Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[moon@ceva.net]

Hi John,
 How about watercress? Maybe in trenched channels. Here, great in  
winters low light. I biked through Eire and feasted on Nettles. That's  
what kept Europe alive trough the war. Maybe mushrooms are your nitche.

Quoting 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:
>
>
>         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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>
>
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