If you are a gardener, you should know about this new gardening technique. Or shall I call it a gardening adjunct? It’s really not all that new and dates back several hundred years. It seems to be gaining in popularity as we advance to kinder resources for our planet and food.
Electroculture harnesses energy from the atmosphere and ground and applies it to agriculture. Some experiments have shown it reduces the need for fertilizer and helps with water absorption. Others claim it can discourage bugs and plant diseases.
The gardenglove.com offers this design made from copper tubing enhanced with a crystal. Beautiful garden art!
How do you use electroculture?
These gadgets look like mini lightning rods, although some researchers (professional and amateur) have made enormous rods that tower over their gardens. Your choices will depend on your resources and how you would like to experiment. Some people tested it on seeds, others on outdoor gardens or potted plants. In most cases, this is done by coiling a copper wire around a stick or dowel. The coil design is important and seems to produce a more favorable response. My personal design choice extends the coil a few inches above the stick.
As for the dowel or stick, this is only used to hold the wire. In some designs, the stick is eliminated. Some gardeners have become very creative, adding crystals and pyramids to enhance the energy. They are quite attractive with the shiny copper wire. And while I’m talking about wire, the thickness of the copper wire does not seem to make a difference on the outcome. The wire I purchased came to a whopping $9 plus change. I chose a thin wire for easy manipulation. For individual garden plants, the copper wire and rod should be pushed into the ground 6-8 inches.
Here is a ready-made design I found on Etsy.
My experiment, presently going on in Wisconsin, was to put my rods next to the weakest plants in the garden. There was a marked difference with some of the plants that didn’t take off as well as the others, thus defined as the weakest in the lot. Part of the problem is that we are in an extreme drought. Glad I’m not a commercial farmer! They are right on the edge of losing their crops. I gave into sprinkling my gardens with an oscillating sprinkler, but we all know that rainwater is best. Truly, I had no choice.
In addition, there is the practice of wrapping the plant itself in a copper wire or pushing the wire through the stem of the plant. My first concern with this is that a healthy plant will not like being confined. Secondly, spearing a wire through the plant stem seems a bit barbaric to me, and like any wound, risks introducing bacteria, fungus, and disease into the plant.
Does it work?
Only time will tell. I am seeing mixed results from what I have learned from others. Some gardeners express mediocre results. Others are very excited. My guess is that we do not fully understand the best techniques to maximize the benefit, if there is one. My garden has not had enough time to interact with the rods for me to draw an opinion. So I wait and see. I am sure I will have something to say in a few months as fall approaches and the garden comes to a close.
Resources
There is not enough space or time to include all the current research in my blog. However, I found this link to be very helpful: https://ironcabin.co/electroculture/. It includes several different experiments and scientific data. It also includes electro-magnetic culture, where magnets and magnetized water have been shown to enhance the growth of your plants.
My objective is to get you thinking outside the box to explore these possibilities as a new way to harvest energy favorable to crop growth.
Using a thin wire allows for easy manipulation.