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

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  • From: paul@oneseedling.com
  • To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] World Hunger Best Cured by Small-Scale Agriculture
  • Date: Sat, 15 Jan 2011 01:03:23 -0600

Glad you quoted that article. We live in South Texas where temperatures reach
105+ regularly. In that same article it stated it could easily double from
the 120 gallons per month. Therefore "hundreds" of gallons.
Here we can only grow gardens in very small plots due to super invasive
coastal bermuda grass. One just cannot grow without constant backbreaking
pulling grasses and weekly tilling. That much tilling is destructive to
nutrients and microorganisms alike. Local farmers use chemicals to control
the grass, something we will not do. Heavy mulching only encourages the
grasses growth. Our super hard water causes the small emitters in drip
irrigation to stop up.
The grass can send runners 3 ft in one week, so even though my grow beds are
3 ft off the ground I still pull grass from the beds weekly.
In our situation aquaponics just make sense. For others, not so much. If I
had my choice, dirt farming would be it, but high temps in the summer, low
rainfall totals (31 in) and time make it difficult.
Paul the Skeptic

Sent from my iPhone

On Jan 14, 2011, at 8:01 PM, "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net> wrote:

>
> 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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