Visted the AGRAme

Howdy,

Welcome to my Dubai based vegatable gardening blog.  I hope you can take the time to view some of my previous blogs.   Make yourself  at home!

I found some time to visit the AGRAme exhibition.  I manage to meet and see some interesting things and people. There were quite a few companies exhibiting their agricultural ware but only a handful were of interest to me.

The first person I meet entering the exhibit was Ralf Stahl. He was there to promote his product  Zeoplant.  According to the brochure - it improves the soil structure and increases the water holding capacity of the soils to the extent that infiltration speed of irrigation water will be reduced by up to 85%. Plant roots have more time to absorb the water and loss of water through percolation is reduced drastically. Total water holding capacity of Zeoplant is 420%. It is also suppose to cut your water & NPK fertilizer comsumption by 50%.   Not sure what all this means but I will be contacting Mr. Stahl soon to get some more information and my hands on some of this to try out.  If you want to read more about this product just click here - http://www.zeoplant.com/.

The other folks I meet were Emirates Bio Fertilizer Factory based in Al Ain, UAE.  They were showing the many products they have and produce.  They make both Inorganic and Organic fertilizers as well as cow manure, potting soils, and soil additives. They have an interesting product that is a fungus that is to suppose to helps promote root growth.  I said "the last thing I want is more fungus in my garden as some kind of fungus killed my tamater plants" but (after looking at each other wondering what a tamater was) they asured me that it is not the same thing. This product is called German BioMyc Vital (you might need to hit a translation button).  EBFF also has five different organic liquid fertilizer that I did not have the time to really look at but it is again something I will be looking into.  What I did notice (or maybe I just did not see it) was that they do not show their slow release organic granule fertilizer on their website.  I did  however take a quick picture of some of it.

There are many products on offer at EBFF and I will hopefully be able to make some time to head up to Al Ain and pay them a visit and found out more.  It seems that their products are not readliy available here in Dubai yet!  I hope to blog more about their products sometime in the near future.

There were a couple of other things that caught my eye at AGRAme.  One company that builds turnkey green houses was showing a miniture hydroponic set up for show purposes only that I found quite interesting.

First of all the styrofoam pots caught my eye.  They could be the answer to pots in the sun heating up!  But also it was interesting what can be done with drippers, a few pots, a lite wieght growing medium, something to catch the water coming through the pots and an aquarium pump to circulate the water from the reservoir back to the pots.

And another company showed some stacking pots for their greenhouse projects but was asking Dhs. 40.00/pot so the whole stack as pictured os Dhs. 200.00 without the soil and plants!!!  It bit steep on the cost of something made in China I thought.  But, the idea is interesting!



Another company I will be calling is Organicline (their website is underconstruction).  They have a fungicide that I will have ready next year when I grow my tamaters next year.  But for now, be trying out on my squash, melons and canteloupe I will be planting soon.  Well, ok, I cheated I planted the watermelons & canteloupe today - it took me most of the day.  Some of the canteloupe seedlings are already trying to flower so I nipped the buds and planted them.  I been meaning to blog about this by now but never could get to it.  It should be my next blog!

Here is a joke I found today when I opened my iGoggle today.

An old man lived alone in Idaho. He wanted to spade his potato garden, but it was very hard work. His only son, Bubba, who used to help him, was in prison. The old man wrote a letter to his son and described his predicament.

Dear Bubba:
I am feeling pretty bad because it looks like I won't be able to plant my potato garden this year. I'm just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. If you were here, all my troubles would be over. I know you would dig the plot for me.   Love, Dad

A few days later, he received a letter from his son.

Dear Dad:
For heaven's sake,  don't dig up that garden. That's where I buried the BODIES.    Love, Bubba

At 4 a.m. the next morning, FBI agents and local Police showed up and dug up the entire area without finding any bodies. They apologized to the old man and left.  That same day, the old man received another letter from his son.

Dear Dad:
Go ahead and plant the potatoes now. It's the best I could do under the circumstances.    Love, Bubba

That's it for this blog.  Thanks for stopping by.  If you have any questions about anything in today's blog just post them in the comment box below and I will do my best to answer them or to get someone from their company to send in an answer.

Take Care!

Bubba