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Tea Weeding

2023-02-10

If you have perused some of our news in the past, you will likely recall the devastation caused by, we now believe, voles. We lost 50% of our newly planted tea over a couple of winter months and even in the summer the destruction continued. Being an organic farm, pesticides are NOT an option. Traps have proved very limited. We decided to trench around the tea plots to a depth of two to three feet and fill the trenches with two inch rock. But the logistics of that have been elusive. As a stop gap measure I decided to let the weeds grow up around and over the tea seedlings in the ground. I surmised that if the voles only had tea plants to feed on in a given area, they would consume nothing but them. With more weeds than tea plants, hopefully they would destroy less of the tea. That actually seemed to help a LOT.
But I should have thought ahead a lot further. Removing the mass of weeds and, especially, the overgrown blackberry brambles is a major undertaking. The pics show some of the blackberry vines that were only seven months old when I started to remove them. In hindsight, I should have kept the weeds, but also kept them mowed so they didn't take over the entire area. I spent weeks pulling blackberry vines by hand, with an Extractigator, and with the tractor and a rope.

But the Extractigator broke as many vines as it pulled, and the tractor and rope were similar, although that did help get rid of some of the top stuff so I could see the ground. In addition, it appears most of the tea plants under the blackberry vines are gone. I'm guessing the cover was enough that the voles, rabbits, etc. could munch the tea plants while protected. The blackberry vines are now under control. The roots are mostly not eliminated, so they will attempt to come back but I'll be much more diligent. I also bought a battery operated mower to keep them and the other weeds in check as the tea plants attempt to mature. But the days and hours wasted on this was really unexpected.

Tea Weeding

2023-02-10

If you have perused some of our news in the past, you will likely recall the devastation caused by, we now believe, voles. We lost 50% of our newly planted tea over a couple of winter months and even in the summer the destruction continued. Being an organic farm, pesticides are NOT an option. Traps have proved very limited. We decided to trench around the tea plots to a depth of two to three feet and fill the trenches with two inch rock. But the logistics of that have been elusive. As a stop gap measure I decided to let the weeds grow up around and over the tea seedlings in the ground. I surmised that if the voles only had tea plants to feed on in a given area, they would consume nothing but them. With more weeds than tea plants, hopefully they would destroy less of the tea. That actually seemed to help a LOT.





But I should have thought ahead a lot further. Removing the mass of weeds and, especially, the overgrown blackberry brambles is a major undertaking. The pics show some of the blackberry vines that were only seven months old when I started to remove them. In hindsight, I should have kept the weeds, but also kept them mowed so they didn't take over the entire area. I spent weeks pulling blackberry vines by hand, with an Extractigator, and with the tractor and a rope.

But the Extractigator broke as many vines as it pulled, and the tractor and rope were similar, although that did help get rid of some of the top stuff so I could see the ground. In addition, it appears most of the tea plants under the blackberry vines are gone. I'm guessing the cover was enough that the voles, rabbits, etc. could munch the tea plants while protected. The blackberry vines are now under control. The roots are mostly not eliminated, so they will attempt to come back but I'll be much more diligent. I also bought a battery operated mower to keep them and the other weeds in check as the tea plants attempt to mature. But the days and hours wasted on this was really unexpected.








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Merchants of Poison Report final 12/05/2022

(with 579 cited references)


Find out about: America's (now the World's) Favorite Poison By Far!


“In order to save glyphosate, the Monsanto corporation has undertaken an effort to destroy the United Nations’ cancer agency by any means possible.”[10]

... " just four companies — Bayer, Corteva (formerly DowDuPont), BASF and Syngenta/ChemChina — controlled 75 percent of plant breeding research, 60 percent of the commercial seed market, and 76 percent of global agrichemical sales in 2019."[78]



Just gotta' LOVE glyphosate, right?????

Yes, the second link is old news, but not forgotten and more importantly, as the first link shows, not remedied:

Monsanto / Bayer's Roundup Triggers Over 40 Plant Diseases and Endangers Human and Animal Health. Protect yourself and those you care about!

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/argentinasRoundupHumanTragedy.php    

http://www.NaturalNews.com/031138_Monsanto_Roundup.html

[10] Foucart, S. & Horel, S. (2019, April 7). Monsanto Papers. European Press Prize. https://www.europeanpressprize.com/article/monsanto-papers/

[78] ETC Group. (2019, April 06). New report: Putting the cartel before the horse…and farm, seeds, soil, peasants. https://www.etcgroup.org/content/new-report-putting-cartel-horse%E2%80%A6and-farm-seeds-soil-peasants

Just Say No To GMO by Michael Adams - Video
https://www.naturalnews.com/NoGMO.html

Just Say No To GMO by Michael Adams - Music
https://oregonTruffleTryst.com/_MEDIA/JustSayNoToGMO-192.mp3 Song Lyrics

Song by Mike Adams, with spoken lines from Jeffrey Smith

I’m lookin at the food that’s in the grocery store
They say it’s safe, everybody eat more.
On second thought, I don’t really know if it’s made with those GMOs

So I’m lookin for the non-GMO label ‘fore I bring it home and put it on my table
I wanna know it’s verified so I don’t
Harm myself with genetically modified

Uh-Oh
They don’t want you to know
All the poison they grow
The corporate profits they show from those GMO OH

Those Frankenseeds that they sow
They’re gonna hurt us we know
It’s time we told ‘em to go, say GMO NO!

I don’t want eat poison, I don’t want gene mutations at my dinner reservations
it’s a food abomination what they doin’ to this fast food nation
They take artificial gene combinations
inject them in seed variations
so they can grow their Frankenfood imitations
while the side effects cause medical patients

Keep their profits alive while they
spraying all the food with name brand herbicides
and all the while they’re spreadin’ their lies
Monsanto (Bayer now!) destroyin’ farmers lives
and the FDA keeps it all going
saying it’s safe even though they all know it’s just
poison stealing away your life, and that’s what you eat with genetically modified.

GMO safety huh that’s a corporate myth
if you don’t believe me listen to Jeffery Smith
He’s the man with plan gonna do what he can
To help us all get those GMOs banned
But we need you to lend a hand
take a stand against this food scam
It’s a mission for the health condition worldwide
We don’t wanna live genetically modified

Don’t eat food unless you know what’s in it
Don’t believe the propaganda cuz the press will spin it
Affects everybody, we all up in it
Stand up to Monsanto (Bayer now!), tell ‘em oh no you didn’t

Reject Frankenfoods in the store
demand honest labels so we can be informed
We have a natural right to know
What we buyin’ Just say no to GMO

Before our farms start dyin’
Just say no to GMO

Those corporate crooks are lyin’
Just say no to GMO

This time we’re not complyin’
Just say no to GMO

We’re just not buyin’ it
Just say no to GMO

Song and Lyrics © 2010 by Michael Adams, All Rights Reserved

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