You can collect tree resin and turn that into pitch/ tar.

It makes such a great glue, that it was used for millennia by stone age men and many generations after that, until recent.

You can use it to reinforce the tip of the feather shaft or attach the tip.

For the tip, I recommend using metal of some sort. Sure, it could also work with (flint) stone, but there’s a reason copper, later bronze, later iron, dominated for that use case. It can be mined and processed relatively “easy”, even without a smeltering furnace, especially copper and bronze.
But that is all another level :)

Hey! Fellow autistic person here :)

First, your post is absolutely fine. There are no dumb questions!

I think you have to keep in mind that other people have different concepts what solarpunk is.

For you, it sounds like you imagine it to be like a total hippie commune, where everyone still lives in year 1400 and no technology exists. Only farmers trading stuff with each other and building houses out of dirt. If that sounds like hell to you, maybe it is.

My definition/ imagination of solarpunk is different. Maybe not nearly as much changes in your routines as you think. Who says you can’t do your regular office job, workshop or whatever you do, as a regular employee anymore?

Hell, it gets even better. You can distance yourself from others all you want, and nobody is mad at you, your job is more fulfilling and suited for your (special) needs. Treating everyone with dignity and respect is a core value of solarpunk after all :)

Some people are just great at socialising, and they can make this their “job”. Some others, like us, maybe aren’t and have other skills, still much needed by (solarpunk) society.

For me personally, this would be a dream I want to fight for!!!

Oh, and regarding texture. The exact same food tastes different 100 times, and has 100 different mouthfeels when prepared by 100 different cooks/ manufacturers. You will find something ;)

I can’t wait to finally let go of the tiny depression rectangle for ever

I think your problem isn’t the technology itself, but what you make out of it.

Smartphones are incredibly capable and useful if used correctly.
If you assess your problem spots (e.g. doomscrolling, news, chatting, etc.) and remove them then you have all pros without many cons.

I’m using a Pixel with GrapheneOS, which I dumbed down quite a bit. I’m rarely on my phone anymore, coming from a doomscroll addict.

Sure!

• Clear PETG (Polymaker Polylite),
• vase mode,
• 0,3 mm nozzle, 0,2 mm layer height,
• and +5°C hotter than usual + fan speed only 10%.

This makes the layers fuse more together and the print is even more robust! You can bend it almost how you want.

… or some phosphate/ fertilizer for some extra fun 👀

And just in case society collapses, you can make some quick buck in the meantime selling your selfmade soilent green to the starving masses ☺️✨

Maybe just use cheap synthetic fertiliser if you want?
It’s used for potted plants, so there’s basically no runoff.

I personally love Masterblend, which is what plants crave ® /s (contains all essential nutrients and you don’t need much of it). You need to weight and dissolve it tho, but that’s not much extra effort for me.

But any cheap all purpose fertilizer with micronutrients will do.

Doesn’t that contain too much sodium? How do you prevent disease spread?

Maximum nutrition/ calories: potatoes, tomatoes, beans

Maximum use: herbs, lettuce, strawberries, chillies

All as vertically stacked as possible (towers, trellises, etc.) and !hydroponics@slrpnk.net

Oh crap, I haven’t had the chance to make a post. I’ll be doing it soon 👍 Thanks for the reminder!

You could also use cardboard layed flat. It blocks all the light long enough to kill every weed under it, and then in spring, it either already decayed, or you can pick it up and throw it away.

This could also be just a text post

My favorite edible container plants are perennials (as dealing with spent soil from annual plants every season is such a pain)

I’m the exact opposite lol 🙃

You could check out !hydroponics@slrpnk.net.

My perennial plants (berries, saffron, etc.) are in soil, and the annual “throwaway” ones in hydro.

With the soil plants I have to keep the dirt (microbes, worms, etc.) happy in order to keep the plants happy, water regularly, and more. Lots of work.

The herbs are just sowing, refilling the nutrient solution sometimes, and harvesting. Because I don’t use soil, I don’t have to throw away anything.

I will make a post soon to give you guys some inspiration

That’s the spirit! You got it!

Basically Kintsugi, but made by someone 13-year-old mentally 😂 Exactly what I imagined too

Just make sure you don’t inhale any fumes from the plastic

If nothing else works, maybe make the best out of it, grab a lighter (or soldering iron) and just burn a cool pattern on it?

I’ve never seen real world use of those flying turbines. What are their pros and cons compared to classic ones on the ground? What happens when it’s stormy?

How do you use clay balls?

I made this post a while ago about “Semi-Hydro”, a very simple, yet extremely effective technique.

Not sure I understand how the roots are in water yet get aerated?

In S/H and the Kratky method for example, which are both passive, only a part of the roots is submerged, while the rest is only kept moist, but freely in the air. This allows for extreme well gas exchange.

Other techniques often require air stones with pumps and electricity, but even those have their own strengths and weaknesses.

How do you test for nutrient strength?

I do that by measuring the electric conductivity (EC). Fertilizer = salts; more salts = higher EC. The device itself costs less than 20 bucks.

There are charts available for pretty much every type of crop.

You can even notice if a plant will suffer from a deficiency soon, because the EC will then drop, or if it will get nutrient burn when the EC rises to a certain level. That’s super useful, especially when growing outdoors, because sometimes the transpiration is much higher than the nutrient demand.

You can even measure the pH, which will tell you a lot about the nutrient absorption and availability.
For example, I noticed the pH drifting upwards when the plant is in bloom, because of the high phosphorus demands.

All of that is pretty much impossible with soil based methods of growing

I guess the difference is the very controlled and shielded environment of hydroponics vs the open environment of balcony plants in soil?

Hydroponics only means that I don’t use soil, only nutrient solution and maybe a medium like clay balls.

Many pests (e.g. fungus gnats, thrips, etc.) are soilborne and can’t complete their reproductive cycle in “hostile” media like mine.

Also, I have more control. I can always check the nutrient strength and pH for example in seconds, and then adjust it or flush the media.
That way, I can often see problems arising before they show, which allows for better growth and more robust plants.

And then, the growing conditions are pretty much constantly perfect. I don’t have to worry about waterlogged soil for example, because the roots are constantly moist, but still perfectly aerated.
If you did hydro once, you’ll understand how much aeration matters, in soil just as much, if not even more!

I wonder if there is one week of the year when they start turning aggressive - I remember leaving their nests alone because they would be peaceful during the spring months, and then at some point in summer I’d get stung.

Is it possible that they are photoperiodic and sense that winter is coming?

I’m a real fan of undesired non-humans, so figuring out how to co-inhabit spaces with wasps, ants, rats, mice etc. without resorting to genocide is one of my favourite topics!

Same! That’s why I did this balcony project. Everything around me is dead. Concrete, pesticides, monocultures, and so on.

My grandma visited me a while ago and said that this is one of the most living places she has seen since years.

I even arranged myself with the ants. They were super annoying in the beginning, but now, we respect each others boundaries. They are actually useful by being my personal cleaning crew, who dispose all dead bodies.
My only annoyance is that they’ve learnt how to exploid the aphids tho…

If you want saccharine sweet ego fluffing responses, go prompt an AI. Being earnest and being honest are more important to me.

That’s why I made this post. Because maybe I needed some feedback from real people, with hands on experience, who either tried but failed, or did something a bit different and succeeded.

I didn’t criticise what you said, it’s how you said it.
I’m highly glad for your input, but I personally think that you could have said it a bit more friendly while being just as honest at the same time.

There must be a word in German for this kind of hubris.

Sure, there’s always a german word for something :D

Right now, I can think of “Schreibtischexperte” (desktop expert), but maybe “Praxisversager” (a loser in hands-on-experience), or Theorieprofessor.

2 out if the 3 were made up by myself just at the moment, lol.

So what is stable about your current system? Take the moment for some introspection. Is it stable? Or maybe are you assumptions about stability wrong? Are you expecting to permaculture on a balcony garden? Are you expecting too much because you have some misconceptions?

Stable means for me, that there aren’t zero pests, but also no overabundance.

I think I may have overreacted a bit yesterday.
I was already pissed about having itchy bugs everywhere on my skin, and then the wasp attack was the final nail in the coffin…

I planted the willow there on purpose, because last year, when I went for a walk, I noticed mainly the willow trees being swarmed by pests.

They act not only as a trellis for me, but also as a bait, so the pests are only sucking the sap of the willow and not the stuff around. And then, they attract predators, which will ward off any critters that might attack my crops.

However, I didn’t think about the relationship between the ants and those bastards.

If you have a small area to work with, you are creating the exact kind of environment for the kinds of pest issues you’ve created by doing exactly what you are doing

You are trying to do too much with too little. Fewer plants and more spacing between them will both result in individually healthier plants and fewer disease issues because the diseases have a harder time moving through the system.

I think you are absolutely right. I think some of the plants are stressed because they are overcrowded, and there isn’t sufficient light and airflow.

I tried to experiment this year and see how much I can grow per m².
Even though it sucks right now, I would call this experiment successful.

I think I have learned something: More isn’t better.

My balcony will be less crowded next year.

Also, your garden looks cool af! 😁 Thanks for sharing the video!

And again, thank you for all the advice :)

But do you want to fight against nature or reproduce it?

If I want to fight nature, I can pretty much only loose. So, I tried to recreate it a bit to attract pollinators and other beneficial insects to give them a small place to live.

Plants will look sickly if I can’t arrange containers big enough to contain their roots. Some just don’t like the shape of their pot and don’t grow no matter what.

For my productive crops, I use !hydroponics@slrpnk.net. Huge yield for the volumes I use

I’ve never found copper to be effective against slugs. They didn’t even mind one bit :D

But do you know what works? Right, my jet flame lighter. Brutal, but effective.