12. (and the list continues)
It's interesting that a common practice in farms are foliar nutrient sprays. Once a year the farmer will spray a diluted nutrient, for example zinc, on his crop. The interesting thing is, even if the plant or the tree is showing signs of deficiency, the nutrient sprayed on the plant will be immediately taken in by the leaves, flowers and even fruit to help alleviate those problems. It seems like such a bizarre yet amazing thing that fruits and flowers can directly use the nutrients applied to them.
On the flip side, is that this means that everything we spray on our plants, is readily taken in by the plant. All the pesticides, the insecticides, herbicides. Plants have evolved to take in substances through their leaves, flowers and fruits. Of course before we created these 'cides', this ability of the plant to absorb from their leaves, could only be of benefit to the plant, and perhaps some of these chemicals don't necessarily hurt the plant, but everything has repercussions up the food chain.
bon appetit. Another reason to buy organic.
According to this study:
http://hortsci.ashspublications.org/content/41/1/99.full.pdf
Even with organic trees deficient in Zinc, and no zinc foliar sprays applied due to lack of availability, the same trees the very next year were not deficient in Zinc. In fact they had equivalent levels of zinc to the conventional plots which had received foliar sprays.
Because compost is essentially, a 'whole' food for plants. It should contain all the nutrients that the plants need for growth and health. It may seem like we need micro-manage every part of our operation, but it may not be so necessary.
We have three 30year+ old apple trees in the backyard. For 3 years, and most likely much longer as well, there are no visual signs of past pruning on the trees, they haven't been pruned. They also haven't been fertilized by us, the most we have done is mow the weeds/grass underneath them.
Much literature will say that the fruits will be small, won't taste as good and may break the tree, because it produces more than it can properly support. While I think this may be more true with younger trees and especially peach trees, it's not always the case.
We get an immense supply of apples on our trees, every year, we do have some kind of bugs getting into some of them, but not enough to destroy the apple enough that I am not interested in eating it. Perhaps the apples are smaller than the ones you get in the store. However the taste is amazing. We harvested ample supply of apples this year and honestly, once I've eaten through 1/2 of a box, once I try store fruit again, all I can taste is water. It's almost unbelievable.
Has the quality of taste of our fruits and vegetables from the store really become water?
During the time of harvest-- when local foods are at their best, yes, my taste buds usually are heavily disappointed with grocery store food at that point.
Not saying that this is a possibility for many farmers, to do nothing. Because at the end of the day, beauty unfortunately pays more than taste and quality. On top of the fact that it's rare if not impossible to find a fruit tree production site which isn't in a typical orchard tree growing fashion, where each row has as many trees that it can fit and nothing else is produced but fruit. In these orchards, most if not all of the trees are harvested, and those nutrients that were in the soil, were first harvested by the tree, into the fruit, and now that fruit is being shipped across the state or country. When farmers don't replenish their soils, it can be a sort of, 'soil mining' Getting everything from the soil as possible, until serious deficiency problems start occurring. In these large scale operations it is really important to add back to the soil.
My farm can get away with it since, we have a variety of plants and weeds growing, and the act of mowing underneath the fruit trees can add a good proportion of nutrients back into the soil. But once our compost is ready, I'll be sure to give these trees a nice dose :)
Plus, our families income isn't dependent on the income from these fruits, in fact we mostly give it away for free.
Basically what I am saying is, there is an easier way to farm. It's less complex than we think, and it makes healthier tastier food.
Thanks!
It's interesting that a common practice in farms are foliar nutrient sprays. Once a year the farmer will spray a diluted nutrient, for example zinc, on his crop. The interesting thing is, even if the plant or the tree is showing signs of deficiency, the nutrient sprayed on the plant will be immediately taken in by the leaves, flowers and even fruit to help alleviate those problems. It seems like such a bizarre yet amazing thing that fruits and flowers can directly use the nutrients applied to them.
On the flip side, is that this means that everything we spray on our plants, is readily taken in by the plant. All the pesticides, the insecticides, herbicides. Plants have evolved to take in substances through their leaves, flowers and fruits. Of course before we created these 'cides', this ability of the plant to absorb from their leaves, could only be of benefit to the plant, and perhaps some of these chemicals don't necessarily hurt the plant, but everything has repercussions up the food chain.
bon appetit. Another reason to buy organic.
According to this study:
http://hortsci.ashspublications.org/content/41/1/99.full.pdf
Even with organic trees deficient in Zinc, and no zinc foliar sprays applied due to lack of availability, the same trees the very next year were not deficient in Zinc. In fact they had equivalent levels of zinc to the conventional plots which had received foliar sprays.
Because compost is essentially, a 'whole' food for plants. It should contain all the nutrients that the plants need for growth and health. It may seem like we need micro-manage every part of our operation, but it may not be so necessary.
We have three 30year+ old apple trees in the backyard. For 3 years, and most likely much longer as well, there are no visual signs of past pruning on the trees, they haven't been pruned. They also haven't been fertilized by us, the most we have done is mow the weeds/grass underneath them.
Much literature will say that the fruits will be small, won't taste as good and may break the tree, because it produces more than it can properly support. While I think this may be more true with younger trees and especially peach trees, it's not always the case.
We get an immense supply of apples on our trees, every year, we do have some kind of bugs getting into some of them, but not enough to destroy the apple enough that I am not interested in eating it. Perhaps the apples are smaller than the ones you get in the store. However the taste is amazing. We harvested ample supply of apples this year and honestly, once I've eaten through 1/2 of a box, once I try store fruit again, all I can taste is water. It's almost unbelievable.
Has the quality of taste of our fruits and vegetables from the store really become water?
During the time of harvest-- when local foods are at their best, yes, my taste buds usually are heavily disappointed with grocery store food at that point.
Not saying that this is a possibility for many farmers, to do nothing. Because at the end of the day, beauty unfortunately pays more than taste and quality. On top of the fact that it's rare if not impossible to find a fruit tree production site which isn't in a typical orchard tree growing fashion, where each row has as many trees that it can fit and nothing else is produced but fruit. In these orchards, most if not all of the trees are harvested, and those nutrients that were in the soil, were first harvested by the tree, into the fruit, and now that fruit is being shipped across the state or country. When farmers don't replenish their soils, it can be a sort of, 'soil mining' Getting everything from the soil as possible, until serious deficiency problems start occurring. In these large scale operations it is really important to add back to the soil.
My farm can get away with it since, we have a variety of plants and weeds growing, and the act of mowing underneath the fruit trees can add a good proportion of nutrients back into the soil. But once our compost is ready, I'll be sure to give these trees a nice dose :)
Plus, our families income isn't dependent on the income from these fruits, in fact we mostly give it away for free.
Basically what I am saying is, there is an easier way to farm. It's less complex than we think, and it makes healthier tastier food.
Thanks!
