Posts Tagged ‘Compost’
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Composting, Earthworms, and Biodynamic Farming
Posted on October 12th, 2011 by admin
Do you want to boost productivity of soil in your garden? There is no need to turn to expensive fertilizers and pesticides. Aside from bringing about health and environmental hazards, such products are less effective compared to natural techniques. You should start learning biodynamic farming. The concept is not that hard to understand. For quite some time, scientists and experts have been emphasizing the advantage of using natural means to take care of the soil and of plants.
Composting is one activity you should learn about. Through it, you can easily and conveniently produce natural and organic fertilizer right at your own backyard or at the garden. When into the activity, you should also recognize several important factors. First, always remember to use organic or biodegradable materials for your compost. Al things in the system must naturally and easily decompose. Second, you should encourage and promote growth and multiplication of earthworms.
Composting is best done outdoors. Vermicomposting is quite different in that it can be done either indoors or outdoors. Outdoor is still an effective means for vermicomposting. This way, the use of usual indoor worm bins is eliminated. In replacement, worm cultivation can be done using a small portion of land.
Before embarking on the outdoor vermicomposting, be sure to prepare the bedding appropriately. To do so, just put shredded fallen leaves, aged manure, chopped up straw and dead seaweed, plants, compost and sawdust. These would provide nutrients and nourishment needed by worms. Eventually, there will be richer compost. To make vermicomposting better and more effective, it would be ideal if sand would be added to soil so that additional and needed grit could be provided in aid of worms digestion.
Red worms are most ideal for outdoor vermicomposting as well. There are two types of red worms for this outdoor worm composting, namely, Eisenia foetida and Lumricus rubellus. These worms are usually found in aging manure and in compost heaps. It is not advisable to use dew worms or those large sized worms usually found in composts and soils as they would not likely survive outdoor composting.
Keep the compost bed moist all the time. You can do so by watering the area at least twice a day, one in the morning and another before night falls. To retain moisture, you can put shredded cardboard or newspaper on top of the area or heaps of hays or dried leaves. It would also be ideal if you would keep the bedding protected from possible attacks and intrusion from animals, insects and other possible predators like birds, ants and rats.
You compost would be ready after a few weeks. How do you use it? It would appear like normal soil when it is ready to be used. Just put it around your plants, the way you apply fertilizers. The compost produce should serve as a significant and wise replacement or substitution for chemicals and commercially available fertilizers. In no time, plants will be more productive and healthier than ever. Biodynamic farming is really helpful and advantageous.
Get more complete tips on Biodynamic Farming , visit: www.biodynamicfarming.getmytips.com
Related Biodynamic Gardening Articles
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How to Start Your Own Kitchen Garden Biodynamically
Posted on October 11th, 2011 by admin
Food is healthier, tastier and more satisfying when picked from your own farm or grown in your own garden. You get to eat food at freshest and choose the ones you exactly like too. Imagine growing some of your vegetables and sharing these with family or friends. The best reward is the pleasure of knowing they were grown in rich soil without chemicals or pesticides. But since not everyone can have the luxury of having their own little farm, here are some tips on starting your own Edible Garden.
1. Decide where you want to grow your vegetables. Whether you live in the lowlands or highlands will determine the kind of vegetables you can grow.
2. Ideally, a kitchen garden would be the best. It should be close to your kitchen door so it’s easy to just get what you need when you need it. If you don’t have enough space, you can grow your vegetables or herbs in between gaps in your flower beds or plant them in containers and grow them in bags. You can even use hanging baskets.
3. You need a plot that is not a slope so you won’t have a problem of soil erosion. Find a sunny spot that gets enough sun (8-10 hours of sun a day.) While it is in open spaces, you also need to make sure it is sheltered enough so it is protected from wind drafts. You might also want to make sure it’s close to a water source.
4. Start small and aim to grow more as you get more confidence. What will your family eat? How much time do you have to spend in it? A bed that is 60-90 cm wide with paths of 30 cm is a good size.
5. Your soil should be fertile, healthy soil. If you already have healthy plants growing on your soil, it should be good enough. Dig the soil, get rid of weeds and enrich it with compost before you start planting. Your soil should have rich organic matter (compost.) Our best tip is that before you plant, build your soil fertility by applying Biodynamic Preparation 500 to your soil. (We make our own but we can help you source them as well, just let us know.) The preparations bring back balance to the soil and make the soil a rich place for micro organisms.6. Make your beds square or rectangular. This allows for easier planting and weeding. Make sure you can reach the center from either side. Also make sure your taller plants will not shade your smaller plants.
We suggest you use raised beds. Raised beds are filled with clean topsoil and then compost, and then mulched. The only disadvantage is they drain fast so you would have to water your plants often.
6. Mulch the vegetable bed. This will improve your soil carbon, soil structure, help you conserve water and reduce the amount of weeding you need. You do this by placing dried plant material like leaves, clippings, twigs, or barks on top of the soil and around the base of the vegetable plants.7. You can get seeds from a garden store or from friends who have seeds. The seed packets would usually have a description. Take note of what plants are good for small spaces, disease resistant, have good yields, are tolerant. But your best resource will always be yourself after you have started planting, and gardening.
8. In the beginning, it would be good to plant several varieties of vegetables. Keep a journal and plan what seeds/plants go where. Note down what plants were resistant to pests, grew well with minimum organic fertilizer, or other aspects like taste, and storage. Take note of what worked so you know what varieties are best for you.
Lowland Vegetables you can plant (easy to take care of): Malunggay, squash, pechay, papaya, string beans, kangkong, camote tops, okra and leaf type lettuce,
Highland Vegetables you can plant (easy to take care of): cauliflower, mustard, brocolli, salad greens, chinese cabbage, radish, carrot, peas, beans, tomatoes, cucumber, pepper and the like.
9. Some vegetables can be bought from a garden center, already started. For example, you can buy herbs in pots.
10. Practice multiple cropping so you do not exhaust your soil. Multiple cropping allows for different plants with different needs to use the soil. Some plants may house beneficial insects, which the other plant needs to control pest. Multiple cropping also produces higher yields than monoculture.
Some combinations:
Beans grow well with cucumber, early potato, lettuce and carrots.
Carrot grows well with peas, leaf lettuce, and chives. Sage, rosemary, onion and wormwood repel carrot fly.
Cucumbers grow well with corn, lettuce and celery. Radish and tansy repel cucumber beetle.
Lettuce grows well with carrots.
Peas grow well with radish, carrots, cucumbers, spinach, turnips and lettuce.
Potatoes grow well with beans and peas. You can repel potato bugs by putting a border of malunggay. Garlic and marigold also helps prevent blight in potatoes.
Tomatoes like basil and parsley. Garlic can combat tomato blight. Fava beans repel tomato wilt causing organisms.
11. Practice crop rotation. This means that you do not plant the same crop in the same area between two planting cycles. For example, you can start with Chinese Cabbage, Carrots and Baguio Beans. The next planting, rotate where you planted them. Note that leaf vegetables usually do well after a legume crop. Fruit vegetables often perform well after a leafy crop. Root vegetables grow well after a fruit crop.
12. Water when the top inch of soil is dry. For in ground crops you might have to water once or twice a week. Raised beds are faster and may require watering every day. Just make sure you don’t water too much so that the soil is lumpy when you hold it.
13. Remove weeds when you have them with a hoe or a fork to lightly stir the top inch of soil. Mulching is also good.
14. Fertilizing your crops through composting is best. (SeeHow to Make Biodynamic Compost.)You do this every cropping cycle. We also hasten the decomposition of our compost by applying Biodynamic Preparation to the compost pit.
14. Harvest your produce when they are ready. Leaf lettuce can be picked as young as you like; snip some leaves and it will continue to grow and produce. The general rule: if it looks good enough to eat, it probably is. Give it a try. With some vegetables, the more you pick, the more the plant will produce.
15. Now, EAT.
By Paula Z. Aberasturi, www.downtoearth.ph and www.myflowerdepot.com
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Biodynamic Gardening in Full Throttle
Posted on October 7th, 2011 by admin
In any sort of field or competition being second is not enough. It is a strong fact that a large percentage of creatures on the planet strive hard in order to be named the best. In simpler terms its important to be on top of the food chain. Various people and inventions have outlasted the competition throughout the years one of which is an agricultural brand called biodynamic gardening and farming. Lets see what the ratings say.
There has been a wide array of research studies performed in order to graph comparisons between the performances and outcomes of various agricultural methods. The results indicate that biodynamic techniques and principles have left the competition sniffing on its dust. Both organic and conventional methods do not stand up against the soil quality of farmed areas based on biodynamic concepts. The deciding factor is actually the presence of compost. Lets peep closer.
A study was done in New Zealand farms during 1993. Reports came out with biodynamic farms wiping away the competition. It was stated that the soil had higher levels of physical and biological quality. There is a significant increase in composition and activities of microbes, higher number of earthworms, greater amount of organic matter, thicker topsoil, easier penetrability, and lower bulk density. In terms of economic aspects biodynamic farms were easily maintained and managed.
There was also a long period of study engaged in at a commercial vineyard in California. The focus was the comparison of the effects of biodynamic preparations on a certain vineyard block to another vineyard block that was tended with general organic farming methods. Further highlight and attention was given to the soil and crop quality. During the first six years of the study no significant difference was noted in the parameters that included the yield per vine, cluster and berry weight, and clusters per vine.
Nevertheless there was significant stat that attracted the attention of the researchers. There was a difference in the yield-to-pruning weight ratio with a p-value of less than 0.05. This indicated an ideal vine balance for the production of high-quality wine grapes for the crops that were treated with biodynamic preparations while those crops with general organic treatments came out as slightly overcropped. In one specific year of the study the wine grapes that were treated biodynamically showed significant boosts in Brix and notable increased amounts of anthocyanins and phenols.
An even longer study of 21 years was conducted by the FiBL Institute in Switzerland wherein a comparison of the agronomic and ecological capacities of two conventional systems, organic, and biodynamic methods were done. The study pointed out that nutrient input for biodynamic and organic systems was 34 to 51 percent lower as compared to the conventional systems and crop yield was 20 percent lower on average. This meant that biodynamic and organic systems have more capacity for efficiency in production.
The total amount of energy required to come up with a dry matter unit of crop was 20 to 56 percent lower and pesticide input was decreased by 100 percent for the biodynamic system. In aspects of humus formation, soil calcium, microbial mass, soil aggregate stability, and faunal biomass, the biodynamic system edged out even the organic system. Both the biodynamic and organic system outclassed the conventional systems during the conclusion of the study.
Biodynamic gardening and farming is a potent form of agricultural method. It is even more effective when the practitioner puts every concept into action by heart.
Get more complete tips on Biodynamic Farming , visit: www.biodynamicfarming.getmytips.com
When starting to garden in a biodynamic way it can be difficult working out what to do when. This DVD gives you the tools and shows you the techniques you need to know. Lynette West, of the Biodynamic Education Centre, shows biodynamic gardening methods to the gardeners at Garden Organic, Ryton. Learn with them the vortex to chaos stirring technique; how to make biodynamic compost and understand the biodynamic preparations; how to make and use manure concentrate, horn manure (BD500) and horn silica (BD501); how to work with the sowing and planting calendar and much, much more… The aim of biodynamic practice is to revitalise the soil and make it open and receptive to all the forces of the cosmos. In 1924, at the request of German farmers concerned about the decline in soil and animal fertility, Rudolf Steiner, an Austrian scientist, gave a series of lectures suggesting ways to work with the energies of the earth, moon, sun and planets as well as plants such as yarrow, chamomile, nettles, oak bark, valerian and dandelion to heal the earth, In biodynamics it is believed that there is nowhere quite like your garden. It has its own combination of soil, microorganisms and micro climate. Nobody else can produce fruit and vegetables quite like yours. What could be better than eating food grown in your own unique garden? ‘Biodynamic Gardening — the tools and techniques to nurture your garden’ will help you have a bumper harvest! The full length DVD is available demystified …
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D.I.Y. Wormery Manual, How to Build a Worm Bin and Make Money
Posted on February 24th, 2011 by admin
Visit SiteGo Greener this year & save yourself money by turning your kitchen waste into the best compost money can buy.
So, by using the simple methods explained in "The DIY Wormery Manual" to deal with your Kitchen waste, it not only makes good "Green" sense, but also sound financial sense.
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Aquaponics 4 You – Step-by-Step How to Build Your Own Aquaponics System
Posted on February 14th, 2011 by admin
Visit SiteBreak-Through Organic Gardening Secret Grows You Up To 10 Times The Plants, In Half The Time, With Healthier Plants, While the "Fish" Do All the Work…
Imagine a Garden Where There’s No More Weeds or Soil Pests, No Tilling or Cultivating, No Fertilizer Spreading or Compost Shredding, No Manure Spreading or Irrigating, and No Tractor Shed Required…
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Biodynamic Farming Secrets
You Too Can Use This Advanced Technology To Heal Polluted Soil, And Turn Ordinary Plants Into 'Super-Food' Loaded With Nutrients, to Heal And Sustain Your Family - I'll Teach You How, Step-by-Step, In Less Than 60 Minutes