Well, we planted May 20th and did our first in-ground pruning on the 24th, so, four days. This was dictated by both the observations of the plants and the lunar cycle. We’re looking to not touch them until they’re over any transplant shock. However, since we were using the air pots, there was virtually no lag and we could simply wait for the perfect moon. The ‘first round’ of pruning is to simply bring the bottom branches up. As I’ve stated before, we’re looking for 12-18” of bare, single stalk to keep the bottom clean and easy to access. We’ve been doing light training the entire life cycle of the plant to maximize growth of material that will remain in the final structure. Here’s a Blueberry Frost that has a good initial structure. This plant was not yet tall enough to get hard-topped.
Our most recent, second round of pruning had more of an eye towards removing inner and lower growth and taking the hard topping approach to the plants that were ready. This is also on a plant by plant basis. We let them get to about 3-4’ tall and then take them back ~6”. Tom Hill can decry “the lack of a main meristem”, but we’ve seen this technique work time and time again and will continue to use it now. Since we were simply waiting for the appropriate lunar cycle, we pruned the second time twenty six days after putting in or around three weeks after the first round. Here’s a Kush Cleaner that was hard topped and trained three days ago.
When we have a wheel barrow or a lot of walking to do we use these really trick roll out garden walkways from Gardener’s Supply (http://www.gardeners.com/Roll-Out-Walkway/36-390,default,pd.html)
Otherwise, we roll around barefoot. Soil with proper structure can withstand quite a bit of traffic if you walk softly. The deeper metaphor should be obvious here. Throughout gardening we are given an opportunity to turn our art into a practice as well. The plants contain an intelligence that is vast and can teach us a tremendous amount if we but listen. I’ve posted this link before, but will do so again. It’s a talk given by Dennis McKenna called "Plant Teachers" presented at the 4th International Amazonian Shamanism Conference, "Magic, Myths & Miracles" in Iquitos, Peru. (July 19, 2008). Very heartfelt and honest. While it is primarily about ayahuasca, the ideas presented relate to all plants and, more broadly, to all our relationships. Highly recommended.
http://ia311317.us.archive.org/3/it...amanism_Conference/02_Dennis_McKenna_64kb.mp3
Excerpted from 31:15
DennisMcKenna said:
The decision came after much deliberation. We really like the raised container for a lot of reasons, but the difficulty in maintaining even moisture finally brought us to abandon the idea for a more traditional approach. So far it is going very well.
As we move forward with our various projects and additions to the garden, we’ll keep posting. Thank you for good questions. Teaching is learning and trying to explain the approach brings greater clarity.
We’re also starting to take garden tours and will post a few pictures of some of the gardens we see, but probably in the Large Plants thread...and not until they classify as large plants!
Happy gardening everyone - Butte
