xen

I like the post on the other forum that you tried to post.

he said they come in three size..

small....medium......and Liar.

Sorry.....it was funny to me.....Actually I am super big as well so I go to the party store and buy balloons.......this way I can get them to blow me ....   

The number of Thai restaurants in Oz is sure on the rise, but the quality is sure on the low. There are Malaysians opening up Thai restaurants too. Some Philippinas also investing in Thai restaurants. Anyone who knows how to open up a carton of Gang Keow Waan and knows how to cut up strips of chicken breast seriously believes that that's the key to being a Thai chef. When the boom goes bust, the only winner will be the instant sauces manufacturers because any Aussie will be able to obtain these complete ingredients for any thai dish from any Coles or Safeway.

how241, on 2012-05-24 13:02:46, said:

send some to me--I am a durian addict.  and dont mind the stones.

hyperdimension, on 2012-05-23 15:49:43, said:

I am not sure but genetically modified food is great. I mean, just last night I had a delicious leg of salmon.

Is it a similar technique to the one that produces tasteless tomatoes?

KeyserSoze01, on 2012-05-21 21:07:36, said:

Yes the real world, where tourist numbers in Thailand increase year on year and the Thai economy bounces back quickly and actually grows after devastating floods, where the PM never fronts to parliment but still can run the country effectively, where there is no inflation, in fact prices reduce, where hundreds of road deaths are a zero songkram success, where convicted criminals can run a country by proxy and terrorist can be Mps and where a Thai family can live beyond their means due to the generosity of strangers on the internet.  Amazing, miracle Thailand world.

Thanks isaan, i totally agree with every thing you have said, and have thought a lot about the way farmers use fertilizers, and yes just throwing it around all over the place is not only destructive in the long term but much more expensive, because as you said the plant does not consume all of what the farmer throws on the land and nor is it balanced for healthy plant growth , so therefore there is always going to be a residual in the soil but with no balance whatsoever, but this can also happen in the world of hydroponics but is much easier to control and fix, i can never understand why they dont get a balanced product and mix  it with water at a proper rate and liquid fertilize ther crop as it is needed, then there would not be as much of a toxic build up, which is what the  problem is, 'soil hydroponics' for want of a better term, and i am sure they would get better results allround. As with hydoponics, if i have a tomato plant under heavy fruit load conditions, it can strip over 600mg/l of potassium per day out of the nutrient, and that is very hard to monitor, test for, and change,  in other methods of gardening, i have 5 different formulations for different stages of the  growth of a tomato plant, yes this is 'extreme fine tuning', and not needed to get a good result ,but its just that i like to be in control every step of the way and this gets me a much better result, in 'Fruit Flavour' and Dry Matter Content' which is the way it should be, but large commercial growers are after that almighty dollar, and if there is more water in the fruit there is more weight and they get paid by weight not taste.
Thanks isaan for your informative reply
Cheers
Scoop

Scoop,

Not as any critisism only clarification:

Herbicides are used on upland rain fed rice paddies, in fact, often used twice. Firstly to kill whatever is growing in the paddy after the dry season and early rains and secondly a post emergent herbicide to kill grass.

Their are many Thai farmers planting green manure crops, sunhemp seeds are supplied free to farmers. Here in Isaan this practice is growing, admittedly from a small base.

It is not the NPK major nutrients, the minor nutrients or the trace elements that are the issue with chemical fertilisers. It is the residual salts that are left. The arguable advantage of commercial fertiliser is that is in a more concentrated and plant available form than most composts. This allows the crop to be feed regardless of the soil condition. The result is soil is being degraded, humus levels drop, biology lost and topsoil eroded. The basic difference in using compost and other organic practices is you are building up the soil, or feeding the soil not the crop. Nutrients required to grow a specific crop need to be added to maintain the balance. The biggest challenge here is establishing what is in the soil and what should be added. As Dr Treelove has written often the available tests here are insufficient to get it right. NPK and pH are not enough.

As Gary said composting 10 rai is a challenge. One I am yet to, and doubt would try to attempt. At up to 10 ton per hectare or about 15 ton for 10 rai that would mean at 30kg per bag some 450 bags of my compost to do the job. It would take me months to produce that much compost and to maintain its moisture and microbiological content would be almost impossible.

My direction is to reduce the quantity needed but increasing the nutrient content of the compost and by pelletising it to trap the contents. This can be achieved by adding vegetable protein and minerals and fermenting the finished compost with probiotic solutions. The result, organic fertiliser. It is still low in primary nutrients compared with commercial fertiliser and needed in larger volumes. But is competetive against good quality commercial stuff in terms or cost to purchase. For me, it will replace a major buy-in cost.

I would love to become self sufficient and fully organic, not just from a cost perspective but for the benefit to the soil. Is a fully organic commercial farm possible here? I doubt it given the difficulty in getting farm labour alone.

So to the topic of this thread, I believe it is not a one or the other answer, but more a combination of things needed.

You donot have to have a foeteus to preform black magic. Aliester Crowley wasn't a black magician

Ferangled, on 2012-05-18 15:03:36, said:

The first time I read the headline, I thought a 21st century Aliester Crowley had been nabbed. Hahaha!

Was he hoping for Yabba and got Yappa instead?

kevjohn, on 2012-05-12 13:05:37, said:

Austria, Australia same same
Several times after explaining that Austria is in Europe and almost free of kangaroos the taxi driver asked me if Sydney has also traffic jam like Bangkok.
Usually I say yes...being a friendly Austrian.....

It is rather silly that Organic and those who use chemicals has developed into a them and us type thing. There are definitely benefits to both camps.
Non organic farmers are likely to benefit by he use of compost.
Compost will likely increase the presence of earthworms in clay soils and help to keep the soil aerated and help with drainage. No matter how much chemical fertiliser is added, it will not necessarily increase the yields that much. The roots need oxygen as well as nutrients and often not enough is available to them in compacted clay soils.
Better drainage will also help where soil erosion is a problem.
In sandy soils, the addition of compost can improve water retention and so less leaching of nutrients and this could mean that less chemical fertilisers are needed.

Also soil needs friendly microbes, bacteria and fungi as these can help by converting a nitrogen source that is not available to the roots to a type that the plant can absorb.

I currently grow veggies on a small plot, mainly for home consumption and I choose to grow organically. My yields are slightly better than the locals who use chemical fertilisers and pesticides. My plants cope with the heat at this time of year better as well.
I am looking to grow vegetables on a larger scale as a cash crop and will no doubt have to use chemicals, but I will incorporate as much compost as possible in order to keep the use of chemicals as low as possible.

I agree with Loong that it's silly to have the us vs them issue, and soil organic matter content is an important factor for all growers. So is soil mineral analysis and replenishment.  So is least toxic materials and methods to avoid personal and environmental contamination.  The term "organic" is much mis-used and mis-understood and even abused for commercial puposes.

When I was introduced to organic gardening and farming in the early 70's, I was taught that 5% OM content was considered a minimum requirement for a grower to consider his soil "organic", and that was the origin of the term, "organic farming".  An early certification program in California required 5% OM.  More recently I was told by an organic farm certification inspector in Thailand that now OM content is not even considered in organic farm certification.  Granted it's harder to maintain soil OM content in the tropics because of rapid breakdown.

I think the bottom line is that more and more people want food that is clean, healthy, and free from stuff that could hurt them and harm earth ecosystems. They latch on to the term organic because they think that is assurance of purity.  But in my opinion there is a lot of mis-understanding of terms and materials and methods and what is organic or not.  Scoop has pointed out that natural systems are made up of minerals and chemicals.  But some people are so afraid of 'chemicals' even though they may not know what that really means, what chemicals are being used, in what amounts and formulations.

In the game of supply and demand, the demand for "organic" food has grown from a niche to big business.  But can big business really be trusted to be honest and true to the expectations of purity.  You don't really know what you are getting unless you know the grower or are growing it yourself, and have studied and used materials and methods of so called "conventional" and "organic' systems.  Not all chemicals are harmful; not all pesticides will harm you or the environment; many are OMRI approved for organic growers. IPM, appropriate use and least toxic choices are the key.

Computer games have got a lot to answer for these days.........people that have seen and experienced violence would never start a topic as stupid as this.