Agronomy¶
Agriculture¶
Deep Learning¶
Deep learning for feature selection and e.g. xgboost may be most relevant to this field as well.
See: Data Science
“Deep learning in agriculture: A survey” (2018) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168169917308803
Agricultural Engineering¶
Agricultural Software¶
FarmOS¶
farmOS is a web-based application for farm management, planning, and record keeping. It is developed by a community of farmers, developers, researchers, and organizations with the aim of providing a standard platform for agricultural data collection and management.
FarmOS Data Model | https://farmos.org/model/
Data Model according to the farmos.py docs re: what can be accessed from the Drupal/FarmOS HTTP API with the farmOS Python client; the actual docs are more complete than the (Python, JS) API client docs:
Logs: A log is any type of event that occurs on the farm, from a planting to a harvest to just a general observation.
Assets: Assets are any piece of property or durable good that belongs to the farm, such as a piece of equipment, a specific crop, or an animal.
Areas: An area is any well defined location that has been mapped in farmOS, such as a field, greenhouse, building, etc.
[Taxonomy] Terms: FarmOS-install-configurable terms for various categorization purposes. E.g. quantity units, crops/varieties, animal species/breeds, input materials, and log categories. See “Endpoints” above for specific API endpoints URLs.
FarmBot¶
MIT OpenAg¶
OpenAg Data Alliance¶
AgStack¶
AgStack is a new open source Linux Foundation umbrella project “to enable development of code, models, extensions and frameworks, as well as the contribution and curation of data, focused on driving efficiencies in agriculture.”
AgStack Egg corporate charter: https://github.com/agstack/org-docs/blob/main/AgStack%20Egg%20Technical%20Charter%2010-14-2021%20(1).pdf
Electromagnetic energy¶
TODO: EM spectra
Plants use UV: Ultraviolet and Infrared energy to convert CO2, H2O, […] to O2 and respirated H2O with VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds).
Photovoltaic (PV) panels convert photonic EM particle/waves into electron field disturbances than can be stored in energy storage devices like batteries.
Thermophotovoltaic (TPV) panels are like PV panels that also harvest energy from Infrared (heat) energy, which is also present at night.
UV: Ultraviolet¶
Warning
Prolonged exposure to Ultraviolet light may cause cataracts. Reduce your exposure to Ultraviolet light with wraparound UV-protective eyewear.
UV-A¶
UV-B¶
UV-C¶
UV-C [TODO: band] sanitizes
There are UV-C sanitizer bottle and wand kits for camping. see Water Quality
Ultrablue¶
Broan SurfaceShield [TODO: by ]
Infrared¶
“Thermal” or “heat” energy is infrared energy.
Grow lights¶
LED Grow lights¶
LED grow lights waste less electical energy as heat, so they are more energy efficient than traditional incandescent or fluorescent grow lights, and they heat the plants less.
Terra¶
Soil¶
Dr. Elaine¶
Dr. Elaine Ingham
“How to Build Great Soil - A Soil Science Masterclass with Dr. Elaine Ingham (Part 1 of 4)” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErMHR6Mc4Bk
Soil Food Web School¶
“What is the Soil Food Web? | Soil Food Web School” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAMniWJm2vo
Soil has a biome (food web insects, earthworms, microrganisms fungi, bacteria) that breaks down organic matter and releases nutrients in plant-available form.
See also: Hügelkultur
Terracing¶
Terracing is one of the most ancient methods of maximizing yield from available sloped land.
Hügelkultur¶
It’s a layer cake: Instead of just soil, build beds and containers from a base of logs, leaves, a bit of pine, and maybe sand or loam or sphagum peat moss, and then bagged soil if you must, and then another layer of actual compostable materials for plants to grow up throw.
Actual Hügelkultur involves mounding up and growing on the side of the mounds, but the principles of composting apply to container beds (that can get hot due to composting) as well.
See also: AGardenPatch Grow Box with just Potting Mix and the weed-preventing organic fertilizer mats: what are those made from?
Water¶
Water Quality¶
Water Distillation¶
Solar Water Distillation¶
A simple solar water distillation setup: Two buckets, a window pane at an angle so that the condensate drips into the clean water bucket; evaporation leaves behind most microbes.
Self-watering Planters¶
AGardenPatch Grow Box¶
Note
I learned of these “Grow Box” self-watering tomato planters from an insert in a seed catalogue which I received after ordering bulbs online.
UV resistant plastic; years of use.
50 lbs when full of potting mix and water
TODO: Grow Bow procedure:
Potting Mix
[Organic] weed control fertiziler patch
Keep the reservoir full of water
Keep either Vegetable Oil or Olive Oil on the water to prevent mosquitoes.
Bulb baster
Bottle pour spout
They and others sell “Mosquito Dunks” tablets to drop into standing water.
Microsprinkler systems¶
Microspinkler tubing materials:
plastic
silicone
enough pressure for 360 heads
Irrigation Timers¶
RainBird¶
Melnor¶
Melnor 4-Zone Bluetooth Water Timer¶
4 AA batteries
[ ] TODO: Rechargeables seem to be undervolting (AMZN review, replicated here, worked with an older model so it may be fixable with software rev on the current 4 zone bluetooth model)
4 Zones (garden hose)
Press the button for 20 minutes of water on that zone.
Programmable over Bluetooth using the Melnor app
Delay
4 zones
[ ] TODO: notes re UI
65128-AMZ
Ecology¶
Lawn and Garden¶
It is Lawn and Garden because lawn and garden are ecologically linked: a healthy lawn feeds bugs and birds to the beds.
Organic Lawn care¶
TODO: Organic lawn care book (ebook) from amazon citation, summary
You can only mow a few times per year.
Electric String Trimmer
Note
Organic lawn care does not solve for e.g. termites.
Hori Hori garden knife
Bulb planter (*)
Auger drillbit (*)
(*) See: No-till TODO
Hori Hori Garden Knife¶
The Fiskars Hori Hori has a forked point for weeding, one serrated edge, a plastic sheath that can be washed out with a garden hose, and an orange rubber handle.
Ron Finley mentions the a Hori Hori garden knife as an essential gardening tool in the TODO Ron Finley Gardening Masterclass.
String Trimmer¶
A string trimmer is a long-handled device that spins a string (or a cutting head) according to the pressure applied to the trigger.
An electric string trimmer can be used to cut grass, edge trim, and mulch.
There are various bad and good ways to hold a string trimmer.
Electric is much nicer because there’s no exhaust to position, it starts without a pull, and because Electric Lawn Equipmentn.
Electric Lawn Equipmentn¶
Combustion produces CO Carbon Monoxide, which is an oxidant “free radical” that binds with many things easily (due to valence electrons).
Burning wood, oil, and gas produces byproducts including Carbon Monoxide, which are not good for anyone, and particularly unhealthy for persons with e.g. asthma.
Combustion occurs particularly when the carbon bonds break at low heat.
A (fluidic) “flame” that we’d see in Earth air which has oxygen is either combustion or plasma. Plasmas are different state of matter. Combustion is a critical reaction where the carbon bonds keep breaking due to the locally-freed thermal energy; and the other particulate is typically thermally ejected into the surrounding fluid without a sustainable filtration system.
First Berkeley/Oakland, CA, USA and then the State of California have banned sales of new gas lawn equipment; you can only buy electric lawn equipment in stores is the plan in CA, USA first.
You can buy lawn equipment that uses the same batteries as your power tools so that you only need so many multi-battery chargers.
[ ] TODO: USB-C PD for Tool vendors (@DeWalt, )
Use case: A Squid-like charger with (reversible USB-C) ports on the batteries would be real nice but not as easy to carry as a pail with a handle and a physical battery pack interface spec.
Use case: Use extra tool batteries as spare USB power packs
[ ] Physical battery pack interface; there are a bunch of vendor-to-vendor adapters on e.g. amazon and there could be an optional spec and adapters for using old batteries with new tools
[ ] Battery reconditioning requires fire suppression to be safe for zoning, from what I understand.
Warning
[ ] Local battery recycling centers; how to open the plastic pack and set batteries aside to take to the battery recycling place.
Rewilding¶
Fauna¶
Pollinators¶
Bees¶
Bees are crucial to our whole way of life; bee are crucial to Earth ecology.
Unfortunately, we’ve diminished poplatitions of bees with lawn mowing and herbicides, and with pollinator-killing chemicals in our environment.
TODO: neoctinides (?) kill bees, there are many alternatives
Dandelions and Clover are the first food of the bees in the spring.
Most honey is White Clover Honey.
White Clover grows in lawns that haven’t been Weed and Feed’ed.
[ ] TODO: Is there a weed and feed that doesn’t kill clover, which is green all summer?
Agricultural equipment¶
See also: Garden tools
Combine ? Rotor tiller ?
Farming Simulator¶
Farming Simulator is a farming game where you work the land using agricultural equipment and bootstrap your farming business operation.
Modern methods¶
Organic farming¶
Container gardening¶
See also: Soil > Hügelkultur
Raised beds¶
See: Hügelkultur
Shipping container gardening¶
Vertical farming¶
Hydroponics¶
Plant grow well with just water and nutrients
Water flow is cruicial to Water Quality.
PVC does add microplastics to the plants.
Aquaponics¶
Fish urine includes nitrogren, which is fertilizing.
3 stage aquaponics setup; high to low:
Stage TODO: Hydroponic and/or Container growing medium
Stage TODO:
Stage TODO: Water, [Watercress,], [Mosquito] Fish
Watercress filters water
Mosquitofish eat mosquito larvae (and from watercress roots)
Aeroponics¶
Plants grow fine when you just mist the roots with water and nutrients; you don’t need soil or cycling water.
Aeroponics is ideal for controlling root rot.
Aeroponics does not require soil as an input; but does require nutrients from some other sustainable source. (see: Hügelkultur).
MIT OpenAg has open source CAD designs and software for desktop, closet, and warehouse aeroponis systems.
No-till¶
One argument: tilling soil excessively (or at all) disturbs the soil ecology by exposing the top layer of the soil microbiome to oxidation and sanitizing UV-C radiation.
No-till gardening says don’t till and:
disturb as a little as possible
add natural mulch and/as compost
use plants to break the soil
dibb holes to sow (see: TODO: ref:Agricultural robots)
Laser weeding¶
Laser weeders zap just weeds and may roll along the rows on tall legs and e.g. wheels.
Automated [solar] laser weeding products apply laser radiation to weeds identified by a omputer vision machine learning model; probably a neural network trained with associations between inputs sensor images and outputs (typically labels from humans performing image segmentation on [portions of] sensor images).
Shelf method¶
TODO: A better name (@westurner)
Materials¶
Wire Shelving from local big box store
2x 72” h / 48” w / 18” d
2x 4pack of caster wheels and bumpers (3-6” additional height, wider contact area)
Containers
3x AGardenPatch Grow Boxes per 48” shelf
Pad
2x sand bags
1x drainage rock
1x red rock
-OR-
8x pavers
nx play/paver sand bags
Irrigation
1x Microsprinkler kit
1x garden Y-valve, 2x garden to 2x-microsprinkler, silicone tubing, dripper and/or 360 heads
1/4” (silicone) tubing, TODO cm
1x Melnor
Pollinators
Wood with holes in it for bees
Leave the grass long (see: Lawn and Garden).
Do not spray chemicals around or upwind.
Assembly¶
Create a pad: sand, drainage rock, sand, red rock for the wheels aside a shelf on the ground to measure
Assemble and level 2x shelves: wheels and at least one shelf
Bridge between the racks with a shelf to prevent rollover (similar to some library shelves).
Raise or add shelves to the rack at the optimal heights for the user and for the plants.
Assemble a trellis as necessary for the taller plants rack:
Compostable trellis materials: Twine, joined Wood