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



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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