Miketropics blog -- Spring is FINALLY here

[cordyman]

ps. that spade looks like something from the trenches of WWII

"Oversexed, overpaid, over here" and nicking our spades?

[Kristen]

I think back then the Yanks had the last laugh on that expression though - referring to the Brits as "Under sexed, under-paid and under Eisenhower"

[miketropic]

When you refer to Americans do you all really call us Yanks ? just curious

Temps dropped down to -2.7 this morning and this is what I came home to. I put in extra work yesterday and it paid off so nothing was really harmed and just about everything is in its place for winter







Just frozen in place... I still need to put straw in for the banana cages today if I get time

[Kristen]

When you refer to Americans do you all really call us Yanks ? just curious

I tend to use "Yanks" when referring to Americans during WWII, I would have thought that the two are used interchangeably now, although I don't now what percentage - probably the more common use would be "Americans"?

Using the term "Yanks" when referring to current-time is probably a bit pejorative?

[miketropic]

ahh people from the south still call us yanks so I don't think it can even remotely be considered offensive anyway

[Kristen]

We being either ignorant, or not caring enough, use the term Yanks to mean either Southerners or Northerners. Sorry!

[miketropic]

I guess I would take being a yank over a dumb southern redneck any day

Finally got it cleaned up back there..well some of it. The Tanee, Dwarf red and Siams all went to the local greenhouse for winter ( min 15.5 all winter ) and the rest got stored various ways. after the hard freeze last night all the banana leaves were fried so time to wrap up.

Think this was taken in aug...



Late oct.



All I do for the arid stuff..as long as its dry it keeps fine..plastic comes off on nice dry days

[cheshirepalms]

Here's the monkey puzzle tree picture I was talking about, great work on the garden getting it ready for winter. Looks like its arrived early!

[miketropic]

I thought they kept branchs all the way down the trunk...very interesting I'll see how they do over here. the largest one I have ever seen over here was only about 3 ft tall so maybe one day I can pass that up

[cheshirepalms]

They form a branchless trunk eventually, these are over 100 years old.

[miketropic]

The tubers have no dried out completly but I will get pics of them when they do and are all cleaned up. These were the last hold outs and I finally took them in today.. thought everyone might like this.These are the biggest I had this year and biggest I have ever had. This one was over 5 pounds. another pic of it when dry



I can barely get my hand over it

[GREVILLE]

What variety was your five pounder, Mike?

[miketropic]

What variety was your five pounder, Mike?

mammoth...I think from 4 tubers I have about 50 or 60 tubers now

[Arlon Tishmarsh]

Mike, whats the circumference on that big mammoth ? I think mine will be roughly the same weight but as i'm not dry storing i obviously can't weigh it. If the circumference is about the same then possibly the weight will be in the same ball park.

[miketropic]

I didn't have a tape measure on me when I was doing it but I would say a very close estimate would be 3-14 inchs around. I put my hand on a CD and it was roughly the same size so somthing in that range. I was honestly hoping for bigger but it seems it put more energy into the offsets and made many new large tubers apposed to making the main tuber larger