FARMING WITHOUT SOIL.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 10, 10 December 1936, Page 4

FARMING WITHOUT SOIL.

UNIVERSITY EXPERIMENTS. Remarkable experiments in farming successfully without soil have been conducted by” Professor Gericke, of the University of California, who can already point with pride to tomato plants 2oft. high; tobacco plants 22ft.; corn, 20ft.; giant roses, six inches across, each bloom fragile and perfect; dahlias as big as a man’s head: 'potatoes yielding at the rate of 2000 bushels to the acre; and gladiolu* plants five feet high, with perfect blooms. . . • , The explanation is surprisingly simple. Dr Gericke says that soil has three main uses: it holds a plant erect, keeps it warm, and supplies the necessary chemicals to its roots. Thoee chemical's are nitrogen, potash, phosphorus, calcium. magnesium, iron, copper and aluminium. Professor Gericke uses shallow; tanks, eight inches deep, 30 inches wide and 20 feet long. They are in. greenhouses or out of doors. The tanks are filled with water, and in the water is placed a bottle containing a mixture of soil chemicals. The different “mixes” for different plants are, .so far, ' Dr Gericke’s secret. The bottle is uncorked and the contents dissolve gradually. The tanks are covered with chicken wire, flush with the surface of the water. On the wire is piled several inches of packed straw, sawdust, shavings, and excelsior. Moisture creeps up into it from below, as in the wick of a lamp. Seeds are planted in the fibrous pack and germinate there. The roots reach down into the water and drink their fill. The water may be warmed, if necessary. by electric heaters; artificial sunlight may be supplied, day and night. In regular soil a plant hunts for its nourishment. The process is precarious. The chances associated_ with it arc eliminated by the artificial method, as also are such things as “damping-off” fungus, drought, frost, insects, blight, summer and winter, even night and day.