permaculture

[loren luyendyk <loren@sborganics.com>]

Douglas, 

Are you familiar with the work of your fellow Méxicano Eugenio Gras and Mas 
Humus (http://www.mashumus.com/)?  I have not experienced their work 
personally but they have been doing chromatography measurements of the health 
of soils and produce with pretty simple equipment, from what I hear.  
MasHumus is also promoting the use and production of biofertilizers 
which are possibly the only real solution to medium-large scale food 
production nutrient needs- beyond composting.

I think it is pretty important if we are considering creating standards and 
tests for organic and sustainable agriculture, our equipment and methods 
(ideally) should be easily reproducible and accessible- "campesino" style- 
available to common farmers beyond the "first" world of scanning electron 
microscopes and even sterile petri dishes, autoclaves, and incubators.  

With simple equipment and measurements you can increase the edge and get more 
data because the farmers themselves are able to do the testing.  You may not 
be able to quantify statistically the concentration of fungal hyphae per unit 
area etc, but there can be very real qualitative measurements that still 
provide good data- which at the end of the day is the important part becuase 
we are trying to make a case for why we should support beyond 
organic/permaculture style food production.

If you are talking about measuring metabolic pathways another tool/metric 
that I think is very useful is the refractometer (hand held) to measure Brix. 
 Brix levels can indicate metabolic shifts in plant growth (at a certain 
point the metabolic pathway changes and different chemicals/compositions are 
produced in the plant).  This can indicate when food become nutritionally 
dense (brix 12+).  See the work of the Weston A. Price Foundation regarding 
nutrient density and brix.

Annabelle Ford from UC Santa Barbara has studied the composition/biology of 
mayan food forests which is possibly the most roots example of the contrast 
between monocultural managed vs. polycultural wild food systems.  I am not 
sure how into the meatbolic pathways of the plants she got, more looking at 
the forest as a natural component of their culture, and the fallacy that the 
Mayans lived in a cleared space free of trees in the scorching central 
american sun... much like the tourists see at the better known archaeological 
sites that were cleared of the forest- which actually contained all the food 
and medicine that the Mayans deliberately cultivated.

Loren Luyendyk
805-452-8249
Permaculture Design and Education
ISA Certified Arborist #WE-7805A
www.sborganics.com
www.globalpermaculture.com
www.surferswithoutborders.com


> From: alia@dietrick.org
> Date: Mon, 4 Mar 2013 21:56:58 -0800
> To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
> Subject: Re: [permaculture] TESTS & EQUIPMENT required for a functional 
> SUSTAINABLE AG LAB?
> 
> A spectrophotometer can be used for measuring stuff like inorganic N and P.
> You would probably also be interested in a method of measuring potentially
> mineralizable nitrogen, the N bound up in organic matter than can be
> released by microbe activity. This quick summary of methods might be a good
> starting point:
> http://isnap.oregonstate.edu/WERA_103/2003_proccedings/p28%20Sullivan%20-%20Mineralizable%20N.pdf
> I've used the anaerobic incubation method -- after the incubation, you'd
> analyze it with the spectrophotometer just like for the inorganic N. Not
> sure what equipment you'd need for the other methods mentioned.
> 
> With the soil microorganisms, it depends on how precisely you want to
> categorize what's there. On the one hand, you can use a microscope to look
> at the broad groups of organisms (Elaine Ingham's method). This would
> probably be more practical. You can also use microscopy to quantify
> mycorrhizal colonization (there's a vinegar and ink method for staining I
> heard about recently, cheaper and less cancer than the old standard for
> staining roots). I think you might need two different types of microscopes,
> though. On the other hand, genetic sequencing is getting cheaper and
> cheaper and can give you a lot of interesting detailed information. But, if
> you're partnered with a university, they probably have some of that
> equipment. I think for identification of the substances the microorganisms
> are creating, you'd use gas chromatograph-mass spectrometry (GC-MS).
> 
> Alia
> 
> On Sun, Mar 3, 2013 at 7:14 PM, Douglas Hinds <cedecor@gmx.net> wrote:
> 
> > On 03/03/2013 03:25 PM, Chris Carnevale wrote:
> > > Hi Douglas,
> > >
> > > I'm not sure about what kind of equipment you would need, but certainly
> > > soil testing would be important.
> >
> > Particularly to quantify the presence of nutritional elements and the
> > microorganisms that constitute the soil food web.
> >
> > I would also like to be able to identify the substances being created by
> > those organisms, the activity of each substance and define the
> > conditions required for the production of same.
> >
> >
> _______________________________________________
> permaculture mailing list
> permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
> subscribe/unsubscribe|user config|list info:
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture
> message archives:  https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/permaculture/
> Google message archive search:
> site: lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture [searchstring]
> Permaculture Institute USA http://permaculture.org
> Avant Geared  http://www.avantgeared.com