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Update: Big Projects 2010: Garden

In response to my post a few days ago I received an email from someone representing the Global Crop Diversity Trust, the seed bank in Norway.  The main point of the email seemed to be taking exception to my rather broad statement that Bill Gates was a major funder, which I must admit wasn’t very well thought out or carefully phrased.  I’m not particularly convinced that I was substantially wrong however.

In any event, like everything else on this blog, you should consider it more my opinion than fact.

Anyway, if you would like to see their position on the matter, she provided the following link.

In particular she wished to be very clear that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation did not fund the construction of the vault, nor do they fund it’s day to day operations.

I hope in making this post I have given an opportunity for them to express their opinion, and if not I would welcome them leaving a comment in their own words laying out their own point of view.

The original point I was trying to make still stands.  I will not be seeking to use the funding or operation model of the Global Crop Diversity Trust in trying to assist public domain plant breeders!

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Soil Test

I had a soil test of my garden done last summer, and I’ve been meaning to post the results.  Since they are in Dutch, and probably not many of my readers can understand them as they are, I will attempt to translate.  However the original report can be found here.

You can compare this to my earlier do-it-yourself efforts at soil testing.

Measured values are given first, followed by target values in parenthesis if these are given in the original report.

Organic Material   10.3%

Calcium                 2-5%

pH (KCl method)     7.2  (>6.4)

Available Nutrients:

Phosphorus              58   (45)

Potassium                22   (21)

Magnesium              230  (125)

Nitrogen                  1.4  (1.0)

Unavailable Nutrients:

Phosphorus               1370  (1000)

Potassium                     5  (7)

Biological Activity:

Detected mg of CO2 per 100g per 7 days     86   (70)

Conclusions and Advice:

Conclusion:  Soil has a high organic content, and a good pH level.  For most nutrients, there is sufficient to excessive available and unavailable amounts.  There is sufficient nitrogen and biological activity.

Advice:  Add 300 liters of fresh manure or high quality compost per 100m2. As an alternative, 50 liters of dried cow manure per 100m2.  The actual amount varies with crops grown.  Lime loving plants (soft fruit, potatoes, cabbage, carrots, etc) 2 kg of (dolomite) lime per 100m2.  Nitrogen loving plants (soft fruit, potatoes, leaf vegetables, cabbage, beet, etc) only in case of slow growth 500g nitrogen per 100m2 in the form of dry organic fertilizer.  For example, this can be 4Kg bone or blood meal per 100m2.  Further fertilizing is not necessary.

The advice seems to be open to some interpretation.  I probably don’t add quite as much compost as they say here, and I don’t add any of the other fertilizers or manures, but since they say amounts vary with crops grown I guess you could say I’m following the advice.  It’s worth mentioning I also grow a lot of nitrogen fixing plants.

At the same time I could be adding an awful lot of manures and nitrogen fertilizers and also be following the advice.  300 liters of fresh manure per 100m2 is an awful lot!

I think it’s more a part of the culture here to depend on soluble nitrogen in the form of manures or fertilizers, rather than fixed nitrogen, and that may be part of the reason the advice is given in the way it is.  The test doesn’t seem to show fixed nitrogen.

The excessive availability of some of the nutrients is probably related to past chemical fertilizer use.

I purposely waited until the end of the second growing season to do this test, so I had a chance to amend the soil and grow some nitrogen fixing plants.  I also wanted to give any previously used fertilizers a chance to wash away.

I do sometimes notice low nitrogen levels, and I also notice when I grow a heavy feeder like sweet corn, the soil is pretty depleted for the next season.  Mostly my experience is that my soil is in pretty good shape, and this test seems to confirm that.  It can also be true that some of the excessively high levels of the major nutrients (NPK) can tie up and make unavailable some of the micronutrients, and I could be having problems with this.

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Holy Beans

Years ago now, I posted the advice that if you save beans from your garden, you should freeze them before storing them.  This year, I’m paying the price of not following my own advice.

In addition, these probably have something to do with it:

These are sacks I buy my coffee in.  I’ve posted about this before too.  I buy green coffee beans, that come from many exotic tropical places in the world, then roast them myself.

The holes in my beans are from Bean Weevils, more specifically I suspect Coffee Bean Weevils.

Of course I thought I was being clever by reusing my coffee sacks to store my garden beans!

In my case, I think I caught it pretty fast.  I first noticed them in November, and quickly froze my bean seeds.  Weevils are hardy enough to survive a day or two in the freezer, but are usually killed after several days.  Occasionally you have to thaw and refreeze the seeds, in order to mimic the weather cycles that cause them to hatch, in order to kill remaining eggs.  In my case, freezing them once seems to have taken care of it.

I’ve had a couple of reinfestations over the last few weeks, and by now all of my bean seeds are a little suspect.  I don’t think I lost any important varieties, but did throw some unimportant ones away.  The most irritating thing of course is now my beans aren’t appetizing to eat, because there are dead larvae hidden away in many of them.  I’m not sure how this will impact the germination rates of my seeds, but I’m sure it will be reduced for many of them.

For those of you hoping to trade bean seeds with me, I’m sure you’ll understand why I’m not sending them out this year.

Seed storage is an all too often neglected topic, and one that’s very important.  I’ve heard it said loosing seeds in storage is more common than crop failures.

You often have to balance risks like this.  It’s very possible for example to lose seeds in the process of freezing them, or storing them in an airtight container.  It’s also possible to lose them to pests like this.  Sometimes there aren’t any right or wrong answers…

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Interesting Links

Soilmix

If you save your own seeds, make your own compost and recycle and reuse in your garden, many people don’t need to buy anything except some lime if they have acid soil and starting mix in order to start plants indoors.

A lot of people ask me about making your own seed starting mix, so they can avoid buying anything for their garden.  What’s particularly troubling for many is nearly all seed starting mixes are based on either peat, which is often harvested in unsustainable ways, or coir, which is a waste product of the less than ethical coconut industry, and gets transported long distances.  Starting mixes not based on peat or coir need to be sterilized, usually requiring fossil fuels or chemicals such as household bleach.

I don’t know if this is truly a recipe for everyone.  Perhaps not everyone raises bats for guano?  Anyway, Alan just posted a great recipe for starting mix, he makes nearly completely with waste or other products from his farm.  I think this is a great starting point for many people to think about making something similar with sustainable things you may have available locally.

Yakraut

And Owen on Radix4Roots posted this great looking recipe for fermented yacón root!  Something guaranteed to keep your digestive system in motion.

Island Blog

From a working 400 acre farm on Manitoulin Island in northern Ontario, this is a blog of someone I know from elsewhere on the Internet.  DirtSunRain

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Garden Pictures January 2010

The garden is a winter wonderland now.  While we aren’t breaking any records yet, it’s pretty darn cold.  The snow is about a foot (30cm) deep.  The canals are all frozen.

Everything is covered in ice crystals.

Even the cobwebs under the shed roof didn’t escape the ice crystals.

The view in the distance just fades, because the whole area is covered in a winter mist.  No footsteps in the snow, because I’m the only one crazy enough to visit their garden.  Mine were the only human footsteps visible.  Otherwise there were tracks from the hares and birds that live in the area during the winter.

Planning is already underway for a possible Elfstedentocht this year!  We need another few weeks of cold winter to make it possible…