organic growing

Let’s take the end of the food chain say a cow.
I handle a line of organic steaks that I sell, and the standards covering organic is substantial.
Each cow is given the equivalent of one and one half soccer fields to roam free.
The feed is closely monitored too, and it has to be organic.
The rancher’s can’t use any steroids, hormones or chemicals to promote growth.

The whole thing is about sustaining an environment in a natural way.
I try and grow my plants as close as I can to organic principles, but because (A) I grow in pots. (B) I grow under lights. Even if pot was legal. I could’t sell it as an organic product. Final crops in pots would not allowed and even worse I’m being an environmental polluter using all that electricity.

I recycle my soil, mixing it into new soil as needed and also share this with the veggies I grow, when my co2boost.com bucket is finished, the leftover by-product gets mixed into my soil also.

How many pot growers do you think take their waste water to a recycling center. I bet none, what happens to it? Where does it go to?

Knowing the size of the (pot) growing community, I would say its several thousand gallons a day atleast. Not much you say, but it’s virtually impossible for the water companies to remove the nitrates and phosphates. Where do we start caring for the environment that we live in. What is the cost, who should pay and what does organic mean to you?
Peace

Good point Videoman, and one I have considered myself, how organic can it really be using up 400+ Watts of electricity for 12-24 hours a day solid? That's gonna put a bit of a dent in your carbon footprint.

I have read some people use these ozone generators as well for odour prevention and in todays global climate, I can't believe these things are still allowed to be produced and sold. This is obviously not a piece of equipment for an "organic" grow. People currently using them should think twice I reckon!

I had not even considered the wasted run off water, but yeah, there's probably quite a bit that goes straight down the drain.

But I am taking steps everywhere else around the house to be more eco friendly. We use eco friendly detergents and washing powders etc and all lights around the house where possible are energy savers. I'm regretting putting so many damn halogens in my kitchen when I re-fitted it a few years back. They look great, but man, there's a lot of watts coming out of my kitchen!

Thats why I don't use a drain for the waste water form my resevoirs. The amount of fertilizer you use in a 20 gallon resevoir, spread out on the ground will not cause a build up, it will be spread over a large area and any roots that come in contact with that water will grow better.
The amount of energy used for our HID lights is one of the reasons why new lighting technologies are being developed. CFL's, LED's and T-5's are some examples.
The waste from my room goes into the regular trash. Certainly not the ideal way to deal with all that compost material. I'm using coco-coir which is biodegradable, and the plant material will break down quickly. This will help the less degradable items break down faster.
If MJ were legalized a lot of these concerns would be minimized. At least for the 3 months of summer we have in MIchigan. lol Making it legal to grow Industrail Hemp would have many benefits and no drawbacks that I am aware of, from an enviromental standpoint. That is why I say, you will have a hard time convincing me you are a tree hugger if you haven't taken a stand to legalize Industrial Hemp. I wrote to my congressman, Mike Rogers, addressing this issue. He is proposing $20,000,000.00 for expanding Ethanol pumps. The system he uses for E-Mail assured me I would receive a detailed response. I'll let you know what they have to say.

I grow in raised beds so no runoff and have 75 acres of forest to off set my electricity use.

Peace

I grow as organically as possible and have for as many years as I can remember, since my grandfather showed me how to run a farm and use all the ingrediants from each area of the farm. Granted if you are using lights and want to think of being eco friendly, I can see your thought. In Costa Rica, all the electric is hydro so I don't worry about that part. Run off, I grow in containers also, our water here comes straight from the reservior (sorry about the spelling no coffee this morning), no treatment. Our water is spring based coming out of the mountains so don't know what is in it but sure does taste good. I only use manure tea to feed my plants and this is very low dosage for sure, I build a good healthy soil which I only add the manure tea and some molsasses and woodash (to keep ph). Making my compost is easy, everything in comes from working on the farm, banana plants, grass clippings, small woody plants, leaves, veggie scraps, eggs shells and coffee grounds.
I try and leave as small of a impact on the good earth as is possible, but I still use lights about 6 hours a day on my combo sun and cfls grow. Happy Growing and keep it as organic as possible.

I live in the middle of no where and I think everything in my life would be considered organic. I own a rendering company and compost the animals for disposal using manure from my farm which all my animals are range fed from my own property, winter they get hay. I will be using that compost to make my own vegetable garden next spring and I have my big girl planted in it right now. No farmer within 20 miles sprays anything into their fields and my water in pumped directly from the ground. I don't use lights, just grow outside.

Here's my grow- https://www.rollitup.org/blogs/blog2602-100-organic-grow.html