Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Hot Stuff

Sunday, June 3.

Spent the entire day on Saturday going out to Long Ireland Brewery to pick up a bin of spent grain from the previous day's Celtic Ale 20 barrel brew session...a total of 1,200 lbs.  This was the amount of grain I needed to finish off the rest of the treatment plots that would use the spent grain as a mulch.

All set to start mulching Paul and I removed the tarp from the bin to find that the stuff was steaming.  It registered 110 f on a compost scale, so we decided it was best to pull some out and cool it off before applying it to the planting area.  All told, I mulched a total of 424 square feet with this last batch of grain.

Tremendous thanks goes to Dan and Greg from Long Ireland who supplied the grain last minute...depriving some east end farm animals of this weekly treat.  An equally big thank you goes to my friend Jen who helped me retrieve the bin with her trailer, and to Larry for helping us get it off with the forklift. 

Since starting to mulch two weeks ago, the plants are looking healthy and happy. 

To do: Post photos of the grain retrieval and the onions; measure the depth of the grain and continue to add to it to reach the intended 1"; start cultivating and mulching the other areas with straw and cultivating the beds without any treatment so that all get started with the equal number of weeds.

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