The Indoor Gardener Magazine Volume 4—# 2 (Sept./Oct. 2008)

Horned melon

Rosso Bruno tomatoes

4THE INDOOR GARDENER VOLUME 4 – ISSUE 2

Photos: D.R

.CREDITS & EDITORIAL

I rarely go

to the market or supermarket. Someone else shops for me... If by some misfortune I happen to go, I’m tempted to buy everything, without any regard for my actual needs, for the state of my fridge or the thickness of my wallet. I become like a headless chicken, convinced that I should peck through every aisle! I think that the last time I went to a supermarket... was in L.A., over a year ago! Recently, however, with the nice weather, I came out of my den and found myself in the fruit and vegetable section looking at exotic fruits I’d never seen before. My heart skipped as if I was (again) a hen who fi nds she’s just laid a square egg. I hurried and put in my cart a pepino melon, a horned melon and three Rosso Bruno tomatoes.

If you don’t know these fruits, their price is dissuasive: $4.69 each for the horned and pepino melons (and they’re small, about the size of a pear). They better be good. I couldn’t

wait to get home with my fi nds. I started with

the horned melon, visually the

most stunning. It is expertly c a l l e d C u c u m i s

metuliferus and comes from New Zealand. I cut in half the horned yellow-orange skin fruit and discovered a greenish juice inside, full of small seeds in sticky pods stuck one onto the other like the cells of a pomegranate. I dug in a little too strongly with my spoon—I thought the texture would be as resistant as a pomegranate’s. On the contrary, though, the seeds were slipping one onto another, spreading and dripping to my plate. Its texture, in fact, more closely resembles that of the grainy part of a cucumber. Its taste at fi rst reminds one of a cucumber, but a more acid taste is quickly revealed, with a fl avour that reminded me of the mixed perfumes of kiwi and lemon. It tasted good, but I was still somewhat disappointed—the fruit’s beauty is not equated by its fl avour.

Emboldened by my horned-melon experience, I turned to the pepino (Solanum Muricatum). This one comes from Ecuador. Its smooth shell is striped in purple over pale green. When I cut it, I saw its pale yellow fl esh had the consistency and appearance of pear fl esh. I hoped its taste would have something in common with the pear’s. Honestly, though, at my fi rst spoonful I got the impression I was chewing on papier mâché. No taste, nothing, nada! Everything led me to believe my pepino was ripe, and its fl esh was rather tender and juicy. It was like eating an ordinary m e l o n — b u t without fl avour or odour, without the sweet, perfumed and refreshing

Volume 4 – Issue 2September / October 2008

Published by: Green Publications

Publisher: J.M.

Managing editor: Bruno [email protected]

Contributing editor: Helene Jutras

Art Director: Anna Kanaras

Editorial coordinator: Bruno Bredoux

Collaborators in this issue:

C.A., bbny, Pierre Bonnard, Bruno Bredoux, Jessy Caron, Stan Daimon, Jean-Pierre Daimé, Daniel Fortin, D.G., W.G., Chris Gaipier, V. Green, D.H.-C., Paul Henderson, Helene Jutras, Rob Kelly, Roxanne Labelle, Sylvie Laberge, Patrick Laberge, Fred Leduc, Laura Murphy, T.P., Didier Pol, Thomas Primo, J.-F. Savard, Steph, vieux bandit, Ethan Young.

Sales & advertising: Stan [email protected] Lydia [email protected]

Distribution: See the list of our distributors on our website.

Translation/Copy editing: Helene Jutras, trad.a.

Cover design: Anna Kanaras, after a photography by Fred Leduc

Illustrations: Anna Kanaras (see also the credits on each page).

Administration: R. [email protected]

Information: [email protected]

THE INDOOR GARDENER MAGAZINEP.O. Box 52046, Laval, Quebec, H7P 5S1, CANADAPhone: 450-628-5325 Fax: 450-628-7758www.tigmag.com

© 2008, Green Publications Vertes, Laval, Qc, CanadaArticles, iconographic representations and photographs contained in this magazine cannot be reproduced, in whole or in part, without the written consent of the Publisher.

Legal deposit: Second Quarter 2005. National Library of Canada. Bibliothèque nationale du Québec.

ISSN: 1715-0949

Printed in Canada by Litho Mille-Iles Ltée,Terrebonne, Quebec, J6Y 1N9

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Horned Melon, Pepino and Rosso Bruno

Pepino melon

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EDITORIALtaste that cantaloupes, for example, provide. This Bruno was quite disappointed. Believe me, gargantuan marketing efforts will be required to sell large quantities of this fruit. I don’t like carambola... but I like it a thousand times more than I like the pepino melon!

Happily, I still had to taste the tomatoes that bear my name! They were also beautiful, almost black—dark maroon with purple and red tones. From what I could gather, Rosso Bruno tomatoes are the result of a cross between two heirloom wild European tomatoes. My three Rosso Bruno tomatoes came from the United States. Once again, the fruit’s cut was spectacular. Under its dark skin, the Rosso Bruno hides the nicest green streaks in a fl esh that is brown all around and lighter at the centre. The aroma they emitted whet my appetite. But their taste, their taste! Tomatoes at their best. Someone once wrote that a tomato was simply happiness. He didn’t know the Rosso Bruno! This tomato is the seventh heaven, Nirvana, Shangri-La, the secret from Shambhala! And I’m not just saying that because I’m also called Bruno!

On the grocery list: Rosso Bruno tomatoes, as often as possible, and horned melon for special occasions. As for the pepino, I’ll pass... indefi nitely!

Bruno BredouxThe Indoor Gardener Magazine

August 2008

6 BENEFITS TO HOME GARDENING WITH HYDROPONICS By General Hydroponics

HYDROPONIC CULTIVATION: ADVANTAGES FOR ALL! By CityPlantes (P. Bonnard and J.-P. Daimé)

16 OPTIMAL CULTIVATION CONDITIONS WITHOUT CO2 INPUT: TUNNEL EFFECT By J.-F. Savard

26 INDOOR PLANTS SERIES: CALADIUMS By Daniel Fortin

60-64 IT’S APPLE SEASON! • WHY THE BIG APPLE? • IN THE BIG APPLE By bbny

AND OUR USUAL FEATURES! PPlea

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IN THIS ISSUE

Illus

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INTRODUCTION8) It fi ts any budget • You can start very simply: use buckets with

a water reservoir and replace the soil with a

hydroponic substrate such an horticultural

rockwool fl akes or Gardex substrate (a mixture

of perlite and vermiculite). If you compare the

investment of buying a growing substrate and

hydroponic nutrients to the regular renewal of

damaged or dead plants, you’ll quickly

see an equilibrium (often as early as the

fi rst renewal). Compare a $75 garden

to the price of the plants you love: it

corresponds to four or fi ve not too

large plants.

A more sophisticated (active) garden

is more expensive to buy, but does

not deteriorate and remains in use for

many years. Electrical use (pump) is

negligible (3 to 15 W/h on standard models).

• We rarely take into account the time spent

caring for plants. With a hydroponic garden,

interventions are lessened, for a superior

result!

• Going on vacation for someone who has

soil-potted plants means fi nding someone to

water the plants or installing an automatic

garden to do the work. With most hydroponic

gardens, autonomy is suffi cient to allow the

gardener to leave for weeks on end without

any bad surprises, by relying on an automatic

device, even if it was little or not tested!

• With a Bouturette® (or a Propagator®),

collecting plants is free.

• Many city dwellers love large indoor

plants. Growing them yourself at

home is a source of endless joy.

II – Advantages of soil-less cultivation1) Nicer plants• The substrate is inert and remains

aerated;

• The nutritive-element dosage can be

optimized for the variety grown;

• The drought risk is reduced, as the substrate

holds more water than soil (80% of its

volume in the case of rockwool);

researchers and consumers alike makes General Hydroponics the hydroponic-systems and nutrient manufacturer you can trust to help you care for your plants.

Our North American manufacturing facility is located in sunny Sebastopol, California, where the famous horticulturist Luther Burbank developed thousands of new plant varieties. General Hydroponics operations cover ten acres, providing an ideal environment for testing new crops, hydroponic systems, nutrients, additives, and related technologies. The factory alone consists of over 4,600 square meters of modern industrial space for the development and production of new hydroponic technologies.

General Hydroponics employees experiment with new hydroponic system designs and methods in our large on-site greenhouses. Recent innovations include the use of alternate energy sources and the implementation of nutrient/water saving technologies. Because General Hydroponics remains committed to aiding in the global struggle for a cleaner, more environmentally effi cient planet, we continue to develop advanced systems powered by solar energy. In addition, we are currently developing innovative fi ltration systems to control plant pathogens, as well as new growing media that include organic components and revolutionary

Photos: G.H

. & D

.R.

• No risk of drowning the roots. Once saturated

with water, the substrate remains permeable

and allows the excess water to drain out;

• Soil-borne insects do not infest an inert

substrate;

• Disease germ does not take hold or, at worst,

propagate badly through this organically

sterile environment.

2) Less work and maintenance • Substrates are lighter than soil;

• Substrates contain no seed nor undesirable

insect;

• Substrates are simpler to manipulate than

soil;

• The “soil” is perfectly clean and optimized

for roots;

• Minimal surface constraints;

• Less-frequent watering;

• And of course, it is cleaner than soil.

III – Environmental advantagesThe nature-loving city dweller may well wish

to have a vegetable garden on the balcony, a

herb garden in his kitchen or a few tomato or

strawberry plants in the living room.

He might as well eat organic, since it is now

an accessible cultivation option. Indeed,

hydroponic techniques make it easy to use

natural nutrients and additives, as well

as biological treatments against eventual

pathogenic insects.

Soil-less cultivation: growing in a hostile environment.Soil-less cultivation is used as much to facilitate

access to food by impoverished populations

as in space-station projects. Far from these

extremes, our city plants live in a hostile

environment, badly nourished in a poor soil

and periodically burnt by excess nutrients that

choke them. Hydroponic techniques using no

soil for potted plants are an ideal answer to

urban life constraints.

IV – Advantages of a prestigious pastHumans were not all lucky enough to settle in

fertile areas. Soil-less cultivation methods have

been known since Antiquity: Babylon’s hanging

gardens used them, and the Chinese still use

millennia-old gravel cultivation methods.

“Modern” soil-less cultivation started in

Germany in the 19th century, during research

into what plants consumed. The required

methodology forced researchers to set up

cultivation systems using inert substrates, in

which the roots were only fed mineral salts

from the water provided. It was the best way

to study the effects of various compositions on

plant development. That is how hydroponics

was born, a word formed from the Greek roots

“hydro” (water) and “ponos” (work), which

we would translate as “making water do the

work.”

Hydroponics is now practiced on millions

of hectares worldwide. Many of the fresh

vegetables we purchase in winter, grown

in greenhouses, stem from hydroponic

technology. So do most of the cut fl owers we

buy for our pleasure.

- Pierre Bonnard and Jean-Pierre Daimé

(CityPlantes)

>> www.cityplantes.com

nutrient formulations. All of these products are designed to enhance fl avour, yield, fragrance, and essential-oil production in vegetables, fl owers, culinary herbs, and medicinal plants.

General Hydroponics is continually developing improved plant nutrients that enhance the vitamin and mineral content of food crops, which in turn ultimately improves human and animal health. Our farm division has tested over one hundred plant varieties for growth-rate, yield, fl avour, nutrition, appearance, shelf-life, fragrance, disease-resistance, and hydro-viability. We perform side-by-side tests comparing a number of different hydroponic techniques with traditional ‘organic’ methods in order to determine how best to grow top-quality crops using hydroponics.

General Hydroponics has never lost sight of its goal to expand the boundaries of hydroponic technology and to lead the industry in quality and innovation.

Two Companies to Serve You: Two Companies to Serve You: General Hydroponics and GHEGeneral Hydroponics and GHEGeneral Hydroponics: Founded in the mid-1970s by Larry Brooke, General Hydroponics has led the way in offering the highest quality nutrients, nutrient supplements, substrates, and growing systems. Based in Sebastopol California, General Hydroponics proudly serves the Americas, Australia and Asia with the best hydroponic gardening supplies available. Address: P.O. Box 1576, Sebastopol CA, 95473, USA, phone: 1 707 824-9376, fax: 1 707 824-9377, website: www.generalhydroponics.com.

GHE: In 1995, General Hydroponics Europe® was created in the southwest of France to better serve the European market, and to further develop the GH philosophy in the European community. GHE is proud to offer products specially tailored for the conditions and trends of European horticulture. Today, nine years after its creation, GHE’s market spans 16 European countries as well as the Middle East and South Africa. Address: Biopole, 32500 Fleurance, France, phone: + 33 562 06 08 30, fax: + 33 562 06 64 04, website: www.eurohydro.com, contact: [email protected].


INTRODUCTION

Photos: Tresco Publishers, CanFan & M

egaWatt

Vinegar to Lose WeightEmily Thacker is the famous author of The Vinegar Book (1994) and

Emily’s Vinegar Diet Book, 1997. According to this “vinegar expert”,

consuming vinegar daily is a danger-free way

to accelerate the body’s energy output to help

naturally burn the excess fat concentrated in

the usual problem areas. To follow this diet, no

need to change your eating habits and no need

to exercise. Harsh diets are hard to follow, can

be dangerous to your health and often result

in a “yoyo” effect, alternating between weight

loss and weight gain. With Emily Thacker’s diet,

three principles come into play: vinegar’s virtues

on metabolism, proportions to be respected and

thermogenesis. This last principle is, in fact, the

process based on the use of some food products

whose digestion requires more calories than

the food brought in. These foods force the body to draw from its

reserves. Activating your metabolism while you eat, coupled with

the digestion of fat cells, can provide you, if you consume vinegar

daily, with optimal health and a controlled, or even ideal, weight.

In her book, Emily Thacker offers various “energy-burning” vinegar-

based cocktails. These vinegar solutions must be taken once a day,

and you should keep on eating three fi lling meals a day. Vinegar

has many virtues other than weight-loss. The book can help you

discover how daily vinegar consumption can help you stay in better

shape. If the idea of drinking spoonfuls of pure vinegar frightens

you, know that associating it with honey, for example, is even

more benefi cial (and improves the taste something radical!). Since

it was discovered over 10,000 years ago, vinegar has been used to

alleviate pain as well as getting chrome to shine. This recipe book

lists over 300 possible uses, not only for weight loss, but for all

daily-life tasks. Vinegar improves the body’s tone, contributes to

good blood fl ow, helps to eliminate dandruff, etc. No more reason

to be a sour puss! With the basic recipe (2 teaspoons of vinegar

daily), you’re on the right track!

– T.P.

From Can- to Max-FanCF Group has raised the standards for all

inline fan manufacturers with the Original

Can-Fan® series of inline fans. Can-fans

have two series of fans (high output or

regular). The high output series of Can

fans are ideally suited to match up with

Can-Filters® carbon air fi lters. The high

output series come equipped with higher wattage motors to

overcome the resistance of the Can-Filter. All Can fans come with

NOTES & NEWS


Now Offered through MegaWatt HydroCulture

1. Technaflora’s Pura Vida (OMRI)Pura Vida Grow and Bloom: two extraordinary OMRI™-certifi ed organic hydroponic nutrients, which provide plants with a nutrient supply both balanced and available in a pure natural form suitable for use in hydroponic, soil, and soil-less-based gardening substrates. Pura Vida Organics™ Grow and Bloom are ideal as a one-part fertilizer for general use. When combined, Pura Vida Organics Grow and Bloom create an aggressive two-part formulation suitable for high-demand crop production systems. MegaWatt Hydroculture is the sole distributor in Québec and Ontario for Technafl ora Plant Products.

2. Vortex By AtmosphereMegaWatt Hydroculture is pleased to announce the addition of inline Vortex fans. We have now added the Vortex VTX lineup, XT fan and new Jet Fans. The VXT line comes with the best warranty in the industry, 10 years hassle free. The new Jet Fan comes with a three-year warranty. These inline fans are famous for their unique combination of innovative design and exceptional value.

3. Zenport IndustriesMegaWatt Hydroculture is pleased to announce that they are now the sole distributor in Canada for all Zenport products. Zenport Industries offers the best choice of innovative tools, durable instruments, supplies, and safety equipment for agricultural professionals, landscape professionals and avid gardeners alike.

4. Precipitator 360 Spray bottlesThe Precipitator 360 sprayer is equipped with a nozzle that rotates a full 360 degrees and holds that position to spray in any direction. By simply turning the nozzle, you eliminate the need to tilt the bottle. This improves effi ciency, eliminates trigger failure and saves on products. So now you can spray up, down, left, right, under or over effortlessly.

5. Dutch Nutrient FormulaMegaWatt Hydroculture is pleased to announce that they are now the new distributor for Dutch Nutrient Formula in Eastern Canada. DNF is an easy to use, convenient two-part formula that maximizes nutrient uptake. DNF was developed in Holland over 20 years ago. DNF Gro A & B is ideal for maximum vegetative growth. Use this formula for all your seedlings and cuttings and throughout leafi ng. DNF Bloom A & B promotes lush fl owers and provides everything the plant needs to bloom and ripen.

…and 8 more companies are now distributed through MegaWatt HydroCulture (see our last issue)!

Celebrating 30 Years: 1978-2008!

Contact your MegaWatt Hydroculture sales representative for more information

at 1 800 575-2515. The choice is yours!

Emily’s Vinegar Diet Book, by Emily Thacker, Tresco Publishers, Canton, OH 44703

Photos: CanFan & H

ydrofarm

a fi ve year warranty and power cord attached. The regular series

of fans come equipped with industry-standard-sized motors with

quietness and cost kept in mind. The regular series of Can fans

are ideally suited for the hobbyist gardener looking to move air

affordably with peace of mind.

Odour control is not child’s play. Can-Filters has been designing

and manufacturing activated-carbon fi lters for over 15 years. This

experience has helped build the best fi lter available for the indoor

gardener’s job. The packed-bed design, pelletized carbon, and

large surface area, give high fl ow, low pressure drop, and long life.

Can-Filters’ high carbon weight gives you the longest life. Activated

carbon can hold up to 10% of its weight in contamination. More

activated carbon = more capacity and longer life. Less activated

carbon = less capacity and shorter life.

The Max-Fan™ is a newly developed series of fans with many

aerodynamic design features that are being used in the fan

industry for the fi rst time. The Max series’ prominent features are

compactness and the high degree of fan effi ciency.

Thanks to its high degree of aerodynamic effi ciency,

the Max series are also extremely quiet. The Max series

only require a cost-effective low amperage AC motor

to power the fan through any resistance (i.e. fi lters,

ducting etc...). The Max-Fan are manufactured with

ease of installation in mind (the Max-Fan literally drops

inside of the Can-Filter to reduce noise). The 8 inch and

12 inch fans are available now.

– W.G.

The New Homebox SGerman company Eastside-Impex has added another size to their

product line to satisfy the demand from many of their customers.

The Homebox S fi lls the gap between the Homebox XS and the

Homebox L. It’s small, light and very compact. The assembled

measurements are 80 x 80 x 160 cm (or 31.5 x 31.5 x 63 inches).

NOTES & NEWS


Now Available from Hydrofarm

Sweet Berry and Sweet Citrus: All-Natural Mineral Supplements from Botanicare

Sweet is scientifi cally formulated with carbohydrates for fl avour

and aroma enhancement. The unique chemical composition of

Sweet makes it benefi cial during all phases of plant growth. During

the vegetative phase, application of Sweet prevents plants

from becoming leggy and soft-stemmed in the presence of

high-nitrogen concentrations. At the onset of fl owering,

the application of Sweet ensures a seamless and stress-free

transition from the vegetative to the fl owering stage even

though nitrogen levels are artifi cially kept low. Sweet’s key

ingredients are rapidly taken up by plants and used for the

biosynthesis of crucial compounds to maintain optimal

metabolism. The continued application of Sweet during the

fl owering and fruiting stages helps maintain a proper balance

between photosynthesis and respiration. This is signifi cant

because, during fl owering, many growers use high carbon

dioxide concentrations, high temperatures and light with

longer wavelengths. Under such conditions, respiration

can outstrip photosynthesis and cause excessive ethylene

production which results in senescence, yellowing of leaves

and leggy growth. Sweet protects plants from this metabolic

imbalance and helps produce sturdy stems with short internodes

and an abundance of buds, fl owers and fruits.

Pahroc GiantPahroc Giant Perlite is used as a soil additive to increase

the aeration and draining of the soil, and it is also a great

hydroponic growing medium by itself or as a mixture with

other mediums. Perlite is commonly used with vermiculite in

a 50 – 50 mix. It is very popular when mixed with vermiculite

but also as one of the major ingredients of soil-less mixes.

Perlite has good wicking action which makes it a good choice for

wick-type hydroponic systems.

Active Air Filters• High grade activated charcoal to guarantee

maximum odour control;

• Large surface areas and 2.5” thick carbon bed results

in optimum odour control and maximum effi ciency;

• No maintenance required;

• Charcoal is carefully packed to insure a consistent and

even air fl ow throughout the carbon bed for a full

usage of the fi lter and its durability;

• Pre-fi lter to remove airborne particles and dust, and fi tted with

Velcro for easy removal.

Hydrologic Small Boy De-chlorinator and Sediment FilterThe Small Boy de-chlorinator and sediment fi lter

from Hydrologic removes up to 99% of chlorine

and 90% of sediment, rust, silt, etc., at 1 GPM. It

easily produces 60 gallons per hour of clear water

fi ltered down to 5 microns. Its fi lter capacity is

3,000 gallons.

To fi nd a Hydrofarm Authorized Retailer near you

visit www.hydrofarm.com.

(In the table, performance shown is for installation type D – ducted inlet, ducted outlet. Speed (RPM) shown is nominal. Performance is based on actual speed of test. Performance ratings do not include the effects of appurtenances in the airstream = static pressure in inches).

www.canadianxpress.com

Natural

Non toxic

Use in Flower right up until harvest

Pests can not developresistance

Kills EggsKills JuvenilesKills Mites

ALSO ELIMINATES

APHIDSTHRIPSWHITEFLY NYMPHS

Real Fast

DISTRBUTED IN NORTH AMERICA BY : Biofloral, 675 montée St-François, Laval Québec, Canada.TOLL FREE LINE 877.38.HYDRO; 877.384.9376 WEBSITE www. biofloral.com

Mites are no longer a problem when you use

Photos: Eastside-Im

pex, PlantO

asis & Technafl ora

The Homebox S offers the best start for plant lovers

on a small budget who don’t want to compromise

on quality. This new model is especially good for

stock plants as well as small-scale self-suppliers. The

recommended lights are 250W HPS or comparable

CFL systems. The Homebox S can be completely

assembled in just a few minutes without any

tools. It’s neatly packed and supplied with clear

instructions.

The Homebox S has all the advantages and quality

features that make the Homebox product line so

unique and so much better than cheap imitations. It benefi ts from

high-tech German design and engineering. The cover material is

specially manufactured—it is a mixture of strong PA canvas on

the outside, black PE in the middle to ensure light containment

and refl ecting white PE on the inside. What’s more, durable high-

quality sewn-in zippers are a trademark of all Homebox products.

The new product features a building block for successful and safe

growing. All parts are replaceable. It comes with a powder-coated

metal frame and precision nylon push-lock connectors. The new

Homebox S is light-proof and airtight. It has passive air windows as

well as inlet and outlet tubes for ventilation, cables, etc. It is heat-

sealed, and features a water-resistant additional fl ooring.

“How-To-Assemble” Videos OnlineEastside-Impex has produced great videos

to show the assembly process of several

Homebox products. You can have a look

at them on their website and on

www.youtube.com (search for Homebox).

At the moment, there are six videos available:

Homebox XS, Homebox L, Homebox XXL,

Homebox Light, Clonebox and Drynet. You

can see them at: http://the-homebox.net/

dhtml/downloads.php or at: http://youtube.

com/profi leuser=OriginalHomebox.

Eastside-Impex: New FAQ Section Online The Homebox website’s FAQ section has been updated. Available

in eight languages, it helps the visitor fi nd answers to the most

common questions. Have a look and read through the questions

and answers at: http://the-homebox.net/dhtml/faq.php. If you

want to receive more detailed information, please don’t hesitate to

contact the company’s customer service at: sales@eastside-impex.

de, or call +49 (0)30 26079333. Homebox’s team members will be

happy to serve you. Also, check out the product pages: http://the-

homebox.net/dhtml/product_family_homebox_s.php.

Now Available through Brite-Lite GroupAdjust-A-Wings Flies into CanadaThese state-of-the-art refl ectors have earned a

world-wide reputation as the world’s best refl ectors.

Made from high-quality materials including glass-

coated fl exible aluminium (95% refl ective) and

colour-bonded spring steel (indestructible). The

design does not require refl ector end-plates to

maintain their shape; therefore, airfl ow around the lamp and wings

is uninhibited, signifi cantly reducing heat build-up, producing a

“cool” broad uniform spread of light, with unmatched power and

effi ciency. Adjust-A-Wings refl ectors are now available in two sizes

along with Super-Spreader diffusers for each.

PlantOasis® Launches Eco-ZorbMix Eco-Zorb super absorbent, natural

granules with soil or soilless mixes to improve

your growing medium’s water-retention

capabilities. Eco-Zorb may be added to pots,

containers or right into your garden. Eco-

Zorb granules absorb hundreds of times their

weight in water, allowing for longer intervals

between waterings. Made of all-natural plant-based materials,

Eco-Zorb granules are non toxic and fully biodegradable. They will

continue to rehydrate all season long. They may be used around

children and pets, and are safe for use with food crops. Eco-Zorb

is the environmentally friendly, natural alternative to standard

petrochemical-based moisture crystals and polymers. Eco-Zorb is

available in 200 g, 500 g and 2 kg packages.

For more information on any of the products above, call Brite-Lite

Group toll free at 1 800 489-2215.

NOTES & NEWS


Set, Pour and Grow with Technafl ora

Technafl ora Plant Products

Ltd. and Custom Automated

Products, (CAP) have joined

together two exceptional

products in one package.

Consumers who purchase the

versatile Ebb & Gro Hydroponic

System will receive free inside

Technafl ora’s Recipe for

Success (RFS) Starter Kit.

See our volume 3, issue 5 for

more details.


Photo: D.R

.TECHNIQUES

It is well known It is well known that indoor gardeners that indoor gardeners who use COwho use CO22 input systems input systems often get faster and more often get faster and more abundant harvests compared to abundant harvests compared to their colleagues who do not use such their colleagues who do not use such systems. It has indeed been confi rmed that an systems. It has indeed been confi rmed that an indoor garden that receives a constant carbon dioxide input indoor garden that receives a constant carbon dioxide input (CO(CO22) is more likely to offer great results. CO) is more likely to offer great results. CO22 users often say users often say they get quantifi able results, 2 to 2.5 times higher, under they get quantifi able results, 2 to 2.5 times higher, under each main lighting zone in the room. It is possible to get each main lighting zone in the room. It is possible to get similar results without using anything other than air coming similar results without using anything other than air coming from outside your indoor garden. Here’s how.from outside your indoor garden. Here’s how.

The PrincipleThe PrincipleIt is fi rst important to understand that each variety of plant grown indoors has its own needs regarding climactic conditions, and each indoor gardener has the task of identifying (or having evaluated) the preferences of the plants grown before attempting the experience. To offer plants everything they will need as far as climate is concerned, the following factors must be taken into consideration:• heat extraction;• fresh-air input;• temperature fl uctuations;• air movement and behaviour.

The principle rests on your ability to perfectly manage the ideal balance for your plants by controlling these four factors.

Heat ExtractionHeat ExtractionIndoor plants generally prefer to fl ower at temperatures between 20 and 23°C. High-intensity discharge lighting systems used by indoor gardeners generate temperatures

that can easily reach 35 to 45°C inside the grow room. It that can easily reach 35 to 45°C inside the grow room. It is imperative, for decent fl owering, that the room is imperative, for decent fl owering, that the room

never reach these temperatures.never reach these temperatures.

The best tool at the disposal of The best tool at the disposal of gardeners who want to ensure gardeners who want to ensure

an adequate air extraction is an adequate air extraction is the infamous inline, turbine-the infamous inline, turbine-

shaped blower fan. Many shaped blower fan. Many manufacturers of air-manufacturers of air-extraction systems offer extraction systems offer sensibly similar products sensibly similar products with the exception with the exception of a few details. I of a few details. I recommend products recommend products sold in North America, sold in North America,

such as the blower fans such as the blower fans manufactured by Vortex manufactured by Vortex

(Atmosphere), Can-Fan (Atmosphere), Can-Fan or Elicent. These products or Elicent. These products

are of comparable quality and are of comparable quality and are offered in sizes with a diameter are offered in sizes with a diameter

between 10.15 and 30.5 centimetres—between 10.15 and 30.5 centimetres—sometimes even up to 51 cm. I suggest you always get an sometimes even up to 51 cm. I suggest you always get an air extractor that is slightly larger that the one you need and air extractor that is slightly larger that the one you need and to add a fan dimmer to it, in order to have a much more to add a fan dimmer to it, in order to have a much more precise control over the fl ow of air being extracted from the precise control over the fl ow of air being extracted from the indoor garden.indoor garden.

To control odours effi ciently in the grow room, the best way is and will remain the use of a carbon fi lter. You only need to connect it to the air extractor using rigid or fl exible ventilation ducts. Many types of activated-carbon fi lters are now offered and, once again, your needs will dictate the choice of style or model. Some systems use rechargeable cartridge fi lters and allow you to keep it in place permanently, replacing the cartridges at least once a year.

Fresh-air InputFresh-air InputThis is where many indoor gardeners who choose not to use CO2 input systems will often cause much damage to their plants, for the simple reason that they didn’t want to invest too much money in an adequate air entry. It’s important to understand that in an indoor garden installed with no mechanical carbon-dioxide input, the CO2 input is directly linked to the fresh-air introduction capacity into the garden and to the behavior of this air-fl ow among the plants and in the room. For an adequate air input, a second blower fan is required—one with an intensity lower than that of the extraction system.

If, for example, you use a 30.5-centimetre extractor, you will

The “Tunnel Effect”

The “Tunnel Effect”

Optimal Cultivation Conditions Optimal Cultivation Conditions Without COWithout CO

22 Input Input

By J.-F. SavardBy J.-F. Savard

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need an air entry between 20.3 and 25.4 cm, depending on the area to cool and the number of lighting units (lamps). As regards air entry, it is extremely important to have insulated piping, then covered in a layer of Mylar (“black and white”). This will ensure that excess condensation doesn’t form around the light tube, that the light is properly refl ected and that it will not heat the air before even entering the indoor garden. I also suggest that the fresh-air induction system have a good-quality air fi lter placed in front of the blower fan. This fi lter will prevent the entry of pathogenic insects and will prevent clogging of the blower fan.

Temperature FluctuationsTemperature FluctuationsAs previously mentioned, indoor plants prefer to fl ower at temperatures between 20 and 23°C. To maintain these parameters over the winter, you can train yourself to control your dimmers, or install a good-quality thermostat, like Green Air Products’ Tempstat, which will start and stop at the designated temperature while allowing the air extractor to function non-stop. It is always best to get lighting tubes with integrated cooling action (air-cooled), designed to contain the heat released by the bulbs. In the summer, an ideal solution is to create a “lung room” next to your indoor garden, from which you will take fresh air using an induction fan and which will be air-conditioned to a very cold temperature, using more BTUs than the room requires.

In an indoor garden, gardeners are subject to rules and imperatives different from nature’s. To produce for quantity, it is important to understand that light decreases 50% in intensity for every 30 centimeters it travels. So plants must be smaller, more numerous, and they especially should be stocky and made up essentially of fl owers, not branches bearing too many leaves. Here is a general indoor-gardening production rule: If the bulb is located 60 cm or less from

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AXC fans have been there from the beginning, and still continue to silently out-perform.

Complete with pre-wired 120 Volt power cords, AXC fans are available in sizes from 4” to 14”. Air move-ment ranges from 106 cfm to 1400 cfm.

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Illustrations: SystemD

the base of the plant, you will win light effi ciency and total weight at harvest. To be able to produce such plants, you must ensure that the space between the nodes remains close and that branches do not wilt.

(Too) Many gardeners still believe that the night-time temperature should be lower than the day-time temperature. That is

because they do not know the direct immunofl uorescence factor, or DIF. The DIF simply measures the variation in degrees between the night and day temperatures. Indeed, to stop wilting, the DIF must be positive, meaning that the night-time temperature is higher than the day-time temperature. A positive DIF acts on the behaviour of gibberellic acid and auxin, two hormones that play a part in etiolation. Depending on the plant variety, the ideal DIF indoors is between 0 and +4°C. This way, the gardener tricks nature and gets to work the rules to his or her advantage.

Keeping this principle in mind, it’s important that you garden be equipped with a digital thermostat to control the heater, or with a portable heater with a built-in programmable thermostat. You should then be able to set the nocturnal temperature at approximately 22 to 24°C and thus to obtain more compact, dense and productive plants.

Air Movement and BehaviourAir Movement and BehaviourTo create the “tunnel effect” within your indoor garden, you need to master the principle of negative pressure as well as understand the trajectory of air before it is extracted from the garden. Negative pressure is created when the extraction fan functions at a speed superior to that of the air-entry fan. More air is extracted than introduced, and a

suction is created towards the inside—all air within the room has no choice but to exit through the carbon fi lter placed in front of the extraction fan. In this way, in a room sealed with black and white Mylar or any other light-refl ecting and insulating material, no odour can escape.

We must also consider the air stratifi cation phenomenon: warm air rises to the ceiling, while cool air stagnates on the ground. That’s why it’s imperative to place the carbon fi lter and the extraction fan right at the ceiling, at the far end of your garden. Using chains and hooks, it’s rather easy to ensure a solid-enough fi xation for any type of fi lter and fan. Place the induction fan at the same height as the plants’ apex, at the other end of the room, so that the air has to travel through the canopy before reaching the carbon fi lter at the other end of the garden.

Negative pressure in and of itself could suffi ce to move the air in the right direction. Another essential point, however, should be raised. In a situation where the gardener is not using CO2 input in the grow room, the air that comes in contact with the leaves must constantly be replenished with new, CO2-rich air coming directly from outdoors. In order to do so, strategically place many oscillating fans directly between the bulbs and the plant’s apex. They will fi rst help to redirect the air towards the extractor, and then they will continuously replace the air used at foliage level and help your plants remain short and bushy by blowing away the heat that could lead to wilting during the day cycle. CO2 is a heavy gas, so it’s an excellent idea to put one or two small fans at ground level. These fans will bring up all the CO2 accumulated on the ground and at foliage level.

As you can see, creating the tunnel effect is not very diffi cult. Once you have all the required equipment to build your garden, you only need to keep these basic principles in mind and apply them to your personal situation. Each indoor garden has different characteristics and gardeners must often face diffi cult situations, but there is always a solution allowing you to respect the tunnel effect rules and in the end, it’s up to you to use your imagination.


TECHNIQUES

Anti-spattering

hood

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r vertWe were barely getting used to see the term “airoponics” and it is offi cially replaced by “ultraponics”! We already knew that air was not the stuff of great accomplishment... And the reference to air needed to vanish, since in any case plants do not root in thin air!

“Ultraponics” is thus a more appropriate term to describe the indoor-gardening technique that directly follows aeroponics, itself following hydroponics.

This horticultural method rests on the use of ultrasounds that atomize water molecules in order to transform then into a

“cold steam and maintain them in weightlessness.” This leads to the creation of a suspension of micro-droplets, as microscopic as 0.1 micron (whereas aeroponics used, up until now, droplets that were 5 microns in diameter). These micro-droplets facilitate the extremely rapid growth of indoor plants by allowing for an accelerated root and foliage development.

To cultivate plants with this technique, we use a fog generator made up of a photocellular ultrasound disk. It

is, in fact, small cells on an electronic disk submerged in the reservoir. There are “heads” or disks

containing one, three, fi ve or nine cells, depending on the size of the cultivation system used. When they are in water, the cells vibrate at a very high frequency to reach what is call the resonance frequency.

From then on, the fog generator pulverises water molecules as small as 0.1 micron

using diffusers located outside the nutritive solution. All the molecules form what experts call a

“dry fog” above the nutritive solution. This kind of white thick “smoke” bathes the roots. It more resembles a “dry steam” than a humid fog. The water thus turned into fog increases the humidity rate at the root level, leads to an improved foliar absorption, prevents moulds and other fungal diseases and favours propagation by cuttings by accelerating the development of new roots.

Using a fogger (or an ultrasound sensor) goes hand in hand with using a buoy to maintain the nutritive solution level in the reservoir and prevent the water level from reaching the roots. What makes this system attractive is exactly that—the roots are NEVER in direct contact with the nutritive solution. Reservoir maintenance must be performed regularly and care must be taken because an overdose of nutrients would c l o g the cells, thereby preventing them from reaching their resonance frequency. Also, cells should never be plugged and left out of water, or they will be forever damaged.

In addition to the buoy, we recommend using an anti-spattering hood to cover the fog-generator disk and to ensure you have several sets of spare membranes for the disk bearing the ultrasound cells.

French hydroponics website Les Fleurs du bien (www.fl eursdubien.fr) gives the following advice :

It’s Now Offi cial:

Airoponics Becomes Ultraponics

Five-cell ultrasoundsensor

Buoy

Operation of an ultraponic system


TECHNIQUES

Spare membranes

Another model of anti-spattering hood

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TECHNOLOGY• “Timing: allow the ultrasound probe (or fog generator) to run 24 hours a day if possible. The best is to have two and make them alternate, 15 minutes on/15

minutes off—when one is off, the other is on. • Use a buoy, because the minimum water level is 55 millimetres.

• For cuttings or seedlings, have cycles that maintain the humidity rate between 80 and 85%, no more.• In the creation of ultraponic systems,

take into account cycles that respect water temperature (never above 27°C).• Clean the ceramic disk regularly with a cloth, and do not

use demineralised or pure osmosis water (a little hard water or nutrients).”

According to the same site, here are the advantages and disadvantages of the method:

• “An exceptional quantity of oxygen available for the plant.

• No water dripping, given the fi neness of the drops, so no burns on foliage, even with the lamps on.

• Very signifi cant root development, allowing for an

improved absorption of nutritive elements.• No pressure, so no risk of leak or overfl ow.• Fewer root disease problems.• Low electrical usage.• Easy maintenance (membrane can be

changed in fi ve minutes).• No pump noire problem.”

Finally, we advise beginners not to start with this type of culture. For now, experts recommend that only indoor gardeners with a good deal of experience use that type of system—which is on its way to democratization and should be available to all soon.

– D.G.Sources: L’Or vert (www.lorvert-paris.com), Les Fleurs du

bien (www.fl eursdubien.fr) and Wikipedia.

Photos: by the companies

INDUSTRY NEWS

Sunleaves Grow Bags Gardeners will save money without compromising effectiveness with new 20- and 30-gallon sizes of Sunleaves Black and White Poly Grow Bags! They’re black on the inside and white on the outside to refl ect light back to the plants and maintain healthy root temperatures. These giant fl uted bags stand upright when fi lled with growing medium, and they have pre-punched bottom holes for thorough drainage.

Checker pH Tester Are your customers still testing pH the same way alchemists did in the fourteenth century? Help them graduate from litmus paper with the pocket-sized Checker pH Tester from Hanna Instruments! This affordable but reliable device features simple two-point calibration and measures pH from 0.0 to 14.0, with a resolution of 0.01, and ±0.2 accuracy range. It includes batteries and a replaceable electrode.

Root Riot Root Riot helps cuttings and seeds rise up to become strong, productive, healthy plants! These cubes are composed of composted organic materials, micronutrients and benefi cial fungi, all of which combine

to give young plants the best start possible. The Root Riot Tray includes 50 Root Riot cubes, Root Riot Propagation Tray, and a 15 ml packet of Clonex Gel. A bag of 100 Root Riot cubes is also available.

Bug Net Gardeners who hate bugs will love Bug Nets! Bug Nets are custom-sized screens with replaceable active-carbon inserts that use Velcro to attach neatly to a fan’s intake, keeping intrepid insect intruders where they belong: outside! In addition to keeping bugs, mould and mildew out, it can also be attached to the exhaust fan to keep unpleasant odours from escaping. Replacement active carbon fi lters are also available.

G.E. HID Lamps BWGS is proud to offer horticultural lamps from one of the biggest worldwide names in lighting. G.E. not only provides customers with a brand they know and trust, it

also gives them healthy plants and fantastic yields! G.E.’s 400-, 600-, and 750-watt Lucalox PSL (PhotoSynthesis Light) high-pressure sodium lamps deliver a photosynthesis-activating light spectrum that will see plants producing impressive fruit and fl owers. To promote explosive vegetative

growth and overall plant health, G.E. offers PSL metal-halide lamps in 1,000- and 400-watt varieties. 250- and 400-watt standard high-pressure sodium options are also available.

Orchid Focus Orchid Focus contains a mixture of nutrients and minerals perfectly balanced for these beautiful perennials. Grow formula has an elevated level of nitrogen to encourage robust vegetative growth before the fl owering phase, while Bloom formula has an elevated level of phosphorous and potassium to encourage the development of bright, heavy blooms.

The Green Gardener’s Guide by Joe Lamp’lThe Green Gardener’s Guide teaches gardening the way nature intended. Author Joe Lamp’l offers advice on growing in harmony with nature by reducing waste, avoiding harmful chemicals, and using renewable natural resources to garden “green” in every possible way. Using “what if?” scenarios, he shows readers that simple changes in the way we live and garden can make a difference when enough people participate.

For more information, contact your friendly BWGS sales rep or visit www.bwgs.com!

New From Hydrofarm* 2-Way MeterGardeners can conveniently test moisture and pH levels with the handy ActiveAir 2-Way Meter from Hydrofarm. Moisture readings register on a scale of 0 (dry) to 10 (moist), and pH readings between pH 0 (acidic) and pH 10 (basic). The durable, easy-to-read tester is suitable for indoors or out and requires no batteries.

* Active Air Dehumidifi ers by HydrofarmHigh humidity can cause plants to grow poorly and can also promote mould. Hydrofarm’s new analog dehumidifi er will extract up to 20 litres (43 pints) of water per 24 hour period, keeping humidity under control so your plants can thrive. Advantages:


Photos: by the companies

and much less bulky than any other medium currently on the market. You will fi nd that with Sure To Grow, less truly is more. STG can be produced from fi bres made from renewable resources that are in-soil degradable or that can be cleanly burned. It is a highly versatile product as a growth medium, and is available in unique pad and mat forms not currently available in other media. They are also made in standard grow cubes, blocks, and slabs. In addition, STG can be used together with other substrates. Industry trials have indicated several value-added properties: quicker and cleaner installation and removal of medium, decreased germination time, easier harvesting, and seamless use with current grow systems.

To fi nd a Hydrofarm authorized retailer near you, visit www.hydrofarm.com.

New From Eastside-Impex* HomeBox Flange

The HomeBox FL160 fl ange enables additional inputs and outlets to be installed on all original HomeBoxes. The only tool required is a sharp knife. The fl ange is made of extremely sturdy ABS plastic (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene). ABS is also used in the manufacture of motorcycle helmets: it is highly shock-resistant and has a hard surface. Eastside-Impex has specially designed this accessory to make installation child’s play. Simply cut the material to size using the template supplied (the sealing washer), install the fl ange, screw tight and you’re done! The sealing washer ensures a perfect fi t. The fl ange has

a 160 mm-diameter installation bracket on either side to ensure air hoses fi t properly. Various screw-on reducer fi ttings (160mm=>125mm / 160mm=>100mm) are also supplied. Applications include: direct cooling of lamps, air inputs and outlets, additional water inputs and outlets.

Contents of delivery: - FL160: fl ange (3 parts), fi lter to protect against dust and insects, installation manual.- FLR125: 2 reducer fi ttings.- FLR100: 2 reducer fi ttings.

The HomeBox FL160 fl ange is available as of August 2008.

Now Available through Brite-Lite Group* Eco-Mix Available In New Smaller SizesThe super absorbent moisture-retention granules and natural fertilizer contained in Eco-Pax by PlantOasis are also

available in bulk format as Eco-Mix. Designed for larger gardening jobs such as preparing a lawn for grass seed or turf, Eco-Mix is now available in 2.5 kg, 5.5 kg, as well as the original 15 lb (6.8 kg) pail.

* Life Light

TechnologiesBrite-Lite Group is now the exclusive Canadian distributor for Life Light Technologies HID lamp and digital electronic lighting-system products. The product range includes Life Light’s line of Sun Pulse lamps, Ceramic Full Spectrum lamps, digital and digital-electronic ballasts, spinning-light systems and accessories. Sun Pulse lamps are specially formulated for plants and other living things. They are designed specifi cally to work with high-frequency digital ballasts. They are available from Brite-Lite in 3000oK, 4000oK, 6400oK and 10,000oK, allowing growers to mix and match to create perfect blends of light to meet the specifi c needs of plants, from new seedlings to harvest-ready mature plants. These lamps are suited for all brands of electronic ballasts and are engineered to withstand the high frequencies generated by these systems. The Sun Pulse line is available in the previously mentioned Kelvin spectrums, in 400-watt and 600-watt sizes. 750-watt and1000-watt versions are coming soon. Life Light Technologies’ Ceramic Full Spectrum HID or HPMH (high pressure metal halide) lamps are also now available from Brite-Lite. These lamps are excellent for all stages of plant growth. No need for switching from metal halide (MH) to sodium (HPS) during vegetative and/or fl owering stages. These lamps are highly effi cient. The 400 watts size is currently available from Brite-Lite. Special Features: more reds than HPS lamps, the right amount of blues, open-fi xture rated, one bulb for vegetation & fl owering. It runs on standard HPS core-and-coil ballasts.

* Oakton Combo TesterThe Oakton dual-parameter tester is now available from Brite-Lite Group. You can now measure TDS and pH with one instrument. The tester displays measured value along with temperature – simply press a key to toggle between pH and conductivity. Waterproof,

INDUSTRY NEWS


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dustproof housing, push-button calibration, hold function and error messages. pH range 0.0 to 14 with an accuracy reading of +/- 0.1. Conductivity range measures between 0 to 10,000 ppm with an accuracy reading +/- 1%.

For more information on any of the products above, call Brite-Lite Group toll free at 1 800 489-2215.

New from MegaWatt* BloombasticMegaWatt Hydroculture is happy to announce their 30-year anniversary. To commemorate this great year come great new products. MegaWatt HydroCulture is pleased to

be the sole distributor in Eastern Canada for the new Bloombastic, which contains biological minerals in combination with biological stimulants to create a one of a kind nutrient additive specifi cally designed for the fl owering and ripening of your plants. The unique combination of elements in Bloombastic will trigger explosive sugar and bloom production that will ensure the soft, sweet fl avor of the bloom in addition to large compact

buds. Bloombastic will also stimulate the enzyme process on several levels, making your plant less sensitive to stress factors such as warmth, dry air, high-light intensity, disease, and nutrient inadequacies. This fl owering innovation does not contain any ballast ingredients such as sodium and chlorine. Compared to other cocktails, Bloombastic contains at least 50% more phosphorus and potassium.

* Sulphur VaporizerMegaWatt Hydroculture now offers the greenhouse Sulphur Vaporizer. It’s the ideal instrument to overcome common plant diseases. The sulphur vapours change the pH on the surface of the plant, making the environment unsuitable for fungal growth. The pH change will signifi cantly slow the reproduction of pests, acting as an effective means of pest control. It works great on most plants that suffer from powdery mildew and thrips. Features include: ideal automatically regulated vaporizing temperature of 140°F, cool to touch exterior and the capacity to treat up to 1,000 square feet. Use with bulk sulphur.

Contact your MegaWatt Hydroculture sales representative for more information at 1-800-575-2515.

INDUSTRY NEWS


Photo: Daniel Fortin

BOTANICAL GLOSSARY

Among the many exotic plants cultivated indoors, none is as colourful as Caladium x hortulanum, also known as Caladium bicolor.

The Caladium genus, in the Araceae family (Aglaonema, Colocasia, Diffenbachia, Staphyllum, etc.) includes seven different species, all from the tropical regions of South America. They have underground tubers and bear, on long petioles, arrow-shaped or cordiform leaves that have the shape of an elephant’s ear. Caladiums sold in garden centres probably come from the C. Bicolor species, although we cannot exclude the possibility that breeders used other species. The leaves of most modern cultivars have a rather typical arrow-shaped leaf blade, but some have narrower leaves. The caladium leaf also has a particular texture, reminding one of silk paper. Hybrids now offered bear spectacular colours. Many colours combinations are found: some surfaces are solid green with a red or pink heart, some have complex marbling or variegation in green, white, pink, and red coupled with dark green veins.

The plant is 30 to 60 centimeters in height. As soon as the fi rst leaves appear, infl orescences erect on a fl oral scape that sometimes grows above the foliage. Like all Araceae, these have more-or-less coloured spathes surrounding a fl eshy erect spadix.

There are a great many number of cultivars, but their true name is unfortunately rarely provided by suppliers.

Care and culture requirements. Of course, this tropical plant is not rustic under our climate. Its outdoor cultivation is however easy during the summer, whether you plant it in full soil or use it in a hanging basket. Tubers are often sold at nurseries for that very purpose. To keep them year after year, unearth the tuber before the fi rst frost.

It is easy to cultivate it indoors between May and the end of October, when our homes benefi t from the constant input of fresh air charged with outdoor humidity and our heating systems are not in use. Indeed, caladiums suffer from the low humidity rate in our closed indoor spaces. Aside from

Caladiums Caladiums

By Daniel FortinBy Daniel Fortin

27VOLUME 4 – ISSUE 2 THE INDOOR GARDENER

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a high humidity rate, this plant requires bright light but no direct sunlight. The tubers are planted in late March or early April in a tropical soil that contains humus to retain a high percentage of water at a growing temperature between 18 and 27°C. From May to the end of June, the input of soluble 15-30-15 fertilizer every two weeks will help its growth.

Caladiums require a regular but moderate water input: the tubers should not sit in soggy dirt, but the growing medium should not dry up. In October, or when the leaves start to wilt,

reduce watering progressively. Allow the foliage to dry off completely, and then remove the tubers from the pot. Expose the tubers to the air for a few days, then place them in a paper bag, in a cool dark place, for four to fi ve months. Check the tubers regularly—if they show signs of rot, get rid of the affected tubers and allow the intact ones to dry for a few more days.

In the spring, re-pot them in fertile soil when the tubers show the beginning of leaves. The largest tubers should be planted only two or three centimeters deep, while smaller ones should be planted at a depth equal to their height.

Photo: Jessy CaronLANDSCAPING

Willows are plants like any other—or were, anyway. In many categories, as we’ll see, the willow is a champion. It even is a great source of inspiration for sustainable development!

Salix viminalis, the osier willow, is a shrub from the Salicaceae family. Let us now discover some of its traits and properties.

Vegetable and Antinoise WallsThere is much car traffi c on highways. That is why a cement wall is often erected next to highways, to limit the noise exposure. These concrete structures are cold and not particularly aesthetic. In Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville, on route 166, a new approach was taken: a 30-metre long antinoise vegetable wall. To get an antinoise effect, not any plant would do—we need many precise characteristics, such as resistance to Quebec winters (a

Salix viminalis, Osier Willow: Solution or Innovation? By Jessy Caron

The willow is a very soft plant, and it can easily be braided to create various designs, depending on the look or shape of the garden. (Photo: Jessy Caron)


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Nordic climate, with over 550 centimetres of snow having fallen during the 2007-2008 winter), rapid, vigorous growth and a signifi cant root system. One variety seems to fulfi l all requirements: Salix viminalis, the osier willow. The antinoise effect is achieved by design. It would not suffi ce to simply plant a row of willows anywhere along the highway.

To build a 30-metres antinoise vegetable wall, three days of work for four people are required.

The willows used are four metres high. A fi rst row is planted by inserting the stems one metre deep into the ground. All

along the row, a dirt mount is erected—it will serve as an antinoise barrier. On the other side of the mount, another row is planted, using the same kind of willow stems. Four months later, results are conclusive. From nude stems, the willows have become small trees with an important root mass and an annual growth of approximately two metres. Willow roots allow the trees to be solidly in place, and they stabilize the structure—meaning the central dirt mount acting as an antinoise barrier.

We’ll likely see these walls along more and more highways. Experiments done in Saint-Bruno were conclusive, and similar walls have since been built, especially in the Montreal area. You can see them in Boisbriand and Laval. This entirely environmentally friendly approach represents a green innovation of urban infrastructure engineering.

Since May 2005, a 115-metre vegetable wall lines Pie-IX boulevard in Montreal. It follows a part of the Botanical Garden. It also shows all visitors that a natural-looking vegetable wall is not only possible, but also quite interesting in an urban setting. And it resists pollution, soil contamination and... graffi ti!

Source: http://www2.ville.montreal.qc.ca/jardin/act_scien/fl ash/murs_vegetalises.htm#suivi2005

Photos: D.R

.

Soil DecontaminationMany sites have been polluted by humans. Sound pollution, smell pollution, visual pollution... The case in question here is a form of chemical pollution. Undetectable to the naked eye, this pollution is soil contamination by heavy metals.

Two opposite techniques can solve the problem. The fi rst is most often used, for a single reason—it’s quick and profi table (for some businesses). Yet it is a far cry from being environmentally friendly! Using machinery, a certain quantity of soil is excavated and then deposited in a landfi ll. The hole is then fi lled with uncontaminated matter—ordinary top soil. This approach carries many problems along with it. Not only is the soil containing heavy metals buried, but the atmosphere is also polluted during transport. The new top soil is then transported using gas-guzzling trucks. And the problem is not solved, but merely put away to resurface later.

The other solution is to plant trees to decontaminate soils fi lled with heavy metals. The metals are absorbed by willows’ plant tissue, and the willows are later burned. What’s the difference? The difference between burying a few grams of ashes... or a few tons of soil! This approach has the advantage of giving back to the soil what it is owed, without the problems humans have caused. So why is this intelligent and ecological process not used more often? Because it takes 15 to 20 years to decontaminate soil in this fashion. Imagine the economical loss caused by the “inactive” site, with no machinery or workforce. Environment and economics do not always go hand in hand...

Yet using plants to decontaminate polluted sites is an simple, effi cient and affordable way to regenerate the soil. The overexploitation of sites by numerous industries over the years has had important consequences. A study comparing the soil before and after decontamination demonstrated that willows can absorb 10 to 100 times to quantity of lead, zinc and nickel absorbed by herbaceous plants

(such as mustard). Willows are not perennials, but trees. As such, and thanks to their signifi cant root system, they are genuine vegetable decontamination plants. Decontamination using willows is an option now considered for the shores of Montreal’s Lachine canal. Soil contaminated by old plants seem to retain no trace of pollution. Once growth is done, the trees are burnt to give back to the soil what has been taken (carbon). Many other types of plants are used for soil decontamination. The common reed, the common cattail, the blue iris and duckweed, in particular, are used in wetlands.

Electricity ProductionIn Quebec, our electrical self-suffi ciency allows us to take advantage of our natural resources. Some areas were fl ooded to create large rivers that make turbines rotate to create electricity. Many ecosystems have been destroyed and many natural habitats fl ooded in this way. This puts limits on the natural habitats of indigenous fauna. Hydro-electric dams are also extremely expensive.

In Sweden, however, and soon all over Europe—where large rivers are not as common as here—another electricy production method was adopted; one that is cheaper, less polluting and one that doesn’t destroy natural habitats. The method consists in growing willow stems, and then to burn them to produce electricity. It can be called bioenergy, since it results from an entirely environmentally friendly approach. In Europe, a green label will be affi xed to products using bioenergy. Willows are grown in fi elds and cut in winter every three or four years, depending on yield. By rotating crops, some fi elds can be exploited every year. Next spring, the trees grow strong because their root system is already well implanted.

Source: http://www.alliginwillows.co.uk/shelter.jpg

Source: http://www.buckingham-nurseries.co.uk/acatalog/images/plants/10335.jpg

LANDSCAPING


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Photo: D.R

.

Using Willow WoodTools, furniture, houses—wood is everywhere. Hard, easy to work with from raw material to fi nished product, natural or rustic, with its nice smell, wood is alive, strong and beautiful.

Yet with our exploitation rate, our forests are losing ground. Deforestation can be imagined as occurring sooner rather than later. Industries are making attempts at re-planting, but we will never again have what we had before. The natural cycle of forests has been broken. It’ll take it a while to begin anew... if it ever does. We need a solution. That is why Michel Labrecque, researcher at Montreal’s Botanical Garden, is attempting to demonstrate that willows could solve the problem. In fact, the Salix genus is a tree essence that grows particularly quickly. We can’t think of building a house out of willow wood, but some materials (such as pressed wood used to make particle boards, ceiling mouldings and door frames) could use willow wood. These materials are now made of different wood essences. Lab tests have shown that using only willow would increase strength and durability. Manufacturers are wary and only use up to 70% willow. Imagine if 70% of all cupboard panels and pressed-particle mouldings were made of willow. Willow also has the advantage of being renewable and quickly accessible. Field yield, without fertilizers or herbicides, have averaged 70 tons of dry matter per hectare during tests. The second year, waste mud from water-treatment plants was added as a fertilizer. Surprise! Two birds, one stone: yield went up to over 20 tons per hectare, and an important source of municipal refuse was eliminated. This wood would be cheaper for the industry, which would translate into

positive consequences for the industry, for consumers and... for the Earth.

Carbon Dioxide to Oxygen: A Complex Process?All plants take up CO2 and produce oxygen. Willows are adept at trapping CO2: each hectare processes 10 tons of CO2 every year. Willows perform very well in urban settings, particularly alongside roads, and they act on active oxygen regeneration. Willows are versatile, and their environmental aptitudes are encouraging.

Sources: Phone conversation with Michel Labrecque, project manager at Montreal’s Botanical Garden and at the Institut de recherche en biologie végétale du Jardin botanique de Montréal. Découverte (Radio-Canada).

Source: http://guidemateriaux.toutfaire.fr/images/Bppd03.jpg

Conversion TableLinear Measure (imperial to metric)1 inch 2.54 centimetres1 foot (=12 inches) 0.3048 metre 1 yard (=3 feet) 0.9144 metre

Linear Measure (metric to imperial)Imperial 1 millimetre 0.0394 inch 1 centimetre (=10 mm) 0.3937 inch 1 metre (=100 cm) 1.0936 yards

Volume (imperial to metric)Metric 1 (imperial) fl . oz. (=1/20 imperial pint) 28.41 ml 1 (US liquid) fl . oz. (=1/16 US pint) 29.57 ml 1 (imperial) pint (=20 fl . imperial oz.) 568.26 ml 1 (US liquid) pint (=16 fl . US oz.) 473.18 ml 1 (imperial) gallon (=4 quarts) 4.546 litres 1 (US liquid) gallon (=4 quarts) 3.785 litres

Volume (metric to imperial)Imperial 1 millilitre 0.002 (imperial) pint, 0.176 pint 1 litre (=1000 ml) 1.76 pints

Mass (imperial to metric)1 ounce (=16 drams) 28.35 grams 1 pound (=16 ounces) 0.45359237 kilogram 1 stone (=14 pounds) 6.35 kilograms Mass (metric to imperial)Imperial 1 milligram 0.015 grain 1 kilogram (=1000 g) 2.205 pounds

Temperature To convert Fahrenheit to Celsius, subtract 32 degrees and divide by 1.8. To convert Celsius to Fahrenheit, multiply by 1.8 and add 32 degrees.

LANDSCAPING


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Photos: D.R

.GALLERY

All the way from Thailand comes the parrot fl ower. That species is a rare impatiens from Northern Thailand, Myanmar and portions of eastern India known to science as Impatiens psittacina Hook f. In Thailand, it grows in the area of Chiang Mai, the largest and most culturally signifi cant city in Northern Thailand, more specifi cally along the border with Myanmar. It is also a protected species and its export is forbidden. It is illegal to collect, possess or sell the parrot fl ower (despite some of the ads on the Internet offering seeds of this plant for $8.000 to $10.000 – every single one has turned out to be bogus!), so, short of traveling to Northern Thailand the only way we will be able to admire this fl ower is… in this gallery!

(More info at: www.exoticrainforest.com/Rare%20Thailand%20Parrot%20Flower%20buy%20one%20SP.html)

The Very Rare Parrot Flower By D.H.-C.

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Photos: Bruno Bredoux & D

.R.

INTERLUDE

Kaliroots, a group made up of eleven members from the Saint-Hilaire area, is the fi rst Québec-based francophone reggae group to make the genre its own, to generate a buzz and be warmly recognized by rastamen. Indeed if reggae has sprouted some interest among Québec artists in the 1970s, notably among young song-writers (Michel McClean, Manuel Brault, Garolou, Pierre Bertrand...), few artists have completely identifi ed with the style. The fi ngers of one hand suffi ce to count the reggae attempts of Claude Dubois, Boule Noire or Rudeluck, so entire reggae albums are few and far between.

Things started to change in the mid-1990s. That was thanks to Alain Peddie who, with Sean Hill, a Jamaican friend, formed Rootsy Kali in 1995. The two musicians split up after a few student parties, but Alain’s reggae fever remained. With other musicians who were fi rst interested in various musical forms—classical music, jazz, rock or songs—Alain put together a new group. Inverting the name of his old group, he gave birth to Kaliroots. The new group, then composed of nine musicians, soon becomes a regional attraction by going on stage every Friday night at the Jailhouse Rock Café During the entire summer of 1997.

In February 1998, they played the fi rst part of a show by the legendary Wailers, Bob Marley’s musicians, at Montreal’s Medley. Around the same time, Kaliroots records its fi rst demo CD, Roots Rock Kébec. Some titles from the album then became the fi rst leading mp3-format fi le-sharing downloads of Québec music. In the summer of 1998, Kaliroots returned to

the stage weekly, this time at the Medley. The following

year, they were noticed at the Coup de Coeur f r a n c o p h o n e event and their reputation kept on growing. They launched the self-produced Rien à perdre album in May 2000 and played at Woodstock en Beauce, at Lévis’ Festival des Musiques du

monde and at Montreal’s Francofolies. In the fall of 2000, their performance at the Journées québécoises de la

solidarité internationale helped them reach a wider audience.

In 2001, at the ADISQ gala, the group won the Félix for best world-music artist. Around the same time, an

instrumental dub version of Rien à perdre is released and entitled Kaliroots Dub (2002). In 2003, the group

started working on a new album, in the hope of getting a wider distribution with a more fi nished product. The D.E.P. label offers them a chance to do so, and the group members went to Washington to record at the Lion and Fox studio with legendary sound engineer Jim Fox. Junior Marvin from the Wailers joins them for the recording session and a series of concerts. This second original-material album, Mission internationale, was released in June 2004. Since then, the group has been touring regularly, even though 2007 was a quasi-sabbatical year (only one show, in June, at Montreal’s Assomoir). Kaliroots has all the aces in hand to reach beyond the francophone scene. Its members, however, prefer leading a family and community life in the country rather than attaining success at all cost. Don’t hesitate and download their tunes!

Kébec-based Reggae For Plants

(and Gardeners)


Photos: © 2008, H

ydro for Hunger

HYDRO FOR HUNGERNew Hydro-for-Hunger Sponsors and Products

Hydro for Hunger is pleased to announce Hydro-for-Hunger sponsors and their designated products for the upcoming program year! Proceeds from the sale of the following items between July 1, 2008 and June 30, 2009 support the global hunger-relief efforts of the Institute of Simplifi ed Hydroponics (ISH), Hydro for Hunger’s primary benefi ciary:

• Sunleaves: WindTunnel Fans and AquaChill Water Chillers • Technafl ora: Recipe for Success Starter Kits • Hydrofarm: MegaGardens• FoxFarm: Soluble Tri-Paks; Hydroponic & Soil Formula Nutrient Trios

• Grodan: 1.5-inch A’Ok Starter Plugs • EastSide-Impex: Homebox Portable Grow Rooms

In addition to these manufacturer sponsors, Maximum Yield Magazine continues to support Hydro for Hunger and the ISH by donating all door proceeds from Indoor Gardening Expo events held throughout the year.

Hydro for Hunger is an initiative created by hydroponic industry leaders in 2002 to assist the ISH in its fi ght against world hunger. Hydro for Hunger raises awareness about global food shortages and directs in-kind contributions and

fi nancial donations to the ISH, contributing over $85,000 to date. The Institute of Simplifi ed Hydroponics

is a 501-C (3) not-for-profi t that helps communities in developing countries become self-suffi cient by teaching small-scale hydroponic food-cultivation techniques. Please visit www.hydroforhunger.org

to fi nd out more. For more on the Institute of Simplifi ed Hydroponics, please visit

www.carbon.org.

Start seedlings (number of weeks before the last frost)

Perennials and biennials Annual plants Fruit and vegetables

16 to 20 Lavender Beggarsticks, garden begonia, tuberous begonia, perlargonium,

loosestrife, daisy, geranium

Kangaroo apple

14 to 16 Asparagus, bellfl ower, lupin Impatiens, cineraria, farinaceous sage Pear melon

12 to 14 Columbine, pellitory, poppy Heliotrope, rosy periwinkle, vervain, pansy

Celery

10 to 12 Yarrow, yellow chamomile, centaury, gaillardia, avens, maiden-pink

New Guinea impatiens, datura, carnation, petunia

Thyme, Brussels sprouts, onion, leek

8 to 10 Coreopsis, campion, oriental poppy, Canterbury bells, sage, Dianthus

Siberian Blue, heliopsis

Hoary alyssum, bean, purslane, lobelia Peruvian groundcherry, apple-of-Peru, Sunberry nightshade, black

nightshade, greenberry, scorzonera, matrimonyvine, Chinese desert-thorn, cannibal’s tomato, Broccoli de Cicco

6 to 8 Musk mallow, snapdragon, French marigold, parsley, rudbeckia, aster

Touch-me-not, cosmos, dahlia, Capeweed, gazania, gillyfl ower,

amaranthine (gomphrena), everlasting, rose of Sharon, marjoram, China aster, castor bean, thrift, scarlet sage, Drummond phlox, white brahmi,

corn poppy, Wizard Coral Sunrise coleus, cultivated four o’clock

Eggplant, cabbage, caulifl ower, broccoli, oregano, bell pepper,

tomato, strong pepper

4 to 6 Ageratum, coxcomb, basil, nasturtium, ornamental cabbage, coleus,

morning glory, zinnia, pink beeplant, marigold, nicotiana, St-Vincent lettuce,

leptosiphon French hybrid, dwarf Blue Ensign day-lily, black-eyed Susan

(Thunbergia alata), corn

Melon, watermelon, ground cherry, Malabar nightshade, round Indian gourd, jaltomate, peanut, fennel,

cucumber, pumpkin

2 to 4 Achocha, tomatillos, summer and winter squash

0 to 2 Chinese gourd, cucuzi gourd

Requires stratifi cation or artifi cial hibernation (refrigerator) before

planting

Peach, Russian olive

Calendar: starting seeds according to plant species

Sources: Virage, vol. 15, issue 3, 2nd trimester 2006, “Mettez du vert dans votre hiver” by Hélène Vaillancourt (pp. 34-35), Qué-Pousse/Hydroponix, Brite-Lite Group, spring 2005, “Astuces pour démarrer vos semences et vos boutures” (p. 7), www.gonthier-be.com and http://solanaseeds.netfi rms.

com/semis-legumes.html.

TECHNIQUES

Photos: D.R

.IN THE NEWS

China : Hydroponic

Olympics — Part II(瓷: 水耕的奥林匹克)

Whereas in the last issue of The Indoor Gardener we questioned the effi ciency of Chinese agriculture with its archaic methods and its just-beginning hydroponics, we did underestimate China’s primordial strength: its workforce. Indeed, underpaid and subject to abuse, China’s labour force is saving the country’s agriculture from bankruptcy and is the determining factor guaranteeing that Chinese farmers will soon (if they don’t already...) feed the world. China already feeds 22% of the world’s population with only 10% of the farmlands on the planet. Chinese hydroponics only represents 0.001% of this total agricultural area...

According to a study done by the Journal de Montréal last May, frozen vegetables imported from China to Quebec amounted to 53% of all frozen vegetables imported in the province (for 2007). Far behind are frozen vegetables from Belgium (24.1%), followed by the United States and Poland (6.1% each). As regards fresh fruits and vegetables, despite the distance and the duration of transport—perilous for fresh produce—Agrifood Canada gives even more eloquent and spectacular fi gures. Between 2003 and 2007, for example, importations of fresh lettuce and chicory from China to Canada increased by 1,317.4%; importations of fresh onions, green onions and leek from China increased by 946.8%; fresh carrots and turnips, by 435.5%; fresh strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries and kiwis, by 276.3%; fresh beans,

snow peas and sweet peas, by 143.4%, fresh apricots, cherries, peaches, nectarines and plums, by 83% and, fi nally, importations of fresh apples, pears and quince from China have increased by 38.8%... From 2004 to 2007, importations of fresh Chinese cabbage and caulifl ower in Quebec have increased by 55.8% and those of fresh asparagus, eggplant, celery and bell peppers, by 51.8%. In fi ve years, the worth of Chinese fruits and vegetables (fresh and frozen) exports to Canada has almost doubled, reaching 239 billion dollars in 2007.

My Carrots Are Bigger Than Yours!Carrots are the perfect example of the Chinese invasion taking plate on our plates. Indeed, Chinese carrots have a reputation for phenomenal size—and they reach Canada already pealed and sliced. This invasion took off two years ago. The sales director for Canadian company Saladexpresse told journalist Marie-Ève Fournier of Journal de Montréal that he still can’t get over it (because of pealed carrots and onions from China, his company lost over a quarter of its sales volume over the past two years). He told her: “It’s an unexplainable phenomenon. I’ve never seen any like it in Canada. When you peal a small carrot, you lose more than with a large one. Yield is different. For restaurants, those carrots are quite advantageous.” Hotels, restaurants, school cafeterias, as well as hospitals and retirement homes and industrial manufacturers of dry soup mixes, prepared dishes and condensed juices can do the math. With China’s pealed and cut carrots, they save a great deal of work time, which lowers the work cost for preparation and production.

With these larger, smoother carrots, Chinese farmers can add vegetable transformation to their responsibilities. The volume lost is minimal. Imagine a Canadian producer forced to peal and cut his small creviced carrots—he would lose half his harvest when weighing his sale-ready product! The Chinese carrot is almost old news, however, and Canadian producers now must face the massive arrival of Chinese pealed onions on the national market.


IN THE NEWSSaladexpresse’s sales director admits his powerlessness in front of Chinese onions: “Last year, our onions were very expensive. It opened the door to Chinese onions and I lost customers. I never thought one could import pealed onions from Asia. I give them 10 days of freshness. But in China, it’s 60!” A legitimate question is what the Chinese are putting in their onions to keep them “fresh” for two months. Again, it’s a matter of workforce cost—an onion-pealing machine, in Canada, costs approximately $150,000.

What About Flavour, Nutritive Value and Quality?Fresh carrots, pealed and cut, having spent six weeks on a boat... Pealed onions that reach the shelf 40 days after being pealed... What about their fl avour and their nutritional content? Among fresh vegetable importers, nobody seems to worry about that. In Canada, the CFIA (Canadian Food Inspection Agency) is attempting to reassure consumers by saying it trusts the quality of vegetables coming from China. In Europe, the story is different. In many countries of the European Economic Community, afl atoxin (a carcinogenic fungal mould that develops on seeds stored at too high a temperature) was found in nuts and peanuts arriving from China. In Germany, glass shards were found in canned sterilized Chinese mushrooms. In France, three prohibited substances were found in dried strawberries from China: sulphite, E-200 preservative and a forbidden colouring agent. In the Netherlands, banned antibiotics were found on produce from China... Also detected in Europe on Chinese food products: salmonella, mercury traces, an incalculable amount of toxic moulds, cadmium, nitrofuran (antibiotics), chloramphenicol (another antibiotics), Sudan (a synthetic nitrogen food colouring, and also a type-3 carcinogen), etc.

In Canada, the CFIA candidly admits to only inspecting 2 to 5% of all food products arriving from China. And while the imports of Chinese lettuce and chicory have increased by 1,317.4% in fi ve years in Canada, the number of inspections performed by the Canadian agency has grown by 2% a year during the same period... “It increases in a constant fashion...” naively declared the head of Canadian export control. This “growth” doesn’t follow the exponential growth of Chinese exports. What worries Canadian authorities the most regarding Chinese products is the quality of the water used to wash fruits and vegetables and the quality of the water found in preserves. Obviously, requirements are not the same in China as they are in Canada. Yet if Canadian producers have to follow very strict rules regarding the quality of any water used to treat and preserve their products, why do we accept products that come from China and are treated with questionable water? Saladexpresse, for example, which specializes in the transformation of fresh vegetables in Quebec, had to sign an agreement with its American customers, certifying that it uses no fruit or vegetable from China in its preserves... mainly due to the risks related to water at the original production site!

From Production Site to Label...Ironically, in Canada, those who transform agricultural products are authorized to label their products as “made in Canada” if over 51% of the total production cost is attributable to local materials.

Photo: D.R

.

In supermarket, you can fi nd olives “made in Canada”, even though we all know olive trees do not grow locally. In these jars, the vinegar, the jar itself, the label printing and workforce are Canadian, while the olives themselves, no matter where they came from, only represent 8 to 10% of the total product cost. Yet Canadian fruit and vegetable importers are reassuring. Montreal-based Alasko Food says that

among 350 different vegetable products used in its transformed products, only about twenty come from China. Last May, the company’s spokesperson even told Journal de Montréal: “It’s not because it’s from China that it’s not good. There’s never been a recall on any of our products. The Chinese have the same quality standards as the Americans. Sometimes, they’re even higher.” We must hope so for the consumer’s sake. Everyone still remembers that two years ago, Canadian and American consumers were poisoned with American carrot juice and spinach.

There only need be one shipment of bell peppers from China treated with Sudan Red colouring, a synthetic nitrogen product and a type-3 carcinogen. It happened in Europe in 2003 even though Sudan Red has been prohibited since 1995. A French director at the Protéines product-processing plant recently told l’Expansion magazine: “Can you imagine how many sauces and prepared dishes can be contaminated with a ton of bell peppers? After a while (dangerous or forbidden products) are no longer controlled for (by the authorities), because they are supposed to have vanished. Except that they are still around in a few countries, including China.” So will the development of hydroponics and soil-less techniques in China provide us with safer fruits and vegetables? That’s far from certain, since biologic pesticides, like rotenone and pyrethrum, are extremely toxic. Rotenone is even suspected of being the cause of some cases of Parkinson’s disease. Aquaponics, a technique allowing for the cultivation of lettuce in symbiosis with fi sh farming, could also be a major source of danger in China, because even though rotenone and pyrethrum are organic products, they are extremely toxic for fi sh.

Insights on Hydroponics in ChinaThe fi rst appearance of hydroponic techniques in China goes back to the early 1970s, when experiments were conducted on hydroponic rice cultivation and on the germination of some vegetables under domes. At the time, researchers from the Shandong agricultural university complex (AUC) invented a hydroponic system specifi c to China, named the “Lu-SC”. This hydroponic system was fi rst designed to help with the cultivation of vegetables in greenhouses in Shenling and Xinjiang agricultural areas, known for their vegetable oil production. At fi rst, only 20 hectares were dedicated to the experiments on the new system, but farmers soon realized they could get much higher yields than when growing in soil. It was reported that at the time, results were estimated to be 135% higher that soil-based yields. The experiment was nevertheless interrupted. The success reaped

by the university complex in its soil-less culture was subject to repetition. Strangely, however, during the 1980s, hydroponics remained a university experiment in China. The most conclusive experiments were done at Beijing’s Agriculture University, at Nanjing’s Agriculture University, at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), as well as in many of the latter’s regional departments.

These university networks developed hydroponic techniques particular to China with the above-mentioned Lu-SC system, but also with the Floating Capillary Hydroponics System (FCH) invented by the Zhejiang Agricultural Sciences Academy and the Solid Manure Soilless Culture System (SMSCS) developed by the CAAS. These systems are mostly effi cient for the most-common local crops. They are simple, cheap and easy to install. Their characteristics allow Chinese farmers to compete with soil-based fruit and leafy vegetable crops. The typically-Chinese systems are also used on a smaller scale to grow fl owers and medicinal plants. Experiments on rice growing in hydroponics, however, have yet to produce good results. In China, the largest hydroponic cultivation centres are mostly found in the suburbs of large cities such as Beijing, Shanghai (with its Honggiao Hydroponic Centre), Nanjing, Hangzhou, and Guangzhou, as well as, like previously mentioned, in regions that produce vegetable oils, such as Xinjiang, Daging and Shengli. These installations generally are no larger than 50 to 100 hectares. The area of Chinese farmland dedicated to hydroponics has gone from 0.1 hectare in 1981 to 1,250 hectares in 2005.

Hydroponics TrainingChina, however, is increasing the rate at which it opens research centres dedicated to hydroponics. As early as 1985, the Chinese Agricultural Engineering Academic Society opened a section dedicated to hydroponics (dubbed Special Organization for Hydroponics). The following year, in 1986, the South-Western Hydroponics Research Centre was created. Specialized institutes and greenhouses then sprouted everywhere. In 1994 the fi rst international symposium on hydroponic-production techniques was held in Hangzhou. It was only a beginning—only 60 people representing 8 countries were in attendance. These international meetings continued through the mid-1990s and led to the arrival in China of more sophisticated systems that were closer to the hydroponic techniques used in most other countries. A large part of the Chinese hydroponic network is now equipped with nutrient-fi lm technique (NFT) systems or deep-fl ow technique (DFT) systems—they are slowly but surely replacing the purely-Chinese systems fi rst developed for local needs. Chinese leaders are quite hopeful regarding the country’s agricultural future and the development of local hydroponic techniques. Yet 1,250 hectares devoted to hydroponics only represents 0.001% of the total Chinese agricultural area (122,300,000 hectares of available land in 2005).

To feed 1.4 billion Chinese in 2010, the total agricultural area in Chine can in no way drop under 120 million hectares. With modernization and the country’s progressive opening, many are tempted to create golf greens or hotel complexes on good agricultural soil. In 2006, China needed to produce 500 million

IN THE NEWS


Phot

o: D

.R.

tons of cereal annually (300 kilos per person per year) in order to feed its 1.3 billion residents, but cereal production did not go beyond 490 million tons. China barely managed to feed its population in 2006. How does it manage to export so many agricultural products? Inevitably, there is a parallel production, that turns away from offi cial pathways, as we will see below. And what about food safety?

The Chinese government itself estimates that national food-security standards will reach 95% of their

objectives in 2010 on most of the country’s agricultural markets. But these national standards are much more fl exible than the standards of most western countries and, most importantly, allow products that are elsewhere prohibited. China will need to agree to update its standards to meet international norms.

Counterfeit FoodChina has a reputation for producing counterfeit luxury items, and has recently started to counterfeit food products. On the shelves of our country’s grocery stores, we can fi nd cans bearing labels from reputed brands, perfectly reproduced but containing food unfi t for consumption. Last December, Christophe Zimmerman of the World Customs Organization told magazine l’Expansion: “Of the 2 million counterfeit food products found in the world in 2006, 16 to 20% came from China.” Chinese counterfeiting networks use partners in Eastern Europe to introduce their fraudulent products on the shelves of western countries. Among others, the Ukrainian mafi a takes advantage of the lack of rigour used in controls performed in the ports of the Black Sea to pass tons of counterfeit food products from China.

Unfortunately, the problem is most crucial at the base, meaning that producers have to be educated about respect and the rights of consumers. According to Gilles Martin, head of Eurofi ns laboratories, which has affi liates in China: “We also see in China an incredible lack of training and education on the dangers of contamination and on good practices to use to guarantee consumer safety (he told l’Expansion).” International consumers are not the only ones who are affected. Even though the media don’t discuss it much, Chinese consumers also pay for this lack of rigor. In June 2006, over 130 customers of a chic Beijing restaurant developed a form of meningitis after consuming snails that were contaminated by the parasite causing meningitis in humans. One of the restaurant’s patrons, Yang Fangfang, since suffers from chronic stomach and back pain. He recently told Chinese journalists Wu Chen and Wu Qiong that his wife, his parents and his one-year old daughter, who were all eating with him that day, also developed this non-lethal form of the disease. Yang now looks to all food with disgust and fi nds no more pleasure in eating. During the fi rst six months of 2007, again according to Wu Chen and Wu Qiong, there were 134 important food-poisoning cases in China, affecting 553 people, 96 of whom died as a result.

The Future is Dark, But Chinese Are HopefulEven though a spokesperson for the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) declared: “Since China is a developing country, control over food and drugs took shape late, its

IN THE NEWS

Photos: D.R

.

base is weak and in consequence, we cannot be optimistic regarding the issue of food and drug safety”, Chinese are confi dent. Yang, shortly after his food poisoning, declared: “I’ve worked in many countries, including the United States, France and

South Africa, and the most important was to sensitize the public to the issue of food safety. My family and I have become more aware of the food safety

issue after our accidental intoxication. For now, we must learn to protect ourselves, and I’m certain the government’s control system will work effi ciently in the long term.” Let’s hope he’s right... Even though Yang now only eats dishes his mom prepares for him!

--------------(Sources: Le Journal de Montréal issue of Saturday, May 17, 2008, “Votre argent” section, op. cit., L’Expansion - Alerte sur les produits alimentaires chinois by Charles Haquet and Géraldine Meignan, August 30, 2007, Fleurs, Plantes, Jardins, vol. 19, No 2, May 2008, International Society for Horticultural Science – Développement et prospectives de l’hydroponie en Chine by Y.X. Xing and X.D. Meng, Twenty Years Development of Soilless Culture in Mainland China by W.J. Jiang and H.J. Yu – General consulate of the Popular Republic of China in Strasbourg – La sécurité alimentaire en Chine, un long chemin à parcourir, by Wu Chen and Wu Qiong, and: La Chine renforce son contrôle sur l’utilisation des terres pour assurer sa sécurité alimentaire by Zhao Wei and Qiu Lihua).

The “Summum” of Express Gardening By Steph

I am happy to be given an opportunity to share my passion for indoor plants with you and to share, if briefl y, the method I have developed over the years.

With a friend, I fi rst experimented with various exotic plant cultivars adapted to indoor cultivation. Long months later, I decided to devote my time to an exotic that I fi nd satisfying: epiphyllum and other epiphyllous plants. My epiphyllum collection has been moved from Florida. There, my plants were in full soil. Since last fall, they have been in pots here, so they can spend the winter in a greenhouse. They seem to have adapted well. They only required patience to regain some strength, as the move was quite rough on them. I water them using a dripper every night for about half an hour. I have noticed that they require constant humidity... even in winter. For the hobbyist like me, Frank Süpplie’s book “Epiphyllum” (E.P.R.I.C., 80 pages, 500 colour photos, text in English and German) is a must: it contains colour photographs of various cultivars, including very rare varieties, sorted alphabetically, as well as the twenty or so brand new cultivars. It is THE book on epiphyllum.

My MethodI start by reproducing my nicest specimens to preserve their genetic line. I do think it worthwhile, however, to wait until spring to take cuttings. What’s more, some plants are too small to take cuttings from them. A year ago, to prepare them for the move, I had to trim them to a minimum (forced pruning and trimming). Before the spring, they will have “snapped out of it”. To make cuttings, it is crucial to clean your tools well, to wash your hands and to clean all work surfaces.

CuttingsTo humidify my favourite substrate, which I have previously prepared for rooting (24 hours before taking cuttings), I only use slightly acidic water, with a pH of 5.8 (use phosphoric acid for this step, as phosphorous will improve root production) and a little 35% peroxide (O2) to sterilize and oxygenate the substrate. I use Summum’s rooting gel and I avoid algae-based products, as they also contain hormones but only delay the appearance of roots. Once the cuttings are planted, I place them under my Agro-Sun neon lamps 18 hours a day, and I keep the environment warm (26.5ºC) and humid (70%) until roots appear.

GrowthTo start the growth cycle, I transplant the cuttings in Grodan mineral wool cubes, previously soaked in a solution of water and B1 vitamin, with a pH balanced at 5. This neutralizes mineral wool’s pH. To get an improved growth performance, I use a Hortilux 1,000-watt MH Blaster bulb and a fl ood aeroponic system. I then prepare the growth nutrient solution at

800 ppm with B1 vitamin and liquid worm-casting compost, at a pH varying between 5.9 and 6.2. I spray the foliage every other day (using the same recipe at half strength). I also use peroxide once a week for the weekly 24-hour rinsing.

FloweringTwo weeks later, my vigorous plants have reached a suffi cient height for me to trigger their fl owering. They get transferred to my fl owering room, which has Hortilux 1,000-watt HPS bulbs, fans, a CO2 controller, a dehumidifi er and an air conditioning unit. Environmental control is crucial to get the maximum out of your tropical plants. My fl owering recipe is the following: I use Summum’s fl owering fertilizer, starting at a concentration of 800 ppm (ending with 1,600 ppm) and increasing the dose by 200 ppm weekly, with a pH adjusted between 5.5 and 6 and an input of liquid worm casting compost and of Summum’s Super Boost supplement. During the last four days, I only use water with a balanced pH (5.5 to 6) in the system.

Plant health, fl owering and durability depend upon the very precious care you provide your plants with. Be sure to opt for a complete nutritive program that is balanced and built with a specifi c product line.

To ConcludeThere are always more products offered on the market to help us get the best performance from our plants, but after numerous tests with countless products, I must admit I have gotten my best results using Summum-brand fertilizers and products. Don’t forget the magic ingredient: lots of love! Using my advice, I hope you will achieve as great a success as mine with your indoor exotic plants. Happy gardening!

IN THE NEWS


continued on page 49…


Photo: Soma

TECHNIQUES

Savings, variety, strength and vigour... By preparing your own seedlings for the spring, you can have plantlets that will avoid diseases transmitted through reproduction, you will avoid losing expensive cuttings and making risky transplants. Some seeds’ germinating ability can make you save nearly 80% compared to the price of cuttings! Making your own seedlings also gives you more freedom in choosing species, whether for annuals or perennials. Exotic plants (such as the Mexican jaltomate, the Australian greenberry or the South-African gazania) will be much seen this year on the seed market (for a list of 2008-2009 new offers for the vegetable garden, see http://solanaseeds.netfi rms.com/othervegetables.html). Why not take advantage of the offer? To be ready next spring, get started now, between Halloween and Christmas.

Material required:• A watertight tray: the choice of container is crucial for

successful seedlings. You have many options, depending on whether you’ll grow them on a window sill or not. For a window sill, choose a long, not too wide container; otherwise, think recycling: a terrine, Styrofoam trays, egg cartons or recuperated single-serving cartons will all do the job. You can also buy cell-trays or pressed peat plugs;

• A good seedling substrate (or your own sterilized compost mix);

• A spatula to level the substrate;• Fine sand (or, even better, perlite or vermiculite) to cover

the seeds;• Identifi cation labels;• A permanent marker;• A translucent fi lm (or a piece of cut glass or newspaper);• A good fungicide;• A sprayer; • If you do not have suffi ciently lit window sills during this

time of year (Halloween to Christmas), add to your list two fl uorescent parallel neon tubes, their casing (such as the 60-cm Shoplight model for two tubes or the 120-cm model for four tubes) and a mini-greenhouse;

• Your choice of seeds.

LightingLight is the most important element for your seedling to succeed. Between Halloween and Christmas, days shorten and you must consider the sunlit period offered by your openings or your veranda. If the light source is insuffi cient, the plantlets will elongate to reach for the light and the long-stemmed plantlets will be useless. Calculate the daily sunlit-period offered by your windows to the south or south-east: it may suffi ce. A veranda without curtains, awnings, shrub or tree hedges may also offer suffi cient sunlight in late fall and early winter.

If your dwelling has no such site, you will have to turn to artifi cial lighting. Neon tubes specially designed for germination are offered. The equipment in which they fi t (such as Shoplight) is sold separately. Propagation domes (such as Solution Optimum Pro 2001) are also recommended for gardeners who have few light sources at their disposal. Intellipousse© makes a compact shelving unit that can host two propagation trays with their humidity domes on its two shelves. Lighting is taken care of with two U-shaped

From Halloween to Christmas: Prepare Your

SeedlingsBy Jean-Félix Savard

The indoor gardening industry is growing fast, offering retailersmore choices than ever. Known for its outstanding service andsupport for more than fifteen years, BWGS can keep yourshelves stocked with a full spectrum of over 2500 of themost popular products in the indoorgardening universe!

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Safer Gro • Seeds of Change • Smart Pot • Sun Gro Horticulture® • Super Nutrients • Super Tea •Superthrive • ThermoFlo • TimeMist • Uvonair • Verilux • Wiggle Worm


Photo: D.R

.SCIENCE

Plant Functions Decrypted Through HistoryThe fi rst scientifi c research on plant functions began with those of Joseph Priestley (1733-1804), an amazing man. British pastor and theologian, he was also a researcher and an author of books on grammar, education, electricity, and chemistry, as well as an advocate for civil liberties. He published political essays and had to leave for the United States because of his progressive ideas. He was passionate about studying gases—he identifi ed a great number of them—and in 1771 he demonstrated that plants produce a gas capable or regenerating the air polluted by animal respiration. It was Lavoisier who later called this gas oxygen. Four years later, taking up where he had stopped, Dutch doctor Jan Ingenhousz (1730-1799) demonstrated that oxygen is only emitted in the light. At night, plants reject a gas in which the combustion of a candle is impossible.

The existence of respiration among plants was not immediately understood, however. To reach this conclusion,

we needed to wait until the fi rst quantitative experiments on gas exchanges done by Swiss geologist Horace Bénédict de Saussure (1740-1799), who was also a pioneer of mountain-climbing (he was the fi rst to climb Mont-Blanc in 1787). Around the same time, another Swiss, Jean Sénebier (1742-1809), demonstrated that plants absorb carbon dioxide. He wrongly surmised that carbon dioxide was decomposed as oxygen with the effect of light.

H.B. de Saussure’s son, Nicolas Théodore (1764-1845), often accompanied his father in his work and travels, and also caught the research bug. Various theories were put forth regarding plant nutrition, from a mysterious transformation of water into minerals to a humus theory according to which plants withdraw organic food from the soil. What these theories had in common is an utter lack or experimental foundation. To the contrary, Saussure experimentally demonstrated that plants absorb at the same time from the soil water and dissolved minerals. He confi rmed his conclusions by growing crops on an artifi cial mineral substrate, prefi guring the current hydroponic (on liquid) methods. He also demonstrated that plants assimilate the carbon from carbon dioxide, using it to elaborate their own substance, but, like Sénebier, he was wrong in believing that the emitted oxygen came from that gas. He noticed that water was indispensible for the phenomenon, but in order to demonstrate that the emitted oxygen actually comes from the decomposition of water molecules, we needed the 20th century’s sophisticated techniques.

At the end of the 18th century, research on plant physiology simply laid the groundwork: it was admitted that plants breathe like animals, but that they also have the ability to absorb organic matter from mineral matter when placed in the light. This property, called autotrophy, allows them to live without the need to feed on organic material coming from other living beings. To sum up, all other living beings (now called heterotrophs) depend on them not only for their

Photosynthesis: Photosynthesis: When Life Makes BubblesWhen Life Makes Bubbles

By Didier Pol, tenured professor, life and earth sciencesBy Didier Pol, tenured professor, life and earth sciences

Photo: D.R

.

carbonated water. Put the stem in the water, with the cut at the top. Put the lamp at the end of a table and place the ruler to measure the distance between the bulb and the glass. Turn the lights off in the room, except for the lamp. Place the glass containing the stem at about 15 cm from the halogen lamp. In the next moments, you will see bubbles quickly appear at the cut level.

The oxygen fl ow refl ects the intensity of photosynthesis, following this global equation:

nCO2 + nH2O ------------> (CH2O)n + nO2

carbon dioxide + water ---> organic matter + gaseous oxygen

We can measure the intensity of photosynthesis by measuring the fl ow of bubbles for various light intensities.

Precautions

Use fresh plants. The cut must be clean and made with a blade, for a regular bubble fl ow. If bubbles are too small and too numerous to count, make another cut. If there are not enough, add a little carbonated water, stir and make another cut. Do not leave the glass near the lamp for too long—if it heats up, the measurements will be falsifi ed. Always wait fi ve minutes between two measurements and stir the glass by rotating it a half minute before you measure. The plant should always be in the same position with regards to the light—see what happens to the bubble fl ow when you turn the glass by a quarter-turn.

Note: To make a graph, you need to calculate the light intensity. It is inversely proportionate to the square distance between the plant and the light source.

Sample results

The intensity of photosynthesis is weak for weak lighting, and then increases rapidly, proportionately with light intensity: photosynthesis directly depends on the light energy received, as this corresponds to its chemical energy conversion. When the light intensity goes from 44 to 100, however, the intensity of photosynthesis no longer increases, either because the energetic conversion capacity is reached, or due to a lack of raw material (CO2).

Graphic obtained:

See also my website at www.didier-pol.net for other fun biology experiments.

Distance from lamp

(d : m)

Light intensity (1/d²)

Photosynthesis intensity

(bubbles/min.)

0.8 1.56 4

0.7 2.05 10

0.6 2.77 16

0.5 4 28

0.4 6.25 40

0.3 11.11 54

0.2 25 62

0.15 44.44 78

0.1 100 80

SetupAt the top of the stem: bubble detailed view


SCIENCE

Photo: Patrick LabergeBOTANY

OUR POLLINIZER

Pa r t I I : Fr o m A p i s To B e e s . . .

Among fl ying animals, none are better than insects for fertilization. We suspect that insects and plants have evolved in parallel, in an

adaptation competition sometimes initiated by the plant itself, and sometimes by the insect. Today, some orchid species, such as the European

Ophrys, push evolution up to perfect mimicry and can only be fertilized by one insect, particular to each species. When the insect lands on the

fl ower’s labellum, it thinks its parade is successful and begins an obviously fruitless sexual relation with the plant. Fruitless for the insect—but

the orchid gets its way. The fl y enters the corolla, which closes behind it. A single exit remains, and it forces the insect to rub against the plant’s

fertile parts. Will the insect be caught again? It seems so, as these orchids regularly produce seeds.

Among beings we don’t think of as pollinators are grasshoppers. Some of them, like the European Tettigania viridissima, have a life-style that

leads them to hunt on vegetation, and they most often end up in fl ower calyces, their abdomen well stuck to the pollen-dispensing stamens.

Their short fl ight increases the chance of them landing on a plant from the same species, improving the odds of cross-pollination. Most

grasshoppers, however, are destructive, and sometimes cause immense damage to crops.

By Sylvie Laberge

Luciola

BOTANY

Here is another surprise for nature-lovers: the crab spider also

contributes to pollination. Who has never seen this small arthropod

quickly bolt when breathing in a fl ower’s perfume? This spider

spends her life nestled inside the reproductive organs of some

plants. It hunts by chasing prey rather than by making a web like so

many arachnids. A strict carnivore, it waits, unmoving, for its prey

to come. It then catches it and keeps it prisoner until it can empty it

of its substance. Charming, huh? So why is this spider useful in the

pollination process? Here we see nature’s genius at work. The crab

spider doesn’t always remain on the same fl ower. It sometimes

changes its guard post, and, in a magnifi cent adaptation, takes

on the colour of the corolla found on the new fl ower where it

hides. If the new fl ower happens to be from the same species as

the previous one, cross-pollination occurs. Although it is not very

signifi cant, we shouldn’t neglect pollination by the crab spider.

Let us leave arthropods behind and turn to an extremely diversifi ed

group: beetles. Their feeding habits are varied and include

vegetarianism. With grinding mouth pieces, beetles were among

the fi rst insects to offi cially become pollinators. Feeding off pollen,

they go from one fl ower to the next, covered in dust. Yet the

fl ower sometimes pays a high tribute to the insect. Feeding off

the pollen is not enough—beetles don’t discriminate and munch

on the pistil and stamens, leading to pure and simple destruction.

Lepidoptera (butterfl ies) are also among the many available

pollinators. Like beetles, however, they are not mother Nature’s

favourites. Most diurnal butterfl ies are gracious insects with long

thin legs. When they land on a fl ower, their abdomen often doesn’t

touch the anthers and stigma. Butterfl ies also prefer nectar, which

makes them more selective. They are also little resistant to cool

temperatures and only fl y when fl ight conditions are truly ideal.

Nocturnal butterfl ies are more massive and their contribution is

more important. Few North-American plants, however, choose

night-time to diffuse their butterfl y-attracting perfume. A large

number of butterfl ies also do not feed as adults, but rather take

advantage of the few days of their life to take care of their own

reproduction.

FRIENDS

SHOPPING

continued from page 43…

Hydroponic Classics IX: The Summum Products

Summum Super Boost: Summum’s Boost is a powerful supplement,

specifi cally designed for the fl owering stage.

Its unique formula, consisting of nutritive

elements and hormones, promotes a profusion

of fl owers and fruits. Added to a balanced

nutrition, it will provide a generous vegetative

crop as well as abundant fl oral growth. You

may use Summum Super Boost as soon as buds

appear. Simply add 2 grams of the product per

10 litres of nutritive solution.

Summum O2 Hydrogen Peroxide: Summum O2 provides numerous

benefi ts to plants. It helps germination, maintains the nutritive solution

active and keeps roots clean and healthy. It disinfects and prevents

fungal diseases. Finally, it will provide the

oxygen needed for the absorption of the

nutrients. You may add Summum O2 to every

watering for soil gardening or every other day

in a solution for non-soil gardening. Usage

instructions: add 1.5 ml per 4 litres of water or

nutritive solution.

Summum B-1 Tonic For Plants: Summum B-1 blend is made up of

nutrients, vitamins and Norwegian seaweed. Summum B-1 acts as a

catalyst directly on the chemical structure of the plant to stimulate

the active components during root growth and during the growing

stage. It also acts as a stabilizer, helping to reduce the stress caused by

extreme environmental changes. It helps the healing of damaged or

weakened plants. You may use it:

– on seedlings and cuttings: it helps the plant establish its root

system.

– for transplantation: it considerably reduces the transfer shock and

encourages root development.

– for other problems: fungal infections and insects, nutritional

defi ciency, etc. Using Summum B-1 after

the adequate treatment will help the plant’s

healing and recovery.

– Environment: transport, excessive

temperatures, etc. It reduces the stress and

helps plant healing and recovery.

– Guaranteed analysis: total nitrogen (N) =

1.0%; available phosphoric acid (P2O5) =1.0%; soluble potassium

(K2O) = 1.5 %; vitamin B-1, humic acid, seaweed extract.

– Usage instructions: always shake well before use; add the correct

quantity of Summum B-1* to the water or nutritive solution; mix well

and balance the pH.

– Applications (per week): 1 to 2 ml/l (foliar application: 1ml/l,

transplantation: 2 ml/l, other problems: 2ml/l).

Visit: http://gardenbreizh.org/forum and http://summumbioteck.com.

Photo: Patrick Laberge

Some plants have developed very long reproductive organs,

however, so that no pollinator is forgotten. The butterfl y’s

advantage, making it sometimes indispenseble, is the length of

its proboscis. Nectar is often located rather deep in the spurs

(pointy appendices) and butterfl ies have the advantage there.

Among long-proboscis insects, butterfl ies do their pollinating job

well, because they must brush against the fertile parts of corollas

to reach the nectary at the bottom. Although they are relatively

effi cient, butterfl ies also have a major fl aw: their caterpillars are

extraordinary adept at destroying foliage. Each year, farmers spend

astronomical sums to fi ght them.

If fl ora and fauna biodiversity are not found in your fl owerbed, it

could be very affected, as is the case with monocultures. Among

dipterous insects, syrphid fl ies that often mimic the fl ashy colours of

bees and bumblebees are valiant little pollinators. The twinfl ower

(Linnaea borealis), a plants that bears pink bell-shaped fl owers,

most often depends on syrphids for its pollen transportation. At

over 1,000 wing beats per second, this fl y travels in record time

between corollas. Masters of the art of fl ight, syrphid fl ies are

not yet the most effi cient answer to pollination. With hymenoptera

(bees, bumblebees, wasps), nature has created the ultimate

pollination tool. The bumblebee is a valued ally, particularly in

Northern climes. It can fl y at low temperatures (it has been seen

fl ying when the temperature was at 0°C), making it the main

pollinator of a large array of native spring fl owers, such as the

large-fl owered Bellwort (Uvularia grandifl ora). A study has shown

that the bumblebee is the sole pollinator of its fl ower, 91% of

individuals being queens.

Queen bumblebees emerge from their long slumber early in the

spring, in order to harvest enough pollen for their ovaries to mature.

Contrary to queen bees, who do not take part in “house chores”,

they often keep on working for an extended period, even if there

are many workers at their side. In the fall, a few males are produced

for female fertilization. All colony members then dies, with the

exception of fertilized females who will hide for the winter. Next

spring, the cycle starts anew. But of all

pollinating insects, the domestic bee is

the most effi cient. It would be diffi cult

to list its numerous adaptations

exclusive to pollen harvesting. Its

sense of smell allows a bee to fi nd the

same type of fl owers many days in a

row in order to optimize the harvest

and waste less precious time fi nding a

good loot. When the bee has found a

great source of food, it accomplishes

an incredible dance. Such a dance not

only tells other bees in what direction

to go, but also just how far.

The social organization of a bee colony seems predestined for

pollination. A beehive can contain up to 80,000 bees, each with

lifespan not exceeding 30 days. Yet all summer long, bees come and

go without the beekeeper’s eye noticing a change. Every day, several

individuals emerge from the larva stage and thicken the ranks of

the working class. With their large numbers, bees are the champion

pollinators of our orchards and fi elds. They have managed to adapt

to every climate, even though they are originally from Africa and

Europe. Could this perfection be fl awed? Bees have always been

infested by many bacteria, viruses and fungi. These organisms have

complicated the lives of bees, without ever seriously threatening

their continued existence. Things have changed however since

1997. Faced with the colony collapse disorder, researchers were

left without answers for quite some time. meanwhile, millions of

bees left the hive never to return. Some beekeepers have lost up

to 90% of their hives.

Some explanations are now brought forth, including a more serious

one: the presence of the Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV). This

affl iction is well-known to the Middle-East and seemingly appeared

in America in 2006. Its progression was facilitated by the varroa,

a parasite that had been present for many years in Canada and

the United States. Elsewhere in Europe, the appearance of a fungi

is the preferred explanation—Nosema ceranae was discovered by

Spanish researchers. Should we worry about these phenomena? In

North America, there are between 20- and 30,000 species of bees,

all great pollen gatherers. Some believe that the disappearance of

one species, even an economically important one, would not worry

us. Yet bees are responsible for the production of 45 million kilos

of honey in Canada each year. In 2007, the production dropped by

over 40%. Other mysteries are also occurring. Franklin’s bumblebee

went from abundant in 2002 to near disappearance in 2007.

There are now two bumblebee species, including one on the East

coast, which are getting rarer. Let’s not make the same mistake as

before—taking a species’ disappearance lightly has never served

humans well. We need only think of the disproportionate efforts

biologists must make to prevent the extinction of a single species,

say the monarch butterfl y, to understand that prevention is the

only viable option.

Through the ages, I’ll admit we’ve sometimes cried wolf without

counting on nature’s extraordinary ability to push through obstacles.

Yet the planet will soon be bearing nine billion human beings, and

we need to understand that this ability has its limit. Every day, with

small gestures, we can contribute to saving habitats that are crucial

to fauna and fl ora. Planting trees and fl owers, accepting the visit

of our pollinator allies—those are tremendously important for our

future selves. To preserve our magnifi cent biodiversity, changes

will be required on an unprecedented scale. Otherwise, what will

happen to our apples, tomatoes, wheat and oats?

BOTANY

“The Indoor Gardener Magazine is fi lled with very good info, everything is there!“

“C.B.”, January 2007http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums

The Indoor Gardener Magazine is celebrating three years in business with its 19th issue.

From Volume 1 Issue 1 to… Volume 4 Issue 1, get a collection of the best indoor gardening articles out there!

JOIN US AND OUR READERS!

The Industry Is Raving About The Indoor Gardener Magazine

And The Blogosphere Is Raving Too…

“Got me hooked”, “I’m a huge fan of…”, “Insightful”, “It is indoor gardening specifi c”, “I was impressed

with it…”, “You can’t grow without it!”...

“Many thanks for your insightful publication”Jonathan D. Cardinale, May 2007LED Grow-Master Global LLCwww.led-grow-master.com

“I am a huge fan of The Indoor Gardener Magazine, and am interested in distributing it in my store.”

—David Sowers, store ownerGrassroots HydroponicsLake Elsinore, California

“How can you be an indoor gardener without reading the Indoor Gardener Magazine?”— Webmaster at

www.webterrace.com/garden “The Indoor Gardener Magazine from Canada is a bimonthly magazine that is listed in Ulrich’s (www.ulrichsweb.com). I have included it [in my print resources and periodicals list for a Pathfi nder on Indoor Flower Gardening in the Bay Area*] since it is indoor gardening specifi c.”—Jane Sumner, librarian Author of a Pathfi nder on Indoor Flower Gardening in the Bay Area San Francisco, California (* The Pathfi nder includes associations and online resources, many of which incorporate discussion forums and/or an Ask-a-question section in their pages in case you run into a plant emergency, have a question, or just want input from other indoor gardeners.)

COME AND GROW WITH US! For any information, comment or request, contact: [email protected]. For sales and advertising, contact: [email protected] or 1 450 628-5325.

If you want to send us pictures and articles, please contact us at: [email protected] with “submission” in the subject line and we will get in touch with you.

P.O. Box 52046, Laval, QC, H7P 5S1, Canada. Tel: 1 450 628-5325, fax: 1 450 628-7758, www.tigmag.com

“I ran across a free issue of The Indoor Gardener Magazine that my wife got a while ago (Dec. 2005 issue) and I was actually impressed with some of the articles in it...”“Drumin”, June 2006http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums “The October 2005 issue of The Indoor

Gardener Magazine got me hooked!”“Fing_57”, March 2006http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums


Photo: T.I.G. A

rchivesTIPS & TRICKS

Whether you grow indoor plants or fruit-bearing trees, bonsais or fl owers on your balcony, you can fi nd great tricks for a green thumb with a few clicks on the Net.

Fall is back! Nice days are coming to an end and night-time comes earlier. With that comes the will to move the garden indoors and put a little greenery in our homes, under the beautiful artifi cial lights of our lamps, the ones that make

us drool when we see them being displayed in hydroponic stores. Whether you are a passionate or a beginner gardener, you will fi nd online all the addresses you need to become a great gardener or hone your natural skills. You can begin with large brands, which of course are visible online.

General SitesPlant guides by Lowe’s Home Improvement Warehouse (www.lowes.ca/plants.aspx) are online and Endless Summer Plant’s site (www.endlesssummerblooms.com) offer a few tip sheets that can be downloaded, as well as tricks on how to prolong fl owering or which type of plants will do well on a city balcony. It all remains a little light, and to overshade The New York Times’ Anne Raver, we’ll have to turn to generalist sites such as the pleasant and nicely designed American Plant (www.americanplant.net).

Aside from the catalogue section allowing you to order products, the site also has a plant guide which allows you to make a choice according to the location, climate, ease of

care, whether for indoors or outdoors. It also includes tip sheets on all kinds of plants, trees and fl owers.

Its user-friendliness is enhanced by a Community Support page, offering links to gardening and hobby groups and associations and even, for the more serious among us, job offers related to horticulture. The Everything Orchids section will allow you to learn how to choose the best

orchids and to discover whether you prefer Catleya, Dendroblum, Oncidium, Phalaenopsis, or Ludisia. You’ll also learn that our forefathers associated the beauty of orchids to that of… male genitalia!

Complete the lesson with Weekend Gardener Monthly Web Magazine™ (www.weekendgardener.net). It offers practical advice every month (when and how to transplant, the best time for bulbs, nutrients, etc.) as well as a calendar of the main tasks to be performed in the garden or on green plants.

To fi nd new landscaping ideas, know the main plants used, their needs, how to associate

them and various tricks, visit TipsforGardening.com (www.tipsforgardening.net). Its light tone makes learning a pleasure.

Specialized SitesBut the advantage of the Internet is to offer specialized pages where a passionate person shares her interest and knowledge. As such, Seeds of the World (http://journeytoforever.org/seeds.html) is in a class of its own. it poetically discusses the wonderful world of seeds: fruits and seeds, the seed’s voyage, all specialized links on the topic. It also has a non-negligible humanitarian aspect, proposing to save the entire world’s seeds and, most importantly, to put them at the disposal of the populations who most need them, in countries for which the seeds are best adapted. The stroll is both fun and instructive—who could ask for more?

Fascinated by bonsais, but scared to care for them? You will hesitate no longer once you’ve visited The Great Canadian

Internews and Webtricks for Your Indoor Garden (and Your Internal Garden)By Chris Gaipier and Thomas Primo

Photos: T.I.G. A

rchives

Gardening-for-fun SitesLandscaped, botanical or recreational, gardens are more popular than ever. Gardens are trendy. And gardening requires its followers to use a vocabulary that is little used elsewhere. Entering the world of leisurely gardens, one must know the sunk parterre (a plant ornament taking the form of a grassy sunk-in garden sometimes surrounded by a border) and the amphitheatral grass-ground (a grass slope shaped like an amphitheatre, with non-parallel circular lines and used in the design of French gardens). The www.gardendiscoverytours.com site promotes the discovery of gardens, from New England to North Carolina, and allows us to discover how most plants reached North America, not only from the botanical or horticultural take, but also culturally and historically. From the fi rst human migrations to now, the travel of plants has always been a important stake, be it economical, political or scientifi c, notably during the times of colonial empires and great botanical expeditions.

Sometimes a plant’s name will give us a hint of its origins (Mexican orange, French marigold, Indian quince), but other plants are so familiar to us that we can’t imagine they come from countries far away. Some of those familiar plants have travelled far and wide before acclimatizing to our regions. Cucumbers were born in Caucasus before conquering Western Europe in the 15th century. Tulips came to us from Turkey in the 16th century, followed by the Mexican dahlia, the Australian mimosa and Peru’s sunfl ower. Eggplants were imported from India in the 17th century and tomatoes travelled from the Peruvian Andes shortly thereafter. As for melons, their origins are controversial. Some say they come from India, others claim it was Austral Africa. What we do know is that varieties were improved in Asia and Egypt

centuries before our era. Even though the kiwi’s name comes from New Zealand, it fi rst appeared in China. It is now well adapted everywhere and is cultivated in unlikely climates, such as in Brittany! Most plants have integrated a rather successful adaptation, but sometimes it was at the expense of native plants’ health and survival. The consequences of acclimatization are sometimes new diseases, accompanying parasites and better-adapted plants.

The “green” issue, or the current trend for ecology, sustainable development and eco-responsibility means that the tourism industry is focusing on those aspects. As does the advertising industry. Were we to believe our radios and TV sets, all products would now be “green”! In North America, anything is a pretext to fl ee the city and fi nd your favourite country activities. You like movies? The Environmental Film Festival in Washington, D.C. presents fi lms about nature. Its 16th edition will feature 120 fi lms, including a documentary series by Philippe Cousteau and other nature fi lm directors (www.dcenvironmentalfi lmfest.org). You prefer music and poetry? No problem: we have the Sunken Garden Poetry & Music Festival to associate music, literature and garden arts. The festival has been held in the sumptuous Hill-Stead Museum gardens since 1992, near Farmington, CT (www.hillstead.org/activities/poetry.html). Finally, if you’re into garden design, you’re in luck. All year-long, Jeff Sainsbury Tours Ltd organizes trips for conceptual garden enthusiasts, leaving the United States to go all over the world (www.jeffsainsburytours.com/Arts+Crafts2008.html). Canadian-born Mediterranean-garden specialist Louisa Jones now lives in Provence, where she maintains a very complete site on the region’s garden design and she invites visitors to share her passion (www.gardeninprovence.com/louisajones/index2.html). Kansas City’s 2008 Garden Symposium (www.gardencenterassociation.org/garden_symposium_2008.htm) this year explores the design of fi ve French vegetable gardens, since France is allegedly the country with the nicest vegetable plots!

(Sources: E-m@le magazine, vol. 27, March 2008 and Dominique Queillé, Voyages-Libération, June 2008)


TIPS & TRICKS

Hor

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s Photos: by the manufacturers

Lumatek Ballasts Available Coast to CoastBrite-Lite Group is delighted to announce the addition of Lumatek to its product line, making these quality digital ballasts now available in Canada from coast to coast.

Lumatek is the world’s leading supplier of digital ballasts for horticulture. Tests have shown that the stable light output produced by Lumatek ballasts make them up to 27% brighter and more effi cient than common core-and-coil ballasts. Lumatek ballasts are also 10-15% brighter than other brands of digital ballasts. The result is more lumens produced per watt of energy consumed. Lumatek ballasts are silent and produce less heat than standard ballasts. They are also very compact and much lighter in weight.

The microprocessors built into Lumatek ballasts allow the ballasts to properly detect and power both metal-halide (MH) and high-pressure sodium (HPS) bulbs. They are programmed to allow a “soft start” that does not create power surges and will allow lamps to reach full brightness under one minute. Lumatek ballasts also include a safety feature that protects the ballast and the bulb against sudden power loss, power spikes and brownouts.

Brite-Lite is currently offering 400-watt (120V or 240V), 600-watt (120V or 240V), 750-watt (240V) and 1,000-watt (240V) models. All Lumatek ballasts are internally RF-shielded. All units from Brite-Lite also come complete with a universal socket cord compatible with most refl ectors. Lumatek ballasts have proven to be very reliable and offer the best guaranty in the industry with a 5-year warranty (full 3-year guaranty + 2-year pro rata).

Tabletop Hydroponic Mini-Greenhouse

Hydro Greenhouse™2 demonstrates the agricultural technology of the future. Teach your kids how to grow real fruits, vegetables, herbs, plants, and

fl owers using liquid nutrient instead of

soil! It’s non-electric, so it’s

safe to operate anywhere, indoors or out. And it’s easy to use: it automatically feeds and waters for up to two weeks between refi lls. Easily fi ts on counter- or table-top. Just add seeds and water and watch ‘em grow! Ages 8 and up, with adult assistance recommended.

The kit features: • Fold-away germinator greenhouse (19” x 10” x 12”);• Self-dispensing one-gallon nutrient reservoir;• Year supply of nutrient mix;• Soilless aerating growing medium;• Integrated trellis;• Multi-purpose gardening tool;• Illustrated, informative Guide to Hydroponic Gardening;• Break-resistant.

Visit: www.speedydog.net or http://item.express.ebay.com/Toys-Hobbies_Educational-Toys

Hydro-Greenhouse 2 Refi ll KitThe Hydro Greenhouse™2 refi ll kit is also available from the same distributor, including growing medium, nutrient mix, and nutrient transfer wick. It can now also be ordered online directly from the manufacturer at: www.speedydog.net.

Biograde Lawn NutritionWith Biograde®’s liquid plant food, your lawn will eliminate greenhouse gases. How is that possible? According to Colorado State University and the USDA, 5,000 square feet of actively-growing grass produces ¼ ton of oxygen and eliminates 3 ton of greenhouse gases each year. Do your part for the environment. Biograde’s liquid plant food only contains mineral, synthetic organic and organic ingredients. It can also be applied on trees and shrubs.

Potting BenchThis season, tuck a potting bench beneath an overhang and plant to your heart’s content. The elevated work surface saves your back, and the hooks, racks and shelves provide a convenient spot for innovative gardening essentials. With this urban potting bench, scoop soil, sow seeds and store gardening supplies in style. Inspired by a 1920s

SHOPPING


Photos: by the manufacturers

sidewalk planter, the bench has a galvanized work surface, covered basin and rust-resistant black powder-coated steel frame. Five hooks let you hang trowels, dibbers and other hand tools. Store pots, gloves, seeds and a watering can on the sturdy lower shelf. The dimensions of the bench shown here are: 40.25 inches wide, 26.5 inches deep and 66 inches high. Other models are also offered. Available at: www.smithandhawken.com.

Organic Iguana Juice Grow 3-1-3Advanced Nutrients did it again

with its 100% all-organic one-part liquid grow nutrient that is fully soluble. Iguana Juice has been thoroughly fi eld-

tested and proven to give exceptional growth during the plants’ important vegetative cycle. The growth during the vegetative cycles was so impressive it came close to their legendary 2+ formula. When put up against other competing organic nutrients, Iguana

Juice clearly beat all of them hands down. Iguana Juice is a powerful blend of organics that encourages strong branching and a large, healthy root system, fast growth, and short internodes that prepare the plant for a spectacular fl owering cycle. Iguana Juice contains a fi sh base from the super-clean ice-cold waters of the far North Pacifi c Ocean, plus over 70 minerals, krill extract, yucca extract, earthworm castings, seabird guano, bat guano, and alfalfa extract.

Jump Start, Cloning AcceleratorJump Start is a liquid nutritive solution specially adapted to cuttings. It improves the root mass growth. The gardener can use it as a nutritive solution to humidify the substrate into which clones will be planted. But the same gardener, and this is crucial, must also use a rooting gel such as the

same brand’s Clone-It or any other product with which he is comfortable. Jump Start is an excellent choice for anyone wanting to increase the survival rate of cuttings.

– C.A.

Rare Earth™: Dry Premium Blend Organic Minerals and HumatesRare Earth is derived from ancient seabed deposits of pyrophylitic clay that are blended with fulvate ore. By slowly releasing silicon, humates and organic rare earth minerals, Rare Earth allows a crystal matrix to develop within growing plant tissue, that protects the plant from heat stress and nutrient extremes by generating a protective silicon shield. This also deters fungal disease and reduces susceptibility to insect damage by “hardening” the plant. Use Rare Earth by blending it with rooting media, and either top-dressing around the plant stem or adding it directly to nutrient solutions. Visit: www.genhydro.com.

Hand Cream for GardenersA few hours with your hands in the soil makes satisfaction imminent and Monday feel far, far away. But your hard-working hands will soon cry for help! Soothe and smooth tired hands with the “Cats in the Cradle” hand cream made of grapeseed, almond and herbal extracts. Royal jelly extract, propolis, aloe vera and glycerine give it a silky consistency. Available at: www.nhgold.com. H

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.DISCOVERY

New York, a big apple? I’ve always wondered about the reasons behind this fruity, h o r t i c u l t u r a l ,

p l a n t - r e l a t e d expression. Is there a horticultural explanation behind the origin of the nickname proudly borne by the East coast megapolis? As you’ll see, theories abound and contradict one another! And if the worm was in the fruit, it is due to a French ex-aristocrat! These “apples” were bitten into using something other than teeth...

Eve’s Apples: the Most Bewildering Explanation!

Some believe that the true explanation of using “big apple” to refer to New York goes as far back as the French Revolution. Indeed many aristocrats then crossed the Atlantic, wishing to fl ee the French events and avoid certain death.In 1803, among the newly-arrived refugees in New York is a certain Mademoiselle Évelyne Claudine de Saint-Évremont, ex-companion of queen Marie-Antoinette. This high-society lady was soon noticed in New York. Refi ned and elegant, she impresse all! She soon found a fi ancé, who cancelled the wedding at the last second. Disappointed, Évelyne opened a “salon”—a word preferred to the less-fl attering “bordello.” Located at 142 Bond Street, the brothel became a favourite meeting place among the local masculine elite.

The extravagant mademoiselle Évelyne is beautiful and cultured, and surrounds herself with women of little virtue who all possess the same intellectual and physical attributes as their boss. They

know how to make conversation... and love. Clients quickly dubbed Évelyne “Eve”, and she takes the opportunity to call her employees “my irresistible apples”, referring with no great subtlety to the apple bitten by Eve in the bible. The success reaped by “Eve’s apples” was such that the house was always full. It hosted party after party, celebration after celebration, and all of New York’s decadent youth attend in order to mix with the riff-raff. Among the New York masculine gentry, an enigmatic sentence is spread mouth to ear: “Have you tasted Eve’s apples?” It is the secret and magical password for apple afi cionados.

By extension, it seems that the word “apple” came to refer to all quality call-girls in New York at the time. Indeed in 1870, long after Évelyne’s demise, the Gentleman’s Directory of New York City used the term to discretely refer to what is no less than a series of houses of little repute. Hence “gentlemen” can read the following advertisement for New York: “Fresh, soft, beautiful and fi rm to the touch, New York apples are superior to all those of the New World, and even of the Old World.” Eve somewhat reinvented the apple, and all Adams in the world were trapped!

From there, only a step was required for everything surrounding New York’s image to be associated to apples. Since the city hosts the most brothels in America at the time, it ends up being called the “apple tree” or the “true apple.” Politicians got involved and conservative candidates released their frustrations on the corrupt and debauched city. During his fi nal electoral campaign in 1892, Indiana-

In the Big Apple – 1 By bbny ([email protected])

I arrived in New York in the middle of summer, in an incredibly tenacious August fog. I settled in the heart of Manhattan, on 39th Street East. If I were to describe my impressions of New York that fi rst fall, the text below would be quite different. I took the time to tame the city

or, more realistically, the time to let it tame me.

First there was shock, followed, necessarily, by adaptation. I don’t think we can let ourselves be absorbed into another culture

without some hardships at fi rst... and yet, I come from a country more

or less equivalent in terms of economics and daily living. There’s a set, myths and fantasies that must be confronted to real life (“Goes on... Life still goes on...” sang adoptive New Yorker David Byrne) before accepting that they’ve become obsolete, or before accepting to put an end to sublimation (in order to move on to the next thing). Fantasies stemmed from my teen years, at least twenty years earlier. New York didn’t wait after me to transform itself and leave behind the image I had constructed listening to rock and roll in my bedroom. [Even my fi rst trip, in 1991, was from another era!] If they sometimes remain true (“My building has every convenience, it makes life easy for me”, like the Talking Heads sung), texts often no longer fi t with the present. Even places no longer exist (and did the CBGB stage reveal any international-level star over the last few years of its lifetime?). The Mudd Club... vanished! Studio 54? Another Broadway stage…

More than any other city, New York tolerates a mixture of contradictions: one foot into the 19th century, the other in the future. Avant-garde and archaism, total luxury and precariousness, high society and provincial life, delirious buildings and small suburban cottages... a kaleidoscope of all infl uences, ethnic origins, progress and struggles—that’s what the city is. And again, with an ogre’s ability and appetite enabling it to swallow all these immigrants, all these children of the developing world it makes its own. New York is not America—it’s Babylon, Babel, Sodom and Gomorrah, a crossroads between Beijing, Seoul, St. Petersburg, Calcutta, Manilla, Port-

Why the Big Apple?

Phot

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DISCOVERYdemocrat James Bryant (who died in 1892) said: “New York is the craziest rotten apple on the tree of decadent federalism.” One would have had not to live in the times not to understand this double-entendre.

In the early 1900s, the illicit scene has moved on to southern and south-western American towns and New York no longer holds fi rst place for debauchery and decadence. Yet it is still called “The Apple” or the “The Big Apple” and when touristic promotion began, some tried to exploit this aspect to attract tourists to town. Slogans are then invented such as “An Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor Away” or “NYC: As American as Apple Pie.” The hope is to give the association between New York and an “Eve’s apple” a new positive spin. During the 1929 Depression, apples are distributed to New Yorkers who have lost everything. Soon thereafter, jazz musicians will reclaim the use of “The Big Apple” to refer to New York, but that’s already another story—one that seems to take no account of the previous one!

The « Big Apple » : Offi cial Explanation

The shortest explanation, supposedly “offi cial” is found on the website of the American embassy in Paris, and does not really offer a satisfying answer: “In the 1920s and 1930s, the city was always growing in height and already had the severe reputation of being a “jungle”. It was already the fruit of all dreams and desires. People from the time hence spoke of New York in such a fashion: “There are many apples on the tree, but when you pick New York City, you pick the big one!”Note the allusion, in “fruit of all desires”... New York is compared to a large fruit, harvested and eaten on the branches of an American map symbolized by the roads linking the various cities. Eve’s apples are not mentioned—it’s as if

they never existed—but they are not quite forgotten.

Once again, other sources come to cancel out this one. They also don’t refer to our charming Eve.

An “Apple Stuck in the Throat”: From Racetracks to Jazz Clubs

The third explanation, chronologically, comes from an expression heard by a horse-race columnist at a New Orleans racecourse. Indeed some sources attribute the offi cial launch of the term “Big Apple” to John J. Fitzgerald, a sport and equestrian columnist for the Morning Telegraph in the 1920s. During a trip to New Orleans, the journalist overheard black stable boys refer to the racetracks in New York, the “Big Apple.” The expression immediately captivated him and his New York equestrian column was then named “Around the Big Apple.” Later on, “The Big Apple” became the generic term to name anything related to horse-racing in New York. After about a decade, the term is found among African-American southern jazz musicians, who use it to name all northern American cities. Little by little, the expression’s meaning was reduced and “The Big Apple” came to only designate New York city, and most precisely Harlem, the then-capital of the emerging jazz movement.

According to some, including The Society for New York City History, this is still not the proper explanation, or if it is, it has been wrongly interpreted. Indeed the fourth possibility stems directly from the world of African-American jazz, to which it is closely linked according to the Society. According to the History Society, when a musician got stage fright, a vivid image at the

au-Prince... Sometimes, on Queens’ Northern Boulevard, you can drive over two or three kilometres without seeing one sign in English: everything is in Korean. On Astoria Boulevard, in Greek restaurants, you’re best to bring in your Greek-English dictionary. A man from India, landed two years earlier, salutes you: “Welcome to New York City!” It’s his city, as if he’d never lived anywhere else before, never had a

different life...

Yet the city is unchanging. On movie screens, the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building have been sharing the honour of setting the stage for over 80 years. One panoramic shot, one nanosecond, and you’re here. From my home, I can admire the colours that change over the last fl oors of the Empire State Building with, in the background, sunsets that would have stunned Gauguin living in the islands. I can well imagine that, since 80 years ago, New Yorkers have been contemplating the same view, from their window on the 35th, 40th, 25th fl oor... the very same one. Incredible.

The city is both fi xed and changing, so that it becomes unrecognizable ten years later. From some points of view, lying down in Central Park somewhere with squirrels, on the piers, I’m certain some angles can still give us the images found in photographs from the 1930s. Let’s not forget that we change too—one doesn’t see New York the same at 36 as at 18. Our interests have changed, and we’re the ones changing the landscape. I’ve said before that New York didn’t wait for me to transform herself... rather, I’m the one who didn’t wait to fi nd what I had dreamed of fi nding there (like Yves Simon!). I’d say New York is more of a spatio-temporal than geographic trip.

Now, the mundane. I live in Manhattan, on the 35th fl oor of a two-year old tower (New York towers can be thus referred to, as each has its own character; here, the speed at which everything is taken down and rebuilt is breath-taking) in the eastern side of Murray Hill, not far from the U.N. headquarters. I like this environment—between the chic Upper east Side, the effervescence of Midtown and the bohemian style of the Village, I can walk anywhere. The building is organized more like a hotel and than apartment tower. “With full service”, they say... To satisfy our every

Photo: D.R

.

time was to say that his Adam’s apple was expanding in his throat until he’d choke. Harlem, at the time, was one of the best-known neighbourhoods for jazz in the United States. And

African-American musicians who dreamed of playing there but got stage fright at the thought would have nicknamed it “The Big Apple.” The e x p r e s s i o n would then mean no more than the emotion felt

at the thought of playing in such a famous locale.

“The Big Apple”: Underground Until 1971?

The last theory (fi fth in this article) corresponds with the expression stemming form the jazz world. It, however, claims that the expression “Big Apple” long remained an expression exclusively used by African-American musicians and was only known by the public as of the early 1970s. It was particularly confi ned to Harlem (in Manhattan), considered like the world capital of jazz, and remained a local idiom for nearly 50 years. Regarding this, some sources attribute our (offi cial) explanation number two (that of the U.S. embassy in Paris) to African-American jazz musicians who “said that there were many apples on the tree, but when you picked New York City, you picked the big one!” So the expression is not linked to excess and architectural growth of the city during the 1920s and 1930s, like we told you before, or it is confused with the same expression stemming from the jazz scene around the same time—

chicken or egg, we don’t know which came fi rst!

No matter the debate, according to this last theory, the expression “Big Apple” was only popularized in 1971 by Charles Gillett (then president of the New York Convention and Visitors Bureau), who gave it its breadth. He did so by defi nitely associating the expression to New York City through the launch of a Big Apple-themed publicity campaign. Until then, according to the sources for this explanation, NYC was rather dubbed the “Fun City.” This expression was much used until the 1960s, and disappeared when Mr. Gillett’s billboards appeared in 1971 to be replaced by “The Big Apple.” “The Big Apple” thus became synonymous with New York city, like “The Big Easy” is synonymous to New Orleans (but that’s another story!).

If you are interested, visit famous etymologist Barry Popik’s website, simply titled The Big Apple (www.barrypopik.com). He lists all apple allusions to this day, fi led by year as of the early 19th century. If these quotes are not directly linked to New York’s nickname or are not obviously explained, they have the benefi t of bringing back the debate into the context of agriculture, horticulture and fruit production through the various eras encompassed by the site. Dear readers, which is your favourite theory, or more simply, which is the likeliest? Contact us at: [email protected]. And bite into the apple (tis the season)!

-------------------Sources: United States embassy in Paris (www.amb-usa.fr), The Society for New York City History (www.salwen.com/snych.html), New York Convention and Visitors Bureau (www.nycvisit.com), WikiAnswers (www.wiki.answers.com) and The Big Apple (www.barrypopik.com).

need, a whole bunch of employees: bellboys, deliverymen, bulb changers... it can become oppressive quickly. The building is a fortress: everyone must identify themselves at the entrance. Mind you, things are more democratic than they were 10 or 15 years ago as far as access to apartments for non-Westerners. Some hierarchies remain (and that is New York at fi rst sight), for building employees, for example. Things are pretty clear-cut: Doormen are Puerto Rican, Chinese or Polish; deliverymen are Mexican; common space cleaning staff are Latino-American; repairmen are African-American; parking attendants are Haitian... and to order all of them around, the chefs are Italian. It’s a pretty pyramid that could illustrate class and people struggles in a schoolbook.

Imagine the set: fresh fl owers everyday in the hall, mirrors, gildings, indoor gardens with fountains, faux Renoir on the walls—this cheap luxury à la Hollywood almost killed my mother when she fi rst came to visit! Let’s move on: marble in bathrooms, fi ne-gold covered taps, wooden fl oors, picture window over the East River. I had to adapt to that before I adapted to the city! You can understand my disarray at fi rst. I was a working-class Joe from the country and I landed in the big city, complete with its kitschiest luxury! I didn’t dare take a shower for fear of damaging the marble... Yet it’s a nouveau riche luxury—fl ashy, showy, nowhere near subtle.

On the street, contradictions abound and coexist. A Pakistani man drags his hot-dog cart on the crosswalk, like a rickshaw in the streets of Karachi, but a large limo honks at him in front of smoke columns from the sewers—typically New York, literally ostentatious. That’s what strikes me the most, those parallel worlds. Here more than anywhere else, extremes live together and ignore each other. As soon as you exit the city, or even Manhattan, to go to New Jersey for example, this radical nature becomes obvious. You can fi nd the remotest provincial town, “Yokeltown”, if you will, 30 kilometres from NYC. People wonder at you taking pictures of their purely fi fties diner. They’ve never thought of their livelihood at an architectural artwork... and they live 30 kilometres away from some of the most impressive masterpieces of the century! Even the notion of architecture is beyond them. Tomorrow, they can demolish


DISCOVERY

continued on p.64

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DISCOVERYtheir property and replace it with the worst shack! If we drive north in New York state, we cross the richest suburbs: fortress houses standing in the middle of magnifi cent parks where a few horses casually caper about, kilometers of those mansions (and sometimes it can be scary: we saw a Nazi fl ag fl oating above the terrace of one…). It’s in these chic suburbs that Bill Clinton lives,

now that he’s no longer President.

On the street, looks are diverse but preppies abound. Yet a man with a blue beard can sit in the subway next to a man from the same generation, but sporting ultra-thick glasses, his greasy hair uncut and wearing clothes that probably came down to him from his great-great-grand-father! Those people who are impermeable to their era in a city like New York are a profound mystery to me. Some airtight systems are particularly effi cient. Sometimes it becomes easier to understand the election of George Bush...

Outings: mostly on week-ends, to explore the country-side in a 100-km radius. Splendid from Long Island, following the coast to New Jersey’s forests or Pennsylvania’s canals, nature speaks out. Small villages, too, like Newton New Jersey, where we ate typical German dishes in an old windmill. Or the aptly-named Frenchtown, with its doll shops and tiny (really tiny!) seafood restaurant. Harvesting fresh fruits and vegetables at farms is still possible until the end of October, and I took advantage of that! Imagine the delirious decor these farms become for Halloween: a festival of pumpkins, corn witches and scarecrows!

I was waiting for the cold to visit museums, but instead I go when visitors drop by to see me. Otherwise, I go to concerts (at Hunter College and at CBGB when it was still open) and to clubs (the Limelight, an old church converted into a discotheque, complete with original stained-glass windows, Jesuses and ciboria among disco balls, lasers and a... rather young crowd; I was almost an old-timer!).

I need more paragraphs to describe the light (this fall it was enchanting), the noise, Harlem and Queens, Brighton Beach’s Russian neighbourhood, the beach at the end of the subway, the more-or-less abandoned Coney Island rides...

I’ll need to write another article!

Photos: D.R

. & Fred Leduc

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Q & AKeep on sending us your questions or requests at: [email protected]

QQIs it true I can grow edible mushrooms from a mixture of beer

and good old manure (allowing it all to ferment for about a

month)?

- H. Pariseau

AA Hi Will,

I don’t know the technique you describe,

but I also suggest you look it up online and

get more information regarding mushroom

cultivation methods.

– P.H.

QQHi! I’d like to know the best proportion of light/darkness to provide for my newly transplanted cuttings, and what the best nutrient is at this stage. Thank you! Keep up the good work!

– Jimmy

AA Hi Jimmy,

Ideally, cuttings should get light 18/24 hours or 24/24, under

neon tubes for the fi rst two weeks. I recommend using

Cinagro’s GrÜv, one of the best nutrient on the market for

transplantation. Happy gardening!

– P.H.

QQ Hi,

I’m writing to you today because we here have a mare, and

she defecates everywhere when she’s outside. What’s strange

is that I’ve been trying to grow mushrooms, and now some are

growing spontaneously on year-old manure. They look like they

could be edible. Is that possible? Thank you

Thank you, –Dan

AA Hi,

It’s quite possible the mushrooms are edible, since the spores

and underground rhizomes are very resistant and can survive

for a long time if they are implanted in favourable conditions. I

can’t advise you to test it however, and you should take such a

risky decision by yourself. If you didn’t sow on the spot, it can

be any type of mushroom, and it would be best

to be ultra careful. Only experts can identify wild

mushrooms (they are not all edible and, as far as I

know, none is crazy for mare manure (the parasol

could, perhaps, but it is rarely seen here)—

though some can kill!). Talk to a mycological

society. If you wish to grow edible mushrooms

in complete safety, I strongly recommend you

get information on the topic fi rst. Many online forums offer

detailed descriptions of edible mushrooms and have complete

sections on all cultivations kits now sold on the market.

– P.H.

QQIs it true that the best clones are those from the third or fourth generation, and not from the fi rst two generations?

– Anonymous

AA Hi,

That is a good question, which will allow us to debunk a myth

and clear up confusion regarding generations of cuttings. We

often hear many things about cuttings, things like “wow, I have

a third-generation cutting, it’s the best, etc.” A cutting is a

clone, genetically identical to its mother. Theoretically, there is

no reason for the third generation to be better than the fi rst.

Where it becomes different is when we talk about seed

production. A seed crossed with another will not necessarily

be as good as its mother! In this case, its genetics must be

crossed several times, with selection, to get all the desired

traits. Hence the confusion.

A mother plant grown in adequate conditions will

give excellent cuttings, from the fi rst generation

to the last, for years on end. You can also harvest

cuttings from your mother plant to make new

mother plants. The only secret is in the conditions

in which the plants are grown—better conditions

mean better cuttings.

– P.H.

Photos: J.-M. D

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