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Single
Rhino Twin Speed Fan Rhino Twin speed fans provide the grower with the flexibility to move between a higher or lower power as their requirements change throughout their growing cycle.
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CONTENTS I GARDEN CULTURE
MINT
ORGANIC COMPOST
GROW-YOUR-OWN
42
34
ballast pros&cons
RESIDENT EVIL
78
PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT
8
THE TRUTH ABOUT LEDS
68
62 SEALED ROOM GARDEN
IN THIS ISSUE OF GARDEN CULTURE:
FREAKY TOMATOES
12
7 Foreword
42 Organic compost
8 Product Spotlight
46 Organic gardening basics
12 Freaky tomatoes
54 Green light – fact or fiction?
14 Water – the universal solvent
56 The sealed room garden
20 Sous vide cooking
58 Announcing the Home Grown Expo
23 Green products: 5 cool finds
62 The truth about LED
24 Green office: Agro office space
66 Your salad tracks time!
28 Urban farmer - Cultivating with your city
68 Ballast pros & cons
34 Grow your own: Mint
73 4 Amazing plant facts
41 Sealing in freshness
78 Resident Evil gardenculture.net
56
5
FOREWORD & CREDITS I GARDEN CULTURE FOREWORD
CREDITS Garden Culture™ is a publication of GC Publishers B.V.
Winter is off and running. Naturally, outdoor growers are sad, and indoor growers are happy. This time of year growing food outdoors is tough at best, even with cold frames and greenhouses. Growing indoors becomes a lot easier, and the types of plants that do well in your garden offers much more variety. Here the grow tent is up with some nice chili’s and kitchen herbs already flourishing.
Cold weather also means most of us will be cooking every meal indoors. Hopefully, your outdoor garden produced a truckload of great fruits and veggies to keep you eating well until next season. Whether your freezer and pantry is jam packed with summer’s bounty, or you buy fresh foods from the whole food store, there’s an excellent new way to cook it all. Better flavor with less work! Be sure to read the Sous Vide article in this issue, so you don’t miss out on incredible taste created in the healthiest way possible. You’ll find some great reading in this issue. Some of it will help you be a better gardener indoors and in the backyard, and some of it might make your hair stand on end. We know you’ll think twice about tomatoes from the store, and discover more determination to grow your own food after reading Resident Evil. We’re very busy here at Garden Culture Headquarters with an exciting new project - the Home Grown Expo 2014 in Coventry. We’re hoping to have around 3000 visitors, and with 90% of the floor space already sold out, we’re pretty sure it’s going to be a great event. If you’d like to learn more about the show, check out www.homegrownexpo.co.uk. Get 50% off at the door with discount code GCUK4. Happy reading, 3
ED I TO RS Executive Editor: Mike Nivato E. mike@gardenculture.net Senior Editor: Tammy Clayton DESIGN Job Hugenholtz Special thanks the following contributors: Dan F, Sheldon Aberman, April Kazema, Jeroen Dercksen, Sylvia Bernstein, Tom Alexander. PUBLISHER GC Publishers Postbus 483 3200 AL Spijkenisse The Netherlands t. +31(0)181-728101 w www.gcpublishers.net e info@gcpublishers.net ADVERTISING Eric Coulombe E. eric@gardenculture.net +1-855-427-8254 +31(0)181-728101 SUBSCRIPTIONS E. subscriptions@gardenculture.net D I ST R I B U T I O N PA R T N ER S Nutriculture Maxigrow Direct Garden Supplies ISSN: 2211-9329 © GC Publishers B.V. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without prior permission in writing from the GC Publishers B.V.
Mike Nivato Executive Editor
Website :
www.GardenCulture.net
facebook.com/GardenCulture twitter.com/GardenCulture
7
product spotligh st 0W Digital Balla 0 6 y b ob H er st a NEW Sunm With great price from a trusted brand. features at a ballast gives you all the latest digital 10% with Power Boost at The new Sunmaster Hobby digital dim them, and boost the 600W by er, pow mal nor at ps lam r you ting four power modes you can run when multiple ballasts start up, star s the chance of an electrical surge uce red tion Igni nt llige Inte cy e. uen stag c freq the final flowering lamps for longer lamp life. Dynami technology will gently start your t star Soft e. tim a at one cut, er ast ball pow each fluctuates. In the event of a put, even when your mains supply control ensures consistent light out ing your lights off for longer to let lamps completely cool, leav iod per ting wai set a e hav asts ball most trike to safely re-ignite Hobby is built with fast lamp re-s than is necessary. The Sunmaster top grade ballast. e. This is the affordable choice of tim e pag stop m imu min with ps hot lam www.maxibright.com.
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hobby relays Green Power has become a favourite with UK growe rs looking for maximum grow roo m protection, thanks to the ir highquality, reliable and easy-t o-use relays and contactor s. Now this popular brand has ext ended their range to meet the needs of the new and novice gro wer. The Green Power Hobby is manufactured using hig h-quality components and safeguard s grow rooms from disasters caused by electrical surges. Available as a 2 and 3 soc ket version, with maximum loads of 1200w and 1800w respec tively, the Green Power Ho bby can be connected to any timer, offering the utmost flexibil ity for the grower. For more info rmation visit www.greenpowerco ntactors.co.uk
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ts Mammoth pro ten available now! looking designed for growers Mammoth Pro tents are e-laden, y tent. They are featur for a premium-qualit properfect product for the which makes them the fessional grower. aining highly effective at cont This range of tents are as being pacity of 30kg as well light and have a load ca ide and out. suitable for washing ins
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PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT I GARDEN CULTURE
M icroclone
Rack Tray Until now, growers watered and drained prop trays by hand. Microclone makes the only low profile watering tray that fits the width of standard chrome and steel racks. Four prop trays line up neatly across each
Microclone tray. Clone trays can be handled easily in the shallow two-inch deep tray, watered manually with a collective drain, or automatically by Flood and drain, drip, NFT, nearly anything you can imagine. The Microclone Rack Tray is 45 inches wide to fit all common rack units, and is no taller than the prop trays it is designed to hold. Microclone exclusively uses a flat bottom and thin raised ridges for plenty of drainage and easy cleaning. There are twin-tap drain wells in the front (or back) corners that work with all common fittings. Microclone Rack Trays are distributed by DL Wholesale, World Wide Garden Supply, and Green Planet Wholesale
Rhino F ans Rhino has become the trusted name for grow room ventilation, and with the introduction of the new Rhino Fan range, growers can now get their hands on a fan that will provide the unrivalled performance that they have come to expect from Rhino products. This new range of highly efficient, superior quality fans are available in sizes to suit growers of different scale who now have the choice of a single, twin, and thermostatically controlled units to choose from. Fully compatible with growers existing Rhino products, Rhino Fans are heavy-duty with a selection manufactured from steel, for those who need a fan of the highest durability. This means that no matter what type of grower you are, there’s a Rhino Fan to suit your needs. For more information, visit: www.nutriculture.co.uk
an online at planttc.com
new
er Pack Maxibright Compact Pow
The NEW Maxibright Compact Power Pack range is growing with units now available in 400W and 600W models! A new generation of magnetic power pack, it gives lower heat output, ultra-efficient lamp control and silent operation. The internal unit is finished with injection-moulded resin, allowing core heat to dissipate at a greater rate to prevent over-heating. A matched digital Smart IgniterTM provides efficient lamp start-up, detecting as soon as a lamp is ready for re-strike in the event of a power cut and when a lamp has reached its end of life. A precision wound ballast gives it thermal and electrical durability. The wall-mountable case is complete with a handy carry handle for easy use. The Maxibright Compact is a Genuine Quality ballast, meeting specific EC quality standards to give the correct power to the lamp, guaranteed safety and a nominal rated life span of ten years. For more information visit www.genuinequality.co.uk and check out www.compactpowerpack.co.uk.
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PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT I GARDEN CULTURE
t h ig r b i x a M ® o r P t h ig L i Dig r e w o P t c Sele Pack 00W
600W & 10
digital ballast ® t Pro Select h ig iL ig D ate flexibilThe new you the ultim s ve gi t gh ri power from Maxib oose from 6 h C . st la al b one rmal power, ity with just lamps at no r u yo n ru every modes to a power on tr x e % 10 r fo the market Super mode ly ballast on n o e h (t ge e light lamp watta d for ultimat e m im d r o ) this cycle. Dethat can do the growth ® t u o gh u ro ware, control th ontrol soft C e rg Su ew hn ® lect ballasts veloped wit ight Pro Se iL ig D le ip lt ply they when mu e power sup m sa e th m e fro are started one at a tim ltiple lamps u m e it n ig o n tech lwill safely s. Soft start e rg su l ca ri ct current for to reduce ele ps with a low m la ts ar st y maintain ogy gentl p life and to m la d ve ro p im significantly Fast lamp re mp output. la t n e ci as ffi e ly continual art as quick hot lamps st s r re su n e strike ostic LED fo built-in diagn a s e d u cl io In at . form n possible atures and in fe ll fu r Fo t stockist at fault finding. est Maxibrigh ar e n r u yo t u check o m ibright.co www.max
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t creates is an organization tha it gg tdi Jus it. gg tdi Jus Biobizz supports st desertification tion in the battle again ac es tak d an , on ss tile and awarene for a world that is fer hts fig o als z biz Bio . ge and climate chan fertilizers, but also by producing organic ly on t no le; ab live e therefor es like Justdiggit. by supporting initiativ tiated by the Naga s battle! Justdiggit is ini thi in rt pa e tak n ca o in You to involve more people ct was established to s on en Foundation. The proje om ge; phen ation and climate chan fic rti se de st ain ag e ttl the ba and Justdiggit want to oner or later. Biobizz that will affect us all so to take action! Dethat now is the time ss ne are aw re mo create ultural practices are g and detrimental agric forestation, overgrazin . the planet into deserts turning large areas of d has become hard an The top layer of soil anw result of which rai impenetrable, and as a the ground. The earth ter cannot seep into ying out. The natural is warming up and dr usly disrupted, and the balance is being serio tile. Results are failed earth becomes less fer , and climate change. crops, hunger, poverty ! This is the time for But there is a solution t the rainwater can e need to take care tha you to take action. W ound. This can be , and channel undergr ain ag d un gro the in seep contour lines in the es a metre deep along done by digging ditch er. All run-off impenetrable top lay the up en op to pe ca lands n be absorbed and in the ditches and ca rainwater is collected the soil will start e seeds still present in Th il. so the by d ne retai return surprisingly tural vegetation will to sprout, and the na ! 2 quickly. Thát’s our aim en as ning 266.000.000m gre tur is s ha it gg tdi Jus The first goal ct, this proje and very. Biobizz supports co re te ma cli for rt a sta a greener world. support the battle for is collecting money to Facebook, Bioy new friend (like!) on er ev for n: tio ac st fir Our to Justdiggit. green square meter” bizz will donate “one Page, and click the Biobizz Facebook to go t Jus lp! he n ca You e! For more inout before it’s too lat the like-button. Help eo on: https:// u can watch their vid yo it gg tdi Jus on n tio forma For more infortch?v=WzCjSuu8azE. www.youtube.com/wa z.com k out: www.biobiz mation on Biobizz chec
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11
BY TAMMY CLAYTON
© Chris & Christina Currie”
“That ain’t natural. It’s defective.”
Freaky Tomatoes What’s up with the fruit here? A tomato is not supposed to sprout plants. Totally abnormal, and not some isolated oddity. The earliest report found of buying tomatoes filled with germinating seeds is 2003. More and more people are talking about this, and sharing bizarre tomato images. Suspicions of genetically modified organisms loom large. Some say this micro tomato forest thing is due to cold storage. Others say it isn’t uncommon. Huh? Where did the natural germination inhibitors go? Stranger still, tomatoes picked before perfect ripeness don’t have viable seeds. Mature tomato seeds do not germinate without fermenting. Most of these hyperactive tomato owners state that the fruit wasn’t rotten. Some were freshly purchased, and furthermore, storebought tomatoes are picked unripe.
“Are they Frankenmatoes?”
12
In almost every case, the tomatoes were store-bought. One woman found the seeds inside a cherry tomato all germinated. She planted one in a pot out of curiosity. The thing grew 10 individual main stems! I had this happen with homegrown tomatoes a couple of years ago. There was no cold storage. The fresh picked tomatoes got tossed within days. Others gardeners have had this happen too, but not with heirloom varieties to my knowledge. Are they Frankenmatoes with fish or frog genes in them? Nope. Sources report transgenic GE tomato varieties are history. In fact, no new GE tomatoes have been released since 2000 due to regulation difficulties, among other complexities. It does have to do with genetics... and mutants. A number of hybridized crops suffer from this precocious
FREAKY TOMATOES I GARDEN CULTURE
“Mature tomato seeds do not germinate without fermenting.”
germination, or ‘viviparous’ tendency. An occasional oddball seed that defies the status quo sounds reasonable. But a whole fruit full, or several tomatoes on a stem cluster, or most of your harvest? That ain’t natural. It’s defective. The cause is hormonal imbalance. Low levels of ABA or abscisic acid, a phytohormone that regulates seed development. Some tomato varieties are more prone to this viviparous activity. Which ones are they? The pretty ones that stay edible in your fridge for weeks after purchase. Bred to stay ripe without aging - a.k.a. Long Shelf Life. Vivipary was very common with early processing tomatoes bred for one-time destructive machine harvesting. Truss, or cluster types, and cherry tomatoes you buy at the grocery store out of season will all be long shelf life varieties. Long shelf life tomatoes, if picked at the right stage and gassed, can remain ‘fresh’ 3-4 months after harvest. Ripened on the plant, they have one month of shelf life max. While the skin and meat don’t age, the seed continues to
“Where did the natural germination inhibitors go?”
mature using the sugars available inside the fruit. The most extreme viviparous tendencies are seen in rin mutant tomatoes that mature, but don’t ripen or rot. What’s a rin mutant? A salad ornament. It’s bright red and looks good, but has crunch and no flavor. Sound familiar? It has to do with a mutant gene. One that inhibits ripening. Rin mutant hybrids ship better. The store has less loss. The rin gene controls the ripening process. In 2002 Cornell University located the gene in tomato DNA. Scientists are working on building a juicy GE tomato. Garden fresh tomato flavor that will ship thousands of miles, and store for months. Fat chance. Juiciness, soft garden fresh texture, and flavor is what makes a real tomato unshippable. 3
gardenculture.net
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BY STEPHEN
“ T H E B E T T E R WAT E R TA S T E S T O YO U , T H E B E T T E R I T W I L L TA ST E TO YO U R PL A N T”
water the universal solvent Like all life on Earth, water is the cornerstone of a plant’s survival. In hydroponics, the water is the vehicle used to carry the nutrients, making them available for the roots to take in. With this in mind, it becomes obvious that water quality is paramount to a hydro-gardener’s success.
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WATER I GARDEN CULTURE
“PH AFFECTS HOW WELL A PL ANT CAN ABSORB EACH UNIQUE ELEMENT” Water Quality We categorize water into two descriptive terms - hard or soft. The calcium and magnesium concentration will be the deciding factor in which of the terms your water falls under. Having an abundant (over 300) parts-per-million (PPM or measurement of the total dissolved solids) of these essential nutrients will make your water hard, while having a miniscule PPM will make your water soft. In hydroponics it is better to have a lower PPM in your base water rather than a higher PPM. If you have hard water a reverse osmosis filtration system is an invaluable tool to any serious gardener. A good tip is that the better water tastes to you, the better it will taste to your plant.
H2O Tools In hydroponics there are tools to help a gardener take precise measurements of their water to enable them to succeed. pH Meter: Potential Hydrogen (a.k.a. pH) is the scale used to measure the acidity or alkalinity of an aqueous solution. It’s measured on a scale from 1 to 14. Pure acid is a 1, pure base is a 14, and a neutral solution is a 7. Every point change on this scale exponentially multiplies the acidity or alkalinity by ten. This fact demands careful and exact measurement and observation, which is achieved with this invaluable tool. Most plants grown hydroponically prefer a stable pH around a 6 with a .5 acceptable variance ( i.e. 5.5-6.5). Since pH affects how well a plant can absorb each unique element, scientific testing has shown plants thrive on the higher threshold of this pH range in vegetative growth, and more acidic in the flowering stage. pH is safely manipulated and buffered using phosphoric acid (pH Lower), or potassium hydroxide (pH Raise). The meter must also be calibrated at least once a month to ensure accurate readings using a calibration solution.
EC (or TDS) Meter: Hydroponic nutrients, in the form of nutrient salts, are made up of a precise measurement of all nutrients and minerals needed to grow vegetables, fruits, and flowers. These salts are safe. Consider the pink Himalayan sea salt from your local whole food store. It is chock-full of minerals! Salts make liquid more electrically conductive. Therefore, the more hydroponic nutrient, the more conductive your water is. An EC (electrical conductivity) meter measures the nutrient (salt) strength via pulses of electricity. It then calculates the total amount of nutrients in your water, but doesn’t identify the individual nutrients present, or the portion they contribute to the whole. We measure TDS (total dissolved solids) in PPM, or parts-per-million. It is another way to express EC. You can find the PPM from the EC by multiplying the EC by 500 or 700 depending on what the conversion factor of your TDS meter is.
“ALL NUTRIENTS ARE EITHER MO BILE O R I M MO BILE” Hydroponic Nutrients Hydroponic nutrients are a comprehensive soluble form of all the essential nutrition required to raise plants to their highest capabilities. There are primary nutrients known as “macronutrients” or the primary nutrients. Others we refer to as “micronutrients,” secondary nutrients, or trace minerals. All nutrients are either mobile or immobile. Mobile nutrients are able to move about the plant as the plant sees fit. This means that the plant, identifying a mobile nutrient deficiency, will move the nutrient to the newest growth rendering the older growth damaged first.
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Immobile nutrients do not move about the plant. These nutrients stay in their original placement, affecting newer growth first in the case of a deficiency. Nutrients used in growing most plants almost always include: Nitrogen (N): a mobile macronutrient that is required most heavily in vegetative growth. Nitrogen is also needed during the flowering phase in lower levels. Nitrogen is quickly depleted, and makes regular feeding necessary, especially in early growth. Phosphorous (P): a mobile macronutrient important throughout a plant’s life. Fruiting and flowering plants need the highest levels of this nutrient that helps with germination, root growth, bud set, and production. There are also flowering additives containing very high levels of phosphorous. Potassium (K): a mobile macronutrient that assists in the combination, production, and movement of starches, sugars, and carbohydrates. It also can aid a plant’s immunity to bad bacteria and mold issues. Calcium (Ca): an immobile secondary nutrient that is as necessary as the macronutrients, and should be equal in concentration to phosphorous. Calcium creates cells, helps their integrity and growth. It also creates strong roots. Plants must always have calcium on their root tips. Sulfur (S): an immobile secondary nutrient responsible for important protein synthesis. It is found in several amino acids, and is essential in oil and flavor production. Sulfur in the form of sulfates help to buffer pH, and is the building block of many vitamins and hormones. Vitamin B1, which aids in stress relief for plants is one of the most notorious vitamins owing its debt to sulfur. Magnesium (Mg): a mobile secondary nutrient that is the found in the central atom of chlorophyll molecules absorbing light energy for your plant. Magnesium is essential to a fruiting and flowering plant by transferring enzymes into carbohydrates and sugars that will become what your plant produces. Magnesium helps a plant make use of all other nutrients. Boron (B): an immobile micronutrient that is one of the most understood as far as the scope of functions it performs in a plant. It is known as a needed piece of your
16 16
“POTASSIUM CAN AID A PLANT’S IMMUNITY TO BAD BACTERIA” nutrient puzzle! It’s needed throughout a plant’s life. Boron helps a plant’s calcium intake, cell growth, and RNA development. Zinc (Zn): a mobile micronutrient that is infamous for deficiency in soil like ours in Florida! Zinc buddies up with magnesium and manganese to help with enzymes. Sugars and proteins owe a debt to zinc, as does stem growth and chlorophyll. Florida soil’s high pH (above 7.0) is to blame for the zinc deficiencies in our plants. Iron (Fe): a mobile micronutrient that’s another casualty to high pH soil. It also plays a big role in chlorophyll and photosynthesis. Iron also has a role in a plants respiration, but is very difficult for a plant to intake, so it’s normally chemically bonded (chelated). Manganese (Mn): an immobile micronutrient that is essential to chloroplasts which actually contain the chlorophyll. Manganese also helps with nitrogen and iron in the chlorophyll production. Chlorine (Cl): an immobile micronutrient that helps utmost with the osmotic pressure required to open and close the stomata on the bottom of the leaves, allowing the plant to transpire and release excess moisture. It also assists in root and foliage growth. Molybdenum (Mb): an immobile micronutrient that converts nitrates to ammoniums. It’s needed only in very small doses, and is most effective in roots and seedlings. During your gardening career you will inevitably find different methods and products to use. The goal is to find the best quality nutrients that do not build up residue and salts that lead to extra time and labor. You should ask your local hydro professional for tips and advice in what will suit your hydro-situation best.
WATER I GARDEN CULTURE Hydroponic Mediums The inert mediums used in hydroponic growing have no nutrient content. Their purpose is holding and supporting the root system, and delivering oxygen, water and nutrients in varying degrees. Factors such as the nutrient containment, the pH, as well as the composition and texture of a medium all directly relate to the medium’s needs - and how well your plant will perform overall. Soilless Mix is a term that normally refers to a medium that is a blend of peat moss, perlite, vermiculite, or coir. A single material is sometimes mistakenly called a soilless mix. It may be soilless, but it takes at least two of anything to make a mix!
“ROCKWOOL CAN HOLD 80% WATER AND 15% OXYGEN”
Perlite is volcanic rock that can be used as an aggregate - a substance used to break up a medium with high moisture holding capacity. It’s also used as a stand-alone medium with fast drainage.
Vermiculite acts the opposite of perlite. It has a great ability to retain moisture. For this reason one can use vermiculite to blend with perlite, soil, etc. when it drains too fast.
root zone. You can add peat or coco coir to help retain more moisture and nutrient conPeat Moss after being wet tent around the root zone for down has characteristics similar plants to feed on between to soil. It holds a lot of moisirrigations. EXPANDED CL AY ture, and has a fine texture, which PERLITE is why it’s normally amended with perRockwool (Stonewool) is a porous lite. Dolomite lime is usually added as well to add some medium made by melting basalt rock using micronutrient charge, and raise the pH level of this extreme heat and transforming it into a cotton candynaturally acidic medium. like material. It is then spun into a fibrous material that resembles fiberglass. This medium that can hold 80% Coco Coir (Coconut pith) is the ground up material water, and 15% oxygen when fully saturated. Rockwool underneath the husk. It’s a very environmentally conis arguably the most popularly “COIR HAS NATURAL scious choice for a medium, as it is one of the only porused medium worldwide in hyANTI-FUNGAL tions left over in coconut processing. Unadulterdroponic food production. It’s PROPERTIES” ated, it needs a calcium/magnesium charge, made into cubes, blocks, and a rinse to shed excess sodium conslabs, and a granular material. You must soak tent before use. Coir has natural antithis medium before use in a pH of 5.5-6.0 fungal properties, and discourages alfor a length of time to neutralize its natural gae growth when added to the top of alkalinity. COCO COIR other growth mediums. These are by far not the only mediums used in hyExpanded Clay (Hydroton/Hydrokorrels) is a rounddroponics today, but are the cornerstones. As hydroed medium created by heating clay at a high temperaponic enthusiasts, we are always anxious to see what’s ture resulting in expansion. These porous, reusable next. Testing new innovations always furthers the field beads allow for sharp drainage, nutrient uptake, and air of hydro-gardening, and helps each grower see what capacity. Hydroton also provides great support for the works best for us. 3 gardenculture.net 17
BY MIKE NIVATO
S O U S V I D E COOKING “YOU’LL GET UNPARALLELED RESULTS” I’ve always loved food, and I always loved cooking, so much so, that I went to school to become a chef. In all honesty, after getting my degree I didn’t do much with it in a professional sense. I’m more comfortable as an amateur cook, but I haven’t forgotten the techniques learned at culinary school. While some are the same as most of you use in everyday life, some never make it to the stove in regular households. The reasons vary, but it’s mostly because it’s too complicated, or too expensive.
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THE SECRET TECHNIQUE O F G R E AT CHEFS AROUND THE WORLD...
COOKING I GARDEN CULTURE
“THE JUICES OF WHAT YOU’RE COOKING ARE THE ESSENCE GETTING PRESERVED.”
Sous Vide cooking was once one of those techniques that wasn’t available for the masses, simply because the technique required too high of an investment. When using this technique you’ll get unparalleled results. Smells and tastes get locked in, flavors become better, and the juices of what you’re cooking are the essence getting preserved. So what is Sous Vide?
sous vide [soo veed] noun aled ingredients in a vacuum-se the technique of cooking rature. a long time at a low tempe plastic pouch, usually for
Sounds simple enough, but this is exactly where it becomes complicated. First of all, vacuum sealing technique’s weren’t readily available, dependable, or affordable. Good vacuum sealers used to cost thousands and upwards. Right now, they’re around a hundred. The next step is to cook it for a long time at a low temperature. What’s long I hear you ask? For vegetables “long” is between 1 and 2 hours. When talking about meat, the cooking time is 2 hours at minimum - all the way up to 72 hours for something like spare ribs. When talking a low temperature, this is more than a burner on the stove set to ‘low.’ It’s imperative that we control the temperature accurately. Fluctuations will make the product, and its quality, unpredictable at best. Naturally, the temperature depends on what you’re cooking, but it’s normally between 55 and 80° Celsius. Controlling a temperature of 55° in your household kitchen is a nightmare. It requires tweaking, and an expensive, accurate food thermometer. That’s where our friends from SousVide Supreme come in to action.They are so dedicated to sous vide cooking that it’s part of their brand name. We reached out to them not to long ago, and asked them for one of their water ovens to write about. A couple of days later a big box arrived at GC HQ, and we started
cooking. SousVide Supreme developed the world’s first water oven designed specifically for home kitchens. This water oven helps you cook better, healthier, and more flavorful food than ever before. The process combined with some recipes is pretty straight forward actually. A recipe book came with the cooker and vacuum sealer they shipped us, and we’ve used it extensively. So what can you do with this cool piece of tech? Essentially, the possibilities are limitless. We’ve cooked green asparagus, glazed carrots with basil, chicken with fresh garden greens, and much more. A recipe I loved was a piece of salmon topped with tomato and basil. With the vacuum and the slow cooking you really could taste the blending of all the flavors come together in the salmon. We can highly recommend this technique for the reason explained above, but also for the health aspect. Since you’re cooking in a vacuum-sealed bag in water, all the natural juice and good stuff like vitamins, amino acids, etc stay in your food. Additionally, there’s no need to add butter or oils which makes it even healthier eating. Last, but not least, and I’ve said it multiple times - the flavor is outstanding.The healthy aspect is great, but for me, flavor is the real reason I now cook with the sous vide water cooker a big percentage of the time. 3
“COOK BETTER, HEALTHIER, AND MORE FLAVORFUL FOOD THAN EVER BEFORE”
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GREEN PRODUCTS I GARDEN CULTURE
cool finds Plants definitely make the world a better place. Here’s some great ways to spread hope, beauty and nutrition around.
1
GA R D E N S G O P O STA L
Don’t just send a card. Send one with more purpose than hanging around. Mail a postcard with a green future. One with a gift of fresh watercress that anyone can grow. Available in 23 countries and a variety of city and village scapes designed by Another Studio. From www.PostCarden.com
2
SEED BOMB VENDING
Guerilla gardening and seed bombs aren’t new, but distributing them freely is. GreenAid has great ways to spread edible, herb and flowering gardens anywhere. Fresh salad, a salsa garden, or a pollinator food plot planted via slingshot in a wasteland? Why not! Buy a kit, buy a tube of bombs, or put a guerilla gardener’s vending machine in your business. Help make the world a greener place. From www.GreenAid.co.
3
PERFECT SPROUT FA R M
Grow fresh sprouts faster and better. The iPlant Sprout Garden perfects the process. Automatic sprinkler, and built-in temperature control with heating system corrects your wee sprout farm’s environment. Great gift for you or someone you know. Your choice of colors. Comes with one or two growing chambers. Replacement trays and seed kits are available too. Search ‘iPlant Sprout Garden’ on Amazon.
4
G ROW YO U R OW N FUNGI
Did you know that growing gourmet mushrooms is super simple? Tasty pearl oyster mushrooms that even a child can succeed in just 1014 days. Mushroom kits in a box make it a cinch. Just add a little moisture, and sit back to watch them grow. Kits are made from recycled material. At least 2 harvests in every box. From www.Fungi-Futures.co.uk.
5
20,000 EDIBLE PLANTS
That’s how many exist on the planet, and 90% of the modern food supply depends on a mere 20 species. All of which have had the true healthy benefits bred out of them to create market-perfect produce. What tasty, nutritionpacked fruits, greens, roots and herbs are you missing out on? They might be growing in your own backyard, or be perfectly happy in your indoor garden. “Edible Plants : An inspirational guide to choosing and growing unusual edible plants” by Plants For A Future is available from Amazon. 3
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TEXT: GRUBBYCUP, PHOTOS: STOCK
Agro
Office
SPACE
“SUNLIGHT IS THE CHEAPEST AND MOST EFFICIENT WAY TO LIGHT PLANTS...” If allowed by the management, plants can interject a little soul into an office space, and make being a denizen of a windowless maze of partitions a little more bearable.
My own adventures in cubicle hell took place in an office too soul crushingly barren to allow such frivolities of personality like a houseplant (even the photos of flowers I kept in my cell were eyed suspiciously by the evil overlords). Fortunately, my current occupation allows me the freedom to garden and surround myself with living things (albeit at a substantial reduction in pay), so here are some tips for those left behind.
Check to make sure it is not against company policy. Believe it or not, the medical industry office I worked in prohibited personal houseplants for “health” reasons. While the objection was not well-defined, it appeared to have something to do with making sure the mold spores the air conditioning system spewed out got collected in human lungs, and not allowed to become an obvious problem. If permission for a plant is possible to obtain, make sure to remove dead foliage immediately, and keep the plant well maintained and cared for. Healthy plants can brighten an area, but a withered dead plant in a pot is a joy to none but bugs, and bacterial and fungal decomposers.
wealth hoarding is likely the most difficult step, there are other things to consider as well.
Find (or bring) enough light to grow something with. As sunlight is the cheapest and most efficient way to light plants, I think a good light solution would be to use the windows in the southwest corner offices for plants. Unfortunately, that’s generally the location used as a reward office for management, even though the extra heat such offices receive often makes it the least desirable of the four corner offices to inhabit. Consider any available natural lighting for use, even if you still need supplemental lighting. If the plant will be out in the open, use a more natural looking light such as fluorescents, or a small metal halide might be the best bet. An advantage to using fluorescent lighting in an office setting is that since many offices are lit with them, there is a familiarity to the lights that can make them more palatable to others. T5 fluorescent lights are available in various sizes, from a single 2’ bulb fixture, to large arrays of bulbs for more intense lighting, and probably the best choice for a small office shelf of plants. Metal halide lamps generally give off a bluish colored
“MAKE SURE TO REMOVE DEAD FOLIAGE IMMEDIATELY”
While convincing Human Resources that having a plant with you in your pen will not impinge on the pursuit of the CEO’s
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GREEN OFFICE I GARDEN CULTURE “AN ADVANTAGE TO USING FLUORESCENT LIGHTING IN AN OFFICE SETTING IS... FAMILIARITY”
light that is also generally considered pleasant, but requires a ballast. This is perhaps more equipment than is suitable for smaller cubicle spaces.
“BE REALISTIC WITH YOUR ABILITIES AS A GARDENER AND THE OFFICE ENVIRONMENT”
High pressure sodium light is a popular choice for indoor gardening in general, but the orange light is not the most pleasant to work under and they need a ballast. Light emitting diodes used for plant growth often have an unusual cast to the color of the light (since they often have little to no green in them). However, LEDs may be useful if you’re using the inside of a filing cabinet or other closable container as a garden space.
Select the right sort of plant. Be realistic with your abilities as a gardener and the office environment. Cacti and succulents do well in areas that have lots of light and heat, but little access to water, or receive infrequent watering. Such low maintenance plants often do well even in conditions of neglect, and tend to bounce back well from overly dry conditions. Select a variety with soft or no spines to avoid accidental skin punctures, Jade being a popular example, or Aloe for those that don’t mind the thorns.
If a little daily fussing is more your style, consider starting sprouts (such as radish or bean), wheat grass, or other easy to grow greens. If space and conditions permit, a small cherry tomato plant is satisfying and tasty to grow. These sorts of plants offer a source of snacking along with adding a little color to your space.
Ivy type plants, such as the Philodendron, are popular office plant choices, that tend to perform well, but are also poisonous. Although not required to be labeled as such, many decorative and ornamental plants are poisonous, so either keep such plants away from children, pets, and unsuspecting visitors, or better yet - plant only mildly toxic or nontoxic plants. Look up perspective plants before purchase. Common poisonous plants include foxglove, some lilies, tulips, chrysanthemums, English ivy, peace lilies, and pothos. Safer alternatives include African violets, true bamboo, banana trees, and Boston ferns.
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GREEN OFFICE I GARDEN CULTURE
“IF SPACE AND CONDITIONS PERMIT, A SMALL CHERRY TOMATO PLANT IS SATISFYING AND TASTY TO GROW” Although the scent may pose problems if the neighboring stall is too close, in offices that have doors that close, aromatics are a delightful way to brighten work days (HR regulations permitting). Choosing dill, mints, or other pleasant smelling plants to grow, with a simple bruising of a leaf you can freshen fingertips and partake in the occasional aromatherapy moment.
the plant for a couple of days. It’s important not to allow the solution to stand for too long or it will release its suspended oxygen and become stagnant, leading to drowned plants, and/or the wrong sort of bacterial growth. Capillary action helps to distribute the nutrient solution throughout the media in this sort of passive hydroponic system. As long as the media has exposure to nutrient solution, the media will use wicking action to supply the roots. In either case, make sure that the plant will get proper drainage, and that a saucer or tray will catch any runoff. Use care when watering, since spills can happen anytime liquids are present, and offices are traditionally inconvenient places to spill in.
SIMPLE IS OFTEN THE BEST, AND SAFEST SOLUTION
For those with a bit more space, there are several trees and bushes that respond well to bonsai-type techniques such as root/branch pruning, training, and keeping restricted by container size. Neem trees are drought tolerant, and easy to keep small by pruning and root trimming. To trim roots for stunting, remove about one-third of the roots, and replant in the same container with fresh media.
Choose the growth media and container wisely. Using a quality indoor potting soil is the most comfortable choice for many who have had prior experience with it. It is also the most forgiving of minor mistakes. The main drawbacks being that it is more attractive to soil laying bugs, and prone to over watering. As an alternative to potting soil, consider trying perlite (or a perlite and coir mix). While not as forgiving of errors as potting soil, the experience is similar to a fast drying soil that requires nutrients. Perlite tends to have less trouble with soil laying insects, and is more difficult to over water, but the only nutrients available are those added, and it requires watering more often. Dry perlite also floats, which can take some getting used to. You can leave enough water (or nutrient solution) in the tray to water
Self-contained growing systems are available, from simple self-watering pots (handy for weekends and vacations), to automated self-contained hydroponic systems (for the more adventuresome). Be aware that active hydroponic systems use pumps to run, so there is a noise element to contend with that is not an issue with hand watered or passive systems. Active systems also tend to make spectacular sprays of nutrient solution under certain types of component failure. While there are clever tabletop implementations of each type of hydroponic method, simple is often the best, and safest solution. Although not nearly as neat, fast, or trendy as growing virtual plants online with mouse clicks, growing a plant or two in the real world can be a rewarding experience, and a reminder that outside those bleak grey walls, life does continue to exist. 3
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BY BEN GREENE
cultivating
with your
y t city i c
28
odes c g n i n an l p d l o “ ent m p o l e v and de re a s e c n ordina g...” n i g n a h y c l d i p a r
URBAN FARMER I GARDEN CULTURE “City permits are often a tangled web of restrictions and requirements” Many urban farmsteaders look at the needs for their plants and access to an eager local population of foodies as priorities when searching for a site in their city. But urban farmers have a great obstacle that rural farmers don’t have to contend with, a devilish nightmare called municipal governments. It’s very important to consider city regulations when planning your farm because codes and development ordinances often will shape the way your farm operates, looks, and what you can produce. A good place to start when planning your urban farm is to search the internet for press releases that announce changes in the code or development ordinance. In the past 6 years, there has been a huge push by municipalities across the nation to encourage urban farming, and as a result old planning codes and development ordinances are rapidly changing. Specific changes to look for are notifications of changes in how produce stands are defined, growing chickens, small livestock, beekeeping, and where in the city farming is allowed.
A major advantage that urban farmers have over rural farmers is easy access to customers and directly marketing your products to them. However, many cities do not allow you to grow food and sell food on the same lot, because cities often categorize selling as a separate industry than agriculture.
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Distributed in the UK by:
URBAN FARMER I GARDEN CULTURE “The doctor can bury his mistakes, but an architect can only advise his clients to plant vines.”
The second one? Borrow If you do have restrictions on selling your produce at your some wisdom from the great “Farm structures farm, you do have options. architect, Frank Lloyd Wright: have to contend One is to create a mobile “The doctor can bury his with an market out of a trailer, mistakes, but an architect converted bus, or the back can only advise his clients to onslaught of plant vines.” Trellised vine of a pickup. Mobile markets code issues” are often not under the crops around your structure jurisdiction of the planning will take it out of the view of department. As an added the street and also provide a bonus, they do not have to cover that is agreeable to most development ordinances. contend with building codes How about a suburban farm? as long as the mobile market is a licensed vehicle. You Locating just outside the city may also offer home delivery limits can open a lot of options through a subscription on for you. For starters, many your website. Home delivery government farm programs is a very popular trend among fall under the USDA Rural Development. Farming inside city limits sometimes urban farmers who don’t have the time to stand for disqualifies you from these programs that could hours at a farmers’ market or produce stand. Farm structures have to contend with an onslaught provide helpful loans and grants. Many states offer of code issues. If you’re looking to locate a shipping certified roadside stand programs that often provide an container or cheap shed on your farm for storage, exemption from building codes, which could be useful you may run into issues with the aesthetics of the if you don’t want to worry about the energy code, or structure coming under scrutiny from the city providing a public restroom. City permits are often a tangled web of restrictions and administration. There are two sure-fire ways to get around this. requirements. Take care when choosing your site, and The first is to locate the structure on a part of look for obstacles in city ordinances that may hinder your property that is not within view of the street. your growth in the future. 3
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t n i
“ANCIENT ROMANS THOUGHT EATING MINT MADE YOU SMARTER.�
M
Cool, refreshing Mentha has graced herb gardens for thousands of years. There are 10 mint common hybrids, all of which prefer cooler climates, and soil with consistent moisture.
Crop Biography Named after a rather fetching Roman nymph, Minthe, who caught the fancy of Pluto, the god of death. Upon discovering the dalliance, the enraged Persiphone turned her into a ground hugging plant. The Queen of The Shades wished her belittled and trod upon. The plot backfired - mint was very valuable to the ancient world, and globally through the ages.
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BY TAMMY CLAYTON
M INT I GARDEN CULTURE Grow Your Own Series “EATING MINT KEPT ONE’S TEMPER IN CHECK DURING THE MIDDLE AGES”
...USED FOREVER TO CURE WHAT AILS YOU...
PERKS & BENEFITS Peppermint tea has been used forever to cure what ails you. It’s not just folklore. Even modern healers regard mint as a stimulant and tonic, among its many other benefits. The herb continues to hold immense value for its aromatic, culinary, and healing qualities. Mint tea has antiseptic and antibacterial qualities. Consumed on a regular basis It’s a good blood cleanser, herbal mouthwash, natural diarrhea remedy, antiseptic, and helps to combat acne or blemishes. A massage with oil infused with bruised spearmint and peppermint leaves offers relief of migraines and aching muscles. Adding peppermint oil to lotions helps reduce pain and sensitivity. Strong mint oils also have anti-inflammatory, analgesic, and anesthetic properties for temporary relief of an infected tooth. It’s a good herbal remedy for swollen gums, mouth ulcers, mouth thrush, bruises, and swollen joints. Revitalize skin and clean pores with apple mint and spearmint in a facial steam. Gauze pads wetted with peppermint tea to minimize dark circles under the eyes or refresh them on days you wake up not well rested.
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“EARLIEST RECORDED HEALING PROPERTIES...1550 B.C.” RECOMMENDED VARIETIES Some types of mint have greater concentrations of menthol valuable for essential oil used in commercial products and pharmaceuticals. Others are more palatable for eating.
Apple Mint (Mentha suaveolns) Perfect for culinary use and tea. Lovely flavoring for drinks, sauces, jellies, fruit and meat dishes. Hairy leaves make a poor garnish. Variegated version is called Pineapple Mint.
Scotch Mint (Mentha x gracilis) More variegated and golden than other mints. It’s also known as Ginger Mint and Scotch Spearmint. Commercially, it is found in chewing gum, toothpaste and pharmaceuticals. Popular fresh garnish and fruit dish seasoning.
Spearmint (Mentha spicata) More mildly flavored than Peppermint. Used in teas, chutneys, salads, desserts, for seasoning vegetables, and more.
Blue Balsam Mint (Mentha x piperita) A strong flavored hybrid often used for tea, culinary, aromatherapy, and cosmetic applications.
Candy Mint (Mentha x piperita) Along with true peppermint, this is commonly used to flavor chewing gum, oral health products, and medicines. Valuable all around culinary herb too.
Chocolate Mint (Mentha piperita piperita) As rich looking as it tastes, the dark leaves with brown veins offer big chocolate flavor laced with refreshing mint. Divinely aromatic. Perfect for teas, iced drinks, syrups and desserts. Harvest before flowering to avoid bitter leaves.
Egyptian Mint (Mentha niliaca) True biblical mint. Strongly flavored, and very aromatic. Used for tea and cooking.
Ginger Mint (Mentha x gentilis) Distinctive flavor. Delicious tea, and fruit or vegetable seasoning. Gold variegation makes a beautiful garnish. Dried leaves are used in potpourris.
Orange Mint (Mentha aquatica ‘Citrata’) Heavy scented, and also known as Bergamot Mint and Eau de Cologne Mint. Used fresh in beverages, vinegars, salads and desserts, and as a garnish. The distilled oil is used in making perfumes and Chartreuse liquor. Lime Mint has a slightly different flavor popular in Middle East cuisine and teas.
Peppermint (Mentha piperita) The classic flavoring and fastest growing. It has the highest menthol content and is used in making many products and medicines. A strong disinfectant just as at home in recipes and herbal remedies.
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WHEN CAN I START… AND HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE? True mint plants are sterile and not grown from seed. You can start mint cuttings when healthy plants are available to purchase, which is usually in spring. Take tip cuttings just below a leaf node from non-blooming stems about 4 inches long using super sharp shears. You don’t want to crush the stem end. Remove a leaf or two from the bottom, and snip off the immature set of leaves at the tip. Dip the cut end in rooting hormone before inserting it into rockwool cubes. It takes 1-2 weeks to get your cuttings rooted nicely in hydroponic starter cubes. Finishing the crop can be done in slabs or directly in the NFT trough. You can expect the first of unlimited harvests after transplant to be 4 weeks in summer, and 6-7 weeks in winter. Mints are perennial, and continue to produce future yields off the same roots. Prefer using traditional potting methods? Start your cuttings in a glass of plain tap water. You’ll have new roots in less than a week. Let it sit a few more days, and new stems start forming at the leaf nodes. Use quality soilless mix that has excellent moisture retention with good drainage for potting. Remember that mint hates dry feet.
WHAT DO I NEED? Both HID lamps and compact fluorescents running 14-16 hours a day will provide ample light for mint. Poor conditions and weak light make it prone to develop rust - an incurable and highly contagious plant disease. Do not buy plants with yellow or brown spots on either side of the leaf. If you find it on plants in your grow space, remove and destroy the plant immediately.
M INT I GARDEN CULTURE
The sweetest flavor and heaviest oil yield comes from warm days and cool nights. No special nutrient requirements here. A standard NPK hydroponic nutrient can be used. Their preferred pH range is 5.5-6.5. Maintain day temps of 75-80°F, nights at 55-60°F with 75-80% humidity in summer for rooting and vegetative stages. You want lower humidity in the winter to prevent leaf mold. Use liquid or slow release fertilizer in traditional container growing. Heavier feeding results in more abundant top growth. Be sure to maintain air humidity and keep the roots moist, but not waterlogged. Your yield will not be as high as plants grown hydroponically.
HARVESTING TIPS A mint plant can produce harvests for up to 15 years. If you’re growing it indoors using traditional potting methods, you will need to divide and repot periodically to maintain good vigor over such an extensive time. Root bound container plants never perform at optimums, and keeping media moisture present becomes difficult when root mass is greater than the amount of media. For the best flavor, harvest mint leaves in the morning. Never cut in excess of two thirds of the plant’s height. Hydroponic NFT system harvest yield should be 2-3 pounds per 5-feet of trough in summer, and lower in winter at 1-2 pounds per 10-feet.
The Perfect Mojito The secret to a truly great mojito contains 5 letters. FRESH. Freshly picked mint steeped properly in simple syrup. Ingredients: • 1 cup sugar • 1 cup water • 2 handfuls fresh mint leaves • 1.5 - 2 ounces of light rum • 1/2 lime • Club soda or water • 10 Easy Steps: • Simple Syrup • • • • • • • • • • •
Mix the water and sugar in a saucepan. Bring to a boil. Stir for about 1 minute to dissolve all sugar. Turn off the burner. Add 1 handful of mint leaves. Steep for at least an hour. Strain and chill well. Mojito Tall glass. Pour in 1 oz. of your fresh mint syrup. Add a handful of mint leaves, and muddle it together with a spoon or muddler. Add crushed ice. Muddle some more. Pour in the rum. Squeeze in the juice of half a lime. Add a splash of club soda and stir. No soda on hand? Use water. Garnish with a sprig and slice of lime.
CULINARY OR HEALTHY INSPIR ATION Restaurants don’t give you after dinner mints for breath freshening. It’s to aid digestion, a practice that has been in use since ancient Rome. Many delicious recipes from around the world feature mint in fresh, dried or extract form. You will often see it paired with lemon, and used in everything from entrees featuring fish, lamb, or chicken to fruit or vegetable dishes, salads, sauces, desserts and beverages. Mint jelly is simple to can, and always have on hand. Fresh mint is necessary for whipping up a proper Limonana, Mint Julep, Mojito, and the best tasting Creme de Menthe liqueur you’ve ever had.
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M INT I GARDEN CULTURE
DIY Essential Mint Oil 1,001 BENEFITS & USES
There are more reasons to keep mint oil on hand than you can shake a stick at. Good tasting stuff that’s valued for just about anything. Google “uses for essential mint oil,” and you’ll see just how much it can do for you. Save your hard earned cash. It’s a cinch to whip up your own using commonly available items.
• • • • • • •
473 ml Canning jar 354 ml Vodka 113 gr Fresh Mint Leaves, minced Cheesecloth Funnel Sharp knife Glass storage bottles
Pour the vodka and minced mint leaves into the jar. Cap it, and shake well. Place the jar in a dark area. Shake it every few days. Curing time is 6 weeks. When your brew time has completed, pour the jar’s contents through a funnel lined with cheesecloth into a clean glass jar. Gather the remaining leaves in the cloth, and squeeze out all captured extract they are still holding. Fill your glass storage bottles. Check that the caps are on tight so no evaporation occurs. Store your essence of mint in a cool dark place. Since mint essential oil is measured in drops, storing it in glass dropper bottles makes it much handier to use. Three of these 118 milliliter bottles should store your yield. 3
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SEALING I GARDEN CULTURE
“FOOD RIPENS AS A RESULT OF OXYGEN EXPOSURE.”
Sealing In Freshness Every time I harvest something there’s usually more than I can eat in one go or keep fresh. The daunting question then is what to do with it. Put it in a jar? Freeze it? Give it away? Dry it? Well, there’s another option I’d like to add to that list, vacuum sealing.
Advantages of Vacuum Sealing Vacuum sealed foods will last longer than other storage methods, aside from canning. Regular plastic wrap, foil, zip-lock bags, and even air tight containers cannot preserve foods as well as vacuum sealing. Besides lasting longer, they also taste fresher, and the structure of foods (for example, vegetables) feels better in your mouth than with other storage methods. You can save money and time with this preserving method, because the food you grow will not go to waste.To realize just how possible this is, you need to understand the science behind vacuum sealing.
Why Vacuum Sealing Works Better Food ripens as a result of oxygen exposure. Fruits, herbs, vegetables, and meats will begin to spoil after a certain amount of time, because they’ve been exposed to the air. Often mold and bacteria will develop, leaving the food undesirable, because of the change in odor, color, and texture of it. Sometimes bacteria can develop without air, but mold does not develop without a healthy supply of oxygen. When you vacuum seal your food, what you are actually doing is removing the air and oxygen from the bag. Without air, mold and some bacteria are unable to live or grow. Over time, however, the food you store might spoil if it is not refrigerated or frozen. If you vacuum seal your food while it is very fresh, and store it appropriately, it will last longer than if you had used another storage method.
vacuum sealer is pretty expensive, it’s almost solely used by professionals like chefs, and the food industry. So, for this article I’ll focus on the non-chambered version. The biggest difference in usage is that non-chamber units cannot vacuum seal liquids.There’s a way around that limitation. To package liquid items, first freeze them into a solid form. They can then be vacuum packaged and stored in the freezer to maintain the frozen state.
YOU CAN SAVE MONEY AND TIME WITH THIS PRESERVING METHOD
How Does Vacuum Sealing Work? Actually it’s pretty easily explained. By sucking out all the air the vacuum sealer creates a vacuum and then it seals it. Pretty simple huh? It vacuums, and it seals. The technology behind it is a little bit more complex. There are 2 types of vacuum sealers on the market, the nonchambered and the chamber vacuum sealer. Since the chamber
Vacuum Sealing is Easy!
It just so happens that I got sent a vacuum sealer from our friends at SousVide Supreme while researching another article on vacuum cooking, which you can read in this issue. Some brands of vacuum sealers for home use aren’t that great, but I can definitely More info on vacuum sealers? recommend that www.sousvidesupreme.com one since we’ve used it extensively over the last month. You don’t need to become an expert to use a vacuum sealer. It’s as simple as placing your produce in bag, place the open side of the bag in the machine, and press the vacuum/seal button. 3
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BY TAMMY CLAYTON
ORGA N IC COMPOST C R E AT I N G R I C H S O I L All organic matter naturally decomposes into compost, be it from plants or animals. In some countries, compost from strictly plant materials is known as green manure. Animals of all sizes, fish, birds, worms, rodents, bugs, and even microscopic organisms eat different parts of plants. Whether dropped by a plant or an animal as waste, at the end of the natural cycle, we have this soft, rich soil that garden plants adore. It’s exactly what you find as topsoil on the forest floor.
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ORGANIC COMPOST I GARDEN CULTURE
IT’S WONDERFUL STUFF FOR YOUR GARDEN, AND MAKING IT AT HOME HELPS TO REDUCE OUR CARBON FOOTPRINT
COMPOST IS NATURE’S WAY OF PROVIDING THE SOIL WITH NUTRIENTS, AND AN ORGANIC SLOW-RELEASE FERTILIZER
You can buy compost by the bag in any garden center. Bagged compost is a commercial product, and the result of creating profit out of waste that would otherwise increase operating costs for waste removal companies and landfills. It does make more sense to recycle organic waste as a soil amendment or natural fertilizer than to bury it. You could save a lot of money if you stop paying a trash service to haul away your yard and kitchen waste, only to pay them handsomely to buy it back again! Anyone can make compost. It’s wonderful stuff for your garden, and making it at home helps to reduce our carbon footprint. It takes a lot of fuel to make commercial compost available to you: collecting it, processing it, packaging it, shipping it, and getting it home... once again. Still if you’d prefer the convenience route of just buying it, being labeled as ‘compost’ doesn’t have anything to do with the content’s quality. You don’t know what’s in the bag. Commercial compost is fast and easy, but don’t lose site of the fact that it’s just a means of handling waste and garbage more profitably. Don’t buy it blindly. Make sure it is richly colored, contains no big chunks of trash or not yet decomposed ma-
terials and that it has a soft, earthy smell. You would be wise to get a soil analysis from the manufacturer too. There is also the possibility that residual herbicides and other chemicals are present in commercial compost.
HOW COMPOST WORKS Good, rich soil isn’t always plentiful. Compost can do much for improving soil quality in the outdoor garden. Worked in deep over several years, it can build up sandy soil, making it very productive with good moisture retention. The same practice on heavy clay can turn rock-hard ground into a loose, fertile garden space with drainage. You can repair over-worked soil with compost too, as it is full of important nutrients. This is why farms plant cover crops, and till them into the fields, to replenish the soil’s productivity and humus content. They grow their compost on the spot. Compost is nature’s way of providing the soil with nutrients, and an organic slow-release fertilizer. All essential nutrients that allow plants to thrive are in compost. Working it into your garden delivers a slow and steady source of the beneficial elements your crops need. It’s also heavy on humus that serves several roles in making soil good for growing beyond it’s fertility. It improves
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COMPOST CREATES HEAT. IT’S A NATURAL PART OF THE DECOMPOSITION PROCESS. YOU HAVE TO LET THE MIDDLE OF THE PILE GET TO A TEMPERATURE OF 71° C.
soils by increasing air flow, its ability to absorb and retain moisture, along with maintaining a happy middle ground for drainage and workability. All of this increases your garden’s vigor, and improves plants’ immune system. The result? Incredibly robust plants and higher yields.
M AK ING YOUR OWN COMPOST You have a choice of a simple compost pile, or using an enclosed bin. There’s minimal cost with both, but a pile is usually free. Additionally, it takes water to make compost, and an open pile will readily absorb rain. In a closed composting barrel, you have to add the water. Compost piles smell and attract animals, plus they are messy looking. However, turning your organic waste during the decomposing process is much easier in a pile than an enclosed container. They do make handy composting barrels that rotate easily, but they aren’t cheap. There is also the upright box option with a roof or lid. This will keep the smell inside, stop marauding animals, and will look much nicer to everyone who can see your compost area. Enclosed like this though, you don’t want to forget about adding water, and turning it now and then. Compost creates heat. It’s a natural part of the decomposition process. You have to let the middle of the pile get to a temperature of 71° C. The temperature of compost also kills off harmful pathogens. At first your compost pile will be fluffy and cool. As the temperature rises inside, the process begins, and everything starts packing down. On top of water, the waste also needs air, as oxygen triggers the process too. You’ll need a shovel or pitchfork to turn a pile, and it is a bit of work. Containers need flipping too. Heavy as they are, it’s the only way to restore the airflow to complete the process. At least with a barrel, you can roll it around.
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COMPOST INGREDIENTS Use both green and dried materials to create compost. Mixing them will give you the best results, and faster compost. Precise measuring isn’t needed, but generally one part green to three parts dried waste is perfect. You’ll get far more smell with higher amounts of green matter. Your compost will take longer to finish if you add too much dried stuff. Now for the ‘recipe’...
C OM P OST R E C I P E GREEN STU FF • • • •
Kitchen scraps - no meats or fish. Coffee grounds and tea bags. Lawn clippings and fresh green yard waste. Fresh manure - chicken, rabbit, sheep, goat, horse or cow.
D RY STU FF • • •
Dry leaves and cornstalks. Sawdust and wood chips. Old hay and straw.
ORGANIC COMPOST I GARDEN CULTURE
WHAT I S
C OM P OST TEA? Compost tea is an aerobic concentrate of beneficial microbes, and actually contains a denser population of the beneficial microbes than stand alone compost! Many progressive gardening stores make fresh compost tea weekly that you can buy. They use compost, earthworm castings, and additives to feed the microbes, and brew it in an actively aerated, de-chlorinated reservoir for at least 24 hours.
This is aerated compost tea, which is more powerful than the classic version created by steeping compost, worm castings, and/or manure in a bucket of water. The old way pales in benefits comparison. Once removed from the active aeration, you have four hours to use the tea by either watering it into the soil, or as a foliar spray. If you refrigerate it within four hours it can remain aerobic for about a week. After that it must be disposed of. You can also “cut” it with water by up to a 1:5 tea to water ratio. Although no bad effects have been observed in its pure form, many gardeners choose to stretch the goodness over a larger area.
MANY PROGRESSIVE GARDENING STORES MAKE FRESH COMPOST TEA WEEKLY THAT YOU CAN BUY. THEY USE COMPOST, EARTHWORM CASTINGS, AND ADDITIVES TO FEED THE MICROBES
The most advanced method of making aerobic compost tea is vortex brewing, which adds a third dimension to the process, and increases the benefits. Vortex brewers aren’t cheap, but you just might find a hydro shop not far away that sells this form of compost tea fresh in gallons. If you can’t find a shop nearby that sells fresh aerobic compost tea, check with the area garden centers. Some of them will be brewing this organic wonder juice too. Live too far from any place to buy it? You can make your own aerobic tea brewer with inexpensive, easy to obtain items. Learn how to build one here: gardenculture.net/nutrients/make-your-own-aerobicworm-tea-brewer-1494
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BY STEPHEN
O R G A N IC - M A DE OF, DER IV ED FROM, OR R EL ATED TO LIV ING ORGA NISMS
GARDENING BASICS
What is unique about organic gardening? An organic gardener utilizes unadulterated natural substances and uses carbon as a main ingredient for plant nutrition. Nothing synthetic is used whatsoever in this all natural methodology. When a gardener grows organically, he mimics what has been observed in nature; it can sustain itself with no interference from humans. Decaying organic materials will all eventually have a metamorphosis into a form of carbon. Carbon is commonly known as the “building block of life”. The carbon byproduct is named humus. Humic acid is a well known additive in organic world. Humus is one of the main foods for the members of the soil food web.
What is the soil food web? The soil web is comprised of a complex variety of microscopic organisms. These organisms are mainly earthworms, protozoa, mycorrhizae (beneficial fungi), nematodes, and beneficial bacteria. A good handful of healthy soil can contains from the tens to the billions of these symbiotic creatures. They eat humus (carbon), other carbohydrates and proteins (exudates), and even each other! The roots release these exudates in their night time cycle. They all colonize mostly in the roots rhizosphere competing for the exudates.
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What is the rhizosphere? The rhizosphere is the slim area of soil around the roots that is inhabited by the soil food web, and receives the secretions and exudates the roots let off at night. In organic gardening, the rhizosphere helps to give last minute processing to nutrients with the help of the food web. The food web retains much of the nutrient so it is not immediately lost as is the case in hydroponics. Think of the rhizosphere as a screen to catch, and filter out the nutrient before it passes through in the water. The rhizosphere also is the first line of defense from disease, pathogens, and bad microorganisms before hitting a plant’s root zone. The rest of the soil outside of the rhizosphere is called the “bulk soil”.
I have good soil. How do I get the food web alive and thriving? Chlorine and chloramines: One of the biggest mistakes novice gardeners make when starting organic farming is using tap water that is saturated in chlorine and chloramines, or mixing in synthetic components with organic counterparts. Chlorine and chloramines kill the soil food web on contact! If not using well water great care must be taken, either filter the chlorine out or to let the water sit 24 hours letting the chlorine evaporate. Chloramines are much more stable and a special catalytic filter must be used as regular carbon filter provides no defense against them and they will not simply
ORGANIC GARDENING I GARDEN CULTURE
AN ORGANIC GARDENER UTILIZES UNADULTERATED NATURAL SUBSTANCES AND USES CARBON AS A MAIN INGREDIENT FOR PLANT NUTRITION
THERE ARE MANY OVER-THE-COUNTER BENEFICIAL INOCULANTS THAT AN ORGANIC GARDENER CAN PURCHASE TO TAKE THE SOIL FOOD WEB INTO THEIR OWN HANDS
evaporate out. Synthetic fertilizers are sodium based, and have a drying effect on the biology. The salt-based casualties lead to the retreating of the survivors ending the natural balance and processes of a healthy rhizosphere. Nutrients and Additives: The nutrients and additives used in organic gardening are comprised of natural ingredients and components both to feed the food web and the plant itself. Popular substances used are emulsified fish, seaweed, humic acid, humus, molasses, compost and/ or compost tea, yucca extract, guano, earthworm castings, coffee grounds, bone meal, blood meal, alfalfa meal, greensand, dolomite lime, and the list goes on! Beneficial Inoculants: There are many over-thecounter beneficial inoculants that an organic gardener can purchase to take the soil food web into their own hands. Many of these inoculants contain some mixture of mycorrhizae, beneficial bacteria, trichaderma, humates, and/or kelp (seaweed). The humates and kelp serve as an instant food source for the other living ingredients. Some popular brand names for such products include: Mykos, Plant Success, Piranha, Tarantula, and Orca. Another all natural inoculant is compost.
What is compost? Compost is the quintessential representation of what happens in nature. Organic green scraps, coffee grounds, and fruit and vegetable scraps are decomposed using oxygen and water. Earthworms and mycorrhizae start to inhabit and break down the organic material in an attempt to convert it to humus which is a food source. Healthy aerobic bacteria also facilitate the chemical changes of the organic matter by converting it into heat, CO2, and a form of ammonium. The ammoniums then are converted into nitrates that are usable to the plant. Compost typically contains nutrients (mostly nitrates), beneficial microorganisms, and humus. It can also work great as a soil conditioner in the sandy soil here in Florida by adding moisture retention and increased nutrient uptake. It is important to use well decomposed compost as it will actually compete with the plant for nitrogen if it isn’t. Well decomposed compost is what gives extra nitrogen to the plant. The soil food web is well at work here! This is why compost tea is becoming more and more popular.
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Other than a regular grow/bloom nutrient, what are some popular additives? Vegetative and flowering additives can be in a liquid or granular form. Liquids have to be added more frequently and added cumulatively, while slow release granular fertilizers are added less often, and often contain traces of beneficial fungi and bacteria. Popular liquid or granular additives can help get the most out of your plant performance and soil food web:
Humic Acid: a byproduct of the decomposition of organic matter. It feeds the soil food web, and helps with the transportation of nutrients within the plant. Kelp: typically Ascophyllum nodosum in the horticultural field, kelp (seaweed) is a very popular additive due to its myriad of benefits. Ascophyllum nodosum is a north Atlantic seaweed THESE HORMONES FACILITATE EXPLOSIVE that grows almost a meter a day in GROWTH AND VITALITY. IT ALSO CONTAINS just above freezing temperatures. TRACES OF NITROGEN, PHOSPHOROUS, This is facilitated through the powPOTASSIUM, CALCIUM, MAGNESIUM, SULFUR, erful growth hormones (auxin-like ZINC, AND IRON. gibberellins and cytokinins). These hormones facilitate explosive growth and vitality. It also contains traces of nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, calcium, magnesium, sulfur, zinc, and iron. It can almost be a fertilizer on its own!
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ORGANIC GARDENING I GARDEN CULTURE
POPULAR LIQUID OR GRANULAR ADDITIVES CAN HELP GET THE MOST OUT OF YOUR PLANT PERFORMANCE AND SOIL FOOD WEB
Emulsified fish/squid:
Coffee grounds: if you make drip coffee
a cheap, water-soluble liquid that is high in available nitrogen. It also contains traces of phosphorous, potassium, and secondary/trace minerals. Plants need a ton of this to develop a toxicity and the nutrient is immediately available to the plant. Worm Castings: is “worm poop”. Digested humus and nitrogen heavy decaying matter are found in castings along with many other trace elements. Worm castings should never exceed 1/5 of the total composition of the soil. 1 to 1 ½ cups per plant of castings should be enough to sustain through vegetative growth. Take care to mix evenly in soil.
you’re in luck! Coffee grounds are abundant in nitrogen and trace elements. It is also very acidic. This can be used to treat base soil but be careful not to use to much. It also draws bacteria to the soil! Greensand: is a great source for silica, iron, phosphorous, and potassium. Greensand can be very slow releasing, so its better to treat soil or plants that will be utilized for quite some time. Rock Phosphate: is another very slow releasing fertilizer. It can contain up to 30% phosphorous giving it its moniker. Guano: the excrement of bats and seabirds from around the world. The rule usually is that the new guano is high nitrogen, while older guano is high phosphorous. As far as buying it goes, Mexican guano is high nitrogen, Peruvian guano is high nitrogen and phosphorus (allpurpose), Jamaican is high phosphorous (bulking), and Indonesian is high phosphorous (ripening). Guano can be brewed in a tea and watered in or applied as a slow release top dressing. Feather Meal: is good for compost piles or as an additive. It is high in nitrogen and releases slowly. Chicken manure may also be found in the mix. The feathers are taken from the slaughterhouse, steamed, dried out, and ground into a powder-like substance. 3
Blood Meal: this is the dried and ground blood that is recycled from slaughterhouses. It is mainly a nitrogen booster and therefore should be used in vegetative growth. It can be potent so try to add a little at a time to avoid a toxicity. Bone Meal: is ground up cow bone that is collected from slaughterhouses. It is typically phosphorous heavy and becomes more so the older the bone was at time of death. This is therefore more of a flowering additive. Bone meal can also contain lime and therefore could be a good amendment to soils with higher peat content to counteract the natural acidity. Dolomite Lime: contains respectable amounts of calcium and magnesium which are two very important secondary nutrients. The base PH of lime makes it a nice treatment for acidic soils as well.
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GARDEN CULTURE I GREEN LIGHT
BY APRIL KLAZEMA
“Green lights are used by gardeners to “see” in the dark.”
Green Fact or Light Fiction? “green light is a commonly debated topic...”
The use of green light is a commonly debated topic in the world of indoor growing. On one side of the debate are those who believe green light will hurt plants and their growth, while others firmly believe that it will have little impact at all, and then there are those who say it’s possibly beneficial to plant growth. How Plants “See” Light
The Effects of Green Light
The sun is the ideal light source for plants, because it includes the full spectrum of colors, from red to violet. Plants use the entire spectrum of colors for the process of photosynthesis. However, most plants respond best to red and blue light in the grow room. The color we see when we are looking at an object is the reflected light that isn’t absorbed. This means that since we see most plants as green, they are reflecting some green spectrum, instead of absorbing this light. Pigments are responsible for light absorption in plants. Chlorophyll is their primary pigment, and absorbs very little green light. While the leaves have other pigments that do absorb green light, the primary pigment does not have this ability.
Despite plants being less sensitive to green light as energy for growth, in nature they are exposed to green light from the sun. Obviously, green light is not harmful, but is only helpful to the growth process when used in the full spectrum lamp. Hanging a green light will not benefit the growth of your plant.
“Chlorophyll is their primary pigment and absorbs very little green light.”
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Why Growers Use Green Light Green lights are used by gardeners to “see” in the dark. The new generation green LED lights have a low percentage of “white light leakage” combined with low lumens. This allows a grower can see in the grow room during the night cycle with the normal grow lights off. Using a green LED light, you can check up on your plants, perform maintenance, and other tasks without too much disturbance of the crop’s nightly cycle. A word to the wise never keep a green LED on all the time. There’s still a small percentage white light “leaking” from the bulb, which can disturb your plants’ rest. Always switch off the green light when you’re done. 3
Specialist Horticultural Products maxibright.com
BY TAMMY CLAYTON
THE
sealed room
To gain total control of your indoor growing environment, you need to take it a step further than having a grow tent or grow room. You’ve gotta have a totally sealed space - like a food
GARDEN
storage box for the freezer. When you have holes and cracks, air and light leaks in from outside the garden. This makes it impossible to manipulate and
“IN A SEALED GROW SPACE YOU’VE GOT EVERY ASPECT OF YOUR PLANT’S NEEDS COVERED”
customize the optimum conditions for your plants. A sealed grow space isn’t the least expensive approach, but it is what you need for the ultimate harvest.
YOU WILL HAVE EXPLICIT CONTROL OF HUMIDITY LEVELS DAY AND NIGHT 365 DAYS A YEAR WITH A SEALED GROW ROOM.
WATER COOLED CO2 GENERATOR
PROFESSIONAL SEALED ROOM GARDENS
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SEALED ROOM GARDEN I GARDEN CULTURE
“YOU’VE GOTTA HAVE A TOTALLY SEALED SPACE LIKE A FOOD STORAGE BOX FOR THE FREEZER.”
Wait a minute! Surely temps will soar with Wondering about “THE BEST WAY TO these lights blasting sunshine up to 18 hours humidity being an PROTECT YOUR GARDEN issue? True, your a day. Not to worry, in a sealed grow space FROM NEGATIVE OUTSIDE plants in a sealed you’ve got every aspect of your plant’s INFLUENCES.” needs covered. The optimum temperature indoor garden will CO2 BUCKET range for any plant is not very wide, and continue to transpire, they don’t like radical changes. On top of the heat your grow and if left unchecked, high humidity can lamps give off - hydro pumps, HID ballasts, dehumidifiers, and invite pathogens to attack, along with a marked reduction any other equipment inside the room create even more heat. in plant growth. Standard venting is going to bring natural The solution to controlling the temperature is an air humidity in from outside the grow room anyway in most conditioner. Figuring out how much AC you need is simple. geographic locations. You will have explicit control of humidity For every 1000 watts of light power you’ll need 4000 BTUs of levels day and night - 365 days a year with a sealed grow room. cooling power. It’s not necessary to have central air installed. Using a dehumidifier that is the right size for your space will You will find a number of portable AC units designed just for take care of your humidity woes in short order. Don’t skimp. the indoor garden available. Make sure it’s a good fit. Having conquered temperature control, now One thing that will get far easier to control in a sealed you need to address your plants’ need for CO2. indoor garden is pests and disease. Of course, you still Without it photosynthesis can’t take place, have to keep the space clean, and ensure you don’t which won’t do your harvest any favors. A inadvertently carry in bad stuff from outdoors, or from standard ventilation setup will give you normal other people’s growing rooms and greenhouses. atmospheric levels of CO2, but what if your There are three ways these nightmares crop needs more? In fact, why wouldn’t you looking for a place to happen arrive in your want total control when adding CO2 ups your garden - on your clothes or skin, on your harvest by 30%? It doesn’t make much sense to add it when pet, or through the fresh air duct. Granted, the exhaust fan will just pump it out straightaway. You a well controlled environment can ward off could simply shut down the ventilation system for a bit, but some growing problems, because weakened your plants will be baking in soaring temperatures. Radical plants from radical temperature changes, change. Not good. high humidity and other things that are out In a sealed room you can add more CO2 without losing it of kilter, also invites pest and disease issues PORTABLE AIRCONDITIONING all before your crop can make use of it. So, how does one to take off like a rabbit from hell. Especially, add CO2? There are a number of ways to accomplish this if you’re not paying close attention to what’s - propane burners, natural gas burners and simple bottled going on in your garden on a daily basis. CO2. In a small grow room the bottled gas is sufficient. With The sealed grow room gives you complete control, and a a bigger room that’s running 6000 watts or more of lighting, garden free of anything that is going on outdoors. This really it is usually the burner that’s opted for to supply the required is the best way to protect your garden from negative outside 400-2200 PPM boost in CO2. influences. Growers have found great success in heightened Naturally, a CO2 burner will create a new source of heat, but efficiency using this concept for years, and it’s something your AC unit will take care of that. Something you won’t need every new gardener really should consider. Your job gets to worry about with the bottled gas, and there are also waterso much easier when you’re not battling Mother Nature, or cooled CO2 generators available. If your room is small, you other people’s need for spraying chemicals on everything in might want to add a diffuser to your bottled CO2 to deliver it their yards. Chemicals? Well yes, if your garden isn’t sealed, automatically as needed by your plants. anything floating in the air will enter. 3
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Announcing the Home Grown Expo 2014 We’re proud to co-host the next big thing in the urban gardening field. We’ve been secretly working on it for a while but now the cats out of the bag and Home Grown Expo 2014 is a fact. The event will open on Saturday the 31st of May 2014 at 10.00 am for the general public. For business owners we have Sunday June 1st reserved as a “trade-only” day.
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HOME GROWN EXPO I GARDEN CULTURE
IF YOU WANT TO CHECK OUT NEW GEAR, LEARN TECHNIQUES OR ROAM AROUND WITH LIKEMINDED PEOPLE THIS SHOW IS FOR YOU
The location
What to expect?
Finding the right location at the right date was hard to say the least. Our team has roamed all over the UK to find the perfect spot because just like in real estate, location is key. After a lot of comparisons we’ve came up with the perfect location for our first show, Coventry in the West-Midlands. It’s right in the middle of the UK and is right near the M6, M69, M45 and M40 motorways. Also for our international visitors it’s ideal, we’re expecting a couple of busloads of them, its 15 minutes away from the Airport.
Expect to see Garden Culture magazine coming to life. Expect walls with fresh plants, the top companies in the industry and of course expect Urban Gardening examples. We already have the vast majority of the floor space sold to the major brands & companies in our industry like Maxigrow, Dutch Pro, Gavita, Hesi and many more. If you want to check out new gear, learn techniques or roam around with likeminded people this show is for you. We also have several artisan food companies lined up to provide you with tasty juices, raw food and mind blowing high quality meats. Be ready to get your taste buds blown away!
The event is held in the Ricoh Arena, a stadium complex that houses the football stadium, a 6,000m2 exhibition hall, a hotel, a night club, a leisure club and a casino. The perfect location for the show itself but also for the VIP party we’re hosting on a Saturday Night.
How to buy tickets? We’re sending tickets to all hydro stores in the UK to give away to their customers for free. So ask them first. If they’re fresh out of tickets you can always go to the Home Grown Expo website at www.homegrownexpo.co.uk and enter the discount code: GCUK4 for 50% off your ticket. Last but not least check out our facebook at fb.com/homegrownexpo for raffles and other give aways.
Get your tickets now at www.homegrownexpo.co.uk
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BY TAMMY CLAYTON
THE
TRUTH ABOUT
“SUNLIGHT ISN’T SPOTTED”
Forget the marketing hype. What’s the real story with LED lighting in the indoor garden? Experts and seasoned growers tell it all.
LIGHTING EXPERT POINTS OF VIEW If you really want to know the truth about grow lights, it is wise to gather some input from people who make high quality garden lighting. These are the guys who find solutions to light issues in the grow room or greenhouse. It’s those solutions that put them in business, and keeps them providing you with the gear it takes to succeed in energizing your plants.
surface at a certain distance. LED light is very directional too, with poor intensity spread - like a flashlight. It also doesn’t blend nicely, and well... sunlight isn’t spotted. It delivers the same spectrum levels smoothly and evenly. There are certain colors of LEDs available that are as efficient, or even more efficient, than HID lamps. However, not all colors are evenly efficient and specifically not the white LEDs Here’s what horticultural lighting expert had to say from a which provide a wide spectrum. Basically, they are just blue or manufacturer and marketing point of view: near UV LEDs which have a phosphor coating, so actually they “For a long time the market has been literally fooled by manufacturgive indirect light just like a CFL. ers who say that you can replace HID lighting with much lower wattStill, Tekstra says that LEDs have merit in certain applications. age LEDs. You might remember the red On top of growing greens and let“ L EDS H AV E M ER I T and blue LED UFO lights, where 200W tuce, they’re great for conserving of LED would be able to replace 600W space by layered growing of young I N CER TA I N of HPS. Most of the fixtures were based plants, because you’re able to have A P P L I C A T I O N S . . .” on just red and blue, while in horticulturthem close to the light. Far red LEDs al research we already know for many years that other colors such work well as steering lights to make young cucumbers stretch, as orange, yellow, and green are just as important for healthy develand to spread light into the lower regions of tall crops like opment of a flowering plant. In many cases the simple recipes of red tomatoes, where overhead light cannot penetrate as it should. and blue do work - but only for purely vegetative crops. Horticultural Growing in a warm climate? For you LEDs are a blessing as research already proved that the complete sunlight spectrum is the they don’t produce the infrared heat that ID lights create. best light for plant development, including UVA and UVB.” However, you need growing style and fertigation adjustments He also made some solid points in regards to lighting specs to overcome lowered plant transpiration. on LEDS and their efficiency. It’s difficult to measure the total More advantages are found in using LEDs in greenhouses as output as we do with other lights. LED manufacturers only supplemental light. Here they provide ‘interlighting’ between state the PPFD, which means the intensity of the light on the rows of tall crops, help increase day length, and allow pho-
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LEDS I GARDEN CULTURE
“THERE IS A REASON WHY THE PROS DON’T USE LEDS” to-periodic manipulation at a huge operating cost reduction ufacturers of quality LEDs, like Philips, makes no such claims. In over the traditional HID supplement so common in commerfact, they admit they’re still working on it. cial growing in the past. Don’t overlook the point that these The horticulture division at Philips does a lot of work with fruit situations include all available sunlight as well. Not just a sunny and greens growers, as well as bedding plant, cut flower, and window - a building that is all window. ornamental plant growing opera“ I T I S T R U E T H AT Tesla induction lighting manufacturer, tions. These businesses work with UV LEDS INCREASE Darryl Cotton, has some other inPhilips to get their supplemental sights to offer. lighting in greenhouses perfectly F L A V O N O I D S . . .” “There are certain benefits to LEDs that tuned to individual crops during can’t be found in any other technology. They emit relatively narrow the off-season. Their livelihood depends on getting things just spectrums that can be tailored to meet plant responses. The probright, and Philips configures the LED spectrum recipes plant lem is it takes a lot of diodes in different wavelengths to attempt to by plant to fit their needs. This is highly scientific stuff. Indoor accomplish what is in your plants’ overall net action photosynthetic gardening need not be this complex or costly. absorption requirements. When it takes that many diodes to get even close to meeting action spectra, there is going to be heat, fans, and the difficulty of getting all those wavelengths to blend into a uniform spectral pattern that evenly bathes the plant canopy. What diodes strive mightily to do in terms of broad spectrum, HID lights do effortlessly.” Cotton points out that this is still a developing technology, and plant lighting experts’ understanding of it changes constantly. Anyone using LEDs today is paying for the R&D as an early adapter. Speaking of research and development. Steer clear of inexpensive LED lights from China - all claiming to have the ‘best LED light ever.’ It’s all marketing hype. These lights are inferior. Man-
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GARDEN CULTURE I LEDS
“ANYONE USING LEDS TODAY IS PAYING FOR THE R&D...” “Plants like to cook in the sun” SEASONED GARDENER POINTS OF VIEW If you ask different experienced indoor growers which LED light is the best, every one of them will give you a different answer. Some might give you the name of one they claim works pretty good on most plants, while the next few will answer, “as long as all you want are leaves.” A lot of them will tell you that none of them are good. There is a reason that the pros don’t use LEDs. It isn’t just the price of the light. Here’s some quotes: “There is a ton to know about grow lighting in general, and LEDs are only one part of it. It offers some great effects, but if used as a whole, they aren’t a replacement for HID fixtures.” “LEDs simply don’t provide the required intensity to produce Good point! Not much energy would be going on in less heavy yielding plants... As far as supplemental lighting is conintense light. cerned, I can say that they seem to improve the overall quality. “Most people look to LED as an option to high wattage/high But again, they’re still too pricey even in those terms. If you’re looking for good and affordable supplemental lighting, I would temp HID systems. And there are options that work beautifully recommend just using a few high output T5s in an array of difin terms of plant yields and quality that do outperform HIDs... ferent color temperatures (Kelvin) but to find an LED panel that would be a straight option to HID that placed at near the base of the plants “A S L O N G A S A L L makes sense economically? There and shining upward into the plant YO U WA N T A R E is a reason why most people keep canopy.” L E A V E S . . .” “It is true that UV LEDs increase pumping heat into their gardens.” flavonoids and other desirable compounds. After 6 months your Is there such an LED panel available at any price? other diodes will cloud up relieving your garden of needed light, Yep. Garden pros say that Heliospectra makes an awewhile all the electricity you’re using for lighting is wasted.” some LED. Their 600 watt light even gives your garden well blended sunlight effects from dawn to dusk. You’ll need a “LEDs have great color, but lack the ability to enhance evapomortgage to put them in your grow room. The 7 spectrum transportation in plants, which aid the plant’s ability to absorb arrays developed for researchers cost £4580 each. Rumor nutrients in accelerated amounts to achieve rapid growth rates. Bright light doesn’t mean intense light. If you’re looking to keep has it that the shipping is free. temps down, use T5 HO lights, or invest in HID lighting and Hmm, maybe you should look at the new high output LEDs? exhaust to help maintain proper temps.” They’re much more affordable than Heliospectra. As one “Plants like to cook in the sun. And there’s a reason why the grow room expert puts it, “It defeats the purpose, as you majority uses HID lights, because you get such a direct sinking have high power requirements and diodes that die quickly.” The names of some witnesses who provided evidence were withof light... that by using certain hydro or nute methods, you can increase metabolism. Whereas in LED light the plant would never held to protect the innocent. 3 accept such a huge dose of nutes.”
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GARDEN CULTURE I FRESH FOODS
An amazing new discovery reveals that fruits and vegetables continue functioning after the harvest. Fresh foods are still alive. They know what time it is and perform certain behaviors, like increasing beneficial compounds according to hours of light received. Your food still follows day and night cycles. It could be at its healthiest best right before dusk in their current daylength cycle.
“Fresh foods are still alive”
your salad tracks time! “YOU MIGHT WANT TO STOP SHOPPING FOR FRESH FOOD AT 24-HOUR STORES”
Biology research at Rice University uncovered this fact while studying how the circadian clock affects natural pest fighting compounds to come to a plant’s assistance. It started with cabbage leaves, and investigating the plant’s ability to resist attack by caterpillars that feed on its leaves in the field - the very same enzymes believed to have cancer fighting benefits. This crossover benefit thing isn’t unique to cabbage. A lot of the different antioxidants and disease fighting elements in fresh fruits, vegetables, and herbs are part of their built-in pest, disease and stress resistance mechanisms. They tested average store produce that’s been picked, shipped, and stored. The researchers discovered that
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cabbage, lettuce, sweet potatoes, blueberries, and more... all respond to light. Too many light or dark hours reduces resistance production, as does constant light, or constant dark. They found that late in the day on a 12 hour light/12 hour dark schedule, resistance was twice as strong. You might want to stop shopping for fresh food at 24hour stores - there is no night cycle there. Maybe we should add a light cycle to the produce drawer in the refrigerator. The light is only on when you open the door. 3
“IT’S THE BALLAST’S JOB TO MAINTAIN A STABLE OPERATING POINT”
BALLAST PROS&CONS MAGNETIC VS. ELECTRONIC Almost every grow room has a pile of ballasts driving a bunch of lights. There’s a lot of confusion among growers about ballasts. How do they work? What are they for? What kind is best? Let’s take a look...
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BY GREG RICHTER
BALLASTS I GARDEN CULTURE
What IS a Ballast? Grow lights are usually High Intensity Discharge (HID) bulbs which take a little work to get running. Whether the bulb is a metal halide used for vegetative growth or an HPS (High Pressure Sodium) bulb used for flowering, they all require a very high voltage to ionize the material in the bulb to get it glowing and conducting electricity. This Strike Voltage can run as high as 4000 volts, and is only on for a few seconds or tens of seconds, just enough to get the gasses in the bulb glowing and conductive enough for the bulb to light.
Magnetic ballasts use a capacitor to move the current and voltage closer to being in-phase, but the net result is that with the power factor being quite a bit less than 1. The resistance of all that wire and the magnetic losses in the core, a magnetic ballast’s efficiency is going to be around 85% or so. That means it’ll take 1170 Watts of power to light a 1000W bulb, with the extra 170 Watts just heating up the room. Not exactly what we want, but easy to build and inexpensive to buy.
The good news is the only thing that ever really goes Once the arc strikes, the bulb needs to be current-limited bad on a magnetic ballast is the capacitor, which can as it warms up, and finally held at a stable operating point usually be fixed at the store where you bought it. when it’s good and hot. It’s the ballast’s job to strike the arc, limit current during warm-up, and maintain a stable Electronic Ballasts operating point once we’re up and running. Kind of like a Electronic ballasts have four big advantages over core and tightrope walker with a balance pole – it’s coil ballasts: the ballast’s job to maintain a stable oper1. Variable operating point – Elec“A MAGNETIC ating point for a naturally unstable arc light. tronic ballasts can compensate for aging BALL AST’S bulbs so that you get the same light output EFFICIENCY Core & Coil even as the lamps age. IS GOING TO Iron core inductors are a simple and cheap 2. Efficiency – Core and coil BE AROUND way to make some of these things happen. If ballasts gobble up 1100-1200 Watts to run you wire an inductor in series with your HID a 1000 Watt bulb where a good quality 85%...” bulb two things happen: First, the inductor electronic ballast will only need 1050-1100 charges up when current flows through it, and dumps all Watts. that energy when the current stops. You can get a pretty 3. Bulbs live longer – Electronic ballasts can adaptivegood-sized spark this way, and it’s the same technique we ly maintain output power levels to keep bulbs brighter use to fire spark plugs in a car. Since the AC power line for a longer period of time. You change bulbs less often. cycles 50-60 times per second, the 4. Dimming – Electronic ballasts can be dimmed, and inductor can provide us the needed some advanced designs can also drive multiple bulb high voltage for starting the arc. types and power ratings (400 / 600 / 1000). Since an inductor resists changes in current, it can also act as a current limiter and, if you choose your parts wisely, it can set the final operating point of the bulb. Not bad for a steel core wound with a mile of wire! The bad news is that current and voltage move close to 90 degrees out of phase with each other across an inductor. Power is voltage multiplied by current, and if they are out of phase you don’t get the use of all that power you’re paying for at the meter. Electrical engineers report this outof-phase condition as Power Factor, with 1.0 being perfect. You can think of Power Factor as the percentage of power you pay for that doesn’t get used by the light – a PF of 0.85 means 15% of the power you buy doesn’t do any work.
Electronic ballasts are also: • Smaller and lighter • Able to restrike a hot bulb sooner • Lower in perceived lamp flicker • Can be quieter and produce less acoustic noise As prices on power semiconductors came down in the 1990s, engineers started pushing forward with Switched Mode Power Supplies (SMPS) since a switching supply running at high frequency requires smaller transformers and inductors (the expensive parts) than an SMPS running at a lower frequency. Designs for HID ballasts have steadily improved and electronic ballasts are now a practical and accepted solution for running HID lights. A good electronic ballast has a Power Factor > 0.98, almost perfect, and runs at better than 90%
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BALLASTS I GARDEN CULTURE “ELECTRONIC B CAN BE DIMME ALLASTS D...” “A G OOD ELECTRONI C
B A L L A ST H A S A POWER S T S F A A L L C A T B O R L I > 0.98...” “CORE AND CO .. WATTS” GOBBLE.
“ELECTRONIC BALLA COMPENSATE FOR AGSTS CAN ING BULBS...”
O KEEP T N A F A S LAST NEED ’S NOT SO GOOD.” L A B A F I “ ING, THAT FROM MELT efficiency. Some advanced designs are now pushing 97% efficiency, at power factors approaching 0.995! There’s a world of difference between magnetic and electronic ballasts, and quite a difference between brands of electronic ballasts as well.
Fans One question I see a lot on the forums and hear in hydro stores is about fans. Is it better to have a fan on the ballast or not? Heat is the ending of all electronic devices and you can count on halving the life of a given device for every 18°F rise in temperature. So, a fan is good, right? Well, sometimes... Fans on electronics are like turbochargers on cars – if you can run without it, the machine will live longer. If the ballast runs cool without the fan, a little forced-air cooling will make it live longer. If a ballast NEEDS a fan to keep from melting, that’s not so good. Fans suck in dirt as well as air, and dirt makes things break. Put your hand on the ballast at full power. If it is warm to the touch and has a small fan, that’s fine. If it’s hot to the touch, or has big fans and is still hot, that’s not what we want. If it needs a fan to stay alive, it’ll die when the fan does. Cooler is always better for the life of the equipment, and for your power bill. Remember, you’re paying TWICE for all that heat: once to heat up the ballast, and again to have your air conditioning remove the heat from the room.
Electrical Noise Acoustic noise is easy to check just by listening, but electrical noise is the kind that makes pH and TDS meters read wrong. It also alerts anyone with a radio that there’s a room full of lights and ballasts next door. When the local WiFi has problems precisely 12 hours on and 12 hours off, it doesn’t take an electronic engineer to sniff out the cause!
A simple and easy test is to take a hand-held AM radio and tune it between stations so you just hear static. Turn the lights on and tune up and down the band – do you hear your ballasts blasting away? Most of them do, and it’s an easy check to make before purchasing a ballast. Quieter is better because if your ballast doesn’t interfere with your neighbor’s radio, cellphone or computer he’s less likely to give you a hard time about your garden. Electromagnetic interference (EMI) can come from ballast itself as radiation, from the lamp cord or from the power wiring. Every wire is an antenna at some frequency, and the longer your lamp wiring is, the more likely you’re going to hit the antenna jackpot. For lamp wiring, shorter is better. Conducted EMI coming down the power line is more likely to cause problems with computers than radios, but there’s not much a grower can do about it without redesigning the ballast. In our own EMI testing we found that all the electronic ballasts were noisy on the lamp wiring but the worst offenders were the ones that had conducted EMI (power line) issues.
Notes Magnetic ballasts are heavy, inexpensive and less efficient than electronic ballasts. Electronic ballasts beat magnetics in all areas of performance, but poorly designed units can make enough electrical (RF) noise to cause instrumentation issues for the grower and radio interference issues for his neighbors. A quick radio check can save a lot of trouble in telling a good one from a bad one, as can simply putting your hand on the ballast to see how cool it runs. You don’t need expensive instruments to check your ballast – just a cheap radio and your five senses. 3
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PLANT FACTS I GARDEN CULTURE
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Amazing Plant Facts
Plants Are Math Experts
Duh! 2 E=MC
Not simple stuff like addition and subtraction. We’re talking complicated equations - tricky formulas they can adjust at a moment’s notice. Plants use stored starches from daylight hours throughout the night to grow. However, they never run short and until very recently it was unknown how they made this happen. Plants can measure the amount of stored food in their cells and actually ration it out over the hours between sunset and dawn. They figure out the rate of consuming the rations by complex division. Every morning at dawn only about 5% of stored starches remain unconsumed. Researchers have studied this. They made nights longer and shorter trying to trip them up. The plants still made sure they didn’t run out. Lights were even turned on in the middle of the night. Plants just adjust their rate of processing stored food instantly to match the new situation.
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Plants Are Social
This isn’t some far out fringe idea. Plants have a secret social life. Research not only shows that plants communicate with each other, but they have a high vocabulary of various signals. They respond to the messages and meet the situHey, k o ation by changing their behavior youeeloeet! sw to fit whatever is going on. What are they telling each other? They send out alerts about bad bugs or disease moving in, changes in the environment, and more. They report discomfort and pain, communicate conditions both above and below ground, and combat competing neighbors in a unified effort. How do they talk among themselves? Chemicals, physical contact, and light emissions, or altered wavelength reflection. Makes you wonder if there are concerns about the noise level in a meadow, and if plants have a sense of humor.
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No Plant Is An Island
4
The War on Weeds
They prefer company. Plants perform better in groups than alone. They also recognize family. Some, like strawberries, maintain really close ties being connected to each Wanna other with shared roots or runners. hang out? They have found that this family thing extends to more distant relations like cousins. It’s all about survival. Plants share food and water resources. They help each other deal with enemies,and other dangers.
Why do weeds work overtime to choke out your garden? Your imported interlopers are hogging the natural resources. Plant families don’t mind sharing with siblings Grrr... gimme some space!!! and cousins, but your tomatoes and begonias? They’re illegal immigrants. The natives are in hostile mode. It’s war alright, and you started it. 3
sources:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/10134715/Scientistsfind-proof-plants-are-capable-of-complex-arithmetic.html http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/13/130507-talking-chiliplant-communication-science/ http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal. pone.0037382 http://www.mindpowernews.com/PlantsControlWeather.htm
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YOUR GARDEN I GARDEN CULTURE
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BY TAMMY CLAYTON
The longer you live, the more apparent it becomes that man is his own worst enemy. Some, through greed, lust, or an overpowering need to control everything, present the world with danger through hidden agendas disguised as benefits. Others, and this would be the majority, are so busy specializing or being entertained that they are totally unaware of what is really happening to them or around them. They have better things to do. Failure to pay attention bears a price. What you don’t know can be harmful. Like this fact: it’s okay with the EPA if you ingest glyphosate, as long as it’s not a lethal dose.
The active ingredient in Monsanto’s non-selective weed killer Roundup is government-approved as an acceptable part of your daily diet. The stuff is in everything you eat and drink. Don’t breathe a sigh of relief because you’re only eating organic foods. You haven’t escaped. No one can. Glyphosate - the most used herbicide in the world - is in the air, the soil, rain, snow, and the water supply. The Potomac River, source of tap water for 3 million people, contains alarming levels of this chemical.[1] The illhealth of the fish in the Potomac has the EPA seriously concerned. Farm and residential runoff are causing large tumors in catfish and carp - the same results reported in glyphosate lab tests with rats. There are also gender bending male bass in the river and the bay carrying eggs in their testicles. Contamination is found in well and city water all over the place. On April 12, 2013, the U.S. Geological Service published a report that glyphosate had been found in 51 streams over a 9 state area of the Midwest - an increase from just a few years ago.[2] Both the active and degraded forms of this chemical are found in surface water, municipal water, well water and no doubt bottled
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water too. A situation that is increasing, and will continue to do so with higher agricultural use for no-till and Roundup Ready crop production, along with use for residential, commercial, municipal, and public land maintenance. Testing for glyphosate in wells is sporadic, but water departments do this every year.
Less Toxic Than Aspirin In the 1980s regulations for the allowable residual levels in food crops for animals or humans was close to non-existent. Glyphosate was then deemed not harmful at 0.02 ppm on fruits, vegetables and meats, but grains being a larger part of the human diet, they set at 0.01 ppm. The original list contained 50 crops consumed by animals and people. Roundup Ready soybeans came out in 1996 and the allowable levels went up the following year, as did the number of foods listed. These changes were just in time to welcome Roundup Ready canola, and prepare for corn the following year. Levels were again increased in 2001 with over 100 foods and fodder crops now on the list. Sugar beets and alfalfa joined the glyphosate tolerant crop array in 2005. Soybeans have had an allowable 20 ppm of glyphosate
HEALTHY FOOD I GARDEN CULTURE
WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW CAN BE HARMFUL since 1996 - a major part of infant formulas and people’s Furthermore, if GMOs and Roundup Ready crops were diets. Some other alarming acceptable ppms: sunflower truly so wonderful, there would not be such an issue seeds - 85, molasses - 30, instant tea - 5, dried peas - 8... identifying them on food labeling, and no labs wouldn’t the list in the Federal Register is lengthy.[3] The ruling have failed to report a high number of lab animal deaths, applies to ag producers, food falsified data in reports, manufacturers, and chemical or been found guilty of “MONSANTO ORDERS, PAYS FOR AND companies alike. tampering with glyphoCONTROLS ALL ‘CREDIBLE’ TESTING.” As of May 1, 2013, they have sate test records.[5] once again increased the allowThe idea that non-GMO able levels of glyphosate on your plate.[4] Why would crops make food more expensive is ridiculous. Roundup they do this? Simple. Monsanto petitioned for it. No one Ready crops need more chemicals than standard variprotested. There will be more glyphosate in your food eties. Plus, the cost of production is higher, the seed effective immediately, at rates set by Monsanto to agree is more expensive and cannot be saved, weeds are bewith those filed in their petition. The EPA did not recoming immune to Roundup, and plant diseases have inquest any second opinions. creased. That’s okay though, Monsanto sells a cure for Should you be concerned? Definitely. Glyphosate-herbievery one of these issues. cides aren’t as safe as they prefer you to believe. There The reason we have Roundup Ready crops is to guarare plenty of independent studies done outside the antee that farmers buy Roundup brand weed killer. Any United States that have reported the dangers in medical other glyphosate-based herbicide will kill every plant beand science journals. When it comes to the USDA, EPA cause right along with the herbicide resistor, Roundup and FDA, wording is more important than realities, and has something the knockoffs lack. It has nothing to do there’s a revolving door between the government, these with feeding the world, it is all about corporate profit organizations, and Monsanto. and global market monopolization
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HEALTHY FOOD I GARDEN CULTURE
“FARM AND RESIDENTIAL USE OF GLYPHOSATE HERBICIDES NOW EXCEEDS 185 MILLION POUNDS ANNUALLY IN THE U.S.” Monsanto has never conducted any testing that would provide the real results of humans having a continual exposure to Roundup or glyphosate, and consuming both from birth to old age. Findings reported are vague, and even use assumptions. Carcinogenic testing has never been carried out conclusively. The EPA states that “glyphosate presents a reasonable risk to human health.” [6] If you’re going to risk your health, shouldn’t this be elective, not forced upon you? Nothing like being a lab rat in Monsanto’s world. Like it or not - we’ve been eating and drinking residual Roundup, and genetically modified organisms for decades. The worst glyphosate accumulations will have taken place since the 1996 harvest of amalgamated soybeans. The amount of glyphosate herbicides applied annually has tripled since 1997, and it’s not just Roundup. Monsanto’s patent ended in 2000, opening the doors for all ag chemical companies to produce their own version. See why it is so important that the world grow Roundup Ready crops?
A Jug of Magic Tricks Farm and residential use of glyphosate herbicides now exceeds 185 million pounds annually in the U.S. The worldwide tally in 2010 was 0.6 million metric tonnes expected to hit 1.35 million metric tonnes by 2017. It’s not all being used for killing weeds either. There is this practice called ‘crop desiccation’ recommended by Monsanto to get your harvest in earlier with the help of their miracle weed killer. How does that work? Spraying Roundup on grain fields at harvest time dries out plants so the seed is uniformly low in moisture content. The only grains farmers won’t do this with are barley and rye because it’s unsellable, breweries and distilleries will not accept it. However, just fine for food manufacturers, and it’s done to all other cereal crops. Granted there are problems when a farmer’s grain has too high of a moisture level. Many is the field left standing long into fall or early winter because the grain isn’t dry enough yet. This desiccation isn’t practiced with
ROVED AS AN “ROUNDUP... APP IET” OF YOUR DAILY D ACCEPTABLE PART
CONTAMINATION REMA UP TO 3 YEARS AFTER OINS NE APPLICATION just Roundup Ready varieties. It doesn’t matter at this point that the plant will quickly die, it’s done its job. The purpose is to dry up the green matter, and getting the harvest to market takes precedence. With the erratic weather seen globally, more and more farmers have turned to Roundup crop desiccation.[7] Not only does this increase the use of chemicals, it leaves a fresh dose of glyphosate and POE destined straight for your plate. What’s POE? Keep reading. The worst is yet to come.
Roundup More Toxic There’s a lot more to be concerned over with the use of Roundup and rival brands of glyphosate-based herbicides than the active ingredient. You see, POEs are 3 times more toxic than glyphosate... Damn - we ran out of space! There’s a lot more you need to know. Get the rest of the true Roundup story with referenced sources here: www.GardenCulture.net/non-garden-related/residentevil-2036. 3
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