Garden Culture Magazine: UK 12

IN THIS ISSUE OF GARDEN CULTURE: 9 Foreword

50 Homemade Nutrients

11 Product Spotlight

52 Who’s Growing What Where

16 A Tribute to Abram Steiner

55 You Know What Grinds My Gears?

21 Plant Growth Regulators: Paclobutrazol

56 History of Hydroponics – Part 2

22 Glyphosate Under The Microscope

62 Get a Grip on Thrips

25 Vintage Glyphosate

64 Pest & Disease Control through Fertility

32 Peaky Bubblers

68 How to Grow Perfect Peas

38 Giant Veg

72 Have you met Pythium yet?

42 UK Food Policy – Part 2

76 Light Matters – Part 2

45 Five Cool Finds

81 Shorties

46 Dreaded Fungal Spores

Garden Culture™ is a publication of 325 Media Inc. ED I TO RS Executive Editor: Eric Coulombe Email: eric@gardenculturemagazine.com Senior Editor: Tammy Clayton Email - tammy@gardenculturemagazine.com

Welcome to another edition of Garden Culture. Once again, we have filled our pages with the latest, and greatest information to help you make the most out of your gardening experience.

We spend endless hours preparing, creating, and tending to our gardens. From the smallest hobby gardener to the largest commercial farmer, it all starts with a seed. For some it’s a passion, for others a means to earn a living. No matter the size of the garden, we all share common enemies: bugs and plant disease, in all their disastrous forms. In this issue, we take a good look at how to keep your plants safe from all those little critters.

Keeping a clean growing environment, and using preventive treatment can sometimes not be enough. Some of these pests are small, I mean microscopic, and you will never see them until your dying plants let you know they are there.

Each growing method, plant type, and geographic location present its own set of challenges. I like to think of it as a war, a war on things that want to kill my plants. I am the security force responsible for protecting them. As once was said, so long ago, by the master of warfare tactics: “If you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one; if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle.” - Sun Tzu, The Art of War We will teach you about your enemies, and help you keep those gardens safe. 3 Eric

V P O PER AT I O NS: Celia Sayers Email: celia@gardenculturemagazine.com t. 1-514-754-1539 DESIGN Job Hugenholtz Email - job@gardenculturemagazine.com Special thanks to: Our writers Tammy Clayton, Stephen Brookes, Amber Fields, Evan Folds, Theo Tekstra, Richard Hamilton, Chris Bond, Agent Green, Rick LeRenard, Callie Coe, Grubbycup, Jeff Edwards, Kevin Fortey and Anne Gibson PUBLISHER 325 Media 44 Hyde Rd., Milles Isles Québec, Canada t. +1 (844) GC GROWS w. www.gardenculturemagazine.com Email - 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 S • Down to Earth Kent • Maxigrow • Nutriculture DGS • HydroGarden • Highlight Horticulture Website: www.GardenCultureMagazine.com

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I just recently fired up my first 1000W DE fixture, co urtesy of the fine people at bright for my little room wi Solistek. It was too th a low ceiling and, unfortun ate ly, ha d to take it down. Some of my light sensitive plants just co more uldn’t handle it.

It was back in 2010 that Gavita launched the first doubleended 1000W complete fixture. It was the age of big reflectors in North America and this strange, small and, yes, quite expensive new setup, took a minute to catch on.

I still remember the moment when it became clear that Gavita had something special. I was at a trade show in Long Beach, November 2012, and had just started working with Garden Culture Magazine.

I spent quite a bit of time in the Gavita booth, where I was told all of these stories about end users who were raving about this new DE technology; “it is the best light ever”, “will give you over 20% bigger yields” and, “it saved their store”. Honestly, I thought Jair, USA Sales Manager and part owner of Gavita, was laying it on a little thick.

Later during that same day, I was passing by the Gavita booth and was asked by Jair if I could man it for a bit. Sure, why not? It wasn’t a minute until some random store owner came up to me, all excited, saying he was looking everywhere for the Gavita booth. He then went on to repeat, almost verbatim, Jair’s “exaggerated” claims. In the space of 15 minutes, 3 different people came up to me, all with similar experiences.

I felt like I was being punked, but it was clear these people were real. And, so was born the DE revolution. From that weekend on, Gavita became the new standard in lighting.

Within a year, every lighting manufacturer had a DE 1000W of their own, claiming to be as good or better than Gavita.

To be fair, Gavita didn’t invent this technology, Phillips did in 2005. Gavita simply recognized the benefits, developed a very specific system to go around this bulb and, marketed the hell out of it.

The UK market is a little more pragmatic when it comes to new technology, but it seems like the DE wave is taking off too. Regardless who manufactures your new 600W or 1000W DE fixture, it is a step up from any single ended product HPS, as long as your ceiling is high enough.

To use one of my least favorite expressions, it was a real game changer. 3

The Growers Guide is the 1st book in a series of step by step guides to growing indoors by Rich Hamilton, focusing on the use of Soil and Coco. Easy to read, packed full of colour pictures, diagrams, and easy to follow instructions it is a breath of fresh air for growers of all levels. Available now on iBooks in 33 regions. The hard copy will be out later this year, distributed exclusively by Century Growsystems in the UK. For more information go to thegrowersguide.co.uk or you can follow the Growers Guide blog at thegrowersguideblog/Wordpress.com

t wth at every stage of the plan Maxibright CFLs promote gro light at the right time for great cycle, delivering the optimum ps have very low heat output results. These energy efficient lam close to your plants, ensuring allowing the CFL to be placed unt of light. they receive the optimum amo lasted with a standard E40 base All Maxibright CFLs are self-bal reflector or hanger. Maxibright cap for convenient use with a ’s at an affordable price. offers high quality, reliable CFL Find your local supplier: -buy/ maxigrow.com/where-to

The Secret Jardin Lodge - offers 2-in-1 stations, which allow you to enjoy a bloom, space and an area of growth in the same tent. The limited height of the Lodge provides opportunities for installation in small spaces and /or with little height (under slopes, lofts, etc...), which is a real revolution for a tent offering two separate spaces.

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Electronically Commutated (EC) the Revolution EC Vector fans combine AC and DC voltages, bringing the best of both technologies. Easy speed controllability, efficiency, lower power consumption, and higher m3/h can be achieved.

Key Features: • State of the art energy saving brush-less EC fan technology.

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• High Power, example RV250L EC 1520m3/h with carbon filter.

• Add another fan in series to double the pressure.

• One piece housing so is air tight lightweight and compact.

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Dig ita l EC Fan Con tro lle r & Bal anc er The GAS digital EC fan controllers and balancers have been specifically designed to control the Revolution EC Vector fan range. They control the fans correctly through 0-10 Volts. The Digital EC fan Balancer is an add on to control the speed of each fan separately, if you wish.

Key Features: • 100 steps for smooth linear control • No humming from the fans • Save on power cost • Precise climate room control • Shows minimum and maximum temperature • Switch between ºC and ºF Watch the EC Fan Controller video by typing http://tinyurl.com/ • Plugs directly onto EC Vector fans ECFCON into your browser or by scanning the QR code:

Century Growsystems have now added the Bloomroom Tower tent range, to its already fantastic Bloomroom range. The Bloomroom Towers are just the same great quality as the standard range, but they are 2.35m high instead of the standard 2m high tents. They come in; • BLOOMROOM TOWER Standard - 1.2m x 1.2m x 2.35m • BLOOMROOM TOWER Large - 2.4m x 1.2m x 2.35m • BLOOMROOM TOWER XL - 2m x 2m x 2.35m • BLOOMROOM TOWER Giant - 3m x 3m 2.35m • BLOOMROOM TOWER Jumbo - 2.4m x 2.4m x 2.35m Exclusive to Century Growsystems.

This compost Tea brew offers a quick and effective means of adding life back into your soil. Applied as an instant extract, or as a brewed compost tea in an aerated brewer. Simply pour the brewed tea around the base of the plant once a week. The microbes will rapidly break down nutrients into particles your plant can absorb right away.

With more nutrients and minerals available, your plants will grow stronger and faster!

Simple to use. Add 1 Tea brew (5 or 50 gal sachet) into the water contained in the compost tea brewer. Squeeze the Tea brew sachet several times and add 1 x activator packet. Turn on the air pump, with air-stone connected (A fountain head water pump can be used to reduce froth and agitate the brew) brew for 48h for growing or 24h for flowering/fruiting plants.

Find your local supplier: maxigrow.com/where-to-buy/

and quality Its been proven that high levels of CO2 in your grow room increase yield of your plants, and, is an essential building block for all plant life. chemicals By using the CO2 Bucket, the ambient level is increased without the use of or dangerous substances, actively emitting CO2 for at least 65 days.

The Simply hang the bucket next to your lamp and connect to a power source. produce warmth of the lamp will activate the microbiological life in the bucket, and lamp is the er organic CO2. It is therefore advisable to activate the pump whenev on. Keep in mind that plants only need CO2 during the day!

As the ingredients of the CO2 Bucket are 100% natural and biodegradable, the contents can be used as a soil amendment once emission stops.

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lamps. The Pro Grow™ 1000 DE lamp is HID is proud to launch the first in a new range of Pro Grow™ Horticultural falling almost entirely within the 400 and 700 a 2K HPS lamp that produces a staggering output (ppf) of 2075 umol m2/s quality, high frequency 1000W/400V electronic nanometer PAR range. Pro Grow™ 1000 DE lamps should be operated on no lamp resonance. DE lamps produce up to ballasts. Optimum Hertz operation falls between 80,000 & 120,000Hz* with

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The Starting Point

Energized By Discovery

A graduate from the University of Wageningen, the only university in the Netherlands focused on healthy food and a healthy living environment, Bram began his work on plant nutrition in 1947, and became interested in growing plants without soil. It’s not like he was trying to reinvent the wheel.

The U.S. military services were successfully growing food hydroponically on World War II bases from 1945 through the early 1950s using an early flood and drain technique developed at Harvard. One that suffered from technical issues. More work was needed to perfect the science, and a handful of researchers picked it up from here - Bram being one of them.

Over his lifelong career, Bram wrote an amazing 80 publications on hydroponic research and plant nutrition. But of all his contributions to soilless growing, two remain especially significant in two key areas.

Firstly, Bram proved that plants take up required nutrients only when the solution avoids deficiencies or toxicities. The simple translation of which is that plants can control their nutrient uptake, giving many to claim that hydroponics gives the grower total control over the crop. And while this still appears here and there today, Bram’s work shows the opposite is true.

He was influential in the 1955 formation of the 12-member International Working Group on Soilless Culture (IWOSC), of which Bram was appointed General-Secretary. Ridicule was no stranger to the research group, but they refused to be swayed by the judgements of others. Case in point, their request to hold a symposium at the International Society for Horticultural Science’s 1961 International Horticultural Congress met with a response that no one would be interested in such nonsense.

Secondly, he developed the basis for modern hydroponic nutrients with what is known as the Steiner Universal Nutrient Solution, though it’s quite different from what we call a nutrient solution today. Bram’s solution was crafted for each species, with the appropriate major cation and major anion ratios based on the uptake requirements, and keeping it within the desired range in rockwool at first, and progressing into other types of media.

His research led to the massive growth of hydroponic cultivation worldwide in the 1980s when it was applied to solutions for groups of species.

Who Needs Them?

Tireless Devotion

The group grew anyway, holding their first symposium in 1958 as the IWOSC, which was followed by their First International Congress on Soilless Culture as the International Society of Soilless Culture in 1963. And symposiums continued to take place every 4 years until the final 1996 gathering in Jersey.

Not that the group fell apart, the world view had changed.

The International Society for Horticultural Sciences was finally embracing soilless culture, and hydroponics was a growing global industry.

Bram’s passion left room for even more accomplishments. In 1975 he started the research group known today as the Royal Society of Agricultural Science, though most identify it with its Dutch acronym - KLV for Koninklijke Landbouwkundige Vereniging.

As president, and later chairman of the study circle, he organized bi-annual meetings for the exchange of knowledge. What began as a club of older gentlemen grew into an agricultural scientist’s association that organized various study groups, and is now a large network of Wageningen alumni and industry professionals.

With its work completed, the ISOSC officially shut down in the year 2000. It’s residual funds were used to set up the Bram Steiner Award for Soilless Culture through a contribution to the Royal Society for Agricultural Science in recognition of the 45 years Bram devoted to being General Secretary of the ISOSC. An appointment that pretty much made him the energy that kept the ISOSC in action. His dedication and organization is what kept the interest in soilless culture alive through the doubting decades. But the recognition of his unique and important contributions to practical hydroponic research lives on through the Bram Steiner Award, a biennial prize for the best soilless cultivation publication.

Retirement didn’t bring an end to Bram’s studying or activity in the soilless growing community. He continued to be involved, and traveled the world sharing his knowledge through lectures. And he has done since the Bram Steiner Award was established, he attended the award presentation for the most recent bestowal during the 2013 GroSci symposium in Leiden, The Netherlands.

Rest in peace, Abram Steiner. You will be missed by close colleagues, and the global industry your foresight and determination helped to build. 3

What is Paclobutrazol? I had heard its name but didn’t really know much about it. So, I decided to look into the science of what Paclobutrazol is, what it does, and most importantly what effect it can have when consumed by humans. The conclusion of it all is that when all the pro’s and con’s are weighed up, I would not want Paclobutrazol on anything that I consume, and I would therefore specifically avoid any hydroponic product that contains it.

Paclobutrazol (PBZ) is a plant growth regulator (PGR) specifically it is a plant growth retardant. It works by inhibiting the production of Gibberellin, therefore reducing the internodal growth, and producing thicker stems, as well as improved root growth, and quicker flowering.

For some crops, Paclobutrazol is a fantastic product that can improve resistance to drought, produce darker green leaves, and promotes higher resistance to frost sensitivity, along with harmful fungi and bacteria resistance. One of the common uses is as an injection into the tree to prevent vertical growth when obstructions are in the way, such as electrical or telephone wires.

Improved yields, aesthetically better quality plants, and less risk of disease and control over plant size has unfortunately made it an attractive product for farmers and commercial agriculture around the world.

The U.S. Environmental protection agency (EPA), in their review of Paclobutrazol in 1985 for the use on ornamentals, clearly state throughout that PBZ is not to be injected into trees that are tapped for sugar or fruit/nut trees that will be harvested within 1 year after application of PBZ. (1) This alone is enough to raise alarm bells to the possible effects that PBZ could have when used on a consumable product. To further my disdain for the product being used on consumables, I came across an article on pesticide information which found PBZ to be unclassifiable with regards to its carcinogenic potential, but classified it as a slight risk for acute toxicity. The effects from repeated exposure, or a single exposure over a period of 24 hours, resulted in adverse reactions within 14 days of administration in rats, and caused liver damage.(2) The World Health Organisation (WHO) classifies it as a stage III slightly hazardous chemical, it takes more than

2000 mg/KG in rats to kill 50% of the test population, known as the LD50 (Lethal dose that kills 50% of the test population), but who knows what would happen over the long term, and with repeated consumption.

It does have to be said, however, that there is absolutely no reliable data to show PBZ causes cancer. WHO says it is unclassifiable, and other organisations state that there is simply not enough data to make any conclusions. That being said, there definitely is data that shows it can have a slight, negative effect on the rats’ livers. This data can’t be used to say it would definitely have an effect on human livers, but when the negatives and positives are weighed up, the potential negatives far outweigh the positives gained from this product.

In the European Union (EU), citrus fruits are allowed to contain 0.5 mg/KG of PBZ in the fruit. That is not what is allowed to be used on the citrus fruits, just what the maximum amount of PBZ is allowed to be in the fruit so that it is fit for consumption, that is a tiny amount considering it took more than 2000 mg per KG to kill 50% of the rats References: in the trial mentioned above. (3) But it is still there, adding to the chemical (1) www.bit.ly/epa-pbz soup we breath, eat and drink everyday.

(2) www.bit.ly/pbz-toxicity (3) www.bit.ly/pbz-rat-kill So here’s the worrying part, in the hydroponics industry, which is largely unregulated compared to other agricultural industries, who checks the products for traces of PBZ, or other harmful PGRs? What happens if a company is found to knowingly put PBZ into their products and not disclose that information? What are the ramifications to dissuade companies from using PBZ, and other harmful PGRs? Still so many more questions than answers. 3

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced food testing for glyphosate in February 2016.

Headlines quickly spread implying that testing was due to commence. Some said they were looking for Roundup contamination, others stuck with the active ingredient.

Slow Motion Replay The actual statement did not say the FDA was ready to start this long awaited testing. What their spokeswoman really said was: “The agency is now considering assignments for Fiscal Year 2016 to measure glyphosate in soybeans, corn, milk, and eggs, among other potential foods.” -- Lauren Sucher Considering assignments.

“FDA officials dubbed the issue “sensitive” and declined to provide details of the plans, but FDA spokeswoman Lauren Sucher said the agency was moving forward to test glyphosate for the first time in the agency’s history.” -- Civil Eats And Monsanto’s initial statement?

for glyphosate residue since 1993 - 3 years before the first Roundup Ready crop was released to the market. Yet, the rate of application has tripled on cotton, doubled on soy, and increased almost 40% on corn since 1996.

Scientifically Rigorous Manner Naturally, Monsanto only condones testing they ordered.

Said industry-approved science is biased, and some suggest outdated, so will the FDA proceed according to their wishes?

Still, they’re only concerned about the active ingredient, which when used alone, proves to be 4-5 times less toxic than with the Roundup surfactant added, not to mention the heightened toxicity of the degraded glyphosate product known as AMPA. But AMPA is not an “ ingredient” in Roundup, though we’re surrounded by that too.

Glyphosate is invasive, there’s no escape

“While FDA hasn’t officially confirmed to us that they plan to move forward with residue testing, glyphosate’s 40-year history of safe use has been upheld by the U.S. EPA and regulators around the world following decades of study and review. No data have ever indicated residue levels of more than a fraction of EPA’s very conservative Allowable Daily Intake or any level of concern. If FDA does move forward with additional testing in a scientifically rigorous manner, we are confident it will reaffirm the long-standing safety profile of this vital tool used safely and effectively by farmers, landowners and homeowners around the world.”

Only Civil Eats published the full statement. Other news sources picking up their article shared only the last sentence of Monsanto’s response. But this story doesn’t begin in the winter of 2016. This is actually a reaction to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) calling the FDA on the carpet 2 YEARS AGO over their lack of testing of food for crop pesticides.

In the GAO’s 2014 study release, they also took the USDA to task for not conducting glyphosate studies given the immense volume of it used on cropland, and no agency insuring that the EPA’s safety guidelines were being met.

But available data reveals that even the EPA hasn’t tested

Enough opposing studies have linked glyphosate, and its AMPA state, to human health ailments.

The requests to independent laboratories for testing of its presence in food, urine, breast milk, and other substances, jumped from 3-4 annually, to 3-4 a month last April. Both Abraxis and Microbe Inotech were finding it in samples submitted by doctors, companies, and organizations.

Breakfast foods were just found to have alarming amounts of glyphosate, including eggs at 105-169 ppb while the U.S. tolerance list states 0.5 ppm. Dairy creamer was also high, indicating: “... the chemical is entering the food chain and building up in the tissues of the animals, otherwise known as bioaccumulation. If glyphosate can accumulate in the animals we eat, it must also accumulate in humans.” -- Alliance for Natural Health Monsanto’s senior toxicologist states, “It is the amount, or dose that matters,” and that trace amounts are not unsafe.

Yet, independent modern science finds this is not the case at all. Traces of toxic chemicals have as much as, or more of, an influence on human health. Low doses of glyphosate act as hormone hackers (endocrine disruptors).

Papers published in the Environmental Health Journal, and BioMed Central report that amounts as small as 0.1 ppb altered functions of 4,000 genes in the liver and kidneys of rats, and caused severe organ damage. But EU tap water tolerance is 0.1 ppb, the U.S. allows 700 ppb, and the EPA sets food safety at 0.2 ppb or greater.

Amounts as small as 0.1 ppb altered functions of 4,000 genes

We Disagree The FDA press release and Civil Eats article were published on February 16, 2016. The same day the Environmental Health Journal published, “Concerns over use of glyphosate-based herbicides and risks associated with exposures: a consensus statement”, authored by 14 credible scientists, referencing 80 recent studies published in a number of journals.

On March 3rd, 96 more scientists published their consensus in the peer-reviewed Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health calling the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) out on opposing the carcinogenic evaluation of glyphosate done by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).

And the Monsanto-led self-interests organization, Glyphosate Task Force, continues to oppose. After all, sales are phenomenal: 250 million pounds of glyphosate are now applied annually, a number that increases every year, with the majority being used on GMO crops.

The 100 manufacturers of glyphosate products share a global market of $5.46 billion in 2012, and it’s expected to grow to $8.79 billion by 2019. But Roundup is the

global top-selling brand, and the most used agricultural chemical EVER, with 1.8 million tons of glyphosate sprayed in the US, and 9.4 million tons have been used globally since 1974.

Glyphosate is invasive, there’s no escape. It’s in the air, the rain, groundwater, waterways, and lakes - and it’s far more persistent than claimed, capable of remaining in the soil up to 20 years.

It’s Not So Bad The FDA says that most glyphosate residue is removed during processing food. But they’ve never tested it, so how would they know? And cooking doesn’t remove it.

The UK government tests for glyphosate contamination, commonly finding it in bread - especially whole-meal breads.

UK wheat bran testing wheat bran yielded up to 5.7mg per kilogram (2005), and German barley contained glyphosate residues of 23 mg per kilogram (2012).

Glyphosate is Protected Both the FDA and the USDA routinely conduct food testing for residues of hundreds of pesticides, but routinely skip testing for glyphosate, claiming such testing is unnecessary and too expensive. Now, the FDA says they’ve developed “streamlined methods” to test for the weed killer. But the current FDA Deputy Commissioner, Michael R. Taylor, is a former Monsanto VP, and one of their head lobbyists.

Watching this unfold will be interesting, especially with private laboratories doing public testing.

Testing Methods & Accuracy The accepted testing procedure used by the food industry is a form of the ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) method - a fast, liquid procedure used in many ways from forensics to home pregnancy tests to blood screening. It is commonly used for allergen food labeling, and for preliminary food contaminant detection. However, it is by no means a true picture of pesticide contamination with high minimum detection levels over 20 ppb, and being prone to producing false positive and false negative results.

True risk assessment calls for validation and verification using chromatography for separation and analysis. Without validation, glyphosate test results are easily debunked... such was the case when women in Ontario tested positive for glyphosate in breast milk and urine a couple of years ago.

The EPA glyphosate tests run in 1993 on a handful of major foods were done using the Gas Chromatography – Flame Photometric Detector (GC/FPD) and Gas Chromatography - Mass Spectrum (GC-MS). However, the same EPA web page says the results aren’t validated.

New technology allows far more accurate testing that can detect low minimum levels of 2-20 ppb. Independent laboratories can now provide responsible, clear pictures of contamination in food, water, urine, and other substances using validated or verified LC-MS/MS glyphosate and AMPA testing. This combines liquid chromatography (LC) with mass spectrometry (MS). MS/MS is the combination of two mass analyzers in one mass spec instrument resulting in increased sensitivity, and more structural analyte information.

The USDA agrees that LC-MS/MS allows for accurate detection in the low ppb range, but uses the “Quick, Easy, Cheap, Effective, Rugged, and Safe “ (QuEChERS) method developed in-house in 2003, allowing them to do pesticide screening using $1USD in materials.

However, the USDA’s Original QuEChERS method is unbuffered, while two newer variations that are just as accepted by the scientific community, the European EN and the AOAC Official methods, increase accuracy by taking into account the problems that pH presents with a wide range of pesticides that can break down in unbuffered testing. The AOAC method buffers in two ways for greater buffering capacity.

And pH is a problem with glyphosate - at least in the Roundup formula. An Oregon State University study found that weak acids in post emergent herbicides dissociate in water with a high pH. Dissociated glyphosate molecules have a negative charge, and could remain so, or bind with other cations.

This would affect the accuracy of glyphosate detection using the unbuffered Original QuEChERS method, according to information provided by Separation Science Europe in their 2012 QuEChERS primer.

Private Sector Testing Now that any non-governmental organization or company can get glyphosate contamination testing for a reasonable cost from independent, qualified labs - the rash of private sector testing will continue to grow. As long as they’re using the LCMS/MS separation method following a buffered QuEChERS extraction method, the results will be accurate and validated.

The Detox Project makes these tests available in partnership with a lab in California, providing validated and verified glyphosate and AMPA contamination for $175. Microbe Inotech Labs in St. Louis charge $120 for glyphosate testing, though no mention of what method is used, or if it’s validated.

Microbe Inotech is owned by an ex-Monsanto microbiologist, so verification is clearly understood, though the breakfast foods testing in April 2016 were noted to be preliminary results by Alliance for Natural Health in their report on the findings. 3

Would you like your Roundup in a red, rosé, white, or bubbling? Yes, you can choose.

California wines tested positive for glyphosate content according to a report released

by Moms Across America in late March 2016, the news surfacing just weeks after 18 beer brands were found to contain the chemical in Germany.

Testing was done by an independent laboratory, Microbe Inotech Lab in St. Louis, Missouri, on two groups of premium wines from Napa, Sonoma, and Mendocino counties. The sample bottles came from conventional, organic, and biodynamic vineyards, proving that the contamination is widespread, and present even where no chemical weed killers are used.

Zen Honeycutt, spokesperson for Moms Across America, attributes wind drift as the cause of grapes produced with organic and biodynamic practices containing measurable levels of glyphosate. This is logical in a conventional vineyard, but certainly not where organic or biodynamic growing practices are in place.

Roundup is not aerially applied to vineyards, but sprayed close to the ground on a strip of ground between the rows, and any wind drift would only be able to carry it a short distance of perhaps 2-3 feet max. Anyone who has done a good deal of herbicide spraying would know this. And no farmer in his right mind would spray in high winds... it would not solve the problem, or be cost-efficient.

Woody vines can survive glyphosate, as long as the spray hit only hardened bark. It kills immature sucker growth, but not the mature plant, at least not right away, but it

has greatly shortened their life expectancy. In the past, a century of harvesting from mature vines was expected, but with today’s conventional agriculture practices, they need replacing within 10-12 years. Glyphosate is a strong metal chelator that blocks vital nutrients and minerals in both soil and plants. It’s also residual, and accumulates in clay and loam soils, but easily re-liquifies in sandy or gravelly soils - which some parts of Napa Valley are known to have, along with hilly terrain.

“Glyphosate doesn’t impact the vine as long as the spray doesn’t touch the leaves, Sapsford said, leading grape growers to apply it at rates of as much as 5 to 7 litres per acre. By comparison, grain growers apply glyphosate at rates closer to 1 liter per acre.”

-- Peter Mitham, Vines & Wines (2014)

Another 2014 Vines & Wines weed control article features John Roncoroni, weed science advisor for the Napa County UC Cooperative Extension, guiding growers to apply 50 gallons per acre in January or February right before it rains. This makes Roundup more effective, as long as it has had the 2-hour absorption time before precipitation starts. It also drives any portion unabsorbed through the soil faster - which is the most likely path that glyphosate travels to wind up in wines from organic and biodynamic labels, especially given the heaviness with which it is applied in vineyards with sandy or gravelly soils. And it’s likely that not all of it is being absorbed while the fruit is on the vine.

Testing procedures used were the same as those used to determine glyphosate levels in German beers. The results provide compelling evidence that Roundup used to grow food remains present at the point of consumption - even when none was applied on or around the crop.

it’s no wonder that glyphosate winds up where it should never be

Many wines are made by leaving the grapes hanging until they are overripe to almost a raisin state to reduce bitterness from the seeds. In doing so, the fruit loses a lot of the water it would have contained if picked at full ripeness. This causes issues in fermentation with pH and sugars, as well as increases the alcohol level, none of which is desirable. To counteract one or all of these problems, water is added to rehydrate the harvest. Water that no doubt also contains a certain level of glyphosate.

Given the excessive amount of glyphosate many vineyards use, and their close proximity in the hilly terrain of California’s wine country - it’s no wonder that glyphosate winds up where it should never be. In Napa County alone, the California Dept. of Pesticide Registry states 50,417 pounds of glyphosate were applied to vineyards in 2013, while the total amount used countywide was 57,237 pounds for the same year. There are 45,000 acres of vineyards in the entire county, and 1 U.S. gallon of Roundup concentrate contains 4.5 pounds of glyphosate.

According to various studies done to date, glyphosate can have a negative impact on health at 0.01 ppm. The only study done on the co-formulants in glyphosate-based herbicides revealed that they are 1000 times more toxic than glyphosate alone. The wines were not tested for co-formulants, but the results for glyphosate place the majority in excess of the EU’s safe range. Not one brand tested below the range of detection, and 4 out of 10 tested so high they had to be diluted to get a measurement, as the Moms Across America report.

More details: www.bit.ly/moms-amer 3

Not so long ago, I started to hear rumours of giant plants with monster yields being grown in my hometown of Birmingham. In some ways this was nothing new, as being in the hydroponics industry, I’m always hearing tall tales of ridiculous yielding plants.This rumor, however was different. It seemed that everywhere I went, I was hearing the same thing. I decided to follow the stories and rumours, and try to piece together this strange system that people were claiming that they were using to produce these amazing plants.

In the predictable world that is hydroponics here in the UK, it goes without saying that some people like to boast, but when it comes down to the details, people do tend to hold their cards very close to their chest, and so it proved very difficult to discover exactly what this system was, and how it worked. I also found was that it was difficult to pin down a single definition of what was being used, as although working on the same principles, there seemed to be a few different homemade variations of the system in existence. The most popular of these was created through the combining of 2 existing systems with the addition of some inventive home modifications.

After months and months of asking questions, piecing it together, and testing out all of the different variations, I finally cracked it. And when I say cracked it, I believe that I had put together the very best, and most effective hybrid of them all.

So what is this system called? It’s called The Birmingham Bubbler. But this is no ordinary Birmingham Bubbler - this is my version, “The Peaky Bubbler.”

Ok, so let’s have a quick look at it.

At first glance it doesn’t look like much, does it? The basic principle is that it is a 24hour top feeding DWC (deep water culture) system.

The 3 keys to getting this system working as well as it does are: 1. A 90 litre reservoir with a 16 litre barge.

2. An even spread of oxygen throughout the main reservoir and barge.

3. Top feeding 24 hours a day with the right pump.

Key Point #1 90 litre tank The key beneficial feature of this system is that the 90Ltr tank holds around 40 litres of nutrient solution. The problem with most similar bubbler systems is that they leave the plant very susceptible to root disease, because generally the nutrient tank size is only a 15 or 20 litre capacity. The Peaky Bubbler’s main tank being bigger means that it takes much longer for it to warm up enough to reach the ‘danger zone’ temperature where root disease can occur, and so, makes for a much more stable system.

16 litre barge I’ve seen a multitude of different sizes and shapes of barges, all depending on the region and set up. Well, after trying all of them, I can hands up say that the best is this 16Ltr deep rectangular barge. It fits perfectly across the top of the 90Ltr tank, however I would recommend drilling holes in each corner of the lip of the barge, and the lip of the 90Ltr main tank to fasten the 2 together with heavy duty cable ties (it does tend to bow out).

Unlike the net pots used in most bubblers, these 16Ltr barges do not come with holes, so they will need to be drilled. You will have to drill them out on your own, which is almost an art in itself. Be careful. You will find that the more you drill out, the more the barge will weaken.

I always put the largest of the holes in the center of the barge. This helps stablise the main root ball in the center of the 16Ltr barge, keeping the plant vertically centered.

Key Point #2 Ensure that you get the most out of the 4 air stones. To do this, make sure that 3 of them are evenly spaced in the main tank/reservoir and that 1 is on the bottom of the 16ltr barge, like so.

Note that all the air lines should be the same length.

This will ensure that the airflow is even through each air stone.

Some people use 3 air stones, some use 6, but I have found that 4 is the right amount. Any more is overkill, and any less, simply is not enough.

The purpose of positioning the air stones like this is to ensure even oxygenation in the main tank, while the air stone in the barge makes sure that the main foot of the plant is getting oxygen directly. It is important to keep the air stones apart as the roots will naturally grow towards them, so by spacing them apart, you can be sure that the roots will grow evenly over the largest space possible.

The other thing to remember is that the pump bringing in the air should be bringing in cool fresh air from a clean, fresh source outside of the growing environment. If the air pump is in the same environment where the plants are growing, then it will only be bringing warm oxygen into the main body of nutrient solution, which will in turn be sending heat directly to the roots, and once again increase the risk of root disease developing.

Position the top feeding ring in this way. Ideally, you are looking for a constant trickle/fast dripping of liquid through the feeding ring. This makes certain that the full body of the medium remains wet, while the stem is not splashed, and so avoids being damaged.

There are a few other basic points to remember as listed below: •

Standard clay pebbles are ok, but my pick for best medium for this system is Steramis. It is made from pure clay, which has been mined in Germany. It is distributed

by Dutch Garden Supplies in the UK. The key features of Seramis are that it cannot be over watered, and so as a result, it holds the perfect amount of water, it is pH neutral, and it has a very strong capillary action.

Use a Venturi Pump. The pump you need to use to get the best results is one which also pulls oxygen from the surface and mixes it with nutrient water. Believe me when I say that using this specific type of pump is key if you want to get the most out of this system. A normal pump just will not do.

•

Make sure the open areas of the tank on either side of the barge are covered. Roots don’t like light. Black corex is a perfect choice, as its light-proof, and easy to handle.

I also put a piece of white corex on top of that to help reflect any light that might get through back towards the plant.

These pumps are readily available from most hydroponics or aquatic shops, and how they work is simple. The pump will have an extra air line with a float at the end, this float will draw oxygen from the surface of the tank, super boosting the already oxygen-rich solution. Run pump 24 hours a day.

•

Don’t let the nutrient solution in the tank fall below 20 litres. Ideally, the water level should be just below the barge that the plant is sitting in. A spare reservoir attached to a float valve guarantees perfect levels at all times.

•

Keep an eye on the top feeder, as sometimes it can get blocked. Remember, you want an even distribution of feed trickling through the feeding ring.

Key point #3

So there you have it, The Peaky Bubbler, like a Birmingham Bubbler - only better. 3

We are the ‘Fortey brothers’, Gareth, a Solicitor aged 36, and Kevin, a Local Authority Development Officer, aged 38, and have been growing vegetables since the age of 4. We started out helping our dad. He gave us lots of encouragement, allowing us to have our own plot in the garden where we used to compete against him. He taught us how to grow and maintain a variety of flowers and vegetables, passing his considerable knowledge down to us. This is where we got the competitive bug.

Our dad, Mike Fortey, was instrumental in developing the art of giant vegetable growing, and the UK’s giant vegetable movement.

You may well be thinking how did we get into this curiously British hobby? Well… A chat with a close friend, George Williams, led to the beginning of the Giant Vegetable Competitions. Mike Fortey founded the British National Pumpkin Championships in the 1980s, held at a local pub called the Mill Tavern situated in Cwmbran, South Wales.

It was at this time our Dad met Ian Neale, who became, and still is, a very close family friend. Ian, an avid Giant Veg grower, now aged 72, was the owner of the former Magor Road Nursery, supplying many local growers with his growing products and expertise.

Dad won the first show with a pumpkin weighing 175lb.

The show continued at the Mill Tavern, until it had grown in such popularity - pumpkins were getting bigger, interest was increasing - that a new venue had to be found. The pumpkins were so large that they couldn’t fit through the pub doors.

In 1984, the Pumpkin Championships moved to Cwmbran Workingman’s Club. This show was a huge success, attracting exhibitors and spectators from all over the UK. This venue had double doors, so pumpkins could be taken in with ease.

The weight of pumpkins at that time was a mere 100-200lb.

They now reach in excess of 1600lb, with the current world record standing at 1818.5lb grown by Jim and Kelsey Bryson from Quebec, Canada in 2011.

In 1986, Dad joined up with Bernard Lavery, a gentleman from Llanharry, South Wales, to hold a Welsh Giant Vegetable Championship in Cardiff, and finally moved from Cwmbran

Workingman’s. This show was a huge success, attracting thousands of visitors. Media interest in Giant Veg was growing at this time, and after only two years in Cardiff, my Dad and Bernard were approached by Alton Towers, where the show was held for two years. As kids this was an amazing experience as we’d travel up for three hours from Wales, and have a full day at the theme park. What more could you ask for?

Bernard moved from Llanharry to set up home in the East of England, and in 1989, the Giant Vegetable Show was renamed the British Giant Vegetable Championships, which was held for 7 years at Baytree Garden Centre, Spalding, Lincolnshire. At the age of 9 and 11, we appeared on TV productions like Big Breakfast, and Record Breakers at the show, and even went up with Denise Van Outten in the Big Breakfast helicopter.

At the start of the growing season in 1996, our Dad very suddenly passed away. We took over his legacy, and continued to grow the Giant Vegetables he developed over many years, with encouragement coming from our father’s very close friend, Ian Neale, and our mother. In 1996, as brothers, we exhibited for the very first time at the show, and amazingly we scooped two first prizes for the UK’s Heaviest Parsnip and Heaviest Beetroot. We continue to compete at various shows, and have grown far bigger veg than Dad could have ever imagined. We compete at a very high level, and are considered as one of the top growers in the UK - and probably the World.

We’ve appeared on a number of TV programmes, including Gardeners World and Cooking the Books for Channel 5.

We have also appeared in various national newspapers

throughout the years, and more recently were one of 4 UK growers featured in a national publication called “The Biggest Beetroot in the World: Giant Vegetables and the People Who Grow Them.”

In 2006, we appeared in a 6-part BBC1 series hosted by Alan Titchmarsh and James Martin called the Great British Village Show, competing against a host of other UK Giant Vegetable Growers such as Terry Walton. We won the regional heats for the Heaviest Marrow, Longest Carrot, and Heaviest Leek at Dyffryn Gardens, South Wales - which meant we progressed to the final of the series.

media. In 2015, we achieved our very first World Record, and exhibited the World’s Longest Radish at the Aberglassney Gardens Giant Vegetable Show. The radish measured 88 inches (2.235 metres) in length. An amazing achievement, and one that we are all very proud of.

Events in 2016 We are currently working with the Chris Evan’s Car Fest team, and will be having an area at the two events in the UK to raise funds for BBC Children in Need. The events attract over 400,000 visitors, and will be great platforms to promote UK Giant Vegetable Growing.

Through our determination to be successful, we were lucky enough to win the final of the TV programme, hosted by Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall at Highgrove, for growing the UK’s Heaviest Marrow. For our accomplishment we were presented with a specially commissioned maple bowl.

In September, we are heading over to Santa Rosa, California to give a talk on Giant Veg at the National Heirloom Exhibition.

This will be our second time in California, and we are very much looking forward to it. In fact, it will be Ian Neale’s first ever flight so we hope he can cope with the 11 hour flight!

On the 12th October 2011, contact was made through our website by Snoop Dogg’s management team following Ian Neale’s World Record Swede weighing over 6 stone (38.92kg/85.62lb) about which Snoop Dogg posted a YouTube video to promote his worldwide tour. This story received worldwide exposure throughout the media, and subsequently Ian and ourselves were invited to go backstage to meet him in Cardiff.

Social Media Platforms It started with an idea of ours to bring a worldwide community together to share and discuss giant vegetable growing. In 1995, my brother and I launched our website, www.giantveg.co.uk and www.giantvegseeds.com. In 2012, we were contacted

by Adrian Ashfield who was curious about growing Giant Vegetables, but his real interest was in developing a site with us, and he worked tirelessly to create the main website that you see today.

Roughly 18 months ago, we created the Giant Vegetable Community on Facebook. In the early days, interaction was minimal. In 6 months, global membership had grown to 1000.

Today it’s over 2200, and growing daily. www.facebook.com/groups/giantvegetablecommunity

As a family, we continue to hold the UK record for the largest sunflower head measuring 67” in circumference. This was achieved by Kevin’s son, Jamie at the Malvern Autumn Show, September 2011. In addition, in 2010 we also broke the UK record for the Heaviest Marrow weighing a colossal 12 stone 3 pounds (171lb). This was featured heavily in the national

Our YouTube Channel www.youtube.com/giantveg provides a whole host of interactive videos. The purpose is to inform, and educate a worldwide audience with detailed information, and growing guides for a variety of Giant Vegetables.

Now that you know a bit more about us, in the next edition we will uncover some of the secrets behind our success with some helpful tips on how you too can grow record breakers. 3

One of a country’s most fundamental responsibilities is to protect its citizens from going hungry. Most of you reading this have grown up with the assumption that if you ever fall on hard times, there is a safety net to protect you from complete destitution and hunger. For a lot of people in the UK, that safety net has massive holes in it, and they are slipping through. These people, usually on low incomes, have made sacrifices, bought cheaper and cheaper food, and even buying less of the cheap food until families are living on one meal a day.

We have 500,000 children in the UK now living in families who are unable to provide a minimally accepted diet. The UK has one of the highest levels of housing costs in Europe, energy prices are rising, and the most vulnerable people are on the minimum wage with some only managing to secure a zero-hour contract. The government is failing its people.

If you read the last edition of Garden Culture’s UK Food Policy, you were presented with some facts and statistics. I said that in Part II we would try to look at how we can resolve the issues, which turned out to be such a hard job. Our government hasn’t even started looking at ways to resolve the issues, let alone implement any policies. Rather than put money into opening more food banks as a long term solution, they need to look at why people are having to use them in the first place. Here are a couple of recommendations that I have come across during my research for this article that the government could implement.

1. All political parties should commit to fixing the safety net system as the core of the social security system.

2. The commission of independent systematic research into the reasons for referrals to food banks, and the underlying reasons behind the need for food aid. Based on the findings, the government should implement an action plan to address the issues raised in the report.

3. The removal of the minimum wage, and the implementation of a living wage.

4. A review of zero-hour contracts and methods to make those contracts fairer to employees that need minimum hours so they can earn the living wage.

There are many more recommendations that could be proposed, but the above would be a good start in sorting out the metaphorical safety net, and closing the gaps that our lowest paid citizens are slipping through.

Another question I wanted to answer was; Why has this been allowed to happen?

The following is an opinion of mine formed through research of online articles and statistics.

Firstly, UK food policy should be how we can become increasingly self-sufficient, and produce food sustainably.

However, it seems the UK food policy is more interested in selling more “British” food to other countries, and pumping money/investments into hi-tech solutions to produce more food to send abroad. I’m all for hi-tech agriculture when it’s to feed people in the UK, but it seems this hi-tech solution is to make more food to send abroad, and decrease the country’s deficit.

Why? The UK’s import bill is only increasing, and with the food manufacturing sector being the biggest, it’s how the government can recuperate most of its money, therefore we send more food abroad to pay the government’s bills.

This system, although good for governmental coffers, is the complete opposite of what the British people need, and is simply reinforcing the current state of affairs.

The result is that the lowest paid citizens can’t afford proper food, but resort to £1 frozen meals, and even then, not enough of them to fill a person’s nutritional needs. We are left with a society of malnourished and starving or obese people. That puts a strain on the NHS, and we are being told that the NHS is struggling because of immigration!? I’d say that it’s a domino effect from failing government policies.

It is a very complex issue that has taken decades to surface, where obesity and hunger exist in the same communities, the super rich use charitable donations to smooth over the cracks rather than filling them, and a country that produces more than enough food, wastes millions of tonnes, and yet, still can’t keep people from starving.

Why is there so much waste?

One word, supermarkets. They hold the power to reducing the food waste, the waste that costs us £12.5 billion a year.

Can you see the problem? If we could wave a wand and not waste 12.5 billion pounds worth of food, the supermarkets would also be £12.5 billion down in stock purchases. So they continue their buy one get one free promotions, multi-packs, and incessant advertising because £12.5 billion pounds is a lot of money.

Conclusion There is a lot that can be done to effect change, information campaigns that lead to a culture change, policy changes such as landfill bans, and ultimately the regulation of supermarkets.

We want a food system that advances our wellbeing, that increases job opportunities, is sustainable, has a positive impact on the environment - and most importantly, makes food affordable to everyone. New technology will play a major role in getting us to this utopia of food production and distribution. I wholeheartedly feel that the hydroponics industry (you and me) will play a role far bigger than anyone currently imagines. We are the pioneers, the square pegs in the round holes, we see things differently, and we need to challenge the current status quo.

Start with that leafy green salad in the fridge that’s about to go off… 3

1

LIVING ARCHITECTURE Build your own Plant-In City for succulents and air plants. Awesome modular architectural planters crafted from hardwood and steel that you ‘build’ with.WiFi light and water control.

Get the big picture on these links. Dig deep on link #2.You’ll love it all: www.bit.ly/PIC-some ... www.bit.ly/PIC-more.

2

DA R K S PAC E P L A N T S For all those who live or work where no sunlight reaches - Lamp Mygdal designed by Nui Studio gives you and your plants LED efficiency in both pendent and tabletop models.

A self-sustaining ecosystem enabled by an invisible electrically conductive glass coating. The design team is looking for partners to get the lamps into production. From: www.bit.ly/nui-lamp

3

P U Z Z L E PAV I N G We found this concept from Ivanka Studio in Hungary hiding on Houzz.The complete reversal of lawn stepping stones - a water-conscious patio idea using more drought loving plants like creeping thyme or Mondo grass.

With some concrete work experience, or well thought out tile forms - this could be really doable. From: www.bit.ly/patio-puzzle

4

GROW FRESH AIR Meet Clairy...A handsome clay planter that turns plants into natural air purifiers using bio filtering.

Easy to use advanced technology and air quality readouts via WiFi. Removes particles and toxins that cause allergies, headaches, illness, and other health issues. A successful Kickstarter campaign.

Learn more: www.clairy.co.

5

AQUAPON ICS FOR EVERYMAN

The Springwater Microfarm designed by lettuce farmer, Trevor Kenkel from Maine has put simple, sustainable agriculture into classrooms and homes over the past couple of years.

Kenkel recently ran a successful IndieGoGo campaign for funding to put the 10-gallon system into schools across the U.S. More info: www.bit.ly/ microfarm-IGG3

Fungi reproduce by releasing spores, and understanding this can help a gardener understand how to combat problems like “root rot”, “damping off,” and powdery mildew.

In contrast to the vast spores that fungi release, human beings have relatively few offspring apiece. Pregnancy is nine months or so long, usually resulting in a single child, which requires further care for several years before being self sufficient. Each child is a relatively large investment of time and resources, so the survival of each has a heightened importance. In places where childhood survival rates are high, people tend to have fewer children, investing more in each.

Seed plants don’t spend as many resources per offspring as animals and people do, so they can afford to generate more of them. Since each seed has the potential to replace the parent, the importance of the survival of any particular seed becomes less important. A plant may generate hundreds, or even thousands of tiny plants packaged up as seeds, and the line can continue - even if only a few sprout, as long as a couple survive to maturity. In nature, the chance of any particular seed surviving to maturity is small, so the ability to generate a large number of seeds improves the overall probability of success.

Many fungi take this concept of generating large numbers of potential offspring a step further. They reproduce by spores, which are generally made from a single cell. (As an aside, yeasts are an exception to this, as they reproduce by budding in which a daughter cell splits from a mother cell, but this still allows for impressive exponential growth as the population can double each cycle.) Using a single cell spore for reproduction saves a lot in the way of resources over generating hundreds of multicelled seed plant seeds, or the trillions of cells it takes to form a human baby.

As a result of the sheer number and spread of fungal spores there is a fair chance that there are pathogenic spores present in even a healthy indoor garden, awaiting an environmental change that will allow them to become established. It is usually a safe practice to assume this is true, and concentrate on preventing the spores from developing.

Otherwise healthy sprouts, if kept over watered, will often fall prey to “damping off”, a fungal disease that kills young plants, similar to the “root rot” that will often show up in underaerated hydroponic systems. The best treatment for either is creating an environment unconducive to spore germination in the first place. An organic wet surface has the potential for a spore to take hold. Proper air circulation allows evaporation to dry standing moisture, and helps prevent hospitable places for spores to grow..

AIR CIRCULATION IS AN IMPORTANT PART OF PREVENTION

Since spores are only a cell each, then they can afford to make billions (sometimes trillions) of them, and since there is such a large number of them, only a tiny, tiny, fraction need to survive to maturity to continue the line. Spores tend to be small enough to ride air currents over long distances, or hitching a ride on an insect or animal; sticking to wet surfaces as they encounter them. If the wet surface dries out before the spore can grow, the spore will generally die, which is part of why air circulation is an important part of prevention.

Since fungi produce so many spores in the hopes that a few land in environments conducive to survival, there are literally tons of spores around waiting for the opportunity. As a demonstration, one can take a clean cloth rag, wet it with distilled water, crumple it up, and leave it in the corner of a warm humid room. In most places, eventually the rag will become noticeably moldy. This is because a wet rag under those conditions is an environment that some molds enjoy, and eventually spores land and take hold. The reason that bathrooms tend to have more problems with molds, is that they tend to have higher humidity, and standing moisture is more likely than in other rooms. Indoor gardens can cause similar issues for similar reasons.

When practical to do so, plants noticeably infected with a fungal pathogen should usually be removed and destroyed. At the least, the visibly infected parts should be removed (or at the very least washed off). The noticeable part is the “fruiting body” which generates spores, and raises the number of spores in the area. This increases the likelihood of other spores landing in places where they can grow. Although treatment is possible, it is often easiest to concede the battle. Either way, steps should be taken to correct any issues with humidity and circulation to deter recurrence.

Home remedies often include diluted milk (1 part milk to 9 parts water), or baking soda mixed with horticultural or neem oil and water. There are commercial fungicides available, but for safety, check labels and ingredients if the plant’s harvestable portion is meant for human consumption.

Cuttings taken from infected plants should not be used for propagation, as they will either be infected, or will have a similar weakness towards infection as the parent plant. Selecting resistant plant varieties can have an impact on the frequency and severity of outbreaks.

Fungi are wondrous things, they give us mushrooms to eat, penicillin to cure, and help prepare compost for next year’s garden. Some are also unwelcome pathogens that can hurt or destroy a garden. By proper garden hygiene (no piles of wet organic material, living or dead), keeping the humidity low enough (but not so low as to invite spider mites), and the air inside the garden moving, most indoor environments can minimize issues with the dreaded fungal spores. 3

Getting everything at a super low price has its side-effects. Just look what cheap ingredients has done for our food system.The more-for-less approach has taken a huge toll on food quality, food equality, and much more.The purpose of having an indoor garden is to supply yourself with good food.The one thing you need to never lose sight of is that there is more than your wallet involved here. Like your plants.They have a different perspective, and making do isn’t part of it. Not when you want the most bang for your buck.

For the newcomer to hydroponic gardening, a poor harvest or crop failure leads to much disenchantment.

Why start off with an exercise in futility? Indoor gardening with hydroponics has enough other things that can lead to growing problems that it is kind of silly to increase the learning curve over something that really matters. Like having good food in plentiful supply grown at home.

Now if you’re just experimenting, or your crop is purely for pleasure rather than sustenance, then a cheap, homemade nutrient solution might be just the ticket. However, poor results will certainly cost more in terms of your other investments – like your time, space, water use, energy bill, and anticipation. Oh yes, and the price paid for your equipment. Even if you built the hydroponic system yourself, it isn’t free.

It’s a lot easier to get by with less when they have soil to pull critical elements from as needed. You can grow a garden in excellent soil outdoors with very little additional nutrition at all. Naturally, your harvest will be much better with fertilizer, but the poorer the soil, the more fertilization is really necessary. With hydroponics, the quality of the nutrients and essential elements you add to water is all your plants have to work with.

One enterprising blogger recommends that you simply dissolve commercial fertilizer in water. This would be fine if you were growing plants in soil, but you’re not. Simply adding Epsom salts is not going to cover the missing crucial micronutrients. If it were really this easy to create good quality hydroponic nutrients, you wouldn’t be searching for a cheap alternative for nutrients. Any brand would cost less everywhere.

Then you have the issue of needing different nutes for different stages of growth and chosen crops. How do you propose pulling this off with homemade nutrients?

The good stuff, according to your plants, is fine tuned to every element they use to excel from the start of a grow to harvest. Very scientific stuff. Attempting to match this at home may be a bit like swimming across the Atlantic. Of course, if you want to start a cheap nutrient company, you can always set up your own lab, and do all the necessary trial grows that goes into perfecting the magic. Simply buying good nutes is far cheaper. It’s faster too.

If you’re going to save money on of your hydroponic garden, then build your own hydro system. That makes far more sense than winging it with something as

important as plant nutrition. Just like you, your plants won’t thrive eating the wrong stuff.

Dead set on DIY? You can learn how to make nutrients on bit.ly/diy-nutes, and at the proper ratios for each of your crop’s growth stages. It won’t be easier, or as convenient as using pre-mixed nutrients where you simply open the bottle, and dilute it to fit your crop and tank.

- Originally posted in GARDEN INPUTS on September 14, 2013

Visit our site regularly for new and informative posts, like this one! 3

1) Billinge, Merseyside

Growing It All They seem to be into everything at Greenslate Community Farm, where volunteers and 30 acres produce freerange eggs, honey, pork, along with organic fruits and veggies. There’s a kid’s programme, events through the year, and a Care Farm Programme designed to help the mentally challenged. Naturally, because the farm has been a community project for residents of Billinge and Orrell since 2009, the site includes allotment plots for locals to grow their own.

Current projects on this northern CBC (Community Benefit Company), whose market gardens are ploughed

by Dales Ponies, include finishing the building of the new straw bale Community Hub with funding from Power To Change, integrating renewable energy, and a fresh round of woodland activities.

Something for everyone is happening here. Learn more: www.bit.ly/GS-farm.

2) Norwich, Norfolk

Reclaiming Dead Space Never let it be said that average people are powerless. The Fifth Quarter community group has successfully organized locals to develop and maintain edible gardens for the public in at least 2 derelict locations in the city’s centre. It began with a patch of land between a car park and social housing with £250 landlord funding, some repurposing of cast-off pallets and baths, fueled by the inspiration of social cohesion and free organic vegetables. That was in 2011, and the operating grant is still received annually.

Next they set out to make a dangerous spot frequented by purse snatchers and drug dealers into a lovely, productive space. A 5-year lease was obtained in 2013, the wasteland

transformed into Norwich’s second community garden whose harvest is free to a good home.

Local food and public gardens stop crime!

Facebook: www.bit.ly/5th-qtr.

3) Machynlleth, Wales

Good Unity There are challenges that every new market grower faces, hurdles that unless overcome, can bring a swift end to the flow of local food. Take marketing and competition, for instance.

Rather than see one of their own fall to the wayside, Green Isle Growers evolved from 5 volunteers growing sustainable food on a small plot to 5 separate farming groups, by forging a collective approach. A veg box scheme that sustained them all while providing CSA members with an awesome array of fresh food 6 months a year.

Today there are 6 small teams from around the Dyfi Valley producing seasonal, chemical-free fruit and veg. Each is a stakeholder in the cooperative who gain support and

assistance from one grower to another, all the while offering sustenance to the community at large.

United We Stand… victorious. Learn more: www.bit.ly/green-isle.

4) Cloughmills, Northern Ireland

Local Food & Vegucation A community of 2500 is definitely not urban, but rural villages are particularly lacking in public services. It’s a place that social initiatives like Incredible Edible Cloughmills can bring positive change through good food and community action, which they’ve been doing since 2009.

Launched on a small parcel of vacant ground behind a pub, the allotment garden brought all age groups together to learn about gardening, growing food, and wildlife - which led to caring for the environment, and building a sustainable community. They’ve accomplished a lot with multiple gardens, doorstep allotments for seniors, a renewable energy project, reskilling workshops, and much more.

It takes a village to make a great place to live. Learn more: www.bit.ly/cloughmills 3

In this column Theo Tekstra discusses observations in the indoor garden culture. There is sometimes so much urban legend and so little science in this industry. It is time to “myth bust” some of these urban legends and have a fresh breeze move through the industry.

When you mix your mineral nutrients, you want to have a balanced mixture of micro and macro nutrients, at the correct, stable pH level, at the right EC. Adding one or two elements in this mixture in the wrong ratio can cause element lock-outs by an antagonist reaction, which can show in your plants as an element deficiency. In fact you are overdosing. So ratios are most important.

That is precisely my problem with many of the miracle mineral boosters on the market today: Some list most of the ingredients, but others are completely omitted. Of course, it’s the manufacturer’s secret but I would like to know what I am adding and what the effects on my plants will be.

One of the most sold additives to boost your flowers are PK additives. They are also the most overused. Some people even use cocktails of boosters, not understanding that they are basically adding more of the same and creating a terrible unbalance in their NPK’s. A very small dose of concentrated PKs can totally wreck your NPK ratios, creating all types of deficiencies through antagonist reactions. When you do not know what you are adding, and do not understand why you are adding it, it is a recipe for disaster.

I visited a grower last year who used a mix of organics, mineral base nutrients, soil life and organic tea (along with

One of the most sold additives to boost your flowers are PK additives.

They are also the most overused. several sprays). Just looking at the plants I saw that was not working. Every reaction from the plant they tried to counter by adding another substance. They asked me what I thought, what should they add? I recommended that they either went back to their base mineral nutrient brand and stick to that for a while, adding one extra component at a time, or develop an organic scheme that worked for them building it up from a base mixture. Clearly they were creating all kinds of nutrient lock-outs while killing the soil life they kept adding. Now, 5 months later, after they went back to basics, they could not be happier. They reduced nutrients costs by more than 60% while getting a much healthier crop. They also learned a lot more about the dosage of the nutrients they are using now.

If you grow with mineral nutrients then sticking to a single brand, where the dosage chart is actually calculated to form a balanced NPK ratio, and the ingredients are clearly listed, is in most cases really the best thing to do.

Keep it simple! Know what you are adding and understand the effects by monitoring your plants. Only then you will learn. Your plants will thank you for it. 3

Progress with the water culture method of growing plants was slow during the late 19th century.

Much of the research further refined the list of elements necessary for soilless plant growth, basically through the time-consuming process of trial, error, and elimination.

At the turn of the century, however, science was on the march.

Many inventions and discoveries were popularized, including radio, the automobile, the camera, and moving pictures.

Research into water culture techniques was gaining steam.

Burton Edward Livingston published “A Simple Method For Experiments With Water Cultures” in The Plant World (Vol. 9, No. 1) describing a “... simpler method to study the nutrient or stimulating value of various substances.” In 1906, J.F. Breazeale of the University of Chicago, published in the Botanical Gazette (Vol. 41, No. 1), an article entitled “Effect Of Certain Solids Upon The Growth Of Seedlings In Water Cultures.” Most of these papers were not written for the layperson, however, and a review of Breazeale’s paper contained the ending caveat, “the paper shows very little consideration for the reader.”

Research techniques were advancing as well. In November 1908, J.J. Skinner published the “Water Culture Method For Experimenting With Potatoes” in The Plant World (Vol. 11, No. 11). In 1913, Conrad Hoffman of the University of Wisconsin published in the Botanical Gazette (Vol. 55, No. 3), his research on using paraffin blocks for growing seedlings in liquid culture solutions, since the cork used to date added soluble compounds to the nutrient solution, potentially corrupting scientific results.

And in 1914, W.E. Tottingham, also from the University of Wisconsin, published in Physiological Researches “A quantitative chemical and physiological study of nutrient solutions for plant cultures,” describing that “... it is the selective absorption of ions rather than complete salts that is indicated... “ and the importance of balance between the various elements in a nutritive solution.

In 1915, John W. Shive published “A Three-Salt Nutrient Solution For Plants,” where he tested 84 differently proportioned nutrient solutions, and showing that Tottingham’s formula was superior to Knop’s earlier four-salt solution. Research into nutrient solutions continued, and B.E. Livingston and W.E. Tottingham together published “A New Three-Salt Nutrient Solution for Plant Cultures” (July 1918).

Studies were being conducted in areas separate from nutrient solution compositions. In November 1917, a paper by Walter Stiles and Ingvar Jorgensen appeared in The New Phytologist, “Observations On The Influence Of Aeration Of The Nutrient Solution In Water Culture Experiments, With Some Remarks On The Water Culture Method.” In 1916, Orton

L. Clark published in Science (Vol. 44, No. 1146), “A Method for Maintaining a Constant Volume of Nutrient Solutions,” recognizing the effects evaporation and transpiration have on solution strength and balance.

Several scientists at the University of California, Berkeley Agricultural Research Station were actively researching water culture and nutrient solutions. These included Dennis Robert Hoagland, who began his UC career in 1913, and served as Professor of Plant Nutrition (1927-1949). Hoagland’s initial focus was soil-based, yet his studies of kelp led to a lengthy investigation into how plants absorb nutrients.

He established that plants’ mineral absorption is a metabolic process, not just a physical one defined by permeability, osmosis, and the like. During these studies, Hoagland grew many types of plants with a nutrient solution formula he developed that would be used worldwide as the standard for decades to come. He emphasized that his formula was not conclusive. He was often quoted as saying that there is no such thing as the “best” nutrient solution - that adjustment would always be necessary based on plant varieties, environment, etc.

Hoagland also contributed much knowledge in understanding the relationship of pH to plants grown in nutrient solutions, along with showing how important free oxygen around the root system is. He was instrumental in identifying the plant nutrient elements necessary above and beyond the ten known by 1920, particularly molybdenum.

Plant pathologist William Frederick Gericke joined the UC staff in 1912.

Educated at the University of Nebraska, Iowa State College of Agriculture, John Hopkins University in Baltimore, and the University of California,

1928: “Grows Plants In Water: Chemicals Better Than Soil, Expert Says

Gericke’s research paper, “On the physiological balance in nutrient solutions for plant cultures,” was published in the American Journal of Botany (April 1922). The October 13, 1922 issue of Science published a Special Article by Gericke on “Water Culture Experimentation” outlining his research growing wheat using single salt solutions during different phases of growth versus well-balanced nutrient solutions throughout.

Gericke continued his research at UC over the next decade, primarily engaged in studying grains. Papers he published during the 1920’s include “Salt Requirements of Wheat at Different Growth Phases”, “Adaptation of Rice to Forty Centuries of Agriculture,” and in 1930, a paper entitled “Excessive Tax on Soil Fertility by Crop Production on Poor Land.”

Much attention and credit is given to the 200 word article by Gericke, published in the American Journal of Botany (December 1929) entitled “Aquaculture: A means of Crop-production,” wherein he describes, in the simplest of terms, the successful construction of growing reservoirs in which cartridges of plant food were added, and a variety “of floral, vegetables, and field plants were grown. Results called for serious consideration of this production method for certain crops grown on an intensive scale.” This article is often credited as introducing the commercial potential of soilless production.

Publicity of his work in soilless growing actually came earlier than this. Not only was Gericke a gifted scientist, he was keenly attuned to the power of the press in promoting ideas. His first commercial potential experiments began simultaneously at his home in Berkeley, and in the campus greenhouse, a fact that would later come back to haunt him.

On April 1st, 1928, The San Bernadino County Sun published a short article entitled “Food Pills to Grow Plants in Water, Is Professor’s Claim.” In the article, Gericke says that the future gardener could grow his vegetables and flowers in simple jars of water in which “food pills,” bound cylindrical capsules containing combinations of seven essential plant nutrients are added to the water. These food pills would soon become known as “plant pills” in future articles.

Later that month, several Associated Press articles spread through the country. Headlines included “Grows Plants In Water: Chemicals Better Than Soil, Expert Says” and “Can

Grow Plants Without Soil!”

One stated, “In announcing his discovery today, Gericke said flowers produced by the soilless method are sturdier, more delicately colored, and less subject to mildew than those grown under ordinary conditions.”

A few weeks later, major stories published in Alabama’s The Anniston Star and California’s Santa Ana Register delved deeper into his soilless farming research, highlighting that Gericke was growing plants under lights.

The Anniston Star headline “Plants Grow Without Sun or Soil; Chemicals Replace Earth In Test,” talks about the plant food pills, and goes into how Gericke used multiple 300-candlepower argon-filled lamps to grow wheat. Under lights 16 hours per day generated rapid growth, and doubling the number of lights quadrupled the growth rate, the article claimed. “The experiment proved that all the sun rays essential to plant growth were present in the electric glares.”

On June 29, Gericke announced that he would demonstrate his soilless growing methods while on a European lecture tour.

On December 13, reports announce his return from touring research stations throughout Europe, and that he “plans to continue his work on artificial plant nutrition until every phase of the investigation is completed and the adoption of the system by commercial growers made easy.”

By 1929, Gericke’s publicity wave seemed to fade. Save for a few recycled articles about plant pills, Gericke received very little press until October, when a four page feature article by H.H. Dunn entitled “Plant ‘Pills’ Grow Bumper Crops” appeared in trendy, Popular Science Monthly.

The article opens with the proclamation that “through the use of a chemical “plant pill,” administered to plants grown in shallow tanks of water, cereal and vegetable crops now are made to thrive under desert conditions of heat, arid soil, and lack of humidity.” The article reports that five thousand experiments over the past five years have resulted in this discovery.

Dunn’s article gives details of his results, saying that the size of asparagus stalks grown increased nearly 100 percent; that potatoes increased in size by half again, and that the yield of tomato plants could be increased by 40%. Experiments with wheat, cotton, tobacco, and cabbage showed similar results.

Cotton cultivated in water could be harvested sooner. The article further states, “from these results, Dr. Gericke and his assistants, with the backing of the University of California, started experimenting with tank production of food crops, to figure costs of such production on a commercial scale.” The author gives examples of economic and production benefits achieved, and offers convincing thoughts on the food farming potential for areas of the world where it wasn’t possible.

The article ends with quoting Gericke as follows, “... an area less than one-fourth that which, in my boyhood days, supplied the ‘garden truck’ for the family, will produce foodstuffs of variety, quality, quantity and value never dreamed of by the home gardener. Incidentally, the labor required will be only a small fraction of that needed for proper tilling of the soil. This, it seems to me, is the greatest value of the five years of experiments we have been conducting -- that millions may be fed from water, on soils that hitherto have produced nothing but an occasional clump of cacti, or a few fig trees.”

Despite the publicity generated by the Popular Science Monthly article, Gericke still had a lot of work to do to bring his ideas to fruition. He decided to focus on the practical application of his discoveries, and on June 27, 1933, obtained a U.S. patent for a “Fertilizing unit for growing plants in water.” Soon he was installing equipment in greenhouses, and arranging for agriculture research stations to try it too.

In early 1936, famous inventor Arthur Pillsbury, an early water culture enthusiast and photographer, visited Gericke, shooting many high-quality photos of those phenomenal results, which Gericke distributed to the press for publication with articles about his work. Gericke also launched a publicity campaign to generate further interest in his discoveries, which he believed would revolutionize agriculture.

On September 24th, the Corvallis Gazette-Times in Oregon reported that Dr. Gericke had installed a tank farming system on the George Brehm canning plant roof in Seattle. The article quotes him calling the system “a hydroponicum.” Perhaps the first printed reference to the term adopted by Gericke.

Thanks to the power of the image and exaggerated claims the press eagerly spread, articles with pictures of Gericke’s work began appearing nationwide and around the world. The press coverage brought a slew of requests for further information on this exciting new farming method. Initially Gericke discouraged these requests, stating they distracted him from his work and, because he wasn’t ready to share greater details, allow system

promotion, or turn it over to strangers.

During this same period, Gericke was searching for the right name for his new farming technique and, referring to his 1929 first paper on the topic, he fancied the term “aquaculture.” However, the American-Fish Cultural Association had used that term to describe fish breeding since the late 1800’s. Eventually Dr. Gericke adopted the term “hydroponics,” but he didn’t invent it. His associate, Dr. William Setchell, a UC Professor of Botany suggested the term. “Hydroponics is from the Greek “hydro,” or water, and “ponos,” or labor, and is comparable to geoponics, by which agriculture was once designated. It meets the requirements of the philologers; it is easily pronounceable.”

The term was introduced to the public on March 2nd, 1937, when the New York Sun published a short article about Gericke’s work entitled, “Hydroponics.”

Our next installment will cover the explosive growth, application, and misrepresentation of Gericke’s ‘hydroponics’, including the work of Agricultural Research Stations, Pan American Airways, and the United States military. 3

Thrips are the bane of many indoor plant growers. With over 6,000 species of thrips worldwide, and an almost equal number of host plant species, these pests can seem to be everywhere. Even the most careful of horticulturists can find their crops infected in an otherwise clean growing area.

Lifecycle

Damage

One of the main reasons that thrips are so difficult to control is their ability to reproduce rapidly. One can seemingly control an outbreak, only to find that the progeny of the wiped out generation has continued the work of its forbears. They are also very small. At 1/20th of an inch in length (1.3 mm), they will often make their presence known only by the evidence of their damage, as they are often unseen. They are also prone to hiding on the undersides of leaves, petals and even inside of flower buds.

Damage from thrips can be distinguished from that of other pests by the stippled appearance of foliage on affected plants.

Female thrips can lay up to 300 eggs in their lifetime.

Considering that thrips can produce up to eight generations per year (sometimes each in as little as two weeks) their numbers can explode exponentially in short order.

Figure 2 Thrip damage on cucumber leaf Thrips will also leave black waste material known as “frass� where they feed as well.

Control Strategies Thrips can disperse themselves through a variety of methods. They can be distributed by the wind and appear in your growing area through a window or vent.

They can be inadvertently introduced into your grow room on clothing worn when visiting any other grow area, garden, or greenhouse. Remember this before welcoming anyone who may have been in those areas.

Note that thrips are attracted to light colors, and can hitch a ride with little effort. White or yellow should never be worn when visiting a greenhouse or garden center.

Thrips can also show up in your grow area in contaminated soil. Be sure of the source of your growing medium, and never re-use growing media. They also like to hide in plant debris from previous crops. Make sure to thoroughly clean your grow areas in between crops.

Prevention The best way to control thrips, like any other greenhouse pest, is to prevent them from showing up to begin with.

Besides soil quality and sanitation, it is important to keep the spaces within the grow area, and the areas adjacent clean as well. This means do not let weeds appear anywhere on the grow room floor, in corners, or in containers. It also means that a vegetation-free buffer zone should be established outside of your growing area.

If your growing area is located near a window, the area outside of the window should be free of vegetation.

This is easier to achieve in high-rises or apartment complexes, but in residential areas, it means that lawn, garden, and landscape plants should not be planted within at least 10 feet (3 meters) from windows or vents leading into interior growing areas.

Creating a buffer zone within your grow area is advisable as well. While ideally this would be a climate controlled chamber, obviously the average grower cannot invest the resources for that level of technology. Instead, create some kind of vestibule or passageway where you can brush yourself off before entering your grow area, or put on a lab coat, or protective covering that does not leave the grow area.

You can also create a third buffer area by covering your crops with a mesh or lightweight fabric that will not impede light or water, but will be a physical barrier to thrips and other insects appearing on your crops.

Repellants Recent greenhouse studies in the Netherlands have shown that thrips can be effectively repelled by growing garlic in your growing area. Plant one garlic bulb for every 10 square feet (one square meter) of grow space to keep thrips (and vampires) away from your crops. 3

Agriculture is the art of growing plants for food. It is the largest market in the world, but no matter if you are a backyard gardener, or an acreage commodity farmer, one of the primary issues is battling tiny pests and disease.

Pest and disease damage is very costly to farmers. For of the last century of agronomy has instance, the invasive Asian citrus psyllid is a plant juice-sucking focused on how to increase yields at bug smaller than an apple seed that carries a disease called all costs, and eliminate the problems huanglongbing that turns oranges bitter and disfigured, leaving that are created from the use of citrus growers no choice but to destroy their trees. Over the empty fertilizers and toxic biocides with last few years, it has cost the US citrus industry billions of technology and human ingenuity. dollars in damages. There is no known cure.

The Industrial Revolution brought THESE ISSUES M AY about the concept of biocides, but NOT BE TREATABLE No event in the history of American the World Wars made them famous.

WITH CHEMICALS, forests is better known, or sadder than The munitions become fertilizers, and BUT COMPOST TEA the introduction of the chestnut blight chemicals like DDT were transferred WILL ELIMINATE fungus, Cryphonectria parasitica, from from the battlefield to the growing THESE ISSUES Asia in the late 1890s. The effects of field. In fact, due to the success of DDT WITH CONSISTENT this introduction will be felt forever, in killing insects, World War II was the APPLICATIONS.” as the chestnut devastation was so first U.S. war in which diseases – many widespread that oaks filled the void, and collapsed under nonlike typhus and malaria carried by insects – killed fewer people ideal conditions. The entire forest ecosystem was altered, and than bullets and bombs. So it worked, but at a huge ecological still not fully recovered. No control was found to destroy this cost. blight.

The Green Revolution introduced the concept of genetic As an agricultural consultant, I don’t like the idea that there engineering (GMO). For the first time, rather than having to is not a cure for target pests and disease. I hear it all the time consider killing the crop plant with the chemicals being used, with the local tomato blight issues we have in North Carolina, we started altering plant DNA so that it can withstand the or when people tell me chinch bug, ground pearl, or mole toxins being sprayed. This method is utilized for upwards crickets in pasture cannot be cured. These issues may not be of 90% of commodity crops like corn and soy in the US. treatable with chemicals, but compost tea will eliminate these GMO farming has resulted in a dramatic increase in the use issues with consistent applications. of biocides in crops, and represents a growing danger to humanity.

Sometimes the most logical approaches for healing are not even considered. The same is true in modern medicine where Here’s the problem, we are taking the pill to treat our doctors who have not been trained in nutrition prescribe pills symptoms so that we can eat more fast food. As a general to manage symptoms rather than dig deeper to determine rule, the best defense against pests and disease is a healthy modalities such as probiotics, altering diet, or juicing that have plant. What happens to people when we eat fast food for the potential to actually heal and regenerate. every meal? We get sick. The same is true with plants.

The artificial approach to fertility that dominates and defines conventional agriculture uses toxic “biocides” like pesticides, fungicides, etc. as a means of trying to kill the pest or disease.

This approach is best defined as what the great Charles Walters called “toxic rescue chemistry.” Instead of organic methods that work to encourage natural systems, the majority

In the U.S., more than 68% of adults are overweight or obese, compared to 30%worldwide. As people grow larger, so do plants. From 1985 through 2011, average wheat yields increased 26%. Hydroponics, or growing plants in water supplemented with artificial fertilizer salts, is capable of increasing yields up to twenty times per acre for certain crops.

Plus, it turns out that pests cannot digest complete proteins from plants. Proteins are made up of amino acids, and amino acids are nitrogen-based organic compounds defined by amine (NH2) functional groups. Soluble nitrogen is irresistible to a plant, when you green up your lawn with nitrogen you are making it obese, forcing it to produce amino acids that the metabolism of the plant cannot keep pace with. This is pest and disease food.

THE ARTIFICIAL APPROACH TO KILL PESTS OR DISEASE IS BEST DEFINED AS “TOXIC RESCUE CHEMISTRY”

This constant march for higher yields comes with a price. And unfortunately, the problem is so subtle and profound that it is very difficult to fix it, but it turns out, for the most part, poor soil and poor diets are the reason for the majority of pest infestations and disease outbreaks in crops.

This is not to say a healthy field would never have a pest or disease infestation, no different than a healthy human never getting sick. But if you consider the average diet we deliver to plants, it is no wonder they are ill. For instance, common artificial fertilizers contain as few as five elements, but plants require no less than fifteen to grow successfully, known as the “essential elements”.

Artificial fertilizers are not just empty, they are man-made and unrecognizable to Mother Nature and the overall ecosystem, specifically to beneficial soil microbes like bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and nematodes. These microbes are capable of building the maturity in soil to where it can support plant growth on its own if we encourage them. The forest grows trees with no fertilizer.

Generally speaking, a disease organism is simply a microbe feeding on a weak plant that has nothing to eat it. There are many biological disease control products on the market that contain concentrated soil organisms. Consider the strength and diversity of the ocean, so it is with the soil food web.

Target pests have predators too. Integrated pest management (IPM) is a common approach in organic growing operations where beneficial insects such as ladybugs, or praying mantis are used for pest control. Works great if the system is healthy, and the grower is not using chemicals.

The idea that a poor diet for plants actually creates pest infestations and disease may sound conceptual, but it is very literal. Movies such as Supersize Me, or the book Fast Food Nation, illustrate the sickness created when people eat fast food for every meal.

Or read Dr. Phillip Callahan’s book Tuning Into Nature documenting his work describing the attraction of target pests to the infrared emissions of plants, and why treating symptoms with poisonous pesticides does not solve the real problems facing agriculture.

Dr. Callahan received a Ph.D. in entomology (study of insects), and spent his life pursuing an understanding of energy, or life force, particularly as it influenced agriculture and health.

He postulated that paramagnetic soils facilitate the flow of electromagnetic forces from the atmosphere to plants. And that it is a registering of these energies that pests evaluate when deciding to find a meal.

Certainly an interesting concept to consider and investigate.

There is more to life than what is physically here, and pests and disease in agriculture is about more than bad luck. Broadening our view of pests and disease can help us better control them. But in order to most efficiently grow plants, and avoid pests and disease, we must consider our role in their manifestation, and act accordingly. Rather than artificial, we need natural.

Rather than monoculture, we need polyculture. Rather than degeneration, we need regeneration. So the Earth may be healed. 3

With pretty flowers, pods, climbing tendrils and leaves, peas are an attractive and delicious annual addition to any garden. Even better, all parts of the plant are edible!

These little powerhouses are low in calories, packed with many health benefits: antioxidants, anti-inflammatory agents, and are high in micronutrients, vitamins, fibre, protein, and minerals.

Peas are best eaten raw, straight off the plant before their natural sugars turn to starch, and lose their sweet flavour.

They are easy to grow, so are an ideal first crop for children and beginners.

Peas are a legume, and help to fix nitrogen in the soil in a form plants can easily take up, with the help of root zone bacteria, which convert airborne nitrogen into plant food. Growing legumes helps feed your soil without adding fertiliser!

When to Plant Peas love cool, frost-free growing conditions. They dislike heat, and high humidity. As a guideline for most climates in the UK - sow anytime between February and June. Pea flowers are affected by frost, so pods won’t form. Sowing times vary depending on your local microclimate. Greenhouses and frost protection may open up the options for you.

Peas will grow, develop flowers, and fruit in about 10-14 weeks depending on the variety.

Choosing a Variety If you want ‘fast food’: • Choose snow peas - no waiting for the pods to fill.

• S tart with seedlings, not seeds.

• G row pea microgreens indoors. Harvest shoots with scissors within 2-3 weeks.

Support Peas Try planting a few different varieties. If you want to extend your harvest time, sow more every couple of weeks. Common peas include snow and sugarsnap, which are grown for their tender edible pods. Garden pea or shelling varieties contain edible seeds.

There are climbing and dwarf varieties. Maximise vertical space by training climbers up plant stems, a fence, lattice, stakes, a trellis, or frame with string guides every 20cm. This also makes harvesting and maintenance easier.

Growing Conditions

Dwarf peas also grow better supported by pruned sticks or bamboo canes to help minimise pest and disease problems. A great hanging basket crop too.

Peas are low maintenance, easy plants to grow. After the seeds germinate, plants usually only need watering, support and harvesting.

They like well drained loamy soils, with plenty of organic matter, and 6.0-7.5 pH. They like a sunny spot, but not extreme heat, or too much wind. They prefer moist soil, but not waterlogged feet! Avoid planting in wet weather, or they may rot.

Easy to grow peas... low in calories, p a c k e d w it h m a n y h e a lt h b e n e f it s

Companion Planting

Growing Tips These light feeders that produce their own soil nitrogen are a cheap crop to grow! Avoid overfertilising. You want flowers and pods, not leaves.

Peas have shallow roots, so mulch well to avoid weeds and retain soil moisture.

Avoid planting peas near garlic, onions, chives and shallots that stunt plant growth. Peas seem to grow well planted with beans and root crops like carrots, radish and turnips.

Watering: Keep soil moist while flowers and pods are developing. This is critical to their healthy development.

Sowing and Spacing

Pinch out the shoots at the top of each plant when you see the first pods are ready to pick. Add these to your salads. It stimulates pod production.

Pre-soak seeds overnight in warm water with liquid seaweed to soften the shell. Seaweed helps stimulate germination, and promote stronger growth.

Sow seeds directly into moist soil or seed mix 2-3cm deep. In the garden, sow 10cm apart or in rows about 60cm apart to help air circulation and prevent disease. In a 20cm pot, sow 6-8 seeds. Wait until they sprout before watering again to prevent seeds rotting. Germination generally takes 7-10 days. Carefully transplant seedlings at 5-9cm high.

Want to save seed? When growing multiple varieties, grow in separated containers or beds to prevent crossing, and help you correctly identify them.

Pests and Diseases Watch out for thrips, mites and aphids, cutworms, root knot nematodes, and fungal diseases.

Organic strategies for healthy peas include: • Plant disease resistant varieties; • Practice crop rotation; • Space plants adequately; • Add compost and organic soil conditioners seasonally; • Spray leaves with liquid seaweed on warm sunny days to strengthen plants and build disease resistance.

Sowing early in the season may also prevent pests.

Harvesting •

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•

•

•

• •

Best e at e n r aw, s tra ight off the plant b e fo r e their n at u r a l sugars turn to starch

Pick your peas just before sitting down to eat for best freshness and flavour. Harvest when the pods are bright green, full and plump depending on the variety.

P ick from the bottom of the plant and work up to the top. Hold the plant in one hand and snap the pea off with the other to avoid breaking the stem. Regular picking produces more peas.

S now peas are great value because you eat the

whole pod before the peas mature. They have a longer harvesting period (5-6 weeks) than garden peas (2-3 weeks).

S ugarsnap pods have thick walls and are picked

when the pods are plump and round. They’re super sweet... taste testing while harvesting may result in few peas for dinner!

G arden peas are eaten when they are mature by opening the pod and removing the peas inside.

Compost the spent pods to recycle nutrients and build new soil.

Pea shoots (the top 5-7cm) can be used in stir fries or salads when the plant is at full height.

W hen plants stop producing flowers and pods, use leaves in salads and stir fries.

Tips • •

void leaving pods unpicked unless you are saving A for seed, or your plant will stop producing pods.

A fter harvesting, leave roots to rot in the ground to release nitrogen in the soil and feed your next crop.

Crop Rotation Make the most of the free soil nitrogen after growing peas, plant leafy greens or a heavy feeding fruiting crop. e.g. tomato, capsicum, chilli, eggplant, or potato. There will be much less chance of fungal diseases by rotating crops from different families in the same container or garden bed.

Saving Seed

Allow pods to dry on the plant until brown and brittle. Cut at the stem base and hang to dry under cover. Remove dried peas from the pod, and leave on a tray or plate for a few days. Store in an envelope labelled with the variety/date inside a self-seal bag in a cool, dark place, or an airtight bottle with some dry rice to absorb any moisture. 3

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.

THE S NEAKY P Y T H I U M O O S P O R E S W ILL SURVIVE PRETT Y MUCH AN YWHERE , AND GERMI NATE EVERYWHERE IT IS DAMP

Certainly not wishing anyone any harm, chances are you will meet Pythium... sooner or later. Sooner for the brave ones growing in pure hydroponics as these systems do not offer, in general, the biodiversity required to fight off a Pythium outbreak. Later for the other types of growing, but biodiversity is not necessarily immunity. The sneaky Pythium Oospores will survive pretty much anywhere, and germinate everywhere it is damp.

THERE ARE GE NERALLY NO CURE S FOR PYTHIUM, PH YTOPHTHORA, OR RHIZO CTONIA

So, what is Pythium, anyway? It is part of a large family of parasitical fungi, many of whom are root rot causing pathogens and members of the evil group that causes the “damping off” of seedlings and young cuttings. Damping off is when you get to your seedling trays one morning, and some (or all) of them have fallen over with a soft brownish shrunken stem, suddenly so soft the youngster can’t stand up anymore, and usually quickly dies.

Pythium itself comes in many different flavors, some of the species prey on plants, some on animals, and some are cannibals who feast on other members of their own family.

Science is working on using those as a form of control for the plant pathogenic forms, but unfortunately we are not there yet.

Many, but not all, Pythium species spread through the growing medium via zoospores. Tiny mobile spores equipped with flagellum permitting them to swim swiftly and far in wet soils, which is why people sometimes refer to Pythium as a water rot. The zoospores are attracted by root exudates, helping them to quickly find fresh, healthy root tips, where they will establish and propagate themselves.

Pythium is a ruthless scavenger that costs millions in agricultural loss each year.

However, do not be fooled by the “water rot” nickname, as Pythium is a fantastic survivalist in dry conditions too. Its

Oospores can stay dormant on dry dust, soils, used containers, pipes, garden tools... on everything really, for a very long time. Like many pathogenic fungi, it also adapts quickly to chemical treatments, even the most harsh ones. Oospores and zoospores can travel on gnats (hence the nickname “fungus” gnat), on your shoes, your pets... pretty much anything that ever touches the outside world. Prevention remains, yet again, the best way to avoid problems, and one major part of it consists of keeping everything really clean - medical grade clean. Unfortunately, this is the part that many growers tend to willfully ignore.

All garden shop employees have heard, at least one root rot afflicted customer claim “well Eh, Yup Af’ course I’ve cleaned everything real well!! So it must be something in YOUR fertilizer”...

But, NO! Pythium does not survive in fertilizer bottles...

Pythium spores target the root tips, where they set camp as little spherical cysts from which will emerge a hyphae that releases enzymes to break down the epidermis of the root to gain entrance. Once the cell walls are broken, the hyphae penetrates and colonizes the root system, and starts feeding off it, releasing more enzymes and Oospores, which further speed up the collapse of the other cells. As it destroys the vascular tissues, it reduces the plant’s ability to draw water and nutrients in, eventually causing death of young plants, and sometimes a “day time wilting” of older plants, as water is unable to move in fast enough to keep turgidity. More mature plants may not die, but you can bet on a reduced yield.

Ma ny P y th iu m species spread through the g r ow i n g me d iu m via zoospores

This process also provides an entry point to various other soilborne root rotting pathogens, as if they all worked as a team - against you. Therefore, it is very hard to rely solely on visual symptoms to identify specifically which pathogen is actively destroying your rhizosphere, especially when most of them will show up as a browning and slimming of the roots. All In all, it is somewhat pointless also to ID who’s doing it as once you see rotting roots, it does not really matter... there are generally no cures for Pythium, Phytophthora, or Rhizoctonia.

Outside of keeping things to an extreme clean, especially for the hydroponic enthusiasts, prevention should include the introduction of beneficial “microlife” like those found in well-aerated compost teas.

Beneficial fungi like Trichoderma, and some select members of the BT bacteria family are said to handle such pests like Pythium pretty well too. Quality

enzyme products can contribute to keeping the root zone clean, and help beneficial organisms maintain the upper hand ... but yet again, these should consist of a preventive strategy. 3

A special note for hydroponic system owners... you need to scrub!!! Circulating bleach and/or peroxide through the system just doesn’t cut it. You may slow it down, but you are not killing it all. This is one of the reasons growers tend to have great results when their hydro systems are new, but as time goes by, yields diminish and eventually fail. Leading to pointless blaming of nutrient companies ;-)

In the series “Light Matters�, Theo Tekstra discusses the different aspects to lighting, such as quantity, quality, efficacy, special applications, new developments, and the science behind it. In this second episode, we focus on how light quality and PPFD influence yield.

We often get the question how light quality (spectrum) and light intensity (PPFD) will influence yield. Mostly this is accompanied by examples of results under new technology such as CMH or LED. In some cases, the claims of manufacturers look too good to be true: you would be able to replace your 1000W HPS lights with only half that power in new technology. Let’s shed a little light over this, because it is a complicated matter.

The effect of spectrum HPS does not have an optimal spectrum for plant growth in indoor facilities, however, most of the light output is within the PAR range and the spectrum is spread, though most light is emitted in the longer wavelengths.

There have been many scientific trials to determine the efficiency of different sources of light. It may surprise you that there has not been a significant difference in the response of plants to the different spectrums in terms of yield, when presented with the same PPFD. Though there are differences in the quality of the plant, and the shape, there is no magic spectrum that suddenly doubles the yield. So what is the benefit of a good spectrum?

Compared to a highly deficient spectrum, such as pure red LED or pure blue LED, a more continuous, complete spectrum has effect on the health of the plant, the plant content (for example flavonoids, terpenes) and the plant shape, also called morphogenesis. You can use specific wavelengths to influence the shape of the plant: blue for example to keep it compact, far red to make it stretch.

One of the most important changes that a spectrum makes is the shape of the plant. It can optimize the shape for light interception, creating fast growth, as interest on interest, decreasing the vegetative phase. So there is a definite advantage in that. But when it comes to the generative stage, there is really not much difference.

Plants also can adapt to a certain point to spectrum, and some plants react better to certain spectrums than others. For example, lettuce requires a cool environment,

making it an ideal crop to grow under LED lighting as there is not much irradiant heat coming from LED. But a tomato grower will tell you that he needs the irradiant heat to keep his crop generative. So there is not a silver bullet which hits all targets.

In general, one can say that a more complete spectrum leads to a healthier plant and a better quality. In greenhouses this is less of an issue than in indoor facilities, as the primary source of light is the sun. There is very little evidence, however, that a full spectrum leads to a much higher yield than HPS.

PPFD as the driver of photosynthesis There is a general consensus in the horticultural industry that light intensity has a direct influence on photosynthesis: you need about 12 photons to bind one CO2 molecule.

Whether that is a blue, a green or a red photon does not matter. Now I fully realize that this is a simplified way of presenting this, but for a reasonable plant growth spectrum, this will apply.

Different types of plants however require different amounts of light, and some are used to different spectrums. A shadow plant, for example, does not do well in high amounts of light and is used to some more green and far red light, as this is transmitted through the canopy above it. Depending on its origins a plant requires

a certain amount of light too, defined as the daily light integral. And then you have plants that do well in extremely high light levels and, some in moderate. But what all plants have in common is that the photosynthetic rate is a function of the intensity of the light. This is not a straight line, but a curve.

Other influences are climate (temperature, humidity), CO2

Yield

levels, availability of nutrients, etc. Temperature and PPFD, though, are the primary factors when all others are stable.

In the diagram here you see that this plant has the highest net photosynthesis at 1500 umol m-2 s-1 at 300C. However, that net photosynthesis is only about 10% higher than at 1000 umol m-2 s-1. In fact, the highest gain in photosynthesis is at much lower light levels, around 500 umol m-2 s-1. So at what light levels should you grow this plant?

If you want optimal efficiency I would suggest a level around 500 umol m-2 s-1, which generally translates into a 1000W lamp per 4 square meter in a large facility. Currently, commercial growers use a much higher light level, of up to 1000 umol m-2 s-1. Why do they do that?

The reason is quite simple: more yield from the same surface. Though the efficiency at 500 umol m-2 s-1 is higher than at 1000, it is still a 25-30% lower net photosynthesis.

At these light levels, growers add CO2 , which dramatically influences the curve to level off at a much higher net photosynthesis, another 15-25% higher. This further increases the photosynthetic efficiency. Bottom line: you would get much more produce per square meter. And here is one of the major advantages: your grow room has a limited space. You want to get as much product out of it as possible every single run. Now the efficiency will be a little less than at lower PPFD, but that is not a problem. Net yield will be really high.

Though the dry mass per micromole at low intensity will for sure be better, the total yield will lack. “I get X lbs per Y Watt” doesn’t mean that much if you look at it from a total yield perspective. Will the equipment and electricity you put into it, pay out? That totally depends on the value of the crop you are growing.

Replacing a 1000W HPS by a 500W LED will surely lead to a lower PPFD. That will result in a better net photosynthetic efficiency and so more grams of produce per Watt of lighting.

In small rooms, LEDs have the advantage that you don’t lose a lot of light on your walls, so this effect is even higher. But in a professional cultivation room, it will not result in more yield, and that is ultimately what you are aiming for.

To recap: • •

• •

Yes, lower intensity light will lead to a better yield per invested Watt of electricity.

Yes, beginning growers should not aim for the highest PPFD, as all influencing factors need to be under control and there is little room for error.

Yes, lower output lamps will give less plant problems and result in higher yield per Watt.

No, spectrum does not influence the yield that much.

Ultimately, a professional grower will make the calculation to see what his yield per square meter is. It may well be the difference between a week at the local beach for your holiday or a family vacation to Hawaii, four times a year. 3

Imagine totally eco-friendly color print that contains no pigment. It’s invisible ink, but when applied to the paper at varying thicknesses displays brilliant full color on the page. It’s all an optical illusion! And the ink is UVresistant.

Nanotechnology is being employed by researchers and scientists at ITMO University in St. Petersburg, Russia in what they call interference color.

Controlled multi-layered printing that create optical nanostructures that work much like a soap bubble, reflecting light

“It’s not like plastics are all bad, it’s that they’re fundamentally incompatible with the earth’s biosphere.” -- Ecovative An innovative solution to the avalanche of fragile products packaging waste that uses no petroleum or food to manufacture. Their Myco Foam packaging is custom grown in the shapes needed to protect the product in transit, and nurture the Earth after serving its temporary purpose. It’s flame retardant, rapidly regenerating, and unlike plastic and styrofoam, it’s never toxic waste.

How do they do that? Mycocellium and shredded agricultural waste in the form of corn shocks. It floats on water, but begins to breakdown when exposed to the elements, making this Mushroom Material totally home compostable.

Our crystal ball shows hordes of gardeners dumpster diving for free soil inputs. Initial sources will be packaging from Dell computers, Rich Brilliant Willing interior LED lighting, SPOR solar powered products, Merck Forest maple syrup, and Stanhope-Seta laboratory equipment in the UK. (EcovativeDesign.com)

at different spectrums. Yes, there are soy inks that have done wonders for removing some of those toxic pigments from printing, but this group wanted to explore taking the ink composition out of the equation.

They have succeeded in creating a few dozen color tones, and still have some challenges to overcome, such as locking in on the depth that will produce bright red. No special printer needed. They’re using nanocrystalline titania ink in an inkjet printer.

It’s not just an inside secret. A study by The King’s Fund in the UK has determined that gardeners are superior in both physical and mental health compared to the rest of the population. So much so, that The National Gardens Scheme, who commissioned the study, and The King’s Fund charity have recommended that gardening should be medically prescribed.

A separate US study done recently found that beneficial microbes in soil are mentally and physically healing. Naturally, the exercise is also good for you, and now we know that performing garden chores qualify as low-level aerobics with cardiovascular benefits.

Then there’s the green space found to be mentally beneficial, as are flowers, but growing veggies increases your health benefit level even more. Report: www.bit.ly/gardens-health.