Gardening Tips

These are notes from a webinar presentation by Bob Gregory at http://countrylivinguniversity.com/classroom/ made available by Dave Westbrook of Back to Enoch Ministries on Tuesday, September 20, 2011. More than 2,500 people registered for the webinar.

There is a neighborhood in Switzerland where every family has a large garden

March 30, 1903 GC bulletin. Get out of the cities as soon as possible and purchase a little piece of land where you can have a garden, where your children can watch the flowers growing, and learn from them lessons of simplicity and purity.

Starting point: Food assay

Determine what foods and quantities you will need for a year

Grains, potations, legumes, winter squash, melons (field grown crops)

Vegetables (garden crops)

Fruits (orchard, vineyard crops)

Cover crops

Can grow all the food needed by a family of four in about 30 minutes a day

Families are surprised how much food can be produced from a small portion of land

Choosing seeds

GMOs marketed to home gardeners:

Attribute sweet corn varieties from Roger’s Seeds (Syngenta)

Monsanto’s bT sweet corns to be released for home gardens in 2012

No others at present time

Seeds:

Buy from reliable commercial grower’s supplier

Select varieties for your conditions (length of day, et cetera) that will grow well in your area

Always plant multiple varieties of the same crop

Select a combination of open-pollinated and hybrid varieties

Order your seeds now. Large corporations are buying up independent seed producers.

Suppliers listed at http://www.bereagardens.org/seed.html

Late fall is best time to buy seeds

Garden selection criteria:

Full sun

Southern exposure/slope A slope can give the effect of a more southerly location

Drainage/irrigation

Accessibility/security (people, animals – fencing)

Soil type, texture, structure, and depth; less of a consideration

Web soil survey http://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov/app/HomePage.htm A marvelous resource especially for people looking for land. Can put in address or coordinates and see soil types. See if soil suitable for use. Tells different soil types within map shown. Detailed information for each soil type. What kind of agriculture is suitable there. Phenomenal accuracy of the data. He has used it widely over his career; helps to determine what kind of crops to plant.

Information about soils given in the survey:

Soil textural class

Depth of A horizon (top soil depth)

Depth to a restrictive feature (how far can roots penetrate)

Depth to water saturation, don’t want too shallow

Soil productivity comparisons

Particles in the soil are classified solely by their size.

Sand: 0.05 to 2 mm; silt: 0.05 to 0.002 mm; silt: less than 0.002 mm

Clay: Tiny particles

Silt: Larger

Sand: Still larger

Best to have about equal of all sizes

Do a soil analysis to find out your soil properties; most valuable investment for gardening. Costs about $15.00.

Information about how to take this analysis can be found at the http://www.bereagardens.org/ web site. In particular check out this web page: http://www.bereagardens.org/soil.html

In this way develop richly productive soil in first growing season.

The right nutrients increase quality and quantity of produce.

These nutrients are important for gardening:

Carbon Hydrogen Oxygen (Environmental Nutrients)

Nitrogen Phosphorus Potassium (Primary Nutrients)

Calcium Magnesium Sulfur (Secondary Nutrients)

Boron Copper Iron Zinc Molybdenum Manganese Chlorine Nickel Cobalt (Trace Nutrients)

These nutrients need to be present in certain amounts and ratios for plant health

15 or more additional elements are required for human health

These additional elements are ignored by agricultural community

These additional elements are taken in by plants while absorbing necessary nutrients

Soil depletion – some nutrients are not supplied by fertilizer and may be lacking in the soil

The 15 additional human required elements are never applied to the soil

Typical fertilizer applies only nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, sometimes sulfur or calcium, so soil becomes depleted

Science of plant nutrition is inadequate

Sea salts may help because they contain additional nutrients, but these can be toxic to plants; be sure to follow directions

Organic plant nutrient sources: Animal wastes, animal byproducts, crop residues, cover crops, composts, seaweeds,

Another nutrient source is mined minerals

Animal wastes and byproducts can be contaminated

Synthetic plant nutrients are not always bad

Nitrogen is taken from the atmosphere

Many nutrients are mined

Micronutrients or additives may not be safe

Nitrogen fixation is another source of nitrogen, from these plants:

Alfalfa Clover Vetch Fava Beans Peas Beans (the last two do not fix much)

Bob Gregory uses red clover for nitrogen fixation

Not all commercial fertilizers are safe – blended fertilizers may contain unsafe ingredients like sewage sludge, industrial wastes, heavy metals

Nitrogen fertilizers are better from fertilizer plant than from cattle feedlot

Better than tons of manure from confined animal feeding operation

Dr. William A. Albrecht, University of Missouri studied soil and nutrition

His findings are the key to Bob Gregory’s success in agriculture

Dr. Albrecht was the first to investigate the correlation between soil chemistry and health

On certain types of soil cattle are far healthier

Dr. Albrecht developed a system of formulas to determine the chemistry health relation

His formula determines how much of certain elements, especially calcium and magnesium, should be added to the soil

His quote: NPK formulas, (nitrogen, phosphorus, sodium) as legislated and enforced by State Departments of Agriculture, mean malnutrition, attack by insects, bacteria and fungi, weed takeover, crop loss in dry weather, and general loss of mental acuity in the population, leading to degenerative metabolic disease and early death.

Ratio of calcium magnesium potassium in the soil has impacts for bacterial fungal growth and optimum health

Dr. Albrecht’s formula is widely ignored by mainstream agriculture because of expense, instead NPK fertilizers are widely used.

Bob Gregory has obtained magnificent results from simple steps in this direction using this formula

To understand Dr. Albrecht’s formula, consider the composition of soil.

Soil particles all have a slight negative charge

Size of particles determines how much negative charge they have

Sand – low charge

Clay – high charge

Silt – in the middle

Cation exchange capacity (CEC) tells the number of positively charged ions these negative soil particles can attach to

CEC: Soil capacity to hold positively charged ions

CEC and Percent base saturation are most important for plant productivity and soil health

Base saturation: Quantity of cations adsorbed by soil particles and held by soil’s negative charge (Calcium Magnesium Potassium)

Percent base saturation – how much of each cation element is presently attached to soil particles.

Albrecht believed that the ideal balance of cations in the soil was "H, 10%; Ca, 60 to 75%; Mg, 10 to 20%; K, 2 to 5%; Na, 0.5 to 5.0%; and other cations, 5%".

Optimum values for base saturation:

3-5 percent potassium 17-20 percent magnesium 68 or more percent Ca (68 percent of the attached particles should be calcium, et cetera)

Also want to adjust soil pH – remove hydrogen from base saturation. Hydrogen ions can also be attached to the soil particles.

Formula for tons per acre limestone needed for soil = .5 (CEC * H percent)

Hugely important for productivity

Convert to tons to pounds, acres to square feet, convert to pounds per square foot

Several kinds of limestone: Limestone, Hydrated Lime, Dolomite

Each has different percentages of calcium

Dolomite also has magnesium in 2:1 ratio, helps if both calcium and magnesium are low

34 percent of base saturation (as an example) may be occupied by hydrogen

Replace some with calcium and magnesium

pH will be neutralized

May seem esoteric but these calculations can achieve dramatic results

Bob Gregory has 700 square feet of soil area in a greenhouse

Gets 636 pounds of harvest each time

Can get 4 or 5 harvests per year

Little space can produce a lot of food

Many become discouraged about gardening. They need not be.

Berea Gardens has training programs in gardening.

For information check out the http://www.bereagardens.org/ web site

Week long training sessions during the winter

Food crisis is just ahead; we need to prepare

Food system is fragile, economy also fragile