Search results

I've been using caustic water (made with ash lye) as the ingredient for some detergents, so that the resulting graywater is biodegradable and useful for irrigation. I haven't had much trouble with it for some time, given that the soil I'm working on is somewhat acidic, so the potassium...

Could you guys elaborate a bit on that? Please?

Hey everyone! Since most plants are adversely affected by an acidic/basic soil, I think it may stand to reason that, soil flora (the microbial ecosystem) is similarly impacted by such conditions. Any idea if this is the case? If so, how?

I've very recently become interested in the use of hygroscopic materials (things that absorb and retain a lot of water), for the purpose of making the ground retain more water, so as to reduce the costs of irrigation. So far, the only ones I've come up with are: 1. Cotton and paper in general...

Well you know a lot more than I suspected. Thanks for the input :)

Yes, already checked it out. If anyone reading this is also interested, nicotine is, fortunately, very water soluble and it'll be easily extracted from the tobacco's leaves using just hot water (it'll also dissolve other contaminants, but that's most certainly not an issue in this case), in...

Recently, I've been growing some clovers in pots to cut and use as a source of nitrogen (clovers are legumes). But I've been curious about the clovers that usually grow alongside weeds and decided to remove the weeds only and let the clovers grow with my plants and crops (letting them shed their...

The alkali and alkaline carbonates in ashes and potassium soaps seem to be able kill fungi pretty well... bacteria, not so much. I've also used chlorinated water and seems to help when you apply it, but it has no staying power (also, once the seedling is infected, pesticides won't help that...

Not yet where I live. I know its toxic (I think they banned it because birds and livestock get very sick from unwanted ingestion of the treated seeds), that's why I want to make my own formula (or replicate someone elses). How is that exactly?

Plenty of seed packages come with red coated seeds, this substance is called "thiram" and it is a pretty effective fungicide and bactericide (even if germinated in somewhat damp environments, those seeds won't develop cobwebs or bacterial infections or whatnot). I've been wanting to replicate a...

Hmmm... interesting. In that case, the roots may be used to inoculate dirt with mycorrhizal species.

Yes, its definitely not optimal, I just wanted to have a proof of concept.

Just like other organisms can become vectors of disease to us, can prolonged handling of diseased plants turn us into disease carriers for them?

ooohhh, even better. Thanks for the input :)

I'm a simple homegrower and I've been using legumes for nitrogen fixation for some time, which has saved me the hassle and money of applying ammonia fertilizer. Now, I've recently become aware that clovers are too, legumes, and they too, form nitrogen nodules for nitrogen fixation and I came...

As I said before, all plants that have been uprooted and placed in water (about 30), immediately began to reverse the damage. Hmm I'm not that close, I'm about 150m inland and 30m above sea level (I'm surrounded by a subtropical rainforest). Besides, the compost I've been using has been washed...

This kind of damage occurs whether I add my compost or not. I guess there's nothing else I can do. Thanks for sharing your thoughts guys :)

Thanks for the input :) , I'll definitely gonna research those pests. However, I've been growing some other crops (for about 2 months now) using soil from somewhere else and they're growing splendidly well, showing no symptoms of anything (forgot to mention that, sorry). Furthermore, as I said...

Hello ppl! new member here I've been trying to grow crops on a subtropical rainforest with an ultisol kind of soil (red and lots of iron in it) in Mexico. It presented the following problems (that I fixed with the following solutions): 1. Low pH (originally at about 4.5): made some bonfires to...