Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[<pbunch@cox.net>]

John:

Your climate sounds very similar to what we have at Piedras Blancas (2400 
meters and about 6 30 N). Frost is a very rare occurrence here but is 
supposed to have happened. I have my doubts.  We normally get highs between 
about 20 and 22C and lows rarely go below about 10C. Recently they have have 
been a few degrees higher. We do get a lot of rain.

Phil Bunch

---- John D'hondt <dhondt@eircom.net> wrote: 
> 
> 
> 
> > On 07/18/2010 02:43 PM, John D'hondt wrote:
> >> I have been looking for a few years now how to get something like this 
> >> started here on our farm in Ireland and found only a void.
> >> One man complained about black soldier flies in a compost heap some 400 
> >> miles from where I am. . .   ~john
> >
> > John, do you know your climate zone there? In the US, BSF are native at 
> > least through Zone 7, though the northern edge of their range is really 
> > not "nailed down" with any certainty--folks north of 7 often find they 
> > have an ambient population to work with. I haven't done much research in 
> > BSF in other contries, other than learning that they are common in the 
> > tropics/sub-tropics, hence well suited to bioconversion there.
> >
> > ~Harvey
> 
> Hi Harvey,
> the climate in Ireland can not so simply be caught in a "zone". Your zone's 
> are land/continental zones while we have a sea/Atlantic climate. Maximum 
> temperature does not go high above 20 C outside ever. The average 
> difference 
> between the coldest and the warmest month of the year is just 9 C. Night 
> frost is possible in any month but really we have no very cold temperatures 
> even in winter (although we had uniquely 5 months of solid frost last 
> winter) That is the most typical thing here, that nothing is certain. The 
> temperature can change from zero C to 20 in ten minutes and back to zero 
> ten 
> minutes later. That is hard on many plants except for a few that are used 
> to 
> it.
> 
> I have seen a very few black soldier flies in the wild but usually with 
> more 
> than a year in between observations. And I have not seen any interest in 
> rotting vegetation. So if I want to start culturing these (with protection 
> in a poly tunnel) I'd best find someone who has already got a colony 
> established.
> john 
> 
> 
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