Sunday, February 01, 2009

Nature is already high-tech.

We who "invented" the hypodermic needle (after the mosquito and bitey-fly...)
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Using sunlight (uv), heat and biodiversity against disease
From
National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service:
Potting Mixes for Sustainable Agriculture Production
attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/potmix.html 2004
...Consider solarizing [exposing to sunlight]...
...In many circumstances, compost can suppress plant disease. Israeli researchers discovered that vegetable and herb seedlings raised in a mix of 40% vermiculite, 30% peat moss, and 30% composted cow manure grew faster, with less incidence of disease, than those raised in a 40% vermiculite/60% peat moss mix. To understand how compost suppresses disease, it is helpful to know how plant substances are broken down during the composting process...temperatures are between 104 and 149°F...destroyed...are plant pathogens and weed seeds...when temperatures begin to fall...some beneficial organisms—like Streptomyces, Gliocladium, and Trichoderma, which serve as biocontrol agents—re-colonize the compost. This re-colonization is somewhat random. For example, composts produced in the open near a forest are more consistently suppressive than those produced in enclosed facilities. The reason appears to be the abundance of microbial species found in the natural environment...
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Beddington Zero Energy Development Project
greenbuildingworldwide.com/index_files/page0026.htm
www.forestry.gov.uk/srcsite/infd-5jyh78
dialogue-arch.com.tw/old/091/091_e_01.htm
enviroblog.org/2008/08/does-environmental-conservation-imply-austerity.html
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