Here is Why You Should Use Gypsum in Gardening

Filed under: Gardening — admin @ 4:49 pm

Do you have clay or layer of hard subsoil problems in your garden?  Then gypsum may be the answer to help loosen the soil structure.

It is not considered a miracle substance and you will find that it doesn’t work right away, but a 3 year program of applications should help improve the poor soil conditions. It is not expensive and is easy to spread where needed.

Gypsum also has a job of repairing the soil that has been damaged through compaction from heavy stock, machinery, in the recovery of sub-soils exposed by earth movement and in soils affected by salinity.

A gardener faces one of the biggest problems in a new or established garden if they have a clay or layer of hard subsoil type of soil. This type of soil creates poor drainage, soggy soil and soil compaction.

When you have a new garden you can work organic humus, which should be done anyway, to loosen the poor soil. Manure, compost, peat moss and soil mulches and conditioners are normally used for this purpose.

You might ask, what do you do in an established garden?  A lot of work and time to recondition soil would be required. Gypsum may be just the answer for reconditioning the soil, because it can be spread on the surface of the soil like in the vegetable garden, flowerbeds or on the lawn. 

What this means is it does not have to be worked into the soil, it can just simply be spread on the surface.

What does Gypsum do?
It’s main purpose is to penetrate the many clay particles in heavy or the layer of hard subsoil type soils and loosen the soil structure. Then this creates air and moisture slots that will loosen and break-up the soil structure.

Be aware that gypsum does not contain any major plant nutrients, so continue a regular fertilizing program even though it contains calcium and sulfur which is needed for plant growth. In addition, continue to put out organic humus as you plant.

Gypsum is easy to apply!
Just spread it on the lawn, using the granular type, with a lawn spreader at the rate of 40 pounds per thousand square feet. Gypsum fertilizer can be spread any time of the year and only one application per year is needed.

To get it started working, water immediately after applying. If applied properly it does not affect the pH of the soil, not harmful to humans and your animals and will not burn. And because Gypsum is neutral and will not change the soil pH, you can use it in places where plants like Azaleas, Camellias, Rhododendrons and other acid loving plants grow, they need a little calcium too. Of course, gypsum should be applied per directions.

What is gypsum?
Hydrous calcium sulfate
Calcium Sulfate – CaSO4
Another Name:  Gypsite

This article is provided courtesy of Basic Info for Organic Gardening Use the article but leave author box intact.

Article Source: http://www.articlerich.com

Fountains of Refreshment

Filed under: Gardening — admin @ 4:43 pm

When hot, sticky days hit, try to use all your senses to keep cool. Sight and sound have amazing psychological effects, even when the thermometer soars.

One of the most cooling and relaxing sounds I know is that of a trickling spring. It relaxes my mind and helps my body unwind. In the city, it can drown out the sounds of the daily hustle and bustle of life, calming and refreshing the spirit. I also love the glinting, reflective surface of water. You can have the soothing coolness of water without a huge space so why not recreate this in your outdoor living area?

Some small water features have still water and aquatic plants but with the fight to remove stagnant water where mosquitoes can breed, many people now prefer items with moving water.

The most popular “moving water” items are tabletop fountains, statuary fountains and spitting creatures. All rely on a pump to circulate water through the feature. The water is pumped up through plastic tubing and released into the fountain, returning to the bottom where it is pumped up the tubing again.

Most pumps run on an electrical connection but some smaller tabletop fountains have batteries. There are also solar units available that require no electrical hook-up.

Simple or elaborate, all fountain features have the following elements: - 

A “bottom” where the pump where will be located and the water returns. This can be a large pot, an urn, a trough and so on:-  a “top” from which the water will emerge. This can be a small pot, a fanciful creature such as a frog, a conch shell, etc. 

A “middle” – the water course which will receive the water from the top and return it to the bottom. This can be pots, pebbles, shells, marbles, or even empty space, creating a freefall.

A pump. Give crucial attention to two features of the pump: maximum gallons per hour (gph) and maximum lift.

The gph can vary from 35 gph for a small battery-operated tabletop unit to over 600 gph for large garden fountains. Choose one appropriate to the size of your water feature – more is not necessarily better. A low gph will give you a gurgling effect in the same fountain that a higher gph pump would provide a steady stream – or even splash. It’s strictly a personal preference within the range recommended for the fountain size.

The maximum lift figure tells you how high you can expect your “little pump that could” to push the water. A small pump that has a lift of “up to 2 feet”, for example would not be appropriate for your 3-foot wall mounted lion’s head.

You will also want to consider the length of the electrical cord if applicable, and whether the unit has an on/off switch, if that’s important to you. Remember, though, that water left sitting will stagnate.

If you are making your own fountain, the pump is the most important part. Pump kits are available that include pump and tubing but tubing is quite inexpensive (about 60¢ per foot) and can be purchased at most garden centers.

You can make a fountain from something as simple as terracotta pots and pebbles. For instructions, visit www.paradiseporch.com/fountain.php

So soothe your senses with the calming sounds of moving water and keep cool in your outdoor space!

About The Author 

Debbie Rodgers owns and operates Paradise Porch, and is dedicated to helping people create outdoor living spaces that nurture and enrich them.

Visit her on the web at  www.paradiseporch.com  and get a free report on “Eight easy ways to create privacy in your outdoor space”.
Mail to  debbie@paradiseporch.com                       

Growing Mushrooms at Home using Straw or Manure

Filed under: Gardening — admin @ 12:30 pm

Creating Grain Spawn

Cereal grains such as wheat, rye, millet, maize, amaranth, quinoa, etc. can be used as a vehicle to expand your substrate mass into bulk substrates.  If you’ve mastered half-pint jars, making grain spawn is the next logical step.  When a jar of grain is completely colonized it can be used to inoculate other jars of grain using what’s called a grain to grain transfer. G2G for short.  Paul Stamet’s explains that 1 jar of colonized grain can inoculate 10 more jars of grain. 

Each of these jars in turn can inoculate 10 more jars and finally those can inoculate 10 bags of bulk substrate each.  Do the math and you are expanding your mycelial mass up to 10,000 times the original jar. (Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms, 2000).

If you would like to create your own Rye jars, simply follow these instructions and start making your own grain spawn to experiment with.

There are many lid designs that can be used with your quart jars.  We recommend drilling four ¼” holes as you normally would in half-pint jar lids.  Then drill one larger hole in the center.  This will be filled with a High Temp Gasket sealer to create a self-healing injection site.  If you are using the quart jars for grain to grain transfers you can leave out the injection site.

Depending on the size of your pressure cooker you will want to adjust the amount of ingredients to suit how many quart size jars you will be able to sterilize at one time.  For each quart jar measure out 200g or 250 ml of organically grown rye.  You can use the quart jars for measuring.  Simply pour the rye into each jar to the 250 ml level.  We will need to set a pot large enough to hold enough water to cover all of the rye grains put together.

Fill your pot with enough water and heat to boiling.  Immerse your grains in the water and then lower the heat.  Keeping it up high will cause the grains to break open and this can lead to contamination later on.  We want to steep the grains for one hour stirring now and then. 

For my stove I lower the heat from level 8 to level 3 when putting the grains in and then on down to level 1 after twenty minutes.  Your stove will be different but I included these settings to show an example.  The grains will start to swell from absorbing water as time goes on.

After your hour of steeping is up you will want to drain off the excess water and then pour the grains through a strainer.  I usually rinse off the grains before loading them in the quart jars. Scoop enough grain so that each jar is evenly filled.  Place your lids on loosely and cover them with a square of aluminum foil to keep water droplets from landing on the lid and seeping through to the interior.

Load your pressure cooker with the jars and fill the it up to the desired water level.  Now, take your jars back out and preheat your pressure cooker water to boiling.  This will help prohibit more grains from exploding during the heating process. 

After the water has started to boil, load the pressure cooker again and place the lid on.  After the pressure cooker starts to sizzle at 15 p.s.i., set your timer for 90 minutes.

Allow the pressure cooker to cool to room temperature before removing the lid.  Shake the jars when removing them to mix up the grains.  The grains on the bottom might be more moist than the rest and will need redistributed.  Allow the jars to cool for 24 hours before attempting to inoculate them. 

When you inoculate your jars, it is best to work in a clean area to prohibit bacteria from contaminating your substrate.  Cleanse the area well and nuke the air with Lysol.  Using a culture syringe, insert the needle through the self-healing injection site and administer 1 cc of solution per jar.  Shake up the grains to distribute the solution and incubate at between 82-86 degrees F. 

After five days, you can shake the jar one more time to aid in speeding up colonization time.  If the jars have not colonized within 14-21 days the jar is most likely contaminated or the temperatures are too low.

Grain to Grain Transfer
When a Quart Rye Jar is fully colonized it can be used to inoculate up to 10 more jars to expand your mycelium and increase substrate mass thus increasing yields. Inoculating a grain jar with colonized substrate is faster than using a Liquid Culture because there is more mycelium to reproduce and proliferate. The procedure is fairly simple. The main concern is sterility when opening the uncolonized substrate jars.

First thing. You should wait approximately 1 week after the jar has colonized to ensure the interior has colonized as well and allow the mycelium to digest the substrate in preparation for fruiting. A rye jar usually colonized in about 3-4 weeks. Sometimes this can take longer if the temperature is not between 82-86 degrees during incubation.

When you are sure colonization is complete you will need to break up the grain so that you can inoculate your other substrates. Using a tire is perfect for this. Just make sure there are no cracks in the jar or it could break. You should also use safety goggles when doing this.

After the grains have broken up, place it back in your incubation area and wait 24 hours. This will help rule out contaminations. The next day, mycelium should be growing again. If it has not within 24 hours the jar is considered contaminated by bacteria and should be thrown out. If you use it then you are potentially contaminating all of your new substrate jars.

The following day when you are ready to inoculate your jars, you should clean your work area, table and air with some cleaner. Any automatic air should be turned off one hour before the procedure. This helps calm the air and reduce the risk of airborne contaminates entering the jar when you open it. Ideally, you should be working in front of a Flow Hood but a Sterilized Glovebox will work as well. If you are using a glovebox, load the jars at this time.

The Procedure: Reshake the colonized jar to break up the grains. To inoculate the new rye jars, remove the lid from your colonized jar and the lid from the fresh substrate jar. Shake some colonized rye grains into the fresh substrate. There should be enough to divide the 1 colonized jar into 10 new ones.

Continue with the rest of the jars. Remove the lid, quickly inoculate with rye grain and replace the lid. The less time the lid is off the better. Incubate your jars the same way you did the first one. After these have colonized you can do several things with the grain.

• Use each jar to inoculate 10 more jars each
• Fruit the mushrooms right out of the top of the jar (depending on your species; not all mushrooms fruit directly from grain)
• Use the colonized grain to inoculate any of our 3 lb Substrate Spawn Bags. In most cases these can be fruited directly using our grow chambers or a humidity tent.
• Use the colonized grain to inoculate Pasteurized Straw

Feel free to use this article for your website but please leave the document intact, including the link section.  If you use our article, send us an email with a link to your site.  We might just add your site to our links page!

Be sure to check our website for a wide variety of mushroom growing supplies. We also have casing, tools, grow chambers, complete kits, grains and medium, and special equipment.  We are sure you’ll find something you need at Mushroom Grow Kits

Article Source: http://www.articlerich.com

7 Factors Needed for a Compost Pile

Filed under: Gardening — admin @ 3:41 pm

Compost, made from decomposed grass clippings, leaves, twigs, and branches, becomes a dark, crumbly mixture of  organic matter.

Learn how composting works. Even a newbie to composting can make good quality compost. It can be compared to cooking as art or part science. The following 7 factors will help you master the art of composting.

1. Materials
After a time anything that was once alive will naturally decompose. But, not all organic items should be composted for the home. To prepare compost, organic material, microorganisms, air, water, and a small amount of nitrogen are needed.

These items are safe to compost at home:
* grass clippings
* trimmings from hedges
* vegetable scraps
* leaves
* potting soil that has grown old
* twigs
* coffee filters with coffee grounds
* tea bags
* weeds that have not went to seed
* plant stalks

These items are Not safe to compost at home:
* weeds that have went to seed
* dead animals
* pet feces
* bread and grains
* meat
* grease
* cooking oil
* oily foods
*diseased plants

2. What To Do To Make It Work
There are small forms of plant and animal life which break down the organic material. This life is called microorganisms. From a minute amount of garden soil or manure comes plenty of microorganisms.

Nitrogen, air, and water will provide a favorable environment for the microorganisms to make the compost. Air circulation  and water will keep the microorganisms healthy and working. The nitrogen feeds the tiny organisms. You may have to add a small amount of nitrogen to the pile.

Putting on too much nitrogen can kill microbes and too much water causes insufficient air in the pile. You just cannot add too much air.

3. Beneficial Microorganisms
Bacteria are the most effective compost makers in your compost pile. They are the first to break down plant tissue. Then comes the fungi and protozoans to help with the process. The arthropodes, like centipedes, beetles, millipedes and worms, bring in the finishing touches to complete the composting.

4. Smaller is Better
The materials will break down faster if the microorganisms have more surface area to eat. Chopping your garden materials with a chipper, shredder, or lawnmower will help them decompose faster.

5. Size of The Pile
The activity of millions of microorganisms generates heat in the compost pile but a minimum size 3-foot by 3-foot by 3-foot  is needed for a hot, fast composting pile. Piles that are any larger may hamper the air supply needed in the pile for the microorganisms.

6. Moisture and Aeration
If you can imagine a wet squeezed out sponge with its many air pockets, then this would be the ideal enviroment for the microorganisms in the pile to function at their best. Pay attention while your pile is composting, to the amount of rain or a drought you may have. Water in a drought and maybe turn the pile in a lot of rainy days. The extremes of these two may upset the balance of the pile. The use of a pitchfork would come in handy at this time.

7. Temperature and Time
Keep your pile between 110F and 160F and the beneficial bacteria will love it. Not too cool nor too hot.
The temperature will rise over several days if you keep a good ratio of carbon and nitrogen, maintain lots of surface area within a large volume of material, and maintain adequate moisture and aeration.

-Importance of Compost-

+Compost has nutrients, but it is not a complete fertilizer.

+Compost provides nutrients in the soil until plants need to use them.

+ It loosens and aerates clay soils

+ Retains water in sandy soils.

-Using the Compost-

+ A soil amendment, mix 2 to 5 inches of compost into gardens each year before planting.

+ A potting mixture, add one part compost to two parts potting soil.

+ Make your own potting mixture by using equal parts of compost and sand or perlite.

+ A mulch, prodcast 2 to 4 inches of compost around annual flowers and vegetables, and up to 5 inches around your trees and shrubs.

+ A top dressing, mix finely sifted compost with sand and sprinkle evenly over lawns.

The final thing I would suggest once you have mastered the art of composting is to look very seriously at making your very own aerated compost tea. This elixir will give you results that are hard to believe.

This article is provided courtesy of Basic Info for Organic Gardening.

Article Source: http://www.articlerich.com

Pruning And Weeding For Healthy Trees

Filed under: Trees — admin @ 12:59 pm

Keeping a healthy, clean garden takes time and effort. Pruning, weeding and pest control are three of the more fundamental tasks involved in cleaning your garden. Read on for a few tips to help you clean your garden.

There are two main reasons that pruning the roots of your trees and shrubs is important. The first reason is to prepare a tree or shrub for transplanting to a different location. For a smaller size plant, cut down straight all around the bush about sixteen to eighteen inches from the main stalk. You will want to cut down farther if it is a larger plant. You then leave the plant to grow new roots, but be sure to water the plant well for at least a month and fertilize as needed.

You should prune the tree or shrub at least six weeks before moving it. A second reason pruning is important is to cure what is referred to as girdling. Girdling is when one of the larger underground roots, or sometimes a surface root, is turning onto the other roots and not spreading out or implanting itself into the soil as it should.

Sometimes, you can actually see the root circling where it should not be but, other times, you can only see that the trunk goes straight down in certain sections rather than slanting in spots where there are roots. A straight trunk is a good sign that girdling is taking place. Be sure to remove all of the girdling roots to prevent these roots from strangling the tree and damaging its growth, eventually to the point of dying.

Many gardeners prefer mulching over weeding, but there are times when weeding is necessary. When the plants are small, you need to pull out the weeds that could grow in and “choke” the flowers. Weeding is often an important step before you can even begin to mulch. Many weeds are, actually, beneficial either from their root exudates or sometimes for food.

Deep-rooted weeds can bring good supplies of nitrogen up into the to the topsoil and the plants’ stems. During tilling, the weeds will supply the soil with healthy nutrients and such which will help young plants grow. 

Pest control is no fun in gardening, but fortunately you do not have to do a lot of work aside from the normal garden practices which tend to keep pests to a minimum. You should give plants a lot of room and air, ensure that they are not too damp unless required by the plant type and also plant them in sun or in shade, depending on what their needs require.

Also, be sure to select disease-resistant varieties of plants and their companion plants. It is important to create a harmonious environment of living creatures, for example, bees on flowers and birds which are known for consuming insects.

Greg Hansward is writing for the most part for http://www.insidewoodworking.com , an internet site with topics around different wood types . His publications on wood splitters are published on his website .

Article Source: http://www.articlerich.com