3nity garden

Description

Arundo donax, giant cane, is a tall perennial cane, native to the Mediterranean Basin and middle east and probably also parts of Africa and southern Arabian Peninsula. It forms dense stands on disturbed sites, sand dunes, in wetlands and riparian habitats.

Characteristics

Arundo donax generally grows to 6m, in ideal conditions it can exceed 10m, with hollow stems 2 to 3cm in diameter. The leaves are alternate, 30 to 60cm long and 2 to 6cm wide with a tapered tip, grey-green, and have a hairy tuft at the base. It flowers in late summer, bearing upright, feathery plumes 40 to 60cm long, that are usually seedless or with seeds that are rarely fertile. Instead, it mostly reproduces vegetatively, by underground rhizomes. The rhizomes are tough and fibrous and form knotty, spreading mats that penetrate deep into the soil up to 1m deep. Stem and rhizome pieces less than 5cm long and containing a single node readily sprouted under a variety of conditions. This vegetative growth appears to be well adapted to floods, which may break up individual A. donax clumps, spreading the pieces, which may sprout and colonise further downstream.

Uses

Carbon sequestration

Research was carried out to evaluate, in the same pedological and climatic conditions, the impact of three long-term (14 years) agricultural systems, continuous giant reed, natural grassland, and cropping sequence, on the organic-matter characteristics and microbial biomass size in soil. The study pointed out that a long term Giant reed cropping system, characterized by low tillage intensity, positively affect the amount and quality of soil organic matter. Arundo donax showed greater values than tilled management system for total soil organic carbon, light fraction carbon, dissolved organic carbon, and microbial biomass carbon. Regarding the humification parameters, there were noticed any statistically differences between giant reed and a cropping sequence (cereals-legumes cultivated conventionally).

Biofuel

Arundo donax is a strong candidate for use as a renewable biofuel source because of its fast growth rate and its ability to grow in different soil types and climatic conditions. A. donax will produce an average of 3kg of biomass per m2 once established. The energy density of the biomass produced is 17 MJ/Kg regardless of fertilizer usage. Outside its native range, this needs to be balanced against its major invasive potential.

Studies in the European Union have identified A. donax as the most productive and lowest impact of all energy biomass crops.

Needs

Establishment is a critical point of cultivation. Stem and rhizome have a great ability to sprout after removal from mother plant and both can be used for clonal propagation. The use of rhizomes were found to be the better propagation method for this species, achieving better survival rate.

A. donax maintains a high productive aptitude without irrigation under semi-arid climate conditions. Several reports underlined that it is more economical to grow giant reed under moderate irrigation.

Fertilizer enhances the productive capacity in the initial years, but as the years go by and as the radical apparatus progressively deepens, the differences due to fertilizer decrease until disappearing. Harvest time and plant density were found to not affect the biomass yields.

Due to its high growth rate and superior resource-capture capacity (light, water and nutrients), A. donax is not affected by weed competition from the second year. An application of post-emergence treatment is usually recommended. Giant reed has few known disease or insect pest, but in intensive cultivation no pesticides are used.

Arundo donax’ s ability to grow for 20 to 25 years without replanting is also significant.

Sustainable Food Security is Possible in Your Backyard with this Permaculture Greenhouse

Have you ever wanted to grow nearly all of your own food but not sure how to go about it with your current time, space, and know-how? France-based myfood is releasing thirty beta-versions of their turnkey Smart greenhouses for individuals that combine vertical aquaponics and permaculture to create all-year-round food production solutions. The purpose is to empower citizens to achieve independence from industrial agriculture. The solutions allow users to grow fish, leafy greens, herbs, as well as fruiting vegetables.

The ingenious solution grows up to 500 lbs of fresh vegetables annually as well as 1 to 2 lbs of fish a week through the employment Bright Agrotech’s space saving and productive Zipgrow towers. Myfood’s aquaponic systems are enhanced with a cloud-based monitoring feature, equipped with Atlas Scientific’s probes and computer chips to track water quality and communicate to the user exactly what actions the user will take to optimize their system’s performance. “The idea is that anyone without any training, will learn the process of managing an Aquaponics system as they go along,” says team engineer Luis Perrichot. The permaculture beds are made with ramial chipped wood, wood logs, and biochar, designed to resemble a forest floor and ensure continuous nutrients to the plants. All of the solutions come encased with a sturdy ACD tempered security glass greenhouse with an aluminum frame, designed to withstand strong storms, which come in both 150 and 240 square feet designs. Francewatts semi-transparent solar panels, heating, and plasma supplemental lighting are all available as well. 

In Chicago, organizations like the Plant are changing the role of urban agriculture and the Circular Economy. To learn more about how vertical farming will lead the way in developing the Circular economy, attend the AVF summit 2016 on June 13th, in Amsterdam. 

How Chicago’s quirkiest companies sprouted a circular economy

Efforts to reduce pollution in the production processes — especially at factory scale — often focus on technological or management solutions. But another side of pollution prevention (P2) warrants attention: Culture.

The culture of a facility can facilitate effective and innovative pollution prevention efforts. Of course, culture must be supported by skills and abilities, the capacity to enact change.

I have become keenly aware of the power of culture and capacity-building in my work with the organizations and businesses at the Plant, a community of food businesses operating in a repurposed meat-packing facility on Chicago’s south side.