All about Organic growing

[ClissAT]

This article was written by a guy who runs a local (to me on Queensland Sunshine Coast) company which sells a huge range of organic fertilizers and soil amendments. They do all the technical investigation, proving and agronomy themselves on their own farm for every product they sell.
I have not been able to find a single aspect of their company or commercial dealings to be less than 100% ethical.
Graham goes around the world giving lectures and leading workshops on changing over to organic farming both on a large and small scale.

Whether you wish to grow your food using a complete organic system or just as best you can, you will learn a lot by reading Grahams articles. They sell soil ammedments in 1lt bottles which suits home gardeners. Of course they also sell those same ammedments in sizes up to 1000lt tanks and tonage lots!

I have not been paid or given anything for writing this article. I simply find their company and products to be 100% ethical.

Here is an excerp from the latest newsletter with links at the bottom to their website where you can subscribe to their nl and learn the technicalities of organic growing for yourself. The last 2 months nl were about nitrogen. Generally at some time during any given year he will be on every continent in the world giving everyone the opportunity to attend one of his workshops.

Nutrition Matters - The Dawn of a New Era - Let’s Savour This Season

Wishing you Health, Happiness and Fulfillment.

Another year has flown by, and I am sitting in an English airport about to begin the arduous journey home for Christmas.

It has been a frantic, but hugely gratifying conclusion to 2018, with a 4-week seminar tour of Canada and the UK. There have been large, excited crowds of farmers and consultants at every venue. In Canada, the Four-Day Certificate course attracted growers farming almost 2 million acres. In that country, there are several broadacre crops where organic crops fetch premiums 300% higher than conventional commodities. This has prompted several growers, who have attended previous courses, to commit thousands of acres to organic production. Thankfully, that gamble paid off last season, and there were some smiling faces returning to this course for an update and refresher.

It is a common misconception that a conversion to organics automatically spells lower yields. In that old-school understanding, it is reasoned that you will fall in a heap for a few years but hopefully catch up when the higher premiums kick in. This is absolute nonsense! Organics is just a different road to Rome. You are allowed to use all trace minerals, calcium, magnesium, potassium sulphate and sulphur. Your phosphorus is limited to less soluble forms, but liquid injection with micronised guano (Phos-Life Organic™) can provide all the kick start you will require. You can further ensure sufficient P by inoculating mycorrhizal fungi and Trichoderma sp on the seed (Nutri-Life Platform®). Both of these organisms are well-researched phosphate solubilisers. There are also several other regenerative practices that can release phosphate from your massive frozen reserves. I always encourage farmers to pay a few dollars extra and measure their total phosphorus in their soil test. You will often discover that you have thousands of ppm of this mineral to draw upon in a soil with a history of phosphate fertilisation.

The major yield limiter in organics, however, is nitrogen (N). It is the most abundant mineral in the plant but there are limited options within certified organic farming systems. N deficiency will usually be the major reason for reduced yield in this system, but N can be much better managed and maximised by adopting some key strategies

In the latter half of this Christmas message, I will share some key strategies to maximise yields in organics by optimising your supply of N.

To continue reading this article, please CLICK HERE.

To view some of our other articles, please visit the Nutrition Matters blog.

 

[Letsgokate]

Sounds like he really knows his stuff.

 

[Bea]

This article was written by a guy who runs a local (to me on Queensland Sunshine Coast) company which sells a huge range of organic fertilizers and soil amendments. They do all the technical investigation, proving and agronomy themselves on their own farm for every product they sell.
I have not been able to find a single aspect of their company or commercial dealings to be less than 100% ethical.
Graham goes around the world giving lectures and leading workshops on changing over to organic farming both on a large and small scale.

Whether you wish to grow your food using a complete organic system or just as best you can, you will learn a lot by reading Grahams articles. They sell soil ammedments in 1lt bottles which suits home gardeners. Of course they also sell those same ammedments in sizes up to 1000lt tanks and tonage lots!

I have not been paid or given anything for writing this article. I simply find their company and products to be 100% ethical.

Here is an excerp from the latest newsletter with links at the bottom to their website where you can subscribe to their nl and learn the technicalities of organic growing for yourself. The last 2 months nl were about nitrogen. Generally at some time during any given year he will be on every continent in the world giving everyone the opportunity to attend one of his workshops.

Nutrition Matters - The Dawn of a New Era - Let’s Savour This Season

Wishing you Health, Happiness and Fulfillment.

Another year has flown by, and I am sitting in an English airport about to begin the arduous journey home for Christmas.

It has been a frantic, but hugely gratifying conclusion to 2018, with a 4-week seminar tour of Canada and the UK. There have been large, excited crowds of farmers and consultants at every venue. In Canada, the Four-Day Certificate course attracted growers farming almost 2 million acres. In that country, there are several broadacre crops where organic crops fetch premiums 300% higher than conventional commodities. This has prompted several growers, who have attended previous courses, to commit thousands of acres to organic production. Thankfully, that gamble paid off last season, and there were some smiling faces returning to this course for an update and refresher.

It is a common misconception that a conversion to organics automatically spells lower yields. In that old-school understanding, it is reasoned that you will fall in a heap for a few years but hopefully catch up when the higher premiums kick in. This is absolute nonsense! Organics is just a different road to Rome. You are allowed to use all trace minerals, calcium, magnesium, potassium sulphate and sulphur. Your phosphorus is limited to less soluble forms, but liquid injection with micronised guano (Phos-Life Organic™) can provide all the kick start you will require. You can further ensure sufficient P by inoculating mycorrhizal fungi and Trichoderma sp on the seed (Nutri-Life Platform®). Both of these organisms are well-researched phosphate solubilisers. There are also several other regenerative practices that can release phosphate from your massive frozen reserves. I always encourage farmers to pay a few dollars extra and measure their total phosphorus in their soil test. You will often discover that you have thousands of ppm of this mineral to draw upon in a soil with a history of phosphate fertilisation.

The major yield limiter in organics, however, is nitrogen (N). It is the most abundant mineral in the plant but there are limited options within certified organic farming systems. N deficiency will usually be the major reason for reduced yield in this system, but N can be much better managed and maximised by adopting some key strategies

In the latter half of this Christmas message, I will share some key strategies to maximise yields in organics by optimising your supply of N.

To continue reading this article, please CLICK HERE.

To view some of our other articles, please visit the Nutrition Matters blog.

I am happy you qualified your remarks "as best you can" - especially when you are just starting and you dont have a lot of disposable income. On my FB site "gardening in Ecuador" I have taken people to task for deliberately using non-organic products or methods - such as bringing in possible GMO and non-organic seeds. There are alternatives and if you havent tried you dont belong on my site! If coming from Canada, USA, Europe - you can find the organic, and Non-GMO stuff at any nursery so there is no excuse.. Then I have had members taking me to task for not calling the site Organic gardening in Ecuador. I point them to the rules. I ask people to try - and this can be very difficult here in Ecuador to get, e.g. non-chemicalised animal manure. You would have to travel to a finca and test the feed/soil yourself. Most small time producers here due what they can to maximize their output to feed their families. But I draw the line at the seed thing if you are muling in. after that it is difficult to get proper seeds. I like a group outside Quito that is doing their best to produce heirloom and non-gmo organic seeds for sale. thier seeds are wonderful and cost roughly what I would pay anywhere. I also tell members that is OK to become committed to growing organically and, frankly using up what you. I tell people that for sure I GROW all of my stuff organically because I cant always promise that all is 'kosher'.Once a year there is a mad scramble - first come first served - among local expats to buy up the manure from a local chicken farmer. His does not use antibiotics nor non-oranically grown feed - as best he can - that are free from pesticides. it is wonderful to know that he sells out every year. and BTW his chickens are the best I have ever eaten.

 

[ClissAT]

Bea, all of us can only do 'the best we can'. There are times when disease will get in and short of ripping out the whole garden, you are forced to use non-organic methods.
But if you were lucky enough to own sufficient land to organically produce enough various animal manures to fertilize your whole food garden then you would have a completely organic eco-system. So you would be crazy to use chemical aids in that.
But for whatever reason most of us aren't able to produce enough animal manure to fund our food gardens so we must bring in supplies.
This is often where problems begin along with slack disease and pest management within our own systems.
Its why I always advocate rotational growing so you keep moving the plants to prevent root and soil diseases.
If you were raising animals, you would rotate them around the property also to help stop intestinal worms building up in the soil or burdening the soil and pasture with too much manure.
Commercial organic egg and meat bird producers have their animals in mobile pens or tractors, so they can move across the paddocks because nature loves to use chooks and their manure as hosts for disease.

The guy I was talking about in my original post, Graham, learned a lot by observing the native tribes of South America. Yes you are right to badger people about using non-gmo seed.
The gmo seed has been around for enough years that it is beginning to cross with native seed and in some cases the resultant plants are withstanding all control methods.
Hybrid seed and non-hybrid seed are also crossing producing a less than optimal plant that produces less of the food it should.
So when hybrid and non-hybrid corn cross, the plant grows tall and lanky but the cob can be weak with few seeds on it.
Not what you want in sth America where corn came from! Why not grow the local indigenous varieties? So many colours, flavours, keeping qualities, all from 1000's of years of farmer driven selective breeding.
No need for home gardeners to be worried about whether it will tolerate being sprayed with glyphosate for weeding purposes because you weed your garden beds by hand anyway.
So in that case a home gardener should grow both non-hybrid and non GMO corn.
Same for most home food crops. Often the native variety will out produce the non-hybrid or gmo variety anyway.