Hydroponic Plants Triumph in Unlikely Places
The art of growing plants without soil (hydroponic growth) is now so advanced that it can help humans to survive for long periods in previously inhospitable environments such as Antarctica.
Traditional plant growth relies on plants absorbing minerals and nutrients from the soil. plants do not actually need to be placed in soil to obtain the nutrients they need. In fact the soil is simply there to support them. There are many areas on Earth which do not have the necessary soils to support plant growth, preventing humans from living there.
Over recent years, this restriction has been combated by growing plants hydroponically. Hydroponics uses nutrient solutions applied directly to the roots instead of soil, in order to allow the plants to grow in unlikely places.
One of the earliest hydroponic success stories happened on Wake Island in the Pacific ocean. The island was first discovered in 1568 by lvaro de Mendaa de Nevra, who noted that it was a low, barren island. Later, when the island was surveyed in 1840 by the US Commodore Charles Wilkes, it was officially recorded as having no fresh water.
In the 1930s, Pan American Airlines began using the island as a refuelling stop between America and China. The airline constructed a village for its workers; the first time the island had been inhabited by humans. Because of the distances involved, it would have been expensive and impractical to import fresh food to the island, so the islanders relied on hydroponic methods for growing food instead for many years.
Hydroponic techniques are not as new or miraculous as some people may think; they have been developed over many centuries. However, perfecting the nutrient solutions which are used will really affect the success of hydroponic crops in remote or harsh conditions.
Perhaps the harshest environment of all is Antarctica. At the McMurdo station on Ross Island, a community of nearly 1000 people survive by relying on hydroponic techniques to grow food.
These techniques allow people at this icy station to enjoy fresh lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, fruit and herbs for use in cooking, throughout the year.
The Antarctic environment is unusual because it enjoys four months of continuous sunlight, followed by four months of darkness, not to mention high winds and extremes of temperature.
To survive this harsh climate, seeds are planted in a hydroponic mix of perlite and vermiculite and placed in a totally enclosed, insulated greenhouse at the station. Nutrient solutions are fed to the plants to ensure healthy growth and other environmental factors are dealt with by using hydroponic techniques. For example, artificial lighting is used to simulate a more normal day to night pattern in which the plants will grow best. The air is kept warm and humid by fans and hydroponic ventilation equipment, and at night an electric furnace is used to generate more heat. This gives the fresh fruit and vegetables ideal growing conditions to allow them to flourish.
Hydroponic techniques are now so advanced that we really are able to grow food anywhere on Earth, regardless of the external environment or the availability of light.
Growing food hydroponically is a fascinating process, making commercial sense for many growers who are now able to produce on a large scale without an enormous land investment.
In fact, the same techniques which keep people alive in Antarctica can be practiced in your own home using a hydroponic kit available online from great Stuff Hydroponics. Kits and equipment for commercial growers are also available online, along with information downloads and expert advice.
Find out more about great Stuff Hydroponics at http://www.hydroponics-hydroponics.com
About great Stuff Hydroponics
great Stuff Hydroponics is based in Middlesborough (UK) and supplies a vast array of hydroponic equipment for all your hydroponic plant cultivation needs. The great Stuff Hydroponics showroom is open Monday to Friday 9am-5pm and Saturday10am-2pm. sales can also be placed online at http://www.hydroponics-hydroponics.com
Please direct all media queries, requests for press information and editorial details, to Rebecca appleton. Tel: 0208 123 5178 or email: press@topposition.co.uk
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Natural Plant Medicines and the Shamans of the Amazon Rainforest Part 2
howard G Charing, and Peter Cloudsley join Amazonian Shamans, Javier Arevalo and Artidoro in discussions about the medicinal & spirit healing plants and their use.
Rosa Sisa
These are a kind of Marigold, and they are used in baths particularly for children with mal aire. This malady occurs when a family member dies and leaves the child unhappy and sleepless. The spirit of the dead grandfather - or whoever it was - lingers and makes the child sick. The spirit is sad to go and stays in the house after the person is buried and it tries to caress and comfort people in the family. This makes them ill. Rosa Sisa also controls vomiting in general, as well as being used in floral baths for good luck.
Typically an envious neighbour will grab a handful of earth from the cemetery and throw it into your house to spread boredom and heavy feelings. Again, when something is wrong in the house - people are bored or agitated - you get a bucket of water and add crushed Rosa Sisa flowers and Camalonga and wash the floors of the house with a brush to cleanse it.
Alternatively you could have the flowers in a vase in the house for the same purpose. many people grow them either side of the front door of their house to absorb the negativity of people who look in enviously to see what possessions they have. The flowers go black but later they recuperate themselves. Marigolds can also be used for making wishes, blowing with the wish in mind - like we do with a dandelion - because it is yellow, the colour of the sun.
Manchare or susto (fright) are maladies commonly suffered by children, and treated with Camalonga a tree which grows wild in the forest, but many people grow it in flower pots in the city. It smells like onions and garlic and can be macerated in alcohol to be rubbed onto the person. In cases requiring soul retrieval a prayer or chant would be used at the same time.
Typically a child gets Manchare when playing in the trees and jump down to the ground and receive a much bigger bump than they expected. In this case the Rosa Sisa is tied into a bunch with a white ribbon and brushed all over the body from the head down. This is because the spirit returns through the crown of the head. A little prayer is said to invoke the spirit back, using the name of the child. It can be used in emplasts for fevers too.
Huairacaspi
It comes in two varieties, a high tree with a thick trunk and a small slim tree with little leaves. It is the same tree as tornillo which is good timber. The branch can be bent double without breaking, and is good for doing yoga and for flexibility in general.
It is good for prolepses, chronic diarrhoea, hepatitis, arthritis, broken bones, and cold in the body. As a teacher plant it is good for disorientation, and sense of being lost. after drinking you need to take a shower as it makes you sweat out all the toxins.
Ushcaquiro
This plant is very little known and used. Like chuchahuasi, it is good after operations, mothers caring for their babies, vaginal discharge, cancer, cold. It is prepared in water or alcohol. Painkiller. Ushcaquiro, Huairacaspi and Chiricsanango together make a good treatment for arthritis.
Guayusa
Has a female spirit and makes you dream of beautiful things and takes the laziness out of you.
Albaca
This is good to have in the house, it works better than an aerosol spray for fresh air because the flowers burst into flower with a perfume. Also good for floral baths to make you smell good so you attract lots of friends. Also if you have a row with a friend, they will come back to you. In cases of gastritis, appendix or gale-bladder problems you can take it as a tea. Even when dry is still smells.
Shimi Pampana
Is a root like a potato and a constituent of Pusanga. It comes in male (white) and female (red) forms and tastes like yucca. It is very good for people with excessive anger. You grate it to get the juice, and put it in soup, coffee or whatever and sometimes it is put secretly into a persons drink to calm them down, especially when there is a lot of arguing in the family. You can bathe in it too. The dry powder obtained from drying the root, is good for sun burn, common in summer when the river is low and people go to the beautiful beaches to swim. It takes out the impurities of the skin without desiccating it.
howard G. Charing, is an accomplished international workshop leader on shamanism. He has worked some of the most respected and extraordinary shamans & healers in the Andes, the Amazon Rainforest, and the philippines. He organises specialist retreats to the Amazon Rainforest at the dedicated centre located in the Mishana nature reserve. He is the author of the best selling book, Plant Spirit Shamanism (Destiny books USA), and has published numerous articles about plant medicines. He was baptised into the Shipibo tribe of the Upper Amazon, and initiated into the lineage of the shamans of the Rio Napo. howard is also an artist who's paintings have featured in major exhibitions in London and elsewhere. His artwork has also been featured on book covers.
His website: http://www.shamanism.co.uk email contact: eagleswing@shamanism.co.uk
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