Thursday, August 31, 2023

Record Heat up North: Doesn't look promising for the Winecap Mycelium

 I finished spreading the woodchips and Winecap Mycelium up north - but in a few days it gets over 90 degrees F. - that's record heat for September. All the record heats recorded in September only include 3 days in the 90s! So even though I hauled 5 gallon buckets of water for each pile of woodchips and covered the woodchips with plastic to both reflect the heat and retain the moisture - I didn't see much mycelium growth. The mycelium was probably too dried out to survive but I can only keep trying. HALF of the Winecap mycelium I just spread out yesterday - but it now faces that 90 degree plus F. temperature in a few days! It cools off at night though - so maybe it will survive....

I hauled two loads of the 65 gallon water tank but the first load I had to pour out right out of the tank. Those hoses that are light weight and scrunchy - they need the 50 amp pump or whatever to expand the hose under pressure! So the water was not coming out of those hoses - just being gravity fed water. So I cut one hose short and filled all the buckets right out of the tank. Then I hauled those 14 buckets - 1/8 a mile or so across the hummocks - it was a serious workout. 

The 2nd load of water I got normal hose to unload it. But the gravity feed only went 150 feet!! So at least I got a third closer and it was not as bad hauling the last 14 buckets of water....this morning.

So my plan is to bring up the new water pump and then unload the water into a bucket with the pump in the bucket. The water flow rate from gravity is pretty slow but if the bucket is not too wide then the depth should stay constant enough at least to keep the pump going already. So I'll had the pump set up at 150 feet end of the first hose - and then since it's in the field I can power the pump with solar panels.

So the batteries will get recharged hopefully if there's enough sun - and keep the pump going as it unloads the next two tanks of 65 gallons of water. That's my plan though.

First I need to haul up the compost and the fencing - fencing for the 14 trees. Compost for 28 trees. That will be a full load right there. then when I get up there I can go get more water.

There's actually a 47% chance of rain right after that 90 degree F. weather...maybe I will go up on that day - and if it rains so be it. Or I could go up during the 90 degree weather to water - and maybe save the mycelium?

Then I get the trees on Thursday September 7th. 








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