Creating and Interpreting

 Around here farming is close to being a year round affair, had I not had to direct attention toward financial matters, a passively heated greenhouse would have been well under construction by now, perhaps by next year.

In the mean time these carrots have sprouted and i'll see if these can be grown w/o the heated greenhouse, and the spices continue to produce until the first hard freeze.

The trick right now is too grow organic bacteria and reintroduce it too the chemically harmed soil as well as the virgin soil so as to see how much and how long before regeneration takes place. I normally don't publish results until I know they work in the field and this can take a year or more to determine this.

So my plan this year is to make up to 10,000 liters of seasoned organic matter, and add it before seeding next years crops, I can make 2000 liters for every inch of rain that falls but recently have had another month+ long dry spell. 

Now a dry spell might be bad for making organic matter, but it does offer an opportunity to measure past soil experiments. So far I have a 10% solid organic mix, a 50% mix and a zero solid mix with differing organic liquid mixes. 

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I obtained this soil moisture meter some years ago but interpreting it is another matter, I know the results I get from the readings obtained, but it can rain hard one day and the very next day I get the std #1 reading that keeps the plant alive, but at the same time it does not thrive. 

Now as soon as I began the solid organic addition to the experimental side of the soil equation, the numbers on the meter began to jump wildly in a positive manner. I had to start wondering about interpreting the meter, it almost seems as if the # is the available moisture able to be absorbed by the plants roots similar to the available nutrients able to be digested by the plant. Below are the 50% organic reading from the medium i'll use to start next years plants, and the liquid organic readings plus the one that has been left alone, the 10% garden had better than the liquid readings, but I did not photo that reading. And these #'s are after at least a 3 week dry spell and sunny weather.

Further observation is needed to figure out just how much solid organic matter added vs the time since adding, that adds up to available moisture after a how many weeks long dry spell. 

Might seem confusing but the relevance is crucial towards reducing future labor while still obtaining a decent harvest. As you can see here, the % of solid organic matter added is directly related to the amount of available moisture even after this prolonged dry spell. So far it even appears that adding just liquid organic matter moves the needle slightly more than plain rain, i'll know more after further applications and tests.

As far as what and how much organic matter is to be grown and applied to the soil, this is still a mystery and I want to believe that if taken far enough, each plant has its own favorite bacteria and its your job to figure out just which is needed and in what amount. 

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And some people have taken this method and more to create the perfect plant for that particular climate. With this instance is the strawberry plant,
a fellow organic farmer took the time to cultivate my drought and freeze resistant, melt in your mouth and fast reproducer, plant, that produces a berry not ever seen in this climate. He also is going to bring over some blueberry and lemon plants and trees, those should be an interesting follow in the years ahead.

Here is a link to the final video of 2021 cannabis season, here I actually trim the leaves off the plant days before the actual harvest making the time it takes to complete the clipping on harvest day less than it would have otherwise been. I recorded a lot this year but published very little as the season was a rocky one.     

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKYSvtLuzwA

You'll probably have to type this into the browser, something went haywire with the useable link.