Market Farming

[Allan Balliett <igg AT igg.com>]

Courtney -

Rex Harrill shared the following with me on the BRIX list. This is 
from Dan Skow, who is well known eco-ag consultant.  Apparently, in 
some twist of the non-certified insight, ammonia is acceptable to use 
on eco-produce.  ( I Hope this doesn't turn out to be the recipe for 
a bomb!!) Please let me know how this works for you. _Allan PS The 
book is from ACRES USA www.acresusa.com

>  The American fertilizer industry has made life difficult for a
> serious grower. Aqua ammonia, for instance, is unavailable. In the
> case of the tomato grower with all leaves and vines and no fruit, I
> told him to buy Bo-Peep ammonia at the local grocery store,
> enough to apply one quart per acre. The cell needed this form of
> nitrogen-and it needed water as well. So I told the tomato grower
> to purchase apple cider vinegar for carbon. A half gallon of
> vinegar with a quart of Bo-Peep in twenty gallons of water made
> a perfect spray for the crop. Forty-eight hours later that tomato
> patch sported the most beautiful layer of blossoms ever. At the
> end of a week, the tomato patch was loaded with marble-sized
> tomatoes. A week later some of the fruit started to drop off. After
> a second spraying the crop took off again. We did that four times
> during the season. Later in the season I tripped to Lancaster, Pen-
> nsylvania to see the results. That farmer couldn't get the entire
> crop harvested.
>   The bottom line here is that there are nutrients that force a plant
> into seed production, and there are those that provide for growth.
> Once the seeds are started, the emphasis shifts from seed produc-
> tion back to growth.