Garden Culture Magazine: AUS 4 by Garden Culture Magazine

AUSTRALIAN EDITION

ISSUE 4 路 2015 -

FREE

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Gold Label Substrates Commercial growers worldwide recognise Gold Label as the premium quality substrate and nutrient manufacturer the world has to offer. We guarantee every bag of Gold Label substrate with each batch having been quality checked and sampled before sale. Coco

Buffered coco peat, the finest quality, RHP certified. A stable substrate based on the fine fibres of the coco husk. Mineral as well as organic nutrients can be used with this fully organic, recyclable top quality substrate.

Hydrocorn

Inert clay pebbles (8-16mm) with a unique rough structure for better stability and root development. Developed for horticulture. The porous structure has a high water capacity and is suitable for both ebb/ﬂood and top irrigation systems. Also available in XL 16-25mm.

& TEMPERAMENT

Distributed exclusively in Australia by Growhard www.growaustralia.com

Hydro

Hydro expanded round clay pebbles have a very solid outer ceramic layer, which limits the uptake of water. They are ideally suited for intense irrigation hydroponic styles of growing. We recommend top watering systems for Hydro.

60/40 Mix

Gold Label Hydrocorn and Coco is an ideal match for high water capacity, lower watering frequency and better rooting. We utilize the 8-16mm Hydrocorn from Gold Label and the purest Gold Label Coco to give to give you the perfect ebb and ﬂood growing media which also works well in any pot based systems.

www.goldlabel.nl

AVAIL GROW ABLE FROM HARD AU RETAIL STRALIA ERS

TRUE TO OUR ROOTS

AIR PRUNED ROOTS Porous fabric allows air flow directly to the root zone helping to establish a healthier plant and increase in floral development DRAINAGE Due to the fine fabric used to make Geopots, only nutrients will be filtered back into the reservoir, giving you the option to use all growing mediums / substrates TEMPERATURE Growing in Geopots will reduce root zone temperatures noteably in comparison to using plastic pots, through the process called evaporative cooling. Allowing your plants to thrive in hot conditions.

CONTENTS I GARDEN CULTURE

THYME

GROW-YOUR-OWN

plant nutrition

GROWING GORGEOUS GARLIC

LUMENS FOR HUMANS

PRODUCT

SPOTLIGHT

FISH

FERTILIZER

TOXIC 74 FRUIT

IN THIS ISSUE OF GARDEN CULTURE:

7 Foreword

44 Food Injustice

8 Product Spotlight

48 How Food Became A System

12 Five Mistakes That Will Bug You

53 Messing With Nature

14 Soil - Still The Stuff To Grow On

56 The 15 Most Toxic Supermarket Produce

20 Chinese Food - Time To Start Reading Labels

59 Addressing The State Of The Plate

23 Five Cool Finds

62 I Grow Lettuce

24 Growing Gorgeous Garlic

66 What Is Fertilizer Anyway?

28 Do It Yourself: Fish Fertilizer

70 Lumens Are For Humans

34 Thyme - Grow Your Own

74 Plant Nutrition

39 What Is Growing On?

78 What The Internet Did GARDENCULTUREMAGAZINE.COM

FOREWORD & CREDITS I GARDEN CULTURE FOREWORD

CREDITS Garden Culture™ is a publication of 325 Media INC.

GARD ENCU LT U R E M AG AZIN E.C O M

It wasn’t easy, and I made plenty of mistakes - some I have made more than once. But I figured it out, and became a better gardener. I certainly do not know everything, and find that I’m now learning more than ever. Even small commercial farms have several plant scientists involved to help maximize yields, and minimize problems. Most of us don’t have that option. When it comes to something as balanced as nature, a little knowledge can make the difference between success and failure.

DESIGN Job Hugenholtz

W W W.

Most indoor growers I have met have not studied plant sciences. They learn from trial and error, talking to their friends, the Internet, and books and magazines like this one. I am certainly one of those people. Many years of research, and toiling away in the garden has provided me with the proverbial indoor Green Thumb.

- FREE 4 · 2015

lizer really is, plus so much more.

V P O PER AT I O NS: Celia Sayers Email: celia@gardenculturemagazine.com t. 1-514-754-1539

E - ISSU

your own fish fertilizer, and tell you what ferti-

ION IAN EDIT

look into plant nutrition, show you how to make

AUS TRAL

experts you can trust. We will break down soil,

N EDITION AUSTRALIA

ING ROW OF G ART THE

gardening information. Tips and tricks written by

U R E C U LT

In these pages we provide good practical indoor

ED I TO RS Executive Editor: Eric Coulombe Email: eric@ gardenculturemagazine.com Senior Editor: Tammy Clayton Email: tammy@ gardenculturemagazine.com

D E N G A R

Welcome back!

Special thanks the following contributors: Judd Stone, Jeroen Kateehm, Amber Fields, Anne Gibson, Ryan Martinage, Ron Finley, Brian Burk, Agent Green, Evan Folds, Darryl Cotton, Grubbycup, Everest Fernandez, and Tammy Clayton PUBLISHER 325 Media INC 1 (844) GC GROWS www.gardenculturemagazine.com info@gardenculturemagazine.com ADVERTISING Eric Coulombe Email - eric@gardenculturemagazine.com t. 1-514-233-1539 D I ST R I B U T I O N PA R T N ER Growhard Australia ISSN: 2211-9329 © 325 Media Inc.

Remember, when it comes to your indoor garden - you are Mother Nature, and are responsible for everything. The more you know, the better you will grow.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without prior permission in writing from the 325 Media Inc.

Happy Gardening 3 Eric

Website : www.GardenCultureMagazine.com facebook.com/GardenCulture twitter.com/GardenCulture

ISS

product spotlight

s ’ c i r EGarden Gadgets 10 years experimenting with indoor gardening, In this edition we will feature the products in my garden. I have spent over t, I would like to give a nod to Can Fans and these are some of my favorites. Although not included in the product spotligh Opticfoliar Greener Cleaner (‘cause for the (I have had the same fan for 10 years), HM Digitals new HydroMaster meter, Organic Rescue Mist, and Pure Gold from first time with a huge garden I have no bugs), and Fulvic acid in general (I use Nutri Plus 29% Fulvic content and is certified organic).

Eric

Autopot

Established for over 15 years, AutoPot provide growers of all abilities with a watering system that will far exceed their expectations. From commercial glasshouses to domestic greenhouses; growers worldwide choose AutoPot Watering Systems to automatically irrigate their plants without the need for pumps timers or electricity. Thanks to the patented AQUAvalve technology; AutoPot is the only watering system in the world where each individual plant controls their own irrigation, and receives fresh nutrient enriched water exactly when they need it - with zero water loss. www.autopot.co.uk

Current Culture

DWC

ology utilizes C®) Deep Water techn Current Culture’s (SC nated nutrient re to recirculate oxyge negative water pressu is continuous plant’s root zone. Th solution through the th dissolved rges the nutrients wi fluid motion supercha perfect for r-aerobic conditions oxygen, creating hype t circulation Constant 24/7 nutrien explosive plant growth. oughout the levels are uniform thr ensures pH and EC entire system. www.cch2o.com

h s e r f

PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT I GARDEN CULTURE

w o r g o c E

wall

same people Manufactured by the osystem, the who made the Ec dular vertical Ecogrowwall is a mo k the panels garden. Simply clic configuration together in whatever support. All you like and snap to included, easy plumbing hardware is ings make compression-pop fitt ing system a setting up the water is designed to breeze. Each chamber s with 5 channels. ckwool slab. Set come support one 48”X6” ro o a garden. ern, turn your walls int When space is a conc .com www.ecogrowwall

Nutriculture Gro-Tanks NFT Our NFT Gro-Tanks give roots virtually unrestricted access to oxygen. Yields are typically much bigger than if growing in pots of dirt. The depth of the recirculating stream is very shallow, little more than a film of water, hence the name ‘nutrient film’. This ensures that the thick root mat, which develops in the bottom of the channel has

Sun S yste m

L E C 315

Sunlight Supply is pleased to announce the arrival of the LEC 315 light fixture. The LEC 315 utilizes cutting edge Light Emitting Ceramic™ technology, along with a specially engineered 98% reflective optical cavity. This fixture includes a highly efficient, agriculturally engineered Philips CDM-T Elite Agro Lamp. This lamp offers a greatly improved full color light spectrum, 3100K color temperature, 92 CRI, 33,000 initial lumens (105Lm/W)! Higher amounts of beneficial UV and far red spectrums increase the lamps growth power to the plants. The LEC drive incorporates built-in thermal protection, and the open rated lamp construction reduces radiant heat from the arc tube, and is suitable for open fixture use. www.sunlightsupply.com

constant access to nutrients and air. Nutrient solution is constantly pumped to the roots, there’s no timer to program. Because virtually no growing medium is used there’s nothing to transport or throw away at the end of the season. Very clean, very easy, and very impressive results. Perfect for beginners or experts. www.nutriculture.com

GARDENCULTUREMAGAZINE.COM

product spotlight Th e

Minimax 150 Following three-years of research and testing The MINIMAX 150 with microprocessor has finally arrived. We now have CE registration and are ready to impress UK growers. Running at less than 0.7amp we feel that this little unit will revolutionize indoor grow lighting. No longer do growers have to compromise with low wattage alternatives that just don’t do a great job. The MINIMAX 150 operates with either Metal Halide or High Pressure Sodium bulbs. • High lumen output (Sunmaster 150W Dual Spectrum Lamp -17200 Lumens) • Low bulb temperature • Full RF filtration

• No need for costly contact/relay controllers • Comes with full three year guarantee • Operates with either Metal Halide or High Pressure Sodium bulbs. www.downtoearthkent.co.uk

s g n i W A t s u j d A

Gavita

Plasma

CMY

The Adjust-A-Wings Enforcer reflector range have the same essential features as Hygro International’s worldfamous Avenger models, save for the Super reflective “glass coated” finish, and the high end price tag. The finish on the Enforcer Wings is 85% reflective, and guaranteed for 3 years. Made by skilled workers, using carefully selected high quality materials and fittings. These reflectors throw a huge light footprint, run nice and cool, produce killer yields, and have gained the respect and admiration of all who use them! www.adjustawings.com

Growing in indoor conditions without sunlight not only requires a good climate, but also a good quality light. Though one can grow successful under HPS alone, or a combination of HPS and MH, it is still not the full spectrum our sun delivers. The Gavita light Plasma fixtures produce light with a spectrum similar to that of the sun, making it the ideal supplement to HPS for serious growers. Plasma lights alone are perfect for vegetative periods, or green plants. www.gavita-holland.com

ROOTS

E XC ELU R ATOR

Explosive root development Creates a protective film around the roots

Protects against disease

Enhances absorption of nutrients through root zone Eradicates brown roots

Speeds up growth time

BY JUDD STONE

Some people’s grow rooms are down right nasty

5 5

s e k a t s Mi

u o Y g u B l That Wil What makes a person a master gardener? One of the greatest attributes of a master is avoiding mistakes. On your path to becoming a master, many (if not most) of the lessons learned are from making mistakes. Some gardeners with naturally green thumbs have some methodology in place that prevents them from making the mistakes that others will inevitably learn the more difficult way. In this article I am going to touch on a few simple mistakes people make that lead to bug infestations in the grow room.

1) General Cleaning

2) Studious Gardening

It may come as a shock to some of you, but out of all the grow rooms I have visited, none of them have ever been sufficiently clean to prevent bug infestations. Some people’s grow rooms are down right nasty. It is extremely important to pick up plant debris every day. If you don’t do this, the debris immediately begins to decay, and provides a nice home for mold and mildew to begin growing, along with a cool shaded spot for bugs to hang out.

This one is simple. In general, healthy plants are more resilient, and with some species, more resistant to pest attacks. Over-watering is a primary cause of fungus gnat proliferation.

I make it a rule of thumb to disinfect all surfaces of the grow environment at least once a month, again being sure that you’ve wiped up all debris and spills. Proper airflow keeps things fresh in the grow room. Stagnant, dirty conditions attract bugs.

GARDENING MISTAKES I GARDEN CULTURE

5) The Order of Things Consider the immediate environment of the grow room, and the method to your madness. I consulted a gardener with a good-sized indoor operation that had repeated issue with spider mites. He tried everything, and everything worked, but the bugs just kept coming back.

3) Regulate Your Traffic By that I mean watch what you might be bringing into your grow room. If you are introducing new clones or plants for the first time to your grow environment, it’s a good idea to keep them a day or two in a separate place in your house. Give them a thorough inspection, or preventative treatment for bugs or mildew infestation.

4) Sole Policies

He had to wear his shoes, because it was in an outbuilding on his property. Although he did his best to keep things clean, his problem persisted. Next to his outbuilding was a garden plot of outdoor veggies. I went to visit, and I asked if I could just watch him run his routine. We walked out of his house and toward the building in the back of the lot, through long grass. He watered a small garden plot on the side of his outbuilding, pruned a couple of suckers from a tomato, and we went inside to his prized peppers.

Don’t wear your shoes into the grow room, especially when coming straight in from outdoors

Don’t wear your shoes into the grow room, especially when coming straight in from outdoors. If you must wear your shoes - rinse the bottom in your tub first. Better yet, buy a set of shoes or slippers exclusively for use in your grow space. As much as you might want to show friends your healthy plants, you run the risk of them bringing in an unwanted visitor. Don’t let your pets into your grow room. Although they may like the warm inviting environment of your grow room, your best pal carries not only hair into your grow room, but also pests and pest eggs!

In his case, I recommended he first cut his lawn, and keep it short. Then I told him to start his work in the clean controlled environment before doing anything with his outdoor plot. If you’ve worked in your outside garden, it’s not unheard of to change clothes, or maybe even shower before introducing yourself to your indoor grow environment. Change air filters in your home regularly. Keep your floors well mopped and vacuumed, and you will win the war before it begins. Happy Gardening! 3 GARDENCULTUREMAGAZINE.COM

BY JEROEN KATEEHM

Y O U R YA R D I S F U L L O F I T

soil

stillthe stuff togrowon Even though hydroponics continues to grow in popularity, soil is still the stuff to grow on. There are a many types and compositions of soil. It’s no news that having healthy and fertile soil is important for plants to grow efficiently. Taking care of your soil isn’t that complicated, but it’s important to understand the principles that govern soil health if you’re going to understand your garden, and improve on your gardening skills.

SOIL I GARDEN CULTURE

CARING FOR SOIL IS MANAGING LIFE, THIS IS NOT AN OFFICE JOB, BUT DEPENDING ON THE AMOUNT OF STUDY AND CALCUL ATIONS YOU PUT IN, IT CAN BECOME ONE... Soil itself is not living per se, but an assortment of things, some of which are alive. Dead soils do exist, but a healthy soil should contain a lot of life! To keep it simple, soil consists of three things; live, dead, and parts that have never been alive. Caring for soil is managing life, this is not an office job, but depending on the amount of study and calculations you put in, it can become one. Generally speaking it’s ‘dirt simple’... pun intended. Since soils form over long periods of time, changes are not usually seen in the blink of an eye. It’s easy to say up front what the hardest part will be, gaining experience, the ability to see what is going on, and recognize any problems before they get out of hand.

DEAD PARTS The dead parts of soil make up its structure. Most of this structural material is rocks of various kinds. These rocks, over millions of years have weathered and broken down into smaller fragments. The texture of a soil is mostly determined by the size of these fragments. The fragments are commonly graded in three sizes. Sand being the biggest, medium-sized mineral particles called silt, and the smallest mineral particles known as clays. Each of these particles has different effects on how a soil behaves. Functions like water and nutrient retention, the ability to hold temperature, or support root growth - are all determined by this composition. Sand, for instance, lets water pass through more easily than clay does. The finer particles in clay are better at storing water, but its also much more dense. This makes it harder for roots to penetrate, and among other things it’s less porous, allowing less air into the soil, and between the roots. Silt, being an intermediate size, also has intermediate characteristics. Soils are usually made of these three elements in combination. Agricultural scientists and

agencies use a triangle graph to classify the texture of a soil. (--For instance the UK-ADAS and USDA textural triangle.--) Laboratories use extensive methods to accurately measure the mixture of particles in a soil. There is a slightly less accurate do-it-yourself method too. Apart from rock derived particles, soil can contain other things that change its texture. Organic matter is an important component of a healthy soil, although quite often limited in its amount. Soils that have depleted their organic matter will become less fertile, quickly. Organic matter, although not high in nutrient concentration, is important in regulating nutrients. Humus - the end product of composted plant life has chemical properties helping to free up minerals for plant uptake. Humus provides a lot of other benefits for plant life and soil health, but without additions of new organic matter, it won’t last.

GARDENCULTUREMAGAZINE.COM

LIVE PARTS As is extensively covered in this magazine, soil is full of beneficial life. Not only do plants support each other in certain cases, but other life forms, such as the bacteria and fungi that play a vital role in healthy soils. In forming, and in maintaining structure. When soils form naturally, it is through interactions of many unique life forms. Bacteria play a role in breaking down plant matter from the first pioneering species. Fungi provide symbiotic relationships with plants to aid them in harsh conditions, such as droughts. Plants help absorb nutrients, and store these in their tissues. Because of this, soils grow slowly from infertile lands to nutrient-rich soils with improved qualities. The type of plants that grow naturally on a soil are usually a good indication of the health and type of soil you’re dealing with. Plants that need a lot of nutrients will be outcompeted by others. Plants requiring a lot of water will do poorly in sandy soils. Most of these things are obvious, but realizing that requires experience.

SOIL MAINTENANCE How to maintain your soil is one of the most hotly debated topics ever. Mankind has been growing crops for thousands of years, and the start of this is often marked by the plow’s invention. The plow has been in use for longer than almost any other tool humans have invented. However, are they essential? There are a few reasons why plowing might be unbeneficial in all cases. The soil life is disturbed. Natural channels for water to flow through are broken, which changes the permeability and water absorbing capabilities of a soil. Plowing increases the quality of a soil in the short term, but quite possibly, and if not managed carefully, damages it in the long term. But it’s a hot issue.

Maintaining the amount of organic matter in a soil can bring some complications with it. The easiest solution to this is simply to let surplus plant material decompose on top of the soil, or plow it through the top. While this is easy, many people find that this method attracts more pests. An indirect method is to feed compost to the soil, in this

way the risk of pests is lowered. Another hot topic is whether or not to plow through these soil additives, specifically with potted plants or grow-beds. Many choose to completely remix their substrate after a growing cycle by breaking up clumps, and adding new materials to upgrade the soil. Others choose disturbing their soil as little as possible, only removing stumps or other debris that won’t compost fast enough. The difference is that by not mixing up the soil completely a natural concentration gradient will form, even inside the pot of a potted plant. There are good arguments for both sides, so it’s up to the growers’ preference. Generally though, it’s advisable to disturb a healthy soil as little as possible, what good would it do? The way nutrients behave in soils is greatly dependent on the soil texture and health. Sandy soils have a lot lower buffering capacity in this regard. Mobile nutrients are easily washed out, creating a nutrient imbalance. At the same time pH levels are also

SOIL I GARDEN CULTURE

THE WAY NUTRIENTS BEHAVE IN SOILS IS GREATLY DEPENDENT ON THE SOIL TEXTURE AND HEALTH. more susceptible to swinging up and down. Humus, clays, and things like volcanic rock, can help with buffering these elements making the ups and downs less violent. Timing of nutrient application, and the relative input amounts are important to consider. Soils that have a low buffering capacity will need more regular application, and smaller amounts of nutrients. The key to understanding how to maintain a healthy soil is to understand what is going on inside it. Every soil is different and requires different maintenance. Learning how these processes work is rewarding. Healthy soils are the backbone of a productive garden. Take care of it and it will take care of your plants.

D I Y SO I L TE ST Not sure what kind of soil are you dealing with in your garden? This will give you some clues. • Take a sample of soil. • Pulverize it until you’ve broken up all clumps. • Put a layer of the pulverized soil in a glass jar. • Fill the jar with water, and put on the lid. • Shake the jar and let the particles settle on the bottom of the jar. The biggest particles will settle first, so the bottom layer will be sand. The middle layer is the silt layer, and on top is clay. It can take quite a while, but when everything settles you can measure the individual layer proportions, and calculate what kind of soil you’ve got. To help with getting an even distribution after shaking, add a small amount of non-foaming detergent. TIP: Soils aren’t always the same all over the yard. Test a few spots. How many? How big is your garden? 3

GARDENCULTUREMAGAZINE.COM

BY AMBER FIELDS

CHINESE

FOOD

T I M E TO S TA R T R E A D I N G L A B E L S No doubt you’re picturing white boxes packed with enticing fragrant oriental dishes supported by a mountain of sticky rice, and egg rolls with duck sauce. Kung Pao, General Tao’s Chicken, Szechuan Beef, Moo Shu Pork... mentally craving some Chinese takeout? Me too! But I apologize in advance for killing your food mood. This is about another kind of Chinese food. Definitely nothing to have a yen for. Food exported from China, grown in contaminated soil with contaminated water using banned drugs and pesticides, or processed in deplorable conditions, being in carry-out boxes from your favorite Chinese restaurant isn’t a certainty. Then again, like anything else you eat today, it’s possible. Just as it’s possible you’re eating Chinese imports on a pizza delivered, at any restaurant or cafeteria, or in home-cooked meals processed, or prepared from scratch. Time to really start reading labels.The obscure fine print.You’re looking for ‘Product of China’ or PRC. If the food was processed in China, the label must state the country of origin. Foods containing multiple ingredients do not have to state countries of origin, and so you really have no way of knowing where any of it is from. It could be a complete frozen dinner, tinned soup, fruit preserves, or something as simple as mixed frozen vegetables. One might think that North America grows enough apples to supply US and Canadian markets. It looks like we don’t, because 60% of the apple juice on the market comes from China, even under labels as venerable as Mott’s and Tree Top. Naturally, it’s not real apple juice, but reconstituted from some crystallized

stuff sold as apple juice. God only knows what’s really in there. It’s likely as mysterious as the 100% pollen-free honey imported from China.You can’t have bona fide honey without any pollen, but China does. Forget debating ingredients or processes involved in creating synthetic honey. Let’s just settle for the fact that honey coming from China isn’t allowed to enter the US, but it still does via honey launderers in India. Use a lot of garlic? Chances are those lovely looking cloves you picked up at market are a product of China. They grow 75% of the global garlic supply. Don’t assume that it is rigorously examined before entering the country. Only 1-2% of imported foods get inspected by the USDA or the FDA, so that garlic could have been grown in conditions that would make your stomach turn. Buying fresh or frozen fish filets? If you love tilapia, it’s time to start growing your own, because the tilapia marketed in the US is an export from China.That is unless you’ve tracked down the fish farmer closest to home. A wise move on your part with over 80% of tilapia, and 50% of cod on the North American market being China exports. Why a country as large as the US with huge expanses of

CHINESE FOOD I GARDEN CULTURE

“ D E F I N I T E LY N O T H I N G TO H AV E A Y E N F O R.” coastline on two oceans, numerous lakes and major rivers can’t supply enough fresh fish and seafood to go around is kind of crazy. Perhaps it’s time for a boatload of unemployed people to get involved in fishing and fisheries? Then again, maybe not. Business profit is impossible competing with Chinese prices, yet you must do both.This situation causes unemployment. Even shipping food halfway around the world, the Chinese can still come in a lot cheaper than domestically produced or processed food. They don’t have to comply with food safety or food quality rules. Everyone between the fisheries in China and your local meat department is profiting, or there would be no Products of China available. You can buy only what is profitable to sell. Fresh mushrooms aren’t as convenient as canned, and while canned ones are certainly more budget-friendly, price indicates country of origin. Cheap canned mushrooms are likely from China, the source for over 30% of the processed mushrooms on the global market. China also grows 50% of the world’s Mandarin oranges. If you don’t have one aspect of food quality to worry about, it’s another. Recently under debate was the idea to ship US-grown chickens to China for processing. Sound ridiculous? It’s cheaper than processing them here, but while writing this article the USDA vetoed the notion, because Chinese processing plants didn’t meet safety and quality guidelines. A big part of why they can profit at ridiculously low prices. You might want to avoid soy sauce, imitation vanilla flavoring, and foods purchased at a dollar store, because these are likely imported from China too. Xylitol used to sweeten sugarfree candy, and folic acid are also major Chinese exports. The solution? Be aware, read labels on the food you buy. Or better, grow your own food, buy from regional farms or ones you can visit, and get to know the people who grow it from start to finish. Don’t be any more wary of Chinese take-out than ordering up a pizza, they both get their mushrooms from the same sources... the US food supply, and at the lowest cost possible. More info: www.hoax-slayer.com/chinese-food-import-screed.shtml 3

ONLY 1-2% OF IMPORTED FOODS GET INSPECTED

60% OF THE APPLE JUICE ON THE MARKET COMES FROM CHINA

GARDENCULTUREMAGAZINE.COM

GREEN PRODUCTS I GARDEN CULTURE

cool finds 1

S M A RT R A I L I N G POT

It’s always been a challenge to secure a planter to balcony and deck railings. Not anymore. The new patented Greenbo planter securely hugs any railing material or style, and can also be used on a fence. It’s got an anti-theft device too.You can grow several plants, or a single larger plant in each container. Easy drain, no-drip design in your choice of 2 sizes, and 8 hot colors.Available here: bit.ly/rail-planter.

SUN JAR

Collect sunshine in a jar for zero energy lighting. Just what you need to brighten the patio, balcony, or deck... or for chasing those monsters lurking in the dark out of the house.Totally weatherproof solar light in a jam jar... a great concept. Frosted glass diffuses the glow while hiding the inner workings for a smart-looking finish. Bulb and solar battery included. Pick between red or blue colored light.Available here: bit.ly/sun-in-a-jar.

PO C K ET TO O L KIT

Open, undo, or tighten just about anything without running about locating the proper tool for the job.The Wallet Ninja puts a screw driver, hex wrench, can opener, bottle opener, letter opener, box knife, bottle opener, ruler, and cell phone stand into a credit card sized design. Plus it’s legal to carry on an airplane, so you’ll never have to leave home without it. Available here: bit.ly/multi-toolkit.

S TO P F O O D WA S T E Increase the storage life of any food. You can recycle any jar to pack up fresh produce, or even reseal partially used opened jars with this nifty gadget.The Air Jar Sealer vacuum seals the jar, removing all air that reduces the shelf life of food. Comes with 10 reusable seals, the pump, and a lid piercing tool. Available here: bit.ly/jar-vacuum.

SMARTPHONE BUBBLESCOPE

Capture the world around you all in one frame.Turn your iPhone (4, 4s, 5, or 5s) into a 360° photograph and video camera instantly. Great for traveling, parties, events... any time the scenery grabs your fancy. Lens attachment, connector phone case, and protection pouch included. Available here: bit.ly/360-phone-lens. 3

BY ANNE GIBSON

Growing Gorgeous

garlic

YOU CAN GROW GARLIC IN ALL ZONES

5 easy

Do you know where your garlic comes from? The garlic available in Australia is mostly imported, primarily from China. Local production is only about 5%. Whilst the health benefits of garlic are widely known, they are unfortunately negated when treated with harmful chemicals. Those perfect-looking, imported cheap white bulbs in the supermarket may look tempting. However, Australian quarantine regulations require all imported garlic be fumigated with methyl bromide, a toxic chemical, despite it being banned here for domestic use.

steps

If that doesn’t leave a bad taste in your mouth, Chinese garlic is also gamma irradiated to inhibit sprouting, and to extend shelf life it’s sprayed with Maleic Hydrazide - a genotoxic chemical, damaging to DNA, and capable of causing mutations or cancer. If you’d rather eat safe food, packed with flavour, try growing organic garlic at home.

SOURCE CERTIFIED ORGANIC BULBS TO AVOID CHEMICALS

CHOOSING VARIETIES

Garlic is a bulbous perennial herb, but grown as an annual. It is slow-growing (avg 6-7 months), but it’s NOT a bed hog like pumpkins, and doesn’t take up much ‘personal space’. About 1m2 supplies our family with enough garlic to last a year.

Select certified organic seed garlic that grows well in your local climate. Softneck varieties braid and store well; typically produce 12-13 cloves/head, but have no flower stem. They suit warm climates with mild winters. Hardneck garlic types send up a hard, flowering stem so are less suitable for braiding, and are milder tasting, but have a shorter shelf life due to less layers of skin around the bulb. Elephant or Russian garlic is not a true garlic. It’s a bulbing leek with a milder flavour. To determine how many bulbs you need for planting, find out how many cloves per bulb for your variety of choice.

WHEN TO PLANT

WHERE TO BUY

You can grow garlic in all zones. For higher yields and larger cloves, the ideal time to plant is Autumn. Don’t despair though – garlic can be planted during the year, but the size of bulbs might be smaller.

Some Aussie growers also use chemicals, so if buying from a retailer, source certified organic bulbs. Make sure there are no signs of disease, marks, or soft spots. Quality matters! Pick the largest bulbs you can find. The size of the cloves you

“WHERE YOU FIND GARLIC, YOU FIND GOOD HEALTH.” – OLD SPANISH PROVERB

If you live in a high rainfall area, avoid harvesting in the wet season, as bulbs can rot. Time your planting for a warm, dry harvest period.

GARLIC I GARDEN CULTURE

MOST GARLIC IN AUSTRALIA IS IMPORTED FROM CHINA plant will determine whether you get big or small heads when you harvest. Search online for ‘certified organic garlic’ for Australian suppliers or visit: bit.ly/garlic-directory.

•

PLANTING PREP •

•

Garlic thrives in full sun, in well-drained, humusrich soil with a soil pH 6.0 – 7.0. Garlic is a hungry root crop, so I add worm castings, homemade compost, and a complete organic fertiliser with rock minerals to soil, or improving a quality potting mix. Garlic LOVES mulch to prevent weeds, provide protection, maintain soil moisture, and keep soil cool longer. Garlic dislikes soil too dry (when young), or too wet (will rot). The colder your winter, the deeper you should mulch. I add about 8 cm here in the sub-tropics, but very cold areas could need 10-15cm. Garlic grows well in 15cm deep containers, or a shallow garden bed. Practice crop rotation to help prevent diseases. Avoid sowing garlic where you’ve grown members of the Allium (onion) family in the last couple of years. Use fresh potting mix if reusing a pot. Ideally, chill garlic cloves in the fridge for a few weeks to improve bulb development.

Bunch of cured dried garlic ready for braiding and storing

To prevent rotting in the soil, soak your cloves in a glass jar with equal quantities of baking soda to organic liquid seaweed for 2 hours. e.g. for 8-10 cloves (1 average bulb) = 1 tablespoon baking soda: 1 tablespoon seaweed. Increase quantity depending on the number of cloves you’re planting.

SOWING •

• •

•

Separate the garlic head into individual cloves just before planting: Outside larger cloves are ideal for planting. Use the small inner cloves for cooking. Be gentle to avoid bruising the garlic. Cuts and bruises can provide entry points for rot to set in. Make a hole in the soil with your finger roughly twice the depth of the clove (about 5cm), and 10cm apart. Plant pointy end up. Press down firmly as you backfill with soil. This avoids cloves being pushed out after a few days as the roots start to develop. Check at this stage, and reposition them back into line! Water in well with liquid seaweed. When the shoots are about 5cm high, add mulch thickly to suppress weeds.

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The Essential Mix

GARLIC I GARDEN CULTURE

MAINTAINING When garlic shoots are about 15cm tall, fertilise with liquid nutrients e.g. diluted seaweed, fish emulsion, worm juice, or compost tea. Plants benefit from a monthly liquid feed.

Garlic bulbs and cloves choose varieties that grow well in your climate

Water regularly (unless it rains) until the plant flowers (hardneck varieties) or about one month before harvest (softneck). This allows bulbs to dry out and harden. Keep your soil moist, NOT wet.

HARVESTING, CURING & STORING • •

•

• • • • •

Keep a record of the planting date so you know when your garlic variety is likely to mature. Harvest too soon, and your garlic will look like an onion (the segments and papery wrapper will not yet be formed). Harvest too late, and the cloves grow and expand so much the outer tissue paper-like wrapper will split. This reduces bulb quality and storage life. Generally, harvest hardneck garlic when a third to a half of the leaves are brown and wilted. The bottom few leaves of softneck varieties will start dying off or the garlic will fall over. Not sure? Pull out one bulb to test it has fully formed before harvesting the whole crop. To harvest, gently pull up the entire plant. Brush off dirt but don’t wash! Save at least 10% of your best bulbs for replanting. To cure your garlic, hang in a dry, airy, shady place or on racks. Dry bulbs for 2-4 weeks, or until firm. Well-cured skins will harden with a protective outer papery wrapper, and store for up to 6-7 months. Store in a garlic keeper or netted onion bag away from humidity. You can also freeze or refrigerate, it but you will lose the full flavour and aroma.

I hope these tips help you grow an abundant harvest of gorgeous garlic. 3

Use large cloves for planting and small ones for eating

Split your bulb open when preparing for planting

Garlic mass planted in a wooden raised garden bed

BIO: Anne Gibson is author of several eBooks, and publishes The Micro Gardener, an inspiring DIY garden website. As a writer, consultant, speaker, and community educator, she teaches people how to grow sustainable, highly productive edible gardens on a budget in urban spaces. Anne is passionate about helping people grow nutrientdense food, upcycling materials in the garden, and maximising yields for minimal time, money and effort. Visit www. TheMicroGardener.com for your complimentary eBook.

GARDENCULTUREMAGAZINE.COM

BY RYAN MARTINAGE

DIY

DiY

fish

fertilizer Thanks to the many benefits gained using inputs made from fish in gardening, fishbased products are a familiar sight within the retail gardening industry. With all the products on the market, the liquid fish fertilizer segment has two separate categories: fish hydrolysate and fish emulsion.

, e l b a n Sustai l a r u t a N g n i w o r G

FISH FERTILIZER I GARDEN CULTURE

Emulsifying fish is a hot process

Outside of specialty gardening shops, fish emulsion is the product most commonly found. This is most unfortunate for the average organic gardener. Fish emulsion production is like hydrolysate, in that both source their ingredients mainly through byproducts of the fishing industry. The manufacturers use fish heads, bones, organs, scales, and fins, but this is where the similarities between the two end. Emulsifying fish is a hot process. They heat the fish materials to extract oil for commercial purposes, as well as protein in the form of fish meal for gardening or animal feed. When the extraction processing finishes, the brown slurry that’s left gets bottled and sold as fish emulsion. It’s a dead product. This form of liquid fish is devoid of organic compounds. They get burned off in the emulsifying process leaving varying concentrations of nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, trace elements, and a high concentration of chlorine - which is harmful to beneficial microbes in your garden. That being said, this is not the type of fish fertilizer we will be focusing on. Let’s get acquainted with the good stuff, fish hydrolysate. Fish hydrolysate comes from the same inputs as fish emulsion, but the key difference is that it’s made using a cold, and all natural process. Without the heat, there is no breaking down of the beneficial organic compounds that are naturally present in the fish carcasses. All of the vitamins, amino acids, and fish oils remain in the product. Typically, when creating fish emulsion, the fish parts are turned into a substance called ‘gurry’. This gurry is basically fish + blender. When the fish parts are ground into bits, the exposed surface area increases phenomenally, making it easier for the enzyme-powered digestion process to occur. After making the fish parts into gurry, it’s added to water along with an enzyme concentrate. After a period ranging from a few days to over a week, the solution is then strained and stabilized. Phosphoric acid is most commonly

used as the stabilizer to prevent further decay, and enables the product to have a shelf life. The good news for you? This complicated sounding processing is more than what is necessary to make a fantastic liquid fish input. If you want a high quality product at a great savings, keep reading. Should you run out of homemade fish fertilizer, or simply don’t wish to make it yourself, don’t just buy anything fishy. Always stick with cold-processed fish hydrolysate. Check the product label. It’s often stated by the manufacturer that it’s made using a cold process or is a hydrolysate.

Now it’s DIY time! I’m going to tell you how to make fish hydrolysate using fermentation as our cold process of choice for many reasons. Chief among them is you need no special commercial enzyme concentrates, no acid stabilizers, and it doesn’t smell bad! Here is a list of what you will need: • 1-part Fish or Fish Scraps • Blender or Food Processor • Lactobacillus • 3-parts Dechlorinated Water • ⅓-part Brown Sugar • Airtight Plastic Jug • Home-Brewing Airlock • DIY instructions below Where does one get fish scraps? Inquire at local fish markets. Naturally, you can also catch your own. Finding lactobacillus is easy. It’s available from your local pharmacy next to the vitamins. Remember - chlorine kills microbes, so be sure you use dechlorinated water or well water. I’ve given the measurements in parts to deal with different sized blenders or food processors, and get the ratio of ingredients right.

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SAFE AND

Hit High PPM’s

EASY

to use

ALL

DISPERSAL CANISTER

boost nutrients intake maximise plant growth

IMPROVE OVERALL PLANT HEALTH

FISH FERTILIZER

I GARDEN CULTURE

the best all-natural plant food possible

...it doesn’t smell bad! Let’s get started!

About that DIY airlock...

1). Depending on how much you want in the end, you may have to do several sessions with your blender. Be sure to take into account the maximum volume of your blender when figuring the parts measurements.

This is an inexpensive item if there’s a home-brewing store handy. Even so, I believe making your own airlock just adds to the DIY experience of this fish fertilizer! We must use an airlock for a true anaerobic fermentation of our gurry.

•

You will need: • 6.4mm Grommets (2) • 6.4mm Flexible air hose (As much as needed) • Water-filled plastic bottle

• • • • •

Chop up the fish, or fish parts as small as you can to help the blender/ processor. Place bits into blender. The amount is your 1-part of fish. Add your 3-parts of water and ⅓-part of brown sugar. Blend until smooth! This can take several minutes. Pour into your fermentation vessel (plastic jug, bottle - anything with a cap.) Repeat process if you wish to make more gurry.

2). With your gurry ready, we need to get ready to ferment. For our fermentation to work, we need to add lactobacillus to our mixture. We’re using an over the counter lactobacillus from my local pharmacy. It is possible to harvest and cultivate your own wild lactobacillus culture, but that is for another time! • •

•

Add 4 lacto-pills to your mixture per blender-full of gurry. Stir well. If you purchased a pre-made airlock, fill it with water and screw on your jug / vessel. If you wish to make one yourself, see the next section! Let the jug ferment until there are no more bubbles appearing in your airlock. This is usually a 7-10 day period. If you are in doubt, or bubbles are getting scarce, the smell disappearing is a great indicator you’re done!

Putting it together: 1. Consult the grommet manufacturer’s literature, drill the proper sized a hole into the lid of your fermentation vessel to accommodate the grommet. Do the same on the bottle that you will fill with water. 2. Drill a second small hole next to the one made for your grommet. THIS IS IMPORTANT. This second hole allows gasses to escape from the fermentation vessel. 3. Add water until the water bottle is ¾ full. Insert your 6.4mm hose into your fermentation jug through the grommet just 50mm or so past the lid. Do the same with the water bottle, but insert the hose through the grommet until the hose is underwater and at the bottom of the water bottle. When the processing finishes, use at 30-60 grams per 4-liters as a fertilizer. You can also add 15 grams per 4-liters to compost tea. Thank you so much for reading! I sincerely hope this knowledge can get you one step closer to producing the best all-natural plant food possible. 3

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U-TURN

FULL BLOOM

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The next step is to introduce Full Bloom Enhancer into your system. When used in conjunction with U-Turn your crops will reach their full potential! Full Bloom Enhancer has been designed to set your ﬂowers and then to increase their size and weight.

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Problems with an unhealthy root system? AU60 is a revolutionary product that actually ﬁghts diseases for the plant, allowing the plant to ﬂourish, to grow bigger, stronger and healthier. It is not a toxic pesticide but naturally occuring substance. Allowing your plants to reach their full potential.

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• • • •

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e m y h

â&#x20AC;&#x153;THYMES THRIVE IN FULL SU N A N D AV ER AG E S O I L â&#x20AC;?

H I STO RY According to Greek mythology, we owe thanks to Helen of Troy for the many wonders of Thymus vulgaris. She shed a tear, and the plant appeared as a gift of courage to the soldiers of Greece, and so carrying sprigs into battle became important. A practice the Romans took a step further, adding it to their bath to soak up this gift of courage and bravery before battle. Naturally, thyme went wherever the Roman army did, spreading this now commonly used herb throughout Europe. A native of northern Africa, Spain, Italy, and the mountains of Greece. While the Egyptians used thyme for embalming, the Greeks discovered it had medicinal value. It was the Romans who were brave enough to jump from being immersed in thyme infusions to enjoying it as an aromatic flavoring, beginning with liquors and cheeses. Its uses in the distant past include purifying rooms, being burned as incense in temples, and during the Middle Ages, sleeping with thyme under your pillow was the sure path to peaceful rest devoid of nightmares.

BY TAMMY CLAYTON

THYM E I GARDEN CULTURE Grow Your Own Series

“THERE IS NO SHORTAGE OF WAYS TO USE THYME”

...essential oil has power to kill microbes...

BENEFITS There are some 350 species of Thymus scattered around the world, but only 3 of them have use as herbs. In the past, people have used this plant to treat just about anything anemia to warts. Modern natural medicine gives the essential oil quite a list of uses. Thyme tea has long been used for treatment of coughs, and it’s still used as a home remedy for that and bronchitis. The Greek practice of using essential thyme oil for massages wasn’t without merit, it is still used in liniments for both humans and animals. Due to its strong antiseptic qualities thymol from the essential oil was once used to medicate bandages. Today its the main active ingredient in Listerine mouthwash, and some all-natural hand sanitizers. Thymol has also been found effective for treating toenail fungi and acne. This power to kill microbes make it ward off mold on paper, and gives it credit for purifying water in some countries. The flavonoids in Thyme increase its antioxidant capacity, and like other members of the mint family its recognized as a cancer preventative. The herb is also claimed an aid to digestion, though it is definitely a rich source of vitamins A, K, E, C, and B-complex, manganese, beta carotene and folic acid. The best known benefit is purely culinary, and having been spread far and wide from the plants origins, the herb has a place in many culture’s cuisines.

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“THYME TEA LONG USED AS A COUGH TREATMENT ”

“ YOU WILL NEED A DEC ENT GROW LI GHT”

CU LT I VA R S

G E T T I N G STA R T ED

Thymus citriodorous: A creeping form that offers Lemon Thymes, Orange Thymes, and Lime Thyme. An excellent herb for growing in hanging baskets, it is 50102mm tall and 304-584mm wide. They are perennial in zones 7-9, but you can move it indoors in winter. Use these in any recipe calling for the citrus it’s named for, be it sweet or savory. Thymus herba-barona: A very different flavor known as Caraway Thyme, because it tastes just like caraway seeds. Used in breads and meat dishes, this creeping form grows 101-254mm tall and 304mm wide. It is winter-hardy in zones 5-11. Thymus vulgaris: This is Common Thyme, a.k.a. English Thyme, French Thyme, and Garden Thyme. This upright woody-stemmed perennial is indigenous to the Mediterranean region, but is hardy in zones 4-11. It matures to 457-609mm high and wide, but constant clipping reduces its maximum size. It’s hard to kill these plants once established in the soil, as long as they have excellent drainage. They are evergreen to semi-evergreen. All thymes thrive in full sun under average garden conditions. It deals with drought well once established in the soil, but provides better harvests with regular watering. While it’s easy to grow any kind of thyme on a sunny balcony or patio if you have no ‘ground’ to plant it in, there comes a time of year that many will have to protect it by moving it indoors. Then there are those who don’t get enough sun on their outdoor space to succeed in growing it even seasonally. The good news is that you can grow it indoors year around.

Thymes can be grown from tip cuttings, seed, and root division. In the indoor garden, seed germination will be the best way to ensure that no pests or diseases are present, but cutting grown starts are fine if you isolate the plant until you are sure it has brought nothing unwanted with it. Thyme seed germination is best done at 24°C and 75% humidity. Using traditional potting methods seed germinates in 8-20 days, and a maximum of 14 days in a propagation chamber. This is a full sun plant, so you will need a decent grow light to keep it in good, healthy condition. It does very well under CFLs, HO T5s, and HID lights. There is some success in growing it on a bright windowsill, but better control over sun hours and temperature will be more rewarding, and save your plant from getting stressed. You can grow thyme plants indoors using traditional potting methods. Indoor humidity will be almost non-existent with the furnace running in winter. Make sure the potting soil doesn’t get overly dry. Water the plants often and regularly, and only use potting soil with excellent drainage. Thyme does well in hydroponic systems. Start the seed or cuttings in rockwool cubes. Transplant to slabs or NFT when seedlings have at least 3 mature leaves. The best growing environment is daytime temps of 21-29°C and 16-23°C during the night cycle. Set the daylight cycle to 14 hours minimum. Thyme has no special fertilizer or nutrient requirements.

THYM E I GARDEN CULTURE

“THE M AIN ACTIVE INGREDIENT IN LISTERINE MOUTHWASH”

Roasted Tomato & Artichoke Salad Herbed with plenty of fresh thyme, and served on a bed of greens with some lovely mozzarella. Once anointed with freshly made oil and vinegar dressing, this is the perfect complement to chicken - roasted, grilled, or fried. Start with heirloom tomatoes, just harvested thyme, and the freshest artichokes you can find.

INGREDIENTS

PESTS & DISEASE In perfect conditions, thyme is very resistant to pests and diseases. When grown in conditions that are stressful, it can become prone to mealy bugs and whitefly. Treat pest issues organically with neem oil products. Greenhouse growers note some issues with fungal disease without auxiliary lighting in winter. (Insufficient light = stressful conditions.)

HARVEST You’ll be able harvest marketable sprig lengths 5 weeks after transplant in summer, and up to 8 weeks later in winter. Hydroponic yield rates are 453 grams per 6 meters of trough in summer, and half that in winter, based on commercial crop results. When growing a couple of plants for home cooking use, you can snip tips at about 4 weeks. In an outdoor garden, you can harvest fresh thyme year around. If like locating it beneath a snowdrift sounds inconvenient, no problem, it’s simple to preserve.

P R ESER VAT I O N Thyme is easily dried or frozen for later use, and one of the few culinary herbs that doesn’t lose a lot of aroma or flavor after drying. You can use a dehydrator, or the age-old method of hanging springs in a dark room for several weeks. The leaves readily separate from the stems when the cuttings are dry enough. Store them in airtight containers or spice jars. There is no shortage of ways to use fresh or dried thyme. You’ll find recipes that feature this ancient herb in beverages, entrees, side dishes, condiments and desserts from around the world. 3

• • • •

• • • • •

6 - Fresh Tomatoes, halved across 60 ml - Virgen Olive oil 6 sprigs - Thyme, leaves only 2 heads - Little Gem Lettuce, separated into leaves * Romaine Hearts will also work 25g - Baby Leaf Spinach 150g - Fresh Artichokes, grilled 100g - Baby Mozzarella Balls 29ml - Red Wine Vinegar Salt & Black Pepper - to taste

DIRECTIONS This is a dish that isn’t a lot of work, but like all the finer things in life, does require some veggie preparation in advance of assembly. Best started a day before serving time.

Prep Work • • •

Preheat the oven to its lowest setting. Place tomatoes cut-side up on a roasting pan or cookie sheet. Tip! Line the pan with butcher’s parchment paper to preserve tomato flavor. • Drizzle with about 60 ml of olive oil. • Season with salt and pepper. • Scatter half the thyme leaves over the tops. • Roast for 4-6 hours - until slightly dried out. Turn the oven off and allow to cool overnight in the oven. • Grill your ‘chokes in advance too. • Don’t know how to grill artichokes? • See: thechubbycook.com/2010/05/char-grilled-artichoke Note: Reserves any artichoke-infused oil for your dressing.

Assembly Place the lettuce and spinach in a large bowl. Add the cooled tomatoes, artichokes, and mozzarella balls. Put vinegar and remaining olive oil in a small bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Whisk well to combine. Pour the dressing over the salad, adding any oil from the artichoke, and toss to coat. 3

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net

WHAT’S GROWING ON I GARDEN CULTURE

CREDIT: “Melbourne City Rooftop Honey”

What’s g n i w o r G a i l a r On in Aust

Melbourne

Supporting the Ecosystem Bees, so vital to keeping nature thriving and produce possible, inspired Vanessa Kwiatkowski and Mat Lumalasi to launch Melbourne City Rooftop Honey in 2010. Today, they’ve got 70 hives spread through town producing local food naturally. Unlike many beekeepers, Vanessa and Mat are working with reclaimed bees. They didn’t order a queen and some drones to get going, all their hives are populated by re-homed

swarms. Being situated in the urban space gives their hyperlocal honey incredible diversity that country honey lacks - a much broader selection of pollens, which really influences the flavor. The annual Rooftop Honey harvest is sold online, and through stockists scattered about the city. They also have hive support and adoption programs. How sweet it is! Learn more: RooftopHoney.com.au.

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BIGGER

CROPS

BETTER HARVESTS

WHAT’S GROWING ON I GARDEN CULTURE

CREDIT: “Little Veggie Patch Company”

Victoria

Pop Up Plots Its not always easy to get into urban gardening due to lack of space, red tape, and such. Then there are all those who have developed an interest in growing food, but just don’t know where to start, and so do nothing at all. Pop Up Patch members get the help they need, along with the seeds and seedlings that will fill their specially designed 1.5m2 garden crate crafted from recycled wood. Currently there are 140-some pop up gardens growing in the Little Veggie Garden Company’s backyard in the heart of the city. Members rent them by the week at $25 for their initial box, and $20 each for garden expansion boxes. They host get-togethers, gardening and cooking seminars, so it doubles as an educational centre too. They also rent the garden space for weddings, and sell seeds, plants, garden tools, DIY books, and their signature garden crates. Lots of good things going on here. Learn more: LittleVeggiePatchCo.com.au. 3

CURRENTLY THERE ARE 140-SOME POP UP GARDENS GROWING IN THE LITTLE VEGGIE GARDEN COMPANY’S BACKYARD IN THE HEART OF THE CITY.

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Garden Culture Magazine

A Gardening Magazine with a Social Conscience

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the art of growing

G A R D E N

GAR G AR C U L T DCEN U RUEL DE TU N RE fa k e fo o d

GROWHARD AUSTRALIA

BY RON FINLEY

“I DON’T CALL IT A FOOD DESERT. I CALL IT A FOOD PRISON”

FOOD

I NJ UST IC E

THE REVOLUTION S TA R T S I N T H E G A R D E N

FOOD INJUSTICE I GARDEN CULTURE

Many low-income communities around the country Photo: cdrin / Shutterstock.com

are located in what policy makers, activists, and media refer to as “food deserts” -- places where there is an abundance of cheap, processed food and an absence of healthy, fresh, affordable food. In a food desert your food options range from a variety of fast food chains to “food” sold at local corner stores, liquor stores, pharmacies, etc. I live in South Central Los Angeles, and it is undoubtedly a food desert. But I do not call it that. I call it a food prison. And if our communities do not take the necessary steps to break out of this prison, we will remain trapped by the immobilizing confines of our zip code.

“FOOD INJUSTICE IS A STRUCTURAL PROBLEM”

From Chicago to Philadelphia to New Orleans, the new epidemic in AfricanAmerican communities and other low-income neighbourhoods is a result of the food prison. This epidemic is one of preventable diseases: hypertension, diabetes, obesity, heart disease, and so on. In these prisons the green grocer has been replaced by the dialysis center, the drive-thrus have become more deadly than the drive-bys, the rate of malnourished children is on par with the rate of the failing schools, and teenagers are having heart attacks. As this epidemic is starting to gain the attention of the general public, it is important that we frame it in terms of food injustice, so as not to disguise what is really going on. Food injustice is a structural problem. It is about corporate consolidation of power that has monopolized the agricultural industry, and encroached on our food consumption. We need to understand that the demand for big agriculture and fast food did not come from the consumer market. For the past 50 years or so we have been told that the industrialization of food production gives America the power to feed the world, the justification for taking food production from the farm to the

laboratory -- a controlled environment in which our food is grown, manufactured, and prepared. The end result is a toxic recipe intended to keep our bodies craving a perfect scientific formula comprised of additives, preservatives, salts, manipulated fats and sugars: a recipe for disaster for the people eating this stuff, while ensuring enormous profit financially. In other words, as the girth of the average American has grown, so have the bank accounts of the executives of agribusiness. Food injustice weakens those at the bottom of the pyramid. Agribusiness and fast food came up with an ingenious model based on quantity at the expense of quality intended to entrap those with the least amount of purchasing power. In a market of cash-strapped consumers the calorie-to-price ratio of fast food versus real food is how choices are made for us. When forced to choose between a meal that offers 2,000 calories or an apple, both costing $1, for someone who lives near the poverty line the choice is simple. Fast food companies, in league with corporate agriculture, manufactured the Big Mac to be the meal of the working class and the poor, producing lifelong consumers addicted to their products and subdued by the physical effects of this consumption. GARDENCULTUREMAGAZINE.COM

FOOD INJUSTICE I GARDEN CULTURE

“THE URBAN GARDENER T O D AY I S A RENEGADE AND AN ARTIST” Food injustice is socially engineered. Living in a food prison means you do not choose what you put in your MANY body. You are dependent on corporations to feed you. PROGRESSIVE Today, elementary school students around the country GARDENING have a greatly diminished food vocabulary. I have seen a STORES MAKE classroom of kids draw a blank when asked to name the FRESH COMPOST tomato I am presenting before them. I have had kids tell TEA WEEKLY me watermelons grow on trees. I have talked to grown THAT YOU CAN adults who do not know that ham and pork both come BUY. THEY USE from a pig. Is this the mark of a first COMPOST, world nation, a country that claims EARTHWORM “AN INGENIOUS MODEL CASTINGS, AND to feed the world, one in which its BASED ON QUANTITY ADDITIVES TO FEED citizens are denied the basic knowlAT THE EXPENSE OF THE MICROBES edge of Food 101? Is it civilized to QUALITY” disassociate the chicken from the chicken nugget? Or the cow from the steak in the grocery store? If we are what we eat, then what are we? This is how a food prison immobilizes its inhabitants. In a food desert the soil is impotent. In a food forest the structed -- masterminded -- by corporations motivated soil is fertile. Food justice is about changing the comsolely by their own gain. The urban garden is no longer position of the soil to change the landscape. It is about just a garden; it is an act of defiance. resuscitating the nature around us, and relearning the I see the urban food forest as a gateway to food justice, art of nature. It is about collaboration, bringing people breaking the chains of the food prison. Every garden and communities together to learn how to feed ourchanges the composition of the soil of the community selves, and feed each other. It is about taking responsicultivating fertile grounds for nourishment. The garden bility, building agency in individuals and communities. It engages and includes. In the urban gardens I have particis about communities becoming sustainable, and learnipated in, including my own, I have seen kids and adults ing how to live hyper-local. explore the wonders of the natural world, one which In my eyes, the urban gardener today is a renegade they can taste, feel, smell, see, hear, and create someand an artist. He uses nature for his canvas, and his art thing of great value. I have seen gangsters reform, and changes lives. The urban gardener sees food not only homeless people remember a feeling of home. Above as the problem, but also the solution. By breaking free all, I have seen gardens change an inner-city landscape, from the entrapment of our modern day food system, providing true nourishment where it is needed most. 3 the urban gardener is breaking down a system con-

GARDENCULTUREMAGAZINE.COM

BY AMBER FIELDS

“A G R I C U LT U R E I S A R E A D Y S O U R C E O F N E W, R E A L C A PI TA L A N D I S R E N E WA BL E , U N L I K E M O S T O T H E R F O R M S O F W E A LT H .” Bryan Jones, The Farming Game

H OW F OO D B ECAM E A SYSTE M It’s not the unpredictable nature of the weather and commodity prices that are causing the median age of farmers to increase, and fewer people to make farming their career. Most people haven’t the means to become an agricultural engineer, unless they inherit the farm. It’s caused by deliberate government policy, and modern farming being highly capital intensive, on top of the cost of purchasing the farm itself, and maintaining the tax bill on all that land.

Many people believe that the Great Depression was the underlying cause of the shift from the US being a nation populated by independent farmers to a population working for a steady paycheck. While that did cost some people their land and homes, it wasn’t what set the stage for food to become a system, and not a lifestyle. A smooth combination of moves made by the Eisenhower administration started this evolution. Industrialists in the developed Eastern cities needed cheap labor to fill their factories. They also needed to create a willing market for their wares, one that would just keep buying what they were making. And so in the mid 1950s, Ezra Taft Benson, President Eisenhower’s secretary of agriculture, pushed a soil bank law through Congress that

when coupled with Eisenhower’s interstate highway plan, forced thousands off the farm, and into the big city, where the opportunity to make a steady wage beckoned. They arrived in droves. Across the road from the Thunderbird plant in Wixom, Michigan, displaced farmers and farm workers from the South actually lived in tents for a full year before the new Ford factory was open, and ready for them to go to work. Even then, this particular factory was sitting in the middle of rich farmland some 30 miles from Ford’s nucleus of operations. The land to build on came at an attractive price, for the interstate was coming through the front section of the farm that owned it. This kind of thing went on all over the Rust Belt in the mid to late 50’s and early 1960s.

FOOD SYSTEM I GARDEN CULTURE

“THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE NOW REQUIRED A DEPENDABLE SOURCE OF FOOD” The government literally removed ownership of marginal from them. It meant a complete overhaul of the small famlands in the South from poor, small farmers who were ily farm, and huge injections of capital. The strategy behind black, and handed their land over to college educated sons turning food into a system for profit sent more waves of of the elite in an attempt to prove that higher learning had farm folks into urban areas. As it is today, the corporate everything to do with making any soil productive. It didn’t. profit first and producer profit last structure left many What it did do was increase the populations in industrial open to foreclosure of land used as collateral in the purcities. chase of farm equipment purported to increase efficiency. Whether they had a good payWhether the bank foreing job that required punching closed on the land, or they “WHAT IT DID DO WAS a time clock, or they found INCREASE THE POPULATIONS IN simply sold out for every only menial work, thousands penny they could muster INDUSTRIAL CITIES.” of people now required a defast, it opened the doors pendable source of food. They no longer had the land, the for big pockets to snatch up huge tracts of land hither and means, or the time to grow and preserve it themselves. yon. Land that would create new money faster than just In the beginning of this induced transition period in the about anything else they could invest in. While the people 1950s, the big food companies from the city went into who knew nothing more than that land and the sustenance farming communities and established a relationship with it gave them discovered the wonders of regular paychecks the small farms that were still operating. They did this by and benefits in exchange for the days of their lives. buying out small processing plants throughout the HeartNothing like trading a world of continually renewed moneyland. Once an important part of farm towns that provided making possibilities to make money for others in a situation a place to sell your harvest regardless of size, find local that will never allow you to get ahead. Once they bought employment, and a social hub ceased overnight. Things into the system, there was no turning back. They designed changed. Either the farm invested all of its land and energy the system to keep people working, and making payments. into the token crop, or the corporation would buy nothing Fifty years later? Washington runs agriculture? Agriculture GARDENCULTUREMAGAZINE.COM

FOOD SYSTEM I GARDEN CULTURE

“THEY BROKE IT, BUT WE CAN FIX IT. THE SOLUTION ALREADY EXISTS”

“A SMOOTH COMBINATION OF MOVES MADE BY runs Washington? Who knows, but it’s obvious they’re in THE EISENHOWER bed together... and the government continues to systemADMINISTRATION” atically eradicate small farms, and big ones who go against the grain. Cheap food chock full of synthetic, mysterious, and downright scary ingredients costs a lot. Quality long ago replaced by profit for every chink in the food system, except the farmers. Who either have to get big, adopt the factory farming system, or get out. There are few jobs available. Benefits are almost extinct. Cheap labor exists on other continents. The only way for the average person to get good food is to grow their own. It’s a broken system, but people forgot... there was life before becoming dependant on the system. As in any failure, here too lies the seeds of change. They broke it, but we can fix it. The solution already exists. Combining past knowledge of sustainable farming with modern technology gives anyone with an interest new

hope - the answer to feeding yourself, your neighborhood, and even your region. The percentage of the continental population that demands organic and locally grown food has hit about 50%, and continues to rise as more people become truly aware of what is in the food. Coupled with the world-wide anti-GMO sentiment, change is already taking place. More and more farms of all sizes are becoming organic. Vacant land, roof tops, balconies, basements, closets, spare rooms, and backyards everywhere are getting transformed into spaces that grow food without chemicals that is totally free of GMOs, and hasn’t traveled great distances to sit on your plate. Hope grows. It is fresh, it is the solution, and it’s green. 3

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All House & Garden base A&B are 100% made in Holland, composed of pure liquid base elements, unlike most other â&#x20AC;&#x153;premiumâ&#x20AC;? nutrients on the market, we dont use powders or bulking agents. Because H&G only use a liquid mineral base, this ensures plants can uptake all the available food without having to separate out the unusable compounds. All our base nutrients are made with computer controlled precision, slightly heated during mixing for extended periods of time to ensure our base nutrients are blended to perfection. All nutrients are batch tested in our state of the art factory in Holland to ensure the outstanding quality H&G is renowned for. Our base nutrients come in three variations - Hydro / Cocos / Soil, to accomodate the various substrates available.

BIOLOGY I GARDEN CULTURE

SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY REINVENTING NATURAL OR HEY MOM LOOK WHAT I MADE

Messing

Nature

They say that this is the answer to natural, sustainable night lighting. Genetically engineering trees to have glow-in-the-dark trunks, branches, and stems is the ultimate goal of the guys behind the funded Kickstarter project, Glowing Plants. This image shows their success in the lab making a tobacco plant glow by inserting lightning bug genes into its DNA.

Now they’re splicing that glowing gene into invasive weeds, and send glowing GMO seeds to about 8000 people worldwide who helped them raise almost £300,000 to create the first plants. Sounds pretty cool, until you ponder the reality. Doing this to an annual plant may sound harmless. However, Arabidopsis thaliana, a native of Europe, will live anywhere regardless of soil, sun exposure, or climate. It has self-seeded its way onto every continent, along with Japan, and is one of the 14 well-known Roundup resistant plants that quickly mutated its DNA to laugh in the face of glyphosate. Plants that glow are not natural. They certainly have no place in becoming more sustainable. Like the Love Bug in Florida, Kudzu vine, and a host of other engineered life forms unleashed and allowed to roam free, this too could very well become a nightmare in disguise. It blooms in spring and is pollinated by bees. Do you suppose they’ll THEY SELL GLOWING start glowing too? They could have company, PLANTS GENETIC Glowng tobacco plant the white cabbage butterfly lays its eggs on ENGINEERING KITS this Thale Cress plant, and they feed on it ON THEIR WEBSITE after hatching. ALREADY Perhaps pseudo science has gone too NASA is also dabbling in the glow-in-thefar. This is some pretty scary plant dark Arabidopsis breeding arena on the manipulation. It makes a mockery of both natural and sustainable. International Space Station. However, it seems they have just Glowing plants are far from greener living, but look to be coming inserted the gene rather than reinventing the plant’s genome. to thousands of locations in 2014. The synthetic biologists Additionally, studying this kind of thing in isolation is one thing. at Glowing Plants say they picked this plant, because it isn’t Spreading it all over the world by handing GMO seeds over to indigenous to the United States making the risk of contaminating anyone willing to give them £24 or more is alarming. They sell other plants low. There seems to be many unanswered glowing plants genetic engineering kits on their website already, questions about long term dangers of such genetic manipulation. and have added glowing roses to the mix GMOs they will offer Unfortunately, profits and apathy trump public safety, again. 3 to the public.

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ORGANIC BLOOM STIMULATOR

100% Naturally derived active indredients

BY BRIAN BURK

So you’re shopping at your big box grocer, and buying fresh vegetables and fruits. One would

THE 15 MOST TOXIC SUPERMARKET PRODUCE

expect healthy foods. While the choice to eat fruits and vegetables is a good one, there’s a lot of hidden surprises in the selection at the supermarket like carcinogens, hormone disruptors, GMOs, reproductive toxins, and bee

toxins.

for

healthy

fruits

much and

vegetables! They’re tainted

by massive amounts of pesticides and genetically

AN APPLE SHOULD COME WITH A PHYSIC AL

modified foods.

We have compiled a list of the fifteen worst cases of chemical and genetically modified foods according to the EPA and the EWG (Environmental Working Group). Read if you dare!

1. Apples They say an apple a day keeps the doctor away. Unless you are going to your hometown mega mart where an apple should come with a physical. Apples found in most grocery stores, according to the Environmental Working Group, contain up to 48 kinds of pesticides. And unfortunately, this healthy fruit is routinely sprayed down with Paraquat, a chemical under fire for being possibly linked to Parkinson’s Disease. 2. Cherry Tomatoes These do quickly perk up a salad, but they’re loaded with hormone disruptors. They also feature a guest appearance from Chlorothalonil; a known carcinogen that causes kidney tumors. 3. Cucumbers Cukes offer you three different types of Endosulfan. They’ve linked Endosulfan to infertility and testicular lesions in the male workers picking the vegetables you find at your market. There is a slight risk that ingesting this chemical will cause infertility; I know that I am not willing to take the chance.

TOXIC PRODUCE I GARDEN CULTURE

“TAINTED BY M ASSIVE A MOUNTS OF PESTICID ES” 4. Celery Here’s a vegetable that’s always been said to be a superfood, but celery is loaded with pesticides. A whopping 64 different chemicals. This one you may want to grow or buy organic.

12. Kale Kale contains DDE and Imidacloprid, which is a known bee toxin. Kale is pretty easy to grow, so I would recommend growing most of your leafy greens.

5. Cherries Enjoy snacking on cherries? They contain Bifenthrin, a reproductive and developmental toxin, also a suspected hormone disruptor. This one you may want to pick up at your local farmers market or organic grocer.

13. Sweet Bell Peppers My poor fajitas are ruined! Bell peppers can contain Methamidophos, a neurotoxin. Luckily, these are also fairly easy to grow.

6. Peaches I love peaches, so this one really stings. Peaches have Iprodione, a likely carcinogen according to the EPA. It’s been linked to liver tumors in rats. 7. Grapes Bought at the supermarket, they’re more like the grapes of wrath. Captan is a pesticide found in grapes, and the EPA has linked it to intestinal tumors. I wouldn’t make any wine or raisins from these grapes, but they do. 8. Nectarines Nectarines are a naturally mutated version of the peach. Unfortunately, their resulting smooth skin is now covered with unnatural pesticides; thirty-three pesticides to be exact. 9. Spinach I do not know about you, but I use this one all the time in my salads. But according to EWG, DDE is a pesticide you can commonly find in spinach. Also, according to the EPA, it is a probable carcinogen. 10. Strawberries Store-bought strawberries are notoriously loaded with chemicals. It features, like the grapes, Captan. Strawberries also have Myclobutanil, which they’ve linked to reproductive problems. 11. Potatoes Grocery store potatoes contain o-Phenylphenol, a carcinogen that has been linked to urothelia lesions in animals. Potatoes can contain up to thirty-seven toxins. Think about that next time you have some French fries.

14. Summer Squash It might be better to play squash before stopping at the supermarket. Summer Squash can contain up to 41 different pesticides. One of them, a carcinogen called Dieldrin. 15. Blueberries Blueberries have a ton of antioxidants, and chemicals. Blueberries contain fifty-two chemicals, one of them being Iprodione. Iprodione is a carcinogen, and a suspected hormone disruptor. Buy some organic blueberries, and put that on your fresh oatmeal.

So now you know. Some of these are pretty easy to grow, others not so much. You could always go to a local farmers market and organic grocer in search of non-GMO and chemically “enhanced foods.” It is better to eat fruits and vegetables than to just avoid them completely. You could still eat this type of produce, but the long-term side effects on humans are not one-hundred percent known. Mostly due to lobbyists and advocates for major food corporations. The next time you’re enroute to the grocery store, try to imagine where your food came from. Is it really natural? Is it chemically “enhanced?” Are the workers picking your food being subjected to pesticides that are hurting them, and you, in the long run? We all have only one life, lets try to live it clean and get our food supply back to being the way it was, natural. 3 GARDENCULTUREMAGAZINE.COM

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FOOD INSECURITY I GARDEN CULTURE

YOUR FOOD SOURCE IS AT RISK WITH NO URBAN GROWING IN PLACE

Addressing The

State of the Plate Food insecurity threatens Australians, even though annual farm production is enough to feed 60 million people. Nothing to feel relief over, because U.S. farmers produce enough to feed the world, and yet, there are millions who have little-to-no access to quality food there. In Australia the number of those who cannot afford good food surpasses 2 million. Still, the country is way behind North America, the UK, and other parts of Europe at developing urban agriculture.

With two-thirds of the population coagulated in 5 cities and their suburbs, and no urban growing in place, your food source is at risk due to urban sprawl, price volatility, and climate change. Yes, there’s a lot of interest in being a locavore, decreasing food miles, and eating better, but more seem content to purchase their food from the mainstream food system than those who are getting on with growing their own, let alone urban farming for the hyper-local market. · · ·

48% of urban households grow food 72% strongly support school gardens <50% highly in favor of new or existing community gardens

The withdrawal gained credence with AUSVEG’s claims that urban gardening was a biosecurity threat to food system. Seriously? Well, at least the drive behind the discontinued government subsidies to urban growing showed its face, and on prime time no less. But you see, urban gardening is going on around the world without biosecurity threats. The impetus? Urban agriculture threatens profitability and guaranteed market, even though the system isn’t a sustainable model, and will not sail through climate change well. Big food cares not what your food costs, only that they’re guaranteed you will buy it.

OVER 2 MILLION AUSTRALIANS CAN’T AFFORD GOOD FOOD

Future Directions recently published a research paper that stated that local and federal government needed to invest in urban agriculture to get it going. While that sounds good, it leaves would-be urban farmers beholden to the government, rather than establishing food democracy. Urban agriculture must develop on its own if it is to be sustainable. The paper suggests that Australia is way behind other nations in growing food in urban centers because the government withdrew support for such projects last year. So, to create true food sovereignty by growing local food, you need welfare? That’s an oxymoron.

Seeds are inexpensive, or free, depending on how you plan your urban farm. You can grow hundreds of tomatoes or peppers from a couple dozen seeds, and the harvest for many food crops is similar. Open pollinated heirloom varieties allow you to save seed and reproduce the same crop repeatedly at no extra cost.The problem is more complex than that, but only if you choose to see it that way. The cost of purchasing land in an urban center is an issue, yet there are rooftops, vacant properties, and cast-off buildings in just about any city worldwide one can outfit to for growing food. AND indoor agriculture cannot be labeled as a biosecurity threat at all.

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PRECISELY DESIGNED FOR THE HEAVIEST HARVEST

FOOD INSECURITY I GARDEN CULTURE

URBAN GARDENING IS GOING ON AROUND THE WORLD WITHOUT BIOSECURITY THREATS Coupling modern technology and knowledge, it is possible to grow food without land ownership, and in greater concentration than traditional agriculture methods allow. Take Sole Food Farms in Vancouver, British Columbia for example. They grow everything in containers designed for mobility at a moment’s notice, because they might lose their rights to occupy any given plot that quickly, and they can grow on pavement or polluted land.

FORGET GOVERNMENT ASSISTANCE. TURN TO CROWDFUNDING

Green roofs are all the rage in Sydney, and Melbourne, but they’re not being set up for growing food.Yet on top of Brooklyn Navy Yard exists a huge farm known as Brooklyn Grange. In a climate where winter is far more hostile than most of Australia, there are at least five uncovered rooftop farms that are successfully growing a huge rotation of crops. Brooklyn Grange is just the largest one with an entire acre of growing space. Green space is wonderful, but you cannot eat landscaping, and a vegetable garden of any size... is green space.

community gardens. Their website is very inspiring. They’ve gone global. Here’s proof that government handouts aren’t necessary for urban food production.

You can be part of the change that Australia needs to secure the food supply, and improve your community’s food quality. Forget government assistance.Turn to crowdfunding, like Kickstarter, or start small and expand over time. Urban farms create new jobs and skills, restore community economies, and can reduce crime. Local chefs are hungry for fresher, quality herbs, greens, fruits, and vegetables. If you grow awesome produce, you will find a ready market for your harvests selling to the public and restaurants once they discover that you’ve got better food at a competitive to lower price.

Inspiration-by-Googling: Success doesn’t require an affluent neighborhood, and truth be known, some of the greatest change in terms of food supply repair can take place in the most blighted communities. Look at The Farming Guys in Kansas.They’re totally off-grid in the middle of one of the worst US urban communities, successfully restoring food quality, and neighborhood pride with both aquaponics and

Sole Food Farms,The Plant - Chicago, GrowUp Box Farms, Lufa Farms, Urban Farming Guys, Growing Underground, Brooklyn Grange... there are more, but this is a good starting point. Source: FutureDirections.org.au report: bit.ly/1QKjnok. 3

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BY ERIC COULOMBE

Give a man a salad, and he will be hungry in an hour. Teach him to garden, and he can feed the world.

I Grow

e c u t t e L

I have always loved plants. Some of my earliest memories are of my grandmother’s small urban Montreal

apartment on Clark Blvd. Where a plant could grow, she would have one there, and they always looked great. She told us her secret was foliar spraying whole unpasteurized milk. A trick I have never tried myself. It was definitely her who passed on to me the love of plants. It wasn’t until I was about 13 or 14 that I actually started gardening. I asked my mother if I could tend her garden, and dig another plot in our lawn where I could grow more stuff, in a sunnier spot. I tended that garden for almost a decade, throughout all my high school and my college years. When I finally moved out with my girlfriend, now wife and partner, we lived in the city, and never had room for a real garden. It wasn’t long before I discovered that you couldn’t grow food in windows. Well, not in Montreal anyway. I was really stuck - no space, no sun, and no more garden. In 1994 indoor gardening was completely unknown to me, as it is to most people today. So, I played around with a bunch of inexpensive grow lights to aid my plants through the bleak winter months. It was about that time I visited my first hydroponics store too. My initial results were poor, but the potential was obvious. In 2002 I was self-employed, my wife was pregnant, and a customer and friend of mine Dave H. from Brite-Lite (Canada’s oldest hydroponics company) in Quebec made me an offer to join the team. He wanted me as their sales guy. I loved it, and spent four years working all over Canada and the US selling indoor gardening fertilizers

and equipment. My old love for growing was evident as I blossomed in this industry. I didn’t want to sell things I have never used so I built a grow room, or grow tent in every apartment and house we rented. I grew, using every hydroponic method I could think of, I even invented a few. I spent the next 10 years as a hydro rep, working for 3 companies, selling countless different products in countries all around the world. In the process I learned everything I could about hydroponics, and organic gardening techniques. I was totally hooked, and knew that indoor gardening was going to become a big part of my future.

ERICâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S GARDEN I GARDEN CULTURE

Eight years ago when I decided to build my own home, an indoor garden was optional. Because we designed the home ourselves I could get creative. So I built a small garden in the back corner of the basement over a protruding cap rock, basically the only space my wife would let me use.

Recently I decided to give my room a makeover. This time I was going to do it right. First, I needed to clean the place up. Bugs had always been a problem, I knew that the cleaner the room, the less chance bugs could survive. So, I redid my floor in white high gloss ceramic tiles. I also tiled the entrance room.

It has been a work in progress ever since. I used it more to test products when I was sales rep, constantly changing systems or products. But since starting with the magazine it has become something I spend more thought, time, and effort on. I reflected on all the ways I have grown things over the years, the projects I have consulted on, and tried to come up with not only the best garden for me, but a great garden, and easy for anyone.

I also had to choose how I was going to garden, what systems I would use. I choose my favorites, but with the family in mind. We are very busy people with 2 kids (aged 5 and 11), a dog, two cats, and we both work 40+ hour weeks. I also travel a lot, and this garden had to run itself when I was gone. With this is mind I designed our indoor family micro farm.

During the past 3 years Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve had some amazing gardens. My homemade aquaponics, the wall mounted NFT, and the Ecogrow Wall (vertical garden) have been my favorites. They have been the easiest to manage, and gave me the largest harvests.

63 GARDENCULTURE.NET

ERIC’S GARDEN I GARDEN CULTURE

I discovered that you couldn’t grow food in windows The Systems I Chose NFT, 100 x 185 cm, made by Nutriculture in the UK. There was never a question about NFT, but what configuration remained undetermined. I have built several homemade NFT gardens, and installed a commercial system in the Korn garden. Nutriculture designed this one for the hobby gardener, they come in several sizes, and literally take 5 minutes to set up. Vertical Wall, made by EcoGrowWall in Quebec with 122 x 304 cm rock wool slabs. I have grown with this system for the past 8 years. I love vertical gardening. It is an amazing use of space, allowing my not-so-big room almost 3.71 square meters of extra space. My largest basil plant ever was grown in this system. Deep Water Culture (DWC), 6-bucket system from Current Culture. DWC is great for growing BIG plants; I have tomato, cucumber, sweet pepper, sweet pea, coriander, lettuce, basil and a strawberry. The new lids allow me to have 1, 2 or 4 plants per container. Most things are doing amazing, but not the sweet pea and coriander. Not sure why, maybe they don’t enjoy the constant supply of water. I trimmed the roots above the waterline, they are starting to look better. The sweet pea didn’t make it, my first casualty. I don’t blame myself, peas don’t like DWC apparently, neither do the cucumbers. Autopots My first experience with this type of water system was about 8 years ago. I loved it then, and I think I can appreciate it more now. For simplicity of use and set-up the Autopot system is hard to beat. It is a perfect system for a new gardener.

Lights I like all lights really, or my plants do. Some seem a little better or brighter, but this is not a commercial crop, and everything seems to do great regardless of what lights I have. With that said, there are a couple of notable products: Gavita Plasma I have used this light for a little over a year. It has visited a couple of gardens, both as primary and supplemental lighting. My tester had a very positive report, when used as supplemental. I recently moved it into my garden, and the Kale in the NFT are going crazy. Crazy good, I have never seen Kale grow so fast. Love it. Sunlight Supply’s LEC 315 Sent to me less than a year ago, this product hangs over the DWC system, and the plants are doing great. Maybe too good - the tomato is huge! I’m afraid it might takeover if I don’t give it a haircut. 1000 HPS (Adjust-a-Wing) Because I have 40 square feet of vertical growing space I need light on the walls. This type of reflector is great for the vertical garden. My bulb and ballast is not worth mentioning, but I am planning to change it soon. It is a digital ballast, I like dimming feature when it gets hot. MiniMax 150 My newest edition is the Minimax 150W, this small but powerful light packs a huge punch. I was looking for a low wattage system to install over my vertical walls. Down to Earth Kent kindly sent two across the pond for me to try. I absolutely love them. You wouldn’t believe it was only 150W 3 GARDENCULTUREMAGAZINE.COM

BY EVAN FOLDS

WHAT IS

FERTILIZER ANYWAY? The technology of farming is what literally started humanity. That’s right, before farming we hunted and gathered with most of our attention paid to survival instead of specializing. The first documented use of fertilizer is with Europe’s earliest farmers applying manure on their fields around 8,000 years ago. No doubt these ancient farmers noticed the thriving plants in the dung heap, and realized that using manure in their fields will help their plants grow bigger, better, faster. From the plants perspective, arguably not much. Consider Mined inorganic fertilizers have been in use for many centuries, table salt, or sodium chloride (NaCl). When you stir it into whereas chemically synthesized inorganic fertilizers were only water it dissolves into a sodium (Na+) and chlorine (Cl-) ion. widely developed after the industrial revolution, and through Plants eat these ions. activity of the Military Industrial Complex. An ion is an atom or molecule in which the total number of “Fertilizer” is defined as: “a chemical or natural substance addelectrons is not equal to the total number of protons, giving ed to soil or land to increase its fertility”. This leaves how we the atom a net positive or negative. The relative imbalance of define “fertility” open to interpretation, and does not address the ions begs cooperation with active transport sites in plant the fact that fertility is relative to the growing application. roots in the electrical world of opposites attract. In a true objective sense, fertilizer is a crutch. Mother Nature Although there is a fair argument to be made about the comdoesn’t require fertilizer. Fertilizer is a human invention used in plexity and isotopic potential of many cases to compensate for infer“ F I R S T D O C U M E N T E D natural versus artificial sources of tile soil, but if used properly, can become a mechanism to enhance the U S E O F F E R T I L I Z E R . . . plant nourishment, technically, so the argument goes, whether the ion strength and yield potential of plants. 8,0 0 0 YE A RS AG O” is from a mineral salt or from bat In concept, the original manure guano, the plant doesn’t really care. farmer is really no different from a modern hydroponic farmer However, from the perspective of the soil the natural vs. arusing fertilizer salts to grow crops in water or soilless growing tificial discussion is an entirely different story. Nature doesn’t mediums. Many growers have experienced the massive yields understand artificial. In fact, most artificial materials take adachieved with hydroponics relative to soil-based applications. vantage of Nature on some level, if they don’t kill her outright. But there is one major difference, the manure is Mother NaLet’s be specific. Artificial fertilizers are not directly toxic, but ture’s creation, and the hydroponic fertilizer salt is artificial and they do not feed the microbes responsible for making plant food created by man. Anyone attuned to hydroponics out there will in healthy soil. The solubility is what makes artificial salts a good have surely had this conversation with someone at some point fertilizer, and the technology is how the ratios of elements are - what is the difference between an organic fertilizer and an put together. This is completely different from Nature. artificial fertilizer?

FERTILIZER I GARDEN CULTURE

“ N ATU R E DOESN’T REQUIRE FERTILIZER”

“IN HEALTHY SOIL, MICROBES MAKE PLANT FOOD - NOT PEOPLE” In healthy soil, microbes make plant food - not people. A tree doesn’t eat leaves, but the humus that the microbes in the soil make from it. This is what we call composting, which represents the most fundamental concept of nutrient cycling in living systems. In a forest there is no harvest, and in “A R T I F I C I A L the closed nutrient loop retains eveFER T I L I ZERS A R E N OT rything. Imagine if we pulled all the D I R E C T LY TOX I C” leaves out of a forest? The entire system would shut down, right? Now imagine if we only added half of what we removed back? This is the status of the modern garden and farm. In the end, it is nutritionally empty, and infested with pests and disease. Artificial salts bypass the natural mechanism of biological decomposition, and work to discourage microbes in an attempt So what the plant is eating in hydroponics is sufficient, but not to feed the plant directly. With awareness towards the comwhat it could be. But the real no-no is when we apply hydroplexity and subtlety of life, we can do justice to plants and ourponic principles in a soil-based environment. This doesn’t levselves using artificial techniques such as hydroponics - but this erage the point of the soil, or its strength, and brings into the is a larger responsibility than most fertilizer companies realize. scenario the need to flush excess salts out of the soil, which is Hydroponics makes sense because the growing process is todifficult to do in the Earth. tally separated from Nature, and accomplished in a closed sysThis is an important point in regards to the differences betem where one can leverage its benefits. But it would not be tween hydroponics and organics. With hydroponics we use reaccurate to say that the average hydroponic fertilizer that confined fertilizers, they are essentially everything a plant requires tains no more than seventeen elements is everything a plant for growth. But with organics, because Mother Nature creates wants. How could it be? Do we imagine that plants desire no the material, there is an innate diversity of nutrition that the more than seventeen elements from Nature? grower gets without even trying.

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GARDEN CULTURE I FERTILIZERS

“fertility is relative to the growing application” In the healthiest of soil all elements are in play. Even if the element is not used directly by a plant, microbes use every single one of them to create their enzyme potential. Growing a garden without all elements present is like hiring microbes to build a house and giving them half the tools.

This is the qualitative difference some growers see in hydroponics versus organics. It’s not that it is impossible to achieve quality in hydroponics, but that the grower needs to pay more attention to the nutritional diversity, considering they have set themselves up as the sole proprietor. In the healthiest of soil all elements are in play. Even if the element is not used directly by a plant, microbes use every single one of them to create their enzyme potential. Growing a garden without all elements present is like hiring microbes to build a house and giving them half the tools. Think of it like the limitations of LED plant lighting technology. It’s great when you can choose individual wavelengths to save electricity, but what happens if you miss one? In regards to fertilizer, we end up with NPK-based fertilization and the average gardener creating obesity in their plants pumping them full of soluble nitrogen purchased cheaply at a Big Box store. We have to get past the marketing, and ask ourselves questions from the perspective of the plant. For example, why would Mother Nature make elements not needed in the garden?

The essential difference of natural vs. artificial is humanity. It is our logic, our decision, our responsibility. This is why our choices are so important. Any inkling of a closed mind on the best way to engage living systems will fail us. Soil’s fertility is innate if human artificiality does not intervene. It is when we apply hydroponic methods in natural living systems that we end up with empty food, and the toxic rescue chemistry of modern conventional agriculture. Bottom line: don’t treat your soil like a hydroponic system. Plants make their own food. We can have the poorest of soil conditions and apply fertilizer and create a yield. The question is what are we missing if this is all we are doing? In Part Two of this article we will discuss the specifics of how plants use fertilizer to build themselves, and how the use of targeted biocatalysts can take major responsibility off of the plant to accomplish monster yields in the garden. Don’t miss the next issue of Garden Culture. 3

“LIGHT PLAYS SUCH A CRITICAL ROLE IN A PLANT’S SUCCESS”

“A BETTER WAY TO MEASURE PL ANT LIGHTING IS HOW MUCH ENERGY THE L AMP CONSUMES”

LUMENS

ARE FOR HUMANS

ACCURATELY MEASURING PLANT LIGHTING

UNDERSTANDING PAR While a plant benefits to a small degree from the light wavelength or spectra that the eye sees, plants respond best to the Ultraviolet (UV) and Infrared (IR) regions of the spectrum. However, if the spectrum is narrowly or not emitted at all by the lamp, then the plants will not develop to its fullest vegetative or flowering potential that natural sunlight would allow.

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BY DARRYL COTTON

LUMENS I GARDEN CULTURE

Since light plays such a critical role in a plant’s success, it’s important to have the proper quality and quantity of light available as the plant needs it. Insufficient light levels will reduce a plant’s overall weight and cause development of stress, decreased nodule density, and smaller leaves. While too much light can cause plant damage from excessive IR heat radiation or extreme UV radiation. This article will introduce you to the importance of two biological reactions that occur within a plant, as it relates to proper light selection; Photosynthesis and Photomorphogenesis. Plants absorb light by a green pigment within the plant known as chlorophyll. When chlorophyll absorbs light, and turns it into energy, it takes place through a chemical process within the plant called Photosynthesis. As Photosynthesis occurs, the wavelength spectrum that is most beneficial to plant growth is found within certain areas between the 380-720 nanometer range of the spectrum. The light that is within this region we refer to as Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR). A plant’s spectral lighting needs changes as it grows. Since spectrum plays an important part in the success of the plant’s growth, developmental biologists call the presence of these light mediated changes that the plant absorbs through a variety of receptors Photomorphogenesis. This chlorophyll absorption chart shows the average PAR ranges needed by most plants for maximum chlorophyll absorp-

tion. Within these ranges plants will respond very well to the emitted light wavelengths. We measure visible light in Lumens, LUX, Lumens Per Watt, or Footcandles. But are these same measurements also adequate when measuring for a plants lighting levels? No. While there is nothing wrong with knowing these measurements, they aren’t the best measurements for choosing the best lamp for our plants’ overall needs. A better way to measure plant lighting is to determine how much energy the lamp consumes, and how much light actually makes it to the plant surfaces where both Photosynthesis and Photomorphogenesis occurs. When measuring light QUANTITY for a plant, we look to measure how many PHOTONS (the minimum unit of energy involving light) are falling each second within a square meter. Photons are such a small unit of measurement we refer to them as MICROMOLES OF PHOTONS, or often just MICROMOLES, to describe measurements of how many photons are arriving at a plant’s surface from the emitted light source. For reference: 2000 micromoles would be a sunlight level measurement.

Chloro p hy ll A bsor p t ion Ch ar t Nanometers

PAR Influences

200 - 280 280 - 315 315 - 380 380 - 400 400 - 520 520 - 610 610 - 720 720 - 1000 1000+

UVC ultraviolet range; extremely toxic to plants. UVB ultraviolet light; causes plants colors to fade. UVA ultraviolet light; is neither harmful nor beneficial to plant growth. Start of visible light spectrum. Chlorophyll Absorption begins. UV protected plastics ideally block out any light below this range. This range includes violet, blue, and green bands. Peak chlorophyll absorption influences photosynthesis. Most significant in promoting vegetative growth. This range includes the green, yellow, and orange bands, and has little absorption by receptors. This is the Red band where large instances of chlorophyll absorption occur, which promote flowering and budding. There is little chlorophyll absorption in this range. Flowering and germination are influenced at the high Far-Red end as infrared heat. Totally infrared range. All energy absorbed at this point is converted to heat. GARDENCULTUREMAGAZINE.COM

THE COMPLEXITIES OF UNDERSTANDING AND CHOOSING WHICH TECHNOLOGY, OR LAMP, IS BEST SUITED FOR INDOOR GARDENING IS CONFUSING FOR MANY

Of most value to the grower and his plant - the number of photons being measured at the plant, per second, per square meter, within the PAR ranges of 380-720 nanometers. This value is then known as the PHOTOSYNTHETIC PHOTON FLUX (PPF) level that the lamp emits. Meters that measure these PPF values are often called QUANTUM METERS, because the amount of energy carried by a photon is a quantum. These meters provide entire spectrum measurements of the total number of photons per second values, as well as measure the YIELD PHOTON FLUX (YPF) of the lamp, which as we’ve seen by the plants photomorphogenis requirements, assists the grower in identifying what lamp has the proper PAR spectrum for maximum photosynthetic response at that stage of plant growth. Another way growers like to measure light for plants is by PAR WATTS. What this refers to is how much light energy is available between the 400-700 nanometer ranges required for Photosynthesis. It’s extremely important to know the efficiency of the lamp being considered. Be careful when considering these values to not correlate higher PAR WATT values with more successful yields. With

energy-efficient lighting, such as induction, the PAR Watts per square meter may measure 70% less than an HID, yet still deliver micromoles in excess of the HID within the plants PPF and YPF requirements.

Measuring Plant Lighting There are a number of ways to measure grow lighting levels. There remains much debate about which method provides the gardener with the best information in determining if the light source is providing the ideal wavelengths and intensities to optimize plant response. Ultimately, the right method will always come down to our plant’s response to those spectrums and intensities. The complexities of understanding and choosing which technology, or lamp, is best suited for indoor gardening is confusing for many. As you can see by the Net Action Absorption Chart, what is presently believed as the areas of greatest importance for a lamp’s energy to meet peak chlorophyll absorption points would be in the Vegetative Regions (Ultraviolet-Blue) and Flowering Regions (Red-Far Red). Plants need less energy from the Carotenoid Region (Green-Yellow), but as you can see there is still need for the lamp to emit within this region.

LUMENS I GARDEN CULTURE Grow lamp manufacturers produce Spectral Distribution Graphs for their lamps that graphically depict where the lamp will output wavelengths, and in what intensities of emission. This works well in allowing growers to determine the lamp’s spectral output characteristics. The gardener can then decide if that particular lamp would work best for the type of plant being grown, specific growth cycles - or if the spectrum is broad enough to take the plants from vegetative through flowering stages using a single lamp. In determining the proper lamp to purchase, gardeners sometimes mistakenly rely on numerically driven data - such as a comparison of lumen output, lumen/watt, kelvin, lux, and μmole ratings. For plant lighting comparisons, each of these values will give incomplete information at best. They can also provide information that is mostly irrelevant to what your plants actually require. A more informed approach relies on a review of the manufacturer’s spectral distribution graph. Once installed, you’ll still want to measure light intensity to have complete lamp performance data. These types of field intensity measurements are usually made with a modestly priced PAR meter that’s been calibrated to the sun, and not the artificial light source being measured. Which leads us to why lamp output data should never be based on: •

•

Lumens, Lumens/Watt, Lux, or Foot Candles - These are all measurement terms that by definition reference intensities adjusted to the human photopic luminosity function. They have little bearing on how a plant will respond. Kelvin – This is another human visual standard with 555 nm being peak visual sensitivity, and 510/610nm being halfpeak visual sensitivity. Higher Kelvin values imply more blue to red ratio, and lower Kelvin values indicate a greater red to blue ratio. Basing your grow lamp decision on visual red or blue lamp emission levels is not a good means of determining if that lamp is meeting the actual absorbance regions. μMole – This value is obtained by using a PAR meter, which is a better meter for reading plant intensity values in that it is not correcting for human vision like the first two meters will do. It still has some of its own issues.

The problem with relying too heavily on a μMole value is that it is based on the total light intensity in the 400-700 nm range, and does not account for the spectral points within that range. This issue is further complicated by the fact that PAR meters actually measure light intensity (not actual photon counts). It must assume a spectral distribution to actually assign a uMol/ M2-S value. This assumed spectral distribution for a PAR meter will normally be natural sunlight, but for artificial light, with a different spectral distribution, errors will occur.

“PHOTONS - THE MINIMUM UNIT OF LIGHT ENERGY” For example, shorter wavelength photons have more energy than longer wavelength photons; a 420 nm photon has 1.5 times the energy of a 630 nm photon. If a particular light source was very heavy in the violet and blue region the PAR meter would likely yield a higher uMol/M2-S based on a sunlight calibration, assuming that some of that additional light energy from the blue must be red. Not having a weighted μMole value is also problematic when dealing with narrow spectrum technologies such as LED panels. Manufacturers will often advertise high intensities of 2000 μMoles @ 609mm from the source. While that reading might very well be in a peak absorption region, it could easily be a reading in a green-yellow region, or of such narrow bandwidth, that its output is of little value to the plants overall or regional net action absorption requirements. It is for these reasons a complete determination of the lamps output should include reference to the manufacturers spectral distribution graph, and the amount of energy being expended in the three PAR absorbance regions. Manufacturers need to publish plant lighting data in a metric that will enable gardeners with a numerical value that describes the lamp’s value in both plant spectrums and intensities. A single number, such as lamp lumen output, does not provide the gardener with meaningful data. Since no lamp technology is 100% efficient in turning electrical energy into light we have to take these conversion efficiencies in the three plant absorbance regions into account: • Vegetative 400-520 nanometers • Carotenoid 520-610 nanometers • Flowering 610-700 nanometers 3

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7373

BY GRUBBYCUP

PLANT

NUTRITION “MACRONUTRIENTS ARE THE NUTRIENTS PL ANTS USE IN THE L ARGEST QUANTITIES”

“PL ANTS ARE UNABLE TO ABSORB NITROGEN FROM THE AIR” 74

PLANT NUTRITION I GARDEN CULTURE

Macronutrients are the nutrients plants use in the largest quantities. These are nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and sulfur. Nitrogen(N), phosphorus(P), and potassium(K) are the most important nutritionally to the plant, and therefore are the most important to you as a gardener.

“ N P K R AT I N G S A R E P R O P O R T I O N S” Fertilizers list the NPK values for the first three macronutrients. The first of the three numbers indicate the percentage of nitrogen. Ammonium nitrate (NH 4) (NO3) has an NPK rating of 34-0-0. Therefore 34% of the weight of the fertilizer is nitrogen, and 66% of the weight of the fertilizer is something else.

nitrogen directly from ammonium (NH 4) well, but flowers and vegetables respond better to nitrogen further processed by bacteria into nitrate (NO3). Nitrogen deficient leaves will contain relatively little chlorophyll, and will thus be pale green or yellow, and plants will have slowed growth. Nitrogen is very mobile in plants, and this enables them readily to move supplies where they are most required. Such transference is common from old growth to young growing tips when supplies are short. This mobility and reutilization of nitrogen explains why deficiency symptoms appear first in the older parts of plants, working their way up to the grow tips. This same type of symptom creeps from bottom to top is common to all mobile nutrients.

“VEGETABLES RESPOND BETTER TO NITROGEN PROCESSED BY BACTERIA INTO NITR ATE”

The second number is the amount of phosphorus by weight, as if the phosphorus expressed comes from phosphorus pentoxide (P 2O5). This is true even if the phosphorus is in another form. Phosphate Rock with a NPK rating of 0-30-0 indicates that it contains enough phosphorus to create enough phosphorus pentoxide (P 2O5) to equal 30% of the total weight.

The third number is potassium content by weight, as if the potassium expressed comes from potassium oxide (K 2O). A NPK rating of 0-0-60 for potassium chloride denotes a potassium content equal to 60% potassium oxide. NPK ratings are proportions, so a fertilizer with an NPK rating of 2-1-2 has the same relative proportion as a fertilizer made from the same ingredients at 4-2-4. The difference would only be in the percentage of fillers or in the concentration.

Nitrogen (N) In gardens, nitrogen deficiency is the most common nutrient deficiency. Nitrogen is important for the proper development of chlorophyll (the green in leaves) used in photosynthesis. Nitrogen compounds comprise 40% to 50% of the dry matter of plant cells. It promotes large healthy foliage, absorption by roots, and proper plant development. Used in chlorophyll, amino acids, proteins, and nucleic acids. Trees and shrubs absorb

Nitrogen gas (N 2) is the most common element in our atmosphere. Plants are unable to absorb nitrogen directly from the air. The nitrogen gas (N 2) must convert into ammonium (NH 4) or nitrate (NO3) before it’s available to plants. Nitrogen from the air becomes “fixed” in the form of ammonia (NH 3) by microorganisms. Bacteria, such as rhizobiums live in the roots of legumes (i.e. beans, clover, peas, peanuts). Because of this symbiotic relationship with nitrogen-fixing bacteria; legumes are often used in crop rotations to restore nitrogen to depleted soil. Organic nitrogen from organic material isn’t readily available to plants. It’s locked up until decomposition, when it becomes a natural source of ammonia (NH 3), GARDENCULTUREMAGAZINE.COM

ELITE HC

2.4m

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PLANT NUTRITION I GARDEN CULTURE

and ammonium (NH 4). Waste products of animals contain nitrogen in the form of urea (NH 2)2(CO). Urea converts to ammonia (NH 3) by bacteria using the enzyme ureasec. Regardless of the source, when exposed to acidic conditions (pH less than 7) the ammonia (NH3) picks up another hydrogen (H) atom, and converts to ammonium (NH 4). A man-made source of ammonium (NH 4) is by manufacture from nitrogen gas (N 2) by applying heat, pressure, and an iron catalyst. Ammonium sulfate ((NH 4)2 SO 4 ) and Ammonium nitrate (NH 4)(NO3) are other manufactured forms of nitrogen used for fertilizer.

“ORGANIC NITROGENS ARE NOT IMMEDIATELY AVAILABLE TO PLANTS”

Trees and shrubs absorb nitrogen ammonium (NH 4), but grasses and vegetables respond better to nitrogen further processed by bacteria into nitrate (NO3). Nitrifying (with an “i”) bacteria such as convert the ammonium (NH 4) to nitrites (NO2), then nitrafying (with an “a”) bacteria such as nitrobactera convert the nitrites (NO2) to nitrates (NO3).

“THEY USE MORE NITROGEN IN THE VEGETATIVE GROWTH PHASE”

Nitrates are in a state that the plant can absorb, but nitrates are also soluble in water so excess amounts are easily washed away, and can contribute to agricultural pollution issues. Ideally, plants would have exposure to nitrates at a similar rate to what they use. Too little, and the plant underperforms. Too much, and the excess can go to waste, or cause environmental damage. Common forms of nitrogen used as fertilizers are: Potassium nitrate (KNO3), sodium nitrate (NaNO3), and ammonium nitrate (NH 4)(NO3) are fertilizers that supply immediately available nitrates (NO3). Ammonium sulfate ((NH 4)2 SO 4 )and ammonium nitrate (NH 4)(NO3) are man-made fertilizers that supply ammonium (NH 4) for plant use, and for bacteria to convert to nitrate (NO3).

Nitrifying bacteria

Urea (NH 2)2(CO) converts quickly to ammonium, and then gradually converts to nitrate.

Organic nitrogens (from proteins and amino acids) are not immediately available to plants, and must be broken down by bacteria first into ammonium, and then to nitrate. This spreads the nitrogen distribution out over time creating a slow-release action. Plants use nitrogen in the creation and use of chlorophyll, and photosynthesis. Chlorophyll gives the leaves their green color. Too little, and the older leaves turn pale green, then yellow, then die. Too much, and the leaves turn dark green, stems turn rigid, and the plant will show signs of ill-health. They use more nitrogen in the vegetative growth phase, when photosynthesis activity is at its peak, but they do need some nitrogen throughout adult life since photosynthesis is always needed by the plant. 3 Condensed from Grubbycup’s Gardening Notes GARDENCULTUREMAGAZINE.COM

BY EVEREST FERNANDEZ

“The kernel of naivety is one’s ignorance of it.”

What the

~ Everest Fernandez, 1993.

Chances are, you already know. We’re in the midst of a big, fat, global communications revolution. Really, it’s no wonder that you’re already so tired of hearing about it. And yet, while some novelty admittedly still lingers when I Skype my relatives on a Sunday afternoon, as far as the menu of potential wonders the Internet has in store for us all, we’ve barely even swallowed our first amuse-bouche. I sincerely hope you brought an appetite.

the power of mental arithmetic, First, let’s talk about all the infor“IT HAS, TECHNICALLY AT just as the iPhone reduced the mation. Consider where most of LEAST, REMOVED THE AGE-OLD importance of information-recall us were just twenty years ago. MONOPOLY OVER KNOWLEDGE” from our old-fashioned grey Broadcast television had us all matter. Consequently, a certain suckling eagerly from the same set epistemological smugness has taken root in our psyche—a of teats for years. (Oh what Caesar would’ve done to secure viscous, lazy lava of philosophical hubris slowly filling the void such an awesome public opinion homogenization technology evacuated by our all-knowing smart phones. Young academfor his empire!) We all know that quaint 1950s footage of ics today have enjoyed a lifelong normalcy of World Wide American families arrayed in passive crescent moons around Web access, so who can blame these bright little twentybig wooden boxes and tiny fish bowl screens and how obesomethings if they labor under the misapprehension that they diently receptive they appear today. How easily pleased we know it all or, at least, that everything is knowable? were with a single channel! In light of the massive technological advancements witnessed during the decades since, the notion of us still languishing in the “digital dark ages” might seem a little ungenerous. Is it not delightful that we can now obtain our daily dose of mental milk in any flavor, pasteurized or raw, on-demand, downloaded, streamed, liked, and favorited via countless independent sources and online information-aggregators? And, of course, the electronic effluent now flows in all directions. Once we’re full up with news, novelty and fresh talking points, we can regurgitate our opinions and reactions ad nauseam via a stream of digital burps on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit and that most esteemed haven of polite discourse and intellectual advancement, YouTube comments. While the unfathomably large scale of information available to us online may have fallen short of transforming us all into scholars, society at large has certainly changed—albeit on a more subtle level. The electronic calculator arguably devalued

Before I sound a little too wistful for the long lost past, I should give our brave new Internet its fair dues, for it has, technically at least, removed the age-old monopoly over knowledge that has pervaded mankind throughout the centuries. This monopoly was effectively enforced by an exclusive mastery over language skills, and access to books. Not even 200 years ago, bound volumes of any type remained unaffordable and inaccessible (literally) to all but a tiny fraction of the population. Only a privileged elite and associated top-tier institutions could even afford them, let alone read them. Yes, the proliferation of public libraries in the twentieth century certainly helped the willing and able but, these days, are you really going to make the trip to town just to confirm whether proper nouns are immutable when Googling it takes no more time than giving yourself a pat on the back? Didn’t think so. Some of you might be thinking that I’m describing a markedly different Internet to the one you already know so well.

INTERNET I GARDEN CULTURE

INTERNET did…

Perhaps to you it’s just Gmail, a few spooky ads, Facebook, and the proverbial dancing cats. Maybe the Internet is simply a closed communications tool—a cheaper way of irritating friends and family? Or you could be more excited by its potential for helping you to discover strangers—particularly those who share your more quirky penchants? Perhaps the role of “internet brave” is the most enticing? I.e. Deliberately trespassing on the digital territories of folks who hold opposing opinions to your own (Creationists vs. Darwinists, Beliebers vs. Non Beliebers) and hounding them relentlessly with devilishly eloquent chastisements—or photos of goats.

“EVERY THING IS K N OWA B L E” Whatever your bag of Internet tricks may contain—indulging your inner sadist troll, sheeple-rustling, researching the antiquity of the new world order, profiting from the de-centralized TOR network to altruistically host random fragments of child pornography and step-by-step bomb-building instructions on your home computer (all in the name of liberty, of course) or maybe binging on an entire season of Toddlers and Tiaras just because you can, there is a veritable universe of information at our fingertips. Okay, got all that? Good—now, what else?

AND WHAT IT'S GOING TO DO...

Well, what about services—you know, real stuff like shopping? Amazon. Need to sell that stuff you bought but don’t actually need? eBay. House-swap? Homeexchange.com. Venturing outside? Yelp! Maybe you just need a couch for the night? Google “I need a couch for the night” for crying out loud—do I have to

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INTERNET I GARDEN CULTURE

spell everything out for you? Forgot to buy your train ticket? Even the French are getting in on the Internet act (it took them a while) with BlaBlaCar.com. It’s now such a successful car-share website that even the French national rail system recently declared it as an official competitor. Better yet, you can even specify the “chattiness” of the people you want to share a vehicle with. (No wonder I don’t get any lifts.)

prospect at all. Our current monetary system is already electronic, just zeros and ones, held together by vast, heavily fortified server farms across the globe, and endless miles of optical fiber. The problem is it’s based on debt and issued by strange, non-productive institutions called banks. Countless YouTube videos have probably already told you that virtually all money is loaned into existence, interest is attached to it, and somehow we must pay back the prinOf course, these websites, apps, ciple and the interest from an in“THE PROBLEM IS IT’S BASED ON widgets, call them what you sufficient money supply—making DEBT AND ISSUED BY STRANGE, will, find popularity because it artificially scarce. As the total NON-PRODUCTIVE INSTITUTIONS” they meet a real need. In other money supply inevitably increases “OUR HURDLE IS NOT words, their time has come. due to more debt-based money TECHNOLOGICAL, BUT The aforementioned BlaBlaCar being pumped into the system just PSYCHOLOGICAL” was going nowhere until a wellto pay the interest on preexisting timed press release coincided debts, so our individual “share” with a series of national strikes that had paralyzed the French of symbolic global wealth, along with our purchasing power, transport system. Suddenly people woke up to an alternative shrivels to nothing. In short, our current monetary system is way of doing things—a better way—a cheaper way! Change nothing short of modified slavery—it’s just that most of us is invariably borne out of necessity. don’t know anything different or better. This brings us, somewhat predictably I know, I know, to Bitcoin. Oh God, do we have to discuss Bitcoin? Perhaps, like me, you’re still more than a little gutted that you didn’t stuff your digital wallet to bursting point when they were being traded at less than 10 pence each. Why didn’t I throw a speculative £296 at the fledgling digital currency project back in 2009—you know, just to help it get off the ground? Oh cursed hindsight! I could be blogging incessantly about my rocky adjustment to life as a millionaire instead of having to charge per word for my lamentations. Actually, it turns out that Bitcoin is more harbinger than savior—a mental preparatory exercise to help us get to grips with the breaking of another longstanding monopoly. No biggie—just the monopoly over our time, energy, and resources. Yes, I’m talking about money. That stuff we spend our lives chasing. Centrally controlled, bank-issued fiat currency. Bitcoin offers us an alternative payment media. With the swipe of a mobile phone, or the tap of a few keys, we can make a payment that has nothing to do with a central bank, PayPal, or any government. This is a quantum leap forward, but it’s only just the beginning. Money is the grandest monopoly of them all, so don’t think for a moment that it won’t go down without a temper tantrum or two. Our future isn’t to be found in gold or silver, it’s in digital money—a scary prospect for some but, actually, it’s not a

If globalist politicians and banks have their way, we will march towards a single, world currency. No doubt it will be hailed as the “urgent solution” to all the perceived evils in the world: wealth inequality, environmental destruction, food commodity speculation, corporate tax avoidance, you name it. The coming global financial collapse is as much a mathematical inevitability as a political opportunity—just another instantiation of the age-old maxim: problem, reaction, solution. I earnestly hope that the Internet will not only do its job in alerting us to the highly preferable alternatives to a global currency, but it will actually be the infrastructure for realizing a new, equitable system of money. So what’s stopping us? As usual, our hurdle is not technological, but psychological. If I ask you how much a Bitcoin is worth today no doubt you will answer in terms of US dollars, pounds, euros, yen, or some other geopolitical, centralized, fiat currency. And there’s the rub. We are tethered to our cherished, familiar currencies—conditioned from birth to regard them simultaneously as both a means of exchange and a scale of value, despite the fact that the purchasing power of these currency units is permanently being ebbed away. A global scale of value—just as we have inches to measure length, and Fahrenheit to gauge temperature—is the key to this whole conundrum. I don’t care what you call it, just don’t be hoodwinked into thinking that a global currency and a glob-

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INTERNET I GARDEN CULTURE

al scale of value are one and the same thing. They are not. The scale is just that. A scale. It starts at zero and ends somewhere near infinity. It’s the virtual yardstick upon which the price for everything on the planet could be measured. A Lamborghini will probably still cost more than ten Fiats. But at least nobody owns or manipulates the unit of account. It just is what it is. Instead of being reliant on banks for loans, corporations can issue themselves with credit—based on a promise of future delivery of whatever it is they do. They effectively become their own minting machine. A hairdresser promises future haircuts. A garlic grower promises future garlic. An energy supplier promises electricity. A burger joint owner promises … well, you get the picture. The notion of corporations having access to their own electronic printing press may well cause you to shudder. (But this is precisely what one particular type of corporation, banks, do every day.) You may wonder— what if these corporations go crazy and flood the market with their “funny money”? I.e. what’s preventing them from issuing credits well in excess of their capacity to fulfill the promises backing them, a bit like a rogue seller on eBay claiming he has 100 (non-existent) iPads for sale just before the holiday season. Well, similar to the seller’s soon-to-plummet eBay rating, the value of a corporation’s credit token can be instantly evaluated online by comparing the offers to buy vs. the offers to sell their token. I.e. do they really deliver? If I issue myself with twice as many credits as my productive capacity, the value of my tokens automatically halves, driving them back towards parity. Can you imagine a self-correcting monetary system that penalizes rather than rewards greed?

“C HANGE IS INVARIABLY BORNE OUT OF NEC ESSIT Y” mons—it represents real things that normal people actually need, not usurious treasury bonds that collateralize us all. This new system of money based on self-issued credit is actually nothing new. It’s just that the Internet can make it happen on a global scale. Not only do we decouple the money power from the state and the banks, it can also imbue us with the power to boycott a particular corporation’s credit token if we don’t, say, like their weed killer or moral track record. What’s more, there’s no inflation imperative, because money no longer has interest attached to it. In this scenario there would be millions of currencies to choose from, but just one global scale to value them all against. Remember that image of the 1950s family glued to their mono-channel television set? Well, guess what? They just got cable.

“IM AGINE A SELF- CORREC TING MONETARY SYSTEM THAT PENALIZES GREED”

Eventually—after being involved in a series of trades around the world that probably have nothing to do with the original issuer—the token finds its way back home. I.e. somebody wants to buy garlic from the garlic grower using the garlic grower’s own token. When this happens, not only does the buyer enjoy a modest bonus upon redemption (an incentive for completing the token’s lifecycle), but the token vanishes. After all, it doesn’t represent anything anymore—its promise has been fulfilled. Moreover, money at large has been returned to the com-

This liberation won’t come easy. Perhaps enslavement under an opaque, global, centralized currency is a necessary hardship, the butterfly’s cocoon—just as long as we caterpillars don’t surrender the Internet in the process. After the money power is returned to the people, what remains to be liberated? The human mind? Both ironic and telling, is it not, that no technology is required. 3

For more information on self-issued credit, go to YouTube—of course. Search for: Digital Coin—An Introduction The Essence of Money Further reading: www.newapproachtofreedom.info www.moneyasdebt.net

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