Best feedstocks to use in Canada

[Bruce Little]

I'm very interested in cattails.
I've posted a question in the Ask David Blume section for some input on this.
Let's gather information relating to this here.

[Pauline Connolly]

Hi Bruce :

The cattail is a tuber and if you pull all the root you will not have a crop next season .

Do you have a greenhouse ? If so , plant a small porton of one tuber and watch it grow .

I would like to know a little about your process , as your climate is as cold as ours in NL.

When you find out what enzime to use please let me know .

Pauline

[jackie]

Yes, I am also very interested in the cattails. One thing I have noticed here is that they come from seed very readily, however in our short season in NWT Canada the plants from seed seem to need two years. When I harvest I simply will leave a percentage maybe even 50% so that every year there will be stock and the plants could then spread by seed and via tubers.
I believe the cattails will also fill another very important need and that is fertility for farming and feed stock for animals or mushrooms etc. When we look at the present problem of using more energy that what is harvested with fossil fuels, I wonder what the energy return looks like if we uses every stage of the plant and all by products, heat, CO2, spent mash?

Jackie

[Bruce Little]

A friend of mine told me the best time to harvest the cattails is in the winter when the lake or river water has frozen and you can just go on the ice and chop them down. Perhaps even get some sort of cutting machine to help with the process. When do you harvest them?

[Pauline Connolly]

Hi Bruce :

I had a three wheeled weed wacker and it was great for taking down tall grass , if your cutting cattails in the winter on the ice you will need help , so a weed wacker of any sort will do .

Pauline

[Pauline Connolly]

Hi Jackie :

What other crops are you growing in the NWT ?

Are you using a greenhouse for all your crops ?

How many crops are you growing on the land without cover ?

I am in Newfoundland and our climate isn't that good for some crops .

I am going to grow cattails in a greenhouse .

Thanks
Pauline

[jackie]

Hello Pauline!

I have already tried growning sugar beets, and I was very shocked to see some winter over and go to seed being that it is so cold here, regular beets are killed off. I have a small market garden I grow many crops for eating. Corn, tomato's, peppers, & cucumbers do not produce well because of the coolness I think.These hat loving crops do need greenhouses here. I'm going to try and grow mangels this year as mentioned in David's book, because the sugar beets did very well. They could be stored for a time in a root cellar so processing could be spred out over time. This is why I what to build my greenhouse and fuel room together because the heat from the still would be good for the greenhouse. The beet tops would be good for compost and animal feed. I feel that cattails and beets/mangels will be my best crop choices for fuel.
I would havest my cattails in the fall say sept because the greens are still up but the sugars would be going down to the root bulb and it would not be to cold yet. I feel working around water when it is very cold is simply to hard and even dangerous if you fell throught the ice. The one nice thing is that cattails can grow in the wild without you giving time to thier care and when you harvest them its away of bringing in organic fertility onto your land.

Jackie

[Bruce Little]

Hi Pauline, thanks... I haven't heard from David about the enzyme yet, but i'll post this info as soon as I hear.