Thread: Japanese House

Finally for today, how do you say "panaché" in english. This young lemon tree already has many big yellow lemons.

Right besides, this small lime tree has lots of very big fruits.

And something I'd never seen before : Fruit of what tree?

Originally Posted by Nawty

How do they grow that rice without flooding ? got any pics and info ? Yield as compared to flooding etc ?

I am interested in this for a specific reason. I also know rice can grow without flooding, but just keeping moist as we get wild rice from the straw grwoing all the time and it seeds.....just wondered how it would compare with yields though.


also re the teak....where is the 12/14" measured ? We were offered a pile of teak last year that sounded a similar size, maybe smaller at 2000b per tree. How old are these trees do you know ?

Also, see if you can do a rough guestimate calculation on this....how many planks could you cut from one log at 2.5m long each and around 10mm thick each and each plank an average of around 10/15cm. so if you get what I mean, you cut the log in half down the centre, then cut all the planks from these 2 halves, so each plank has a flat side and a natural rough side the contour of the log.....like these....

Nawty, I like your ideas! I guess you could get 4 2"X6"
SRI : You start the traditional way by planting the seeds...
But you don't wait 5-6 weeks like they do. You transplant at 8-12 days, when the plant is still feeding on the energy reserves of the seed. One at the time, delicatly, you make a hole with your finger, if it was not already marked at 25cm, in straight rows, which will facilitate weeding. The traditional way is because weeds do not grow under water.
Then you let the soil dry until is is cracked, which will force the roots to grow to search for water, then you flood one night, you weed if need be (every time you weed, you add one ton of rice per hectare) this work (binage en francais) introduces more oxygen to the roots. In air, there's 22% oxygen, under water, 3%!. Since there is more oxygen, more sun around a plant on its own than when it's bunched like the traditional 4-6 plants plunged under water in the mud, side by side, it starts by developping a solid set of roots, then starts shooting straws, 3, the 7, then 11, 17, up to 60. You keep weeding every 10 days, but after 3, the field is occupied, by rice if you weeded, by weeds if you did not.
So, with 8 kg of seeds in 11 rais, compared to the 2 and a half bags that we did use before, we doubled the production in 5 years, from 350 baskets (tin boxes)the first year, 30! the 2nd... no comment..., 350, then 440, 560 and more than 640 last season.

Originally Posted by Nawty

You should go see how they did it at the korean embasy I think it is in Ratchada area.

In BKK? Could you post pictures, a team of very stong horses could not drag me away from here now...

Old monkey... could you tell me how big these seeds are? Hard to tell from your photo, as the focus is on the background ;P. Also difficult to see whether the leaves at the top corners belong to the same plant. Three-lobed seedpods are the 'trademark' of plants belonging to the Euphorbiaceae family, and some of the more well-known and used in Thailand are the mulberry tree (Morus alba or Morus nigra, their leaves used as feed for silkworms) and the the genus Jatropha, used as biofuel. But seeds from these plants would not be bigger than 30 to 35 mm. in length... yours look bigger than that, but I may be wrong... Maybe you also could ask your wife who planted the tree/shrub, or if any of your Lisu gang knows a (local) name and/or use. Maybe it's a money tree? PS: For a strange reason I can't add smilies, or make the text more readable by dividing it into alinea's... weird.

do you have more pics

Originally Posted by Old Monkey

Finally for today, how do you say "panaché" in english.

Err, panache.

Gipsy,
They are heveas, rubber tree seeds, my first sighting. Planted 2000 some 3 years ago, others 2, a king's project for the North, a beautiful project, I think. They will be a canopy over half the farm, I plan to grow coffee under in another 3 years.
Oranges were a mistake, especially organic! Mandarine, because they're not really oranges are a weak capricious demanding culture, a mistake!
Thinking of you this morning, I took photos of this flower in 3 stages, astounding, first sight for me also.

WOW!

Got the teak wood, still in trunks, some 7 metres long



IMG]http://i989.photobucket.com/albums/af13/vieuxsinge66/treads%20on%20teak%20door/DSCF3393.jpg[/IMG]
Nobody would notice this where I come from, except for the length, we stick to 8' sometimes 12', but I think knowledgable people would look twice at teak.
The smallest are 10" but the largest double that. around 60 000 tb of wood, some of it was cut more than 3 years ago. And legal, with papers. In Thailand, this is a rare sight, except in tree police yards.

Sorry, something happened?

Retaining wall, second step, same process, posts vertical, horizontal.

I would be interested in some of those teak logs....they look smaller than the 12/14" you mention but, maybe just trick photography.

Can they deliver down this way ?

During my trip to BKK, they started making steps in the swimming zone, South side, I want to continue them so that the built sides will still be inclined, but will permit sitting down on the side, or walking, while respecting the slope already there, I never wanted a vertical classical swimming pool, it just would not fit with the rest. I the city, or inside, it's OK, but let's say it's more a pond this way. I will not do this at the end, so that divers will not knock themselves out on a step.


It will be tiled, but not the filter zone. Now that I have the geotextile, I'm thinking of cleaning very carefully the whole area, and put the polythene between two layers, then the substrate.

Well, I was closing in, then... Nice 'Dragon fruit'/ Hylocereus flower, they're night-blooming normally, at least mine are.

Rubber tree | Scientific classification

Kingdom | Plantae
Division | Magnoliophyta
Class | Magnoliopsida
Order | Malpighiales
Family | Euphorbiaceae
Subfamily | Crotonoideae
Tribe | Micrandreae
Subtribe | Heveinae
Genus | Hevea
Species | H. brasiliensis

Binomial name | Hevea brasiliensis



From Wikipedia

In the nursery, plants are planned! Tamarind from seeds, the sour type, will be pruned and used as an edge, there are also cashew nut trees from seed (2 year old trees give seeds, very sturdy trees, they like it here!) In 2 weeks, I'll go to buy in Chiang Mai market the other fruit trees to be planted this year, to keep the average at over 1000.


Yesterday we got 4 coconut plants more than a metre high, I'll put them between the house and the pool, for more shade, without too muvh leaves falling. The palm tree here is 2 years old! They symbolise the tropics... They don't block the view, provide shade.

Looking good...I really hope it works as then I will build one. But mine will be amongst paddy fields.....kinda different problems pop up.

Originally Posted by Gipsy

The cono weeder has two conical rotors mounted in tandem with opposite orientation.

Smooth and serrated blades mounted alternately on the rotor uproot and burry weeds because the rotors create a back and forth movement in the top 3 cm of soil, the cono weeder can satisfactorily weed in a single forward pass without a push pull movement. Quite handy in the rice fields or anything that's planted in rows.

A good Thai friend from Chiang Mai answered quickly to my cry and came to get the big crate at the railroad station.
One of the guys who ordered cono weeders had his founds interrupted and will move back to USA soon, so I'm probably left with 2.
If anybody on the list was interested, and ready to get one in Chiang Mai, write me a personnal message. The price is 3600 plus a meal at my friend's restaurant...

it looks a bit mickey mouse to me. one good pull would snap it in two.
do you have some pics of it in action? if it has to go through hard soil, i think it would really struggle. or is that not how it works?

No! Have not used it yet, but the dea is a light tool that does not get stuck in mud, that a person can use in the rice paddies all day, without having to use brutal force, all in finesse. The publicity pictures show delicate Indian women using it in an elegant sari.

To get better results from the SRI method, and a more efficient use of the pigs' effluent, this project consists of taking the liquid in the newly dug holding lagoon

preparing minibridges to cross over drainage ditches,

we see the building in the background
we use bamboo as form
and as reinforcement
it's a work in progress, one week of preparation already
crossing different plantations, the lamiai grove
Building material close by
it rained, the water is already running down the ditch, good test

four hundred metres of ditch

to arrive finally at the destination : rice paddies

This will all be cement between blocks, we'll use it also to fertilize other plantations with gates. This will also control erosion caused by excess water from the fish ponds upstream, give a better control over water, permit spot irrigation and fertilisation. I've been dreaming and talking about it for a few years, it has come up the list of priorities...
On va y arriver!

Time to re-build the pig house, reproduction section, while waiting for the roof tiles, back order. Essentially, the larger roof on the right of the picture will be extended on the left, to replace the earlier construction.

So temporary quarters were built with bamboo from the house second floor supports. The mamas and the papas were moved one by one.

The kitchen with its two woks.
Water pipes bring the water up

They loved it. I was afraid they would dig and escape, nobady stops a 180 kg sow when she wants to go!
They love their new bedding, their belly full, no rain touches them, and the weather cooled down.


Holiday quarters until the new building is complete. Let's hope the workers will show up now... Since it started raining, everybody is in his garden. Taiais did not show up after payday last saturday, the pig house contractor went to another site. We cannot wait, this is temporary, cannot last long, so the japanese house roof contractor will put his man on the pig house while waiting for the 3 trucks to bring 20 tons of tiles!