There are 3 major reasons for rotating crops. The first is to take advantage of the fact that different plants use slightly different amounts of the various nutrients, and some (legumes) can actually put nitrogen into the soil. Because we feed the plants a balanced diet, nutrition is not a problem in a Mittleider garden, therefore crop rotation for this purpose is not necessary.
The second reason for rotating is to break the cycle of disease that may have gotten into a certain crop. And the third is to break the cycle of insect pests that favor a certain crop.
In reality, most small home gardens are not big enough to be very effective at stopping the spread of pests or diseases, so crop rotation is often not a great solution - although still worth doing if disease or pests are present.
Other "cultural practices" of the Mittleider Method will likely assist you more than crop rotation in minimizing your losses from pests and diseases. To assure a great yield year after year, we teach you such things as:
1. maintaining a completely weed-free garden - even including wide 5-10’ borders,
2. watering only the actual growing area - leaving wide aisles dry (like a desert to bugs),
3. growing seedlings in a protected environment and transplanting stocky, robust seedlings into the garden,
4. growing your plants fast by feeding and watering them properly, and
5. harvesting the crop as soon as it matures, before the bugs and/or diseases can become entrenched.
Showing posts with label vegetables. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vegetables. Show all posts
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Mixing Square Foot Gardening with The Mittleider Method?
Q. I would like to get the fertilizing method clarified. For the past 3 years I have used the square foot gardening method in raised beds. Last year I wasn't as happy with my tomato production and realized when my husband turned the bed that I would have to do something with the soil. Initially it was 1/3 top soil, 1/3 peat moss and 1/3 compost.
So this spring I decided to do some online research on how to fix my soil and came across the Mittleider Method. I thought I would be able to incorporate some of these methods with the square foot method. So, we added a bag of manure to each raised bed. They are 4' x 10' for 3 and 4' x 8' for two. We worked this into the beds along with some chopped leaves and peat moss. Once the soil was well mixed, we leveled it off and added 5-10-15 pre-planting fertilizer. In addition bone meal 7-5-0 was sprinkled on tope of each bed as rabbit
control. This was done before I read the ebook on the Mittleider method for fertilizing. Can I continue on with the weekly fertilizing? Do I really add fertilizer on a weekly basis? Since my beds are only 10' long, how much fertilizer would I use?
BTW, last year our garden with the exception of tomatoes did well. I was able to can 21 quarts of green beans besides what we ate fresh. It was a bad gardening year too. It was too hot and too dry. Tomatoes were really so so. Even zucchini did poorly which is why I started looking for other methods. I like the square foot method for higher yield production in small areas yet the fertilizing makes a lot of sense to me. So this year my garden is a mix of the square foot method and Mittleider method along with a heavy reliance on companion plantings.
A. I can't answer for what you can do, since you didn't say how much of anything you put in your beds, except the manure. I suspect you added more of the things you mention than needed, and you say nothing about the important secondary and trace minerals.
The reason fertilizing using the Mittleider Method produces such great gardens consistently year after year is that we always know just what we are adding to the soil, and we provide just what the plants need of all 13 natural mineral elements, without taking the risks of disease, weed seeds, and bugs that are so often associated with compost and manures.
We apply only small amounts of the Weekly Feed mix (5 ounces to a 10' row of plants) on a weekly basis until 3 weeks before harvest for single crop varieties, and until 8 weeks before first frost for ever-bearing plants like
tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, etc.
Best of success to you. I do hope you'll give the Mittleider Method a fair chance. I'm confident you'll be pleased with the easy and simple procedures, and especially pleased with your yields of beautiful healthy produce.
So this spring I decided to do some online research on how to fix my soil and came across the Mittleider Method. I thought I would be able to incorporate some of these methods with the square foot method. So, we added a bag of manure to each raised bed. They are 4' x 10' for 3 and 4' x 8' for two. We worked this into the beds along with some chopped leaves and peat moss. Once the soil was well mixed, we leveled it off and added 5-10-15 pre-planting fertilizer. In addition bone meal 7-5-0 was sprinkled on tope of each bed as rabbit
control. This was done before I read the ebook on the Mittleider method for fertilizing. Can I continue on with the weekly fertilizing? Do I really add fertilizer on a weekly basis? Since my beds are only 10' long, how much fertilizer would I use?
BTW, last year our garden with the exception of tomatoes did well. I was able to can 21 quarts of green beans besides what we ate fresh. It was a bad gardening year too. It was too hot and too dry. Tomatoes were really so so. Even zucchini did poorly which is why I started looking for other methods. I like the square foot method for higher yield production in small areas yet the fertilizing makes a lot of sense to me. So this year my garden is a mix of the square foot method and Mittleider method along with a heavy reliance on companion plantings.
A. I can't answer for what you can do, since you didn't say how much of anything you put in your beds, except the manure. I suspect you added more of the things you mention than needed, and you say nothing about the important secondary and trace minerals.
The reason fertilizing using the Mittleider Method produces such great gardens consistently year after year is that we always know just what we are adding to the soil, and we provide just what the plants need of all 13 natural mineral elements, without taking the risks of disease, weed seeds, and bugs that are so often associated with compost and manures.
We apply only small amounts of the Weekly Feed mix (5 ounces to a 10' row of plants) on a weekly basis until 3 weeks before harvest for single crop varieties, and until 8 weeks before first frost for ever-bearing plants like
tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, etc.
Best of success to you. I do hope you'll give the Mittleider Method a fair chance. I'm confident you'll be pleased with the easy and simple procedures, and especially pleased with your yields of beautiful healthy produce.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Six factors to control in your garden
Six Elements to Control PP Presentation – Narration
Source Food for Everyone Foundation
1. The Mittleider Method of gardening is sometimes called “The Poor Man’s Hydroponic Method” – and for good reason. (Hydroponic growers are able to consistently control all elements of the growing process, and therefore get maximum yields.)
In the next few minutes you will learn how to control the 6 elements that are necessary to healthy and productive plant growth.
2. The large commercial hydroponic growers do it best, and as a consequence they are able to produce as much as 330 TONS per acre!
However, in order to do that hydroponic growers must invest about $1,000,000 per acre in buildings and equipment, and in addition they have very high labor costs.
3. Our garden yields approach the hydroponic growers, and yet the investment is a TINY FRACTION of the typical hydroponic grower’s.
That’s why the label “The Poor Man’s Hydroponic Method” fits – anyone can do it. And some call this method “The best of organic” also! You’ll learn why as we go along.
Using the principles and procedures illustrated here you can have a GREAT garden in ANY soil – or in NO soil – in virtually any climate. You discover that soil and climate differences are NOT major problems.
You’ll learn to control the 6 basic physical conditions necessary for healthy plant growth.
(By borrowing hydroponic growers’ principles and procedures, and adapting them to the small family gardener – we increase the quality and quantity of our garden yields MANY times as compared to traditional methods.)
4. The most important factor to control is LIGHT – for reasons that should be obvious.
Light is life! And nowhere is it more obvious than in the world of plants, where 95% of the structure is the result of that marvelous miracle called photosynthesis.
Using just the three basic elements carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen plants create CARB-O-HYDRATES.
(Number one in importance is providing maximum sunlight – for as long as possible. In the far North plants go crazy in the summer with 18 and 20 hours of sunlight!)
5. Therefore you must AVOID planting where there is shade – from trees, houses, walls, shrubs, etc.
Even tall vegetable plants will produce shade, unless you plant tall varieties to the North OR East of short ones.
(Any fruit-bearing plant MUST have direct sunlight for at least 6 hours per day, and 10 is much better. In this picture, tall plants – tomatoes and corn - were planted East AND West of the short peppers. Even with wide aisles the peppers suffered some for lack of sunlight.)
Notice the row of short pepper plants between rows of tall plants. The peppers produced very little, because they lacked direct sunlight many hours of the day.
6. A plant can even shade itself more than is healthy! Remove sucker stems from climbing plants, and prune excess leaves – to allow light everywhere.
(Crop yields can be increased significantly by pruning. For example, removing sucker stems on tomatoes is important to maximize crop yield.)
7. The second element to control is TEMPERATURE. Plants thrive in a rather narrow temperature range, and this is especially true when they first germinate.
Sustained temperatures above 70 degrees Fahrenheit are essential for fast germination and high germination rates. Even 10 degrees colder will greatly slow the germination time and reduce the number of plants.
(Is your garden too small for a greenhouse? Start your plants on a heating pad in your house. Somewhere warm is essential.)
8. Even after germination young plants need favorable temperatures to thrive. In early Spring this may require some protection – and sometimes even a little supplemental heat – whether in the greenhouse or in the garden.
(A small seed-house like Dr. Jacob Mittleider’s can grow hundreds of healthy seedlings. Mini-greenhouses right in the garden help to keep them warm on cold nights.)
Covering your plants with plastic as illustrated helps warm the soil and eliminate cold winds, and on cold nights even the heat from a couple of light bulbs can be enough to prevent freezing.
9. In this way – by covering your plants and protecting from frost – you can extend your growing season by up to 4 weeks in both Spring and Fall.
(The arched frames in back can easily be covered to grow plants clear into December in Utah. T-Frames work just as well as those A-Frames.)
10. The third element to control is AIR. Remember that plants receive carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen from the air. However, they access those things mainly through their ROOTS.
Therefore, good drainage is necessary. Why?
(To use this area as a successful garden just required drain ditches to remove the standing water.)
11. You must avoid flooding the roots for any extended length of time. Even a few hours under water can kill your plants.
(Soil that is soaked with or covered with water drives out the soil air. Roots get oxygen from the air, not the water, so the plant can drown in a fairly short time.)
So, to insure your plant roots receive the soil-air they must have, never plant in a low spot with poor drainage.
12. We solve the drainage problem by RAISING the planting area of our soil-beds slightly higher than the surrounding aisles.
13. The fourth element to control is WATER.
Water obviously should be clean, and it MUST be non-toxic. Any concentration of harmful elements, such as chemicals from a nearby industrial plant, can quickly kill your plants.
How much and how often do you need to water?
Understand that “a plant is a continuous water pipe, from the tip of the smallest root to the top of the highest leaf” - JRM.
And a plant is over 80% water!
Water should therefore ALWAYS be available to the plant roots. The soil should be MOIST but not completely WET. One inch daily is enough.
14. In addition to being slightly raised –
Your soil-beds should be LEVEL.
This avoids the loss of water; plus your seeds, small plants, and fertilizers are not washed out and lost.
(Do not plant until your beds are level. Much grief is avoided by following the procedures accurately.)
15. Level beds also ensure UNIFORM DISTRIBUTION of water and natural mineral fertilizers to all plants’ roots.
16. Even when watering almost every day we conserve water, using about ½ that of traditional methods.
This is because we only water the root-zone of the plants - about 17% of the garden area.
(No water is lost to run-off, nor wasted in the aisles. In Armenia village neighbors are AMAZED at how little water we use.)
17. Never water your garden by sprinkling – for 3 reasons:
Sprinkling encourages weed growth in the aisles and on the ridges;
It wastes a great deal of water through evaporation as well;
It promotes diseases, which thrive in a moist environment.
(On a hot day evaporation wastes up to ½ of the water when sprinkling is used. And even more than that is wasted on the aisles and ridges. Sprinklers may be needed for lawns, but they have no place in the vegetable garden!)
18. Four-inch-high ridges surrounding the planting area accomplish several things;
They define the bed aesthetically and afford some protection to small seedling plants;
They keep the water and fertilizers in the root zone of the plants.
19. Automating your watering will greatly increase the pleasure you receive from your garden.
It makes watering EASIER, FASTER, and more EFFICIENT!
(Many beds can be watered at the same time. 125 beds at the Utah Zoo garden are watered in only 60 minutes.)
20. Simple illustrated plans for automating your watering system are available in the Mittleider gardening books, and it’s free online at http://foodforeveryone.org/pdf/MGC_Chpt_16.pdf
(The main water pipe should be as large as your water source. Use threaded connections – NOT GLUED! Use Schedule 200 – NOT schedule 40 for watering pipes.)
21. The fifth element to control in your garden is your plants’ FOOD.
Besides the 3 elements plants receive FREE from the air there are 13 other elements that plants must have for food.
Most people know about the 3 MAJOR nutrients, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, or N, P, & K.
However, 3 SECONDARY elements are used almost as much by plants as phosphorus, and these are calcium, sulfur, and magnesium.
In addition there are Micro-nutrients – also called Trace Elements - because plants use only small amounts of them. They include zinc, boron, manganese, iron, copper, chloride, and molybdenum.
People in the Mountain West can get these complete balanced plant foods pre-mixed.
WHEREVER YOU live simply get Micro-Nutrients from the website at www.growfood.com and mix with NPK and Epsom Salt according to instructions to have the complete balanced nutrient mix.
22. Plants require feeding in two ways, with two separate natural mineral nutrient mixes. They are called the Pre-Plant Mix and the Weekly Feed Mix, indicating how they are used.
Unless materials are water-soluble plants can’t get or use them. They receive their nourishment as water-soluble MINERALS through their ROOTS.
(WATER SOLUBLE is the key! Dirt often has most or even all the minerals in it, but it’s usually NOT water soluble – therefore it’s not available to your plants.)
How are we “The Best of Organic”? The nutritional value of manure and compost are unknown. We know what plants need and we supply exactly that – in balanced amounts.
And we supply small amounts weekly throughout the growing season – just as they are needed.
23. The sixth and final element we must control is COMPETITION. (And disease certainly competes to rob you of your crop! Beat the big four for sure success.)
Competition from weeds, bugs, and animals is usually fierce and constant.
And diseases are very difficult to control, and sometimes almost impossible to eliminate after they get established.
24. Eliminate all weeds! Success STARTS with a weed-free garden! (Starting right is all important! Don’t expect a great finish if your beginning is sloppy.)
“No amount of scratching after the crop is planted can overcome the ill effects of poor seed-bed preparation.” JRM
You must remove both annual and perennial weeds, and for perennials that includes the roots, rhizomes, and runners.
25. And after planting you must KEEP UP the weeding! (People often ask what our secret is to our weed-free gardens. It’s E & O Weeding – early and often! Get those weeds out of the END aisles also, or they’ll come into your beds! After beds are built, the 2-way hoe and rake are your main weeding tools.)
Be sure you remove the weeds every time from within the rows, on the ridges, AND in the aisles!
26. How do you eliminate bugs from your garden? Cultural practices that greatly reduce your risk include maintaining a weed-free DRY perimeter, aisles, weed-free beds, and keeping the garden free of mulch or other ground coverings.
(Rather than providing bug hotels throughout your garden, make them walk the Sahara Desert to get to lunch or dinner. Most won’t make it! Because of the above cultural practices, and growing HEALTHY, FAST-GROWING PLANTS, we RARELY have to resort to pesticides or herbicides.)
27. You must take POSITIVE and sometimes AGGRESSIVE steps to control and eliminate animal pests.
Those steps may include fencing, traps, baits, and/or netting.
(Deer and many smaller animals, as well as birds, will love the salad bar you provide if you don’t keep them out.)
28. DISEASE is the last thing you need to control, but not the least. It’s recently been discovered that healthy plants naturally resist disease. (Read about HIGH BRIX LEVELS. Your sustainable Mittleider-Method garden vegetables will have them!)
29. In addition to minimizing bugs, a dry periphery and aisles are inhospitable environments for diseases.
(Disease thrives in MOIST conditions. Keep everything possible DRY! This garden THRIVED in BLOW-SAND – in HOT Santa Clara, Utah.)
30. The best disease control is PREVENTION.
Pruning plants reduces those moist conditions diseases love, and provides light and air to ripen tasty fruit.
(These tomatoes were NOT pruned properly – Production suffered greatly, and they were subject to bugs and disease.)
31. Don’t give diseases OR bugs an easy path to your tender plants. Remove everything touching the ground.
32. Follow this recipe accurately and consistently for “a great garden in any soil, in any climate.”
THANK YOU!
Source Food for Everyone Foundation
1. The Mittleider Method of gardening is sometimes called “The Poor Man’s Hydroponic Method” – and for good reason. (Hydroponic growers are able to consistently control all elements of the growing process, and therefore get maximum yields.)
In the next few minutes you will learn how to control the 6 elements that are necessary to healthy and productive plant growth.
2. The large commercial hydroponic growers do it best, and as a consequence they are able to produce as much as 330 TONS per acre!
However, in order to do that hydroponic growers must invest about $1,000,000 per acre in buildings and equipment, and in addition they have very high labor costs.
3. Our garden yields approach the hydroponic growers, and yet the investment is a TINY FRACTION of the typical hydroponic grower’s.
That’s why the label “The Poor Man’s Hydroponic Method” fits – anyone can do it. And some call this method “The best of organic” also! You’ll learn why as we go along.
Using the principles and procedures illustrated here you can have a GREAT garden in ANY soil – or in NO soil – in virtually any climate. You discover that soil and climate differences are NOT major problems.
You’ll learn to control the 6 basic physical conditions necessary for healthy plant growth.
(By borrowing hydroponic growers’ principles and procedures, and adapting them to the small family gardener – we increase the quality and quantity of our garden yields MANY times as compared to traditional methods.)
4. The most important factor to control is LIGHT – for reasons that should be obvious.
Light is life! And nowhere is it more obvious than in the world of plants, where 95% of the structure is the result of that marvelous miracle called photosynthesis.
Using just the three basic elements carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen plants create CARB-O-HYDRATES.
(Number one in importance is providing maximum sunlight – for as long as possible. In the far North plants go crazy in the summer with 18 and 20 hours of sunlight!)
5. Therefore you must AVOID planting where there is shade – from trees, houses, walls, shrubs, etc.
Even tall vegetable plants will produce shade, unless you plant tall varieties to the North OR East of short ones.
(Any fruit-bearing plant MUST have direct sunlight for at least 6 hours per day, and 10 is much better. In this picture, tall plants – tomatoes and corn - were planted East AND West of the short peppers. Even with wide aisles the peppers suffered some for lack of sunlight.)
Notice the row of short pepper plants between rows of tall plants. The peppers produced very little, because they lacked direct sunlight many hours of the day.
6. A plant can even shade itself more than is healthy! Remove sucker stems from climbing plants, and prune excess leaves – to allow light everywhere.
(Crop yields can be increased significantly by pruning. For example, removing sucker stems on tomatoes is important to maximize crop yield.)
7. The second element to control is TEMPERATURE. Plants thrive in a rather narrow temperature range, and this is especially true when they first germinate.
Sustained temperatures above 70 degrees Fahrenheit are essential for fast germination and high germination rates. Even 10 degrees colder will greatly slow the germination time and reduce the number of plants.
(Is your garden too small for a greenhouse? Start your plants on a heating pad in your house. Somewhere warm is essential.)
8. Even after germination young plants need favorable temperatures to thrive. In early Spring this may require some protection – and sometimes even a little supplemental heat – whether in the greenhouse or in the garden.
(A small seed-house like Dr. Jacob Mittleider’s can grow hundreds of healthy seedlings. Mini-greenhouses right in the garden help to keep them warm on cold nights.)
Covering your plants with plastic as illustrated helps warm the soil and eliminate cold winds, and on cold nights even the heat from a couple of light bulbs can be enough to prevent freezing.
9. In this way – by covering your plants and protecting from frost – you can extend your growing season by up to 4 weeks in both Spring and Fall.
(The arched frames in back can easily be covered to grow plants clear into December in Utah. T-Frames work just as well as those A-Frames.)
10. The third element to control is AIR. Remember that plants receive carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen from the air. However, they access those things mainly through their ROOTS.
Therefore, good drainage is necessary. Why?
(To use this area as a successful garden just required drain ditches to remove the standing water.)
11. You must avoid flooding the roots for any extended length of time. Even a few hours under water can kill your plants.
(Soil that is soaked with or covered with water drives out the soil air. Roots get oxygen from the air, not the water, so the plant can drown in a fairly short time.)
So, to insure your plant roots receive the soil-air they must have, never plant in a low spot with poor drainage.
12. We solve the drainage problem by RAISING the planting area of our soil-beds slightly higher than the surrounding aisles.
13. The fourth element to control is WATER.
Water obviously should be clean, and it MUST be non-toxic. Any concentration of harmful elements, such as chemicals from a nearby industrial plant, can quickly kill your plants.
How much and how often do you need to water?
Understand that “a plant is a continuous water pipe, from the tip of the smallest root to the top of the highest leaf” - JRM.
And a plant is over 80% water!
Water should therefore ALWAYS be available to the plant roots. The soil should be MOIST but not completely WET. One inch daily is enough.
14. In addition to being slightly raised –
Your soil-beds should be LEVEL.
This avoids the loss of water; plus your seeds, small plants, and fertilizers are not washed out and lost.
(Do not plant until your beds are level. Much grief is avoided by following the procedures accurately.)
15. Level beds also ensure UNIFORM DISTRIBUTION of water and natural mineral fertilizers to all plants’ roots.
16. Even when watering almost every day we conserve water, using about ½ that of traditional methods.
This is because we only water the root-zone of the plants - about 17% of the garden area.
(No water is lost to run-off, nor wasted in the aisles. In Armenia village neighbors are AMAZED at how little water we use.)
17. Never water your garden by sprinkling – for 3 reasons:
Sprinkling encourages weed growth in the aisles and on the ridges;
It wastes a great deal of water through evaporation as well;
It promotes diseases, which thrive in a moist environment.
(On a hot day evaporation wastes up to ½ of the water when sprinkling is used. And even more than that is wasted on the aisles and ridges. Sprinklers may be needed for lawns, but they have no place in the vegetable garden!)
18. Four-inch-high ridges surrounding the planting area accomplish several things;
They define the bed aesthetically and afford some protection to small seedling plants;
They keep the water and fertilizers in the root zone of the plants.
19. Automating your watering will greatly increase the pleasure you receive from your garden.
It makes watering EASIER, FASTER, and more EFFICIENT!
(Many beds can be watered at the same time. 125 beds at the Utah Zoo garden are watered in only 60 minutes.)
20. Simple illustrated plans for automating your watering system are available in the Mittleider gardening books, and it’s free online at http://foodforeveryone.org/pdf/MGC_Chpt_16.pdf
(The main water pipe should be as large as your water source. Use threaded connections – NOT GLUED! Use Schedule 200 – NOT schedule 40 for watering pipes.)
21. The fifth element to control in your garden is your plants’ FOOD.
Besides the 3 elements plants receive FREE from the air there are 13 other elements that plants must have for food.
Most people know about the 3 MAJOR nutrients, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, or N, P, & K.
However, 3 SECONDARY elements are used almost as much by plants as phosphorus, and these are calcium, sulfur, and magnesium.
In addition there are Micro-nutrients – also called Trace Elements - because plants use only small amounts of them. They include zinc, boron, manganese, iron, copper, chloride, and molybdenum.
People in the Mountain West can get these complete balanced plant foods pre-mixed.
WHEREVER YOU live simply get Micro-Nutrients from the website at www.growfood.com and mix with NPK and Epsom Salt according to instructions to have the complete balanced nutrient mix.
22. Plants require feeding in two ways, with two separate natural mineral nutrient mixes. They are called the Pre-Plant Mix and the Weekly Feed Mix, indicating how they are used.
Unless materials are water-soluble plants can’t get or use them. They receive their nourishment as water-soluble MINERALS through their ROOTS.
(WATER SOLUBLE is the key! Dirt often has most or even all the minerals in it, but it’s usually NOT water soluble – therefore it’s not available to your plants.)
How are we “The Best of Organic”? The nutritional value of manure and compost are unknown. We know what plants need and we supply exactly that – in balanced amounts.
And we supply small amounts weekly throughout the growing season – just as they are needed.
23. The sixth and final element we must control is COMPETITION. (And disease certainly competes to rob you of your crop! Beat the big four for sure success.)
Competition from weeds, bugs, and animals is usually fierce and constant.
And diseases are very difficult to control, and sometimes almost impossible to eliminate after they get established.
24. Eliminate all weeds! Success STARTS with a weed-free garden! (Starting right is all important! Don’t expect a great finish if your beginning is sloppy.)
“No amount of scratching after the crop is planted can overcome the ill effects of poor seed-bed preparation.” JRM
You must remove both annual and perennial weeds, and for perennials that includes the roots, rhizomes, and runners.
25. And after planting you must KEEP UP the weeding! (People often ask what our secret is to our weed-free gardens. It’s E & O Weeding – early and often! Get those weeds out of the END aisles also, or they’ll come into your beds! After beds are built, the 2-way hoe and rake are your main weeding tools.)
Be sure you remove the weeds every time from within the rows, on the ridges, AND in the aisles!
26. How do you eliminate bugs from your garden? Cultural practices that greatly reduce your risk include maintaining a weed-free DRY perimeter, aisles, weed-free beds, and keeping the garden free of mulch or other ground coverings.
(Rather than providing bug hotels throughout your garden, make them walk the Sahara Desert to get to lunch or dinner. Most won’t make it! Because of the above cultural practices, and growing HEALTHY, FAST-GROWING PLANTS, we RARELY have to resort to pesticides or herbicides.)
27. You must take POSITIVE and sometimes AGGRESSIVE steps to control and eliminate animal pests.
Those steps may include fencing, traps, baits, and/or netting.
(Deer and many smaller animals, as well as birds, will love the salad bar you provide if you don’t keep them out.)
28. DISEASE is the last thing you need to control, but not the least. It’s recently been discovered that healthy plants naturally resist disease. (Read about HIGH BRIX LEVELS. Your sustainable Mittleider-Method garden vegetables will have them!)
29. In addition to minimizing bugs, a dry periphery and aisles are inhospitable environments for diseases.
(Disease thrives in MOIST conditions. Keep everything possible DRY! This garden THRIVED in BLOW-SAND – in HOT Santa Clara, Utah.)
30. The best disease control is PREVENTION.
Pruning plants reduces those moist conditions diseases love, and provides light and air to ripen tasty fruit.
(These tomatoes were NOT pruned properly – Production suffered greatly, and they were subject to bugs and disease.)
31. Don’t give diseases OR bugs an easy path to your tender plants. Remove everything touching the ground.
32. Follow this recipe accurately and consistently for “a great garden in any soil, in any climate.”
THANK YOU!
Monday, November 10, 2008
Join the Food for Everyone Foundation Affiliate program
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Tell the world about your gardening success and your opinions about the Foundation’s method of gardening.
http://www.squidoo.com/group/create_lens/Foodforeveryone?forward=true
Best of success! We look forward to having you join us.
Jim Kennard, President
Food For Everyone Foundation
www.foodforeveryone.org
Do you have a website, a Blog, a Squidoo lens? Are you on Myspace or Youtube? Or do you have an email list of friends and family??
Join over 100,000 other people selling digital products online using Clickbank and earn 40% while helping the Non-Profit Food for Everyone Foundation teach family gardening around the world!
Step 1 – Sign up for a Clickbank account using this link http://www.howtoorganicgarden.com/new_page_9.htm
When you sign up you will create a nickname/id
Step 2 – Looking at Example 1 and 2 below – Replace the word “Steveffeo” with your Clickbank id/nickname.
Step 3 – Add this code to your Website, Blog, Squidoo lens, Myspace, Youtube, or send it to your email list and earn 40% of every sale.
The process is 100% automated by Clickbank. They handle all payments to you directly!
It is literally that easy! Just replace Steveffeo with your Clickbank id and you are making money.
You can use the code on a website, Squidoo lens, blog or via email to your friends, family or email list.
If you want to use the link in an email use option 1 for proper formatting..
Example 1
http://steveffeo.mittleider.hop.clickbank.net/
Example 2
target=”_top”>Click Here!
You can replace “Click here” with any marketing tag lines. We will be providing options in the very near future. For the time being we suggest using “Buy the Food for Everyone Foundation Gardening books – click here”
To see an example of both please check out our main Squidoo lens.
If you look at the bottom of the description (the first block of text) you will see examples of both.
http://www.squidoo.com/foodforeveryonefoundation/
To dress up your pages, and make them look like ours, you can use any of the images on either of our websites. Simply mention where it came from.
http://www.Foodforeveryone.org
http://www.Howtoorganicgarden.com
But what if I do not have a web page?
Great news! You can create a Squidoo lens free of charge and earn money, AND help the Foundation at the same time.
To create a FREE Squidoo lens and earn 40% please use the link below. This will automatically join you to the main Foundation group. I will approve all lenses that have five sections or more. Squidoo will not publish an empty lens, so please have fun with building a lens.
Tell the world about your gardening success and your opinions about the Foundation’s method of gardening.
http://www.squidoo.com/group/create_lens/Foodforeveryone?forward=true
Best of success! We look forward to having you join us.
Jim Kennard, President
Food For Everyone Foundation
www.foodforeveryone.org
Sunday, June 3, 2007
I have searched my program discs of Mittleider books and cannot find where the info is for making the drum of continuous feed for watering in the greenhouse. I believe it was 16 oz per 50 gal barrel, but I'm not sure. Anyone out there know? and also WHERE it is found in the books. Thanks much!
The instructions for using the Weekly Feed mix as a "continuous feed" or "dilute fertilizer solution" mixed with water are in several places, including (but not limited to)Let's Grow Tomatoes - 1981, Gardening By The Foot - 1993, and The Mittleider Gardening Course - most recently published in 1999.Those of you lucky enough to have the Mittleider Gardening Library CD can simply type in either of those phrases and find every place that subject is discussed in any of the books. Easy, huh!For the rest of you (until you get the Gardening Library :-)) I'll mention some of the basics.
In Let's Grow Tomatoes, on page 49 Jacob recommended 8 ounces of Weekly Feed for a 25 gallon barrel, and 16 ounces for a 50 gallon barrel.In gardening By The Foot, on page 76, Jacob recommended using 1 ounce of Weekly Feed in 3 gallons of water.In the Mittleider Gardening Course, on page 183, Jacob also recommends using 1 ounce of Weekly Feed in 3 gallons of water.
I don't remember where it might be in the books, but while working with jacob on several projects we have used 16 ounces of Weekly Feed in a 55 gallon drum, which is a bit less than the 1 ounce per 3 gallons of water.
Therefore, I recommend you use one of the following - depending on the size container you're using:1 ounce in 3 gallons of water, or8 ounces in 25 gallons of water, or10 ounces for 30 gallons of water, or16 ounces for 50-55 gallons of water.Always be CERTAIN that you have adequate drainage in your pots or flats. Failure to provide proper drainage will cause the fertilizers to accumulate, since the water will be eliminated mainly by evaporation, and you will can burn and even kill your small plants because of the salinity.
Just this spring we saw 65,000 tomato seedlings dying from this very thing, until we rescued them by improving the drainage and flushing the salts out.Jim KennardP. S. Forgive Jacob for not always having the exact ratios in these things. The different books were written over the course of more than 20 years, and he continually experimented and changed as he saw the need.
The instructions for using the Weekly Feed mix as a "continuous feed" or "dilute fertilizer solution" mixed with water are in several places, including (but not limited to)Let's Grow Tomatoes - 1981, Gardening By The Foot - 1993, and The Mittleider Gardening Course - most recently published in 1999.Those of you lucky enough to have the Mittleider Gardening Library CD can simply type in either of those phrases and find every place that subject is discussed in any of the books. Easy, huh!For the rest of you (until you get the Gardening Library :-)) I'll mention some of the basics.
In Let's Grow Tomatoes, on page 49 Jacob recommended 8 ounces of Weekly Feed for a 25 gallon barrel, and 16 ounces for a 50 gallon barrel.In gardening By The Foot, on page 76, Jacob recommended using 1 ounce of Weekly Feed in 3 gallons of water.In the Mittleider Gardening Course, on page 183, Jacob also recommends using 1 ounce of Weekly Feed in 3 gallons of water.
I don't remember where it might be in the books, but while working with jacob on several projects we have used 16 ounces of Weekly Feed in a 55 gallon drum, which is a bit less than the 1 ounce per 3 gallons of water.
Therefore, I recommend you use one of the following - depending on the size container you're using:1 ounce in 3 gallons of water, or8 ounces in 25 gallons of water, or10 ounces for 30 gallons of water, or16 ounces for 50-55 gallons of water.Always be CERTAIN that you have adequate drainage in your pots or flats. Failure to provide proper drainage will cause the fertilizers to accumulate, since the water will be eliminated mainly by evaporation, and you will can burn and even kill your small plants because of the salinity.
Just this spring we saw 65,000 tomato seedlings dying from this very thing, until we rescued them by improving the drainage and flushing the salts out.Jim KennardP. S. Forgive Jacob for not always having the exact ratios in these things. The different books were written over the course of more than 20 years, and he continually experimented and changed as he saw the need.
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