Guy Zindel

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since Nov 30, 2017
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Recent posts by Guy Zindel

I'm working with 20 or so varieties of tomatoes this year, nothing major I know but I just received my blumat stuff the other day and was wondering if anyone here has experience using this system on tomatoes specifically. I'm really going to make more of an effort to get the water as close to ideal as I can this season.
4 years ago
I have a timer for my main circulation pump currently. I'm hoping to find a power supply suitable for the fans... I guess I can grab another timer for the fans and set it up ahead of the 12vt supply.
4 years ago
I've had a hell of a 2020! The county health nurse says i was likely on my second go around with covid in November... Which makes sense
because I'd been fighting fatigue all year!

I was able to build a 20x30 greenhouse while dealing with a pile of projects and the fatigue... I'm almost done with the set up!

The layout is 275 gallon totes of water on the north wall (6)

2- 20 amp circuits to a double gang box inside the gh
14' x 10' jean pain pile next to the greenhouse 6' tall with 350' of pex coiled inside
55 gallon drum with 110v submersible pushing water into the heat exchanger coils in the pile
Heat exchanger flows into a cleaned auto radiator then to a 15 gallon header tank 8' high(also the gravity feed blue mat irrigation supply)
From the header tank the water overflows to the 55 gallon main (insulated) res...

Im registering 140 degrees in the center of the pile
My plumbing is in and functioning
I have a double layer poly inflated cover on the gh

I live at 5200' and have snow on the ground almost all winter. Winter goals are to grow broccoli, lettuce, cabbage, carrots, onions and radish.
Next year I want to winter my peppers and some tomatoes over, as blight in Northern Utah is not an issue.

I'll eventually run this off grid with a power wall, solar and wind...

As for now I need to run fans and pumps in the middle of the night to keep my temps between 40 an 55 (early tomato growing)

I have 12 volt auto fans (3) what would you guys use to control them automatically? I'd like for them to go on below 50.... And during the day above 80.
My pumps are on timers as I need to keep the water flowing
in order to keep it from freezing

Hopefully I can get my header tank and auto venting rams in this week
4 years ago
I have had a hell of a 2020! The county health nurse says i was likely on my second go around with covid in November... Which makes sense
because I'd been fighting fatigue all year!

I was able to build a 20x30 greenhouse while dealing with a pile of projects and the fatigue... I'm almost done with the set up!

The layout is 275 gallon totes of water on the north wall (6)

2- 20 amp circuits to a double gang box inside the gh
14' x 10' jean pain pile next to the greenhouse 6' tall with 350' of pex coiled inside
 55 gallon drum with 110v submersible pushing water into the heat exchanger coils in the pile
 Heat exchanger flows into a cleaned auto radiator then to a 15 gallon header tank 8' high(also the gravity feed blue mat irrigation supply)
 From the header tank the water overflows to the 55 gallon main (insulated) res...

Im registering 140 degrees in the center of the pile
My plumbing is in and functioning
I have a double layer poly inflated cover on the gh

I live at 5200' and have snow on the ground almost all winter. Winter goals are to grow broccoli, lettuce, cabbage, carrots, onions and radish.
Next year I want to winter my peppers and some tomatoes over, as blight in Northern Utah is not an issue.

I'll eventually run this off grid with a power wall, solar and wind...

As for now I need to run fans and pumps in the middle of the night to keep my temps between 40 an 55 (early tomato growing)

I have 12 volt auto fans (3) what would you guys use to control them automatically? I'd like for them to go on below 50.... And during the day above 80.
My pumps are on timers as I need to keep the water flowing
in order to keep it from freezing

Hopefully I can get my header tank and auto venting rams in this week



4 years ago
I was under the impression hugel culture was not as effective in the tropics...
6 years ago

Sarah Merlin wrote:Hello, first post

I am trying to use biochar to improve some very sandy soil in Perth, Western Australia. I am very new to all of this, and was hoping to use store bought lump charcoal rather than making my own. I am living on a small suburban rented lot, and burning my own material for it isn't really an option at the moment. From what I have read there seems to be some disagreement about whether this is a good idea due to nasty stuff that could be in the lump charcoal. However this type I bought appears to be rather clean? I have attached photos of the bag.

Would love some opinions on whether this is a good idea or a bad idea. I hope it is because I have already mixed it in a 1 to 3 ratio with cow manure to soak/innoculate. Just don't want it to kill my whole garden or something. :p




How did this work out for you?
6 years ago
Thanks Matt... Now having read that excellent description, I have 2 questions... 1. I'm guessing because lump charcoal was not water quenched or cooked to the proper "doneness" it does not have the higher surface area that allows it to take in microbes, is that a correct statement? And 2. Does anyone have any actual results, negative or positive, from using lump grilling coal in the fashion described above... Over time that is..?
6 years ago
At the end of the summer season I started to inoculate a batch in the garage... I used castings, urea, chicken manure, molasses, water and flour. It was a liquid slurry that I mixed daily..... For about 2 weeks. At that point it was too cold to add it to the compost pile so I just left it to winter in the shop... Frozen 1/2 the time, I'm pretty sure it went anaerobic. What are the hazards of using this as is, should I add some beer, molasses and an aerator first or just mix it into my raised tomato bed and hope for the best? I inoculated the bed last season with Bigfoot micorhize.
6 years ago

Bryant RedHawk wrote:Good ideas on how to get char to the bio char stage.
Here's how I make mine, and what I'm currently doing with it.

Create the char and run it through my hammer mill (wood chipper), I have a bag that fits the discharge tube which collects the broken up char nicely, I end up with mostly small pieces (less than 1/4 inch).
I make aerated compost tea most of the summer months which is used in over most of our land that we grow our foods and pastures, so I have good microorganisms available  most of the time.
I empty my bags of processed char into a food grade barrel I labeled for this purpose to prevent cross contamination issues then I spray the barrel with compost tea and drop the lid in place.
Every time I am going to spray compost tea, I do a test of the filled sprayer into this barrel, I never "soak" the char, just let what I spray trickle as gravity decides.
When I'm ready to use the char, usually about a month has passed at this point, I make a few sample slides and check these under the microscope for organism counts.
I tend to find well populated pieces as well as non populated pieces but the average is heavy towards the populated (biochar) pieces.
I have one area that is being used as a terra preta test site and this gets additions of biochar twice a year which are spread then shallow tilled in.
I am one full year into this test site and with two applications the terra preta currently extends 6 inches into the soil, no bleed effect has started as of yesterday.

I have also created a char compost heap for the purpose of documenting the progression of microorganism population.
This heap has been inoculated with four doses of mushroom slurry and the heap is composed of layers of straw from the chicken house, donkey and hog manure and spent coffee grounds.
Between a set of these layers, which are each 3 inches thick, I placed a 3 inch layer of fresh char that had been crushed through the hammer mill.
This heap has been added to every month from March to September this year and it shows greater microorganism population than the "barrel" method being tested.
We are getting ready to re-do many of our garden beds this winter and come spring I will use this char compost heap to top dress the beds for beets, beans, onions, garlic, carrots and the squash beds. (That is going to use up the quantity I have currently)

Redhawk

At the end of the summer season I started to inoculate a batch in the garage... I used castings, urea, chicken manure, molasses, water and flour. It was a liquid slurry that I mixed daily..... For about 2 weeks. At that point it was too cold to add it to the compost pile so I just left it to winter in the shop... Frozen 1/2 the time, I'm pretty sure it went anaerobic. What are the hazards of using this as is, should I add some beer molasses and an aerator first or just mix it into my raised tomato bed and hope for the best? I inoculated the bed last season with Bigfoot micorhize.

6 years ago
Joseph, it looks like all there varieties of tomatoes are taking well to their new raised bed. One jagodtka didn't make the trip well but is recovering. We're already seeing fruit on the big hills. Thanks
Guy
7 years ago