What is the Difference between Organic and anything else?
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Q: What is the Difference between Organic and anything else?
A: Carbon.
Q: Carbon? Why?
A: There are bacteria which live off of the compost. They use Carbon as their fuel and Nitrogen as building blocks. They use about thirty times more fuel than they do construction materials. These bacteria transform things like leaves, sticks, clean garbage, grass clippings, etc. into a mulch or humus which is a good growing medium (or substrate) for growing plants.
When you compost plant material, the ratio between Carbon and Nitrogen is the difference between OK compost and good compost. Now, plenty of people obsess over the numbers. It makes them happy and it's a free country. Your target for Carbon to Nitrogen Ratio is about 30 to one, thirty times more Carbon than Nitrogen.
The easy way to tell if your ratio is good is to use your nose. If the pile smells like rotten eggs or ammonia, then you have too much Nitrogen (or not enough air). If the compost pile is too slow, then there is not enough Carbon (or water).
Even if your ratio is not right, the pile will eventually compost as long as you do two things: make sure there is enough air and keep the pile damp, moist--not wet, not dry--just damp, moist.
Q: Damp and moist. That's your fix for everything. Why is Organic better?
A: You don't have to use all Organic Techniques. There are many ways to grow vegetables and plants, Organic is just one of many. You can also mix organic techniques with non-organic techniques if that is what you want. "It doesn't matter if the cat is black or white--as long as it catches mice."
When you are growing plants, the important thing is to figure out which growing techniques fit your individual situation and personality. As long as you find ways to make your plants be what you want, we will be just as happy as you are.
In a lot of situations, Organic techniques work better. Organic Gardening concentrates on the health of the soil. When you are growing in soil, adding composted mulch can keep weeds down, make the soil looser for better aeration, and can hold water so it is easier to keep the soil damp and moist for longer periods. There are often more complex trace nutrients available for the plant to absorb which often give the fruit, vegetables, or leaves a more complex and better flavor. As well, encouraging beneficial bacteria to grow in soil or whatever growing medium you are using like rockwool, grow rocks, coir, etc. can help keep bad bacteria (known as diseases or pathogens) from harming or killing your plants.
Supplements like seaweed or guanos are often needed when starting up an Organic soil structure. If you are growing in containers or hydroponically, you are constantly setting up a new growing situation.
How much organic fertilizer to add depends on how fast you are growing and what conditions you are starting with.
If you are growing with soil in containers, you will be watering more frequently than you would if your plants were growing outside in the ground. The extra watering can flush out some portion of the nutrients in the soil. The best technique is to mix dry nutrients into the soil and then later use a liquid mix as the plant asks for it.
Seaweed and Guanos are very rich in microbial activity. It is best to buy them as dry supplements, because when the microbes are activated with water, they become LIVE. Any pre-packaged liquid will have to have some sort of preservative added to the liquid to prevent the bottles from swelling as they sit on the shelf at the store. This preservative can be something as mild as Citric Acid or as forceful as Formeldehyde to slow down the microbial activity. To bring on the microbial activity with dried seaweed or guano, it is only necessary to keep them damp, moist with access to air.
Q: Where is Organic growing the wrong way?
A: Eventually, the earth will fix any sort of contamination. Even nuclear contamination is naturally cleaned up in 10,000 years or so. Gasoline contamination goes away in 50 to 100 years or so. However, these time frames may not be in time for next years planting.
It is not always a good idea to add clippings that have been treated with defoliants that are used to round up weeds. Some times landscape plants are treated with hormones to slow growth or prevent fruiting or pollinating. These are not good candidates for composting.
Organic techniques are mostly found on smaller farms and vegetable gardens. You will notice that Organic Gardening has been more popular than Organic Farming. There is no real size limitation and as technology progresses and better growing techniques are discovered, more organic techniques are likely to work their ways into larger operations. At the present state of technology, however, it is not likely to find any Organic farms at 40,000 acres or larger.
If there is enough space outdoors to process humus, Organic Composting has the advantage of significantly lower materials cost for fertilizer; the labor costs may or may not be higher or lower.
At the grocery store, produce which carries the label "Organic" usually fetches about a 15% higher price than produce which does not have the "Organic" label. It is that extra money that made the government, lawyers, and lobbyists get involved. Consumers usually see any produce branded with the Organic label as higher quality and worth a little more money. Some of this is due to production in smaller facilities where there is more "hand-crafting".
Everyone has to make their own choices and trade offs. It is usually the case that healthier soil produces healthier vegetables.
The first Organic Garden in America was actually placed on an old gas station near a paint facilty. At first, it was expected that Organic Gardening would renew the soil from the industrial damage. It is to Jerome Rodale's credit that he recognized that the theory simply did not pan out in practice. This particular piece of land had far too much damage to be renewed in one growing season. Nevertheless, after adjustments that would make a lesser man give up, the entrepreneurial spirit worked out techniques that were ground breaking in more ways than one.
Nowadays, we call these plots of land "Brownfields" and a range of techniques are being used to bring the land back. It takes time to repair the fertility of the soil. These spaces are excellent candidates for container gardening or hydroponics production while the soil regenerates.
At the time, we simply did not know what the timeframe of regeneration of soil health would take. Rodale learned and moved on to grow vibrant and flourishing organic vegetable gardens. We all should take this lesson to heart: There's always next season.
When you are growing humans, mistakes are inevitable; but learning from those mistakes is not inevitable. We can make the same mistakes over and over before we decide to change to success. However, Redemption is always possible. The door is always open.
In your vegetable garden, you have many choices how to fertilize your plants. If you have a full, rich compost, you may never need to add fertilizer supplements. In container growing, though, adding fertilizers is the usual for growing healthy tomatoes, lettuce, pumpkins,peppers, or whatever you like. Just keep an eye on your plants and help guide them out of trouble if they start to get off track.
