Month: July 2019

This year we potted up a bunch of Potentilla but I stuck about 10 of them in a landscape planting to use as stock plants. The plants in the pots are far out growing the ones that I planted in the bed. Why? Potting soil must be pretty close to what it should be and the plants in the bed are small and mulched with 3″ of bark mulch. Not enough roots into the soil? Have we kept the plants in the pots watered more consistently than the ones in the bed? Probably.

I don’t know for sure, but as soon as I draw a conclusion about something I see something that makes me contradict my earlier claim.

So here’s my conclusion as of today.

In most cases if the soil in your yard is good plants in beds will out grow plants in pots. Unless your potting soil is near perfect.

Plants in pots need a lot more water. A lot more water!

Plants in pots are much easier to care for and keep weed free because you can pack them together then spread apart as needed. Once the plants fill out the pot the weeds don’t have much room to grow.

Plants in the ground? It takes a lot of calories (energy) to get plants out of the ground and the window of time to do so is pretty small. Digging season starts after Thanksgiving and ends about mid April in zones 5 and 6. Other zones are similar but the window is longer in the far north and shorter in the south.

If you plant in the ground, mulch the beds. This spring we put a lot of time, energy, effort and money into mulching all of our Japanese maple beds. What a difference. Weeds starting showing up in the isles weeks before the mulched beds and we used a pre-emergent herbicide over the entire area. The mulch helped the plants, it really helped with weed control, and I believe it carried the pre-emergent better than the soil.

Plants in the ground or in the field have to be close enough together to make weed control manageable, and even then, you’ll spend a lot of time “managing those weeds”.

Monitor pH Levels

There are many factors that could cause the nutrient solution to fall beyond the ideal range of 5.6. Often, if a hydroponic nutrients solutions is not monitored for too long, it could begin to drift outside of the said range, because it will get too dense in raw nutrients. Sometimes, it could become too alkaline or too acidic when you add new nutrients or transfer the plants to a new medium.

PH levels change rapidly. So it is important to check them every day. The longer the hydroponic nutrients solution spends outside the ideal range, the higher the chance that your plants will suffer. To make necessary adjustments to the pH levels of the solution, use a pharmaceutical-grade pH adjustment product.

Keep Temperature Levels Stable

The temperature of the hydroponic nutrients solution must be relatively cool, somewhere between 66 to 71 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s important to be particularly aware of this if you reside in an unusually cold or warm part of the world. In order to prevent nutrient deficiency, take additional steps and insulate your garden against the elements outside it. Also, you should avoid placing the reservoir directly on the ground, as the floor could be very cool. And such temperature can affect the temperature of your reservoir.

Keep an Eye on Phosphorus

Phosphorus is one of the most vital nutrients in a hydroponic nutrients solution. But it is very easy to have excessive phosphorus in a solution, which could result in deficiency in other essential nutrients like iron.

In general, the key to avoiding nutrient deficiency is keeping accurate measurements. If you can regularly and accurately measure the pH levels, conductivity, and temperature of your hydroponic nutrients solution, the chances of encountering less ideal condition will be surprisingly low. And ultimately, you will prevent nutrient deficiency in your plants.

The first invention after conventional gardening was Hydroponics. This made gardening much easier by growing vegetables in small pots in water. The only drawback is it involves the use of chemicals and fertilizers which means that it is not quite organic. Now we have hydroponics and aquaculture teamed up together called aquaponics. When you build an aquaponic system the use of chemicals and fertilizers are not required.

Aquaponic farming as it is now called is a way of growing plants and fish in a natural and interdependent way with each other. You have the fish in a normal fish tank then after a certain period of time you plant the seeds and grow the veggies. All you basically have to do is take care of the fish and the plants will grow and develop naturally.

The principle is simple, the fish provide the food and fertilizer (fish pooh), while the plants clean the water for the fish making a perfect cycle. As long as your fish are happy your plants will be happy.

Think of the advantages a system like this can offer you: Independence from the market and its rising prices. Travel time, as your veggies are at hand. Grown in a small location, like home or garage. No digging or weeding. No back breaking work preparing the land. In fact no land required.

Independence from the market and travel time would be a big plus for someone living a long way from the market or having to carry food back home if you don’t have transport. Many people livening in a high-rise apartment complex can take advantage of aquaponics because you don’t need land to grow your own vegetables.

As you can see aquaponics is the farming of the future. It is so futuristic that many authors use aquaponics in their science fiction novels as a way of farm in the future. If you have read this far and have not found the answer to “What is the secret behind apaponics” the answer is FISH!
Gardening has never been this easy.

Purchasing a greenhouse manufactured with thermally enhanced aluminum framework and high performance glazing will ensure your structure is energy efficient and durable. Aluminum framing will not rot or warp in the high moisture levels created by the pool, like a greenhouse with wood framing might. The aluminum framing and high performance glazing with low emissivity (LowE) coatings will also reduce heat gain in the summer and heat loss in the winter, which will help to keep heating and cooling costs down. Incorporating vents into the greenhouse will provide fresh air exchanges for plants while helping to maintain comfortable temperature and humidity levels.

A greenhouse can be a freestanding structure or share a wall with another building. An attached greenhouse can be accessed directly from your home; thus you’ll never have to brave the cold or inclement weather to get to your tropical retreat. A freestanding greenhouse can be placed anywhere on your property and be as large as you desire. Utilizing a freestanding greenhouse for your tropical getaway may be favorable if you want to leave your home but not your property.

Enclosing a pool with a greenhouse not only allows you to enjoy your pool year-round, but it may also save you money. Enclosing the pool prevents leaves and debris from entering the water; reducing cleaning time. The shelter provided by the greenhouse keeps the water in the pool protected from precipitation and evaporation, which helps keep the pool at the appropriate chemical levels. The consistent temperature of the air around the pool due to solar heat gain, combined with a heating system, helps maintain the temperature of the water. The enclosure lowers the costs associated with heating the pool, saves on cleaning costs, and can reduce the chemicals required to operate the pool year-round.

The warm, moist environment created by the enclosed pool provides an excellent home for tropical plants to thrive. Placing palms and tropical succulents around the pool will create the feeling of an island retreat. Adding a sitting area with wicker furniture and larger plants will provide a relaxing, intimate space for you and your guests to enjoy, regardless of the weather outside.

He along with many other researchers hoped this simple alga, with its concentrated nutrition, could easily solve the problem of world hunger. One scientist projected that a thousand-acre chlorella plot could produce an unbelievable 10,000 tons of protein in a year.[1] Dr. DeSeblo often ate a strict chlorella diet for 5 or 6 weeks at a time in order to test the feasibility of depending solely on this tiny green superfood for nourishment.

Despite its promise, chlorella didn’t work out as the answer to world hunger. As chlorella cultivators well know, it’s not as simple as originally thought to grow and process high quality, contaminant-free chlorella. Growing low cost, clean, optimally nutritious chlorella on a small scale is still a challenge.

Nonetheless, Dr. DeSeblo’s vision lives on – albeit in new forms. One California-based chlorella company is working with the homeless shelter, Midnight Mission, in Los Angeles to introduce chlorella as a simple answer to the problem of poor nutrition and hunger in this country.

And most importantly, Dr. DeSeblo’s work emphasized the wisdom of solving the most difficult problems with simple solutions – a lesson we can all put into practice.

Because whether it’s through cultivating chlorella or some other green food, we can all contribute towards building the world’s food security. How? By planting a garden.

It doesn’t matter if it’s just a window box of herbs, a tiny plot behind your house, a bed in a community garden or a ten acre farm. Each of us can grow a little something to eat. And by doing so, we can each help to build a more diverse and sustainable food supply chain.

I have to admit, I’m a little spoiled. Living in northern California – just a couple hours from some of the best farming country in the world – it’s easy for me to get fresh fruits and vegetables year round.

But even food picked just this morning and trucked to my local farmer’s market is nothing like the nutrition you can get from eating food right out of your garden. With few exceptions, the sooner you eat food after it’s picked, the higher it is in nutrition.

One study out of the University of California found that after just a week, vegetables can lose as much as 15-77% of their vitamin C.[2]

Not to mention fresher food simply tastes better!

Better yet, when you plant a garden, you can control how the food is grown. You can make sure it’s non-GMO and organic. And you can choose seeds for varieties that are bred to have a higher concentration of certain vitamins and antioxidants – like beta-carotene-rich carrots.

Finally, growing your own food isn’t just about the food that ends up on your plate. It contributes to your quality of life in much larger ways…

• When you garden, you get outside where you can breathe in the fresh air and enjoy the sunshine on your back.
• With more of us locked onto our smartphones and losing track of reality, gardening helps ground us again, literally. You can’t help but build your powers of observation when you work with plants and are busy digging in the dirt.
• It’s a great family activity. Or a project to launch into with friends and neighbors.
• Best of all, gardening is a good way to stay active. Depending on what you’re doing, gardening burns an average of 280 calories an hour. Digging, crouching, bending and pushing a wheelbarrow keeps you strong and limber.