Issue 10

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Table of Contents:

• 1. New Zealand is where the action is
• 2. Steven Carruthers lays it on the line
• 3. Notable Quotes
• 4. What have you got in your salad mix?
• 5. How about those beneficial insects?
• 6. This and that

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1. New Zealand is where the action is

Especially for NFT! Inventive and very progressive, the New Zealand hydroponic growers keep their NFT operations as simple as possible. Using the principles first offered by Dr Alan Cooper, the NFT commercial growers have taken over in a big way.

Here is just a small sampling of what these folks are up to:

One grower grows tomatoes in 75 ft rows when the common accepted practice is to go no more than 60 feet. This is to avoid not getting enough nutrients to the plants at the end of the line. But by using Panda film in the NFT channels and avoiding "ponding", this grower is going against current "wisdom".

This grower automates nutrient supply by adding (or not adding) what's needed. He does this by taking tissue samples from time to time and then adjusts his nutrient formula accordingly. He is fortunate to be able to heat his greenhouses with a geothermal supply of energy.

Another grower didn't even bother to use greenhouses. Instead this grower is in an area where he can use large cloches - large enough to provide cover when needed for benches 2-3 feet high. This lettuce "farm" produces 3 thousand head of lettuce per week in summer as well as 1300 heads per week in winter. (You can see their winters - and summers - are rather mild.)

One of this grower's notable inventions is a process to withdraw ethylene gas from the nutrient as the plants send it back to the nutrient tanks. He uses a 3-4 inch piece of sewer pipe (PVC) and places it at the top water level of the nutrient tank. While a fan sucks out the ethylene gas through the pipe and pushes it outside, he has another device which pulls in fresh air and pumps it into the liquid.

This way he gets rid of the ethylene gas and adds plenty of oxygen to the nutrient fluid in the tank. Two good things at one stroke. Clever fellow, this grower.

There's another grower "down under" who uses sliding benches to grow his lettuce. This is similar to what the Japanese do with large flat tanks of nutrient solution. You plant at one end and harvest at the other. This works well if you have one variety only where all plants mature at the same time.

Each week, this grower moves his trays or gullies down the line and adds some more as well as harvesting an equal amount from the end of the line.

This grower believes a site should be clean if it's going to be profitable. I go along with that.

The above should give you an idea of what's going on with these growers. They believe in simplicity of operation and in NFT. You don't have the waste management in NFT as you do with media such as rockwool, peat moss and others. Right there you save a lot on labor.

Nutrient testing and dosing is a must as well as simplicity of operation. Tissue analysis is a must also and is a regular practice. In addition, the following directive remains constant: get as many crops (or crop turns) per year as possible to reduce operating costs and increase profits.

The best part: all these growers have a solid and faithful market. They know they'll sell all they produce.

By Jove, I believe they've got it! These New Zealanders can teach us a thing or two.

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2. Steven Carruthers lays it on the line

Australia is another country which is heavily involved in hydroponics. Steven Carruthers, who publishes PRACTICAL HYDROPONICS, is a staunch supporter of hydroponics. He sees the Golden Age for this form of agriculture and foresees when Australia can be one of the leading providers of hydroponic crops to the people of Asia, a market anyone would be eager to tap.

Steven foresees when arable land will decrease and population will increase. How are we going to feed all of those people? Steven believes hydroponics is the answer (and so do I). The only reason the United States is not as heavily involved in hydroponics as New Zealand, Israel, Australia and others is because we still have some arable land left. That, however, will not last for long.

Australia is now the largest hydroponic lettuce producer in the world, as well as being 12th in overall hydroponic production. All of this has been accomplished within the last ten years! And this is forecast to double by 2003.

So what's the USA doing about hydroponics? Some large companies are setting up operations in the southwestern states to take advantage of sunshine all year round. Their produce will be more genetically engineered. Some folks forecast vegetables with as much protein content as meat.

Mr Carruthers believes that some day we will have "true pricing" in the market place. This means the price of an item will not only depend upon the localized factors of the growers immediate costs but also the costs to the environment and consequent cleanup from runoff and other pollution factors.

If you'd like to know more about Steven Carruthers and want to keep up with the Aussies, visit the following site: (http://www.hydroponics.com.au)

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3. Notable Quotes

"Tomato crops hydroponically grown in perlite have produced yields 7% higher than crops grown in rockwool." - Dr David A Hall, Pershore College of Horticulture, United Kingdom.

"Hydroponics should not be thought of as a development which eventually will replace agriculture, but as being coordinate with it. Both together hold the solution to the individual's and the world's food problems." - Dr W F Gericke, one of the original founders of modern hydroponics.

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4. What have you got in your salad mix?

Mesclun mixes come in all sorts of ways. Here's one from Oregon: leaves from Good King Henry (a substitute for spinach), some radicchio, small slices of fennel, young Oregon grape leaves, daylily, nasturtium, Viola tricolor, rose and carnation.

Here are some other ideas: for accent, use the leaves of daylily, tiger lilies, or calendula. Or how about some baby vegetables such as squash, tomato, peppers and herbs to suit your taste. Don't forget those squash blossoms. They're good to eat too.

There's no end to mesclun mix ideas - just use your imagination and anything which is edible and can add flavor or zest to your mix.

For those of you who have a garden, plant mesclun mixes along with annul flowers (along the edges of the garden). Keep repeating this all through your season to get the variety you want.

Some growers make a business out of growing baby vegetables and different flowers and blossoms. Top-notch restaurants are great prospects for these kind of ideas.

Always try to plant heat and bolt-resistant varieties. The baby vegetables will make good substitutes when other salad ingredients don't make it.

Only harvest in the morning of the day the items are going to be used. Vegetables should be rinsed in cold water. Either spin or towel dry them and place in plastic bags which can be stored in a crisper. To preserve flavor, don't cut or trim until you are ready to serve. Flower petals should be bagged without rinsing.

It's enough to make one's mouth water!

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5. How about those beneficial insects?

Beneficials come in three primary groups:

• 1. Pollinators, such as honey bees, leafcutter bees, alkali bees, and wasps.
• 2. Predators, such as lacewing, trichogramma wasps, spiders, mites and many more.
• 3. Parasitics, such as parasitic wasps. Their larvae do the damage. After being deposited as eggs inside the host insect, the larvae literally eat their way out of the immobilized host. The adults feed on nectar or pollen. (Nature has no mercy for man or beast.)

Here is a list of some predators and their primary prey:

• 1. Lacewing: aphids, mealybugs, scale, lacebugs, leafhoppers
• 2. Trichogramma wasps: bagworms, borers, cabbage loopers, caterpillars, corn earworm, eastern tent caterpillars
• 3. Spider mite predators: spider mites
• 4. Nematodes: armyworm (or cutworm), spotted cucumber beetles, borers, cutworms, fleas, flea beetles, grubs, iris borer, snails and slugs, sod webworms, squash borers
• 5. Whitefly predators: white flies
• 6. Ladybugs: aphids
• 7. Fly parasites: flies
• 8. Scale parasite: scale
• 9. Predator mites: fungus gnats
• 10. Mealybug destroyer: mealybugs

There are many more without whose help we might not survive as well as we do.

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6. This and That