Weekend social 12/04/2013

Written By: - Date published: 2:00 pm, April 12th, 2013 - 22 comments
Categories: weekend social - Tags:

Christmas truce 1914Weekend social is for non political chat. What’s on for the weekend, gigs, film or book reviews, sports, or whatever.

No politics, no aggro, why can’t we all just get along?

22 comments on “Weekend social 12/04/2013 ”

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  1. Ennui 1
    12 April 2013 at 2:50 pm

    The days are shorter which means the chickens get up later and go to bed earlier….I intend to emulate them.

    Am hoping Orlovs Five Stages of Collapse turns up in the post so a major blob out and read in front of the fire can be had.

  2. TheContrarian 2
    12 April 2013 at 2:53 pm

    Got back from a 3 week overseas trip last weekend and dove straight into work so this weekend is all about relaxing about the house. How I look forward to it

  3. Leopold the Viper 3
    12 April 2013 at 3:21 pm

    Shameless commercial plug: Roller Derby – Comic Slams vs Smash Palace, 7 PM at TSB Arena Wellington – only $15!

  4. vto 4
    12 April 2013 at 3:29 pm

    I’m gong to get a tattoo of myself only bigger

  5. NickS 5
    12 April 2013 at 4:25 pm

    Need moar compost from Bunnings (cheap, but it’s decent) for the winter garlic crop, along with repotting two sad chilli plants into better soil mix for overwintering inside. And make up my mind which chilli’s I’m going to yank up, pot up and bring inside. Also need to get some rooting hormone to preserve some chilli plants for next season. One of the wildfires is a mutant throwback with high growth rates and if properly pollinated, masses of small, stinking hot chilli’s, so I’ll grow it outside next summer. Total yield – about 300 decent sized chilli’s, all rather hot due to heat and water stress caused by depression induced laziness (max temps about 40C…).

    Sweet pepper yield wasn’t too bad, the banana peppers plants sold at Bunnings have good growth rates + yeild, while the banana pepper seeds I got off trademe grew pretty well for such a late planting. Heat wise, the aforementioned heat/water stress kinda resulted in _hot_ sweet peppers, but the trademe ones were only hot around the seeds. Will grow both again next season.

    Sadly though my san marenzo tom’s have been eaten by bloody scale insects, but otherwise grew really, really well in a soil/compost mix, so I’ll be doing that again next growing season. Good taste too, figure if I use more liquid feed for them I’ll get much better growth results, though lack of pollination was an issue this year.

    And if I can back into fulltime work and save up the money for it, I now have permission to build a bigger tunnel greenhouse :3 Got to move the current one as well as the weight of it is making the concrete slab it sits on tilt, plus it doesn’t get much full sun during the winter so any plants overwintering inside die. Plus we really need a chest freezer for storing stuff, way too many beans this season to nom down ourselves and the maternal unit considers harvesting the seeds for food as “poverty food” 🙄

    • Lanthanide 5.1
      12 April 2013 at 8:24 pm

      “Also need to get some rooting hormone to preserve some chilli plants for next season. ”

      Can you expand on that? I’ve just started growing capsicums this year and am moving my 6 plants inside for winter. What does this refer to, digging the plant up out of soil and drying it out (or something?), and then soaking it in rooting hormone before re-planting next summer?

      Edit: Oh, I think you just mean harvest some seeds from good plants and then use rooting hormone to make sure they sprout next year.

      • NickS 5.1.1
        12 April 2013 at 9:07 pm

        Rooting hormone allows you to take cuttings and get them to grow roots into soil or cutting mix 😉

        Plants are hideously easy to propagate from cuttings with the right chemicals.

        • Colonial Weka 5.1.1.1
          12 April 2013 at 10:34 pm

          Willow-soaked water also works as a rooting hormone. I have a feeling that honey helps too, don’t remember why though.

      • ianmac 5.1.2
        12 April 2013 at 10:19 pm

        The capsicums that I planted last October (I think) are just about ripe enough to pick. It has been a long warm summer in Marlborough but 5-6months seems too long to grow. The pumpkins are not very big and I think that the plant is starting to die off.

        • Ennui 5.1.2.1
          13 April 2013 at 12:23 pm

          Pleased to read that everybody had success with capsicums and chillies, I had total failure, but thats Wellington for you. My “free range” pumpkins are just fine despite the drought.

          • NickS 5.1.2.1.1
            13 April 2013 at 2:25 pm

            It’s been too hot in CHCH for pumpkins sadly :/

            And teh squashes didn’t do so well due to planting them in poor soils + a lack of pollinators. The heat though did toughen up the skins of our zucchini’s, so they stored out of the fridge rather well.

            • rosy 5.1.2.1.1.1
              13 April 2013 at 2:54 pm

              I’d almost beg for a pumpkin. Over here it’s a seasonal food. October only, almost all varieties are grown for seeds and are otherwise inedible (I know because stupidly I tried). Anyway it’s Spring so asparagus season – almost makes up for no pumpkin, but it’s a close call.

        • NickS 5.1.2.2
          13 April 2013 at 2:23 pm

          A lot of the bell pepper varieties really need to be in a greenhouse to ripen unfortunately. Growth rates are bit slow too as they don’t like low temperatures at night, though it also depends on what cultivare you’re growing. As I’ve found sweet pointed peppers have much better yields than the bell pepper cultivares

          Pretty easy to build a cheap arse tunnel greenhouse though:
          http://doorgarden.com/10/50-dollar-hoop-house-green-house
          Smaller version:
          http://doorgarden.com/03/plastic-tunnel-cold-frame-row-cover
          -You can get big plastic sheets from redpath plastics. Not exactly cheap, but they sell proper greenhouse plastic films that can be cut to order…

          Best bet though if you can’t build a greenhouse or row-cover is to have a nice sheltered sun trap, usually these spots end up with warm micro-climates.

  6. JK 6
    12 April 2013 at 6:03 pm

    We’re trying to plant new trees – ideal weather for planting, not too hot. But the ground is hard – its still sort-of in drought mode here in the north. Fortunately I’m not the one doing the digging – I just direct, and fill in the compost. That’s the best part of the job !

  7. aerobubble 7
    13 April 2013 at 12:08 pm

    Thatcher is God, you damnit bow down, you sniveling little snot and get your nose right down into the dirt of her legacy, you don’t desire her.

  8. Brett Dale 8
    13 April 2013 at 12:16 pm

    Well done the Breakers. Threepeat.

    A class group of guys and very professionally run club.

  9. Herodotus 9
    13 April 2013 at 1:40 pm

    What a great start to winter sport, great weather to watch the winter codes, baking on the suntan lotion still feels funny as prep for a game, in my day it was ligament oil – how times have changed 😉
    A little rain would help the sports fields in Auckland, feel sorry for all those who had their games cancelled thru the current ground conditions.

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