Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] Are Organic Hydroponic Greenhouses Environmentally Sustainable

market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Market Farming

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost AT gilanet.com>
  • To: avalonfarmshomegrown AT earthlink.net, market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Are Organic Hydroponic Greenhouses Environmentally Sustainable
  • Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2005 12:37:02 -0700


I began by referring to "typical hydroponic greenhouses". Of course you can
try to avoid chemical sprays to call it organic, but all hydroponics is
growing in a chemical brew instead of real soil. Isn't that correct? How
could chemicals that aren't allowed in an organic field be allowed as organic
in a greenhouse?

paul, tradingpost AT riseup.net
---------------

The outstanding scientific discovery of the twentieth century is not
television, or radio, but rather the complexity of the land organism. Only
those who know the most about it can appreciate how little we know about it.
- Aldo Leopold in Round River, 1933
*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********

On 12/13/2005 at 2:16 PM Brigette Leach wrote:

>Paul,
>I feel compelled to respond to your statement regarding hydroponic
>greenhouse production since _/*I*/_ have first hand knowledge. We _/*do
>not drench plants with pesticides or fungicides.*/_ In our tomato house
>we use bumble bees to pollinate, they don't like insecticides, incarsia
>to control whiteflies, they don't like insecticides either. Rather than
>treat a problem after it happens, we take steps to avoid problems. It is
>called Integrated Pest Management, a practice that we have followed for
>more than 20 years with our field crops.Yes, hydroponic tomatoes are
>labor intensive, can't argue that. We pick tomaotes when they are ripe
>and have selected seed varieties based on flavor first. Our customers
>are very loyal, don't complain about paying between $1.50 and $2.00 per
>pound, even in August and September when everyone's garden and field
>toms are ready. Guess we must be doing something right.
>Brigette
>Avalon Farms Homegrown
>A fourth generation farm
>
>Tradingpost wrote:
>
>>The typical hydroponic greenhouse is a monoculture where no disease or
>pests can be allowed to get started. Yet it doesn't get the benefit of
>soil microorganisms that produce natural antibiotics and enzymes that
>repel pests or minimise the plant smell that attracts them. Growers have
>no alternative but to drench hydroponic plants in fungicides and
>pesticides. This also makes them high maintenance and labor intensive. A
>more sustainable alternative is humus- intensive beds, and they can be in
>a greenhouse that opens in mild weather or just outdoors with some form of
>weather protection. Humus-intensive has long been demonstrated to be the
>way to grow the most and healthiest produce in the least space with the
>least water and least ongoing energy input.
>>
>>paul, tradingpost AT riseup.net
>>http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Soilmakers/
>>---------------
>>The outstanding scientific discovery of the twentieth century is not
>television, or radio, but rather the complexity of the land organism. Only
>those who know the most about it can appreciate how little we know about
>it.
>> - Aldo Leopold in Round River, 1933
>>*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********
>>






Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page