Fastest Growing Plants for Indoor Mini Hydroponics

Unless you live in a tropical environment or close to a southern coastline somewhere (like Zones 8, 9, or 10), you more than likely have certain growing seasons in your area along with winter months where your garden tools collect dust in anticipation of Spring.  For some of you, it's the same type of anticipation during that time period, year after year, always waiting for the weather to warm up so you can get your garden started. 

I'm sure, because of this, that many of you have also planted stuff too early in the season before, only to have a frost come by and kill your plants, as well. This year, however, I did prolong things by having a Fall crop. After my summer garden was over, I plowed it all up, waited for the weather to cool, then planted some of the fastest growing cool weather crops: turnip greens and radishes. I must say, though, cool-season vegetables are limited, as for variety, in what you can grow; a lot of folks may not like those options. 

But have you ever thought about growing some of your edibles indoors? I know the technology has been around for a long while, but it has come a long way when concerning the mini hydroponics that you use for growing plants indoors. There are full-sized versions out there, too, albeit a bit too pricey for my liking. On this post, I'm talking about the mini, more compact versions of hydroponics along with some of the fastest growing plants that I've experimented with so far. Yeah, this is a Nature & Wildlife Blog, but that doesn't mean that the subjects are limited to outdoors, does it?

Anyway, I've recently purchased 2 indoor growing systems that use the modern LED lighting technology. To clarify, they would be better described as mini hydroponics. Why did I start out with 2? Well, I had an idea, which I will get to that in a few minutes. But first, I want to quickly cover the fastest growing plants I've encountered thus far while using this system. This list will be fairly small since I've only experimented with a few plants, but I have loads of seeds for a bunch of different plants, herbs, etc. It just takes time to let each one go through its growing cycle before you harvest and try different species next and so on. So far, I've found all the seeds I need for hydroponics from Amazon.com and Urban Farmer (www.ufseeds.com).

When it comes to lettuce, loose-leaf lettuce is by far the better choice as opposed to head lettuce for these mini, indoor setups. It really just doesn't appear to have enough room for big heads of lettuce.  The leaf lettuce, though, you can pick the outer leaves as you need them and they just keep growing and growing.  The highest quality lettuce I have tried thus far is the buttercrunch variety. It's a good thing this has been the fastest growing lettuce, because it has a nice buttery taste and a smooth texture that beckons for a variety of culinary uses. 

Next up is Arugula, which a lot of folks may have not ever tried. It adds a nice peppery or mustard-like flavor to salads and/or whatever else you like to use it on. This is one of the plants I have did a side-by-side comparison under the same lighting conditions, as a "soil vs. hydroponics" test. I must say, arugula appeared to have grown twice as fast using my mini indoor growing system when compared to traditional dirt mixtures. 

I would not normally try to grow tomatoes in one of these mini indoor systems using hydroponics, but I did find one variety that was perfect for this, which was the Tiny Tim Tomato. It's small, compact size with high yields is the perfect choice for these particular systems. Since this is a recent experiment, I can only gauge it by the first couple of inches of growth. However, I must say, it has been the fastest sprouting and growing tomato I have seen, as they normally start off really slow when using soil and normal growing elements outside.

This next one is well known for being one of the fastest plants for hydro growing platforms, and that is watercress. This is the only one I mentioned so far that I haven't tried yet, but thought I'd mention it anyway. For contrast, the slowest growing plants I've tried thus far in these water systems has been chives and bunching onion. I'm not saying they were ridiculously sluggish, but just slow compared to the others I've tested. 

Well, I saved the fastest (out of what I've tried) for last.  The Hong Vit radish is well known in the microgreen industry. They germinate and shoot up really quick, even under various conditions. I've seen experiments online where they compared hydroponics to soil while growing these. They used fertilizer in one water-based system and no nutrients in the other and the same for the soil - one using fertile, rich soil and one with poor soil quality. It seems that the Hong Vit grows fast in any of those conditions, but they thrived the most in hydroponics. Oh, by the way, this is not the type of radish that grows a root vegetable; it is used for the greens, stems, and sprouts.  One interesting thing to note, is that the Hong Vit, when young, appears to have a spicier taste when grown in poor conditions. I didn't use it for microgreens, but I picked mine in the semi-early stages; I guess you could call it baby Hong Vit. On a side note, they are really attractive and add some color to your growing area. They have a purplish to pinkish stem leading up to the green foliage. I've harvested a few rounds of this so far from my indoor setup, and they were all good albeit milder than I wanted them to be! I must have used too much fertilizer; ha!

Now that we have touched on the subject of microgreens, I suppose that these mini kits for indoor hydroponics would be suitable for those.  I must say, though, I think a person would be (if you are into the sprouts / microgreens thing) better off buying separate growing lights and just use those 1.5-inch Rockwool/Stonewool Grow Cubes Starter Sheets inside of large pans, sort of like baking trays, to use for microgreens inside your home. Of course, there are many different types of growing mediums to use in those water-based tray systems, but no matter what, growing microgreens is about as easy as it gets.  How can you screw-up while harvesting sprouts?

As for fertilizing your mini hydroponics system, the product I purchased came with 2 bottles that you mix with water. Since I bought 2 of them, I have 4 bottles of fertilizer so I should be good for quite a while. The setup I have come with Plant Food A and Plant Food B. Bottle A contains 9% N, 8% P2O5, 30% K2O, 3% Mg, .30% Iron, .06% Manganese, .005% Copper, .01% Zinc, and .1% Boron. Plant Food B contains 11.5% N (nitrogen), and 26% Calcium. Of course, you can purchase any type of fertilizer you want but, whatever you do, make sure it is formulated for hydroponics. Don't go dumping Miracle Grow into your indoor growing system. Trust me, I've read about some of those stories and, uh, those people didn't harvest very much to say the least. Don't get me wrong, Miracle Grow seems to work great when using in soil, but it is not recommended for these types of hydro growing systems. I know you're in a hurry to get those indoor crops, but try to calm down a bit; ha!

Oh, before I go, let me get back to explaining why I bought two of these indoor kits. It was a simple idea, really, which was to borrow the light from them! You see, if you have the room, setting up two of these systems side-by-side emits a good bit of light. So, I just stuck a long container filled with soil behind these, so I could grow even more stuff. You could also put plants in front of these, as well. Hey, I wanted to get more bang for my money, and this stuff works! I've really enjoyed this Mini Hydroponics thing thus far. Oh, to show what I'm talking about when it comes to borrowing light, I took a couple of pics a few moments ago.  Please note, I just recently harvested most of the plants so it looks a little bare at the moment, but it won't be long before they are full again. The container with soil behind them is the ones I'm just going to let grow for a while before I harvest. I actually transplanted them from the water-based system when they were just little sprouts.

To show how fast these plants grow, this next photo is just 12 days later, after I took those other two, up above. Plus, I already picked some lettuce from there earlier that week. Ignore the little green pot, as I recently replanted some Hong Vit in there. Anyway, check out this progress after only 12 days:

Another good thing about this, is that the grow sponges and/or seed pods (whatever you want to call them) are fairly cheap for this. I've reused several of them thus far, but of course the ones you will use for transplanting or for extended growth will be a one-time deal. I've recently grabbed a bag of 50 for a little over 10 bucks; not bad at all. This thing is adjustable, too, so your plants have room to grow nearly 2 feet tall, if needed.

I didn't really mention herbs much on this post, but this thing would obviously be great for chives, basil, cilantro, parsley, oregano, or whatever you like. You can even grow flowers in there, as well. Maybe herbal flowers like Chamomile or Lavender? My indoor growing system has two lighting options: vegetables and flowers. Oh, make sure you keep enough water in there, as well, because the water pump could fail if you let it get too low.  This shouldn't ever be a problem because it would take a good amount of neglect to let it run that low, for sure.

One final thought about this: Even though I haven't used it for this yet, I can already see a huge advantage I'm going to have next year when starting my real garden outside. Certain plants just always seem to work better when transplanted, like peppers and tomatoes, for example. Well, next year I will harvest everything from this growing system at the end of winter and start all of my seedlings indoors, then transplant them into my outdoor growing spots after the last frost. Then, I will go back to growing random stuff indoors, as well. Man, this mini hydroponics thing is going to really work out nicely. Yeah, maybe I'll have the fastest growing garden plants next year as well; uh, I mean, hopefully. You never know about the weather anymore, so I won't get too cocky about it; ha!

Pictured below is the model I currently own. It is called the Ailess Pro, but there are many more models than that to pick from. Some larger, some smaller; some cheaper, some more expensive, etc.

"Click Here (Affiliate Link) to Shop Online for Indoor Hydroponics"

Image Credits: 1st & 5th image are Product Images - Fair Use; 2nd, 3rd & 4th images are my own photos - if you'd like to use them for something online, please provide a link back to this blog for credit; thanks!

Semi-related Links:

*Crimson Clover - Benefits & Reasons for Cover Crops

*Growing Dwarf Fruit Trees

---End of Post "Fastest Growing Plants for Indoor Mini Hydroponics"

Crimson Clover - Benefits & Reasons for Cover Crops

A lot of backyard gardeners probably don't think too much about the uses and benefits of cover crops albeit there are various reasons for such things. I mean, there are some people out there that plant a garden every year that don't even know about the benefits of crop rotation, either, but that's another subject entirely.  

Anyway, commercial farmers often use various types of plants for this, depending on their desired result. Some of the reasons are to help prevent soil erosion, add nitrogen to the soil (if you select legumes like peas and beans or crimson clover, for example), weed management, moisture regulation, food for farm animals (hunters and animal lovers may also use cover crops to feed local wildlife, etc.), and to provide future mulch and/or what some people call "green manure" along with a few other reasons. When I say moisture regulation, I basically mean they help with water infiltration. Have you ever seen certain areas of ground (especially compacted soil) that always just puddles up even with the slightest bit of rain? Yeah, I'm talking about the opposite of that...

I'm not going to cover all of the different aspects of cover crops on this post, as it will be just a general guide for the person with a small to medium-sized garden. When it comes to that, the main reasons are to benefit soil health, add nitrogen, and attract pollinators to the area. Most folks with normal sized gardens don't have to worry with weed control (if you put in the work), moisture regulation or soil erosion, I wouldn't think. Unless you are a farmer, most people do not have cows and goats roaming around in their yard either, so I doubt the average person will need cover crops to help feed their livestock. However, I have known a few people out in the country that have fenced-in goats so they never have to mow their yard, but those animals will eat any type of vegetation they can get into their mouth. Trust me, I've been around goats before, and they are not picky eaters.  Pretty much, if it's not meat, they are interested. I still remember this one goat in particular that even tried to smoke a cigarette that the person next to me was holding; ha! Wait a minute, I actually have a picture of this bizarre "smoking goat" from the past, and I will post it below:

Okay, now back to the main subject...

Out of all the reasons and benefits for cover crops, when it comes to the average gardener, the improved soil quality via organic matter recycling within the soil along with the fertilization that occurs by way of nitrogen release from legumes, are the main advantages of this. There are many different cover crops you can choose from, depending on your needs, but for the typical gardener we will go with legumes. Instead of using up your seeds from your leftover beans and peas, I recommend going with clovers. Plus, they are also normally a good bit cheaper than the seeds for food crops that I just mentioned. In this particular case, I selected the easy to grow, highly attractive Crimson Clover.

Its scientific name is Trifolium incarnatum (not that most people would call it that), but some people do refer to it as the Italian Clover, as well. A quote from Wikipedia states, "[...] a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae, native to most of Europe. It has been introduced to other areas, including the United States and Japan. The plant is widely grown as a protein-rich forage crop for cattle and other livestock and is suitable to be made into hay. It is commonly grazed by domestic and wild ruminants. It is often used for roadside erosion control, as well as beautification. Crimson clover's flowers and sprouts are edible. They can be added as an ingredient in salads, sandwiches, etc." I selected that excerpt because it mentioned some of the other benefits besides its main reasons for the backyard gardener, which is to mostly fix the nitrogen in the soil and improve the quality of your growing substrate.

From the Amazon product page (with a minor edits): "Crimson clover is a winter annual with dark green, oval leaflets containing no V-shaped water mark making it easy to distinguish from other annual clovers. Crimson prefers well-drained soils and a pH between 5.0 - 6.5, but it is not extremely picky. It is the fastest growing of the annual clovers, easy to establish, and handles shade well. Crimson clover is a cheap, easy, productive, tasty, cool season grazing material for deer. It starts fast, withstands continuous grazing and produces a consistent, heavy seed crop with good reseeding potential."

If you live in the southern part of the U.S., the Crimson clover is an excellent choice for a cover crop to use after your summer & fall harvest has been completed. I planted mine where I live in September this year. The Crimson clover, unlike some clovers, can withstand freezing temperatures and does really well in southern winters. The timing of this crop is most likely different for the northern region, but it is really beautiful when it blooms, nonetheless. Well, I think I'll drop down another image of these attractive clovers and provide a link in case you're interested in this type of plant.

Image Credit: Amazon.com - Product Images - Fair Use

Shopping (Affiliate) Link:

"Click Here to shop for Crimson Clover via Amazon"

Other plant-related posts from the Wildlife & Nature Blog:

* Eyeball Plant - Doll's Eyes

* Carnivorous Plant - Venus Flytrap

* Hornwort - Aquarium Plant

* Glowing Plants & Glow-in-the-dark Trees

* Growing Bonsai Trees - Easy or Difficult?

---End of Post "Crimson Clover - Benefits & Reasons for Cover Crops"

Growing Asparagus: Is it worth the time & money?

This will now be a 2-part post since I recently deleted an old website of mine. I've been re-posting articles amid multiple blogs of mine lately, and have combined some posts that are related, etc.

Part 1: "Growing Asparagus: Is it worth the time & money?"

This is the question that I have been pondering today, when thinking about the upcoming garden season this year. I was thinking about trying something different, in addition to the usual crops that I plant every year. First of all, it seems that a lot of people don't like to eat asparagus, for whatever reason, but this stuff tastes great to me! Anyway, a few years ago, I had this same dilemma, but it wasn't about the money or time involved with setting it up, but more about the time it takes to get a good harvest. I move around a lot, it seems, so that is the heart of my quagmire.

Asparagus, when starting from seed, will take about 3 years to produce a decent amount of yield. If you buy 1-year-old crowns, you'll still have to wait a couple growing seasons for steady production. When you buy the expensive 2-year-old roots/crowns, you still won't have very much yield (asparagus) during the first growing season when compared to how much money you spent on the plants. Hmm...

If you are at a location that you are at least semi-certain you are going to be at for a while and have the extra room for such things, asparagus seems to be a good choice. Around here, they sell it for nearly 3 dollars a can in the grocery section and I don't even know how high it is in the produce section. People claim that it is so much better fresh, right out of the garden (like most things), but I'm totally satisfied with canned asparagus except for, well, the price. The good thing is, asparagus seems to be fairly easy to grow, going by the last few videos I have watched today.

Oh, I forgot to mention: Once you get your asparagus planted and thriving, you shouldn't have to worry about replanting any time soon. On average, it will keep coming back season after season for 15 to 20 years. I've even read that it can last for 50+ years! However, this means nothing if you move around a lot! This is also the reason why I said if you "have the extra room for such things," because wherever you plant them at, you will be dedicating that area just for this particular crop.

I could write a long list of the health benefits along with certain odd qualities that asparagus has, but I'll spare you from the verbiage. I'm just more or less talking to myself on here about whether or not I should try growing this awesome perennial vegetable. From the green varieties to purple and white, you can find it all online. I will at least provide something useful on this post, and add some quality links below...

An easy-to-follow video that shows just how easy it is to grow asparagus, if you have the time and money for it: http://perpendicularity.org/blog/2012/07/30/video-growing-asparagus-is-easy/ [Link is no longer active since I deleted that website, but I re-posted that page at the bottom of this post.]

Additional reading material about asparagus:
www.nytimes.com/2003/06/01/nyregion/cuttings-why-asparagus-belongs-in-the-flower-bed.html (link has been deactivated due to a subscription request on the web page)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asparagus

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons - Source = Wiki link is already provided above.

---End of Part 1 "Growing Asparagus: Is it worth the time & money?"

Part 2: "Video: Growing Asparagus is easy!"

I recently watched a video about growing asparagus and just how easy it is to grow.  All of this time, I have thought it was one of those crops that involved special care, a lot of money, and time.  The reason why I thought that way before, is because I evidently read some crap on the web a few years back, that most likely spawned from a few idiots that were just typing poppycock in hopes they would make a few bucks via their advert networks.  Anyway, in a moment, I’ll provide a video that explains in a simple fashion, just how easy it is to grow.

I already knew that asparagus has the ability to grow year after year without the worry of having to replant, but I’ve heard some folks act like some years you couldn’t get any yield and would have to let the plants “strengthen.”  Going by this video, the yield picks up the second year and thrives, under normal circumstances, for many more years to come.  Of course, you need to take care of the soil and make sure it is fertile enough, has enough nitrogen, keep it free of weeds and grasses, etc., or else this little growing endeavor may not be worth it.

Another well-known fact about asparagus that isn’t included in this particular video, is the various health benefits a person can get by eating it.  There are medicinal properties as well, but instead of me turning this “how to grow” post into a “health benefits of” article, I’ll just drop down a Wiki link, so you can get started:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asparagus

Random Tidbit: “Asparagus is a useful companion plant for tomatoes. The tomato plant repels the asparagus beetle, as do several other common companion plants of tomatoes. Meanwhile, asparagus may repel some harmful root nematodes that affect tomato plants.”

You can always search the web for more info, but try to only read from reliable sources.  When it comes to cooking this stuff, I’ve seen people steam it, bake it, grill it, use it in stir-fry, and even eat it raw.  Hell, even the store-bought asparagus out of a can taste great to me!  I especially like eating asparagus when I’m in a meat mood, let's say steak, and all I mainly want is to eat the meat but need something else to add to my plate for balance.  This is a healthy choice for a 2-course meal because it is power-packed with nutrients, and this is what I mean by balancing out a meal that lacks variety.

Oh, when I do eat asparagus out of a can, all I do is put it on a plate, drizzle it with a little canola oil and sprinkle some seasoned salt and black pepper on it, throw in the microwave for about 45 seconds, and presto!

Now, let's get back to growing asparagus and the video I’m about to provide, to show how easy this is.  Anyway, in a thumbnail, the guy just dug a few trenches about 8 inches deep, dropped in some 2-year-old asparagus crowns, keeping them about 8 inches apart, covered them back up with dirt, and his crop took off within weeks.  Okay, at any rate, that’s enough rambling from me.  

Check out the video, below:

Image Credit: Asparagus Steamer - Product Image - Fair Use - Amazon.com

—End of Part 2: “Video: Growing Asparagus is Easy!”

---End of Post "Growing Asparagus: Is it worth the time & money?"

Dick Proenneke: Alone in the Wilderness

"Alone in the Wilderness" is the story of Dick Proenneke living in Alaska at Twin Lakes. This film shows a man living on pristine land that is unchanged by man, while being alone in a type of wilderness that few people would dare to challenge. Dick selected this type of peaceful setting even though it had brutally cold winters in which provided the serenity of stillness, at times. This DVD is so enjoyable to watch and it has a calming effect to it, if you enjoy this type of stuff. Just to see a person living off the land (for the most part - outside of the occasional delivery of certain products like granulated sugar, etc.) and having to put in all the hard work like cutting all of their wood, building their own cabin, making their own utensils while catching their fish, killing certain wild animals and growing their own food, all while documenting and narrating the chain of events during the process, is truly aesthetically pleasing to watch. For one to achieve such things, not only did a person need to be an excellent craftsman (and a great carpenter he was), but they had to also be very content with one's own thoughts and company...

This was a dream come true and a lifetime challenge for Dick Proenneke, that he ultimately lived out. What was going to be a 1 to 1.5 year project, turned into 30 years of outdoor peacefulness and pleasant, self-fulfilling adventures. He didn't leave the wilderness of Twin Lakes until he was 82 years old! He mentioned that the -40 (Fahrenheit) and -50 degree winters were starting to get hard on his joints. After returning to civilization at age 82, he died 4 years later from a stroke, at age 86.

Although this movie will not be for everyone, since not everybody seems to enjoy nature nowadays, if you are looking for some soothing outdoor explorations in a beautiful Alaskan setting, you'll love this flick! Alone in the Wilderness is the only film that featured Dick Proenneke that I have watched, but they also made a couple more (not including the Part 2, to this one) that was related to this one: "Alaska, Silence and Solitude" and "The Frozen North." The DVD for this show seems to be priced fairly high at the moment, so you may want to watch a short clip on YouTube (it skips around through various parts and leaves out most of the film), to get a better sense of what type of flick this is and/or to see whether or not this style of documentary is for you: www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYJKd0rkKss

Shopping (Affiliate) Link: 

"Click Here for Dick Proenneke DVDs on Amazon"

Image Credit: Fair Use - DVD Cover - Amazon.com

---End of Post "Dick Proenneke: Alone in the Wilderness"

Biostone: Biological Concrete made from sand, bacteria, and urine

Now here is an interesting biological product that could eventually be used to replace standard concrete while lowering our CO2 emissions. Yeah, cement production is not the most environmentally friendly thing in the world, to say the least. Anyway, the product is called "biostone" and it plans on putting your urine to better use; ha! The combination of this biological concrete uses sand, bacteria, and urine.

The procedure for creating this biostone/biological concrete involves filling a mold (that has the desired shape of the product) with sand before pumping a bacteria solution of bascillus pasterurii into the mold. From this point, it will set overnight. On the next day, a solution of urea, calcium chloride and nutrient broth is then pumped into the mold. As was stated on the actual page I just read: "The bacteria uses the urea as energy to absorb the calcium chloride and convert it into calcium carbonate, a cement-like mixture that binds the sand together within the mold." You can read more about this, here: www.gizmag.com/dupe-sand-urine-bacteria-concrete-machine/30804/

One of the YouTube videos is located here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlgDFj0Q7p0

Of course, this particular method would not interest the common consumer nor would they probably like the idea of buying products that are made from urine and bacteria. LOL! On a good note, this is a step in the right direction since the idea behind this biological concrete/biostone can be expanded upon and hopefully be used later on to build houses, etc., and make industrial manufacturing more environmentally friendly and sustainable. I just thought this was an interesting advancement nonetheless and decided to share these tidbits of info today; cheers!

Image Credit: My own photo of a nearby rocky terrain.

---End of Post "Biostone: Biological Concrete made from sand, bacteria, and urine"

PolyGenomX: Using Epigenetics and Polyploids to grow more efficient Trees and Plants

PolyGenomX (PGX) is a research & development company that deals with plant-based biotechnology. They specialize in epigenetics and polyploidy. The term 'polygenomics' spawns from the practice that involves the deliberate creation of polyploids. I'll briefly explain polyploids in a moment, but first... Before anybody gets their panties in a wad, PolyGenomX does not involve itself with the creation of GMOs.

This technology could greatly enhance our biodiversity and could even help give the future of this humanoid race, some much needed hope. With a world population that is increasing at an alarming rate, we obviously need to make further advancements since many of us are giving up on the day that doesn't involve Big Oil domination and crude methods of energy. Since we can't stop The Powers That Be, maybe more folks will work around them like the ones over at PolyGenomX. Anyway, epigenetics is a term that can be used to describe anything other than the DNA sequence that influences the development of an organism. If you'd like to read about this particular field of study, go here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epigenetics

Polyploids are especially common in plants. It involves a stress response that helps, in this case, a plant or tree evolve/adapt to its changing surroundings/environment that would, in turn, make it stronger and more capable of surviving. They call this a "polyploid event," and the main part of PolyGenomX consists of them trying to invoke a polyploid event in these modified trees and plants. This, when done correctly, will enhance the yield, shorten the breeding time, enhance the growth, allow poor growing areas to thrive with green life, prevent certain plant diseases and, overall, just make the trees and plants way more efficient. For example, with this technology, a 4-year-old tree would have the growth of a 10-year-old tree.

If you'd like to read more about polyploids, go here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyploidy

If you'd like to read more about PolyGenomX, go here: www.polygenomx.com (link is not currently active)

If you are actually interested in this subject about using epigenetics and polyploids to grow better plants and trees, watching this 16-minute video may be of great interest: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8N0SKREl2uE

---End of Post "PolyGenomX: Using Epigenetics and Polyploids to grow more efficient Trees and Plants"

Are all amphibians poisonous to some degree?

While checking out various types of venomous creatures vs. poisonous ones, I ran across a statement that said "all amphibians are poisonous" - to some degree. Now, is this true or not? I haven't found definitive proof of this yet, but it does seem that most of them have poison glands in their skin albeit a lot of them are so weak, they wouldn't have any effect on humans. I think that is what makes this hard to believe. Basically, all frogs, toads, salamanders, newts, etc., are poisonous, technically.

I find this to be interesting, in a weird sort of way. I mean, personally, when I see stuff like toads, frogs, salamanders and newts, I don't usually think "it's dinner time!" LOL! Although snakes, lizards and turtles are reptiles and are not amphibians, I feel the same way about them, too. But back to the primary subject, are all amphibians poisonous? I know that all frogs supposed to be because of their skin, which is why you often hear how you should wash your hands immediately after touching a frog. Just think about the ones that chop frog legs for a living. Wait a minute, they probably wear gloves.

Well, if all the frogs are poisonous to some degree, why not all the toads? Yeah, the toads definitely look like they are! Many of those brightly colored salamanders actually look poisonous without even having to know this, and the newts are not much different. Hmm, maybe that is why I've seen my cats throw up before, shortly after eating them. Or was that a lizard? Hmm... Anyway, I just thought I'd bring this up, in case some of y'all have never thought about it before. I know that it's a good thing it is usually just the skin that is poisonous, and the actual flesh/meat of a bullfrog and other large types of frogs (for example) are not poisonous, or else a lot of people would be sick from eating them; ha!

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons - Source is found here: http://exotic-life-creatures.blogspot.com/2015/01/red-salamander-lungless-tritons.html

---End of Post "Are all amphibians poisonous to some degree?"

Natural ways to Fertilize your Garden without Expensive Compost Bins

This will now be a 2-part post since I've recently deleted an old website of mine and decided to combine the related posts together before I start separately publishing the stand-alone articles on multiple blogs, etc. I've fused the titles together between the two pages, so I hope it still makes sense...

Part 1: "Expensive Compost Bins are not necessary"

For the ones that use compost or have at least thought about it, you probably know what I mean when I say, "expensive compost bins." Good grief, some of these things are outrageous in price. Out of curiosity, I was just checking Amazon.com and seen a lot of them listed from 100 to 200 dollars, and some of these bins were even in the 300-to-400-dollar price range! I'd build my own before buying those. Plus, I don't think they are necessary anyway. To me, at least, compost bins are more of a convenience than a requirement. Sure, these expensive contraptions help churn, turn, stir, air out, mix, etc., but so does a pitchfork; ha!

Anyway, I use various types of natural, organic soil amendments for my garden every year to fertilize, but I've never did the compost pile thingy that involved these expensive bins or whatever. During the non-growing season, I'll periodically dump a lot of used tea bags, vegetable waste, etc., on top of my garden area. Of course, if you have a commercial lot or a giant corn field, for example, this will not be sufficient. However, if you are only growing enough food for a single family, it is very easy to accumulate enough organic material during the fall, winter, and early spring, for your small to medium-sized garden.

Another method is to simply save a lot of the waste in buckets, dump the smelly stuff out in early spring, and till/plow the waste into your soil a month or so beforehand. At any cultivating rate, I'm going to try the compost pile thing for the next couple of months, just to see how it smells, oops, I mean goes. If you want to reduce the odors, adding more brown matter than the green matter to your pile at a ratio of 3:1 or 4:1 will help a lot. Brown matter is stuff like dried leaves, dried grass trimmings, etc. Think 'dead' for brown, and fresh produce trimmings and fresh manure for green, etc.

Well, anyway, I'm going to modify some extra-large plastic containers for the compost bins, and manually stir the crap as it rots. One must remember, compost is just decomposed organic matter. This ain't rocket science, as they say. I also like to spread a fair amount of wood ashes over my growing area once a year, as a soil amendment. Wood ashes will raise the pH a bit if you overdo it, so only use 'em in moderation.

Image Credit: Fair Use - Product Image - Amazon.com

Related Post: http://perpendicularity.org/blog/2010/05/03/organic-fertilizer-natural-ways-to-fertilize-your-garden/ [Link is no longer active, but it is now Part 2 of this post.]

---End of Part 1: "Expensive Compost Bins are not necessary"

Part 2: "Organic Fertilizer – Natural ways to Fertilize your Garden"

Original Post Date: 5-3-2010

Buying inorganic/synthetic fertilizers at local retail stores/markets, is a simple solution to fertilize poor soil, but they often lack the trace elements that are naturally found in organic fertilizers. On this page, I’ll go over some of the basic ingredients to use in compost, along with a few other soil amendments.

Composting - Organic Fertilizer in the making...

Organic, natural fertilizer is the way to go, especially for personal gardens and flower beds. A prime example of an organic fertilizer is the end result of a self-made compost.

Compost involves a variety of waste material…

There are many benefits, when it comes to using this method. For one, the environment, since a lot of the waste material used while composting would normally find its way into the trash cans and/or landfill. I mean, that is such a senseless waste... Compost typically contains all of the nutrients needed for vigorous plant growth, improves the soil quality and moisture retaining properties, and acts as a slow-release fertilizer.

Make your own Compost…

Generally, you can either use an “open bin” or a “compost container” for the composting process. You can buy these expensive bins and containers or, if you’re the least bit dexterous and motivated, you can always make your own. There are loads of informative reading material and how-to advice on this subject via the world wide web.

You’ll also need a shovel, garden cart/wheel barrel or some type of transporting device that you’ll use to convey the final product to your garden or flower bed, a pitchfork or some other useful type of tool to turn, mix & stir the active compost pile within the container/bin.

A proper balance of microorganisms is necessary for an effective compost pile – don’t worry, those microscopic beings will be there by way of nature. The main thing you have to watch for, is to not have too much green material versus brown material, or else, you’ll end up with a smelly, heaping pile that reeks like garbage.

When I speak of green material, I mean stuff like kitchen scraps (avoid adding meat scraps), fruits, green trimmings, tea bags, fresh manure (chicken, rabbit, cow or horse dung – but only in small quantities), etc. The brown material should be somewhat at a minimum of 3:1 to green material and the optimal ratio is roughly 4:1. Brown material mostly consists of dried leaves and dried grass trimmings – which you can easily accumulate the dried grass trimmings during the spring & summer months and the dried leaves during the autumn season. You can add, but only recommended in small amounts due to the very high carbon content, wood shavings and sawdust (this is especially useful if you have too much green material in your pile).

During the composting process, you’ll need to turn & mix often – as this will help keep the brown & green material balanced and adds oxygen to the pile. The microorganisms need water, food, and air. To enhance the process by adding additional healthy bacteria into the pile, it has been noted that adding a shovel or two of garden soil into the mix will help speed up the decomposition of waste material. A quick tip for your compost pile: If possible, try to keep the particles & scraps that you add, as small as possible – this makes it easier for the microbes & bacteria to break ’em down. When garden season rolls around, you should have a nice, dark, fertile mass of compost that is ready to be applied to your growing area.

Soil Additive – Wood Ashes as Fertilizer:

If you still use a fireplace or have occasional campfires and you have a garden or flower bed, you might want to save some of those ashes. When used in moderation, wood ashes are a decent soil additive. Ashes will lack when it comes to Nitrogen, so it is better to use this method in conjunction with other additives and fertilizing techniques. The composition is often estimated at: 1.5 – 2% Phosphorous, 4 – 8% Potassium (depending on the type of wood), 25-50% calcium compounds and magnesium carbonate/oxide, along with other trace elements and nutrients. Due to the high amount of calcium & magnesium, wood ashes have the ability to raise the soil pH – this, in turn, is not good if your soil is already alkaline albeit it still takes about twice as much wood ashes to increase the pH as it would if you applied lime to the soil. In most cases, using wood ashes in small amounts only helps your soil’s condition. Also, one shouldn’t apply wood ashes to your garden no more than once a year – due to the risk of elevated pH and salt levels. Please be advised, wood ashes are a big no-no if you’re dealing with certain plants that require and/or thrive in acidic soil conditions.

Conclusion: 

There are many natural ways to fertilize your garden; I just listed a few. You may want to skip the compost method if it seems like too much trouble. I know someone personally that fertilizes their garden by saving their tea bags, coffee grounds, eggshells, and wood ashes during the winter and early spring, and then, simply tills them into the soil (their garden area) each spring. Whatever works, but the main message in this page is: try and be more prone towards organic, natural methods besides synthetic/artificial ways. If you have any particular natural methods of fertilization that has worked for you, feel free to drop them down in the comment field. Good luck and have a great growing season…

---End of Part 2: "Organic Fertilizer – Natural ways to Fertilize your Garden"

Image Credit: perpendicularity.org/blog/ [Link is no longer active]

---End of Post "Natural ways to Fertilize your Garden without Expensive Compost Bins"

How to Freeze Summer Squash for Frying Purposes

If you're interested, below this post is an article about a garden pest that often attacks your squash plants. But back to the original topic...

When freezing produce, a lot of folks think you just "throw it in a bag" and simply freeze the stuff. While true for some things, like corn on the cob, for example, it doesn't always work out for other items that may be in your garden. I selected summer squash for this post because not everybody uses it for healthy stews and various recipes, as some of us like to bread and fry it!

When you freeze summer squash, whether you blanch it first or not, it will thaw out in a soggy condition. This mushy stuff will usually not be something that will bread and fry very effectively, and you may end up with a scrambled mess, to say the least. However, there is a way to freeze your squash for frying purposes, as I found this out by way of trial & error.

Please note: This method takes a bit of time and space, so you can only prepare so much at one time, in most cases. First, you slice your extra squash into your desired degree of thickness for frying. From there, you bread it (I use yellow corn meal and additional seasonings) as if you were about to fry 'em up. Now, take a couple cookie sheets out (or whatever works) and place every single slice of squash on the pans or however many you can fit on there. Make sure that none of the squash touches each other and quickly put them into your freezer. When they are completely frozen, you can now put them all into freezer bags.

Since each slice froze individually, they will not stick together in the freezer. Plus, they are already breaded for frying purposes. Now, instead of worrying about them being too mushy to fry, you can drop them into some hot oil later on while they are still frozen because you don't have to wait until they thaw out to separate them for the breading process. You see how easy this is? Hey, it works for me! Cheers!

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons - Source = en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_squash

---End of Post "How to Freeze Summer Squash for Frying Purposes"

Semi-related Post: "Garden Pest: Squash Bugs"

Original Post Date: 8-13-2012

It seems that every garden season or at least every other one, I have a new visitor (garden pest) enter my glorious growing areas – no matter how many times I change locations, move the crops, etc.  Although, I always manage to have a decent yield while staying organic without the use of insecticides, pesticides, poisons, chemicals, and so on.

In the past, I have written about other garden pests, such as the Japanese Beetles – that once decided to come into my corn field as a throng of silk-eating freaks, and as the battle raged on, I was still victorious minus several ears of corn; ha!  Last year I got to finally meet the beloved Tomato Hornworms, as those fat, green caterpillars got catapulted from my garden in a ballistic fashion, after realizing that they were eating my tomato plants like a crazed glut!

This year, I decided to grow more squash than usual in case I wanted to freeze some, so guess what?  I got visited by lots of squash bugs!  By the way, I experimented with a different way to grow squash, as I staggered my planting session into two-week intervals and spread them out in different areas in the yard.  This allowed me to not only have an ongoing supply of squash, but it also gave me a good idea of how well the plants did in different areas and conditions, such as more shade versus more sun, soil conditions, etc.  All in all, I found out that squash, at least the ones I planted, do better in areas that get sun during the first and latter parts of the day, and shade during the middle of the day.

Well, I’m getting off subject here, and I was going to briefly talk about these pesky little garden pests known as “squash bugs.”

In my opinion, these bugs can easily be worked around without the use of poisons.  The main thing is to make sure your squash plants get a good start in fertile soil with enough water, as once they grow to a large size, it doesn’t seem to matter if the foliage is being ate by these squash bugs.  It is when they attack early and get on the young squash plants, is when your yield is mostly affected.   Basically, if you have a healthy squash plant that is flourishing, by the time these bugs do enough damage to kill the plant, you would have most likely already picked plenty of squash from the plant.

Anyway, if you know what to look for, you can remove these little devils before very much damage occurs.  First, you need to know what the squash bug eggs look like:

Please note, you must check underneath the big leaves on your squash plants, as well, because they like to hide these egg clusters on the underside in addition to the egg clusters that are in plain sight.  At any rate, it shouldn’t be much of a problem for you to scrape the eggs off so you can discard them.  Without the use of chemical sprays, that’s all there is to it, really.  If you have a massive amount of squash plants and want to keep things organic but are too lazy to check your plants for squash bugs and/or squash bug eggs, well:  You better make sure your plants are thriving from the start and it wouldn’t hurt to use some organic compost, beforehand, to help give ’em the boost they need to combat this particular garden pest.

Below, is a photo of the Squash Bug nymphs, not long after they hatch:

This next image, displays an adult squash bug:

Well, now that you know what may have been eating your squash plants and just how easy they are to locate and remove, you have no reason outside of bad weather and soil conditions, to not have an excellent yield of squash!  My favorite way to prepare yellow summer squash, is of course the least healthy – which is breaded and fried, but it is so yummy!  Which is why the first post on this page is entitled "How to Freeze Summer Squash for Frying Purposes." Ha!

Image Credits: perpendicularity.org/blog/ [Link is no longer active]

—End of Post "Garden Pest - Squash Bugs"

World's Oldest Trees

First of all, the tree shown on this post is not the world's oldest tree. It is really old, though. Yeah, like 3,200 years worth of old! I decided to go with this image because, to me, the giant sequoia trees are the most prehistoric/ancient looking. In fact, giant sequoias are the world's largest single trees by volume. These magnificent trees grow to an average height of 164 to 279 feet with a freakin' diameter of 20 to 26 feet! Of course, they can get much larger, but that is on average, if that tells ya anything.

Anyway, when it comes to determining the world's oldest trees, some of the answers seem to vary. Personally, I don't really count the clonal trees that constantly grow new trees from the same root structure albeit some folks really get off on such things. It is like, "Hey, look at that 9,550-year-old Norway spruce tree! Well, the tree isn't that old but some of the root structure may be." Say what? Yeah, they can produce exact copies, or clones, if you will...

Then, there are the ones with "estimated years of existence" and so on. I thought they were all estimates, in a way. I mean, it is not like we were actually there to see 'em back then, but there is some varying criteria used and a variety of sources, estimations, tree-ring counts, and whatnot involved.

Not too long ago, the Methuselah was considered the oldest non-clonal tree in the world, at 4,841 to 4,845 years old (don't ask why two different sources reported 2 different ages). The oldest individual tree (non-clonal) I recently read about was 5,063 years old and is located in White Mountains, California. However, I still like the giant sequoias the best and I will always favor them when it comes to the antiquity of trees; cheers!

Side Note: Although it is not usually found on a list for individual longevity, you can't get much more of an older species than Gingko Biloba (a.k.a. Maidenhair Tree). I have read about them being 1,400 years old, but the species itself is thought to have been around during the Dinosaur Era!  Now that's old! I once wrote about this tree on a health blog, here: Health & Fitness Blog: Ginkgo Biloba supplement or just a pretty tree? (health-fitness-guru.blogspot.com)

Related Links to further your reading:
* en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_trees
* www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/photos/the-worlds-10-oldest-living-trees/methuselah [That link now redirects, here: The World's 10 Oldest Living Trees (treehugger.com)]

Image Credit: This work has been released into the Public Domain by its author at the English Wikipedia project.

---End of Post "World's Oldest Trees"