Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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

Just 52 N latitude Paul. But it is a rather special climate. Any storm from the West, the Atlantic ocean, and we get salt water dumped on us, six miles inland. The average monthly temperature differs only 9 degrees C between the warmest and the coldest. But differences can be much higher in any single day. I mean you can get up in the morning and find everything frozen stiff and half an hour later it can be 20 C  which we would consider warm. Many crops can't take these fast changes.

We had 3 weeks in June this year that the temperature broke records at 32 degrees C, about 6 degrees warmer than anything we had experienced here before. One more sign that things are changing.

 

We used to cut turf/peat here in Spring but in the last ten years there was not one year that we would have been able to dry this turf. In 2011 we never saw the sun two days in a row before September. In 2012 we had constant rain and all our land flooded 6 times. This year the Spring was too cold (temperature never moving above 6C), too wet or too dry. From one extreme to the other and crops just sat there without growing much. It seems to be getting worse from year to year and it is only because we have a huge variety of crops that we did not have a complete failure yet.

 

One extra disadvantage of low light intensities and plenty of moisture is that greenhouses and poly tunnels develop a green algae cover every few weeks.

 

And what  I see more of every year too are "chemtrails". Most people here are still convinced this is a conspiracy theory but I am inclined to belief the evidence in front of my eyes. Yesterday we started with a beautiful blue sky and then I noticed three planes at high altitude flying on parallel courses but staggered at about 10 plane lengths. The "contrails " they left after them stayed and turned into what looked like a mile wide white band with sharp edges and as long as the eye could see. An hour later this white band was still there but by then there were other lines at 90 degrees to this first one. And soon afterwards all the blue was gone from the sky. Today we had the normal dark cloud cover all day with a little drizzle. It would make one SAD.

 

John

Now that's a hard climate, John. You're around 53 N latitude? I'm about 35.

On 12/4/2013 4:57 PM, John D'hondt wrote:

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:

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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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