Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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

Same here and with a little bit of good weather we grow good crops. Living under a constant cloud for 6 months and never seeing the sun or the moon crops are not so good.

John

speaking of anecdoal, plenty of old timers swear by planting by the moon, and I don't dismiss it. But for us it's just impractical. We have to do jobs when they need doing and dodge the weather also. There's a time when the beds are more workable but not too damp or dry for transplants. Most of all succession planting and scheduling harvests for markets just doesn't leave much wiggle room.

On 12/4/2013 5:57 AM, Pete Vukovich wrote:

1386161878.42934.YahooMailNeo@web122103.mail.ne1.yahoo.com" type="cite">

Hope the light bulbs work out well. A lot of stuff is anecdotal, true of life in general I think (was that a meta anecdote?) . Some of the extremes I've seen or read over the years have been more amusing than others.
I have friends who have rituals they follow religiously without ever having done a control or doing any fundamental research. A good part of the world thrives on rumor otherwise there wouldn't be a stock market.

My ego used to have a bigger investment in things, apparently it shrinks with age like everything else. I don't know that much and never have, but I have spent some time experimenting, reading, and even growing on my own. So I thought I knew important stuff (yeah right).

Now I'm just happy when people are interested in something other than sports, politics, cars, college, or the latest fashion.  I'm content just to help somebody plant a garden and decimate some imported ornamentals (I have been promoted to a work animal, a 2 legged draft horse or perhaps an ox). I'm happy to watch them make their own choices, I believe making their own choices (even poor ones) makes them happier (feel powerful or something) .
I like the fact that I don't inject my opinion as often, and ask more questions. I rely heavily on the phrase 'it depends' when someone asks me a question.


Good morning,
pete

On Tuesday, December 3, 2013 9:09 PM, tradingpost <tradingpost@lobo.net> wrote:

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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