GOING GREEN

Gardening info needed…?

Okay so I’d like to know about materials for gardening and pest control. Please provide info about the advantages of both conventional and organic pest control and fertilization. What are the types of ingredients found in products used in conventional and organic gardening. Compare the two. Identify any poisons and harmful substances in each.

sounds like homework. and no way you could manufature a text under 10,000 words that even begins to cogently identify the possible poisons and harmful substances in each.

but long and short of it is, both ‘organic’ and ‘conventional’ agriculture are inappropriately named since neither is necessarily organic nor conventional.

to be certified organic in the US is only an agreement to not use SOME poisons, it is not an agreement to use no poisons. and it is not an agreement to refrain from chemical fertilizers.

‘chemical’ fertilizers’ touted as being ‘conventional’ actually came into use only half century ago, but, also contrary to popular knowledge, are not dissimilar from the compounds the soil makes naturally.

Primary difference between fertilizing chemically or naturally is, during chemical applications, only 3-7 of the possible 70+ nutrients are applied. so, instead of 70 or more that the plant wants and needs to grow into a regular plant, it generally only gets N, P, K, Ca, mg and Fe.

When a plant is denied it’s secondary building blocks but receives it’s primaries like that, then the plant can and will grow but it’s content will be weak. government studies show it will only have maybe half the vitamin/food value of a regular plant. so basically you must eat twice the food to get the regular amount of vitamins.

the weakness from feeding only a few nutrients can affect the soil as well. the soil will also become singular and undiverse in it’s secondary support systems. so, some soil-dependent pests and disease will be able to survive or even thrive on the singular diet but all other life-forms are denied a living; the singular population can begin to grow unchecked and if it is eating the plants or causing disease then the plant’s yield or crop quality can be comprimised.

excess nutrients to watch for in fertilization are:
the salts since a plant can use salt in place of potassium. But also an excess of potassium (nitrate) is to be watched for because it is ’salt peter’ the famous anti-sex substance. another good one to avoid OD on is molybdenum because longterm excess can bring on debilitating gout. Or, excess nitrogen means the N gets washed into nearby waterways and feeds algae which is what causes most water ‘pollution’.

Now, re pest or disease control, it can also be rather the same in it’s basic mechanisms when comparing organic and conventional methods, i.e. we use much the same methods that nature does; probably because the methods that nature already uses to kill are so very effective and ingenious; as a matter of fact, many of the most serious poisons are made from plants themselves or bacteria.

The most favored methods are ones that either kill very specifically or else very broadly because in a garden it is true that either you are clearing land or else u already have a (vulnerable) field and must just target a certain problem.

so, if it was not a specific killer it would kill your crop too. or if it wasn’t broad it wouldn’t effectively clear the field.

an example of organic conventional control is using ‘neem’. one of the most deadly poisons approved for use on food crops but made directly from the neem tree with no processing necessary. can and will kill almost anything except worms and humans but wears off in 24 hours AFTER exposure to air or water. so almost all texts say it is ’safe’ for fish and beneficial bugs because it stops killing after 24 hours but after that 24-48 hour mark it doesn’t Stop killing, it just becomes inactive if it hasn’t been injested yet. so if a bug already ate it then that bug will have the poison within it’s self for quite a while sometimes and can be eaten by fish (even if already dead) and so pass it on.

btw, neem can let the bug live for quite a while sometimes because sometimes it affects bugs by closing their throats or sometimes by halting sexual progression; such bugs take a while to actually die. how neem affects life depends what kind life it is; for earthworms it makes them have many many babies but for people it is used a birthcontrol device.

feeding or sexual intervention are common mechanisms found in pest control products. “Biological-control” methods similarly exploit singular and bizarrely unique relationships already existing in nature:

http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/ent/biocontrol/info/biocont.html

to successfully garden organically:

for pest control-use oil as a control; it smothers; vegetable oil at 3T per qt water. 1x day for 3 days repeat after 2 weeks.

for fertilization-import 1/3 raw organic material like plants or manure to soil annually.

and then keep your ‘well-draining’ soil moist.

general grow links:

http://www.dmoz.org/Home/Gardening/

How to Grow Peppers

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