Mulch

Mulch provides natures protection similar to our skin.  Mulch slows evaporation, allowing the soil surface to remain moist, and inviting for the organisms working 24/7 to improve your garden soil.
Mulch can be straw, wood chips, or a cover crop of legumes such as clover, beans or vetch.  One method of mulching which saves work is to pull weeds, and lay them back on the ground.

As mulch is broken down by organisms; the nutrients held within are taken down into your soil.  You may occasionally hear that the mulch will rob the soil of nitrogen.  This would be true if the mulch were mixed into the soil, but that is not what's happening with mulch. It lays on top and adds nitrogen as it decomposes, and returns to it's basic elements.  Some mulches will provide a better carbon to nitrogen ratio than others.

Even materials such as recycled pallets with a C:N ratio of 125:1 and decorative barks are better than nothing, but they provide far less nitrogen and more carbon. 

Materials such as composted manure 12:1, and composted yard waste 17:1 are best.   Composting will kill weed seeds if left in a hot pile (131-140°F) at least one week. Also keep in mind that some organic materials contain elements which can inhibit the growth of your garden.  For example rhubarb leaves contain oxalic acid which lowers pH and inhibits microbial activity.

Composted wood chips 40:1, fallen leaves 55:1, pine needles 64:1, and fresh wood chips with foliage 65:1 are not quit as high in nitrogen, but are beneficial because they shade the soil, retain moisture and promote the health of the "soil web".  Adding a second source of nitrogen such as blood meal, 
manure, or coffee grounds can be beneficial when high C:N mulches are used.  But be very careful with fertilizers such as ammonium nitrate, or urea as these are extremely strong, and can kill your helpful microorganisms.  For a more complete list visit this site from the University of  Illinois .

Earthan Beds

Over the past 21 months I have experimented with variations and combinations of Aquaponics, (vertical towers, wicking pots, deep water culture, and media beds), plus several other gardening methods such as Bio-Ponics, Wicking Beds, Hugelkultur, Two forms of Hydroponics (Dutch Bucket Hydroponics, and Kratky Method), and Dirt.

What I discovered worked best for me was all of the 'ponic' methods -Aquaponics, Hydroponics, and Bio-Ponics The Kratky Method (a form of Hydroponics) also worked well.


Wicking beds or Wicked Beds as the Aussies like to say,  provide uniform moist soil,  even when I forget to water, and they conserve water due to the bottom up watering method.

The 'Ponics' which are not normally soil based, provide nutrient rich water on a regular basis.

I am now ready to combine the techniques that I found worked best for me.  I was working toward this conclusion when I saw this link to the Earthen Group.  The details of this solution were instantly clear to me.  Paul Van der Werf  appears to have worked out all the kinks, and has detailed the construction of his system in the link above.    

http://youtu.be/lkSMkTpdt7U
http://www.earthangroup.com.au/earthan-beds-how-they-go-together/


Since I built my Wicking Beds as conventional raised beds, and used sand in the reservoir I will have to replace that sand with 1-1/2" drainage rock in order to facilitate the faster movement of water from the Bio-Ponic or Aquaponic system.  I'm leaning towards Bio-Ponics because I'm not into eating fish, and it comes with less overhead.  Either way the nutrients will flow below the soil in the Wicking Beds.

This should create a very large area for nitrification, and be very good for the fish if I choose that path.  CLICK HERE FOR UPDATE

I considered utilizing one bed for the soul purpose of vermicomposting  Eisenia Hortensis (European nightcrawler) or more likely Eisenia Foetida (the red wiggler, Californian red worm).  But the leachate from a worm bin would not be beneficial to an aquaponic or even a bio-ponic system.

Converse  wrote a very good description of the risks involved. [LINK]

To be clear-  keeping red wigglers in all of your grow beds is a good idea, but the leachate created in composting worm bins is better suited for a Bokashi Compost than used directly in the garden, or introduced to aquaculture, so even though it may sound like it would increase the micro-nutrients in the soil, it is not recommended.

Topping Peppers For Better Production

It may look wrong but the results speak for themselves.

Be sure to watch the way he cuts these peppers below to wye.

Hot July Garden Pics

It's been about 4 months since I built this garden

I just harvested 29lbs potatoes.  Red, Blue, White, and Yukon Gold

I'm not sure if it's time to harvest this corn.  The ears are kinda small.

The corner seems to be getting dry.  I took two ears off.  One was immature and the other was missing quite a few kernels.  No bugs.   I'm going to let it go a bit longer, The stalks are better than 7' tall.

 

Beautiful tomatoes are ripening everywhere in my garden.  These are hydroponic.  No worms!

I think these are Muskmelon.    They are growing up the arched trellis and hang down inside.

Guatemalan Blue Banana Squash hanging from the curved trellis.

The Kratky Method is great!  It's totally hands off, and fool proof.  Just set it up, and come back for the harvest when the plants are ready.  No watering, fertilizing, I never even did anything for pest control.  These were grown in the July heat where every day topped out near or over 100F. Several days were 110+.

Effective Microorganisms 3 Months Old

EM (Effective Microorganisms) after being stored for several months at room temperature.

Energy to Produce Vegetables

 I just read the article  "The Permaculture Solution – an Interview with Warren Brush". It said "Estimates are that the modern agriculture system uses ten calories of energy to produce one calorie of food."

Fearing that I too may be growing in a style of negative net energy. I immediately looked at the energy costs involved with my soil-less gardens and I published an article.
Chris Carr was kind enough to remind me that nutritional calories (KCal) are equal to 1000 chemistry calories (cal).    A chemist would probably use Joules and Kilo-Joules (KJ) rather than KCal.   But the we think of food in terms of KCalories rather than Joules, so I'll keep it in KCal also known as large or nutrition calories as much as I can.  There were other errors in my first draft,  so here's the rewrite.



I get that using the rule of thumb that a soil garden should get about 10 gallons of water /day /100 sq. ft. is not exact, and everything from soil condition, weather, crop, and stage of growth will affect these numbers, but it's the average I want to start with.
Lets say you irrigate 100 square feet of garden with 10 gallons per day, and you are pumping water from let's say 100 feet below the surface. 

To calculate the power used to pump 10 gallons per minute 100'

P_whp = q h sg / 3960

where

P_whp = water horsepower (hp)
q = flow (gal/min)    = (10)
h = head (ft)              = (100)
sg = specific gravity = (1)

P_whp = 10x100/3960 = .2525whp = 0.04497210699688 KCal/sec
This could also be expressed as 188.2892175745  J/sec which is the definition of a Watt.

If you are following along and checking my math you can use the 'Power Unit Conversion' to find the Power.
Energy is what is delivered and Power is the rate at which it is delivered.
In the above example we deliver 188 Watts for 1 minute or 3.138 Watt-Hours, but I'm going to stick with KCal units.



We pump for 1 minute so
0.04497210699688 KCal/s  x  60sec = 2.69 KCal / day to supply 1" of water to soil

Below is a list of common vegetables which I got from.

http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calories_in_vegetables.htm
Highlighted cells are used below.

Tomato can be expected to yield as much as 37500 lb per acre or 37500/43560x100 = 86 lbs per 100sf
80 KCal per lb x 86 lb = 6880 KCal
Lettuce can be expected to yield as much as 27000 lb per acre or 27000/43560x100 = 61 lbs per 100sf
67.37 KCal per lb x 61 lb = 4176 KCal
 

The yield statistics below come from eHow.com and johnnyseeds.com

Using the numbers from vegguide I have determined that on average lettuce will take about 50 days to mature and tomatoes will take about 80.

Soil

Here is the energy required to pump the water for these two crops till harvested.
Tomatoes - 2.69 KCal x 80 days = 215.2KCal
Lettuce     - 2.69 KCal x 50 days = 134.5KCal

Tomatoes - It takes 215.2 KCal to produce 6880 KCal of tomatoes.  About 31.9 to 1 . 
Lettuce     - It takes 134.5 KCal to produce 4176 KCal of lettuce.      About 31.0 to 1 .

Bioponic

I'm going to use a pump size that is far below what you are likely use to make the best case for soil-less gardening.
If you use a 20 watt pump 5 hours a day.
That's 20 watt-hours x 5 hours/day = 100 Watt-Hours / day 
Each W-Hr is equal to 0.859845227859  KCal
 0.859845227859  KCal  x 100 Watt-Hours / day = 86.0 KCal to pump water each day.

Tomatoes - 86.0 KCal/day x 80 days = 6880 KCal
Lettuce     - 86.0 KCal/day x 50 days = 4300 KCal
Tomatoes - 6880 KCal to produce 6880 KCal of tomatoes.  About 1 to 1 .   
Lettuce     - 4300 KCal to produce  4176 KCal of lettuce.       About 1.03 to 1 .

Compared to soil gardening the power efficiency of soil-less gardening is staggeringly bad, but water is also a commodity worth preserving.  Water use gets pretty complicated if you consider that some of the water applied to soil returns to the aquifer, but aquaponics and bioponics are definitely more efficient with water, and far more wasteful of power, which in some cases will be fossil fuel  

My comparison only scratches the surface.  Our home gardens may not be much better than the modern agriculture system which Warren Brush said uses 10 to 1 times more calories than it produces.  The cost of mining and producing nutrients for our gardens must also be included as well as the gas for those trips to the store for our gardening supplies and fish food.  Keep in mind petroleum is the main source of fertilizers, and even a source of power for production of organic products. The list goes on, and I'm sure I would not be able to think of all of the items on that list.

There are ways to improve each type of garden.  Solar power for water pumps, air pumps, and heaters.  Wicking beds and other Permaculture methods for soil based gardening as Warren has suggested,  Kratky Method for hydroponic gardens, but hydroponics use synthetic fertilizers.  In most cases I believe much more power is required in an aquaponic garden compared to a bioponic garden, but the trade off is protein from fish...  Finding the exact number seems out of reach - we can only try to make better decisions,
We are quickly out growing our planet, and its resources. I hope this has been  food for thought.   I hope you will share yours.

Kratky Method

I've been told the Kratky Method is also good for fast growing vegetables like tomatoes.  It's not the right time of year to be growing leafy greens, but I have some heat tolerant varieties that I'm experimenting with in the shade. 

 The Kratky Method appeals to me because it is so easy.  The hydroponic system requires mixing solution on a regular basis, and AP requires monitoring.  Once filled and planted there is nothing else to do with the Kratky Method.  As the solution is used the root grow down a bit further.

The initial solution for this 16-15-32 solution in a 200 litter tank is created by mixing
104 grams Masterblend 4-18-38, 104 grams Ca(NO3)2, and 52 grams MgSo4 in 200 liters of water.

I did not think the Kratky Method would be well suited to tomatoes, but someone left a comment assuring me they also grow well.  I'm growing tomatoes in a 50 gallon hydroponic Dutch Bucket system with a 20-18-38 solution created by mixing
132 grams Masterblend 4-18-38, 132 grams Ca(NO3)2, and 66 grams MgSo4 in 55 gallons of water.
Next summer I may try tomatoes in the Kratky bed.

The units are marked in liters on the Kratky tank and my hydroponic reservoir is marked in gallons so each of the above formulas are stated differently.  The lettuce formula is not as strong as the solution mixed for tomatoes.

After 34 days, I have decided to begin posting the results of this experiment.   Below are photos of the experiment taken every few days.  This experiment was done in the hottest part of summer.  Temperatures reached 111 degrees in the shade where these plants were grown.

Kale Roots Day 34

Lettuce Roots at day 34

For more about mixing the Masterblend fertilizer go to
http://hydro-gardens.com/mixing.htm
The idea for both the hydroponic and Kratky Method came from MHPgardener at http://youtu.be/vYv9iu2NI3M.