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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] World Hunger Best Cured by Small-Scale Agriculture

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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] World Hunger Best Cured by Small-Scale Agriculture
  • Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2011 19:01:37 -0700


Here we go again. You say your grow beds use around 75 gallons of water per
month to grow intensively on 60 sqft. and dirt gardens require hundreds of
gallons to grow the same amount. Hundreds of gallons on just 60 sq ft each
month?

I suppose there are those who don't know of the hundreds studies and books
produced by Rodale Press over the last 60 years or so, covering moisture and
nutrient retentive organic soil building and mulching, and all the research
elsewhere on intensive and drip irrigation.

You're comparing your water use to the most water wasting situation
imaginable, outdoor gardens with wide, empty aisles, bare sandy soil and high
evaporation irrigation. Which of course is nothing like irrigating
moisture-retentive (high organic matter) intensive beds properly with drip
and mulch to reduce evaporation, and no water on the aisles we walk on.

Take a heavy feeder like tomatoes for example.
from Cornell: http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/pubs/ask/irrigation.html

"Tomatoes need a minimum of one inch of water per week, preferably 1.5
inches in the heat of the summer. The bed measures 60 square feet (3 feet x
20 feet). One inch of water on one square foot is about a half gallon of
water. For 60 square feet, you would need at least 30 gallons (60 feet x 0.5
gallons). That's a minimum amount needed in one week and you could easily
double this amount in the summer."

So that's about 120 gallons per month for 60 sq ft of tomatoes (more in high
heat). BUT we know the amount varies with conditions such as wind protection,
temperature, humidity, mulch, and stage of growth. Mine are in framed beds
(we don't water the aisles) in the greenhouse (for wind and frost protection)
well amended with organic compost and mulched with drip irrigation, and they
produce heavily for months. So my conditions conserve water in three ways and
on average it very likely uses less than the 120 gal figure, even in our semi
arid climate. And get $5 lb for our Italian heirloom Genovese.

paul tradingpost@lobo.net

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********

On 1/14/2011 at 5:24 PM paul@oneseedling.com wrote:

>Actually you are only partially right. With a decent greenhouse, the
>added mass of water and gravel will keep the greenhouse warm enough down
>to 20 degrees outside. Two great examples of this are Growing Power
>http://www.growingpower.org/ in Milwaukee. Another great example is in
>Nebraska
>http://www.altenergymag.com/emagazine.php?issue_number=03.08.01&article=finch
> although not aquaponics the principal is still the same.
>We have built mechanical wind pumpers to cut energy costs here and soon
>all our aquaponics will be powered by wind. Additionally our grow beds use
>only use around 75 gallons of water per month to grow intensively on 60
>sqft. Dirt gardens require hundreds of gallons to grow the same amount.
>Paul the Skeptic
>
>Sent from my iPhone






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