hey all, I'm a huge noob when it comes to growing organic food. I was wondering if anyone can recommend me any books, pdfs, articles, etc that will teach me how to properly grow some fresh organic food. This is a hobby I was looking to take part in so any help would be great, thanks!

*doh, I realized I spelled the title wrong, sadly I cant edit it :(!

What climate? What kind of soil? Sandy? Clay?

Growing food organically is all about looking after the soil. It's fun to do, and easy to learn.
This is what you absolutely need to know:

- Grow plenty of legumes, these fix nitrogen in the soil
- Use a composting toilet to compost your shit and put this in the soil
- Apply composted (or dilute) animal shit to the soil

- Switch around what grows where
- Dig the soil as little as possible, leave dead plants where they are, break off if they are shading. grow plants with strong roots if the soil is hard

- Build up the humus in the soil by adding organic matter. Leave crop residues on the surface of the soil. Return kitchen scraps to soil.
- Grow or otherwise source mulch and use mulch to shade out the weeds. Mulch helps the soil hold water. The worms in the soil eat the mulch and this improves the soil structure and fertility.
- Insects, lizards, spiders, frogs, lichens, moulds, fungii etc are good. Life in the garden is good. Encourage it.

Save your own seeds from what you grow.

Here are some links:
http://ecocrop.fao.org/ - database of plants
http://www.soilandhealth.org/01aglibrary/01aglibwelcome.html - free online agriculture library. there is a book on here name The One-Straw Revolution, by Masanobu Fukuoka which I highly recommend. many good books here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_organic_gardening_and_farming_topics - relevant wikipedia directory

Nice post Cullz.

Do grow threads no longer go in TGO, or is that forum now just reserved for wannabe Afghan warlords looking to increase their poppy yield?

Do grow threads no longer go in TGO, or is that forum now just reserved for wannabe Afghan warlords looking to increase their poppy yield?

Would have moved it...didn't want to say anything. You know how it is, maybe.

In no way was that intended as a tacit dig at Deus's modding. I was genuinely curious, seeing as most the of the grow threads in TGO, are dedicated to growing some chemically funky fungus or plant. Granted, if you want to go by the letter and argue that because this thread involves growing a plant (edible or otherwise) it should be moved. But you could equally well counter-argue that growing low CO2 organic food is a clear cut environmental issue, and as such would be better suited here.

Personally I'd pick the latter, but then I'm a contrary fucker.

I had a organic toilet once, and hated it. People say they don't have a smell, but they do. Personally, I don't like them at all.
Don't get one.

I left this here since it's disputable, and already here. It's not massively consequential, anyway.

Good post Cullz.

It's certainly possible to grow stuff the old fashioned way - it's been done for long enough. :p Just read up first, and try to reuse as much as you can.

-deus-