The other day there was a front page article in the Hawaii Tribune-Herald about our attempt to sell an agricultural easement at the farm.

We wrote about this in a blog post earlier this year.

Our grandson Kapono has just started working with us on the farm. We have four generations working on the farm now, and I could not be happier. I would like to keep the farm, with its unique set of resources, intact, so it can continue providing food into perpetuity. Most farmers sell their land when they are ready to retire. We are only selling the development rights, so that this land can be kept in agriculture.

Master Cho Han Kyu is the founder of “Korean Natural Farming,” a farming method that uses no imported fertilizers or chemicals. He visited our farm today and pointed out alternate methods that I could use to control white flies and increase fruit set, as well as yields. They will write out instructions for us on how to implement Korean Natural Farming techniques.

Organic Ginger Grower Dean Pinner points out his farm site to Master Cho, the founder of Korean Natural Farming

A reent Hawaii Tribune-Herald article discussed Korean Natural Farming, and Master Cho’s visit to Hawai‘i:

Farmers in Korea use less water, no chemical fertilizer and yet increase production. The system’s beneficial byproducts include healthier soil conditions, reduced water pollution and other environmental pluses, healthier diets and a stronger agriculture economy.

Natural farming focuses on living soil and indigenous micro-organisms that convert organic material into the inorganic minerals and nutrients plants can utilize. Read more here.

I’m going to be working on a controlled trial with University of Hawai‘i extension agents to see if I can get positive results. I’ll report here periodically on how things are progressing.

Ha Ha Ha! April Fool!

Did we get you yesterday? Richard’s post about his project “PMM 2010” referred to a mythical “perpetual motion machine.”

The history of perpetual motion machines dates back to the Middle Ages. For millennia, it was not clear whether perpetual motion devices were possible or not, but the
development of modern thermodynamics has indicated that they are impossible. Despite this, many attempts have been made to construct a perpetual motion machine. Modern designers and proponents often use other terms, such as over unity, to describe their inventions.

Wikipedia explains the history of perpetual motion machines, and wow, I didn’t know a lot of that.

The photo above is an engraving of Robert Fludd’s 1618 “water screw” perpetual motion machine.

• The earliest designs of a perpetual motion machine dates back to
  1150, by an Indian mathematician–astronomer, Bhaskara
  II. He described a wheel that he claimed would run forever.^[1]
• In medieval Bavaria, the magic wheel or magnet wheel, was basically a wagon wheel that spun by itself. Magnets with lead plates on their backs were affixed to the wheel, like the seats on a Ferris wheel. Each magnet was attracted to a magnet affixed to the base on the ground. The lead allegedly blocked attraction as each magnet passes by it, so the wheel would keep moving for a time before friction stopped it.^{[citation needed]}
• In the 13th century, Villard de Honnecourt had a drawing of one in his sketchbook. Honnecourt was a French master mason and architect. The sketchbook is made up of mechanics and architecture.
• Leonardo da Vinci made a number of drawings of things he hoped would make energy free.^[2][3] Da Vinci examined a few overbalance wheels.^[4] He also designed a centrifugal pump and the “chimney jack“. The chimney jack was used to turn a roasting skewer (a reaction-type turbine).^[5
• In 1900, Nikola Tesla claimed to have discovered an abstract method on which to base a perpetual motion machine of the
  second kind. No prototype was produced. The Serbian American Physicist Inventor wrote:

That Wikipedia article goes over who has claimed to invent what perpetual motion machine throughout the centuries and all the way up to the present day. It is fascinating!

I keep wanting to copy parts of it over to show you here, but I had to stop because it just goes on and on about people claiming to have built a perpetual motion machine that worked who: received a patent/were flat out proved to be frauds/built something inspired by a series of recurring dreams and currently the subject of commercial research and investigation/built such a machine after an (alien?) abduction/left notes upon their death in 1958 that are still being studied today, and much, much more.

Richard’s PMM 2010 is not listed there in Wikipedia, so he must have been — HA HA HA! — pulling a fast one.

Happy April Fool’s Day, everybody.

I wrote about how we’ve run into some trouble in the plant houses, but today Dr. Scot Nelson told us it’s not a serious problem.

Three of the samples he took tested negative for virus and only one tested positive. He showed me how the positive sample showed dead tissue over the vein of the leaves. The ones that tested negative did not have that feature.

We went into the field to see how many plants are exhibiting that symptom, and it was very few–  maybe less than one percent. Furthermore, Dr. Nelson told us the virus was more likely to have spread by aphids than by mechanical transmission.

This is huge – less than one percent of our plants affected, and the problem not spread by tools or by touch.

Tomorrow is our visit from Pete Bunn, who is an independent consultant on plant nutrition. I wonder what he will say about the
thousands of plant we thought were virus-infected. We have our suspicions, as well as a tentative plan of action, but we’ll wait to hear Pete’s conclusions.

It’s a reminder that farming is more involved than we sometimes think.