Subject: Re: [SANET-MG] BBC NEWS | UK | England | Tyne/Wear | Researchers hail organic potatoes

From: John D'hondt <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2007 23:43:42 +0100

> Is this procedure one that you would recommend to anyone anywhere to use 
> in any climate and soil condition
> or would you only try this under certain growing conditions, or a range of 
> conditions?
> -- 
> Lawrence F. London, Jr.

Lawrence there were a number of reasons that led me to the "procedure" in 
question. To name two :
A book by a German agriculturist, Dr. Alwin Seifert, from just before-during 
WW2 who did a few very original experiments with compost making and ways of 
growing crops. For years Dr. Seifert offered a price to any visitor who 
could find any disease in his garden. One of the things he did was plant 
potatoes year after year in the same beds.
Second for me was the absolute certainty that our society is about to meet a 
bottle neck (perhaps peak-oil) and that after this there would be little 
possibility to try and become sustainable. Either one is sustainable at that 
point or one will no longer be there at all. I decided to start 
experimenting in plenty of time while there was still the luxury of 
surviving with a smile complete failure.
I think that if it had become a failure that I would have chosen to grow 
different crops instead of wasting time trying to grow potatoes 
non-organically.
Let me say that I am basically a belt and braces sort of man. We have 
trialed at least 500 different food crops here in Ireland over the years and 
(only) about 20-25 of them have been successful as potential staples. This 
means that if our potatoes would succumb to blight or any other disease, 
that we have some scope of expanding some other crop as a staple in times of 
crisis.

I am absolutely certain that many places on this planet are much more 
suitable than Ireland for many more potential food crops or for growing 
potatoes sustainably/organically. Our climate is harsh to say the least and 
soil... I started off without soil on barren rock in many places.

With this explanation a smart person should be able to figure out what path 
I would have chosen in his/her locality almost. And that is really all that 
can usefully be said. I have explained my system of developing blight free 
potatoes several times and always there is someone somewhere who does not 
agree with the basics of it.
That is no problem for me. It is just that I sincerely believe that the 
final proof of one's system working will be of much more than just 
economical importance.

john 

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---

From: "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 15 Jul 2007 19:12:53 -0400

John D'hondt wrote:

> My reasoning was that there was probably some organism in all that lot 
> that would live on Phytophtora infestans (blight) and that would thus 
> protect potato crops from this disease if only it were plentiful enough.
> To get it plentiful I grew blight prone potato varieties and let the 
> diseased plant-parts rot in situ then planted more potatoes on top that 
> I left in the ground over the wettest winter imaginable.
> 
> As I explained before on this list (it is slightly more complex than the 
> very shortened story here) I have been able to grow potatoes absolutely 
> blight free for at least 15 years now. Whether my guardian angel 
> organism is Pisolithus tinctorius I doubt because we don't have 
> "dog-turd-mushrooms" here at all.

Is this procedure one that you would recommend to anyone anywhere to use in any climate and soil condition
or would you only try this under certain growing conditions, or a range of conditions?
-- 
Lawrence F. London, Jr.
Venaura Farm
[email-masked]
http://venaurafarm.blogspot.com/
http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech/market-farming