MITTLEIDER METHOD NOTES:
Air
Control 6 Elements for Success:
1. Light
Your plants must have full sunlight all day long! No trees, shrubs,
fences. Plants can even shade themselves. Prune off excess sucker
stems so there is plenty of air and light.
2. Temperature
Seeds usually don't germinate until they reach 75-80 degrees. If your
climate is a cold one, you can build a mini frame around your rows
and cover it with greenhouse plastic (uv protected). If your climate is
too hot, use the same frame but cover it with 30% white shade cloth
(30% is maximum- you can go lower). And only cover in the hottest
parts of the day. Plants will stop fruiting once the temperature reaches
95 degrees.
3.
Plants receive air through the roots- they need soil air. No standing
water, so avoid flooding. Make your beds 2 inches above the height of
the walk ways to promote drainage.
If you have a problem with clay soil, make your beds and then mix in
sand to make up 30% of the bed and your problem is solved.
If you are container gardening, use sawdust and 30% sand to fill
instead of dirt. This helps with air supply, drainage, and spread of
nutrients given to the plants.
4. Water
A plant is a continuous water pipe from the tip of the smallest root to
the top of the highest leaf.
When you first water your seeds keep the beds wet until they sprout.
After that, water once a day first thing in the morning -1 inch of water
in the bed and that's it. if you live somewhere especially dry like AZ
you may need to water 2x a day in the summer. If your plant is wilting
it is dying, so watch your plants to see if they need more water.
If you have a problem with salinity (salt) in the soil, create the beds,
then flood it three times and it will get the salt far enough down away
from the planting area that your plants wont be affected.
It is important to have level beds so that all nutrients given to the
plants will stay and soak into the soil where they are placed, rather
than running to the lowest point of the bed when watered. (I have a
video of how to level the beds coming soon)
Water only the root zone of the plant. *Do not sprinkle* this will water
weeds, waste water and promote disease. Try your hardest to not get
the rest of the plant wet when you water- this just promotes disease as
mentioned. If you automate water using an above the ground drip
system it will be easier, faster, and more efficient. Using 3/4 inch #200
psi pvc piping (painted with exterior paint) and drill 3 #57bit holes
every 4 inches. Set this on a 6"long 2x4 to suspend above root zone.
(when I make mine I will video and post)
5. Food
A plant can not grow beyond it's most limiting factor. In my opinion
food is, in most cases, the most limiting factor. There are plenty of the Weed early and often. do not use mulch. keep ground dry and bare.
nutrients that your plant needs in most soil, however, many are bonded Prevent disease and bugs! Pick fruits as soon as they are ripe and
to other elements and cannot be absorbed by the roots, so they do you prune your plants so that no leaves are touching the ground (we will be
no good. The food given to plants must be water soluble and available training all our plants UP). Clear the ground of any trimmings and pull
to roots. The 13 natural mineral nutrients needed for the best growth out and dispose of plants as soon as they are done fruiting. Do not let
and health of the plant are: fruit rot on the plant. Do not let your plants get over-watered.
Major Elements Other notes:
• Nitrogen A lot of people are concerned about the pH of the soil. For us in the
• Phosphorus southwest, the pH of soil is fixed when you add the preplant mix with
• Potassium in the form of Potash gyspum. To determine if your soil is acidic or alkaline, a good rule of
thumb is: any place that gets more than 20" of rain a year is acidic and
Otherwise known as NPK and is available at any garden center. You any place that gets less than 20" is alkaline. If you live somewhere
will need 16-16-16. 16-16-16 is the relative percentage % of Nitrogen with more than 20" of rain a year, replace the gypsum in the preplant
(N), Phosphorous (P), and Potassium (K). recipe with pulverized lime or garden lime. A good gardening pH is 6.
Plants use these nutrients to develop different parts; Nitrogen builds
strong leaves, Phosphate builds strong roots, and Potash (Potassium) The fertilizer recipes are as follows:
promotes root development and disease resistance. Preplant mix
Secondary Elements 80 parts gypsum (find in a large bag at most gardening stores)
• Calcium 4 parts Epsom salts (Found at the drug store in First Aid)
• Sulfur (Ca and Sulfur are found in gypsum) 1 part Boron (found at most grocery stores in the laundry isle as
• Magnesium (epsom Salt) BORAX laundry booster)
Trace Elements
• Zinc Remember these are parts not percents. When to add: Add to center of
the isles once they are made and leveled (and before seeds or seedlings
• Boron are planted). Cut into soil until you cant really see it anymore and then
• Manganese level again. You don't want to add before isles are made because it's a
waste of fertilizer. You will be adding 1 oz (2 tablespoons) per square
• Iron
foot.
• Copper
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• Chloride
Weekly Feed
• Molybdenum
25 lb bag NPK (16-16-16)
A continutous supply of these elements is best, so feed them every
4 lbs Epsom Salts
week! I will include the fertilizer recipes at the bottom of this post.
10oz of Magic Mix (I get this from the foodforeveryone.org website.
6. Competition
It has the trace elements that are very hard to find, and when they are
weeds, bugs, animals found can only be purchased in large quantities. Foodforeveryone has
small bags with all of it mixed in the correct proportions. Either only
mix as you need it or invest in some perlite to add so that once mixed,
it doesn't get wet and goopy.)
Apply 1/2 oz (1 Tbs) per square foot close to, but not touching the
plant. Do not work into soil (except when you are adding it along with
the preplant mix), just water it and it will gradually dissolve into soil.
When to apply: with the preplant mix, 3 days after all sprouts come up,
and then once per week until after harvest.
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As you will see by the shadows in my first videos, I didn't follow the
mittleider method completely in getting full sun, but the important
thing is to do the best with what you have. You have no excuse to not
be gardening!
See the how-to videos and more information on blog:
http://shumwaygardenblog.blogspot.com
die within weeks to months of getting it and there is no known
cure. The Australian military came in and put a stop to the
cannibalism, but then the people needed a new primary source of
food. They sustained their tribes on sweet potatoes, but not well.
In the area that Jacob Mittleider visited, the hospital and school
were about to be shut down because they couldn't feed the people
the necessary 5lbs of potatoes per day. After Mittleider came and
showed them how to garden his way, their sweet potatoes were 5
times as large as they used to be and were grown quicker and so
yielded more crops per year. They were able to sell and barter
their sweet potatoes and the community thrived as farmers. One
boy who was taught this method, Sir Silas Atopare, grew to
become President of Papua New Guinea from 1997-2003.
AMAZING???? I know!

If I haven't spoken to you about the Mittleider Method Seminar

given by Jim Kennard I went to a few weeks back, I'm sorry.
You must find out about this way cool way to garden with less
water, less money, and in any kind of soil. It's awesome. Jim
Kennard has been a humanitarian missionary for the LDS church
because of his knowledge of this method and along with Jacob
Mittleider, Jim (the President of the FoodForEveryone.org
Foundation) has traveled the world teaching people how to
garden the smart way, boosting the economy of many third-world
countries (and some not so third-world). I have so many stories
about this but I'm only going to tell you about one since I want to
keep your attention!

In Papua New Guinea they were having problems with

cannibalism. Whenever a tribal war was won, the winning tribe
would eat the losing tribe. People were getting Creutzfeldt-Jakob
disease (the human version of mad-cow disease-allegedly
contracted from eating the brains of a member your species)
which causes dementia, speech impairment, jerky movements
(myoclonus), balance and coordination dysfunction (ataxia),
changes in gait, rigid posture, and seizures. Usually people will