Solarpunk Farming

Crosspost

Our farmers are are going to come into greater need of help in the future. I signed up end of winter got and interview and I start planting onions February 17th I'm super excited to help people eat. I've climbed the Albuquerque food network from JBBC to Mogro to Vida Verde Farm and even to Three Sisters Kitchen and met nothing but beautiful kind people. In my solarpunk revolution everyone eats and they eat well. FTP 🐇👨‍🌾🧅🥔🌄

Instead of chemicals, an army of ants may march right in. Though most people view the small insects as little more than a nuisance, colonies of them are being deployed in orchards across a handful of countries to stave off the spread of crippling infestation and disease.

Urban farming is often heralded as a practical solution to food deserts, providing fresh produce to communities where unjust urban planning and policy have limited access to nutritious options. But urban farms can also sow seeds that grow far beyond the garden beds.

Its that time of year when banana man brings da presents.

More pix first. Then explanation.

A data driven assessment of the role of verticle farming in feeding the world.

Researchers have increasingly recognized how essential fungi are to sequestering carbon in the soil and some have come to appreciate the outsized role they play in supporting crop health, mitigating climate change, and even sheltering crops from disease. As fungi's vast benefits come to light, more farmers are tapping into this vital network, learning how to work with beneficial fungi to encourage its growth in the soil, swapping tilling for microscopes.

TLDR Biological soil amendments can be quite elusive in terms of results. Be wary and investigate the actual need the product is fulfilling and whether or not it's claimed mechanism is reasonable and effective.

Food sovereignty is a matter of life and death in Gaza, where Israel has been deliberately destroying Palestinians’ ability to sustain themselves.

I stumbled on this brief article while looking through this solarpunk blog. On the farm I worked at growing up, all but one of our greenhouses were plastic stretched over a metal frame. We replaced the plastic fairly often (I'm not sure how often - I know I helped do it more than once, but probably not for the same greenhouse) due to sun and wind damage. The old plastic was pretty useless at that point unless you needed a dropcloth with some cracks in it, so it usually went in the dumpster and then to our local landfill.

Researchers around the country are exploring agrivoltaics, or co-locating solar generation with agriculture in a mutually beneficial way. Projects range from growing tomatoes in California to wild blueberries in Maine, with varying levels of success.

A Deep Winter Greenhouse (DWG) is a greenhouse designed to limit the amount of fossil fuel it takes to grow crops during cold winters. DWGs are passive-solar greenhouses that rely on energy from the sun to heat the building instead of more traditional heating sources.

This article really highlights to me how critical infrastructure is to achieving a sustainable food system. There are plenty of people growing food in an ecologically mindful manner, but they’re so atomized that they need to do everything themselves. And the infrastructure is so centralized that you’re forced into the industrial model if you want to go beyond the farmer market level. We need more meat lockers, local grain mills, oil pressers, etc. to build out regional food production networks.

Hi there, my chicken has a swelling on her cheek and it's causing her some distress can anyone please advise me?

I saw the need for a community dedicated to hydroponics, and there hasn't been one on the fediverse from what I've seen. So, I just created one 🤷

For those of you who are doing hydroponics, what do you think of this system? Is it a good system for a beginner on a budget? Or is there a better system?

Did you know that simply digging a slight ditch can completely change the health of a landscape?

Vergenoegd Winery(South Africa) is handling pests using a unique solution; ducks. These ducks enable the winery to be pesticide-free.

Super tasty 😊

If you want an easy way to help your local pollinators, then consider building a water station! Many plants and crops rely on pollinators, so the more you attract and help, the healthier your garden will be (for example: "“Bee pollination improves crop quality, shelf life and commercial value.”)

"The rock powder, usually basalt, is often scavenged from local mines or quarries, where it exists as a waste by-product. ERW companies collect the rock powder, sometimes milling it further to reduce the grain size. Then they truck it to farms, where it is used in place of ag lime.

"Findings in both studies showed that the more silverleaf nightshade was mowed, the more it developed ways to avoid destruction, Kariyat said. The taproot went down further, nearly 5 feet deep, in the first generation of mowed plants. More spikes popped out on the stem as a defense against caterpillars feeding on the flowers. The flowers became more toxic to caterpillars, leading to less pressure from natural predators."

For 31 straight days last summer, temperatures in Phoenix hit or topped 110 degrees, the longest such streak ever. That searing Arizona heat dehydrates crops and evaporates water the state needs to conserve.

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Aquaponics is similar to hydroponics, but makes use of fish to create fertilizer-rich (fish waste 💩) water for the plants to thrive. In turn, the plants help clean the water for the fish.

"Recent research has shown that red nets are more effective than black or white nets in preventing onion thrip damage to crops, reducing the reliance on harmful chemical pesticides by up to 50%. This approach supports sustainable farming by minimizing environmental impact."

If you are looking for a way to both conserve water but also have a healthy garden, an Olla might help.

Our retention pond in our neighborhood has a lot of algae and problematic plant growth due to the surrounding farms and lawn runoff, so we're experimenting with a floating island to pull nutrients out before they can cause problems. This will also provide some interesting flowering plants, and more fish habitats.

The Science Behind It Projects

Very cool project and glad to see it’s still going strong. Fun fact: I actually helped plant some of the very first trees here when it was just an empty field.

Canonical YouTube link

Apparently it also integrates with Home Assistant: https://github.com/vinteo/hass-opensprinkler