Garden Culture Magazine: US 5

in your growroom

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USA - CAN

ADA EDITIO

N · ISSU

E 5 · SPRING

2015

GARDENCU LT U R E

USA - CANADA EDITION · ISSUE 5 · 2015

$5,95 US | $5.95 CANDisplay until 06-30-2015

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NET‘It is remarkable how closely the history

of the apple tree is connected with that of man’- Henry David Thoreau

PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT 10

CONTENTS I GARDEN CULTURE

IN THIS ISSUE OF GARDEN CULTURE:

WHO’S GROWING WHAT WHERE 49

70

SAGEGROW-YOUR-OWN

4256organic

VSSYNTHETICNUTRIENTS

60

HUNGER

34

GARDENCULTURE.NET 7

98PROS & CONS

BALLAST

lettucei grow

FOOD PATENTS

9 Foreword10 Product Spotlight17 Stay out18 GMO Controversy increases20 Making your own soil mix25 Fresh Food26 Freaky Tomatoes29 Five Cool Finds31 Organic music33 Dirt: good for what ails you34 Hunger – a growing need37 Grodan is going to Mars39 The Windows farm experiment42 Sage – Wisdom of the Ages

49 Who’s Growing What Where52 Teach ‘em young56 Organicvs.Syntheticnutrients60 The problem with Food Patents62 LEDspecifications64 What’s the best tomato?66 Seed Diversity70 IgrowLettuce76 The Govenment, farming food and you83 Four amazing plant facts85 Reusingyourpottingsoil90 SupplementalLighting98 Ballast – pros & cons103 StartingonaBudget

FOREWORD

If you are planning to star t your f irst indoor

garden, or are expanding/upgrading your current

one, chances are you will need to make some

purchases.

So you take a trip to your local hydroponics store. If you are new to this, being a bit overwhelmed by the selection is common, especially if you visit several stores. My advice is - do your homework, and question everything. Over the past 10 years this industry has exploded, and so has the number of products offered.

Beware of cheap imitations! Trying to save too much money will often cost you more in the end, especially when it comes to hardware like ballasts and bulbs. Unfortunately, anyone can go to China and buy whatever they want, dress it up pretty, and sell it as a premium product at a huge discount. You think you are getting a great deal, when all you are getting are problems.

Indoor gardening is an art. You are Mother Nature, and control everything. Like in so many systems the whole is as strong as its weakest link. Take time to learn what a plant needs, read books written by experts, and buy good equipment - then you will be better prepared to have a bountiful garden with few problems.

Parting with your hard-earned money can be painful, but the lowest price is rarely the best deal. As a wise man once told me, “ I am too poor to buy cheap.” 3

Eric

CREDITS

Garden Culture™ is a publication of 325 Media Inc.

E D I TO R SExecutive Editor:Eric CoulombeEmail - [email protected] Editor:Tammy ClaytonEmail - [email protected]

V P O P E R AT I O N S :Celia SayersEmail - [email protected]. 1-514-754-1539

D E S I G NJob HugenholtzEmail - [email protected]

Special thanks to:Tammy, Evan Folds, Theo Tekstra, Judd Stone, Stephen Brookes, Wendy Denney, Kyle L. Ladenburger, Amber Fields, Darryl Cotton, Brian Burk, Stephanie Whitley, Marisa Kay Richter, Greg Richter, Grubbycup, My beautiful wife and partner Celia, Maya and Kees, Job, Callie Coe, Agent Green and Monsanto for motivating me to fight back.

P U B L I S H E R325 Media44 Hyde Rd., Milles IslesQuébec, Canadat. +1-855-427-8254 w. www.gardenculture.net Email - [email protected]

A D V E R T I S I N GEric Coulombe Email - [email protected] t. 1-514-233-1539

D I S T R I B U T I O N PA R T N E R S• Sunlight Supply• Hydrofarm• Rambridge• Biofloral

Website : www.GardenCulture.net facebook.com/GardenCulture twitter.com/GardenCulture© 325 MediaAll 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 325 Media inc.

GARDENCULTURE.NET 9

FOREWORD & CREDITS I GARDEN CULTURE

?INVESTMENT

Current Culture’s (SCC®) Deep Water technology utilizes

negative water pressure to recirculate oxygenated nutrient

solution through the plant’s root zone. This continuous

fluid motion supercharges the nutrients with dissolved

oxygen, creating hyper-aerobic conditions perfect for

explosive plant growth. Constant 24/7 nutrient circulation

ensures pH and EC levels are uniform throughout the

entire system.

www.cch2o.com

Current

CultureDWC

product spotlight

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

Autopot

In this edition we will feature the products in my garden. I have spent over 10 years experimenting with indoor gardening,

and these are some of my favorites. Although not included in the product spotlight, I would like to give a nod to Can Fans

(I have had the same fan for 10 years), HM Digitals new HydroMaster meter, Opticfoliar Greener Cleaner (‘cause for the

first time with a huge garden I have no bugs), and Fulvic acid in general (I use Organic Rescue Mist, and Pure Gold from

Nutri Plus 29% Fulvic content and is certified organic).

Eric

Garden Gadgets

10

Eric’s

DWC

product spotlight Garden Gadgets

Nutriculture Gro-Tanks NFT

freshManufactured by the same people

who made the Ecosystem, the

Ecogrowwall is a modular vertical

garden. Simply click the panels

together in whatever configuration

you like and snap to support. All

plumbing hardware is included, easy

compression-pop fittings make

setting up the watering system a

breeze. Each chamber is designed to

support one 48”X6” rockwool slab. Set comes with 5 channels.

When space is a concern, turn your walls into a garden.

www.ecogrowwall.com

Our NFT Gro-Tanks give roots virtually unrestricted access to

oxygen. Yields are typically much bigger than if growing in pots of dirt.

The depth of the recirculating stream is very shallow, little more than

a film of water, hence the name ‘nutrient film’. This ensures that the

thick root mat, which develops in the bottom of the channel has

constant access to nutrients and air.

Nutrient solution is constantly pumped to the roots, there’s no timer

to program.

Because virtually no growing medium is used there’s nothing to

transport or throw away at the end of the season. Very clean, very

easy, and very impressive results.

Perfect for beginners or experts.

www.nutriculture.com

Nutriculture Gro-Tanks NFT

Ecogrow

wall

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

Sun System

LEC 315

GARDENCULTURE.NET 13

GARDEN PRODUCTS I GARDEN CULTURE

14

product spotlight

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

Adjust-A-Wings

Growing in indoor conditions without sunlight not only

requires a good climate, but also a good quality light.

Though one can grow successful under HPS alone, or

a combination of HPS and MH, it is still not the full

spectrum our sun delivers. The Gavita light Plasma

fixtures produce light with a spectrum similar to that

of the sun, making it the ideal supplement

to HPS for serious growers.

Plasma lights alone are perfect for

vegetative periods, or green plants.

www.gavita-holland.com

Following three-years of research and testing The MINIMAX 150 with microprocessor

has finally arrived. We now have CE registration and are ready to impress UK growers.

Running at less than 0.7amp we feel that this little unit will revolutionize indoor grow

lighting. No longer do growers have to compromise with low wattage alternatives that

just don’t do a great job. The MINIMAX 150 operates with either Metal Halide or High

Pressure Sodium bulbs.

• High lumen output (Sunmaster 150W

Dual Spectrum Lamp -17200 Lumens)

• Low bulb temperature

• Full RF filtration

Gavita Plasma

• No need for costly contact/relay controllers

• Comes with full three year guarantee

• Operates with either Metal Halide or High Pressure Sodium bulbs.

www.downtoearthkent.co.uk

The

Minimax 150

product spotlight

Gavita Plasma

I’m not sure what kind of

reception they thought they

would get, but it was nasty. I

went over myself to talk to the

30-something guy in the booth.

“So, is everyone blasting you for

being here?” I asked. He told me

he felt like a cat in a dog show.

I also told him that I despised

the company he worked for and if he had a soul he would

quit ASAP, then I left. I walked about 20 feet and watched,

a steady stream of people doing just what I did. It was a

reception that new surfers get when they are in the wrong

spot. I was polite, others were not, at least 10 people told

him to get the f**k out.

It was amazing to watch, a never-ending bombardment of

negative energy focused on this poor unsuspecting employee.

It took about 3 hours or so, and he packed up his stuff, called

his suit-wearing boss, and told him he was going home. I

didn’t give him a kick on the way out or anything, but

it did feel good. We all felt good. Somehow we just

kicked Monsanto out of a gardening trade show.

How did this happen? Who is this group of people

who are so against this company that they could

force the world’s biggest ag/chemical company to

flee with his proverbial tail between his legs. It

was you, and the companies you support. If you

own a small indoor garden shop, and are afraid

what will happen when, or if,

the big players like Wal-Mart,

Costco, and the like gets

involved... I think we just saw

the answer. Indoor gardeners

seem to have a general dislike

of companies like Monsanto

and Wal-Mart. It wasn’t

financial motivation that made

all those people turn on that sales guy at the Max Yield

show, it was an ethical action.

I found this event inspiring, and was very proud of the people

who stood up for their beliefs.

It still begs the question, why were they there, and how are

they going to weasel their way back in? I hope they got the

message, but if they didn’t I’m confident we will collectively

make them feel very unwelcome. Sorry Monsanto…wait, no

I’m not. 3

BY ERIC

How did this happen? Who is this group of people who are so against this company that they could force the world’s

biggest ag/chemical company to flee with his proverbial tail

between his legs.

Ira Bostic / Shutterstock.com


MONSANTO I GARDEN CULTURE

STAYAnyone who knows me knows I despise Monsanto. As it turns out so does most of the indoor gardening

industry, and they let them know it.

Max Yield has been throwing the Indoor Garden Expos for over a decade. They have been an integral building

block for this industry’s development. These shows are an important part of any company’s marketing plan

when trying to enter this market. At least they used to be, until Monsanto showed up.

Monsanto at Max Yield!

18

Present... January 2015, Strassbourg

It appears that those consumer organizations have now

lost control of the legislative body. As of 20 January,

Europe officially ushered in a future favoring biotech giants

in passing a new controversial food law that transfers

the rights involved in allowing, or banning GMO crops to

individual countries. The argument on whether a nation’s

farmers can, or cannot grow Monsanto’s MON 810 maize

has shifted, and they’ve succeeded in getting 7 new GM

crops approved for further discretionary approval per

country.

It’s unlikely coincidental that this happened during the

Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership talks for

securing multilateral growth through commerce between

the US and the EU. No doubt heavy lobbying has quietly

taken place in the months leading up to both this particular

European Parliament session and the TIFF convention - on

both sides of the Atlantic.

Baby StepsBiotech behemoths like Monsanto rose to their current

status in the US and other countries the same way - one

small measure at a time. Bypassing continental government

turns the tables to their favor, for now they can work on

each small entity individually.

No doubt GMO proponents were doing the happy dance

within moments of the highly criticized measure’s approval.

It’s two steps forward for GMO crops, a whole new

continent of possibilities and acquisitions.

Not that GMO crops have done anything to slow world

hunger. The third world still lacks the finances to buy said

food or seed, because that’s the real crux of the problem -

money. But GMOs do however, feed the hunger for wealth,

benefiting profit margins, and shareholders a great deal.

See, there’s that money thing again, but on the opposite

end of the ruler.

In a July fact-finding session on GMO food labeling, US Congressman Schrader asked the EU expert, “Why

does the EU still have their labeling if they’ve come to the same conclusions? Why have they not frankly

informed their consumers that there is no difference?”

The world renown, Dr. Calestous Juma responded, “The EU is not a homogenous body. You have the commission

with its scientific advice that conducted these studies. You have the legislative body that is influenced very much

by the consumer organizations that has not changed its position.”

BY CALLIE COE

“Europe officially ushered

in a future favoring

biotech giants”

Flashback... Summer 2014, Washington D.C.


G.M.O. I GARDEN CULTURE

Divide & ConquerIf you suspect some déjà vu looms on the horizon, you

might very well be right. Turning the protected farmland of

a continent into a scattered patchwork of GMO producing

regions raises the odds of spreading pollen to traditional

and organic crops like we’ve already

seen happen in Canada, the US,

Mexico, Paraguay, and Brazil. The

breeze, and insects don’t stop at

lines drawn by man.

Groups like Greenpeace are well-

founded in their concerns over the possible environmental

damages this could cause. Roundup use will increase

phenomenally on every hectare planted with GM seed,

which does not disappear, but lingers in the soil, filters into

waterways, and clouds collect it with other agrichemicals

to release it elsewhere in a phenomenon known as acid

rain.

But It’s Safe to EatAt least, these 8 crops are in the eyes of the EFSA. The

new ruling allows individual EU countries to opt out of

growing approved GMOs deemed safe to consume by the

European Food Safety Authority. Feel like this is just the

beginning, that more will follow? That is how it has played

out elsewhere with this GMO thing.

Who are the current major EFSA players? Make a list.

Then make a list of all the top people at Monsanto’s UK

and European offices. Don’t overlook legal counsel. Going

forward, you will no doubt see movers and shakers from the

agri-giant’s team travel in and out of various positions within

the EFSA, and the appropriate legislative offices in each EU

member state. Better tally the same at Syngenta, Bayer, BASF,

Dow, and DuPont offices too, so you know who’s who as the

players begin moving around.

That’s how they’ve played the GMO/

pesticide approval game to date in the

US. It would be nice if this is not what

happens, but here’s that déjà vu stuff.

Grease a little palm, fund a study, train

the perfect expert for desirable governmental positions... buy

your way in. Like any trip, if you can pay the fare, you will get

where you want to go. Both science and political assignations

are for sale. The first group calls it funding, and the latter,

campaign or lobbying monies.

Damage Control UnderwayWith the ink barely dry on the new food law, the PR aimed

at unseating current consumer opinion and belief hit UK

mainstream media. On 22 January BBC published news

that ‘safer GMOs’ are being created by scientists in the US.

Synthetic biology aimed at controlling these crops from

spreading into the wild by adding synthetic food for it to live

on. The goal is that these alien bacteria will starve to death if

they leave the host plant, removing possible contamination.

Should we feel relieved, or see reason for heightened concern?

Firstly, there is no way they can remove all risk, and secondly

what will this stuff do to us and the Earth? More details on

this new development: bit.ly/safer-gmos. 3

“It’s two steps forward for GMO crops”

gmoGMO

GMOs feed wealth, not the hungry

Controversy Increases

20

THE FIRST THING TO THINK OF WHEN MAKING A SOIL MIX

IS MICROBES

S O I L C R E AT E S A N D S U S TA I N S A L L O F L I F E

Soil is like water. Both sustain life as we know it, yet

they are so omnipresent that we take them for granted.

And due to both their importance and complexity, the

limitations of language cannot do them justice.

The soil is under our feet at all times, and can also be

purchased in a bag at the hardware store. Soil is the

primary basis by which we grow food, and the same field

can also be subjected to the littering of our poisons. But

beyond it all, soil may very well be the most important

substance on Earth.

BY EVAN FOLDS

makingyour own

soilmix


MAKING YOUR OWN SOIL MIX I GARDEN CULTURE

THE FIRST THING TO THINK OF WHEN MAKING A SOIL MIX

IS MICROBES

Soil creates and sustains all

of life. Soil allows farming,

the act of rebellion that

catalyzed human specialization

from hunting and gathering

to society at large, and that

started the human experiment

more than 10,000 years ago.

We’ve come a long way since

then, and with good reason, as

there are many more mouths to feed with human

population growing exponentially in modern times.

But we are using more topsoil than we are creating,

and we are collectively utilizing soil for all the

wrong reasons.

We must respect the soil, not use it as a sponge; even

certified organic practices can result in tremendous

damage, and pollution to the land. Modern farming

has become more a creature of synthetic profit,

than a source of nourishment for people. USDA

data shows food losing nutrient density, and we are

experiencing a global degenerative and autoimmune

epidemic. But the good news is that we can do

something about it.

The growing Food Movement is about creating

personal agriculture. This means eating with our

ideals, and growing at least one thing that we eat.

Modern property development obliterates the

landscape leaving very poor soil behind, so many

home gardeners turn to containers or raised beds.

Estimates say that it takes 1000 years to create

an inch of topsoil, but fortunately for modern

gardeners we don’t have to wait nearly that long.

The easy route is to buy potting soil. There is merit

to letting the experts do it for you, but it can get

expensive when your gardening habit gets serious.

Just a little under thirteen gallons of good organic

potting soil can cost $25.

Many who are looking to invest in serious quantities

of soil are making their own soil mixes. Not only

is it possible to calibrate a

custom soil mix to the crop

that you are growing, but given

sufficient scale buying the raw

ingredients, and formulating

the soil yourself costs much

less than buying the ready-

made version.

It’s actually not as hard as you

think, with some intention and

practice you can create, and

even reuse, your own soil capable of sustainably

supporting thriving gardens, and producing

increasingly substantial yields.

The first thing to think of when making a soil mix is

microbes. Microbes manufacture soil, no different

from construction workers on a job site. It is the

grower’s responsibility to bring the correct building

materials to the garden.

Any attempt at making or reusing soil without

prioritizing biological inoculation and diversity is

like trying to brew beer without adding the yeast,

or making kombucha or vinegar without a mother.

The microbes define the process.

So it is in the soil. Source a farm-based biological

inoculant, and consider brewing compost tea to

concentrate the process. Microbes from a natural

environment will always be stronger, and have

more life experience than lab-based, and you will

automatically get a greater diversity of microbes in

your mix. Any biological product that can name the

microbes in the product is a limitation, because we

are only aware of a small percentage of microbes

found in natural living systems.

In the end, diversity is king. Use compost from your

friend’s back yard, worm castings, scrape topsoil

from the forest, and buy some premium compost

from the garden store. Remember, microbes self-

organize, so you cannot mess it up.

Once you have your microbes lined up, it is time to

consider the soil mix itself. Popular base materials

soilmix

are peat moss and coir fiber, but it is often possible

to source local bulk mixes out of varying materials.

The popular bulk soil base in our area is pine bark

and turkey manure. Not the best, but it provides

cheap volume for the base of the mix that we are

going to value-add.

It’s not that making a soil mix is inherently difficult,

but that if you don’t do it right it simply may not

work the first time. Meaning, it is possible to

put together a soil mix that lacks total fertility,

like trying to use a budget Big Box fertilizer in

hydroponics, the plant cannot grow without at least

minimum essential nutrition.

This is generally accomplished through ensuring

the ingredients used are as diverse as possible.

This means don’t make a soil mix composed of peat

moss, rice hulls, and fish meal - and expect your

garden to produce.

Instead, make a soil mix of peat moss, rice hulls,

worm castings, bat guano, rock dust, farm-based

compost, fish meal, alfalfa meal, whey, yucca, kelp

meal, and as many other meals as you can muster

given the crop that you are cultivating. Use a little

bit of a lot of things, the more the merrier. There is

strength in diversity.

By providing diverse food sources for the microbes

you will inoculate into your mix will create a highly

fertile environment for roots to form and feed, but

take some time to consider the nutrient balance

of the ingredients you are using. For example, you

wouldn’t want to have a phosphorous-heavy mix

(bone meal, CalPhos, guano) for a crop of basil that

you are growing vegetatively, or use too much high

NPK ingredient (guano, fish) for light feeders like

lettuce. It will take some practice to calibrate your

fertility properly in your soil mix, but plants don’t

lie, they will give you constant feedback.

You will also want to investigate the relative

concentration of the mix you are creating. For

instance, if you evaluate the differing nutritional

requirements of lettuce versus tomatoes, you will

see that lettuce wants a fertilizer concentration

of around 600-800 ppm, while tomatoes desire

anywhere between 1700-3500 ppm. This is quite a

substantial difference.

SOIL MAY VERY WELL BE THE MOST IMPORTANT SUBSTANCE ON EARTH

MAKING YOUR OWN SOIL MIX I GARDEN CULTURE

A “ppm”, or “parts of ions per million of water”,

is the measurement for fertilizer concentration.

Imagine a granule of table salt being dissolved in

water into a Na+ and a Cl- ion. Each ion would be

a “part” in a ppm, and plants eat these ions created

either through solubility, or through biological

decomposition.

Osmosis is the phenomenon that sees water

travel from the lower concentration to the

higher concentration through a water permeable

membrane in order to equalize concentrations. The

root is an osmotic gradient, so this force is at play

in roots when it comes to fertilizer concentrations.

If a plant has more ions inside than it does outside

of its roots then healthy transpiration can occur.

But if there are too many ions outside relative to

inside the root water is then sucked out of the plant

resulting in the plant prioritizing, and the edges

“burning” and becoming necrotic.

Considering this, it becomes clear that all purchased

potting soils have to be calibrated to the lower

end of this fertilizer spectrum. In other words,

if a potting soil formulator created a recipe that

resulted in a fertilizer concentration of 2000 ppm

tomatoes would love it, but the lettuce would be

severely over fertilized resulting in dead plants if

not amended.

When taking this into account for your soil mix you

may want to keep the higher NPK items out of the

mix, and feed with them over time in the soil as

a fertilizer. Think of the organic fertilizers as the

building materials for your microbial construction

workers, and as a crutch for results and plant

nourishment until your soil food web is ready, and

can take over the fertilization responsibility.

The lack of focus on microbes is one of the major

problems with gardening techniques like square

foot gardening or lasagna gardening. They are

great templates for beginning gardeners, but they

do not focus on microbes, and people end up with

beautifully spaced gardens that cannot sustain

themselves over time, or immature soil where they

can read the copy on the front page of the newspaper

when they turn their soil over. Organic matter does

not just melt, it is biologically digested by a team

of micro-organisms that move micrometers in their

lifetime. If we don’t bring them to the party they

simply are not there!

In the forest, consider that microbes don’t eat the

leaves, they eat what the microbes make of them.

And trees grow to enormous size and strength

in the forest with zero fertilizer. The power of

microbes cannot be understated.

You will find that by focusing on biological strength

and diversity, the more the natural processes take

over, and the more mature your soil becomes, the

less responsible you will feel to feed the garden

with fertilizer.

This is particularly intriguing when it comes to

reusing soil. Next issue we will discuss the merits

and techniques of re-using your potting soil, so you

can take your personal agriculture to an entirely

new level. 3


THE LACK OF FOCUS ON MICROBES IS ONE OF THE MAJOR PROBLEMS WITH

GARDENING TECHNIQUES

FORMULATING THE SOIL YOURSELF COSTS MUCH LESS THAN BUYING

THE READY-MADE VERSION

Biology research at Rice Uni-

versity uncovered this fact

while studying how the circa-

dian clock affects natural pest

fighting compounds to come

to a plant’s assistance. It start-

ed with cabbage leaves, and

investigating the plant’s ability to resist attack by cat-

erpillars 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 ele-

ments in fresh fruits, vegetables, and herbs are part of

their built-in pest, disease and stress resistance mecha-

nisms.

They tested average store produce that’s been picked,

shipped, and stored. The researchers discovered that

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 24-

hour 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

“YOU MIGHT WANT TO STOP SHOPPING

FOR FRESH FOOD AT 24-HOUR STORES”

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 increas-

ing 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!

FRESH FOOD I GARDEN CULTURE


Some say this micro tomato

forest thing is due to cold

storage. Others say it isn’t un-

common. Huh? Where did the

natural germina-

tion inhibitors go?

Stranger still, to-

matoes picked be-

fore perfect ripe-

ness don’t have

viable seeds. Mature tomato

seeds do not germinate with-

out fermenting. Most of these hyperactive tomato own-

ers state that the fruit wasn’t rotten. Some were freshly

purchased, and furthermore, store-bought tomatoes are

picked unripe.

Freaky Tomatoes

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 com-

plexities. It does have to do with genetics... and mutants.

A number of hybridized crops suffer from this precocious

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.

“Are they Frankenmatoes?”

BY TAMMY CLAYTON©

Chr

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“That ain’t natural. It’s defective.”

26

27

germination, or ‘viviparous’ tendency. An occasional odd-

ball 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 variet-

ies are more prone to this vivipa-

rous activity. Which ones are they?

The pretty ones that stay edible

in your fridge for weeks after pur-

chase. 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 gro-

cery 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. Rip-

ened on the plant, they have one month of shelf life max.

While the skin and meat don’t age, the seed continues to

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 Cor-

nell 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

“Where did the natural germination

inhibitors go?”

“Mature tomato seeds do not germinate without fermenting.”


FREAKY TOMATOES I GARDEN CULTURE

A D D S O M E G R E E N A N Y W H E R E

Air plants are a cinch to grow.

The perfect houseplant for space

challenged people on the go. Check

out these awesome handmade

planters we found designed just for

air plants. A stylish way to add some

greenery to just about any spot in

your home. This is just a peek at what

Cor Pottery has to offer. More info:

bit.ly/cor-pottery

cool finds

E A S Y S A LT WAT E R R E E FThe cost of equipment, and high

maintenance of a saltwater aquarium

got you doing without? This miniature reef system

is both affordable, and easy to take care of. Chose

a fully stocked system shipped live, or the basic

aquarium, and buy your coral locally. Learn more

@ pjreefs.com3

N U T R I M I L L G R A I N M I L L Tired of the sky-high prices on

specialty flours at the store? Leery of just what

went into growing the grains in flour? Bypass

the system, and make your own flour. Designed

to process all

grains and beans,

this impact mill

is affordable,

and highly rated.

More info:

bit.ly/nutri-mill

A F F O R D A B L E S O U S V I D EThe finest chefs in the world use

sous vide cooking. It cooks any food to perfection,

and holds it there. Dinner is ready when you are

with all the nutrition and flavor preserved. The

Sansaire is an immersion circulator for home sous

vide cooking. Compact, beautiful, and phone app

control! More info: Sansaire.com

1

2

3

4

5

E VA S O L O T O G O G R I L L Possibly the most beautiful portable

grill ever. Perfect for a picnic, the beach, or

small space grilling. Everything you need but

the charcoal and utensils, all neatly stacked up

and held in place by a rugged strap. More Info:

bit.ly/solo-grill

GREEN PRODUCTS I GARDEN CULTURE


MUSIC I GARDEN CULTURE

The setup looks pretty simple from the outside. She places

pads on a few different types of plants, connects those

pads to wires, and the wires to a computer. The pads read

bio-electric energy put off by the plants when something

touches them. These signals get sent to an amplifier, which

converts these analog signals into digital code. This code

is then sent to her computer where a program, which she

wrote, reads the signals, and turns them into electronic

music. It’s a tale of plant and machine in a symbiotic

relationship, where they collide into a sonic landscape.

Naturally, this garnered some attention. Mileece recently

had a residency at Maker City LA. She performed, in 2013

at the Museum of Modern Art. Mileece also created a first

of its kind interactive classroom at the Lycee International

Francais in Los Angeles where she converted a school bus

into an interactive forest, and made a zero-emission Tre-

We-vrTM Pod for environmental education.

During her performances, she combines live music with

the sounds of her Tre-Wevr interface. She couples these

with sounds from her field recordings, like icebergs and

sounds from the Costa Rican jungle, to paint a beautiful

sonic picture. There is something real, and elegant to

the whole thing. The colorful plant leaves, the graceful

movements from the artist, and the sounds and visuals

coming together to showcase how nature is a living,

breathing, all-encompassing thing.

You can tell she is doing this for the plants, and for the people.

Mileece says the landscapes and designs that she makes are

there because she wants habitats to exist; for herself and

others. Also, she does not feel like a composer of the music,

more like a facilitator of the plants natural harmonies. That

is a true love for nature.

Nature is a beautiful thing, and so is music. Can we live in a

world without both? Plants are alive, they live and die, and they

do communicate. Mileece, has found a way to connect the

world to the actual voice of nature in a unique and harmonious

way. With a bit of time, and a respect for music and nature, she

has found a way to make the forest into a symphony. Maybe

we should try to listen to the plants in our garden, and in the

woods, meadows, and parks around us a bit more closely.

There’s a lot more going on there than green space. 3

Mileece Petre is 35, British, and makes

beautiful music with plants. That sounds

strange, but most brilliant ideas sound a bit

crazy at f irst.

BY BRIAN BURK

OrganicMusicC

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“IT’S A TALE OF PLANT AND MACHINE IN A

SYMBIOTIC RELATIONSHIP


• Good for • What Ails You

SOIL I GARDEN CULTURE

• More Info:• bit.ly/dirt-new-prozac

• bit.ly/soil-neuroscience

• bit.ly/urban-stress

Society’s current dissociation

with soil negatively affects us

mentally and physically. The

microbial life in good soil is

actually healing. At least the

microorganisms not voided

by farm and garden chemicals

or synthetic fertilizers are. It’s

not just the flowers, greens, or

fruit we need from plants, but also

assistance from things in the soil

food web around plants’ roots.

As I read about this, it reminded me of

my son as a toddler constantly eating dirt.

Perhaps it wasn’t just that kids at this stage

put everything in their mouth, maybe it was instinct telling

him he needed something from the soil. He does have

mild allergies, and these scientists have connected rising

allergy problems and recurring illnesses to daily life that

disconnects most people from the soil. They are proving

that people who live in sterile environments have more

such health problems than those that spend their lives

covered with dirt and pollen.

Is it really just the beauty that bring so many to become

so addicted to flower gardening, or does getting dirty have

some sway? Sure, the lovely colors and bloom shapes are

attractive, and do have an effect on a person’s mental health

and mood, but a backyard gardener for any outcome will

also get dirty. By the same token, people who live beyond

urban areas will likely have a flower garden, or a vegetable

garden, or both. Studies have shown that this portion of

the population also has a lot less mental health issues.

All Natural Mood Elevator

Depressed? Dealing with mood swings? Having a bad day?

Spend more time outdoors in the garden. Dance barefoot in

the dirt. Pull some weeds. Grow in real soil on the balcony

THE MICROBIAL LIFE IN GOOD

SOIL IS ACTUALLY HEALING…

MENTALLY AND PHYSICALLY

with Smart Pots or GeoPots.

Feed your soil, because the

microbial life in organic

soil has healing properties

for humans on contact. It

will also give you better

vegetables, fruits, or flowers.

You came from the soil. You

are also sustained by the soil.

Human beings are microbial

too. Over 90% of the human

body is made of microbes, such

as ‘gut flora’. Each of us is our own

ecosystem that gets out of balance from

a lack of soil contact. Your microbes need soil

microbes for mental and physical health benefits.

Got no dirt because you’re an urbanite? At the very least, buy

a bag of organic topsoil, and indulge in a little mud pie fun. 3

Bee & Bug Bite EraserMud, or the wet soil we call mud, has the natural power

to cure bee stings. It’s amazing, like never being stung at

all. The mud actually draws out the toxins and absorbs

them. Just apply a thin layer, and let it dry. In just 10-15

minutes, wash it off, and you’re cured. They say it works

on insect bites as well. Gotta remember to try this

instead of scratching mosquito and fly bites for days,

because it’s like magic on a bee sting. No special kind of

soil needed, but sand might not work as well.

I always thought it was the lack of green space, and a relationship with nature that made

anger and crime so common in cities. All that noise, congestion, and asphalt can’t be good

for a person, especially when it’s your total environment. Science has discovered that it goes

deeper than that. Human psyche and health requires a relationship with dir t.

BY AMBER FIELDS

• bit.ly/nature-aids-immunity

• bit.ly/urban-rural-psych-disorders


34

There is a compelling difference

between hunger and appetite. By

definition, hunger is the painful sensation

or compelling weakness caused by the overpowering need for

food. Appetite has a much more palatable and polite definition,

as a desire for food and drink. Many of us who live in more

developed countries are less likely to encounter true hunger in

our own lives, but not all of us, and the problem may be getting

worse right under our noses.

BY JUDD STONE

a growing need

Social programs are struggling to feed people in need


You need to get involved

HUNGER I GARDEN CULTURE

plant a row in your own garden for your local

food bank

Demand at food banks in most communities in the

United States is at staggering levels. Since the decline of

the economy, there has been a sharp rise in people and

families that can no longer afford to feed themselves, not

even the basics, or keep a roof over their heads. Social

programs that supposedly are in place to help people

in their down times have had their resources taxed by

increased enrollment, and decreased political support,

reducing their ability to have a noticeable effect, causing

further system decline. The need for you, the reader,

to get involved as an individual has never been more

important statistically in our lives.

Many of you already take part in

food-raiser type events where you

bring a non-perishable item into

a public event for a discounted

admission. This is a great way

for the entire community to get

involved, because food banks are

at a disadvantage today. They lack

funds to create a diverse offering

as they always have, and lets face it,

people can’t live off of spaghetti-o’s

and corn flakes. Food banks need

helping hands. I’ve never been to a

food bank that doesn’t need help

with, well, everything.

They need people to sort goods,

and help get them on the shelf. They

need people to help hand out the food when they are

open, and extras during limited very busy hours. They

need you to donate baby food. They never have enough.

For those of you with children, I hope that speaks to

you. But most of all, and why I wanted to write this

article, they need you, yes you, the conscious, food savvy

gardener, and maybe some of your wares. Many food

banks throughout the country are now growing food.

In years past, food banks didn’t have sustained customers

like they do today, people got back on their feet quicker.

Offering fresh produce didn’t make sense… now it does.

I grew 60 heads of lettuce for a food bank, and I asked

them if they wanted me to offset the harvest, my heart

sank when they told me they could easily get rid of all

60 to families that needed it same day. My efforts could

never keep up alone. Again, this is my call to you.

Your local food bank may not have a garden; quite possibly

you could help them build one in your spare time. If they

already have one, I’m sure they would love for you to

take a day in the watering rotation. A little goes a long

way when it comes to a helping

hand. You will find a lot of warm

hearts at the food bank. But, at

the very least, if you’re left with

no additional time to do this, I ask

you to plant a row in your own

garden for your local food bank,

or rescue mission.

For many years, most food banks

could not, and would not accept

fresh produce for the simple

potential of getting people sick

from pesticide contamination, or

even if it was store-bought, the

very idea of it being perishable. The

lawmakers knew something had

to be done to allow food banks to

work with perishable food items.

It was the only way to get the best, most healthy selection

of food out to the people who desperately need it.

In 1996 Bill Clinton signed into law the Bill Emerson

Good Samaritan Food Donation Act. The law protects

donors, whether they be individual or corporate, and also

protects the food bank from any civil or criminal liability

stemming from any donation made in good faith. The law

does not protect from gross negligence. But if you grow

some healthy food, or help grow some food with your

food bank, I’m pretty confident that’s an effort in good

faith.

The passage of the act unified the nation in legalities when

it came to donating. Now corporations readily participate

in nationwide donation and volunteer programs that many

individual and community food banks benefit from. 3

MARS

GOING TO MARS I GARDEN CULTURE

THE FIRST MANNED

MISSION TO MARS WILL TAKE PLACE IN 2035

BY WENDY DENNEY

Is Going toGRODAN MARS

solution lies in growing their own

food. What that requires is a light,

and compact growth medium which

produces maximum results with the

use of minimal resources. GRODAN

stone wool substrates meet these

requirements, and are perfectly suitable for use in closed

cultivation systems where water is recirculated and reused.

These characteristics make the substrates ideal for use on

Mars and during the journey there.

They have used GRODAN stone wool in multiple space

research related projects since 1985, and this brand of

substrates has already ventured into outer space! For more

information about Grodan, visit www.grodan101.com 3

How do you grow food during space missions to places like Mars? That is the key question

in an exciting study into biological life support systems for space missions conducted in a

research center at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada.

The GRODAN Group, a specialized

member of the Rockwool Group,

played a significant role in this high-

tech research project. The company

develops sustainable stone wool

based substrate solutions for the

horticultural industry. The plants being studied in

Canada are grown on these highly advanced GRODAN

substrates.

If everything goes according to plan, the first manned

mission to Mars will take place in 2035. The journey will

take the ‘martianauts’ about two and a half years. Taking

along food supplies for the entire journey is impossible

– that would amount to over 3300 lbs. per person. The

THE JOURNEY WILL TAKE ABOUT TWO AND A HALF YEARS


WINDOW FARM I GARDEN CULTURE

experimentFARM

A company this large has a site that could hold a small city, and it’s techy employees have an

on-campus café not far from their off ice. So many cafés in fact, that they have a Dining and

Beverage Services department, who recently set up experimental indoor farms inside two

on-campus eateries, the largest being at Café 38.

Inspired by some growing towers he

saw at a restaurant trade show, Mark

Freeman, senior program manager

of Dining at Microsoft, saw the value

in bringing fresh hydroponically

grown vegetables to the Redmond,

Washington headquarters campus.

So, they researched their options

intent on high productivity in little space with a

goal of sustainably meeting people’s concern about

knowing what’s in their food, and where it comes

from.

While garden towers come in both aeroponic and

hydroponic systems, they went with Foody Garden

Towers for a number of reasons. The biggest deciding

factor says Joshua Scott, a Microsoft executive chef,

was system capacity. Café 38 has 756 plants growing

in 14 towers - almost twice as much crop capacity

than any other tower systems, without increasing

the height. Like in any already completed building,

the cafés have limitations on unit dimensions, and

needing a ladder to harvest removes fast and easy

from the operation.

Other important selling points with the Foody

12 Tower was its automated rotation option to

maximize the light economically to all plants in

each unit. Scott lists other key pluses that guided

WINDOWSM i c r o s o f t S u c c e e d s A t G r o w Y o u r O w n

the


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their equipment purchasing decision as the towers’

aesthetic appeal, lower price, and the ease of adding

and removing individual plants. It was also hydroponic,

instead of aeroponic, guarding against instant plant

loss in a power outage.

They have 4 more towers at another café on the

Redmond campus, and all 18 units are pumping out

leafy salad greens and herbs at a delicious rate. Initially,

they installed halogens and LEDs as grow lighting, but

as the experiment evolved Dining looked at increasing

productivity and realized that the garden needed a

different fixture. Switching to iUNU plasma lights

upped their sustainability margin, because plasma is

up to 30% more efficient than LEDs in terms of plant

energy results.

Growing staff member, Jessica Shilke notes that the

change in grow lights brought out plant qualities she’s

756 plants growing in 14 towers plus

microgreens

natural color and better flavor under full spectrum plasma lights


Courtesy of Feed Our Planet, LLC”

never seen before. The lettuce and herbs

now develop natural coloration, which

never happens under HIDs or LEDs. The

flavor is also much improved, proving just

how important the full spectrum of natural

sunlight is to indoor gardening.

The idea to swap lighting technology

came not from a progressive gardening

consultation, but from a surprising source.

Some techs in the Xbox division suggested

it would be an improvement, and they’re

grateful for the tip.

The visual difference from the grow light

improvement is highly noticeable. Photos taken last

fall when the iUNU lights were newly installed had

only spotty growth and pale plants residing in the

towers. Here we are a few months later, and Café

38’s grow space is luxuriously leafy, and rich green.

Definitely a big boost in nutrient value.

This isn’t all that the Microsoft farm is producing.

They’ve also got some large commercial Urban

Cultivator units raising microgreens. There is

one unit in the prep area behind the counter on

full display in Café 38. This one is more of a fresh

grocer holding unit though. They start and grow

the microgreens elsewhere on campus, and move

them here when they reach the harvest stage. This

makes perfect sense to keep kitchen space at its

productive and attractive best.

While they can’t grow all the fresh foods onsite

needed to provide the campus cafés in ingredients,

the greens and herbs are a great start. The rest of the

produce comes in from area organic farms, because

offering healthy foods, and being sustainable are

both hugely important to Dining manager, Michael

Freeman.

With technological innovation being such an organic

part of Microsoft, pairing it with sustainability to

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WINDOW FARM I GARDEN CULTURE

produce food is an exciting opportunity

for Jessica Schilke. She notes that

developing a locally based food system

for a city is usually a thought exercise,

but on the sprawling Microsoft

campus they can actually make these

changes, and experiment.

People love having the plants where they can enjoy

them, and they’re excited to see where this can go.

The farming inside the café has inspired further ideas

from the tech heavy customer population. Schilke

get’s approached by people who want to develop

apps around the project, which is soon to expand.

They’re gearing up to grow 100% of the company’s

microgreens by July 2015. That’s 270 trays each

week, and before fall arrives they’re installing new

hydroponic towers in Building 83’s café too.

One café at a time, they hope to offer farmed here

freshness campus-wide. One app idea is a map of

where to find what variety of campus-grown produce

every day. Whenever you’re in Redmond, feel free to

locate one of these campus cafés. The food is always

fresh, gets rave reviews, and the prices are lower

than anywhere else in town. 3

BY TAMMY CLAYTON

SageM A N H A S J U ST

A LWAYS K N O W N T H AT

S A G E W A S S A V V Y

Wisdom of the Ages

42

Grow Your Own Series SAGE I GARDEN CULTURE

with good drainage, sage is very easy

to grow

H I S TO R Y & F O L K LO R EA word with two meanings, sage the noun refers to a herb

with culinary and medicinal uses, and sage the adjective

describes a wise and experienced person. Since one ben-

efit of the Salvia plant has long been said to sharpen one’s

mental prowess, sage being a synonym of wisdom cannot

be a coincidence.

The word salvia comes from ancient Greek that literally

means ‘to save’, or the Latin counterpart for ‘well being’.

Compared to other herbs, sage is a bit bland, not in flavor

or benefits, but it lacks wild myth, and folklore. Man has

just always known that sage was savvy. All cultures believed

it safe, beneficial, a source of improved intelligence, and the

key to a long life.

Don’t confuse it with the wide variety of ornamental Salvia

cultivars, herbal sage has been used for healing since the

days of ancient China. In Rome of old, it was also used to

infuse food and drink with flavor, and assisting meal diges-

tion. The Arabs believed that one could not die if sage was

prospering under your care. Charlemagne wanted it grown

everywhere. In Middle Age England, it was said to only grow

well where the wife was in charge, but was as must-have as

salt and pepper in Colonial America.

ANTI-INFLAMMATORY, ANTI-ALLERGIC, ANTI-FUNGAL,

AND ANTI-HEMORRHAGIC

N O M E N C L AT U R E There are over 900 Salvia species on Earth, but only 80 are

in cultivation, and very few have culinary or healing uses.

Store-bought dried or rubbed sage is stronger than garden

sage, both because it’s dehydrated, and because of the

cultivar, which is Greek Sage or Dalmatian Sage (S. triloba

syn. S. fruticosa).

Retailed dried sage’s intensity, and the common over-

seasoning of holiday stuffing gives a lot of people the idea

that this isn’t a herb for regular cooking. Learn how to use

it, and discover what you’ve been missing. The colorful

flowers are edible too.

Common Garden Sage (Salvia officinalis) - Much milder,

and more palatable than other culinary sages. Note that

all variants of S. officinalis are hardy to zone 5, and similar

tasting, though variegated selections are a bit milder. This

is the form most commonly used for healing throughout

Europe and Asia.

Golden Garden Sage (S. o. icterina) - Low growing with

green and gold variegated leaves.

Purple Garden Sage (S. o. purpurea) - Deep purple new

growth matures to soft green.

Tricolor Garden Sage (S. o. tricolor) - Marbled pink,

cream, and green variegation.

Berggarten Sage (S. o. Berggarten) - Large leaves perfect

for garnishing. It rarely blooms.

Dwarf Garden Sage (S. o. minum) - The best one for

container growing.

Pineapple Sage (Salvia elegans) - Sweeter than the

rest. Best used in desserts, meat glazes and marinades,

with fruit, and in drinks. Larger red flowers that are

H E A LT H B E N E F I T SWhile of Mediterranean origin, traditional Chinese

medicine has used sage tea to soothe sore throats and

indigestion since 835 A.D. It is still used for digestive and

cough home remedies worldwide. Sage tincture can be

used to soothe gum pain and treat gingivitis.

The many powerful active constituents in sage give us

essential oils, minerals, along with disease preventing,

and health promoting vitamins. A natural antioxidant,

disinfectant, and deodorizer that is anti-inflammatory,

anti-allergic, anti-fungal, and anti-hemorrhagic.

It’s also been used for hundreds of years to lighten

menstrual flow, slow wound bleeding, treat menopausal

hot flashes, increase fertility, and dry up breast milk. This

isn’t folklore, they’ve discovered that sage contains natural

estrogens. Pregnant women should avoid sage tea and

essential oils, though it’s perfectly safe to eat as a seasoning.

Two recent UK studies found that a 1.7 oz. dosage of

essential oil significantly increased short-term memory in

young adults, proving its value for increasing mental acuity

is factual. Aside from preventing ‘senior moments’, sage

is also part of natural anti-aging beauty regimens. The

Gypsies swore by it for darkening graying hair - just one

more cosmetic benefit. GARDENCULTURE.NET 43

SAGE I GARDEN CULTURE


G E R M I N AT I O NIt’s easily grown from seed, but stored seed offers only 50%

germination at best. Cuttings root reliably, and starting

new plants from cuttings is extremely common. Make

sure the mother plant is pest and disease-free. Quarantine

cuttings before moving into a grow room.

Start seeds with both the room and propagation mat at

70ºF. Expect seed germination in 7-10 days. You can use

rockwool cubes, or coarse seed starting mix.

Transplant seedlings at 2” tall to your finishing system

or containers after 4-5 weeks in winter, and 1-2 weeks

in summer. Humidity isn’t critical for this plant, though

excellent drainage is. Space them 15 cm apart in your

hydro system.

I N D O O R E N V I R O N M E N TFor rooting and vegetative growth you want day temps of

68-80ºF, and nights ranging from 60-78°F. You can grow

it in all types of hydro systems, in aquaponics, with drip

irrigation, and traditional hand-watered container culture.

When grown in potting mix, let the top inch of soil dry out

before watering.

G R O W T H M E D I AThe plants are natives of light, sandy soils, so wherever

you grow it be sure to give its roots a similar home. Use

a coarse potting soil with extra perlite. It does well in just

about any hydroponic medium.

L I G H T I N GIn the outdoor garden, this plant needs about 8 hours of

full sun. A sunny window is not enough light on its own.

You need supplemental lighting. Use a compact fluorescent

grow light. Keep in mind that an hour of direct outdoor sun

requires 2 hours of grow light exposure as an equivalent.

Inside a grow room, or in situations where there is little to

no sun at all, you need a minimum of 12 hours under lights.

Less light than that, and you’ll wonder if it’s growing at all.

For optimum growth and harvesting times provide 700

footcandles with 14 hour days. Less light equals slower

growth, and a less efficient crop. Don’t count on sage

flowers when growing indoors, unless you’re running

intense HIDs.

also edible. Native of Mexico. Hardy to zone 8. (syn.

S. rutilans)

Chia (Salvia hispanica) - Yes, of Chia Pet fame. Native

Americans, both Aztec and Apache, ate this while hunting

and traveling. Seed from this plant retails for $9 - $59 a

pound, because it’s very high in Omega-3 fatty acids, and

the richest vegetable source of alpha-linolenic acid (ALA).

Native of Mexico and Guatemala. Hardy to zone 9.

Grape-Scented Sage (Salvia melissodora) - The leaves

and seeds have been used for healing for thousands of

years. Native to Mexico, hardy to zone 9.

GROW NOTESWith good drainage, it’s very easy to grow this herb

outdoors, providing you have a spot in full sun. It’s also

easy to grow indoors, making winter fresh sage possible,

given ample light. While these types of salvia can reach

24-70 inches tall, depending on the species grown, you can

keep plants at 12-18 inches high with regular harvesting.

Most sage plants produce well for three years, and are

evergreen in the right climate. Growing indoors will allow

you to enjoy not just fresh winter herbs, but also the more

tender sages from South America.

Common insect problems are mites and whitefly, and like

many plants that prefer sharp drainage, sage can be prone

to fungal infections. While the infection can harm and

dwarf the plant, most of the time it does not kill sage. Give

it the conditions it thrives in for a more efficient harvest,

and trouble-free crop.

Tradit ional Chinese medic ine has used sage tea sinc e 835 A.D.

SAGE I GARDEN CULTURE

47

A NATURAL ANTIOXIDANT, DISINFECTANT,

AND DEODORIZER Lemon - Sage Butter Chicken Scallopine The trick to getting the coating to stick to your meat for these

kinds of dishes is not messing with the breading steps.

Ingredients

• 4 chicken breast halves, pounded thin

• 1/4 cup flour

• 2 eggs, beaten

• 1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs

• Salt and pepper

• 1/4 cup canola oil

• 1 stick butter

• 20 fresh sage leaves

• 1 lemon, juiced

Directions

Put a large skillet on medium-high heat,

and heat the oil.

Dip your chicken into the flour, then the egg. Now dip into bread

crumbs - pressing them slightly so they stick.

Gently lay the breaded meat into the hot oil. Cook until golden,

about 4 minutes per side. Remove and set aside.

Melt the butter to the skillet. Now add the sage and lemon juice.

Cook for about 1 minute until the sage leaves are slightly crispy.

Pour the butter sauce into a heatproof measuring cup. Set the

fried leaves aside.

Put one chicken scallopini on each plate, drizzle with the butter

sauce, scatter some of the crispy sage leaves on top.

Serve with potatoes or creamy pasta, and a crisp salad. A lovely

dinner in a jiffy using garden-fresh sage.

Serves 4. Recipe adopted from FramedCooks.com

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N U T R I E N T SStandard vegetative nutrients or organic fertilizer is fine.

There are no special nutritional needs.

H A R V E S TGiven the conditions described above, expect the first

summer harvest after transplanting in 4-5 weeks, and 5-7

weeks in winter. You get multiple harvests if your plants

are robust, since sages are perennials and subshrubs.

Greenhouse yields in an NFT system are: 4 lbs. per 10

feet of trough in summer, and 1 lb. per 15 feet of trough in

winter. Under good grow lighting indoors you’ll get a little

heavier harvest in winter, and less in summer than the full

sun conditions in a greenhouse would produce.

By the way, this is a rather uncommon fresh-cut herb in

retail selections, at least in the United States, and may

present small growers with a great market crop, especially

during the winter holiday season.

C U L I N A R Y U S E SThere are a surprising number of ways to use fresh sage, so if

you thought this was all about poultry stuffing and sausages,

it’s time to expand your cuisine horizons. While the flavor of

just-cut sage leaves are milder than dried or frozen, the blue

flowers are subtler still. They make a lovely edible garnish

and salad ingredient, seasoned butter, simple syrup, and are

great with dried beans, corn, and mushrooms.

How much milder? A lot - substitute 5 ml of fresh for every

1 ml of dry sage any recipe calls for. It combines well with

bay, caraway, cutting celery, dried ginger, lovage, marjoram,

paprika, parsley, savory, and thyme.

Use your sage harvest for flavoring winter squash and

meats: veal, turkey, chicken, pork, and fish. It is good in

stews, stuffings, chowders and soups, marinades, casseroles,

sauces, and gravies. It can at times be a star ingredient, like

in Saltimbocca, where the fried leaves are both garnish and

seasoning. Once you’ve tried fried sage leaves, you might

find that they have uses that include snacking.

It pairs well with dairy, as in England’s traditional Sage

Derby cheese, where it’s also enjoyed with sautéed

onions. Germans use it to flavor beer, as well as sausages.

Italy uses it in lots of things besides Saltimbocca. Do some

culinary research online where you’ll find it combined with

a wide array of foods. You’ll soon be awash in new ways to

work sage into meals.3

WHAT’S GROWING ON I GARDEN CULTURE


1) St. Louis, Missouri

Downtown Greens UpAfter 2 years of planning, fund gathering, and location

scouting, Urban Harvest STL has finally started

construction for their Downtown garden, the Food Roof

Farm. No strangers to urban farming, they have good

food projects elsewhere in the city, but the Downtown

neighborhood is sorely lacking in plots of ground - for

anything, let alone growing fruits and vegetables.

Hitting the roof gives them 10,000 sq. ft. of space, and the

parking garage owner is totally thrilled with the project,

which will include a CSA and a school, and above St. Louis’

hub. Entirely run by volunteers, neighborhood residents

can join and harvest their own at Food Roof Farm. The

newly installed grow beds and tower gardens will begin

blooming this spring.

High five to Urban Harvest STL!

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2) Montreal, Quebec

Ain’t Nothin’ New“Nothing about urban agriculture is really revolutionary. It’s

simply a recreation of something that is very, very old.” That’s

how Mohamed Hage opened his TEDx talk at the Universite

de Montreal a couple of years ago. But what his company,

Lufa Farms, is doing is newsworthy. They’re accomplishing

great things in reviving fresh, local food with their rooftop

farms, and making food a sustainable thing.

Lufa’s Ahuntsic Farm was the world’s first commercial

rooftop greenhouse, and their Laval Farm is revolutionizing

urban agriculture. To some, massive hydroponic greenhouses

perched atop buildings in a cold climate scream energy waste,

but half their heat comes from the building below. Cities have

high levels of CO2, and Hage is recycling that waste too.

An idea that became a dream several years ago now produces

hundreds of tons of fresh food each year sustainably, employs

50 people, and began construction on a new farm in Boston

in Summer 2014. That’s one to grow on.

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GrowingWhere GrowingWho’s

What

WHAT’S GROWING ON I GARDEN CULTURE


4) Kelowna, British Columbia Laying Down the PickOnce a serious musician, the fresh lure of the soil inspired Curtis

Stone to trade his rock star aspirations in for a shovel and a hoe.

That was a few years ago, but thanks to a technique known as

SPIN farming, and a cycling trip through California where off-grid

and sustainable living grabbed his attention - Stone’s urban farm,

Green City Acres came to life. His evolution is a story in itself,

but his small plot intensive agriculture business has grown from

a personal passion to a sustainable business.

Like many urban farmers, large tracts of land are unfeasible. He’s

got greener things going on. Green City crops are grown on

portions of properties... the odd front yard or backyard available

for working through a rental agreement. Homeowners get

relieved of yard maintenance, and the added perks of enjoying

a share of their soil’s produce too. His harvests arrive at several

Kelowna restaurants, and the farmer’s market by pedal. In the

off-season, Stone spends his time as a SPIN farming consultant,

and keeps a busy speaking engagement calendar.

Curtis’ advice to other farmers? “If you’re not making money,

you’re doing it wrong.” He’s producing $50,000 on one-quarter

acre. Learn his secret @ SPINfarming.com3

3) Cleveland, Ohio

This Is ItThe place that grows local food, new jobs, and fresh

Americans organically and sustainably in a multi-faceted

program. Ohio City Farm on almost 7-acres of working

soil sits just a mile away from downtown Cleveland. From

breaking ground by horse-power in 2010, to ushering in a

neighborhood revival, and giving new hope to refugees -

there’s a lot of model urban farm to learn about here.

Across the river from bustling commerce downtown is

usually not the up and coming neighborhood in most cities,

but that urban decay is the only reason that Ohio City Farm

exists. It began small and spread, as did its focus. Growing

fresh food in a food desert gave birth to a ripe artisanal

area, and home to one of only 11 Refugee Empowerment

Agricultural Programs. They educate refugees with farming

backgrounds, guiding them into a brighter future in America

through their roots.

The largest US contiguous urban farm wasn’t born overnight.

Learn more @ j.mp/reap-farm & j.mp/OHC-farm

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it is our job to lead youths toward health and preservation

52

BY KYLE L. LADENBURGER

TEACH I NG YOUTH T O GARDE N I NSPI RE S

H EALTH Y F O OD CHOIC E S LATER ON

T E A C H ‘ E M YO U N G

GARDEN EDUCATION I GARDEN CULTURE


These days it would seem

that the easiest thing for us

to do would be to blame our

parents for providing such

innutritious products to their

children. But I’m not sure if

that is actually the best, and

most noble course of action.

When my generation was

young there was little to no

evidence that processed food

was a hazard to our health.

Mix that with fast food and

processed foods being so

cheap and easy to prepare

- that hasn’t changed much.

And then compound that

with the fast food dollar menu

being born, which completely

solidified fast, cheap, and easy meals.

This all begs the inevitable question: what was a busy,

overworked parent to do? However, that was a long time

ago, and things have changed indeed. We are now truly

seeing the effects such a poor diet can have on one’s health,

especially when it comes to children. By now most of us likely

understand the fact that processed foods are unnatural, and

that our bodies need real whole food nutrition to stay strong

and healthy. So, I think it is time to realize that we have reached

an age where ignorance for the sake of saving time and money

should no longer be considered acceptable, especially when it

comes to the health and development of a growing child.

Now, as my generation enters into our 30’s, and many of

us begin to have children of our own, the negative health

consequences of a diet high in processed foods are becoming

even more evident. We live in a world fueled by information,

and every day we see new statistics that help drive us try to

make healthier choices for our own bodies. We can read the

fact that in 2012, 29.1 million

Americans or 9.3% of the

population had full on

diabetes (a disease that

is becoming prevalent in

developed countries), and

that this number consistently

rises on average 1% every two

years, and that nearly 25,000

children are newly diagnosed

each year, not including

those who go undiagnosed

(Source: National Diabetes

Statistics Report, 2014).

These numbers help keep

diabetes comfortably within

the top 10 causes of death in

our country each year.

After learning that, we may

stumble upon another website such as the one for the Center

for Disease Control (CDC) who reports that “childhood

obesity has more than doubled in children, and quadrupled in

adolescents over the past 30 years.” In 1980, 7% of children

6-11 years of age were obese, and that number jumped to

18% in 2012, and a similar increase in adolescents (12-19 years

old) where the number jumped from 5% in 1980 to 21% in

2012. Now they consider more than one-third of children

and adolescents as overweight or obese. There is also much

published data on childhood obesity being a leading cause of

a whole list of health problems as these children grow older.

It’s clearly evident that something needs to change. So, as a

generation, we read these numbers, and many of us get an

unsettled, almost sickening feeling as we think to ourselves -

how could anyone let this happen? Not only that, but what can

we do to change this trend?

The bottom line is that children who are obese are likely to

still be obese as adults, and will be more at risk to develop

littleny / Shutterstock.com

I was born in the summer of 1985, and the generation that I so emphatically belong to is one that in many respects

was the guinea pig test generation for modern food science. As children we had a first hand, participatory role

in the rise of the processed food market. For many of us, real nutritious foods, like fresh fruits and vegetables,

represented a small portion of our overall diet. The other part? Filled with fast food, low-grade microwave din-

ners, and countless other products designed in a lab by scientists blending food-like substances with chemicals to

create a “safe” to eat packaged meal that has a ridiculously long shelf life.

THE GUINEA PIG TEST GENERATION

FOR MODERN FOOD SCIENCE

every day we see new statistics that help drive us try to make healthier choices


GARDEN EDUCATION I GARDEN CULTURE

health problems such as heart disease, diabetes, and many

types of cancer. A contributing factor to childhood obesity,

along with lack of physical exercise, is the heavy consumption

of processed foods. If ignorance is the villain that got us into

this mess, then information and knowledge shall be our first

weapons to fight against it.

It’s of utmost importance to teach children that making

health conscious nutritional and dietary choices will help to

keep them healthy and fit their entire lives. And I believe that

my generation will be the one that can truly make an impact

towards positive change. With my generation we have seen a

strong push towards locally sourced foods, organics, farmers

markets, less chemical additives, and the slow food movement

in general. If we stay true to these movements, and as we begin

to have our own children, we can have a positive influence on

the next generation, so they will hopefully grow up emulating

the same types of food choices that we make.

Naturally, as we begin to create more healthy diets for

ourselves, this in turn will impact the types of foods marketed

to us and sold in stores. Being consumers, our dollars help

shape the products we see in the market place. If we start

moving our money away from the processed foods over to

the more nutritious healthy foods the suppliers will notice and

they, in turn, will provide more products of a similar fashion to

satisfy demand.

One of the most encouraging aspects that I see when looking

at my generation is that we have created such an awesome

popularity surge in home gardening. If a certain food is not

available locally, or if we don’t completely trust the provider,

we know we have the best solution: to grow our own.

Gardening is a foolproof way for us to supply ourselves

and our families with healthy, nutritious food for the rest

of our lives, or at least until we can garden no more. With

a big enough garden, and a plentiful reserve of jars, we can

even preserve much of our harvest, and enjoy the bounty

year round.

A word that instantly comes to mind is self-sustainability.

Our love of gardening is also a perfect way to show

children, even at an early age, what real healthy foods

are, and how they grow. This, in turn, can help them to

develop a passion for not only eating fruits and vegetable,

but growing them as well.

When gardening with a child it is important to remember

to keep it simple, but also to have fun. Children easily lose

focus if an activity is too challenging, or just not any fun.

Some garden activities that are suitable for participation

by children include: planting seeds, watering plants,

harvesting fruits/veggies, and even some minor garden

maintenance like light weeding, and pruning of dead or

unwanted foliage. Letting them help in different aspects

in the garden will not only teach them how plants grow,

and the healthy hard work involved in growing them, it will

also make them feel a rightfully deserved sense of pride in

what they have done. As adults (parents or otherwise) it is

important that we show excitement and pride with these

gardening activities to encourage the child to continue

down the this path as both a gardener, and as an individual

that makes healthy food decisions more often than not.

I will be honest. I don’t always make the wisest decision

with every meal I eat, and I have those cravings for junk

food just like anyone else. But the important thing is that

I am more conscious of these choices, and I try to make

better ones in the future. If we continue to try and not

just give up, we can really get the momentum going in a

positive direction for the future. We may even help shift

the tides just a bit - away from the fast and easy processed

world, back to the natural, locally grown, real food side.

Back to how people ate for thousands of years, straight

from the earth.

This all starts with people supporting local farmers,

local farmers markets, and encouraging the growth of

more small farms in their area. We need to create an

environment in which eating and living healthy is not

only promoted, but where it is the norm. And as adults,

especially parents of young children, it is our job to work

at leading the youth in the direction toward health and

preservation so that, when they grow up, the choice to

eat healthy will be one of little thought, only action. 3

Plants need nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), and other nutrients for healthy growth. These

are elements, and as such, there is no difference between the nitrogen (N) from an organic nutrient, or a

synthetic nutrient. Elemental nitrogen is the same exact thing, regardless of the source.

The most important (and most interesting) of these is

nitrogen (N). Unfortunately, plants can’t absorb pure

elemental nitrogen (N) directly. There isn’t a way to

feed plants a pile of single nitrogen (N) atoms. There

is plenty of nitrogen gas (N2) in air, but plants can’t

split the two nitrogen atoms apart, they are bound too

tightly together, and so nitrogen gas (N2) isn’t a good

nitrogen source for plants.

What garden plants most often use to allow them to take

up nitrogen (N) is a form known as nitrate (NO3), which

is a nitrogen (N) atom connected with three oxygen (O)

atoms. Nitrate (NO3) is easy for the plants to separate

the nitrogen (N) from the oxygen (O), and therefore

makes for a good source of nitrogen (N) (woody plants

like trees can also use ammonium (NH4)).

Plant material that has fallen to the ground, and animals

leaving waste material behind are two sources of nitrogen

(N) that are naturally occurring in untended wilderness.

To emulate this, we get organic nutrients from naturally

occurring materials with minimal processing. One

advantage to this is that the materials can often be

collected cheaply (i.e. leaves, lawn clippings, livestock

manure, etc.), and require little processing before use,

often just maturing or composting. Compost (3-1-2) is

very similar to what happens in nature when leaves, and

other plant material fall to the ground, and nobody is

around to rake it up. Blood meal (12-0-0) and alfalfa

meal (2-1-2) are two other organic fertilizers that are

based on things found to supply plants in a natural

setting with nutrition. It is as these things decompose

(or compost) that bacteria and fungi convert them into

ammonia (NH3), and ammonium (NH4), which break

down further into nitrites, and finally nitrates.

Another organic source of ammonia is the waste

products of animals, which contain nitrogen in the form

of urea (NH2)2(CO). The urea is converted to ammonia

(NH3) by bacteria using the enzyme ureasec. This

process takes time with spread out availability, because

the bacteria generate the ammonia as they get to it.

I like to compare organic nutrients to eating oatmeal for

breakfast, they’re bulky, and release their nutrients over

time. Some forms of organic fertilizers can continue to

release nutrients for more than one season, improving

the general long-term health of the soil. Because the

percentage of nutrient to total mass is usually lower,

the NPK values for organic nutrients are also generally

lower than with chemical-based solutions. Because they

ORGAN IC

C O M P A R E O R G A N I C N U T R I E N T S T O

E A T I N G O A T M E A L F O R B R E A K F A S T

BY GRUBBYCUP

56

VS.

are closer to a natural state, the NPK values for organic

products will also be less exact than chemical based

fertilizers, which allow you to make to exact recipes. This

is why organic nutrients are less prone to overfeeding,

the exception being high ammonia ‘hot’ manures. You

can use compost, worm casting, and fish excrement in

almost unlimited quantities without causing ‘nute burn’.

Since organic nutrients are less processed, they are also

more prone to clogging hydroponic systems that rely on

sprayers and pumps.

However, there is more than one way to make ammonia

(NH3) it can also be a manufactured chemical made

from nitrogen gas (N2) by applying heat, pressure, and

an iron catalyst. Ammonium sulfate ((NH4)2SO4), and

ammonium nitrate (NH4)(NO3) are other manufactured

forms of nitrogen that allow for later parts of the process

to be skipped over. Any of these allow for a short cut

in the process, and makes the nitrogen available a lot

faster, but does not last as long before giving up the

nitrogen it contains.

Chemical nutrients are more like having an energy drink

for breakfast, they release their nutrients quickly, and

then you need more to avoid a ‘crash’. Since chemical

nutrients are shortcuts to the natural process, they can

allow for a greater level of control of how much, and

when the nitrogen becomes available to the plants. This

can allow for a higher nutrient level, and resulting increase

in performance than is possible with organic nutrients.

With this level of control comes responsibility however,

as introducing an overabundance becomes a much more

likely temptation, which can result in ‘nute burn’, or

overloading and damaging natural systems with the

runoff. Adding a chemical nitrate (NO3) for example,

allows for skipping the entire nitrate (NO3) creation

process, and immediately supplies nitrogen (N) to the

plants, but it is also very water-soluble, and what isn’t

taken up by the plant will quickly wash downstream

(unless recirculated).

Overdosing plants with chemicals can imbalance a

natural system to the point that it becomes inhospitable

to the beneficial bacteria and fungi normally responsible

for the process. The ability to better fine tune the

available nutrients also allows for ease in imbalance

creation, and smaller margin for error. Because chemical

fertilizers are shortcuts to the process, using them to

treat nutrient deficiencies will tend to give faster results

than an organic solution, which is better suited for long-

term release. Depending on the exact chemical used,

there may also be “leftover” residue after plants take

up the ammonia or nitrate they need, which can build

up in the system over time. This is where the practice of

watering heavily without nutrients for a time (flushing)

comes from, to help wash away any leftover chemical

residue buildup.

Regardless of the source, in acidic conditions (pH less

than 7) the ammonia (NH3) picks up another hydrogen

(H) atom, and converts to ammonium (NH4). This is

part of why pH can have an effect on plant growth, if

CHEMICAL NUTRIENTS ARE MORE LIKE HAVING AN

ENERGY DRINK FOR BREAKFAST

ORGAN IC ORGANIC VS. SYNTHETIC I GARDEN CULTURE


VS. SYNTHETICNUTRIENTS

The differences between chemical and organic nutrition

are not as absolute as they are often portrayed. They

both use the same process to supply the same elements

to the plants. The primary differences are in how many

shortcuts they offer, and what remains afterwards.

They are both tools you can use successfully when

done correctly. Although purists on both sides may

strongly disagree, I believe there is little reason not

to make use of the benefits of both in moderation.

Plants awaiting organic nutrients to become available

may benefit from a little chemical boost to tide them

over, and long-lasting organic materials can help create

a buffer for fast acting chemical nutrient gardens.

Sometimes a big hearty high fiber breakfast is what a

person needs to start the day, and sometimes you just

need a good strong cup of coffee to get your eyes to

open. As always, understanding why you are adding

something to your garden, and how it works, goes a

long way toward picking the one that’s right for you. 3

the pH is too high, this inhibits conversion. Beneficial

bacteria then convert the ammonium (NH4) to nitrate

(NO3) which can then be used by the garden plants.

Nitrogen from organic sources follows a path of several

steps to become the nitrate (NO3) that plants need.

Chemical nutrients allow skipping some (or all) of these

conversion steps, which starts the nitrogen (N) further

along the path, and closer to the finished nitrate (NO3).

Phosphorus is available naturally from organic composts,

rock phosphate, or bone meal - or it can come from

chemicals such as ammoniated superphosphate (5-

50-0), or ammonium phosphate (18-46-0). Overuse

of phosphorus is one of the sources of environmental

pollution.

Potassium is also obtainable from organic sources like

compost (3-1-2), kelp (1-0-4), or greensand (0-0-3),

or from a chemical such as potassium nitrate (13-0-

44).

ORGANIC NUTRIENTS

ARE LESS PRONE TOOVERFEEDING

ORGANIC VS. SYNTHETIC I GARDEN CULTURE

ORGANIC PRODUCTS WILL ALSO BE LESS EXACT

THAN CHEMICAL BASED FERTILIZERS

ORGAN IC

VS.SYNTHETIC


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FOOD PATENTS I GARDEN CULTURE

You should have the wherewithal to see that their plan does

not support sustainability, it detracts from it. Even if you’re

not a farmer, surely you can understand the implications

behind owning the global food supply, of having control over

who can plant what crops.

Some Perspective

A single small tomato easily contains enough seed to

create 30-100 tomato plants. Those 30-100 plants will

each produce at least 30 tomatoes each. Those 30 new

plants each bearing 30 tomatoes apiece gives a harvest

of 900 tomatoes. Everyone of

those 900 tomatoes contains a

minimum of 30 seeds that will

successfully germinate, leading to

2,700 new tomato plants which

equals 81,000 tomatoes with just

30 fruits apiece. Pretty incredible, and we’re using super

conservative numbers.

All that food grown at no added cost from the “scraps” of

just one tomato, which most people casually throw away! They

don’t understand that they’re tossing so much into the garbage.

BUT this only works with open-pollinated, and heirloom

seeds, NOT with hybrid and GM seeds - which are possibly

sterile. Besides, it’s illegal to sow saved patented seeds

anyways, because it violates biotech patent rights. You must

always buy new seed, always pay for their permission.

The problem with

Before the GMO

Using the tomato example, being an heirloom instead of

a hybrid, local communities could take one tomato, and

propagate it into hundreds, even thousands of plants. All

without a monopolistic controlling coalition of biotech

companies profiting as they violate the age-old laws of nature,

farming, and food.

That’s what genetically modified crop supporters and

proponents just don’t understand. By design, GMOs with the

associated synthetic and chemical inputs are the complete

opposite of sustainability, the reverse of a solution to world

hunger. This actively funnels control of our global food

supply into the hands of a few, leaving the population

at their mercy. It goes against history lessons, science,

and morals to actually support GM crops, and say it’s

advanced agriculture, and increases sustainability.

Imagine the massive cash flow realized when every mammal

and fowl in captivity or domestication, along with every man,

woman, and child alive on Earth gets their daily bread from a

handful of big companies. Food isn’t a luxury. You need it just

to survive, along with water, and shelter. Now add the seed

you sell that goes into biofuels.

Seed patents made possible by genetic modifications is all

about the profits, it’s about ensuring continual coffer wealth

through domination. 3

When a chemical company announces: “We’re going to

solve the global food problem by patenting the food supply,

and force farmers to pay higher prices for seed that cannot

be saved. Sure, we realize humans have saved seed to grow

next year’s food since the beginning of agriculture. However,

you aren’t allowed to save seed according to your contract

with The Chemical Company. Instead, farmers must now

spend more money per seed, must buy new seed each year,

and use only our brands of inputs.”

their plan does not support sustainability, it detracts from it

Food Patents

BY AGENT GREEN

it goes against history lessons,

science, and morals

BY THEO TEKSTRA – MARKETING MANAGER GAVITA HOLLAND BV

There is sometimes so much legend, and so little science in this industry. It is time for some myth busting, to allow

a fresh breeze to move through the growing realm.

Did you see this Family Guy episode, “You Know What Grinds My Gears?” It’s one of my favorites, where

Peter goes medieval on television over issues bothering him. I’ll use a bit more science, and a little less gut

feeling, but these are issues that really get to me.

PPF versus PPFDLet’s look at the output

specifications first, forgetting

lumens, because we’re using grow

light. Lumens are for humans - not

plants. So, what defines the total

output of a fixture is the total

output of photons in the PAR

region (400-700 nm), measured in

micromoles per second (photons

per second). This is also called

the photosynthetic photon flux,

or PPF.

Light intensity on a surface in PAR spectrum is called

PPFD. Now there is only one “D” difference from

PPF, but that makes a big difference. PPFD is intensity,

measured in micromoles per second, per square meter

(μmol s-1 m-2)! So, remember: PPF is total output.

PPFD is intensity at a certain spot, and depends where

you measure it under the fixture.

If you have a lamp with a PPF of 1000 μmol s-1, and you

spread this light over two square meters, you would get

an average of 500 μmol s-1 m-2 intensity on that surface

(total light divided by surface). It’s like Lumen and lux,

but for PAR spectrum and measured in photons. Lumen

You know what

S O M E M A N U F A C T U R E R S

B O M B A R D U S W I T H R E A L L Y R I D I C U L O U S

C L A I M S

GRINDS my GEARS?

I sometimes feel like I am on

a crusade against ignorance.

It’s not that I’m the brightest

scientist (or a scientist at all for

that matter), but the claims that

some manufacturers bombard

us with are really ridiculous, and

sometimes even harm their own

industry. Let’s take a look at LED

fixture manufacturers.

Before we do though, here is my

personal opinion about LEDs. I

love LED lighting. Really! Yes, I

work for a horticultural lighting

company and yes, we do research in LED systems.

The reason why we don’t sell LED systems for HPS

replacement in horticulture yet is that we think they

are still too expensive. Another reason is that many

of our customers actually require the heat from HPS

systems.

So back to the LED fixture manufacturers. There are

two major things that grind my gears: The output

specification, and hollow phrases, such as “replaces

a 1000W HID lamp,” and “reduce 60% of the power

used.” Both are actually connected.

62

is the total output of a lamp, lux is the intensity at a

certain distance from that lamp, with the light spread

over a certain surface (lux is lumens per square meter).

Measuring total output of a lampTo measure the total output of a lamp or fixture, we

use an integrating sphere or a photogoniometer. These

(calibrated!) instruments integrate all the light, and give

you an accurate measurement of the total output of a

lamp or fixture. Measuring light under the fixture on

a grid, and integrating

the values is very

inaccurate, specifically

with a low number of

measurements on a

small surface.

Now let’s take a HPS

lamp as an example.

The double ended HPS lamp does let’s say 2000 μmol

out of the reflector in total. So spread over a 2 square

meter surface I would get about 1000 μmol per second,

per square meter intensity. Easy, right? But now I hold

a light meter about 40 cm from the lamp, and I measure

more than 4000 μmol s-1 m-2. How is that possible?

That’s twice the PPF of the lamp?

No, it isn’t. 2000 μmol

s-1 concentrated over

just half a square meter

gives you that intensity

(ppf/surface). So a

measurement under

a lamp at a certain

distance, specifically if

it is a deep lamp with a concentrated beam (as in lensed

LEDs) says nothing (at all!) about that light or fixture.

SPECIFICATIONSPPFD at 30 cmNow look at the (Chinese) LED specifications. Some

actually say PPFD of x at y cm from the fixture (which

you know now is absolutely rubbish information), but

some even go as far as to call this PPF (in a footnote

they say @ 30 cm from fixture).

So, with my 270W plasma light I measure 3000 μmol

s-1 m-2 close to the glass, so it replaces 1,5 1000W

HPS fixture, right? Wrong. You fell for the hype again.

How do I compare?You need about as much LED light as you

need HPS light to get the same yields.

As LED is not twice as efficient as HPS

(equal to, or at most a little better in a

limited spectrum) these fixtures do not

replace a 1000W HPS lamp at just 40%

of the power. When you want to replace

1000W HPS for LED fixtures, you need 1000W LED.

Then look at the difference in price.

LED fixture manufacturers that specify the output by

PPFD at a distance don’t know anything about lighting,

or do know, but want to fool you. Either way, you

shouldn’t trust them. A 400W LED fixture uses 60%

less energy than a 1000W HID lamp. So does a

400W CFL or a 400W incandescent lamp. 60% less

energy? Yes. 400W is only 40% of 1000W, but I

also promise you 60% less yield in a high intensity

lighting production room.

Don’t just go for the hype, keep thinking! 3

LED SPECIFICATIONS I GARDEN CULTURE

GRINDS my GEARS?

Y O U N E E D A B O U T A S M U C H L E D L I G H T A S

Y O U N E E D H P S L I G H T T O G E T T H E S A M E

Y I E L D S

4 0 0 W I S O N L Y 4 0 % O F 1 0 0 0 W ,

B U T I A L S O P R O M I S E Y O U

6 0 % L E S S Y I E L D


64

THE BEST TOMATO I GARDEN CULTURE

There are three ways we use tomatoes. Slicing fruits,

salad enhancers, and canners. Naturally, slicers work

just as nicely in salads as cherry and grape types,

once you cut them up. Slicing tomatoes also can really

well, if you’re putting up tomato juice

and soups. Should you want salsa and

spaghetti sauce for the pantry that is

less watery, this calls for adding some

paste tomatoes with few seeds and a

meatier interior, like Romas, though

you will find some slicers listed in seed

catalogs as excellent for sauces too. The latter being

less juicy, and having thicker sidewall meat than slicers,

but juicier than a paste type.

So here you are with your selection of tomatoes growing

nicely, but you seem to have a problem. The plants gave

you an excellent pile of tomatoes and suddenly stopped

bearing fruit. What’s up with that? There are no more

fresh tomatoes for sandwiches and salads!

You picked a ‘determinate’ cultivar.

Some people like the idea of compact, bush-shaped

plants. These will sound best suited to the small indoor

garden too, where space is at a premium for a variety

of crops. Determinate tomatoes also don’t require

the trouble of pruning or trellising. The shorter ones

might not even need a cage. Nifty, yes, but they also are

best suited to canning, because they produce the bulk

of their fruits all at once. Then it’s over. So much for

summer-long fresh eating.

By the same token, if you’ve selected a variety of

indeterminate plants with dreams of a wide assortment

what’s the

of flavors in the salsas you’ll put up

with the different tasting fruits... you

might find that you’re not getting

enough tomatoes at one time for

canning. Yes, you can acquire quite a

pile picking a few every day and storing them in the

refrigerator until you have enough to brew up a batch.

But the longer you store fresh tomatoes, the flavors

begin disintegrating, and the odds are that the older

fruits will begin to develop bad spots. Especially piled in

a home refrigerator. The sheer weight of this mountain

will begin to bruise the fruit on the bottom, and cause

stems to poke through skins.

You can’t can with anything but perfect, unblemished

tomatoes. Bad spots, pressure cracks, and stem pokes

are a prime location for bacteria to move in. There are

other ways to preserve these less than perfect fruits,

such as chopping and freezing, or slow roasting and

freezing, but this likely is not what you wanted in the

first place.

There are those who have the idea that determinate

tomatoes are something created for the food system.

They weren’t. There are a good number of determinate

tomato cultivars found within the heirloom category.

That depends. What do you want from this plant? To-

matoes that have great flavor, you say? But there is more

to it than that. What is the plan for these delicious fruits?

“There are three ways we use tomatoes”

“Sweet tomatoes are not

candidates for canning”

They will have smaller

fruits. Some will be

on the paste to sauce

tomato end of the

scale, and others are

simply slicers that

top out at about 3 inches wide and 8 ounces in weight

that ripen early providing cold climate gardens with a

harvest. Big food did not invent the canning tomato.

People have been home canning tomatoes in jars since

canning jar invention in 1858.

By the way, if you’re growing tomatoes for canning, you

do not want the low-acid types. These will not have

good shelf life, and may present you with spoiled sauces

and salsas, no matter how careful you are at putting

up only perfect fruits. Any recipe that incorporates

high and low acid foods strikes a delicate balance, and

if your tomatoes are low-acid, it does away with part of

what preserves the stuff in the jar. Sweet tomatoes are

not candidates for canning, even if they do come from

a determinate plant, so beware of catalog descriptions

about super sweet flavor for this use.

So, what is the best tomato? It fits your needs. For most

people, a mix of plants is just right to give them the best

tomato for everything.3

& Food Sovereignty

BY AMBER FIELDS

66

No. words : 640

No. pages : 1.5

Written by : Eric Coulombe

Resources / Pictures :

Checked by : Tammy 2x

Approved by :

Headlines : “explore new ways of gardening”

“growing all types of food”

“a new type of gardening show”

The Homegrown Expo

are only 500, because that old stuff won’t turn big annual

profits. After being acquired by Monsanto, Seminis actually

removed some 2,000 heirloom plants from the market, all

quietly stored away in corporate seed banks where they

will turn to dust.

That’s a huge loss of seed diversity. They can’t patent and

control them. Your ability to save seed, and enjoy the same

crop year after year isn’t good for business. There’s no

money in that - not from the seed itself, or the special

plant pesticides the Big 6 makes to help you bring in a

harvest successfully.

Big Ag wants to monopolize home

garden plants?

Do the math - it’s an ever-growing market of some $36

billion dollars today, and expected to surpass $50 billion

by 2018. Since life itself depends on seeds, this foolproof

market spells big profit every year perpetually. Every

living thing on Earth needs to eat,

and food starts with a seed, or is

sustained by things that come from

seed. They’re after everything on

your plate that you grew too.

These corporations can destroy

you financially for ignoring their

patent rights. They hire people to track down anyone

growing their plants without permission. Propagating

patented plants from seeds or cuttings is theft. You have

to pay for the right to grow them.

This is a global problem.

Monsanto and Syngenta already own more than 50%

of seed varieties of tomato, paprika, and cauliflower

registered in the EU. In this arena Enza Zaden, and Bayer-

owned Nunhems are active on the scene of patenting

food plants, which abruptly quadrupled in recent years.

While many believe that patenting plants requires genetic

YOU’RE BEING RELIEVED OF

GREATER FOOD FREEDOMS

Concerned about pesticides, chemicals, and GMOs on your plate? Time to broaden your awareness

of what’s happening in the world of seed that produces food. While everyone focuses on genetically

modified crops and ingredients - food sovereignty and seed diversity is disappearing.

What does that mean?

You’re being relieved of greater food freedoms. Your right

to grow food without purchasing or seeking permission,

to save seeds from your garden, is in jeopardy. A dilemma

that stems from the patenting of ornamental plants and

steady profits.

“Few gardeners comprehend the true scope of their garden

heritage, or how much is in immediate danger of being lost

forever.”

~-- Kent Whealey, Seed Savers Exchange

Now it is one thing for the breeder of bushes and posies

to license his years of labor in arriving at new coloration

or growing trait that cannot be reproduced from the seed

said plant generates. But it’s totally different when the

patent office hands legal ownership of food propagation

over to a global corporation. But said ornamental plant

breeder wouldn’t likely hunt down, and sue, the average

gardener for dividing up a clump

that’s lost vigor, or outgrown its

space. If you propagate patented

ornamental plants, and start selling

them though, the plant police just

might arrive.

However, most plant patents,

whether edible or ornamental, are owned by the Big 6

- you know, that handful of transnational corporations:

Monsanto, Dow, Syngenta, DuPont, Mitsui, and Aventis.

These companies control 98% of the seeds worldwide,

not just farm seeds, but home garden seeds too - fruits,

vegetables, flowers, shrubs, etc. These entities go out of

their way to find anyone infringing on their rights and their

profits.

Non-patentable plants evicted.

In the early 1980s there were 5,000 different cultivars of

fruits and vegetable listed in seed catalogs. Today there

SEED DIVERSITY I GARDEN CULTURE


SEED DIVERSITY I GARDEN CULTURE


modification, late 2013 - early 2014 saw the EPO granting

patents on conventional hybrids, which is possible in the

US and Canada too. Monsanto tried to get an EU patent on

a regular garden cultivar in 2014 too, but they tossed out

the application for presenting fraudulent evidence.

It’s not just mega companies either.

Burpee Seeds’ owner, George Ball, is upset over his century-

old company being labeled as unsafe to purchase from, yet

he refuses to sign the Safe Seed Pledge. Not because he has

lost control to Monsanto’s subsidiary Seminis (the world’s

largest developer of all fruit and vegetable plants), but

because he doesn’t ‘know’ the people behind the pledge.

A typical Ball point of view, the Center for Responsible

Genetics didn’t spring from his plantsmen realm.

But you really have to take the

Safe Seed List with a grain of salt,

because it includes Seeds of Change

- a company owned by candy giant,

Mars, Inc. Surprised? Don’t be, it’s

a subsidiary acquired for mapping

the cacao tree genome. They say it’s to make the crop

sustainable, but some entity will modify that genome,

patent their improved version, and control the cacao bean

industry. It’s the obvious outcome in today’s world.

Smaller whales join the club.

Buying seed from Gurneys, Henry Fields, or Thompson

Morgan US? Ordering organic inputs from Gardens Alive?

These are all owned by catalog monopoly king, Niles Kinek

under the Scarlet Tanager and IGP Acquisitions umbrellas.

Amassing a dozen well-established plant businesses gives

you incredible knowledge and breeding talent, so it’s no

surprise that this conglomerate dove into the patented

food plant pool with a 2014 application to the U.S. Patent

Office for a new variety of grapes crossed with muscadines.

Seed industry consolidation has many layers and purposes.

You cannot be overly selective when choosing where to

buy seeds. Monsanto’s purchase of Seminis in 2005 made

ensuring your seed order doesn’t support their interests

harder to track. The Safe

Seed list includes companies

who do sell seed from

Seminis, but as J.W. Jung

states on their website, the

named varieties procured

through Seminis they offer are not GMOs, but well-known

old varieties in big demand. Seminis has been around a long

time, and is responsible for many beloved garden fruits

and vegetables, some since the 1950s when it was known

as Petoseeds.

Sticking strictly to heirlooms?

This isn’t the answer to preserving seed diversity. Thanks to

trademarks, we have plants known by several names. One

seed company with a trademark

on a certain heirloom plant name

can market the plant as such, while

the rest of the garden catalogs

must list it under a different name.

Talk about confusion. How would

anyone know the real identity of the plants we’re growing?

You think they’ve preserved several similar things, when

they are really all the same, so we actually have less

diversity than it seems.

It isn’t totally hopeless.

Some concerned plant breeders recognize the dangers.

They’re working to preserve your food sovereignty and

seed diversity. Their plan launched in April 2014 with the

Save The Seed campaign held at the Wisconsin College of

Agriculture introducing the Open Source Seed Initiative.

Getting seed here requires signing a pledge that you will

only grow food with it,

and that no portion of said

plants, or their seed, will

be modified - genetically,

or otherwise. You also have

the right to save the seeds

from your garden. 3

Learn more:• bit.ly/seed-house-tangle

• bit.ly/grape-patent

• bit.ly/seminis-home-seeds

• bit.ly/seeds-of-change-indeed

• bit.ly/open-source-seed

THEY CONTROL 98% OF THE SEEDS

WORLDWIDE

YOU REALLY HAVE TO TAKE THE SAFE SEED

LIST WITH A GRAIN OF SALT

It wasn’t until I was about 13 or 14 that I actually started

gardening. I asked my mother if I could tend her garden, and

dig another plot in our lawn where I could grow more stuff,

in a sunnier spot. I tended that garden for almost a decade,

throughout all my high school and my college years. When I

finally moved out with my girlfriend, now wife and partner,

we lived in the city, and never had room for a real garden.

It wasn’t long before I discovered that you couldn’t grow

food in windows. Well, not in Montreal anyway. I was really

stuck - no space, no sun, and no more garden.

In 1994 indoor gardening was completely unknown to me,

as it is to most people today. So, I played around with a

bunch of inexpensive grow lights to aid my plants through

the bleak winter months. It was about that time I visited my

first hydroponics store too. My initial results were poor,

but the potential was obvious.

In 2002 I was self-employed, my wife was pregnant, and

a customer and friend of mine Dave H. from Brite-Lite

(Canada’s oldest hydroponics company) in Quebec made

me an offer to join the team. He wanted me as their

sales guy. I loved it, and spent four years working all over

Canada and the US selling indoor gardening fertilizers

and equipment. My old love for growing was evident as

I blossomed in this industry. I didn’t want to sell things I

have never used so I built a grow room, or grow tent in

every apartment and house we rented. I grew, using every

hydroponic method I could think of, I even invented a few.

I spent the next 10 years as a hydro rep, working for 3

companies, selling countless different products in countries

all around the world. In the process I learned everything I

could about hydroponics, and organic gardening techniques.

I was totally hooked, and knew that indoor gardening was

going to become a big part of my future.

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

apartment on Clark Blvd. Where a plant could grow, she would have one there, and they always looked great.

She told us her secret was foliar spraying whole unpasteurized milk. A trick I have never tried myself. It was

definitely her who passed on to me the love of plants.

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

70

Eight years ago when I decided to build my own home,

an indoor garden was optional. Because we designed the

home ourselves I could get creative. So I built a small garden

in the back corner of the basement over a protruding cap

rock, basically the only space my wife would let me use.

It has been a work in progress ever since. I used it more

to test products when I was sales rep, constantly changing

systems or products. But since starting with the magazine

it has become something I spend more thought, time, and

effort on. I reflected on all the ways I have grown things

over the years, the projects I have consulted on, and tried

to come up with not only the best garden for me, but a

great garden, and easy for anyone.

During the past 3 years I’ve had some amazing gardens.

My homemade aquaponics, the wall mounted NFT, and

the Ecogrow Wall (vertical garden) have been

my favorites. They have been the easiest

to manage, and gave me the largest

harvests.

Recently I decided to give my room a makeover. This time I was

going to do it right. First, I needed to clean the place up. Bugs had

always been a problem, I knew that the cleaner the room, the less

chance bugs could survive. So, I redid my floor in white high gloss

ceramic tiles. I also tiled the entrance room.

I also had to choose how I was going to garden, what systems

I would use. I choose my favorites, but with the family in mind.

We are very busy people with 2 kids (aged 5 and 11), a dog,

two cats, and we both work 40+ hour weeks. I also travel a

lot, and this garden had to run itself when I was gone. With

this is mind I designed our indoor family micro farm.


ERIC’S GARDEN I GARDEN CULTURE

71

BY ERIC COULOMBE

I discovered that you couldn’t

grow food in windows

LightsI like all lights really, or my plants do. Some seem a little

better or brighter, but this is not a commercial crop, and

everything seems to do great regardless of what lights I

have. With that said, there are a couple of notable products:

Gavita Plasma

I have used this light for a little over a year. It has visited

a couple of gardens, both as primary and supplemental

lighting. My tester had a very positive report, when used as

supplemental. I recently moved it into my garden, and the

Kale in the NFT are going crazy. Crazy good, I have never

seen Kale grow so fast. Love it.

Sunlight Supply’s LEC 315

Sent to me less than a year ago, this product hangs over the

DWC system, and the plants are doing great. Maybe too

good - the tomato is huge! I’m afraid it might takeover if I

don’t give it a haircut.

1000 HPS (Adjust-a-Wing)

Because I have 40 square feet of vertical growing space

I need light on the walls. This type of reflector is great

for the vertical garden. My bulb and ballast is not worth

mentioning, but I am planning to change it soon. It is a

digital ballast, I like the dimming feature when it gets hot.

MiniMax 150

My newest edition is the Minimax 150W, this small but

powerful light packs a huge punch. I was looking for a low

wattage system to install over my vertical walls. Down to

Earth Kent kindly sent two across the pond for me to try.

I absolutely love them. You wouldn’t believe it was only

150W.


The Systems I Chose

NFT, 39 x 73 inches,

made by Nutriculture in the UK.

There was never a question about NFT, but what

configuration remained undetermined. I have built several

homemade NFT gardens, and installed a commercial

system in the Korn garden. Nutriculture designed this one

for the hobby gardener, they come in several sizes, and

literally take 5 minutes to set up.

Vertical Wall, made by EcoGrowWall in Quebec

with 48 x 120 inches rock wool slabs.

I have grown with this system for the past 8 years. I love

vertical gardening. It is an amazing use of space, allowing my

not-so-big room almost 40 square feet of extra space. My

largest basil plant ever was grown in this system.

Deep Water Culture (DWC), 6-bucket system

from Current Culture.

DWC is great for growing BIG plants; I have tomato,

cucumber, sweet pepper, sweet pea, coriander, lettuce,

basil and a strawberry. The new lids allow me to have 1, 2

or 4 plants per container. Most things are doing amazing,

but not the sweet pea and coriander. Not sure why, maybe

they don’t enjoy the constant supply of water. I trimmed

the roots above the waterline, they are starting to look

better. The sweet pea didn’t make it, my first casualty. I

don’t blame myself, peas don’t like DWC apparently,

neither do the cucumbers.

Autopots

My first experience with this type of water system was

about 8 years ago. I loved it then, and I think I can appreciate

it more now. For simplicity of use and set-up the Autopot

system is hard to beat. It is a perfect system for a new

gardener.




PlantsNFT 6 Kale, 1 Basil, 1 Cucumber,

1 Tomato, 2 Lettuce

Vertical Garden 3 Kale, 1 Basil, 1 Rosemary,

2 Parsley, 1 Sweet Pepper

DWC 1 Kale, 1 Basil, 1 Cilantro,

1 Strawberry, 4 Lettuce,

1 Sweet Pepper, 1 Tomato

Autopots 2 Cucumber, 8 Carrots,

3 Sweet Pea, and lots

more Strawberries.

I am writing this in a plane on my way to Santa Rosa,

knowing that everything is growing and happy. My kids

will sneak in to eat my lettuce and basil when I’m gone,

and that gives me the biggest smile. I honestly love my

garden, and can’t imagine life without it. If you think

this is weird, it’s because you have never had a farm in

your spare room, or harvested supper in your basement

when it is -4ºF outside. Gardening is the best therapy,

and eating fresh food that I grew is priceless. The word

is spreading about food issues and our collective health,

be part of the growing revolution, and grow your own

too. 3

I honestly love my garden, and can’t imagine

life without it

76

BY MARISA KAY RICHTER

everyday, three times a day, you need a farmer

The Government,

I recently ran across this quote, and I found it very

thought-provoking.

“My grandfather used to say that once in your life you

need a doctor, a lawyer, a politician, and a preacher,

but everyday, three times a day, you need a farmer.”

-- Brenda Schoepp

Now I’ve certainly needed a doctor and a lawyer on

more than one occasion in my life, but true enough,

only once did I ever require assistance from a

preacher after vacationing in the darker parts of New

Orleans, where upon curiosity had gotten the better

of me, and I consequently required an exorcism. Hey,

it could happen to anybody right?


When did we stop caring where our food comes from?

FOOD POLITICS I GARDEN CULTURE

small family farms sink

beneath the waves of new

legislation

It was that farmer that really got me thinking. When did we

have the paradigm shift from relying on small local farms and

ourselves to feed the community to depending upon brands

like Kellogg’s and Chef Boyardee to fulfill our nutritional

needs? When did we stop caring where our food comes from,

or what’s in it, and start trusting organizations like the FDA,

CFIA, and the HPFB implicitly with our health and safety?

The long-standing North American tradition of family farms is

rapidly disappearing. Food prices have sharply risen, but sadly

farmers’ salaries have only shrunk in recent years, and this is

partly because the government sometimes sets what price the

farmers fetch for their products. Taxes

and cost to produce are now so high

that small-scale farmers say they just

aren’t able to turn a reasonable profit

anymore. Most urge their children to

do something else with their lives in the

pursuit of a brighter future.

As these small family farms sink

beneath the waves of new legislation,

the government stands to take advantage of the newly created

investment opportunity in distressed farm real estate. Similar

scenarios are playing out in South Africa with some referring

to it all as an epic land grab.

The U.N.’s Agenda 21 policies signed by George H.W.

Bush in the 1970s became official in 1992 at the Earth

Summit conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. ‘Sustainable

Development’ only sounds like a positive thing, until you start

looking at the companies pushing it, and actually take the time

to READ it. The major backers and contributors credits is a

Who’s Who list of international mega corporations; Deutsche

Bank, DuPont, Monsanto, Coca-Cola, Shell, Dow Chemical,

PepsiCo, and a host of other companies.

Agenda 21 outlines the control of all land, water, minerals,

construction, plants, animals, energy, information, and

production delivering it into the hands of an elite group of

people who have a far better understanding of how to manage

such projects than you, me, or the current owners of those

things. What could go wrong?

Bush later retracted his signature, relieving the US of the

obligations, but the bill was continued by Clinton, and it’s

referred to as “soft law” - meaning it wasn’t voted on by

Congress. More international law than domestic, the agenda’s

status is rapidly changing. ICLET, an agency that few have even

heard of, handled implementation of Agenda 21.

Some of these current soft-laws-gone-hard are making it very

difficult for small farms. New child labor laws proposed by

the Department Of Labor make it

harder for families to compete with

factory farms backed by the biotech

industry. Many farming communities

claim that this is intentional.

In the past, family farming was well, a

family affair from young to old. Now

children growing up on the farm

are greatly restricted on how many

hours they can work, as well as what jobs they can perform,

including driving a tractor or running equipment - all of which

farm kids have used for generations.

The DOT has also recently made a move to turn all farming

equipment into commercial motor vehicles, which require a

$124 commercial operator’s license equivalent to the driver of

a Mack truck. Additionally, they will need to invest thousands

of dollars in safety courses - just to drive a tractor on your own

land! Naturally, stricter regulations equal more limitations on

earning power, and adds new taxation. The barrier to entry

continues to grow.

Shortly after the arrival of Agenda 21, new bills surfaced

threatening the old ways of family farming, while solidifying

the new policies and ways of factory farming. Most of them

introduced under the guise of safety, because it’s hard to argue

that safety is not a good thing.

The Government,

Acronym IdentificationFDA: US Food & Drug AdministrationCFIA: Canadian Food Inspection AgencyHPFB: Canada Health Products & Food BranchICLET: International Council of Local Environmental InitiativesDOT: US Department of TransportationFSMA: US FDA Food Safety Modernization ActHFCS: High Fructose Corn Syrup


FOOD POLITICS I GARDEN CULTURE

Stop helping them succeed

More overtly sinister is the Farmer Assurance Provision,

section 375, of the U.S. HR 933 Bill passed in 2013 (a.k.a.

The Monsanto Protection Act). It was controversial and

widely unpopular running for only a short 6 months against

strong opposition from numerous food activist groups. But

it provided some much-needed coverage to companies

like Monsanto that were getting pounded with lawsuits for

releasing GMOs without proper research of long-term effects

on the environment and human health, allowing them to

continue developing, selling, and planting their creations.

Next, Senate Bill S510 was so

controversial that despite it passing

unanimously, was rapidly dismantled

after the fact for various reasons.

Eventually it was re-written as the

Food Safety Modernization Act, and

passed into law by President Obama

in 2012. It will be the final piece

needed to complete the goals of

Agenda 21, and it’s already starting to

go into effect. It gives more power to

the FDA, Department of Homeland

Security, and factory farms - while it

buries small non-corporate farms in

new taxes, penalties, and regulations.

Some of the more scary bits included in S510, which have

transferred over to the FSMA , is the slaughter of livestock

without proof of disease. As in senseless herd destruction.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the planet much of the current

civil unrest revolves around rice in Thailand. In the past, the

Thais set the standard for high quality rice as the leading

exporters in the world. Thai Jasmine rice, once coveted as

the best one could buy for its aromatic flavor, has now been

downgraded to buyer beware status. So what happened?

The government came up with the strategy to buy all rice

from the farmers, keeping them out of the merchant end

of the business, thus allowing farmers to focus on growing

the worlds finest rice. Sound good? It always does, or they

wouldn’t get away with it, but it’s known as “The Rice Buying

Scheme” now. They stockpiled the rice in warehouses where

most of it still sits rotting today. Why? The price wasn’t high

enough. Farmers haven’t been paid, and the situation may yet

lead to open revolution.

Whenever the government gets involved in picking winners

and losers in the marketplace, the market collapses, time and

time again.

With so much government intervention and new safety rules,

shouldn’t our food be getting better, be healthier, and the jobs

of farmers easier, and more productive? It certainly seems like

we would see this result, but unfortunately things are quite

the opposite.

So how do we fight back? First and foremost, grow as much

of your own food as you can. Secondly,

change your buying habits.

Your money and buying patterns are

powerful, never forget that. You can

starve the beast. Whenever possible

support local farms and farmers

markets, but more importantly, stop

supporting the mega corporations

known for synthetic food pedaling.

Forget about fat, calories, and sugar.

Focus on eliminating GMOs, HFCS,

synthetic sweeteners, synthetic

hormones, and pesticides from your diet.

These possibly pose a far larger threat to

human health than just being overweight.

Stop counting calories, and start counting chemicals.

Don’t be fooled by food labeled “All Natural” - you still need

to inspect the ingredients. GMO’s can still be in there. The

FDA considers them as being all natural.

Remember that mega corporations like McDonald’s and

Monsanto use prison labor, and receive government subsidies

and bailouts. So no matter how big a hurry you are in, no

matter how hungry you are, don’t buy it! Learn which

companies donated millions to fight against your right to know

what’s in your food through new labeling laws in America.

Some seem to think that organic is a new concept, it’s not.

Everyone ate organic before the end of World War II.

Organic isn’t about getting something more, it’s about getting

something less. Less synthetics and chemicals. Less newfangled

farming technologies that the multinational biotech industry

has to offer you.

Stop helping them succeed. Help yourself to real food instead. 3

grow as much of your own food as you can

2 T h i n g s M o n e y C a n ’ t B u y1) True Love

2) Homegrown Tomatoes

Green SauceNot just for enchiladas! A variety of cuisines around the

world have a traditional Green Sauce, but only Mexico’s

Salsa Verde doesn’t contain parsley, and is based on a

fruit. Everywhere else the condiment focuses on herbs

with parsley playing a starring role.

In Italy green sauce is also called Salsa Verde, in France

they call it Sauce Verde, in Germany it’s Grube Soße or

Grie Soß, and in Argentina they refer to it as Chimicurri.

Brain FoodYour brain requires about 20% of the oxygen you take in,

and the calories you consume to function, yet it makes up

only 2% of your entire body.

Best foods to boost brain power like function and memory?

Blueberries, pomegranate, avocados,

freshly brewed tea, wild fish,

nuts and seeds, beans,

whole grains, and dark

chocolate.

SHORTIES I GARDEN CULTURE

The worst thing to do to fresh fruits and vegetables is

boiling them in water. You might as well eat the canned

version from the store, because you’ve lost all the

good stuff - including flavor.

They say that stir-frying preserves phytochemicals and

nutrients, but unless you’re using peanut oil you are

still destroying most of the important vitamins and

phytos. Steaming is the only way to cook fresh pro-

duce, and preserve as much of these vital healthy as-

pects as possible.

What about the microwave? That depends. Are you

boiling the food or steaming it? The same thing hap-

pens here as on the stove. The studies that report

that microwave cooking destroys all the phytonutri-

ents and vitamins are actually boiling the food in a

lot of water. This isn’t necessary. Anything that con-

tains moisture and covered tightly in the microwave

steams. Don’t use plastic wrap. Don’t use anything

vented as a ‘lid’. Cover the bowl with wax paper held

in place with a rubber band, or buy a glass or hard

plastic dome. Add a little butter or 1-2 teaspoons of

water to keep moisture levels good during cooking.

You could also invest in a microwave steamer. (web-

md.com/food-recipes/features/get-your-microwave-

cooking)

Naturally, sous vide cooking beats all of the above in

preserving phytos and all other water-soluble nutri-

ents. If you don’t have one, use the best options from

above.

PH-80 COM-80

B e s t F r e s h C o o k i n g M e t h o d ?

D

u

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!

E

=

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2

Plants Are Math ExpertsNot 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 re-

cently 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.

Plants Are SocialThis isn’t some far out fringe idea. Plants have a secret

social life. Research not only shows that plants com-

municate with each other, but they have a high vocabulary of

various signals. They respond to

the messages and meet the situ-

ation by changing their behavior

to fit whatever is going on.

What are they telling each oth-

er? They send out alerts about

bad bugs or disease moving in,

changes in the environment, and

more. They report discomfort

and pain, communicate condi-

tions 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.

sources:www.bit.ly/plant-math www.bit.ly/plants-talkwww.bit.ly/plant-convoswww.bit.ly/weather-controls

No Plant Is An Island 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

other with shared roots or runners.

They have found that this family thing

extends to more distant relations

like cousins. It’s all about survival.

Plants share food and water resourc-

es. They help each other deal with

enemies,and other dangers.

Amazing Plant Facts

4

Hey,

you

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2

4

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an

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Grrr... gimme some space!!!

The War on WeedsWhy do weeds work over-

time to choke out your garden? Your imported

interlopers are hogging the

natural resources. Plant

families don’t mind sharing

with siblings 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

PLANT FACTS I GARDEN CULTURE


POTTING SOIL I GARDEN CULTURE

human influence, not bad luck. I would argue that much of the

art of gardening is discovering how to employ humanity as an

integral part of the growing process, and at the same time get

us out-of-the-way. This is the art of making soil.

The soil has physical, mineral, biological, and energetic

capacities that need balance. Physical balance tends to come

with attention to the other three, but is generally addressed in

potting soils by using amendments like perlite or rice hulls for

drainage, and peat moss or coir fiber

for water retention. You may need

to add these materials back to soil

mixes over time due to loss.

The merits of inoculating as much

microbial diversity as you can muster accounts for biological

balance. In other words, as long as you are introducing proper

diversity, microbes self-organize. Seek out a mother of as many

natural or farm-based sources as possible for your mix and

deliver them consistently to your soil over time. Like workers

on a construction site, they need fresh materials to continue

building. The consistency is much more important than the

concentration.

Energy defines life. May sound hokey, but it is 100% true. The

While there are good arguments for using fresh soil, the

purpose of this article is to communicate some ideas and

methods for reusing your potting soil. Growers do it all the

time, and with great success.

Look at it this way…Mother Nature doesn’t start over, why

should you?

What it takes to properly reuse potting soil is good physical

structure, proper biological diversity, mineral balance through

soil testing, and consistent methods.

We have been helping people reuse

their potting soil for years, and while

it is not as simple as removing the

roots and replanting, it is well worth

the time, and money saved. You also get the satisfaction gained

from using your resources more sustainably.

There is a sweet spot in the soil where life thrives. The

forest grows trees with no fertilizer, because the soil in the

forest is naturally balanced, mature, and organized. I’m not

suggesting that we expect to grow trees in our gardens, but

I am suggesting we consider how to perceive the metrics, and

harness the abilities of the life forms that allow this to happen.

Much of what we experience as failure in the garden is due to

If you are a serious grower, you have easily invested thousands of dollars in potting soils over the years. Even

worse, you have probably thrown thousands of dollars of potting soil in the garbage.

On its face, throwing soil away after one use doesn’t make much sense. But to a grower focused on expediency, and

not wanting to put determined effort into a garden only to end up with hidden issues, or potential contamination

from a previous grow, using new soil is a powerful convenience.

BY EVAN FOLDS

T H E R E A R E G O O D A R G U M E N T S F O R

U S I N G F R E S H S O I L

REUSINGYOUR

POTTING SOIL



M O T H E R N A T U R E D O E S N ’ T S T A R T

O V E R , W H Y S H O U L D YO U ? ”

T H R O W I N G S O I L A W AY A F T E R O N E

U S E D O E S N ’ T M A K E M U C H S E N S E

SATISFACTION GAINED FROM USING YOUR RESOURCES

MORE SUSTAINABLY


more intention we pay towards this reality, the greater the

result. The living system’s capacity to produce and thrive off

of subtle energies is innate in the life force itself, but can also

be encouraged through concepts

such as potentization and resonance

using techniques like vortexing,

paramagnetism, frequency farming,

implosion, and others.

We can expand upon energetic

balance in future articles, but mineral balance takes center

stage when a grower is considering reusing their potting soil.

First, I use the term mineral loosely, as a way of capturing all

the possible forms of elemental nutrition. Materials such as

seawater, clay, rock dust, etc. have value beyond recognition

of essential nutrition, because they contain broad spectrum

minerals, and they are also balanced.

Life can simply receive the elements it needs in order to thrive

when all elements are present in the first place, and when

they are in balance. Even when elements are not identified as

essential for plants to grow, they could be vital for microbial

process, or in order to make the elements required by plants

more available.

Why would Mother Nature create an element not needed in

the garden?

So the strength of the system, and your success in re-using

your potting soil, is reliant on the diversity and balance of

microbes and minerals. For the sake of agriculture it is not

possible to measure all Earth-bound elements, any more than

it is feasible to measure all soil microbes, so soil testing as a lab-

based process is typically limited to essential elements.

My company performs custom

soil testing for growers, farmers,

and landscapers all over the US.

We have developed a system of

soil testing that not only generates

complete raw data for all essential

agricultural elements, but that provides custom instructions on

what materials and products to add in order to account for

deficiencies.

We’ve done testing on many premium bagged organic potting

soils, and most stack up nicely in regards to proper mineral

balance. What we also know is that if we try to grow in this soil

over and over without using diverse microbes and refortifying

mineral balance things fall apart.

No matter who you end up working with for your soil testing,

it is essential that you seek out a private lab, or some outlet

other than what you find at most State Extension services.

Here’s why.

The pioneer of mineral balance and the sweet spot of soil

was Dr. William Albrecht. He believed that animals, including

humans, provide biochemical photographs of the soils in which

their foods are grown.

Dr. Albrecht geared his research towards documenting the

connection between empty soils and empty people, and he


There is a sweet spot in

the soil where life thrives

T H E C E C N U M B E R R E P R E S E N T S T H E

P OT E N T I A L R E S E R V O I R O F T H E S O I L TO R E TA I N C AT I O N

N U T R I T I O N

investigated and defined a specific range of positively

charged elements, or cations, that soil can hold that has

become known as the cation exchange capacity, or CEC.

Overall, soil is negatively charged, the more complex and

biologically active the soil, the greater number of negative

binding sites are available to hold positively

charged elements. And opposites

attract.

The CEC number represents

the potential reservoir of

the soil to retain cation

nutrition for growing

plants. A low CEC is the

basis for fertilizing and

irrigating, because if it was

high enough the soil would

be able to hold everything

that it needs to eat and

drink within natural

conditions.

Most soil tests we take in

residential landscapes will

have 1-2% organic matter

with a CEC of 5-15. This is

a sign of extremely immature

soil. Bagged organic potting

soil typically shows an organic matter content of 15-20%

with a CEC of 15-20. The CEC is lower even in bagged

potting soils due to a lack of biological activity and diversity,

which you can increase using compost and compost

tea, along with humic material such as worm castings or

concentrated humic acids.

The following data comes from Dr. Albrecht’s work, and

our observations over the last decade of testing soil and

documenting results. This is not a complete list of essential

elements, it represents the cations that are held within the

soil’s CEC. The information presented here is what we

consider as ideal:

• Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC) = 25-30

• pH = 6.1 – 6.5

• Organic Matter = < 4%

• Calcium (Ca+) = 60-70%

• Magnesium (Mg+) = 10-20%

• Potassium (K+) = 2-5%

• Sodium (Na+) = 0.5-3%

• Hydrogen (H+) = 10-15%

• Other Bases = Variable

This data is presented in ranges, because it is never a

matter of hitting a mark when testing soil. Soil is a dynamic

substance that will never be the same. All we can do is use

the data while observing local conditions, and the results of

plants to establish where within this acceptable

range is better. Growing plants can always

get better.

The State Extension service is going to

look for some of this data, but not all of

it. They’re approach is very pH driven, as

conventional agriculture is not motivated

by mineral balance. They put too much

focus on the amount of lime needed to

raise the pH on paper, for instance, as

opposed to investigating the deficiencies

of elements, and accounting for them

through observing crop growth.

Positively charged hydrogen ions (H+)

being present defines the pH of a

substance. The reason soil becomes

acidic is because it is demineralized and

all the other positive elements are no

longer present, not because someone

poured acid on it. We tend to think of

pH in terms of some concrete thing, instead of a metric of

the energetic representation of available elements.

For example, lime is calcium. Calcium is a cation, so when

used in the soil it replaces hydrogen in the CEC, which

makes the pH go up. What happens if you have a potassium

deficiency?

As Dr. Albrecht identified, “plants are not sensitive to, or

limited by, a particular pH value of the soil.” In other words,

it is possible to have a perfect pH, and have your minerals

entirely out of balance and, therefore, not be addressing

your deficiencies.

The pH should really be an afterthought to the soil health

conversation, a value that communicates the success

of balancing the minerals in your soil, not the other way

around. The takeaway is that if you have all of your minerals

balanced properly the pH is always within range.

The name of the game when reusing your potting soil is

to trust in the microbes’ ability to construct a dynamic

neighborhood for growing plants, but verify that you are

bringing the right building materials to the job site through

soil testing. Then listening to your plants to get it right. 3 88

90

BY THEO TEKSTRA – MARKETING MANAGER GAVITA HOLLAND BV

HPS: THE MOST EFFICIENT HIGH OUTPUT SOURCE OF PHOTONS AVAILABLE

SUPPLEMENTAL LIGHTING:

SUPPLEMENTAL LIGHTING:

WHAT EVERY GROWER SHOULD KNOW

Urban legends don’t grow a good crop. It is the skills of the cultivator, using the best

possible technology. Now, I cannot teach you growing skills in a short article, but I

can surely bring you up to speed about the latest in lighting technology.

SUPPLEMENTAL LIGHTING I GARDEN CULTURE


A greenhouse with supplemental lighting

In a greenhouse the primary source of light is the sun. It

provides the right light quality for a healthy crop. When

the light levels drop, we supplement the light. This takes

a lot of energy, so greenhouse growers use the most

efficient lighting available to add this. As the sun provides

already more than enough quality light, the question is:

what light spectrum should we add?

This is where High Pressure Sodium lamps come in.

It is the most efficient high output source of photons

available. It is not the same spectrum as sunlight though,

but there is more than enough of that in a greenhouse

to not negatively influence the plant quality. In the near

future we will see other technologies, such as LED,

become more popular in the greenhouses, but for now

this technology is mostly used on vegetative greens like

lettuce or microgreens, or by combining them with HPS.

LED is still 6-8 times more expensive for the same light

levels as HPS.

HPS spectrum

PhotosynthesisFor the sake of a short article I will keep this very simple:

Plants need light for photosynthesis.

Photosynthesis is what makes plants grow. Plants have

developed under sunlight for millions of years, and are

optimally equipped to use every aspect of that light to

their advantage. That is part of the natural evolution

process. So, obviously plants do well under sunlight.

Photosynthesis is driven by photons, and specifically

all the photons that are in the spectrum between

deep blue and far red. This is what we call PAR light

(Photosynthetic Active Radiation). It is all the colors

between 400 and 700 nm in the light spectrum (and a bit

beyond that even). But there are many more processes

in a plant that require different colors of light: Many also

influence the shape of the plant and the efficiency of the

plant so all colors are in some way important to grow a

healthy plant.

The solar spectrum. PAR light between 400 and 700 nm

Quality and QuantityNature is often really hard on plants: storms, rain,

insects, fungi, and diseases are always threats for plants.

So bringing plants into a safe environment, such as a

greenhouse, can optimize the growing circumstances

for a plant as in climate, light, and external influences.

Even when the sun is blocked by the clouds, or when

the temperature is low and the sun is weak in the winter,

we can make sure that plants get everything they need

for healthy development. This is how we can produce all

year round.

YOU CANNOT GROW EVERY PLANT SUCCESSFULLY JUST UNDER HPS

the HPS. For a quality plant though you will need to add a

better spectrum. This is where supplemental light sources

come in. Adding more blue (and other colors) to the HPS

can really enhance the shape and quality of your plants.

Even adding 5-10% of blue to the reddish spectrum of HPS

makes your plant much more efficient, and enhances its

health and quality.

Supplemental Light Sources

There are many sources of blue light, for example blue

LED, Metal Halide lamps, and Plasma lights. Now we have

seen that there is more than just blue and red light needed

for a healthy plant, so we also need to look at the spectrum

added by different light sources.

These are the pros and cons of the different supplemental

light sources:

Metal HalidePros:

• Lots of blue light in many types.

• Better spectrum for plant growth than HPS, a far

broader spectrum.

Cons:

• Not as efficient producing photons as HPS (40-60%

less efficient).

• Very fast depreciation, so you will need to change

them very often (more than 25-30% depreciation per

year, against only 4% for HPS).

• Bad color stability (the spectrum changes over time).

• 99% is only suitable for closed, protected reflectors

with a glass shield (MH lamps that break emit very

high, and very dangerous amounts of UVC).

Metal Halide spectrum (source: Philips)

So for quality, greenhouse growers use the sun. For extra

quantity (yield) they use HPS light (and in some cases LED

light but that is worthy of an entire new article). This is to

produce more photons to maintain photosynthesis.

In a climate room things are different: we have no sunlight, and have to produce all the light ourselves.

HPS is in many ways a great solution:

• Horticultural HPS lamps are the most efficient light

source for their spectrum.

• They are available in very high wattage, so you need

few of them.

• They are a very concentrated light source, so you can

spread it evenly using reflectors and bring it deep into

the crop.

• HPS is at the peak of its development cycle, so

extremely efficient and relatively cheap.

But there are also disadvantages to HPS:

• The spectrum is limited. There are very high levels

of yellow, orange and red, but it lacks specifically the

blue and the green. Yes, green is also an important

color!

• They produce a lot of infrared radiation

As for the spectrum... You cannot grow every plant

successfully just under HPS, but some plants actually do

very well under HPS. It is not ideal, but over the last decade

you have seen that growers are very successful using HPS

in production rooms. Now, heat is a different discussion.

The sun also produces about 50% of infrared, and in plants

it causes transpiration, and keeps the “juices” flowing

from the roots to the leaves, which enables a healthy sap

stream in the plant. Plants do need that heat as well, so in

some way it is a blessing. Even the UVA and UVB in sunlight

have a great effect on plants. It promotes flavonoids,

terpenes, and trichomes in many crops.

Now let’s look at an indoor facility. You lack the quality light

of the sun completely, having only the limited spectrum of

FOR A QUALITY PLANT THOUGH YOU WILL NEED TO ADD A BETTER SPECTRUM

92

Plasma spectrum (full spectrum version)

The ideal supplemental light should add all the colors that

HPS lacks in sufficient quantity, including UVA and UVB.

I should note though that adding quality light at lower

intensities than HPS creates dramatic quality improvement.

It should not add any more heat to the crop, HPS already

takes care of that. It should have a long life, and need no,

or very few expensive lamp changes.

Plasma lamp with supplemental spectrum for HPS (all the

colors that HPS lacks)

So if you look at all the pros and cons, and if you want to add

quality light to HPS in indoor facilities, you automatically

come to LED and plasma lights as the best choices. The only

question you now need to answer is: which one will give

you the best quality, and the best return on investment?

LED is cheaper than plasma, and has a better efficiency.

However, LED lacks UVA and UVB in its spectrum, and it

is hard to create an efficient, full continuous supplemental

spectrum. Producing green light with LED is not efficient.

LEDS ONLY EMIT LIGHT IN A VERY NARROW BANDWIDTH

LEDPros:

• Blue LEDs are relatively efficient compared to MH

and have a good light maintenance

• LEDs do not emit a lot of heat to the plant (but in

total they do add the same amount of heat to a room).

• Very long life.

Cons:

• LEDS only emit light in a very narrow bandwidth.

To create a good spectrum you need many different

colors, or white LEDs which are not as efficient.

Green LEDs are the worst in efficiency, but you do

need green light too.

• LEDs are expensive compared to HPS and MH (up to

10 times the price).

• LEDs are not good in generating UV. UV LEDs exist,

but are very expensive, and/or have a short life.

Many manufacturers refer to 380 nm LEDs as UV,

specifically in aquatics applications, but that is just

limited long wave UVA and visible light.

Typical LED red/blue spectrum for supplemental greenhouse

lighting (Source: Illumitex)

Plasma LightPros:

• Very high quality spectrum, including UVA and UVB

• Good color stability over time.

• Available as a full supplemental spectrum to HPS (so

mostly all the colors that HPS lacks).

• Very long life (30,000 – 50,000 hours, depending on

used spectrum 6-10 years flowering!)

• Very low infrared heat emitted to the plants, though

the electronics and emitter add heat to the room.

Cons:

• Relatively inefficient (about the same as Metal Halide).

• Higher investment cost (though relatively cheap over time

compared to MH as you never have to change the lamp).

• More expensive than LED.




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Commercial Plasma light fixture (Gavita Pro 270e LEP)

Plasma light is more expensive than LED and is less efficient

in producing light. However, the spectrum is far superior

over LED, it is much more intense than LED, providing

extremely good penetration into the crop. It is also much

easier to spread over the crop.

Many growers have reported that the action spectrum of

medical plants grown with supplemental plasma light is

far better than when only grown under HPS. The plant

quality and health is a lot better, which makes it less prone

to diseases and fungi, such as powdery mildew. The full

spectrum of the light in a vegetative stage influences the

shape of the plant, creating more branches, bringing it into

a much better shape for faster, improved flowering, as well

as reducing the vegetative period. Even the rooting under

plasma light is much faster.

Now when you grow tomatoes at 50 cents per kilo it

will take a long time to get return on investment for less

efficient light that improves the crop quality. But when you

grow a high value medical crop the lamp pays for itself

in less than two 9 week crop cycles - even only based

on the yield of the less efficient light, not taking quality

enhancements into account.

So there you have it in a nutshell. Using the most efficient

horticultural HPS technology combined with the best

supplemental lighting will give you the best quality, and a lot

fewer headaches over diseases and fungal infestations. LED

and Plasma lights are not cheap, but they are an investment

in quality. Combining of the relatively inexpensive HPS

technology for quantity, combined with a more expensive

supplemental light, will give you the best of both worlds.3

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Highest Population On The PlanetWhere is this, you might wonder. What over-crowd-

ed urban location? Not even. It’s about population,

not space per capita. There are more chickens on

Earth than there are people, and most of them live

in quarters far more cramped than the most spatially

challenged home. Living in the tiniest mud hut would

be considered plenty of elbow room to the average

21st century chick.

FARMAGGEDON: The True Cost of Cheap MeatIf you eat, this matters. It’s not about going

vegetarian, or even organic. It’s not just the

US mega farm issues. It’s not just about the

horse meat scandal in the UK. This is about

global farming, and a shocking look at just

what a mess the world’s food supply system has become.

“IT’S TIME TO UNSCREW OUR FOOD... If we don’t, we face

Farmaggedon. “

Written by Philip Lymbery, who having become steadily horrified at

modern factory farming as it evolved, has traveled the world looking

into just what goes on in commercial farming everywhere. What he has

found is a real eye opener, and while it’s destroying the environment,

factory farming is causing suffering for both humans and animals, and

increasing poverty and disease.

A good read that’s getting great reviews everywhere. Available from

Amazon.

H o t O f f T h e P r e s s


BALLAST

“IT’S THE BALLAST’S JOB TO MAINTAIN A STABLE OPERATING POINT”

MAGNETIC VS. ELECTRONIC PROS&CONS

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...

98

BY GREG RICHTER

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 mag-

netic 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 ex-

actly what we want, but easy to build and inexpensive to buy.

The good news is the only thing that ever really goes

bad on a magnetic ballast is the capacitor, which can

usually be fixed at the store where you bought it.

Electronic BallastsElectronic ballasts have four big advantages over core and

coil ballasts:

1. Variable operating point – Elec-

tronic ballasts can compensate for aging

bulbs so that you get the same light output

even as the lamps age.

2. Efficiency – Core and coil

ballasts gobble up 1100-1200 Watts to run

a 1000 Watt bulb where a good quality

electronic ballast will only need 1050-1100

Watts.

3. Bulbs live longer – Electronic ballasts can adaptive-

ly maintain output power levels to keep bulbs brighter

for a longer period of time. You change bulbs less often.

4. Dimming – Electronic ballasts can be dimmed, and

some advanced designs can also drive multiple bulb

types and power ratings (400 / 600 / 1000).

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 Pow-

er 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 elec-

tronic 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%

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 re-

quire 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 sec-

onds or tens of seconds, just enough to get the gasses in the

bulb glowing and conductive enough for the bulb to light.

Once the arc strikes, the bulb needs to be current-limited

as it warms up, and finally held at a stable operating point

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

operating point once we’re up and running. Kind of like a

tightrope walker with a balance pole – it’s

the ballast’s job to maintain a stable oper-

ating point for a naturally unstable arc light.

Core & CoilIron core inductors are a simple and cheap

way to make some of these things happen. If

you wire an inductor in series with your HID

bulb two things happen: First, the inductor

charges up when current flows through it, and dumps all

that energy when the current stops. You can get a pretty

good-sized spark this way, and it’s the same technique we

use to fire spark plugs in a car. Since the AC power line cy-

cles 50-60 times per second, the inductor can provide us the

needed high voltage for starting the arc.

Since an inductor resists changes in cur-

rent, 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 induc-

tor. 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 out-

of-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.

“A MAGNETIC BALLAST’S

EFFICIENCY IS GOING TO BE AROUND

85%...”

BALLAST I GARDEN CULTURE


101 gardenculture.net

efficiency. Some advanced designs are now pushing 97% effi-

ciency, 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.

FansOne 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 cool-

ing 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 NoiseAcoustic 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 prob-

lems precisely 12 hours on and 12 hours off, it doesn’t take an

electronic engineer to sniff out the cause!

“ELECTRONIC BALLASTS CAN BE DIMMED...”

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 go-

ing 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.

NotesMagnetic 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 instrumenta-

tion 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

“ELECTRONIC BALLASTS CAN COMPENSATE FOR AGING BULBS...”

“CORE AND COIL BALLASTS

GOBBLE... WATTS”

“IF A BALLAST NEEDS

A FAN TO KEEP

FROM MELTING, THAT’S

NOT SO GOOD.”

“A GOOD ELECTRONIC BALLAST HAS A POWER FACTOR > 0.98...”

BALLAST I GARDEN CULTURE


As long as you have the right tools and supplies...

On A Budget

BY KYLE L. LADENBURGER


BUDGET GARDENING I GARDEN CULTURE

FOOD WE GROW FOR OURSELVES IS FRESHER

As gardeners, we grow our own food at home for multiple reasons. It gives us a certain piece of

mind knowing exactly what inputs go into cultivating your food crops, and the bottom line is that

the food we grow for ourselves is fresher, and likely more delicious than the grocery store equi-

valent. But, there are often other reasons that one decides to venture into the realm of at home

cultivation. A large source of encouragement for the modern gardener is the increasingly high price

of fresh foods, and the strain it can have on the normal family budget.

Starting

When executed properly, the act

of gardening lets us take personal

nutrition into our own hands in a

budget-friendly way, and one of the

things we can do to save even more money is to start our

own garden plants from seed before the season begins.

This is a relatively easy thing to accomplish, as long as you

have the right tools and supplies. The trick, however, is

doing so in a budget-friendly way.

Let’s start with the seed starting containers. The first thing

you will need is a starter or propagation tray with a plastic

dome lid. The standard tray is 2’ long by 1’ wide, and is

capable of housing over 100 seedlings.

You can start seeds by simply filling the tray with growing

medium and planting the seeds but this may require

transplanting some of the seedlings

into individual containers in order

for the seedlings to grow big

enough to eventually be

planted in an outdoor garden.

You can use plastic cups with

holes punched in the bottom

to allow for adequate water

drainage, or individual plastic seed

starting cells that fit comfortably

into the propagation tray. These

allow the grower to have one plant

in each cell, and to grow it until they

reach the desired size. The tray, individual planting cells,

and the humidity dome can usually all be purchased for

about $10.

Adequate lighting is a must for raising healthy seedling

indoors. A two foot, four bulb T5 fluorescent light fixture

is easy to mount, low in energy usage, and

provides excellent light coverage for

one standard propagation tray. It will

also help supply the heat that seeds

need to germinate. Proper lighting

is important for seedlings as they

begin the process of photosynthesis,

and developing both vegetative and

root growth.

Raising seedlings in a sunny window

will result in plants that are “leggy” from

stretching to receive light, and have only

modest root growth. The light fixture and bulbs

will be the most cost intensive part of this project, but

Adequate lighting is a must for raising healthy seedling indoors


BUDGET GARDENING I GARDEN CULTURE

SEEDS WILL OFTEN LAST MORE THAN

ONE SEASON

it is an invaluable asset when

starting seeds indoors.

Depending of the brand, a

decent light will cost around

$100 - $150. Remember to

look in the clearance section

at your local indoor grow

shop first for the best deals.

Next you need a seed starting

medium. There are many mediums to

choose from for germinating seeds, but the most

cost-effective and reliable is likely an organic soil-less

growing mix. There are many kinds of mixes intended

for seed starting on the market today, and the prices will

vary, but generally a 2 cu. ft. bag will

cost less than $20.

Of course, you will also need some

seeds. Most growers receive several

seed catalogs every year, and most

of us have a favorite. When ordering

seeds it’s a good idea to purchase them all from the

same company with the hopes of receiving free shipping

on the order. Seeds are also widely

available at garden centers

or grow shops, and you

can purchase them in

bulk or in smaller

packages. Depending

on the variety, seeds

are usually very

reasonably priced,

and the amount per

packet will often last

more than one season -

when properly stored.

On average, purchasing these

much-needed tools for success will

typically set you back about $200 - but that is an initial

investment, and you should look at the cost with some

perspective. Buying enough plants from a nursery or

greenhouse to fill a large garden can easily cost a grower

upwards of a hundred dollars, and the quality of plant

seedlings is not assured to be the

highest, and the larger the garden,

the higher the price.

Another important point to keep

in mind is that this really is an

initial investment. Most of these

things are reusable in the following years. The planting

tray, any leftover growing medium, and properly stored

seeds will still be good to use. This is especially true of

the light, which should last several years

before it even needs to have any

bulbs replaced.

So the initial investment

of around $200 can

actually become

an avenue for a

grower to save even

more money in

consecutive years.

It can also give you

the peace of mind that

comes with knowing

exactly where your food

came from, all the way back

to the seed. 3

GARDENING LETS US TAKE PERSONAL

NUTRITION INTO OUR OWN

HANDS

Food Politics Is Ancient Purple carrots aren’t an oddity - that’s the original color. Until

the 17th century, all carrots were purple, though an occasional

mutant root came out white or yellow.

In the late 1500s the Dutch bred a carrot that pro-

duced orange roots, which was such a novelty that

the familiar purple carrot was soon left in the dust.

Given the universal human trait of resisting change,

one might wonder why they would try to create a

weird vegetable, and what caused so much excitement

over it in the first place.

Orange carrots were a political thing. Eating them was showed

your support of the House of Orange, and from there they

spread all over Europe, and the rest of the world.

We think that touch screen technology is quite an

accomplishment. It’s really pretty small potatoes -

the natural world is far more savvy.

Plants increase their

disease resistance

when they sense

being touched.

More Info:

www.bit.ly/

touch-wellness

Life Without Onions?Certain to be a diet so boring it would make you cry. It’s

been that way forever too. Tired of foraging for them in

the wild, serious cultivation of onions dates back more

than 5,000 years.

Immunity at a


A seed must absorb 50% of its weight in water

in order to germinate.

Did You Know?

106

Immunity at a

Garden Culture Magazine: US 5

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Transcript of Garden Culture Magazine: US 5