Organic Gardening

[Cooldude33]

Gardening, in an organic way, is mainly a combination of different essential elements. Fertile soil, natural manure, natural seeds, sufficient sunlight and clean water is all that makes a garden an organic one. It is difficult to shift from garden to organic garden as many factors have already done the damage. So, if you are planning to grow your own garden, opt for an organic one.

[hunter63]

Good plan, as if you can learn the organic way, you cut down on chemicals that most garden depend on these days.

If the ground has been treated in any way, take a long time to get back to organic again......agreed, there is rules on what can be considered oganic, should you decide to sell produce as organic.

Link to some of the rules:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_certification

[ClayPick]

The term organic is right up there with local produce. Here there is a stringent set of guidelines for both. Then there’s the watered down version for the large industrial producers. I get 90 to 100 days tops for most vegetables outdoors and try to keep it as wholesome as possible. I’m also experimenting with hydroponic tomatoes this summer and am having good results with that.

[hunter63]

Like useing organic methods as you are dialing into the natural way of growing and using your food, with out the chemicals and cost.

Big fan of Rodale.
http://www.rodale.com/organic-garden...d-saving-money

[Rick]

There really is no big secret to organic gardening. I've done it for 30 years I guess. You have to pay attention to the soil just as you would the oil in your engine or the filter in your furnace. You can't just take from it and not put back or it will cease to be productive. I don't use chemicals or fertilizers in my garden. I just never wanted to feed that stuff to my kids. It takes a little more work and you have to pay attention a little closer but the reward is worth it. I do have problem veggies that I won't grow simple because insects like them too much and I won't opt to spray them. I just don't grow them. But I happened to be at Ball State's horticulture center today and they were using cheese cloth covers to keep moths off broccoli so that may be on the list again next year. Love learning stuff.

[LowKey]

Yeah, my cabbage got eaten alive cuz the sulphur butterflies were so bad this year. The fall crop of broccoli is in a 1/4" mesh hardware cloth cage at the moment. Not sure I can afford the floating row cover though. Keeping an eye on the work dumpster for some white textilene. The stuff comes in off job hoardings once in a while.

I try to keep the garden organic. I used to use BT for worms but don't even use that any more.

[oldtrap59]

Our garden space was grass till we plowed it up and had been for years while the former owner lived here.(about 35 yrs) Since then all that has gone into that area is compost,rabbit and chicken manure and lime. Each year it seems that our garden produces a little better. As far as bugs we use alot of soap water and row covers. Also hand pick alot of them. Been a tough year for horn worms here in the maters.

Ot

[hunter63]

Yeah, my cabbage got eaten alive cuz the sulphur butterflies were so bad this year. The fall crop of broccoli is in a 1/4" mesh hardware cloth cage at the moment. Not sure I can afford the floating row cover though. Keeping an eye on the work dumpster for some white textilene. The stuff comes in off job hoardings once in a while.

I try to keep the garden organic. I used to use BT for worms but don't even use that any more.

Watched hornets go part way into a hole in the cabbage, and pull out a worm.....and had a large black a yellow spider cover the broccoli with a web to catch those yellow moths.

Wouldn't have been there if I would have used sprays.

[farmerjane]

I like to use tobacco tea to keep bugs off my plant. They hate the stuff, plus dogs hate the smell so they stay out too.

[Jimmyq]

'organic' doesn't necessarily mean safe. ;-) I used to sell Rotenone and Diazinon, guess what, the LD50 level of Rotenone is 3x stonger than Diazinon... I am all for using organic methods and products but the word is bastardized in its meaning these days. I prefer to call them 'renewable' fertilizers. Basic elements are minerals and are natural, their source (petroleum refineries vs say horse puckey) are the difference, the minerals are no different when the plants absorb them and no, they veggies do not taste any different. Pest control is a whole different ball game though, personally I don't use much, maybe a soap or hose spray but otherwise I let the spiders alone and hope for the best, for the weeds I pull em, spray them with soap and or vinegar and I have a high heat utensil to roast them

[Celticwarrior]

Organic is by its very nature a much more chancy and labor intensive way of farming. It may be ok for a small backyard garden, but in a TEOTWAWKI type of situation, growing enough grain for a family for a year using only organic methods will be challenging to say the least. Before the advent of modern pesticides and fertilization methods, the number of crop failures was staggering. That wouldn't just mean higher prices in the grocery store like today, but people and livestock dying of starvation because there just wasn't enough food for the winter and spring. Various bugs like borers and weevils would destroy corn, wheat, and other necessary crops, and it wasn't possible to go through a hundred acres of land and pick them all off by hand or spray them with soap solutions. Diseases and fungi also took their tolls, and were generally untreatable before modern chemistry intervened. Even a small garden requires a LOT of time out in the rows picking off bugs and caterpillers, spraying oils or soaps on eggs, scales and beetles, and picking off diseased leaves and fruits to save the remaining plant, as well as fertilizing from a compost heap that must be constantly turned, added to, and maintained for airation and vermicula action. Compost and manures must age for one to two years before adding them to growing soils, so that is something that should be started now, before it is needed.

Due to the loss of chemicals and other modern fertilizers, insecticides and fungicides in a TEOTWAWKI situation, organics will likely be our only viable option, but it should be understood that it will also be one of the hardest things to keep up with for the survivor on their homestead.

[Solar Geek]

CW, as someone who learned on the job in my garden how hard organic gardening really was/is, I agree with all your points. I would lose an entire crop (cukes one year) just because I was too busy one week with my kids to really pay attention and so see the pests attacking the plant. Also, most people, including my sister who is just planting now (in August, in Georgia) her square foot organic garden, think you are going to put a seed in the ground and whammo, you will have a great crop.
Maybe you will but maybe you won't. And to get to it you have to do a ton of research (what home-made organic sprays can I make? Why are my leaves curling down, turning brown, spotting (insert your pest here) and a ton of work.
I am a firm believer in organic if I can be. I have to measure time, cost, and effort and sometimes, you just gotta use the safest chemical and kill those bugs.

[oldtrap59]

I understand that the time factor weighs heavy on many gardeners. However, I myself gave up the use of chemical warfare on bugs a long time ago. The main reason being, not so much what they did or do to me but the fact that they not only kill the bad bugs. They kill all bugs. Loopers,hornworms,afids, miners and cutworms all gotta go but I don't want to use something that will clear my garden of ladybugs, honey bees, wasps, bumble bees and butterflys. Without these good bugs I wouldn't get as much produce. I love to watch the swollowtails fliting back and forth between the lantana along the back of the house and the okra that runs along the edge of the garden.

Another thing that we also use is companion planting. We interplant alot of herbs and bait plants to keep bugs off of and away from our crops. Basil helps with bug control in maters. Dill will help in the cukes. Marigolds in and around the cabbage will help. Just a few we use.

OT

[LowKey]

I've been working with companion planting the last couple of years. This year though, I think because of the mild winter, some of the things that use to work aren't working.
Rosemary plants in with the broccoli and cabbage always kept the yellow moths away. Not this year.
Letting the pigweed grow in the beans keeps the japanese beetles off the beans. Except there were so many, they razed the pigweed and started on the beans anyway. A few days of picking them off into a can of dishsoap helped a lot.
I always plant radishes in with the cucumbers and basil in with the tomatoes and peppers. I tried pansies this year with the peppers and it really helped on the yield. The flowers drew in the bees. Nasturtiums and marigolds go everywhere. Marigolds especially on the borders.
I grow tansy out back and use it as a compost heater.
There are pyrethrum daisies out back too and while I dry some every year, that poison can kill bees so haven't brought myself to use it. I do put the crushed flowers in mole runs. Seems to make them unhappy enough to leave.

A busy week last week taught me something I'm trying to figure out how to exploit. The crabgrass that is growing in one particular row of beans always had dew on it in the morning.
The ground under that grass was always dampish even though we haven't had rain in 3 or 4 weeks now. The beans in that row are doing 100x better than the other 4 rows. Gotta work on that one a bit...

I'm glad someone else realizes that growing things in a bad situation will be difficult. The other difficult part is having enough space to grow enough to eat, let alone carry over seed to plant next year's crop. On one of my latest hikes, I intentionally catalogued things I could have eaten that day. While there are many plants and little forest critters around, there were simply not enough to provide an ongoing supply for just one person with an eye to leaving enough for next time. If you don't leave the roots and enough plant to recover, there ain't gonna be a next time. If you harvest all the animals, won't be any more of those either.