Environmental land based science

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How disease control increases the quality of product

People selling plants dont want their plants to have disease otherwise they wont be brought.

There is a new unique product called AMISTER. It is an effective disease contol that prevents disease attacking crops and damaging the leaves. It helps to keep the crops stay greener for longer, the yeild potential is maximised and quality traits are maximised. This is a new unique product for vegetable growing with natural origins. It is a persistant protector against a wide spread of diseases over a wide range of crops. It has also got a high level of crop safety, it offers the grower substantial improvements in crop health and marketable yeild and quality. AMISTAR could also help prevent early senescene, providing the opportunity to reduce losses, provide greater harvest flexibility and financial returns.

The differences between biological and non-biological methods of disease control

Biological control is used to reduce the population of pests. The induction of plant resistance using incompatible micro – organisms is also a form of biological control. Some diseases that can be successfully controlled using biological agents are pathogens of pruning wounds and other cut surfaces, crown gall, diseases of leaves and flowers, diseases of fruits and vegetables and fungal pathogens in soil. (disease suppressive soils).

Non biological control is basically using sprays and chemicals.

The dangers associated with growing plants year after year in greenhouse soil

The dangers associated with growing plants year after year in a greenhouse in the same soil is that you are removing the nutrients from the soil. It is ok if you replace the nutrients back into the soil. But if you don't replace the nutrients in the ground the plants will not be as effective. To put nutrients back into the soil you could allow the plant to die off or you could add fertiliser into the soil. If the soil is never changed and it is used year after year, there may be a disease in the soil from a plant which can contaminate all of the other plants in future years to come.

How ICT can be used to control environmental conditions in greenhouses.

To get the best plant growing conditions temperature and humidity (moisture in the air) have to be controlled. The greenhouse therefore has temperature and humidity sensors linked to a computer, and the computer has a program storing details of the correct temperature and humidity settings. The greenhouse is fitted with a heater, sprinkler and window motor, also linked to the computer. If the humidity falls below the values stored in the program, the computer activates the sprinklers and close the windows. If the temperature falls outside the values stored in the program, the heater is activated by the computer. The system monitors the conditions night and day with immediate response to any changes. To alter the growing conditions the values in the computer program can of course be changed.

ICT can be used to insert a programme in a greenhouse so when it becomes cold the heating will come on. And vice a versa, when it becomes too hot in the greenhouse air conditioning and water sprinklers come on.

The factors involved in siting a greenhouse correctly.

You must decide upone a site, and this involves several considerations. You want a location where you can work conveniently and where there is maximum sunligh. Even though you may plan to start with only shade loving plants, you will probably find that other kinds are profitable, too, and so eventually you will want to be able to grow light loving plants. You can always apply shading to make a greenhouse darker, but you cant make the sun come around to a greenhouse that has been unwisely located in a shaded area.

The differences between the types of composts available: soil based, peat based, soil-less and peat free soil less

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Peat based compost The compost sold in garden centres doesn't come from compost heaps, most of it comes from peat bogs. Peat is formed over many years from the remains of plants and provides an important habitat for a whole range of birds, insects and plants. This natural habitat is seriously under threat from peat extraction, the equivalent of 60 million bags of peat-based products are sold to UK gardeners every year ! Although you can rely on peat-based compost to perform consistently it's not a good source of nutrients and contains very little biological activity, So compost manufacturers add ...

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