Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["John D'hondt" <dhondt@eircom.net>]

Our main problem is very low light intensity in winter. It is usually a 
matter of getting suitable species in the ground by the end of September and 
then they will slowly keep on growing until Spring and usually produce 
greens for picking in the worst of conditions. This year we could not get 
the summer crops in before the end of October. And I now have all sorts of 
seedlings about 3 inches high. Much too small to do much before next Spring.
Turnips, kale (especially red Russian), some Asian greens but not all, 
miners lettuce are otherwise quite reliable.
Spinach and arugula would be a waste of time here even when planted in time. 
What thrives best here at the moment are dandelion leaves. Some of the 
plants are even flowering now. Some of the traditional summer crops are 
hanging on well for now even when we had a good bit of night frost.
John

> I'm all for new ideas in growing, and I use some myself, some from
> successful growers like Eliot Coleman/Barbara Damrosch (Four Seasons
> Harvest book). But we need to hear how some trending systems actually
> work out in practice - minus the hype about them. Like community
> gardens, how many participants stayed with it to harvest anything
> worthwhile. And biochar - where's the scientific analysis of inputs and
> effects? Organic hydroponics - but don't they find the organic solutions
> need changing too often? How about aquaponics? Do startup costs doom any
> hope of profitable outputs? Or not?
>
> What almost all wannabe experts skip over is the basic principles of how
> to grow sustainably and profitably, whether for home use or market. Not
> surprising if they just don't know how themselves. It's called getting
> the cart before the horse. Like anyone else we've had to refine
> marketing strategy for ourselves, little good advice out there to be
> had. I have a whole library on growing and see endless articles online,
> but only a very few turn out to be very useful for my own work. Top two
> techniques for us: growing in permanent beds, from Jeavons, and covering
> winter beds (with plastic sheeting) INside a greenhouse, from Eliot
> Coleman. I've added one trick of my own just now, light bulbs under
> cover to add a little heat at low cost to inside beds. So far the
> spinach, kale, arugula and Asian greens look luscious. Test comes this
> week when outside hits single digits (or lower by New Years).
>
> paul tradingpost@lobo.net
>
>
>
>
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