(Cross posted from Permaculture News' forums. I usually don't cross post things, but this time I want to... well save time. I hope you all understand. I'll still check out the comments of course. I've also added some photographs just to make it a bit more appealing.)
Hey everyone,
It has been a very long time since I have posted anything here. I've been busy with a three month internship at an urban farming project in Helsinki, which is drawing to a close next week. I have a few different options ahead of me, but permaculture design remains at the heart of all of them.
20.5.2014 Kasavuori Espoo/Kauniainen, Finland.
Anyway, I thought I would share a talk I gave during an "Urban Farming School" day at the project. I had 45 minutes to explain some basic soil life, with an emphasis on mycorrhizal fungi and vermicompost. I exaggerated a bit with the percentage of plants that associate with mycorrhizae [estimates range from 80-95%] and made some other mistakes constantly (like calling them [mycorrhizae] all mushrooms even though I said that they aren't! [always]). Plus my body language was all rigid and wacky. But I think that adds to the fun?
[Hop across the intertwined worms for the remainder]
This was not really enough time, but I did my best to explain a bit (without the aide of a whiteboard, just a trusty book) about why those two topics are so important. This was because there would be another 45 minute session where we transplanted tomatoes into the greenhouse at the Turntable.
24.3.2014 Pasila, Helsinki. Kääntöpöytä (Turntable) Urban Farming Project
As part of my internship, I wanted to bring to Dodo (the non profit, NGO, behind the project) some new concepts. Integrating vermicompost and mycorrhizal fungi into their consciousness up was a big part of this. Unfortunately, we did not have enough vermicompost to do as many demonstrations as I had wanted, so we settled for three "new" ways of setting up the soil for the tomatoes versus the old way. Now, remember, this is a non profit and we only have so many materials to use. This is a side-by side demonstration of both vermicompost and mycorrhizal fungi, based on peer reviewed studies, NOT a scientific study in and of itself.
So, this year, we have:
1) Control: 10L peat soil with .5L commercial composted chicken manure with seaweed fertilizer (traditional way). These grow very tasty tomatoes, but in effectively dead soil. To play it safe (and due to the amount of vermicompost we have access to), these make up the vast majority of tomatoes in the greenhouse.
2) Control + mycorrhizal fungi: 150g mycorrhizal fungi inoculant (OffYouGrow standard from Symbiom [certified for organic use]) and .5L fertilizer. I expect this to outperform the control once the fungi establish themselves.
3) 20% vermicompost + 25g blood meal: 8L peat soil mixed with 2L vermicompost (kitchen scraps/coffee grounds as the main feedstock) and 25g organic blood meal. See this link to Cornell University for evidence on the effect of blood meal and vermicompost together. Oh, and the 20% vermicompost comes from work done at North Carolina State University. I expect that this will perform better than the control, and more than likely better than #2. From observation so far (almost a month), this is true. The blood meal and micro organisms in the vermicompost allowed the plants to almost immediately overcome the stress of transplanting and begin growing.
4) 20% vermicompost + 150g mycorrhizal fungi inoculant (same stuff as #2) + 25g blood meal: Same as #3, but with the addition of mycorrhizae. I expect that the tomatoes treated in this manner will outperform all of the other ones, barring some kind of disaster!
I am proud to report that I crowned one of the tomatoes which received 20% vermicompost and 25grams of blood meal upon transplanting as the "champion" for having formed the first tomato of the season. Since the tomatoes were not started with either vermicompost or mycorrhizal spores from the beginning, it will take a few more weeks for the tomatoes which have been inoculated with mycorrhizae to differentiate themselves from the pack- which I fully expect will happen as the summer moves on.
Without further ado, here is the link to the video:
Soil life â theory from Dodo on Vimeo.
Thanks for reading (and perhaps watching!)
PS- you can check the link to my Tumblr, 60N Permaculture, to see photographs and read about what I have been up to. I will have some photos of the tomatoes under discussion up later today or this weekend.
Oh, and I've had a haircut since then. Which I feel a lot better about. It gets to a certain point where it's just uncomfortable. But a haircut costs 30 euros here (about $40) and I'm relatively poor.
20.5.2014 Lettuce and crimson clover intercropped in the greenhouse, "early" spring. June 1st is our last frost date and next week temps drop to 7C at night (44F)
Additional Resources
Agroecology Diaries
Sept. 14 2013. Introduction to Agroecology: Is it Anthropogenic or Bovigenic Climate Change?
Sept. 21 2013. Agroecology: "Rehabilitation of degraded land has the potential to double [...] agricultural land."
Sept. 29 2013. Agroecology: "...Outperform[s] the use of chemical fertilizers in boosting food production..."
Oct. 6 2013. Agroecology: "Wake up before it is too late"- UNCTAD's TER13 Report.
Oct. 27 2013. Agroecology: 1- Study Nature. 2- Facilitate Natural Functions. 3- Rediscover Abundance.
April 9 2014. Agroecology: Ray Archuleta from NRCS: "The Soil is Naked, Hungry, Thirsty, and Running a Fever!".
Book Reviews
Reviewing (in my own way) George Monbiot's "Feral." Link.
Large Scale Damaged Ecosystem Regeneration [Diary]:
Excellent, must see documentary: John Liu's Green Gold- extended version of "Hope in a Changing Climate" that was presented at the recent Rio summit.
Another good article by John D. Liu. Finding Sustainability in Ecosystem Restoration.
Holistic Management [Diaries: First, Second, Third, Fourth]:
The Savory Institute.
The Africa Centre For Holistic Management.
Holistic Management International.
Seth Itzkan has put together a very good reference list for Holistic Management, here.
Permaculture:
The Permaculture Research Institute is excellent (Updated: formerly PRI Australia). With almost daily updates from the world of permaculture (an ethical design system that utilizes agroecology [diary]), this site is on my "must check list" daily. Good news to be found here.
There are some excellent video presentations from 2011's International Permaculture Convergence held in Jordan, which followed a permaculture design course taught at the world-renowned "Greening the Desert Part II" site in the Dead Sea Valley. Here is a link to the documentary about the site, and here is a photo update from Spring 2013.If you scroll to the bottom of this webpage, you will find links to video presentations given at the convergence.
[Above links may be broken]
Also, check out Permies.com and Richsoil.com/permaculture for Paul Wheaton's permaculture empire.
Ecological Gardening
Here is a list of diaries I wrote that covered some of the very basics.
I. Basic Garden Ecology
II. Soil
III. Layers
IV. Polycultures
Plant Databases
Plants for a Future. Absolutely massive database for useful plants.
Documentaries:
The first diary of this series revolves around three documentaries.
The first is a TED talk by Willie Smits about rainforest restoration to provide habitat for orangutans and a standard of living for the local people using agroecological methods. Not only was the project highly successful, but climate moderation was demonstrated via satellite imagery.
The second, The Rebel Farmer, is about Sepp Holzer, a very famous Austrian who practices his own version of permaculture. He has also written numerous books in addition to being in demand across the globe.
The third presents "Greening the Desert"- which covers both sites in Jordan where Geoff Lawton and the Permaculture Research Institute have been applying permaculture with great success.
YouTube Channels:
In no particular order:
John D. Liu: pioneering large scale damaged ecosystem restoration.
What If We Change: John D. Liu's project to inspire others to share their efforts to combat climate change and other problems.
Whole Systems Design: operating from Vermont, Ben Falk's permaculture design firm. Excellent site overview and talks on agroecology. Also a must see video from Hurricane Irene.
Permaculture News: PRI's YouTube branch
Permasolutions: Offering permaculture inspired solutions to problems
Toby Hemenway: Author of Gaia's Garden and permaculture designer. Great talk on horticultural society.
Al Baydha: Pilot project in Saudi Arabia to regenerate "bare bones" landscape for Bedouins.
Eric Toensmeier: Author of Perennial Vegetables, coauthor of Edible Forest Gardens, and plant guru. Has an upcoming book on perennial agricultural solutions to climate change.
Paul Stamets: World famous visionary mycologist who will change the way you see the world. You'll never forget fungi after his speeches regarding their potential use and place in the ecosystems.
Books:
My favorite books:
Edible Forest Gardens, Vol I and II. David Jacke with Eric Toensmeier. Chelsea Green, 2006.
Sepp Holzer's Permaculture. Sepp Holzer, translated by Anna Sapsford-Francis. Chelsea Green, 2010.
Gaia's Garden. Toby Hemenway. Chelsea Green, 2009 (2nd edition).
Let the Water Do the Work. Bill Zeedyk and Van Clother. The Quivira Coalition, 2009.
The One Straw Revolution. Masanobu Fukuoka. Link will point you to a decent review.
Akinori Kimura's Miracle Apples. By Takuji Ishikawa, translated by Yoko Ono. This is an absolutely fantastic story. My favorite part is towards the end, chapter 22, when Kimura is told of his family's first success. Give it a read!
Feral: Searching for enchantment on the frontiers of rewilding. George Monbiot. Allen Lane, 2013.
The Resilient Farm and Homestead: An Innovative Permaculture and Whole Systems Design Approach. Ben Falk. Chelsea Green, 2013.
For a much fuller list of books on the subject, see Toby Hemenway's Permaculture Reading List.
Other:
The Land Institute. Their goal is to develop highly productive perennial staple crops which will produce a living system as stable as natural prairies. This is the kind of pioneering research we should be funding. H/T to sfinx for bringing them up.