Posts Tagged ‘Soil Fertility’

  1. First Sustainable, Organic, Biodynamic Flowers in Philippines

    Posted on October 14th, 2011 by admin

     
     

    Our goal is to tread lightly on the planet. We are mindful of the acts we do in our Philippine Flower Farm, knowing that each act of tilling, growing, harvesting and packaging, can do damage or save the planet. One of the most concrete steps we do this is through implementing. When we grow or harvest our Philippine flowers, we remove some nutrients from the soil. If we do not replenish these, the land suffers and we can no longer use the soil for farming. Sustainable agriculture means replenishing the soil while minimizing the use of non-renewable resources, such as natural gas or mineral ores. We engage in concrete steps to ensure that our Philippine Flower Farm produces flowers indefinitely, without causing irreversible damage to the health of an ecosystem. This would entail redefining our practices and processes on the soil, to produce Philippines flowers and foliage that are not only profitable but also healthy. The second is socio-economic, where we enhance the quality of life of our farm workers. Sustainably grown goes beyond organic, as organic refers only to specific chemical and pesticide free practices. Sustainability embraces a much broader perspective and deals not only with production but also in environmental and eco-system issues, and social matters such as the farm’s workforce and community.

    We have been fortunate to work with and among Philippine indigenous tribes or natives. They have worked with us imparting the wisdom and heritage of their ancestors on Philippine flower farming. These include sustainable farming techniques that rely on natural methods handed down from generation to generation by the Talaandigs; the Higaonon; and Bukidnon farmers. Alongside their wealth of knowledge on natural methods, we have merged technology and science, to implement agricultural techniques that build our Philippine flower farm soil fertility, while protecting our air, water and wildlife. We have merged and developed a deeply rooted natural system of production, pest management, and weed and fungal control. Among these:

    We practice natural methods on cover cropping, composting, and crop rotation;

    Our main source of soil fertility is legume cover crops, which provide nitrogen, micro nutrients and organic matter. We use nitrogen-fixing and leguminous plants that are native to our farm, that form symbioses with nitrogen-fixing bacteria called rhizobia. These are plants that modern farming would have otherwise deemed as weeds. The natives have taught us to use these plants as a viable source of fertilizer. Also, the cover crops provide habitat for beneficial insects, keeping pests very low. Our farm prides itself with beneficials such as lady bugs;

    Our farm has learned to rely on natural controls for soil-borne diseases and to ward off pests. Among these, we use natural insect traps, neem tree extract and beneficial bacteria and fungi to treat our soil;

    We hope to eliminate the use of toxic and persistent chemicals found in industrial pesticides and herbicides. That way, we control pests and diseases with the least environmental impact, phasing in organic products over time; and

    We have learned to follow the cycles and phases of the moon in scheduling our pest management and control, taking into account that the life cycles of these creatures that coincide with the moon’s phases.

    We embrace these practices in our Philippine Flower Farm and adopt them in our daily tilling, growing or harvesting. By relying on the knowledge handed by those whom we believe are most in tune with nature and the earth, we build healthy and rich soils to produce Philippines flowers and plants that are healthy and thriving.

    Our Philippine Flower Farm encourages careful water use, energy saving initiatives, greenhouse gas emission reduction efforts and product packaging minimization.

    Our Philippine Flower Farm infrastructure has been planned and built bearing in mind our carbon footprint. Our greenhouses are built using renewable resources or recycled material. Among these are bamboo, wooden pegs, stones, old tires, and similar materials;

    We have designed and positioned our greenhouses to ensure that we use the least amount of energy for our crops. Our buildings use natural ventilation, and rely on the strength or gentleness of winds for its natural ventilation. Thus, we eliminate the need for energy-powered fans;

    We rely on the forces of gravity for our irrigation, taking advantage of the gift of natural spring water, and use trickle- irrigation to conserve water and prevent erosion;

    Our irrigation systems do not use more water from the natural spring than is naturally replenished; and

    Our greenhouses are designed so we can harvest and utilize rainwater to irrigate our plants and treat our Philippine flowers.

    We wish to have minimal or zero waste on our Flower Farm and encourage composting and recycling of our agricultural and non-agricultural wastes;

    We recycle crop waste, weeds, twigs (almost everything!) and livestock manure for composting; and

    Packaging materials to send flowers to the Philippines nationwide are recycled and reused over time.

    Because of our efforts to use natural methods and products, and our minimal use of heavy equipment or machinery, we protect the ecosystems around the Philippine Flower Farm such as rivers and streams.

    Your flowers are the result of the dedication and diligence of a handful of farmers in Bukidnon, a number of them natives. They are led by Toto, a native from Bukidnon, whose passion for growing flowers is quite infectious. Our women team are led by Dadang, whose green thumb magically turns every plant green. Our farmers harvest the flowers at their peak freshness early in the morning. We try to get all the flowers in for processing before lunch. Early afternoon, our farmers are able to go home to tend their own farms or gardens, or play with their children. Our Flower Farm prides itself in ensuring a safe, equitable and healthy work environment. We provide our farmers with access to the principal needs. We also support our farmers and their local community through preferential hiring, purchasing, infrastructure improvements and community problem solving. We believe in balancing work and play, having passion for what we do, and celebrating the fruits of our harvest.

    Each Flower Depot bouquet is hand selected, carefully arranged, and shipped fresh from our Philippine Flower Farm, with the dedication and commitment to wholly move our farm from traditional and commercial practices to sustainable farming. We hope to transition to a sustainable, organic or biodynamic agriculture in the future. Our ultimate goal is to protect our environment and also enhance the lives of our workers, as they are free from unhealthy and toxic pesticides. By practicing sustainable farming, we hope to build a better and more sustainable future, and lighten our footsteps on the planet.

    Our farm is a happy and vibrant ecosystem. In fact, our farm is home to birds, toads, earthworms, snakes, bees and and many many more. What does this mean for your flowers? Since our flowers are grown from vibrant plants, our flowers are also healthy with rich green foliage and bright brilliant blooms.

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  2. 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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  3. The Biodynamic Gardening Fuel

    Posted on October 10th, 2011 by admin

     
     

    The mind and body of every person works in tip-top condition because they are fed with foods that provide vital nutrients. Machines complete their long list of workloads and withstand the pressures of every single task because they are appropriately powered by any of the energy forms available. Just like in the two mentioned situations agricultural methods are made possible because of certain key elements that provide for win-win opportunities. Lets take a look at the very fuel that makes the biodynamic gardening and farming machinery run to its full potential.

    The presence of humus stains on the soil is very important in ensuring favorable crop production. First lets find out what humus is. Basically, humus is a degraded organic material that can found in the soil which brings about the dark brown or black characteristic in some of its layers.

    In the field of soil science, it is referred to as any organic matter that has reached a certain point of stability in which breakdown will never take place and in unchanged condition it will remain unscathed for a long period of time. In agricultural talk humus can be described as mature compost that is naturally occurring to be extracted in sources like forests to amend soil. Moreover, it is identified with topsoil horizon that is composed of organic materials.

    Humus is usually tagged as the life-force of the soil. Now, this so-called life force can occur via a process known as humification which can take place via natural means with the soil itself or by compost production. The significance of stable humus contributes to the soil fertility both in terms of physicality and chemical components. But for some agricultural gurus its highlight is within its ability to suppress soil deterioration and plant diseases.

    Humus works in various ways. In physical aspects, it contributes to the retention of soil moisture by adding up to its microporosity and encouraging the formation of patent soil structure. In chemical terms, it facilitates easy access and absorption of plant nutrients by incorporating oxygen into large organic molecular compartments that will generate active forms of negatively charged sites that can attract positively charged ions of nutrients. In biological facets, it allows adequate and appropriate feedings of soil organisms that eventually results into good reproductive results.

    Humus is actually a complex substance having a nature that is not fully grasped within the agricultural circles. It can only be differentiated from organic matter as having a more uniform appearance of a dark, spongy, and jelly-like substance. It is amorphous in terms of structure meaning it does not possess a definite character and shape.

    Humus can also be termed as humified organic matter as in recent versions of studies and documentations it has been considered to be an integral portion of soil organic matter. However the line between humus and organic matter can be drawn by employing the services of a microscope. The view of a humified organic matter without chemical manipulation within the magnifying capacities of a microscope can showcase minute but identifiable plant-like and animal-like microbial remains which have been mechanically altered.

    Biodynamic gardening is just like its fuel. The humus, with its unique complexities enables each and every plant-loving individual to enjoy their craft and reap its rewards.

    Get more complete tips on Biodynamic Farming , visit: www.biodynamicfarming.getmytips.com

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  4. A Merrier Biodynamic Gardening

    Posted on October 9th, 2011 by admin

     
     

    It is always good to have a lot of company especially during trying times. It is also an effective practice to mix things up especially when one activity becomes too much of a routine and starts to offer boring and tiring moments. Simple food delicacies become a sumptuous festivity due to variances in color and texture. With this in mind, lets take a glance of how biodynamic gardening and agriculture in general make s things brighter and more effective via crop rotation.

    Crop rotation otherwise known as crop sequencing is the method that involves the cultivation of a series of crops that are part of different types within the same area or agricultural vicinity. This is done in sequential times or seasons to promote many benefits in crop production. One very good example is the prevention of pathogen and pest build up that is normally takes place when only a single crop type is used.

    Crop rotation also brings forth a specific balance that is very vital in avoiding the increase in the deterioration and reduction of soil nutrients. The balance can be associated with the varying fertility demands of the various crops utilized. A conventional ingredient in the success of crop rotation is the assurance of optimum nitrogen levels through the constant deployment of green manure with cereal and other forms of crops. Soil structure is also strengthened because of the presence of deep-rooted and shallow rooted crops.

    Crop rotation avoids a significant decrease in soil fertility by practicing alternate mechanisms in terms of planting. Practitioners of the method make it a point the a certain crop cultivation that leads to soil leaching of a specific nutrient is timely followed by another that does not have the same effect. One example is the practice of planting cotton after the rice season. In this manner farmers are benefited in two ways. There is no need to let the plants fallow and there is decreased demands for the usage of artificial fertilizers which ultimately results into continuous field production and economical stability.

    As mentioned above, crop rotation offers a medium for cultural control. This means that there is adequate defense against pests and diseases that can wreak havoc in every sector of the soil as well as the plants situated on it. The principle behind this is that the use of constant variation in crop types helps in placing pest population levels to a low percentage.

    Basically plants that are members of the same taxonomic family attract similar pathogens. The regular change in the planting location can also break down or limit the cycles of pest development. The root-knot nematode causes severe malfunction in plant systems that are prevalent in warm climates and sandy soils. It has a gradual build-up phase leading to high levels within the soil resulting into deterioration in plant productivity mainly because it has the ability to cut off vital plant circulation coming from the roots. Now by following the crop rotation concept, cultivating a crop that is not prone to nematodes during an initial season can aid in the reduction of nematode levels in the soil therefore the farmer is allowed to grow susceptible crops the following season.

    Biodynamic gardening and farming is an in-depth approach towards positive agriculture. Just like its buddy crop rotation practitioners must constantly devote time and heart in order to end up in successful harvests.

    Get more complete tips on Biodynamic Farming , visit: www.biodynamicfarming.getmytips.com

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  5. Biodynamic Gardening Covered

    Posted on October 7th, 2011 by admin

     
     

    In life there are certain ingredients that can lead a person or principle into success. These are constant elements that when mixed with a proper system brings forth positive results wherein a variety of benefits can be reaped. A good example is how biodynamic gardening and farming view the soil as a self-contained organism that needs constant careful manipulation to produce crops that are both good in quantity and quality. Lets take a look at one of the extensive methods used in this technique.

    Cover crop is a common character in the biodynamic scene of agriculture. It can be technically defined as any annual, biennial, or perennial plant that is grown as a monoculture or a polyculture. Monoculture means a single crop type grown together while polyculture involves multiple crop types that are cultivated together. Either way the goal for establishing a cover crop is to improve and enhance any conditions pertaining to sustainable agriculture. Moreover, cover crops offer an essential way of managing soil fertility, moisture and quality as well as battling weeds, pests, and diseases that may inhibit ideal plant growth and crop production.

    Cover crops are also fondly called as green manure. They are used in order to manipulate the levels of soil macro and micronutrients. One very good example can be seen in the country of Nigeria wherein a certain crop identified as velvet bean is commonly utilized in order to increase phosphorus soil contents upon placement of rock phosphate. In terms of looking into nutrient contents of the soil nitrogen management has gain a lot of research attention over the years. This is because nitrogen has been noted to be the most limiting form of nutrient involved in crop production.

    The green manures of the biodynamic gardening and farming commonly belong to the family known as Fabaceae or the pea group. These are the usual leguminous variations. They are incorporated into the soil via the process of tillage before even reaching their age of maturity in order to ensure that there will be improved levels of soil quality and fertility. They are the typical cover crops because they can lay out ample amounts of nitrogen which can easily compete with chemical fertilizers available in the market.

    An important trait that is unique to leguminous cover crops is their ability to communicate with rhizobial bacteria and forge a symbiotic relationship. This happens because these bacteria find homage within the root nodules of legume. These bacteria play an important role of converting biologically unavailable nitrogen gas to a version called the mineral nitrogen which is considered to be biologically available. Such occurrence is made possible via the process of biological nitrogen fixation.

    Field experts believe that biological nitrogen fixation brought about by the presence of cover crops it the sole alternative for industrial nitrogen fixation so as to boost efforts of maintaining or even increasing food production levels in the future. The latter method of nitrogen fixation has faced considerable amounts of blows from critics because of its association with fossil fuel sources thus resulting into numerous environmental infractions. Some examples of these infractions include nitrogen fertilizer elimination into waterways leading to eutrophication and hypoxia of water areas.

    Cover crops are not only important aspects of biodynamic gardening and farming. In general, they serve as means of treating the environment fairly.

    Get more complete tips on Biodynamic Farming , visit: www.biodynamicfarming.getmytips.com

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