Home and Garden Projects update 6 22

I recently fenced in my garden area to keep the neighborhood cats out. I ran out of straw, but luckily a local tree removal device is going to drop off 2 cubic yards of wood chips this week for free. I have some Stropharia (aka Wine Cap, aka Garden Giant, aka Portabello) mushroom spawn to mix into the wood chips. Im also getting 2 bales of straw next weekend for a couple straw bale gardens I want to play with.

Hey, put me down, Im not done eating!

Exploding with life!

So far Ive harvested:

Swiss Chard, Lettuce, Lambs Quarter, Radishes, and Beets

Some yard mushrooms.

Burdock in the yard.

Orange spots on the backyard apple tree. My landlord hasnt taken good care of it, so Im hoping to do some trimming and try to bring it back to health. Branches crossing, its a mess. Already, there are lots of apples forming, though!

Heres a short video showing the IBC Tote Aquaponic System that Im contructing at my parents house in Delaware.  Its finally just about ready for fish and plants.

While at work, I realized that the trees outside the cafeteria are Juneberries! They were ripe and delicious.

I got about 3.5 cups of Juneberries (aka Service berry, aka Shadbush, aka Shadberry.

My girlfriend baked them into a Juneberry crisp dessert for my family reunion.

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Organic Pest Control

Organic Home Pest Control Spray - click here to buy

This article is an follow up of my earlier article on organic gardening. I have already discussed what it means to be organic and the benefits of going organic. Most of us start with being organic in mind and start growing vegetables organically. But once they see some aphids or other insects in their garden all the initial hard work with organic manure or compost goes in vain and to prevent pest from eating away the vegetables they take the help of many chemical pesticides. I would request you before opting for that option, please give a try with organic pest controlling. And this blog will definitely help you to do so.

Your Garden is always full with life. A home where the door is always open for various insects and other critters as it is a source of food. I can always feel your frustration while you spot a bug on your favorite vegetables for which you have spent so many hours in the sun. But don’t worry, many insects which are in your garden is not necessarily bad for your Garden, rather some of them might help you in controlling or reducing the impact of other potentially threatening insects.

The first thing you need to understand while practicing Organic Gardening is that everything in nature are in balanced condition. So many garden plant have their own way of self defense and they are a lot tougher than what we might think. They can even tolerate little bit of damage and still produce good quality fruits and flowers.

A healthy plant is the first thing you should focus to grow. Good soil(or soil-less mix) produces good quality plant. Their carbohydrate, protein and fat ratios are in proper balance. If the soil is not proper it can result in plants which are undernourished. This type of plants usually produce more Carbohydrate(sugar) than other two components. More sugar always attracts more insects as they thrive on sugar.

Once you take all the necessary steps to produce good and healthy quality crops now its time to shift your focus towards protecting those. But spraying pesticides on plants is not an option if you also want to protect the environment you live in. In a dilemma like this organic pest controlling techniques comes as a savior to us. By following these techniques we can battle most of the destructive insects and protect our food.

As it says preventions is always better than cure. Build up barrier such as collars, and netting to prevent pests from attacking the plants. You can also handpick some of the bugs and remove it in case they are shown on the plant.

It is always a great option to try companion planting. Some plants have beneficial impact on other plants in terms of pest removal and so planting them close by can definitely reduce or eliminate the pest attacks. Find the details of companion planting here.

There are several insects like lady-beetle, ground beetle and wasps in your garden who fed on many aphids and worms. Don’t make use of mass killer and destroys those beneficial insects also.

Don’t water your plants in the evening it can increase the pest infestation in the plant. For detail guide on watering your plants click here.

You can use neem oil to remove pests. It is a very well known organic mode of pest control. Apart from neem oil, insecticidal soap, different horticultural oil are also helpful. Garlic, tobacco and several other plants have strong smell which deter pests.

Using sticky and light traps are helpful to catch bigger insects and moths. Some birds also fed on those insects.

These are some of the steps which are most popular tricks in controlling pests organically. There are so many other steps which have been n practice for different countries from ages. Please let us know if you are currently using or aware of any such technique.

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The Effects of Astaxanthin Weight Control

 

 

Physical Endurance and Muscle Recovery

 

Work, Sport, Leisure – in fact all physical activity will generate reactive oxygen species (ROS); the more intense the activity the greater number of free radicals. ROS are shown to have damaging effects on muscle performance and recovery. Published and on-going research, focused on improving endurance and reducing recovery time, are showing dramatic benefits linked to the potent carotenoid - astaxanthin. These findings are bringing astaxanthin to the forefront as a dietary supplement for professional athletes and physically active people.

Important to physical activity are our mitochondrial cells, often referred to as the “power stations of the cell” , which provide as much as 95% of our body’s pure energy (primarily by the burning of muscle glycogen and fatty acids). Unfortunately, a portion of this energy produces highly reactive and damaging ROS. ROS damage cells by triggering peroxidation of the cell membrane components, and oxidation of DNA and proteins. Furthermore, ROS continue to affect muscles even after the strenuous exercise has ceased. ROS activate the inflammation response whereby monocytes migrate into the muscle tissue causing additional cell damage. Often we will notice the onset of muscle damage during recovery in the form of tiredness and soreness. In addition to improving muscle performance through devised exercise regime, the sports research community is looking at other methods, such as nutrition to fuel and protect the body under extreme physical conditions. In the past, Vitamins E and C helped make the use of antioxidants a popular tool against oxidative damage during intense physical activity. Today, informed by current research we can point to astaxanthin as the antioxidant of choice for sports performance. Astaxanthin demonstrated 3 important physical benefits in clinical trials and supporting studies. Astaxanthin increased endurance, reduced muscle damage and improved lipid metabolism.

Astaxanthin Boosts Endurance

In a randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled study on healthy men supplemented with 4 mg astaxanthin per day for up to 6 months at Karolinska Institute, Sweden, standardized exercise tests demonstrated that the average number of knee bends performed increased only in the astaxanthin treated group at 3 months, and by the 6 month significant improvements were observed (Figure 1) (Malmsten & Lignell, 2008).

Figure 1. Increase in strength/endurance (Malmsten & Lignell, 2008)

   

Astaxanthin improved strength/endurance at 3 and 6 months determined by the average number of knee bends per person.

Figure 2. Effect of astaxanthin on swimming time (Ikeuchi et al., 2006)  

Astaxanthin improves endurance in a dose-dependant manner.

In another study, Aoi et al., (2008) demonstrated that astaxanthin may modify muscle metabolism by its antioxidant property and result in improved muscle performance and weight loss benefits. After 4 weeks the mice running time to exhaustion had significantly improved by up to 20 % , (2002) of Juntendo University, Japan, demonstrated by using 1200 meter track athletes, that a daily dose of 6 mg per day for 4 weeks resulted in their bodies accumulating lower levels of lactic acid (Figure 3). Ikeuchi et al., (2006) also reported the same findings and furthermore, astaxanthin efficacy had a dose-dependent response (Figure 4).

Figure 3. Reduction of lactic acid build-up after astaxanthin supplementation in track subjects (Sawaki et al., 2002) 

Figure 4. Effect of astaxanthin on blood lactate during swimming for 15 minutes (Ikeuchi et al., 2006)  

Astaxanthin reduced build-up of lactic acid in a dose-dependant manner.

In a double blind controlled placebo study, healthy women (n= 32; age-23-60) who ingested 12 mg of astaxanthin for 6 weeks significantly reduced their body fat (4%) when conducting routine walking exercise, compared to a placebo group. In addition, while control group increased their lactic acid by 31% compared to the astaxanthin group - only 13%

The Mechanism

The mechanism behind muscle endurance is based on several findings. Generally, astaxanthin protected the skeletal muscle from the increased damage of oxidative stress generated by physical activity. Furthermore, astaxanthin increased the metabolism of lipids as the main source of energy production by protecting the carnitine palmitoyltransferase I (CPT I) involved in fatty acid transport into mitochondria. Aoi et al., (2003) of Kyoto Prefecture University used mice models that may partially explain the efficacy of astaxanthin; they compared control, exercise placebo, and astaxanthin treated exercise groups after intense physical activity. 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal-modified-protein (4-HNE) stain analyses of the calf (gastrocnemius) muscles revealed significantly lower peroxidation damage (Figure 5).

Figure 5. Effect of astaxanthin on 4-HNE-modifed proteins in leg muscle before and after exercise (Aoi et al., 2003)

Other biochemical markers for oxidative damage and inflammation such as DNA, (2003) also explained that astaxanthin directly modulates inflammation caused by the release of the pro-inflammatory cytokines and mediators. In vivo and in vitro tests demonstrate that astaxanthin inhibits the I?B Kinase (IKK) dependant activation of the Nuclear Factor-kB (NF-?B) pathway, a key step in the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines and mediators. Aoi et al., 2008 also demonstrated increased lipid metabolism compared to carbohydrate as the main source of energy during strenuous activity (Figure 6). Furthermore, analysis of the mitochondrial lipid transport enzyme known as carnitine palmitoyltransferase I (CPT I) revealed increased fat localization (Figure 7) and reduction of oxidative damage in the presence of astaxanthin (Figure 8). CPT I is important because it regulates fatty acyl-CoA entry into the mitochondria in the oxidation of fatty acids in muscle. Exercise-induced ROS may partly limit utilization of fatty acid via diminishing CPT I activity.

Figure 6. Fat substrate utilization increased with astaxanthin (Aoi et al., 2008)

   

 Calculated from the respiratory exchange ratio (RER) and oxygen consumption. Values are means ± SE obtained from 8 mice.

Figure 7. Increased amount of FAT/CD36 that coimmunoprecipitated with CPT I skeletal muscle after a single session of exercise at 30 m/min for 30 min (Aoi et al., 2008)  

Values are means ± SE obtained from 6 mice.

Figure 8. Astaxanthin reduced the amount of HEL-modified CPT1 in skeletal muscle after a single session of exercise at 30m/min for 30min (Aoi et al., 2008)  

Values are means ± SE obtained from 6 mice.

Outlook

 

Strenuous physical activity generates high levels of ROS which affect muscle performance and metabolism of lipids. New research shows that astaxanthin can modify muscle metabolism via its antioxidant effect, resulting in the improvement of muscle function during exercise. Therefore, astaxanthin is expected to be useful for physically active people as well as athletes.

References

1. Aoi W, Naito Y, Sakuma K, Kuchide M, Tokuda H, Maoka T, Toyokuni S, Oka S, Yasuhara M, Yoshikawa T. (2003). Astaxanthin limits exercise-induced skeletal and cardiac muscle damage in mice. Antioxid Redox Signal, 5(1):139-144.
2. Aoi W, Naito Y, Takanami Y, Ishii T, Kawai Y, Akagiri S, Kato Y, Osawa T, Yoshikawa T. (2008). Astaxanthin improves muscle lipid metabolism in exercise via inhibitory effect of oxidative CPT I modification. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Com., 366:892–897.
3. Fukamauchi, M. (2007). Food Functionality of astaxanthin-10: Synergistic effects of astaxanthin-10 intake and aerobic exercise. Food Style 21, 11(10). [In Japanese]
4. Ikeuchi M, Koyama T, Takahashi J, Yazawa K. (2006). Effects of astaxanthin supplementation on exercise-induced fatigue in mice. Bio. Pharm. Bull., 29(10):2106-2110.
5. Lee SJ, Bai SK, Lee KS, Namkoong S, Na HJ, Ha KS, Han JA, Yim SV, Chang K, Kwon YG, Lee SK, Kim YM. (2003). Astaxanthin Inhibits Nitric Oxide Production and Inflammatory Gene Expression by Suppressing I?B Kinase-dependent NF-?B Activation. Mol. Cells, 16(1):97-105.
6. Malmsten C, Lignell A. (2008). Dietary supplementation with astaxanthin rich algal meal improves muscle endurance – a double blind study on male students. Carotenoid Science 13:20-22.
7. Sawaki K, Yoshigi H, Aoki K, Koikawa N, Azumane A, Kaneko K, Yamaguchi M. (2002). Sports performance benefits from taking natural astaxanthin characterized by visual activity and muscle fatigue improvements in humans. J Clin.Therap. Med., 18(9):73- 88.

CCRES special thanks to 

 Mr. Mitsunori Nishida, 

 
President of Corporate Fuji Chemical Industry Co., Ltd.

Croatian Center of Renewable Energy Sources (CCRES) 

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NIWA Smartphone Control of your Hydroponic Garden

I recently learned about a new product concept for an indoor hydroponic garden that looks like it has potential.

NIWA (www.getniwa.com) is a pretty slick looking 5 liter recirculating hydroponic system with lights and automation controlled from your smartphone.

Compared to the Aquafarm from Back to the Roots, this looks like a more serious food production system. The Aquafarm is a nice, compact system that can grow some herbs and is a good introduction to aquaponic gardening, the NIWA looks to be able to produce some serious food, and I suspect the price will reflect this increase in performance. NIWA claims to be able to grow tomatoes, strawberries, orchids, or medical plants.

Ive been in contact with Aga, one of the founders of NIWA, and asked about integration with a fish tank for an aquaponic system. While they havent yet worked with any aquaponic experts to determine what would need to be done to the system to integrate aquaponics, they will be offering a maker-kit on the kickstarter which will include the electronics and gear inside with instructions to build the system on your own. I can imagine this could be used to hack an aquaponic version.

Some of my favorite features:

Automatic nutrient and irrigation adjustment for different plants. You dont have to do additional research, just tell NIWA what youre growing, and the nutrients and irrigation cycles are adjusted to optimize growth. Or, if you want to experiment, you can manually adjust the settings.

Automatic heating, ventilation, humidity, and lighting control. NIWA claims to monitor climate. In the system and automatically adjusts for optimal growth. If there is enough light in the room, the lights will be off.  If the room isnt bright enough, NIWA will sense this and turn on the grow lights.

Cloud connectivity lets you monitor and adjust the system from anywhere with an internet connection.

NIWA is getting ready to launch their kickstarter campaign on Monday, May 12, 2014.

The kicstarter prices are not too bad.  I dont know if itll fit into my budget, but I definitely want to try this thing out!

www.getniwa.com

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Pest Control in A Biological Way

Today we will talk about biological pest controlling. You must have heard that in many places in the world, people are using poultry birds such as Chickens, Ducks, or Guineas to control pests in their garden. Today we will discuss about these methods and their pros and cons.

Raising chickens or ducks etc is it self a fun activity. The experience of waking up in the morning with a rooster crowing can be very pleasing. They provide a fresh supply to your food requirements. But there are more to eggs and meats; you can use these birds to control your garden pests. Yes that’s right. Poultry birds in particular are natural insect feeders. They eat grasshoppers, millipedes, ticks and literally any type of insect which generally flourish in the garden.

Apart from these garden pests, they also provide natural defense to your house from scorpions, mice, termites etc. Chickens also provide dropping which can be a very good fertilizer for the plants.

Muscovy Ducks are famous for eating mosquitoes. You might have heard that in USA several centuries ago ducks have been introduced for controlling mosquitoes. They eat the larvae of the mosquitoes when they are in water and can even catch the adult if they fly nearby. Even the small duckling can do a pretty good job in controlling mosquitoes.

Some people have also used chicken for tilling the gardens. Chicken usually till the soil in search of insects. It is also helpful in controlling weeds (More on weed control can be found here). But it is best to apply this technique before the plantation otherwise in search of food they can even uproot or gobble your dear plants.

While talking about pest controlling birds, the most famous of them is Guinea fowl. They look like small chicken sized vultures. The birds are voracious eaters. They eat ticks, flies, beetles, bugs and even snakes. They will also protect the territory like no other. Some times like a barking dog, they make so much noise in case they saw any intrusion. Just remember, in case you are buying Guineas buy the younger ones. The adult fowl are hard to domesticate and have the tendency to escape. You can also keep guineas and chickens together; they don’t harm the each other.

Another option is raring Turkeys. Apart from their delicious meat, you can use them in pest controlling. They will also prevent your garden from grasshoppers, cabbage-worms and many other insects. But keep a leash on them when your garden has seedlings. Letting them roam freely in the garden in these times can be disastrous for your Garden.

Chickens, Ducks, Guineas or turkey are no doubt can be a very good addition to your backyard. If used with caution these can give a strong boost to your pest controlling measures and in turn help you in doing gardening organically.

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