Organic horticulture employs the crucial principles of organic agriculture for the successful herbs, fruits, vegetables, flowers and ornamental plants growing. These principles concern the management of pests in the garden, soil composition and conservation, etc.
General Notes
Mulches, Double Digging, compost, Vermicompost, cover crops, mineral supplements and manures are the main constituents of the soil mixture in this kind of gardening in contrast to the commercial farming. Organic horticulture expects to minimize the risk of insects, fungi, and diseases development with the help of maintaining the high quality of the soil. Nonetheless, sometimes it is still necessary to use insecticidal soaps and sprays, pheromone traps, or other pest-control means, created especially for organic farmers.
Experts define five fields of horticulture:
- olericulture, which stands for the production and marketing of vegetables;
- pomology that means the production and marketing of fruits;
- floriculture, which is the production and marketing of floral crops;
- landscape horticulture that includes the production, marketing, and maintenance of landscape plants;
- and finally, post harvest physiology that studies and practices the preservation and maintaining of the quality of horticultural crops
All these areas can utilize the key principles of organic gardening.
Organic horticulture employs the methods and uses data, which have been collected for thousands of years. Generally speaking, this type of gardening is based on the natural, long-term processes and eco-friendly, global approaches, in contrast to horticulture, based on the use of chemicals that speed up the processes and aim at the separate results and reductionist strategies.
Organic gardening systems
There exist various formal organic gardening systems that utilize peculiar methods. They are listed among the general organic standards, but are more specific than them. For example, Rudolf Steiner developed the so-called biodynamic farming. Masanobu Fukuoka, the Japanese writer and farmer, practiced Natural Farming, based on the so-called no-till system for the small-scale production of grain. Finally, intensive and biointensive techniques and SPIN Farming (Small Plot INtensive), developed in France, also belong to the small-scale gardening methods.
A garden in a container or growing box provides healthy, organic, and highly nutritional food. Moreover, it is also the means to share one’s experience, to improve local economy, and to offer better and more sustainable way of living. A small raised bed garden of 32 square feet is capable of supplying tasty, healthy, and organic greens to a family, requiring, at the same time, less water and fewer nutrients if it is based on the postulates of bio-intensive planting and square foot gardening.
In addition, the existing garden can be improved with the help of composting or vermicomposting. These methods allow getting the best organic fertilizers by reusing organic matter, which provides necessary nutrients to the organic garden. Besides, compost and vermicompost are always an easy way to improve the results.
Posts Tagged ‘Gardening’
Organic gardening – General Notes on organic horticulture Organic gardening systems
Wednesday, October 13th, 2010Hydroponic Gardening: What makes it Different from In-Ground Gardening?
Monday, September 27th, 2010What makes hydroponic gardening different from traditional in-ground gardening is a soilless growing medium. No dirt! All plants require support, to be held up. This basic requirement is dealt with by soilless growing mediums which are inert, mostly non-organic materials. Non-organic refers to the medium not being derived from living organisms, unlike soil, which is. There are a perplexing jumble of growing mediums available for hydroponic gardening. Generally speaking, these mediums are porous, light and coarse, allowing oxygen and nutrients to be easy accessible to the plants roots.
Some of the most common used in hydroponic gardening are:
Coconut Coir ~ This is produced from the husk that surrounds the coconut shell. Made up of millions of tiny micro-sponges, it can absorb and hold up to eight times its weight in water, perfect for hydroponic gardening. It lasting three times as long as peat moss so is fairly sturdy. It is also called palm peat, coco, or just coir. Some of the advantagesof this medium for hydroponic gardening are better water retention and aeration. The disadvantages of coconut coir are its breakdown after several uses and some drainage issues. It is often mixed with other media to improve drainage for hydroponic gardening.
L.E.C.A / Lightweight Expanded Clay Aggregate ~ This is clay which has been heated under high temperatures until it puffs up. It makes a very coarse medium as the clay balls are about 1/4″ across. Superb drainage, holds moisture, stays put and is reusable after sterilization to continue with your hydroponic gardening. These are just some of the advantages of this medium. On the downside, it doesn’t hold moisture as well as mediums like coconut coir and can be more costly.
Perlite ~ Glass flakes (Silica) are heated until it expands producing what we know as perlite. These tiny nodules hold water well and provide drainage. A common medium for hydroponic gardening due to its low density and somewhat lower cost. Its advantage is its re-usability. That being said, it cannot be used alone for ebb & flow hydroponic gardening because it will float away or move during flooding cycles.
Rockwool ~ These cubes are made of fibers spun from melted Basaltic rock. The density of this growing medium for hydroponic gardening can be adjusted by changes in the amount of pressure during production. Large slabs are cut into smaller slabs and propagation blocks for easy handling in hydroponic gardening. Advantages of this medium are the ease of handling, convenience, better control over nutrition, being able to plant seeds in it and allow the plants to be very stable.
So you see, soil is not necessary for growing plants and you have plenty of other choices for your hydroponic gardening. There are many other ways to germinate a seed and support a plant. What is vital is water, food, light, warm and oxygen. As long as you provide these things, plus the support, your plants will grow and flourish. Visit http://www.hydroponicgarden.net to find all these choices and supplies for successful hydroponic gardening.
Starting your own organic hydroponics gardening setup – hydroponics gardening supplies and points to remember
Monday, September 13th, 2010When Starting your own organic hydroponics gardening setup, you should remember that you will need to arrange two beds or layers in your hydroponic garden. The upper bed is, actually, a box to keep the plants in. This box should contain a growing medium for the plants to grow in. You can use perlite, coconut fiber, lava rock, Styrofoam pellets, rockwool or vermiculite for this purpose. The main thing about medium is that it should be able to keep a small amount of moisture for a long time. Experts assure that lava rock is best in this respect.
The lower bed is necessary to keep the water with the dissolved nutrients in it. The water is pumped with the help of an aquarium pump to the upper bed in order to water the plants. This procedure is repeated several times a day at equal intervals, being controlled with a timer.
Gardeners sometimes find it difficult to maintain the pH level of the water, its nutrition rate, and the ration of nutrients at the right level. These are, actually, the key factors, due to which a hydroponic garden or an organic hydroponics prospers. If these three crucial things in gardening are kept in balance with the help of Organic fertilizers, such technique of plants growing is called an Organic Hydroponic Garden.
Organic fertilizers are better for the plants than the chemical ones, as the latter are capable of burning the roots if used in higher concentrations.
When water solution is pumped to the trail with plants, it is partly absorbed by the medium and by the plants roots till saturation point. Consequently, the pumped water, returning back to the reservoir, contains lesser amount of parts per million (ppm) than before.
Organic nutrients make hydroponic gardening easier, as they do not contain any chemicals, which can change the pH level or ppm of the solution. As a result, many problems, listed among the most common ones of organic hydroponic gardening, get solved on their own.
It is a common knowledge that the upper part of a plant’s root uptakes nutrients, while the lower one absorbs water. To increase plant’s saturation with nutrients, it is possible to directly add them to the upper part of the roots, which, in the long run, will result in the more efficient organic hydroponics. To introduce such technique into your organic hydroponic garden, you should develop an organic hydroponics system.
The container can be similar as in the hydroponics gardening, or it can be a coir fiber container. It should be half filled with lava rock at the bottom. Then it is preferably to use a medium divider (e.g. coir fiber). The upper part of the tray should contain a mixture of 1/3 horticulture perlite of coarse grade, 1/3 potting soil, and 1/3 of large horticulture vermiculite.
When all this is set, it is necessary to place this container in the grow bed, with water level being a bit lower than the mixture of soils. Such arrangement will ensure the higher efficacy of the organic hydroponic gardening.
Lava rock with the secondary roots of the plants will be submerged in the water, and it will also serve to make this water flow up and moisten the soil mixture. At the same time, the upper layer of medium will be free to absorb the nutrients added directly to the primary roots.
Such hydroponic system saves a gardener from constant controlling and maintaining of the pH level and ppm of the growing medium. Nevertheless, beware of adding too many liquid nutrients to the soil layer: they may leak into the lava rock layer and disarrange your organic hydroponics gardening.
Indoor hydroponics Gardening Guide – Intro to Hydroponics and hydroponic supplies
Thursday, August 26th, 2010Hydroponics otherwise known as indoor gardening has been steadily growing in popularity as a hobby. People, young and new have started turning those empty spaces to their own personal gardens where they could grow what they want and when they want. Imagine yourself in the middle of the desert or that freezing cabin somewhere in the Arctic and be able to grow roses all year round. So if you ever decide to pick up that seed and decide what plant to grow at the convenience of your home or backyard, this guide would help to answer your questions from A to Z. Hydroponics or indoor gardening requires skills and know how, but the rewards in the end like watching that flower bloom or that seed turn into a glorious blossom is reward in itself. So let us walk you through this and answer all your questions in this indoor gardening guide.
Advantages of Indoor Gardening (Hydroponics) over Traditional Gardening
Many people have turned to alternative of indoor gardening. It is more efficient and economical if done properly than traditional soil gardens. Here are just a few advantages of indoor gardening:
Environmental factors such as temperature or soil and weather conditions do not affect hydroponic or indoor gardens as they are sheltered from such elements with fan and climate controllers for example.
Soil based gardens increase the risk of disease as they are ideal habitats for bacteria and microorganisms.
Soil based gardens also present the troublesome work of weeding out undesired vegetation and soil maintenance through fertilization and tilling.
Space consideration is also a factor as a large number of plants could be grown in such confined and odd spaces where creativity is the only boundary.
Scientifically, vegetables and fruits grown through indoor gardening (hydroponics) contain bigger amounts of vitamins and minerals, and are better sources of nutrition.
Indoor gardening (hydroponics) systems are fairly simple. It is tailored to the individual as to what he needs and what he wants. Simple setups for ordinary hobbyists could be turned into complex ones to more season and professionals as they desire. Indoor gardening has no specific person in mind, the love for gardening and growing plants is what is common to hydroponics hobbyists. Proper planning and design together with that you as a hobbyist needs is what makes a successful project. It may seem to require a little effort and expense at the start but the benefits and fruits of indoor gardening far outweigh the costs and effort. It only takes one simple setup if done right and the benefits can be harvested all year long.
Choosing Indoor Hydroponic Systems over traditional Gardening
Hydroponic Systems present numerous advantages for the gardener, freedom from uncontrollable environmental factors such as the weather, soil condition and time of year presents the most obvious reasons. Different types of growing mediums allow for those who plan to grow fruits or vegetables, better tasting and more nutritious products is the definite advantage. Production is also increased so those who plan to use indoor gardening (hydroponics) present a better yield thus is it more financially rewarding.
Numerous systems ranging from simple to complex can be tailored to each individual’s specific need. Setting up complex systems for a business for individuals who want to make it their livelihood or for that individual who lives in an apartment with a limited space presents no difficulties. It is only an individual’s desire and imagination that limits indoor gardening (hydroponics).
Hydroponics Gardening for Organic Vegetables – Introduction
Wednesday, August 18th, 2010Hydroponics gardening or growing plants in the growing media other than soil has been known to humans since ancient times. It is known that during the times of King Solomon, people practiced soil-less gardening, which later became known as hydroponic gardening.
The word “hydroponics” is derived from two Greek words: “hydro”, which means water, and “ponics”, which stands for labor. The principles of gardening without the use of soil were developed many and many years ago. Since then this type of gardening demonstrates certain valuable benefits in comparison to traditional growing plants in soil. One of the key benefits is that hydroponic plants grow 30-50% faster than plants, grown under the typical conditions in soil.
Traditional organic gardeners have always demonstrated certain level of contempt for hydroponics as the type of efficient and successful gardening. The followers of the traditional soil gardening consider hydroponics to be a kind of chemical gardening. Organic gardeners have always been pretty pessimistic as to supplying their plants with a balanced and calculated set of chemicals, which is a common practice among hydroponics gardeners. However, such an attitude of wide publicity and professional gardeners to hydroponics had changed after Steve Fox demonstrated his achievements in hydroponics gardening.
One of the key components of hydroponics gardening is growing media, an inert material, which unlike soil, does not supply any chemicals or nutrients to the plant. There are multiple types of growing media used today. The examples are sand, gravel, coconut fiber, perlite, and vermiculite. Amazingly, but even air can be used as a growing media for growing hydroponic cultures under the certain conditions. The undeniable benefit of hydroponic gardening is that it protects the fertile soils from exhaustion. Besides, it does not presuppose the use of chemical pesticides and other chemicals, which are extremely harmful for the environment. In general, hydroponic gardening may ensure greater yields and, at the same time, let the fertile soil regenerate itself for further organic farming.Though hydroponic gardening also uses some of the chemicals to feed the growing plants, all the chemical plant fertilizers and nutrients are contained within the enclosed area of hydroponic greenhouse and do not spoil the open air, water or fertile soil.