Food self sufficiency tips and hacks

Last year, early blight killed off all my tomatoes except one self seeded plant. I realy liked it, egg size grape tomato with great flavour. I took no chances with just preseveing seed, might be hybridised, so l took cuttings before frost in October. Also, l figured the plant alredy had to deal with blight so it may have some imunity? I dont know…
They rooted but were barely alive, all yellow and disapointing. Then l borrowed this cheap chinese countertop aquaponic led light from a friend and look at them now, a good month later! They even got fruit! Highly recomend LEDs.
Hard to take pictures because of the weird light


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Big thumbs up Kristijan. I have never tried to replicate plants from cuttings. You are the man.
One of the real advantages of using LED grow lights is that you can set them right on top of your seed starts without frying them. Emergent plants like light as strong as they can get it and for a good 16 to 18 hours a day. I have found the easiest was to do it is using these 27 gallon totes. They are available almost everywhere.
https://www.menards.com/main/storage-organization/storage-totes-bins/storage-totes/performax-reg-industrial-storage-tote-with-snap-on-lid/bbtote27-1061ky/p-60892918543-c-12667.htm
Two of the two foot grow lights I linked work best. They are 15 inches deep so you need to rig a way to drop the lights into the tote and raise them as the plants grow. By the time they have reached the top they are ready to transplant. Easy to just carry the whole tote in and out doors a few days to harden the plant off.

Those totes are also great as mini raised beds. They are sturdy and durable for things like root crops. For instance you can grow 40 beets or carrots in one using a 9 sq in spacing. Excellent for growing new potatoes of which you can easily get four harvests a year depending on how diligent you about chitting them.

No one needs a big plot of quality soil to grow their own food and large quantities of it. I’m guessing that Kristijan lived in a more humid climate as do I. Blight can be a problem in these places and it is one good reason to plant in raised bed in which the soil can be easily changed out seasonally. Most pathogens reside within the first few inches of the surface of the soil. Transferring blighted soils to other beds whose plants are not normally affected is the best way to deal with it. Otherwise an organic fungicide like a Bordeaux mix or Neem Oil can work well. Over use of Bordeaux mix can be detrimental to the micro and macro organisms in the soil.

https://youtu.be/QEuknYpO7Eo

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This might interest some here. Talks about the light distance from the plants and the time needed.

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Growing potatoes in plastic garbage bags. I’ve grown potatoes in the ground, five gallon plastic pails, fabric grow bags and totes. Not in garbage bags yet. If you have an extra 4 sq foot you could grow at least 15 pounds of potatoes.

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I suppose that this article from BBC might be interesting for DOWers in this thread

The ‘dark earth’ revealing the Amazon’s secrets

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I wish my garden soil looked like that. I would even settle for a couple of inches. :slight_smile:

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What do you think, would it be enough to make simple such arches, glue 3 pcs 1"×3" instead of double with blocks?

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I’ve read about terra preta extensively. The most likely theory is that indigenous meso-Americans smashed up their clay “chamber pots” with some charcoal and animal blood. The charcoal may have been used to cover smells from waste in the pots. This was mixed into what is otherwise pretty poor natural soil to improve fertility.

The terra preta is quickly colonized by fungus networks, waste is broken down and the nutrients made available to plant roots through symbiosis with the fungus.

The clay adds minerals, bulk and some water retention. The charcoal adds amazing surface area for reactions otherwise limited by that; it adds nooks and crannies for beneficial bacteria and the reducing action of the charcoal itself can help assist various beneficial reactions.

Terra preta reduces run off and holds onto nutrients unlike the natural denuded soil and seems to build on itself over time, even without refresh from new “pots” and char. It really is wonder. I’ve posted about it before.

Terra preta is too hard to make for bulk grains but for a dense veggie/fruit garden, especially an organic one, it’s perfect. Add an Olla for irrigation and you have one of the best primitive growing systems possible.

(edit: typo’d until->unlike)

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I’d go with the blocks Jan. Provides a space to feed rows of purlins through and easy way to install diagonal bracing. I think a sixteen foot width is about optimum for a greenhouse like this. allows for three foot beds at the perimeter and a four foot bed in the center with three foot aisles.

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Ok, I found a plastic greenhouse, which was about 33 feet, and as long as you want, so thought about trying to build one in wood.

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I bought the greenhouse plastic from Elof Dahlén i Vara www.edahlen.se
He was by far the cheapest on proper plastic when I was looking around and high quality too, he also sells tunnels. When I was busy with mine he told me that a 8x25m (27x88ft) complete tunnel was about 20 000sek ($1900).
I can PM you his number but I have no idea if he still is in business.
Btw, the website is not updated and wasn’t back then either. Nice guy though :smiley:

The one you linked to is also pretty cheap, can’t remember the micron on the one I bought though.

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That’s incredibly cheap for a grow tunnel that size Johan. Unless that was just the cost of the plastic sheeting. The one you linked would not have held the snow load we got here last week without a lot of temporary bracing Jan.
A lot of the tunnels around here are 30 foot wide but they are mostly commercial growers and must have an economic reason for such width’s. I believe that smaller tunnels make more sense for the average person because all plants do not have the same heat and light requirements and smaller, modular set ups are more cost effective for the homestead grower.

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No Tom, it was a complete tunnel, I seem to recall it was 1 1/2” piping. Very cheap, I dropped my jaw when he told me the price but I had already started my own then. The flat greenhouse I now have had 2 3/8” piping :joy:
My conclusion is: Narrower greenhouses makes sense in heavy snow climates.

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I lit the first fire in the greenhouse heater yesterday. Super pleased. I was worryed about draft but it sucks just right. Kids love it. Its just warm enaugh for a comfortable bed to lay on. Now off to finish stone paths and then maybe plant some tomatoes :wink: why not? It gets close to 30c when sun hits…


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The Wife’s last falls new flowering gardening boxes are starting to come to life.



So to bump this topic up visible I’ll put up a YouTube caught may attention and just watched.
Listen thru and hear this guy talk his way through instead of myopically Carbons fixating being affected by fears mongering to declaring that from now on he is going to be showing, and promoting; “Gardening Defiantly”

Woodgasing Definatly - sounds like a new hat or Tee-shirt.
S.U.
Edit added pictures. S.U.

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I have made 4 videos with David, highly recommend his work.

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I am still doing hydroponics, but I went to 1000 gal tanks, and low fish density.

I run everything off solar, and goldfish that I raise are tough enough to go thru cold and have done very well.

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Here I am going to be running up a trial-ballon. Is this video too political for putting up on the DOW?
Will I be asked to take it down . . . I will if asked.
Or will 10 of you thumbs-up; Hearts-like it?

Careful you flower gardeners.
They will come for you next as resources squandering climate changing carbons emitters.
Steve unruh

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Anyone who believes that their survival is a matter of politics will have a face that smells like feces because their head is up their ass. The commercial foods you have access to are nutritionally deficient or purposely poisoned for enhanced profitability. Every major food company, at least in the US is owned by the corporations that own and control 88 per cent of S&P corporations. Black Rock, Vanguard and State Street are the holding companies.
Your wheat is grown in fields that are first poisoned with Round Up to kill the weeds and then the poison is use pre-harvest as a treatment. This chemical is also used on other grains and beans. All these grains are GMO so that the pesticides will not kill them along with the weeds.

In addition other chemicals are used on oats and other grains.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41370-024-00643-4

Do your own research on the kinds of pesticides required to get your fruit and veggies from Florida and California to the supermarket all perfect and pretty.

It is the very rare individual that is food self sufficient. We all ingest these poisons. Control of the food supply is way more important to the globalists than weather you are driving on your home made fuels. And just as the plandemic did not work out as they had hoped, neither will their attempts to control your ability to sustain yourself on your own food supply. There is a war being waged against you. Everything is all about one thing and that is getting the population of the planet down to totally controllable levels. No one suggests you grab a gun and do battle. It is enough to defiantly plant some seeds and defy anyone to stop you.

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Tom, only recently have l heared about this glifosate practise. Makes you sick.

Here, they have enslaved the farmer in a simplest possible way. Money. You get payd a subvention for each square meter of land you farm. Officialy, its to help promote farming. Well… the wolf in sheeps clothing.

When l started the charcoal buisness, l wanted to be a good citizen. Pay my taxes, do it by the book… best way to sell it legaly was to enlist as a farmer and sell it as a farm product, with receet and all. Wery litle tax also. And as a bonus we wuld get the subvension, who wuld turn away from free money, right?

Ha, a week in the program, an inspector visited with her big GPS thing and started prospecting and inspecting every inch of our land. Long story short, l learnt that day that you literaly need to submit a plan in the begining of the season on exactly what, where and how much you plant. Any change mid seson gets fined. And to a meter of accurasy. They say when you cut grass, how often, how many tress you can have in a hayfeald, when you can fertilise or not, etc. Well the ispector preety much discredited most of our land because ofcorse, nothing fit. Only reason l resist talking bad about that is that she was a real cute redhead girl, what a waste of a nice human being…

Well, l tyed 1+1 together and figured out what its realy about. Controll. aquired by giving a farmer a few breadcrumbs. Exited the program and now l guess lm just not a nice citizen anymore…

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