Improve your garden

[raw-al]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/home-and-garden/gardening/how-the-right-soil-makes-your-vegetables-tastier/article4105623/

[cherimoya_kid]

Take a look at the comments on the story.  They're kind of interesting.  One of the commenters actually trashed "foliar feeding".  He's ignorant.  Foliar feeding is an excellent way to get more nutrition into plants, if the soil is weak, or if you're growing them hydroponically.



I think it's great that Brix readings are becoming more and more widely-used among farmers and gardeners.

[raw-al]

Take a look at the comments on the story.  They're kind of interesting.  One of the commenters actually trashed "foliar feeding".  He's ignorant.  Foliar feeding is an excellent way to get more nutrition into plants, if the soil is weak, or if you're growing them hydroponically.



I think it's great that Brix readings are becoming more and more widely-used among farmers and gardeners.

The friend that sent me that link is a confirmed farmaholic.

Sounds like you have a grow-op 

I went through a  hydroponic phase many moons ago when I lived at a hydroelectric site and electricity was free. We were going to take a few trailers and put them together to create a grow-op for veges. It was in northern Canada and fresh veges were available but not like in large urban areas.

There are some interesting high tech hydroponic setups nowadays. Not sure how that stuff affects the body, being so artificial.

VolksGarden

[cherimoya_kid]

I went through a  hydroponic phase many moons ago when I lived at a hydroelectric site and electricity was free. We were going to take a few trailers and put them together to create a grow-op for veges. It was in northern Canada and fresh veges were available but not like in large urban areas.

There are some interesting high tech hydroponic setups nowadays. Not sure how that stuff affects the body, being so artificial.

VolksGarden

That's awesome.

I don't worry too much about it being "artificial".  As long as weird chemicals (pesticides, etc.) aren't used, and it's high-Brix, I am all for it.

I have been eating fresh-picked cherries all week, about a pound or more a day, and I have felt really, really energetic. I think it's because they were picked just a few days ago, and were tree-ripened.  I think the vitamin and mineral content is probably a lot higher both because of the fact that they were recently picked, AND because they are tree-ripened.

This is inspiring me to try my hand at hydroponics.  I have played around with indoor growing before, but never hydroponics.

I mean, I know that vitamin C content diminishes more and more the longer the fruit is in storage.  I also know that vitamin and mineral content is much better in tree-ripened/vine-ripened fruit.

Doesn't it make sense, then, to have some hydroponic produce to eat, rather than stuff that's been in storage for weeks/months?  In the summer you can get fresh stuff at the farmer's market, and also from wild foraging. 

In the winter, though,  I think hydroponics might be very useful.

[raw-al]

The only thing about hydroponics is that essentially what a hydroponic setup does is provide a stress reduced environment for the plants to grow in, which allows them to grow quickly and fruit plentifully.

Being artificial makes them likely to have results that are less than healthful. However there is something to be said for fresh.

I was going to build one of those volksgarden things just for fun. Seems like such a great idea.

[cherimoya_kid]

Being artificial makes them likely to have results that are less than healthful.

Maybe.  I doubt it would be anything major, though, as long as they are grown without weird chemicals, and are high-Brix and vine-ripened.

[aliyan]

Here is another high fat raw foodist with healthy skin at age 42 (?):
______________
aliyan

[sabertooth]

I have an ambitious garden project underway right now.

Just put up a 8x 12 green house and have some starter trays of various seeds germinating. I have three compost bins full of rich organic, animal scraps yard trimmings, rabbit, sheep and chicken poop, and what not, that I am going to use as a base for my raised garden beds.

Last year I grew a bed of tomatoes and one of salad greens using my own compost, and the food I grew was head and shoulders way tastier than any of the organic produce I have to buy at the store.

I think mixing in animal waste, bones and other scraps make a huge difference. I even buried a couple of whole deer under my vegetable beds. I bet that the big name organic producers are not allowed to let animal corpses and skins rot into their soil mixes, and use mostly vegetation for compost. I am going to try and get a wood chipper so that I can grind up bone scraps and other bits and pieces, to mulch into my garden beds for extra minerals.

[eveheart]

"They" always said to keep animal scraps out of the compost, but that was just to prevent scavenging, carnivores from digging up the garden. So keep that in mind.

Have you ever grown dry-bed tomatoes? You can google the method. They grow more tasty, and no worries about watering and rainfall.

[jessica]

the compost i am using has plenty of dead animals in it, my farmer friend and ex landlord/boss preps it and its awesome.  he adds all the guts from his own slaughters and that of the neighbors(all pasture fed, no meds) plus all kinds of things like pine cones, etc, to promote microbial activity that breaks down over the years.  blood and guts are by far the best nutrition for the soil.  i have soaked sheeps heads to make bloody meaty tea for plants and make sure to compost my bloody tampons:)  i am sheet mulching a 20x30 garden bed as we speak, i hope itll be ready in time to plant melons and squashes.   i have all kinds of pots full of different veggies, mostly herbs, alliums, and am eating what grows wild in the yard, mostly different chicories, dead nettles, chickweed and mallow, really good stuff and an easy way to get magnesium (chlorophyll is molecularly identical to hemoglobin, it just has a magnesium as the central atom instead of iron)