Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Tradingpost" <tradingpost@gilanet.com>]

We hit a puzzling situation. What I think is happening is people get exposed 
to every gardening guru and snake oil salesman, but without the commonsense 
knowledge of our forefathers (and foremothers) who simply knew how to grow 
what they needed. As a people we're vulnerable with nothing to judge them by. 
 Those of us with some actual experience and some practical knowledge may be 
skeptical of TV experts.

Or maybe the problem is who gets on TV and who doesn't. Everybody needs a 
gimmick. Baker has a few books out, but many other authors are research-based 
and compile material from evidence gathered everywhere. Rodale Press for 
example, and I've managed to collect dozens of their books from various 
authors.

paul, tradingpost@riseup.net
---------------

The outstanding scientific discovery of the twentieth century is not 
television, or radio, but rather the complexity of the land organism. Only 
those who know the most about it can appreciate how little we know about it.
   - Aldo Leopold in  Round River, 1933
*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 3/24/2006 at 8:52 PM Catherine Fenner wrote:

>I've been annoyed with Baker for decades. His programs used to be used on
>our public television pledge drives and people would get so excited about
>his tonics. The weekend after his shows were aired the master gardener
>phones would ring off the hook hoping for more information about his
>philosophies.
>
>As university volunteers we could only respond with university research so
>it didn't help much. But I would try to bring IPM techniques into the
>picture and one of those principals that also exists in organic growing
>techniques is that you only treat when it's absolutely needed, only when
>damage has occurred at the right level and at the right time for the
>disease
>or bug cycle.
>
>Baker's basic flaw, to me then, is that he does this general, all-purpose
>spray now, spray tomorrow superficial and non-symptomatic approach.
>
>Catherine
>
>> Organic gardeners know that just because a substance comes
>> from the kitchen pantry or bathroom medicine chest doesn't
>> mean it's "organic" or even safe.
>> Several whom I know from another list recently began
>> protesting to their public TV stations about Jerry's
>> half-Baked ideas, pointing out that re-using pesticide
>> containers and modifying the label instructions are, at the
>> very least, violations of federal regulations.  The husband
>> of one of them works for their local PBS station; whether
>> this "campaign" will get JB off the air remains to be seen.
>
>