Prairie View

Sunday, January 04, 2009

Elemental Insights

Despite being almost a total ignoramus regarding chemistry and physics, I won a prize yesterday for recognizing the significance of a set of numbers from the Periodic Table of the Elements. The prize was very nice--a gardening library on CD, which sells for $69.95. Not bad for someone whose accelerated trip through high school did not allow taking either a chemistry or advanced physics course. Ditto for college. These omissions suited me just fine at the time.

Here are the numbers: 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12, 15, 16, 17 ,19, 20, 25, 26, 29, 30, 42. The list appeared on the Mittleider Gardening email discussion group. The first person to email the list master with the full meaning of the numbers was to win the prize. After some time elapsed with no one coming forth with the correct answer, Jim Kennard sent out a hint, telling us that the numbers have something to do with fertilizer. In vain, I tried to fit the numbers into a formula of proportions for each kind of element in the recommended fertilizer mixture used in the Mittleider Gardening method. Then I hit paydirt with a new inspiration.

I googled the periodic table of the elements, and matched the first few numbers to elements I knew were part of the formula. Quickly scanning over the remaining numbers, I saw they matched, and fired off an email. Two emails, in fact, after I realized that I probably needed a little more detail than I had included in the first. Too late, I realized that I goofed a little bit by narrowing the elements to the ones appearing in the Weekly Feed Mix when some of them actually appeared in the Pre-Plant mix. I didn't correct it, figuring that it wouldn't do any good anyway.

This morning's inbox contained notification that I had won the gardening library for being the first one with the most complete answer. However, two other people also won the set, one for beating me by a few minutes, and another for having the most complete answer of all. (I think the last guy probably actually took physics and chemistry in high school or college, or both.) At least he was smart enough to recognize that the list represented all the elements necessary for good plant growth, several of which actually come from the air.

This post gives me an excellent opportunity to put in a plug for joining the Mittleider Method Gardening Group. To do so, go to the Food for Everyone Foundation (FFEF) home page http://foodforeveryone.org/index.php, scroll down to the link on the right hand side of the page, and click on the "Join Yahoo Group" button. The Food for Everyone Foundation is a Mormon charity that promotes efficient food production methods. Their website says:

The Foundation’s purposes include encouraging and fostering the development, understanding, and distribution of the most efficient scientific non-polluting and ecologically sensitive food production procedures, by sponsoring and supporting the research, development, and dissemination of the best possible gardening methods and techniques, and the most effective information delivery systems and teaching methods throughout the world, with primary emphasis on the developing countries.

We also encourage the development of education in gardening procedures and techniques in the USA by teaching and training the public in effective gardening methods.

And we encourage and assist in developing self-sufficiency in the production of food among people throughout the world by sponsoring, teaching and training classes and seminars; by providing financial assistance to worthy and needy students; and by assisting in providing materials, equipment, tools, seed, and fertilizers sufficient for trained students to achieve gardening success in their own communities.

The gardening method is named for Dr. Jacob R. Mittleider, who was an agronomist. He spent decades experimenting and perfecting his gardening methods. The method was proven in many different parts of the world. The claim to fame in this approach is that it will produce a good garden in any soil, in almost any climate. The keys are 1) Precise fertilizer mixes 2) Lots of water 3) Precise spacing of plants 4) Eliminating weed competition. No high-tech tools are required, and the production is phenomenal.

My last garden was mostly a Mittleider Garden. I say "mostly" because I was less diligent with the fertilizer and water applications than is proper. Still, it was a very good garden, and I'm sold on the method.

I own several products produced by FFEF. One is a single-volume gardening course, and another is software for laying out a Mittleider garden. I have also bought several 8-oz. packages of micronutrients from them to mix with other commonly available (and more bulky) fertilizers.

I have often wished that our international missions personnel could be more proactive with teaching families to produce their own food and have surplus to sell. The Mittleider Method offers a ready-made system that shows a lot of promise for such situations. While I understand that the people who are good at evangelism and church planting are not always also good at gardening, and the available personnel simply doesn't reach around, I hope our mission programs do not routinely turn their backs on this need. It would be a shame if the Mormons were the only people poised to do well at meeting this elemental challenge.

1 Comments:

  • One big problem in some of our mission fields is the scarcity of water during the dry season. Wouldn't it be nice if there were plenty of water on a certain mountain in El Salvador during dry season? Right, Arthur?

    Linda Rose

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 1/05/2009  

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