miguelovic said:
The best results for soil pH testing I have gotten are from slurry tests, as opposed to the wildly inaccurate run-off method.
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Hey Jesus Freak (
), you'll get a lot more converts by example than with a mallet. The enthusiasm is spot on and well placed, organic growing is king, but can be daunting to some people, especially when among the movement there is a surplus of fanatics. The no-tillers are the worst, and asking advice from any of those paragons of wisdom will result in one answer: (Stop tilling, you're destroying the balance of the universe). If it is inaccessible and elitist, a lot of people are going to fall to the margin.
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slurry test is the only way to test soil ph imho. that being said, it is still not terribly accurate.
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re: tilling
wow, what do you do instead of tilling then? just hammer some seeds into the dirt? hope for the best?Â
is there some sort of plant you co produce that aerates the ground?
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regarding your hydro assertions:
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they are imo without merit.
both organic and hydroponic methods of production can be entirely 'sustainable', and both can be miss managed and terribly destructive. See weed growers in state parks, and see nitrogen,copper and fecal runoff from organic farms.
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contrary to what most think, organic farming is not ONLY done with botanical extract pesticides. even those that are, are not necessarily less toxic than modern synthetic pesticides.Â
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hydro, atleast my form of hydro, fertigation via drip irrigation equipment, DOES indeed require sterile conditions, but not because of the synthetic ferts i use. I need a clean sanitary system because algae and bacterial flora will clog my drippers, filters, and pump.Â
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I used to use those silly little bluemat drippers. i could let that system run wild with algae it didn't matter much, as i could just pinch out the clogs, and it would run just fine once again.
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increasingly strong chemicals? no. bleach works just fine,and will forever give its mechanism of action. not sure what you mean here tho, but perhaps you are referring to pesticides.
FYI, pesticide resistant insets are just a fact of biology. every insect that feeds on the tobacco is a pesticide resistant pest.
true poor farming technique has caused a number of problems here that could have been avoided with more foresight. but yea, its just the human condition, react rather than prevent. i dont think organic farming and all its supposed altruism is any different in this respect.
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BT corn, farmers are now planting sacrificial corn, corn thats unmodified, so as to allow a breeding population of non resistant insects to thirive. this should at least control the problem as the non resistant pests can interbreed with the resistant once, and therefor diminish the populations of resistant pests. (caveat, this is from vague memory of an article i read a while back, i could be way off here lol.)
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but yea, i love pesticides. one drench with imidicloprid when i transplant keeps off the aphids for around 2 months. thereafter i spray permethrun for knockdown of caterpillars if/when i find them. for mites i spray abamectin, probably twice a year. mites are the biggest pest issue i have, as i have a pine tree close by my home, ive been told that they often account for spider mite problems, but IDK.