash, melons, cucumbers all have separate m/f flowers.
A good way to recover your expenses might be to set up a juice bar on the property. All you would need would be a little wooden stand amd a couple of juicer machines. I'll bet that there are plenty of people who would pay for a cup of juice freshly made from fresh veggies right out of the ground.
No power out there. The bigger issue though is that no one will be there. Ideally, people can just go by and pick what they need. I may just nail a donation box to a tree.
I wish I lived closer to your area, i'd be all over this. With the price of fresh vegetables now a days, i'd gladly trade some elbow grease to have more fresh veggies in our fridge. We eat pretty clean now, but can't always get everything we want, since we have to also pay for other food necessities. If you do put a donation box up, be sure to include several game cams from several different angles, I can just see some disrespectful moron coming and cleaning the box out.
This is the idea. Get people to pitch in. I also want the elderly and underprivileged kids to get good food. They can have all they want.
