Real Food Campaign

[O'natural]

I would imagine that someone else on this forum has posted a link to the Real Food Campaign, but I did a search and couldn't find one. The Real Food Campaign "teaches farmers and growers principles and techniques that build soil health and crop nutrition", or nutrient-dense food. There is a lot of great reading material on this website. http://realfoodcampaign.org/home

I'd like to know what refractometer, pH and conductivity meters (ERGS) members of this forum would recommend, and why?

[Durgan]

Originally Posted by O'natural

I would imagine that someone else on this forum has posted a link to the Real Food Campaign, but I did a search and couldn't find one. The Real Food Campaign "teaches farmers and growers principles and techniques that build soil health and crop nutrition", or nutrient-dense food. There is a lot of great reading material on this website. http://realfoodcampaign.org/home

I'd like to know what refractometer, pH and conductivity meters (ERGS) members of this forum would recommend, and why?

I read this claptrap some time ago. It appears to be another useless course offered by a University to no useful purpose. I looked at the squash vine video and the squash vine borer has devastated the plants and the narrator is saying the plant ran out of fuel, due to nutrient deficiencies in the soil. The theory presented is similar to what the Baker family presented about religion, and will disappear into history in the same manner. Babbling balls of blulhist, to my way of thinking. Like LED grew lights, upside-down tomato planters, vertical potatoes, and the most amusing of all Organic Gardening. Food gardening is not about plants. It is about defeating the myriad of bugs which want the crop.

[O'natural]

One thing that is stressed by the Real Food Campaign is that to grow food it requires energy, and to grow healthy, pest and disease resistant crops it requires a higher state of energy (i.e. nutrients). Sunlight is a form of electromagnetic energy. Think about that. The primary source of energy for plant growth comes from this visible (as well as the invisible sprectrums, like ultraviolet), intangible energy. The earth is a magnet, and magnetism (another invisible energy) is another form of electromagnetic energy, and all plants go through their life cycles immersed in this energy. So food gardening is about more than just "defeating the myriad of bugs which want the crop." Those meters are a means to measure some of those energies.
http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/sc...mspectrum.html

That's like saying nutrition has nothing to do with the health of an individual or their susceptibility to disease. Though many medical professionals seem to have swallowed this concept, it's absolutely ridiculous. And so is the concept that the nutrient availability of the plant has nothing to do with its immunity to pests or diseases. How then did these vegetable/fruit/herb species survive before man began to cultivate them? I've never seen an animal spray an insecticide or an herbicide on a crop, have you? It's clear that nature must have its own system to deal with such things, we simply have to figure out how nature does it, which is no small feat.

[O'natural]

You can read the entire book, Nutrition Rules, by Graeme Sait, on the Real Food Campaign website. Graeme interviews many of the greatest minds in agriculture over the past 40 years.

SOIL HEALTH - MINERAL MANAGEMENT
Charles Walters
Neal Kinsey
Klaas & Mary-Howell Martens

SOIL HEALTH - MICROBE MANAGEMENT
Prof Elaine Ingham
Malcolm Beck
Bob Shaffer
Steve Diver

PLANT HEALTH - ENERGY MANAGEMENT
Bruce Tainio
Hugh Lovel
Dr Dan Skow
Prof Phil Callahan
Dr Phil Wheeler
Dr Arden Andersen

ANIMAL & SOIL HEALTH
Gary Zimmer
Jerry Brunetti
Joel Salatin

HUMAN HEALTH
Dr Patrick Flanagan
Jerry Brunetti
Dr Arden Andersen
Kenny Ausubel
Phyllis Balch

We can all learn more from reading this book, even the most experienced among us.
https://realfoodcampaign.org/sites/a...tion_Rules.pdf

[Eristic]

Originally Posted by unatural

We can all learn more from reading this book, even the most experienced among us.

With due respect, gardeners in general and you in particular would learn a lot more if all the books were destroyed and reliance was placed on experience instead. Get out there and do it. Watch others and seek out those who achieve better results than yourself and copy them.

Getting good results is simple. All it needs is a spade and the knowledge of how to use it. Why make things complicated and doom yourself to a life of failure?

[O'natural]

If what we were doing in agriculture was working so well there wouldn't be a health care crisis in pretty much every country in the world. Granted, that has more to do with conventional agriculture with the plethora (see, movies can be educational) of chemicals that are used than organic, but even organic agriculture can be improved upon. Soils are different. Where I live we have unique challenges, high heat and humidity, soils that are void of nutrients, and lots of bugs and diseases. To get the best results it requires a soil balanced with the correct ratios of nutrients. Manure or compost alone can't do it, not over the long haul. It may work where you are, but it won't work everywhere and you still won't get the optimum results that you could be getting. Balanced ratios of nutrients will work everywhere, though, and the food will be more nutritious. I'm getting pretty good results in my new beds, but I know a soil test at the right lab will give me better results. Although, according to that patent I found a few months ago on using Stevia as a means to increase plant "vitality", when the Stevia is spread on the soil or sprayed on the plants it enables plants to take up just the amount of nutrients that they need, even if there is an excess of fertilizer in the soil. So who knows where that may lead in the future.

As far as the books are concerned (only certain books), the people writing them are getting better, more consistent results than most people. The authors don't just write about it, they live it. People such as Neal Kinsey, Dr. Dan Skow and Dr. Arden Anderson have been at it for many years, growing crops and/or testing soil and giving recommendations. Neal Kinsey's company does nothing but soil testing. If his clients weren't seeing better results than what they were previously seeing he wouldn't be in business by now.

[Durgan]

Originally Posted by Eristic

With due respect, gardeners in general and you in particular would learn a lot more if all the books were destroyed and reliance was placed on experience instead. Get out there and do it. Watch others and seek out those who achieve better results than yourself and copy them.

Getting good results is simple. All it needs is a spade and the knowledge of how to use it. Why make things complicated and doom yourself to a life of failure?

Plants are like a a dog, they almost communicate with you if some effort is taken is to evaluate all the possibilities, when some abnormal situation arises.

My general observation is to cut out the watering. Plants are pretty capable of sustaining growth unless the dry spell is severe. When you do water get to the roots. I suspect 90% of watering does little good, particularly overhead water unless done very carefully. I knew a person who lived near Lake Ontario and he had an overhead watering system, and use to water just like a heavy rainfall, until the ground was soaked, then relaxed until it became necessary again due to lack of rain. He had a marvellous garden.

City watering with a hose is almost impossible, unless the area is very small. Most people wet the surface and put their pinky down to test then walk away thinking they have done something wonderful for the plants, when in fact they achieved absolutely nothing. Roots are often 3 inches to 12 inches under the soil, depending upon the plant. It is impossible to get to the roots by overhead water in general.Those cute little sprinklers are useless, except for grass, which never needs water anyway.

And don't read gardening books, most are fill with little real useful, practical, information. My view.

[Mulligan Man]

Originally Posted by Durgan

City watering with a hose is almost impossible.

How's that?

I put the equivalant of a 1" rain on 100' of row in 35 minutes with my "city water".

[Durgan]

Originally Posted by Mulligan Man

How's that?

I put the equivalant of a 1" rain on 100' of row in 35 minutes with my "city water".

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! You made my point. You thought your watered the row. It looked looked like you watered the row, but you did absolutely nothing beneficial for the plants. Get down on your hands and knees with knee pads and crawl along the row and dig a small trench all along the row and take a long hard look and see where the water went.

[Mulligan Man]

Originally Posted by Durgan

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! You made my point. You thought your watered the row. It looked looked like you watered the row, but you did absolutely nothing beneficial for the plants. Get down on your hands and knees with knee pads and crawl along the row and dig a small trench all along the row and take a long hard look and see where the water went.

I didn't make your point. I proved your ignorance.

I water with a soaker hose.

Even if I used a sprinkler, 1" of water is 1" of water.

You going to try to claim that if it rained 1" that it would do "absolutely nothing beneficial for the plants".