Have you ever thought about farming and the process of growing food? Before taking this course, titled FOOD, I thought it was simple and very easy to farm. I thought it only meant that a seed was planted in the soil, was watered, got sunlight, and grew. However, through taking this course, I have learned that it’s a lot harder than it looks and requires a lot of work. I have also learned about different philosophies of farming such as one from Japan and one from South Central Los Angeles. One of the big messages that were repeated throughout the course is that anyone can farm. In the first unit of the FOOD course, we learned about ecosystems and food. This action project is going to talk about an experiment I did that involved different types of soil.
I learned about four different ideas in gardening, including Guerilla Gardening, ecosystems, natural farming, and companion planting. One idea that I learned in this course that is interesting is that farming doesn’t actually need any of the chemicals that we use in day-to-day farming. In fact, it makes it worse. I learned about one principle of natural farming from a Japanese farmer named Fukuoka, which is that chemicals destroy what is already a good system for detracting bugs and diseases. I firmly agree with this principle because chemicals do not truly help to eliminate diseases and bugs; it's actually the opposite. The chemicals are poisoning what is already a good system.
If I were planting a garden today, I would choose companion plants like beans, broccoli, and Brussel sprouts. Not only do I like these foods but they also add nitrogen to the soil which is something the soil needs. One of the places that we had our field experience was called “Plant Chicago.” They used water with different types of plants and fish also helped grow super healthy plants. That was a form of an ecosystem. An ecosystem is a system of living organisms and a physical environment functioning together as a unit. Included are biotic factors and abiotic factors.
I also heard Ron Finley’s TEDtalk. One thing that amazed me that Finley said is that “You can be amazed at what the soil can do if you let it be your canvas.” This particular quote made a big impression on me because it talks about how plants and gardening can be an art form. Flowers and plants can be beautiful pieces of art. The soil has the artistic ability to create all kinds of growth whether it’s a fruit, a vegetable, or a flower.
In this presentation, I will explain one of the experiments I did that involved a form of farming. The purpose of this experiment was to determine which seed grows the best when planted in different types of soil. I planted three bean seeds; one seed per container. I used three different containers all of which were cylindrical. Measuring the containers, the radius for one of them is 2.14 and the radius for the other two containers is 1.75. Two of the containers were five inches tall the other one was three inches tall. The area of the first container was 78.5 square inches. The area of the second and third containers was 153.86 square inches. The volume of the first container was 2,560 cubic inches. The volume of the second and third containers was 1,092 cubic inches.
I used three different types of soil and added one type of soil to each container. I used a good nutrient-filled soil, a bad soil without nutrients, and a bad soil with nutrients. I placed them in a room to receive an equal amount of sunlight and gave them the same amount of water every other day.
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