Wordless Wednesday

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BIOGORIVO TREĆE GENERACIJE

Bazeni za uzgoj algi   Proizvodnja biogoriva iz algi   Ovisnost svijeta o neobnovljivim izvorima energije, uglavnom fosilnim gorivima, trn je u oku mnogih znanstvenika i aktivista za zaštitu okoliša diljem svijeta. Samim time ne iznena?uju globalna nastojanja da se smanji ovisnost o fosilnim gorivima i prona?u ekonomski prihvatljiva alternativna goriva i da se time znatno smanje emisije štetnog uglji?nog dioksida u atmosferu. Jedna od alternativa o kojoj se najviše pri?a su biogoriva. Biogoriva su zbog svoje sli?nosti s naftnim derivatima poprili?no dobra alternativa fosilnim gorivima i korištenje biogoriva rezultira s manjim emisijama CO2 u atmosferu. Zbog toga su biogoriva ekološki puno prihvatljivija od konkurentskih fosilnih goriva. Manje ukupne emisije uglji?nog dioksida iz biogoriva rezultat su zatvorenog uglji?nog kruga – biljke i alge uzimaju iz atmosfere uglji?ni dioksid da bi mogle rasti, a kad se biogoriva upotrebljavaju taj isti uglji?ni dioksid se vra?a natrag u atmosferu. Uglji?ni otisak fosilnih goriva ide u samo jednom smjeru – iz zemlje u atmosferu, tj.u niti jednom koraku proizvodnje i korištenja fosilnih goriva ne smanjuje se koli?ina CO2 u atmosferi.

Alge u laboratoriju Hrvatskog Centara Obnovljivih Izvora Energije (HCOIE)

Biogorivo može biti ?vrsto, teku?e ili ?ak plinovito gorivo koje je proizvedeno iz biološkog materijala. Kod organizama koji obavljaju fotosintezu, kao na primjer kukuruz ili soja, biljke koriste energiju sunca i vodu da bi pretvorile dostupni uglji?ni dioksid u ugljikohidrate, tj. da bi pohranile energiju. Ovakav proces je zapravo dvostruko koristan: ne samo da je proizvedeno gorivo, nego je za to potrošena odre?ena koli?ina uglji?nog dioksida pa ovakva proizvodnja goriva ima pozitivni u?inak i s energetske i s ekološke to?ke gledanja. Iako se biogoriva mogu proizvoditi od bilo kakvih izvora ugljika, danas se uglavnom koriste razne vrste ratarskih biljaka diljem svijeta. Postoji mala razlika izme?u razli?itih biljaka u smislu goriva koje se od njih proizvodi. Na primjer etanol se proizvodi od biljaka koje sadrže puno še?era (še?erna trska, kukuruz), a za proizvodnju biodizela koriste se biljke koje sadrže više ulja (soja, kanola, uljana repica).

Biogoriva imaju mnoge prednosti, ali postoje i nedostaci. Uzgajanje biljaka za proizvodnju biogoriva zahtjeva kvalitetna poljoprivredna zemljišta a to naravno pove?ava potražnju za takvim zemljištima i diže cijenu. Najve?i problem s biogorivima je zapravo ?injenica da je proizvodnja biogoriva pretvaranje hrane u gorivo, a to loše utje?e i na cijenu i na dostupnost hrane diljem svijeta, a ve? sad postoji gotovo milijarda ljudi koji žive na rubu gladi. Prema tome pretvaranje hrane u gorivo ne izgleda kao logi?an izbor za rješavanje energetskih problema. 

Prednosti korištenja algi za proizvodnju biogoriva 

Proizvodnja biogoriva iz algi ima mnoge prednosti koje taj postupak ?ine gotovo savršenim izvorom goriva. Alge rastu 50 do 100 puta brže od tradicionalnih kultura za proizvodnju biogoriva. Dodatna velika prednost je to što su alge jednostani?ni organizmi koji ne zahtijevaju svježu pitku vodu i zemljište da bi rasli, a to znatno pojednostavnjuje proizvodnju. Prema nekim stru?njacima proizvodnja goriva iz algi je najbolja alternativa fosilnim gorivima i uz dobru podršku ta bi biogoriva u budu?nosti mogla u potpunosti izbaciti fosilna goriva iz upotrebe. 

Gdje se mogu uzgajati alge? 

 Alge se mogu uzgajati u odvojenim vodenim površinama, ?ak iako voda nije dovoljno kvalitetna za pi?e. Alge se tako?er mogu uzgajati i u slanoj vodi. Uzgajaju?i alge na površinama koje nisu pogodne za proizvodnju hrane, više zemljišta i kvalitetne vode ostaje za proizvodnju hrane. Ve?a koli?ina proizvedene hrane može se onda upotrijebiti za borbu protiv gladi, a ne za proizvodnju biogoriva kao do sada. Odemo li tridesetak godina unatrag, ili da smo precizniji u 1978 godinu, možemo primijetiti da je ?ak i ameri?ko ministarstvo za energiju (Department of Energy - DOE) pokrenulo „Aquatic Species Program“ s ciljem istraživanja mogu?e proizvodnje energije i biogoriva iz algi. Prema tome, proizvodnja biogoriva iz algi nije nova ideja kao što misli ve?ina ljudi. Usprkos dobroj ideji, ovo istraživanje nije bilo produktivno, uglavnom zbog padaju?ih cijena sirove nafte i ?injenice da je DOE bilo prisiljeno smanjivati troškove. Sve ovo rezultiralo je gašenjem programa 1996 godine.

Usprkos gašenju, istraživanja unutar tog programa dala su vrlo važne rezultate, a najvažnije od svega je zaklju?ak da bi proizvodnja biogoriva iz algi svakako mogla dosti?i željene razine. U ono doba studije su pokazale i jedan veliki nedostatak: zaklju?eno je da postupak ne bi bio financijski opravdan sve i da se cijena sirove nafte udvostru?i. Ovaj zaklju?ak imao je solidnu potporu sve do 2006 godine u kojoj se cijena nafte gotovo utrostru?ila u odnosu na prošlu dekadu, a cijena nafte je i dalje rasla. Uz trenutne probleme globalnog zatopljenja i visoke cijene sirove nafte stvorile su se idealne prilike za ponovnu evaluaciju ovog izvora energije. 

Tehnologije za uzgoj algi (Algal Growth System)

 

Prozvodnja biogoriva u Hrvatskom Centru Obnovljivih Izvora Energije (HCOIE)

Proizvodnja biogoriva iz algi vrlo je zanimljivo podru?je istraživanja mnogim znanstvenicima diljem planeta, jedan on vode?ih centara za takova istraživanja je laboratorij za pogone i konverziju energije (The Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory - EECL) na sveu?ilištu Colorado State University. Ovaj laboratorij usmjeren je prema tehnologijama koje bi omogu?ile industrijska rješenja za energetske i ekološke izazove. Glavni projekt laboratorija fokusiran je na proizvodnju biogoriva iz algi i trebao bi rezultirati cjenovno prihvatljivom tehnologijom za proizvodnju goriva. Jedan od glavnih igra?a na tom polju svakako je tvrtka Solix Biofuels, kompanija koje je usavršila nekoliko generacija sustava za uzgoj algi (Algal Growth System - AGS), tehnologije koja je sad operativna na pokaznom polju Coyote Gulch u jugozapadnom Coloradu.

Tvrtka Solix Biofuels je vode?a u proizvodnju tehnologija za kreiranje iskoristive energije iz algi. Njihova tehnologija usmjerena je na omogu?avanje velike komercijalizacije goriva temeljenih na mikroalgama i dodatnih koprodukata. Alge se mogu uzgajati na dva osnovna na?ina – sustav otvorenog bazena (prirodnog ili umjetno napravljenog) ili umjetni zatvoreni sustav. Alge moraju biti vrlo otporne na nametnike za uzgoj u otvorenim sustavima jer su to uvjeti koje nije lako kontrolirati.

Bez kontroliranih uvjeta teško je održavati rast željene vrste algi, odnosno održati rast na optimalnoj razini za proizvodnju biogoriva. Ovo je glavni razlog zašto Solix Biofuels uglavnom razvija zatvorene sustave za uzgoj algi. Zatvoreni sustavi imaju nekoliko prednosti: ne samo da zatvoreni sustavi omogu?avaju uzgoj odre?ene kulture, nego se alge u tim sustavima mogu direktno hraniti visoko koncentriranim uglji?nim dioksidom iz industrijskih procesa, a to naravno maksimizira koli?inu „ulovljenog“ uglji?nog dioksida koji bi ina?e bio ispušten u atmosferu. Prvi prototip AGS sustava napravljen je 2006 godine. Od onda kompanija radi na usavršavanju tehnologije i znatno je proširila površinu na kojima uzgaja alge. Posljednji veliki uspjeh dolazi iz srpnja 2009 kad su instalirali veliki sustav za proizvodnju biogoriva na pokaznom polju Coyote Gulch.

Što su zapravo postigli? 

Zapo?eli su s velikim izazovom: prvo je trebalo razviti procese za skupljanje podataka i kontroliranje rasta ta automatizirani AGS. Željeli su jedinstvenu tehnološku platformu koja bi podržavala i prirodne i industrijske operacije. U prirodnim uvjetima sustav treba biti prilagodljiv pa je bilo potrebno mnogo kemijskih i fizi?kih senzora te kontrola protoka. Za operacije u industrijskom okruženju glavni je naglasak bio na stabilnoj, pouzdanoj i jednostavnoj platformi koja ima su?elja prema industrijskoj instrumentaciji i kontrolama. Industrijska okruženja tako?er moraju imati sustave skupljanja podataka u zajedni?ki repozitorij da bi se informacije mogle jedinstveno prezentirati svim zainteresiranim stranama: menadžerima, operativi i odjelu za istraživanja i razvoj. Zbog toga je kreiran cijeli sustav za nadzor i skupljanje podataka (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) uklju?uju?i i su?elje za monitoriranje i kontrolu rasta algi.

Pokusna energana uklju?uje raznovrsne sustave izgra?ene za proizvodnju plina i tokova vode, sam sustav za uzgoj algi, sustave za skupljanje algi i kona?no sustave za proizvodnju biogoriva. Svi ovi sustavi omogu?uju im vrlo precizno skupljanje podataka i ispitivanje odaziva razli?itih vrsta algi na razli?ite uvjete uzgoja. 

Zaklju?ak 

Alge u procesu HCOIE

Biogoriva temeljena na algama definitivno imaju potencijala pokrenuti revoluciju u energetskoj industriji i mogla bi igrati vode?u ulogu u borbi protiv stakleni?kih plinova i klimatskih promjena. Naravno, da bi se došlo do toga morat ?e se pokrenuti još mnoga istraživanja i biti ?e potrebna znatna financijska sredstva. Kompanije poput Solix Biofuels su pioniri koji bi mogli pogurati ovaj energetski sektor u jedan od najkompetitivnijih na energetskom tržištu. Lobiji iza fosilnih goriva su još uvijek prejaki, ali s rastu?im problemom globalnih klimatskih promjena ti lobiji bi uskoro mogli u odre?enoj mjeri oslabiti, ?ime bi se širom otvorila vrata alternativnim gorivima. Jedna od alternativa koja svakako zaslužuje pažnju u godinama koje dolaze su biogoriva iz algi. Njihov energetski potencijal, ?injenica da ne pretvaramo hranu u gorivo i znatno smanjene ukupne emisije stakleni?kih plinova trebali bi im osigurati dovoljna financijska sredstva za daljnja istraživanja.

Potražnja za energijom ne?e se smanjivati u godinama koje dolaze nego ?e rasti i biti ?e potrebna alternativna goriva bez obzira koliko ?e dominantna ostati fosilna goriva. Proizvodnja biogoriva iz algi mogla bi biti jedna od iznena?uju?ih takmaca na polju alternativnih goriva u ne tako dalekoj budu?nosti, osobito ako cijene fosilnih goriva budu rasle. A u me?uvremenu bi kompanije i udruženja poput ameri?ke Solix Biofuels ili hrvatskog HCOIE trebale nastaviti svoja istraživanja i ukazivati na prednosti koje ovakav proces ima. Ovime bi se svijest o toj alternativi znatno proširila i implementacija proizvodnje na globalnoj razini postala bi mogu?a kad za to do?e vrijeme, a vrijeme je SAD.

Hrvatski Centar Obnovljivih Izvora Energije (HCOIE)

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Bees Butterflies and interpreting the theme

Well it has occurred to me that perhaps I have been a little hasty. A forest garden is a great idea but where will all the flowers be? Once the fruit blossom is over there will be very few and excited as I am about the forest garden concept, I love to have colour all through the season. So, having been entranced by Sarah Ravens series about attracting pollinators to the garden, I have decided that I am going to reinterpret the forest garden theme in order to bring in the insects to the garden and in the long term, help good fruit set!

So what does this mean? Well actually its really good news I think. It means I can still have Dahlias as long as they are single blossoms that have plenty of nectar like the one above, taken at Oxford Botanic Garden last summer, along with its visiting bee. I can also have zinnias, sunflowers, cornflowers, and ammi to name but a few along side pots of annual meadow mixes which I shall trial to see which attracts most of the good guys that we want.

Now I genuinely know this will help to pollinate the fruit I am also going to grow. At work we have bee hives. looked after by a great guy by the name of Arnold who is utterly adorable. Pre bees we grew fruit on the nursery and we had a reasonable amount of fruit each year. However, since the bees something little short of miraculous has taken place. The apples, pears and nectarines have all fruited like crazy as have the grapevines and kiwis. Plus we have seen an increase in birds, with all 9 of our small bird boxes used last year and several nests in heating ducts and trees and last year we found Great Crested Newts in one of our glasshouses. Already this year weve seen birds looking at the boxes and today the bees were flying around and we had hoverflies dancing around in the Daphnes which I have realised, smell like lemon sherberts.

So by growing the right plants to attract in the good guys Ill have great fruit set and hopefully a garden that has enough biodiversity to look after itself and see of any bad guys that might try to come in. I will, of course, report back!!

A bee!! And a happy one!!

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New Tools!!

Recently Poundland released a range of gardening tools that are endorsed by Charlie Dimmock. The tools are at the usual Poundland price point of £1, and there has been some discussion around how good they would be or whether they might just fall apart as soon as they are used. There have been some very unpleasant comments made on social media about not just these tools, but also about the store in general and those who its assumed fall into the demographic that shop there. Not surprisingly I found that really distasteful, with peoples social assumptions coming to the fore, most of which were assumptions that were completely unfounded. I shop in Poundland from time to time!!

Charlie Dimmock has clearly said they are good quality, but with all the nay sayers I decided there was only one way to see what they are like, and that, of course, was to go and buy some and give them a go. So heres what I bought....

Just to clarify I bought a pair of what are called pruning shears but are basically secateurs, a hand fork, a cultivation/ weeding type tool, a hanging basket and a pair of pots with cloche tops which I was very pleased to see had ventilation in the top. 

Today I used them. 

And I was impressed. I began by sowing some of Thompson and Morgans new Antirrhinum variety, Lucky Lips, into one of the pots that come with cloche lids. The pots are sturdy and the lids have ventilation which is amazing for 50p per unit. Ive popped them onto a windowsill and Im looking forward to watching them germinate. 

Now I know its early to sow things outside but I found some Nigella seeds in 2 varieties, Mulberry Rose from Pennards and Midnight from Thompson and Morgan, and I had an area at the back of the garden that really needed addressing. Theres a lot of mind your own business in our garden that needs bringing under control, and in this area its bad, so I used the cultivator and the fork to clear it out. 

And they did a grand job!! Not only did the fork put up with my very typical Bristol clay beds, but the cultivation tool ripped through bamboo root and pulled it all out, as well as clearing lots of the mind your own business and the cleavers that are starting to germinate. Hopefully that area will be full of Nigella and Calendula in a few months. 

I also sowed Thompson and Morgans new Nastutium for hanging baskets, Cream Troika, straight into the hanging basket, which I was pleased to see had drainage holes already and a really sturdy chain. Ive popped that into the greenhouse, and hope those seeds will pop through soon, although I hope theyll wait until after the cold snap we keep hearing about.

Im guessing now that some people will be wondering why I have done this? 

The simple truth is that for many of the communities I work with, and with many people I speak to, the cost of tools is one of the barriers to gardening. Firstly people often dont know what they need, and then when they work that out, having costed it up at perhaps one of the DIY superstores, financially its just not affordable. Even looking at B&Qs cheaper range, the cost of garden fork, spade, hand tools, a rake and a fairly basic pair of secateurs is at least £50, which is quite a considerable investment, particularly if gardening is something that is not within a persons comfort zone, or something theyve ever tried before. For people struggling to pay bills, put a roof over their families head, hold down jobs that might have unsociable hours, and look after families generally, these tools will help break down that barrier and enable gardening to be a part of their lives. In the knowledge that gardening, being outside and taking gentle exercise is good for both our physical and mental health, getting stressed out people out into the garden and growing something, has to be positive for healthy cities. 

Of course the great thing about the internet is that there is a lot of good information out there about how to garden, on You Tube, in blogs and vlogs. You Tube channels like @10MinGardener and his learn-how-to-garden.com and Sean Camerons youtube.com/thehortchannel.com are great ways of learning how to garden by following well researched how to type posts on line. There are also lots of bloggers who visit gardens and talk about their gardens which are often truly inspirational too. I have a whole raft of these online resources that I recommend to people and even if they dont have access to the Internet at home, community centres and libraries are great places to access these resources and are all well used here in Bristol.

So now I know these tools are also good quality and useable, the work to get people gardening here goes on with another barrier begun to be broken down. Well done Poundland!! 

 

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Lettuce Growing Tips

Today’s article is about one of the favorite and easiest vegetable. We have discussed spinach growing. Now today we will discuss about its cousin the Lettuce.

Lettuce is very easy to grow and probably the most favorite vegetable after tomatoes. You can also use container gardening methods to grow them. As discussed in our earlier article lettuce being a leafy vegetable, Lettuce grows pretty well in shade (click here to know about shade gardening) also. 

Like almost all other vegetables lettuce also prefer nutrient enriched well drained soil. A pH of 6 to 7 is ideal for lettuce. It is not a plant of the summers. Too much heat will result in faster bolting and will make the leaves taste bitter. An ideal temperature ranges from 45 to 75 degree F.

The best part of lettuce planting is that you do not need to bother much about the spacing. You can space them wide or you can plant them very close they will adapt to the spacing.
Sow the seeds only ½ cm deep in to the soil. You can also use coconut coir or Perlite to grow the seedlings.

To make the soil more fertile add compost to the soil before planting. You can also add bone meal, cotton seed meal etc. Choose the manure which has nitrogen in high quantity. Leafy greens like lettuce flourish in nitrogen.

Lettuces do not have deep root system; most of the water it absorbs is from surface and near by. So it is very important that you keep you soil moist. A thick layer of mulch will save them from weed infestation and also retain the water inside the soil.

Normally your lettuce plant can handle little bit of slug and aphid problems. But if you feel the need to make your plants pest free use organic pest control techniques.

The best time to harvest lettuces is in the morning; that is the time when they are crispiest. Harvest with a knife. If the variety forms head; cut it right below the head and separate it from the stem. Some varieties do not form the head. Well in that case harvest the leaves from the outer side of the plant and leave the central core intact. This process will give you continuous supply of lettuce. You can choose any type of leaf be it mature or tender. The immature leaves taste best with the salads.



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Used Tea in Gardening Use

Today we will discuss the use of used tea leaves in gardening. We all love tea. What better it would be if we can use the tea leaves after taking out the liquor from it and use it in garden.

Tea leaves are very rich in organic materials, disposing them like trash is like throwing out valuable natural resource. Adding them in the compost pile will reduce the need of adding other fertilizers.

They are a fantastic source of Nitrogen. After taking out the tea liquor, the remaining leaves can be used as a great source of nitrogen in the compost pile. It can be a good supplement to balance the brown materials (rich in carbon) of the compost pile. To know more about carbon nitrogen balance check out our earlier article on composting ingredients.

You can take out the tea leaves from the tea with a strainer.  Store these along with your kitchen scraps. Once the bucket gets filled dump them into the compost heap and let them decompose.

If you are using tea bags to prepare tea, you can use the bags also as composting ingredient. But while dumping the tea bags, cut them open and take the tea leaves out.  Not all tea bags can decompose. In cases where the bags are made up of nylons, they will not do any help in composting. Some tea bags can be made up of paper or silk they will decompose but the rate will be very different from the leaves. That is why it makes sense to take out the leaves from the bags.

Tea leaves can also be used as mulch. Unlike other kitchen scraps, tea leaves don’t need to be composted before applying as mulch. Tea leaves hold water in large quantity. So don’t apply if your garden soil is damp and your plant requires dryer soil.

Tea leaves also protect the plant from many soil borne diseases. It is a little acidic in nature so mixing with soil will decrease the pH of the soil, and provide ideal growing condition for many plants. Tea leaves are rich potassium (K) and phosphorous (K) apart from Nitrogen (N), which are key elements in plant growth. Tea leaves are beneficial for Mushrooms in particular. Tea leaves mixed with peat moss works wonder for Mushrooms. Apart from Mushrooms tea leaves have also shown good results in rose cultivation.


 
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GRANPA DOME Farming Beneath a Dome

 

GRANPA DOME Farming Beneath a Dome

Special Report : Farming Beneath a Dome

In our first "Special Report", we take a look at a uniquely shaped plant factory, which is up and running in one of the devastated areas from the Great East Japan Earthquake. Within its dome is a circular vegetable cultivation stage.

This is a dome-type plant factory produced by a company named Granpa. Curly lettuce is grown inside this 29-meter diameter dome. A maximum of 14,000 heads of lettuce can be grown in one dome. The harvest varies according to the season, but roughly 250 to 400 heads of lettuce can be picked a day. For now, eight domes have been up and running since September 2012 at Rikuzen Takata Farm in Iwate prefecture. The company that developed them already had one operating in Kanagawa prefecture which is what led to the interest by Rikuzen Takata City. This dome allows the planting of seedlings while standing up straight, which is impossible when planting things outside. The strong point of the plant factory is that it can supply a stable amount of vegetables every day with a constant quality. Additionally, post-harvest work is also relatively easy, as the inside of the dome is always kept clean. The dome plant factory different from the square ones is the product of a number of ideas. It foretells the future of farming and also brings hope to the devastated areas.

 

CROATIAN CENTER OF RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES (CCRES)

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Growing Tips For Banana

Growing Banana is not very tough. Anybody can use their backyard to grow them. This article will give you some insight into banana growing.

Ideal pH for growing good quality banana is 6.5. As like most of the fruit bearing plants, Banana also requires a good amount of water and full sunlight. Experts suggest a place where 12 hours of sunlight is available. Please make note of this while planting the plant.

Most people use tissue cultured banana transplant for planting. This is not a plant which you consider growing from the seeds.

One of the most important parts of growing quality banana is to prepare the soil with good drainage. Best way to make sure that your soil will retain water and will not get water logged is to add Coconut coir or Perlite with the soil. While planting make sure that the roots of the plant get covered with the soil with at least ½ inch depth.

Banana plants are very voracious eaters. Adding compost from time to time can really help the plant to grow. To prevent them from competition with other weeds, use a thick layer of mulch to cover the base.

A little bit of trimming is essential for banana plants. Remove all the leaves which are diseased or became yellow. It will help the water and other nutrients to reach the healthy parts of the plant resulting in good quality yield.

Banana plant also release many sucker from the base. It is better to remove them in early stages. Once the main plant become taller (close to 2 meter) you can let the suckers to grow into other banana plants.

Bananas taste best when they have ripened in the plant. Remove them once they become yellow. It is also possible to remove the whole bunch in a single time. In this case they will ripe inside your house. But be careful, a whole bunch of banana can weigh close to 45 kilos. Take somebody’s help in removing them from the plant.

Banana is a great source for nutrition. It is filled with vitamin A, B6, C, minerals such as Potassium and lots of fiber.


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The Garden Gurus

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Bonsai The Japanese Miniature Plantation

Beautiful bonsai trees --- Buy now

Bonsai is a thousand years old Japanese culture of growing plants which has one of the unique aesthetics of its own. The word Bon means a small tray or a low sided pot and sai refers to planting. So the term bonsai if translated in English means planting in tray. It is the miniature form of a fully grown tree grown in a small pot.

Unlike other gardening practices, Bonsai is not for growing foods, medicines or park sized landscaping rather it is a pleasant exercise for effort and ingenuity. It is the delight gained from recreating the plants as seen in the nature in miniature form.

Though some particular species of plant became very popular because of smaller leaves and other attractive features, you can create bonsai with literally any perennial trees or shrubs that produces true branches and can sustain crown and root pruning.

The time and cost of raising a particular bonsai varies from species to species. There are many ways to start a bonsai. Let me mention few of them to you.

If you are not a very patient person you can buy a previously trained bonsai. It will definitely reduce your time and effort and particularly ideal for the beginners.

You can also find wild plant in its natural surroundings which has been shaped by mother nature. You can start from cutting of the heridetically identical trees. these have better success rates when comparing with the process of starting from the seeds. One of the plus points of staring a bonsai from seeds is you can create rare varieties of bonsai with very small price and huge production. Grafting methods are also in use for creating your favorite bonsai. 

An aesthetically superior bonsai needs to be healthy. The proper combination of soil, water, air and sunlight is very critical for the growth of a bonsai. There are no fixed formula for this it varies species to species, climate to climate. You need to do some trial and error before fixing the optimum combination. I have written two blog earlier on watering techniques and the role of sunlight in plantation you can check these two for your reference also.

Trunk is the most appealing part of the bonsai. You can work on making the trunk well-formed and with smooth curves. Also you can adjust branch locations, foliage distribution etc to give your bonsai much more attractive look. Along with the trunk roots also create a natural beauty for the bonsai. A surface root structure called nebari is always a defining point in bonsai.

The bending of trunks and branches is called wiring. You have to do wiring at the very young stages of the plant to give it a shape of a tree. These have to be done until you reach your final shape of the bonsai. To keep the size of the plant to a miniature form you need to continuously do pruning. Pruning had to be done on the branches, leaves, buds etc. Pruning of the roots have to be done with proper care and at the time of re-potting. A detailed article on different types of pruning is here

Bonsai basically is an outdoor activity. Though it can be grown indoor it is quite difficult and its success is limited to the tropical countries. But if you are determined to place it indoor it will advisable to start with a plant like Ficus. They can withstand a lot of abuse and not very sensitive to the surroundings compared to the other plants. It is also cheap and easy to find.

If you got your motivation level rising to do a bonsai after reading this article, I would suggest you to do a through research on the same before jumping in. Here is one great resource you can refer to for more detailed stuffs which will give you a step by step guide to bonsai. 

All the best.

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CCRES Algal Production Facility

CCRES First Pilot-scale Algal Production Facility

 
Nears Completion

An algal production facility located at the CCRES Research Farm will be operational by June. This is the first facility at Croatia that can produce large amounts of algal biomass.

The facility is a 800 square-foot greenhouse that will accommodate two raceway pond systems, four large flat panel photobioreactors and one custom-made revolving attachment-based photobioreactor. The total production capacity will be 100-200 dried kilograms of algae biomass per year.

CCRES Researchers will use the various production systems to quickly grow algal biomass for various research purposes including the production of renewable fuels, food or animal feed. "This greenhouse algal production system will be a test bed for different researchers to try out their algal production capability at a large scale," said Zeljko Serdar, President of CCRES ALGAE TEAM.

"The raceway pond systems are each 20 feet in length and both systems can hold approximately 1,000 liters of algae culture medium. Raceway pond systems are the most common method for large-scale algae cultivation. At first glance, the four flat panel photobioreactors appear to be large tanks," said Ilam Shuhani, Chairman of the CCRES Supervisory Board and professor-in-charge of the greenhouse. 

CCRES ALGAE TEAM

part of 

Croatian Center of Renewable Energy Sources (CCRES)

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Grow Your Own Wedding Flowers Georgie Newberys latest flower farming book is here!!

Being sent a copy of Georgie Newberys new book, which, by the way will be published in early November, was a complete treat and made my day on Saturday when it arrived. It is a thing of beauty. A coffee table tome. The kind of book you would be proud to display when you wanted to show off a bit perhaps. Its cover is a beautiful bouquet that could only have come from Common Farm Flowers, full of exquisitely conditioned roses and sweet peas, fennel and poppy seed heads. It is a quintessentially English bouquet that any bride would be thrilled to have as part of her special day.

Now to actually review a book by a friend is hard, and so, frankly, Im not even going to pretend that is what this is. However, I do have one issue and that is the name of the book, Grow Your Own Wedding Flowers, ought to be Find A Wedding To Grow Flowers For, because this book is not just how to grow flowers for your wedding. It goes far beyond that. From cutting and conditioning, to quantities of stems needed and advice on how best to manage the floristry as well as tips on scheduling and how to manage the flowers and floristry at the same time as everything else, what this book gives the reader is an insight into how Common Farm Flowers grow, manage and cut for weddings every season of every year. But you could change the word wedding and add any event that flowers might be appropriate at and this book is for you. In fact you could decide you wanted to grow a great bouquet for yourself, a friend or relative and this book is for you. And even if you decide not to grow your own flowers, this book is full of inspiration to help you decide what you want from your event flowers.

What I found really wonderful are the four chapters that help the reader to decide what it is they are going to grow for the appropriate season that their special day falls in. It doesnt just concentrate on what you can grow, although it covers that comprehensively with sections on annuals, perennials, bulbs and shrubs, but it also looks at how wild flowers, the plants already growing in the garden, including plants for foliage, can be added into the palette of plants being produced, as well as separate sections on how to cut and condition these. Alongside these are sections about the symbolism and meaning of individual flowers; daisies for loyal love, sunflowers for loyalty and longevity and on each page are the most startlingly beautiful photographs of weddings that Common Farm Flowers have created both flowers and floristry for.

What is particularly special about this book though, more than the words and the photos, is the insight into the work that Georgie and her amazing team put into not only each and every wedding they create such wonderful floristry for, but in fact the work and effort behind running such a hugely successful business as Common Farm Flowers is. She speaks lovingly of slow flowers, allying the way she and Fabrizio work the land with the Slow Food movement, one at which love and care for the land and the other species that inhabit it is constantly at the centre of everything they do. She speaks of organic practises, compost teas and the gentle ways in which they steward the land from which these magnificent flowers are cut and with this knowledge it is no wonder that the quality of both the flowers and the floristry sing through.

At Common Farm Flowers a successful business has been made growing flowers for cutting and creating floristry with those flowers in a way that is kind to the earth, wildlife and people. This book proves that you can have an ecologically sound and principled business, producing a really extraordinary product that is also sustainable and principled. Take this book and apply the principles to your garden and you wont go far wrong, in both growing and ecological practises. And you will have some magnificent flowers that you could, if you wanted to, use for a wedding.

I forgot to mention that Sarah Raven wrote the foreword. I also forgot to mention that if you can get through the acknowledgements without a tear, then you are a less sentimental soul than I!

As a little addendum I have to mention the Common Farm Meadows. Teaming with butterflies, pollinators and full of orchids and native wild flowers, they are a complete marvel and speak of Fabrizios understanding and love of the land for which he cares. Whilst Georgie is the force behind the floristry and the commercial business, Fabrizio manages the land, always with an eye on the natural turning of the seasons and the vast amount of other species who inhabit the land alongside the family and the team. Once upon a time I commented that these meadows are on a par with those at Great Dixter, and those who know me also know I would never say such a thing unless I truly meant it. This summer they were stunning and could only have been brought into being by a man who knows the land. I doff my cap to Fabrizio, steward of the extraordinary land at Common Farm.

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