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I'm always down for sharing seed and spreading the love, PM sent.

Small world indeed as I'm another Guelphite...  If we weren't such a "colourful" city we'd never have made it onto King of the Hill to represent canucks in cartoon land...  If ya'd like to try some seeds drop me a line as I've already been gifted some seeds from this wonderful site and would...

Just say no to drunk forum postings, only you can prevent random ranting :p

Biochar sounds more dynamic and exciting, plus it's hard to sell charcoal at the same inflated prices ;) Great info CS, good to know there's no benefit after 10lbs/100sq.  Thanks for posting the link Noah, unfortunately my comp battery is about to die so I'll have to check it out tomorrow

This was what got me looking into it, http://www.cultureunplugged.com/documentary/watch-online/play/12245/The-Promise-of-Biochar, (11 minutes from cornell university) as before I watched most sites/references where all about the $$$.  They mention a farmer who's using chicken manure to make...

I actually usually suggest flat white paint because of the longevity of it.  When I contacted the company to find out how to clean mylar, they told me it couldn't be cleaned without losing it's coating so it's best to replace it.  Flat white paint is 90% reflective, mylar 98% if clean, if you're...

What material did you use Drew?  Good to hear more positive reinforcement, with the carbon sequestering I'm slowly convincing my Dad to build a biochar burner to heat their chicken coop this winter.   I wasn't thinking about the cation exchange capacity, now I'll have to see what I can learn as...

I'm sure there's a big difference in quality depending on how the charcoal is produced, that being said from my understanding the biggest direct effect it has on soil health is creating a place for microbes to thrive because of the irregular surface area/porous nature.  Which would be effected...

I've been reading about it lately, also called terra preta, and was wondering if anyone has any experience with it?  As an experiment I've crushed charcoal and added it to the coco coir.  At the very least it'll help sweeten the soil, hopefully it'll also be a medium for microbes to thrive on...

Thanks for the offer, I'll look into it more as I haven't since I got out of indoor cultivation.  Back then I tried a bunch of side by side tests with mineral supplements and didn't find any appreciable advantage in either yield or quality.  I was using a high quality, complete soluble...

Why is a glacial source suppose to be better then a volcanic one?  Unless I'm misunderstanding and you didn't mean to imply that.   Greensand is another option, personally I'd be surprised if it really there was much of a difference between them all as plants really aren't that particular when...

Here's a doc about how they transitioned from petro-chem to sustainable agriculture.   http://www.cultureunplugged.com/documentary/watch-online/play/11890/The-Greening-of-Cuba   I also thought I should clarify, it's not my dream for North America to  transition to a different model as it'd be...

That's another wonderful example, there are more and more everyday.  Some low tech, some high.  I saw one ted talk about a food factory, using LEtD lights and hydroponic methods to produce food in the center of major urban cities where real estate is at a premium.  They've just set up their...

There's a huge food movement in California and universities exploring the systems I've discussed as the best option for the future.  SPIN farming has been studied by american universities as a way to revitalize destitute cities (like Detroit) by creating local economies that also create food...

I agree that most small scale farms I've seen fail, but I don't think it's because of the economics, what I see is it's people who don't understand what their doing but are following ideologies.  Most are in the early to mid 20's, coming from urban backgrounds with no working concept of how to...

I would never have guessed you cultivated a wide range of "weeds" as edibles from your previous post, as you seemed part of the majority that believes only our current system will support our society.  Glad to hear you're aware and actively participating in teaching your grandchildren to think...

I have in the past, they're very slow release and in the end I found them too cost ineffective.  I find it's cheaper and more effective to include a lot of "weeds" into your compost as most have deep root systems so they accumulate lots of the same minerals into their tissue, which is then added...

Sounds balanced enough and similar to my bin (except they get a lot of whey and fermented veggies as well, no lawn clippings though) but depending on the ration of nutrients (scraps, green leaves, etc) to carbon (newspaper, cardboard, filters, dry leaves, etc) it'll effect not only it's physical...

How hot the worm castings are depends on what the worms are fed, if they have lot's of bedding the castings will have a lot more carbon and a lower nutrient value.  If they're fed a lot, their castings can be very nutrient dense as worms concentrate nutrients by a 7 fold or greater.  So it...

I'd definitely move the lights closer, otherwise your plants will stretch and it'll be hard to control.  Assuming you have 9 bulbs total, that should work well.