Although the polytunnel is much smaller than I would like it grows some high yielding crops. The main problem is managing the watering especially in hot summer months. From the start I used seeper, or soaker, hose which is porous allowing water to seep through its entire length. The hose was connected to a standard water timer which watered for 10 minutes in the middle of the day. Now that the solar powered irrigation is up and running the polytunnel was the first to be connected to the new system.
The photographs show one of the old Gardena water timers connected to a new soil moisture sensor. The sensor inhibits watering if the soil is wetter than the level set. This means that water is not wasted and also that the soil moisture should be kept at a more constant level which should improve plant growth and yields.
(Click an image to enlarge)
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| Timer with filer attached |
Soil mositure sensor between tomatoes |
Recent progress on the solar powered irrigation means we are another step closer to having a sustainable garden. Water is pumped from a well into 4, 1000ltr tanks and then pumped round the garden to automatic irrigation timers. The timers are connected to soil moisture sensors so they only water when the soil dries out.
The well pump is now wired and working so the tanks are filling up. The first moisture sensor arrived yesterday so all that is required is to plumb in the first timer and wire up the distribution pump. I hope to do this in the next few days so that polytunnel will be watered automatically. If this system is successful the rest of the garden will be changed over in the next few months.
A new report from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) says that there are huge amounts of land in Africa that could be used for agriculture.
…on a global basis, the total availability of land, which has from moderate to very high suitability for rain fed crop production, is about 43 million square kms, (or 4.3 billion hectares). Currently cultivated world arable land is estimated at about 1.4 billion hectares. Over half of the additionally available land is found in Africa and in Latin America.
Another report from the FAO and World Bank confirms that there are 200 million acres across 25 countries in Africa that could be used to grow food.
The challenge would be to create the right conditions to crop useable crops. Water would be a major problem, as the OECD report states, agriculture uses a lot of water.
Agriculture currently accounts for 44% of total OECD area water use, while for many countries the share is over 60%. Moreover, agriculture water use has been growing faster (2%) than for other water users (1%) between 1990-92 and 2002-04 for the OECD area. Changing dietary habits towards meat and dairy products in developing countries are key drivers impacting on water use by agriculture.
What we must not do is to impose western style intensive, energy intensive agriculture on African countries. Neither should we see potential agricultural land as a resource to be plundered to maintain our opulent lifestyles. All that will do is ruin the land and merely delay the inevitable food shortages.
There is enough land available in the world to grow food but not enough resources to maintain the present ‘western’ lifestyle. If meat consumption continues to grow at present rates then there will soon be problems. Just small changes to what we eat could help ensure that we could feed the world using sustainable agriculture. As I have said many times, that does no reply on technology but on the political will to recognise the problems and take appropriate solutions. We should not repeat previous mistakes like the so called ‘green revolution’ but seize this opportunity to do things differently.
Read more
The OECD report can be found here (PDF)
FAO news item here
I ordered several green manure seeds recently and was surprised to find that one of them was coated with an ‘enhancer’. The idea is to increase the amount of nitrogen fixation by covering the seed with beneficial bacteria. There is nothing inherently bad in this but I would have liked to known before ordering.
That got me to thinking about seed coatings in general. Many seed companies are now routinely coating seeds with fungicides. Often they do not tell you and the only way to find out is to open the packet and find brightly coloured or larger, uniformly round seeds. That happened to me a few years back and I returned the seeds stating that I would never buy from them again.
Why so much concern? It’s simple, organic growers do not use artificial pesticides and do not want them included with seeds. The way to avoid coatings is to buy organic seed but varieties are limited so it is not always possible to get what you want.
The other major concern is that agricultural seed is now almost routinely covered with pesticides like imidacloprid. It is very persistent and can stay in soil for several years. I have not heard of it being used on seeds for the domestic market but you can bet that it will appear one day soon.
There needs to be a change in the regulations so that coatings must be declared on the packet and in pre-sales literature. We need to know what is on seeds to make informed choices. Better still ban all seed coatings!
We have been picking 4 courgettes a day for the last week but the warm weather has increased production. It seems that 4 plants per 15ft (4.58m) bed and grown vertically is working well. Here is today’s harvest which was 6 fruits weighing 2.75lbs (1.25kg) in total.
I have always said that nothing shocks me anymore but this story did. Evidently farmed fish are being fed cow by-products which is not something they would normally eat. Which bright spark thought up that little earner?
Researchers say that they have not proved that it is possible for fish to transmit Creutzfeldt Jakob disease, or mad cow disease, to humans but why oh why is somebody taking that risk? One of the researchers, Robert P. Friedland, a neurologist at the University of Louisville says:
We have not proven that it’s possible for fish to transmit the disease to humans. Still, we believe that out of reasonable caution for public health, the practice of feeding rendered cows to fish should be prohibited, [...] Fish do very well in the seas without eating cows. (Read more)
I am speechless and just cannot understand why people do this and why governments allow it. Tha answer – go vegan.
Veggies are coming under fire for eating soya. The argument is that they (we) are party to deforestation due to increased demand for soya. A recent article in The Guardian says that it is not tofu eating veggies that are to blame but the huge amount of soya used in animal feed.
… at least tofu (soybean curd) allows you to source dietary protein directly from a vegetarian food. By contrast it takes 8-16lb of soybeans to produce 1lb of beef, which is spectacularly inefficient.
Increased demand from people switching from meat to veggie diets must have some impact on the demand for soya. The article goes on to say that if you are concerned then you should check where your soya comes from. Look for assurances that it is not sourced from rain forest regions and that is grown sustainably. Also, make sure it is organic to avoid chemical processing. (Read more)
A report from MIT, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, confirms what a lot of people have thought for some time, there is no way that CO2 emissions can be cut to safer levels without cleaning up coal fired power stations.
MIT agree that it is going to be expensive to clean up coal in the US, and will no doubt cost just as much in the UK, but there is no choice. The UK government were right to insist that all new coal fired power stations must be built with CO2 capture in place. The reaction from the power companies was predictable - asking for exemptions if the technology was not ready by the time the stations were built. That’s just a case of profits coming before responsibilities and should be ignored.
Despite all the whinging from the energy PLCs there is no doubt now that electricity produced from coal is severely harming the planet. It must go and be replaced by renewables and energy saving measures on a huge scale.
One day soon governments will turn their attention to the impact of climate change is having on food supply. All the main UK political parties are so fixated on energy security they cannot even consider that there is a similar crisis looming in food security. The two issues are irrevocably linked; they just need to be able to see that and do something! (See this post)
