Cool, but, anyone with botanical knowledge want to explain how this inky green thumb technique works?

http://pinktentacle.com/2010/04/manga-farming/

"Tokyo-based artist Koshi Kawachi recently demonstrated his “Manga Farming” technique — which uses old manga as a growing medium for vegetables — by cultivating a crop of radish sprouts in an installation at the Matsuzakaya department store in Nagoya... "

(Followed by large pictures and link to gallery.)

It seems as though he is just using the manga as a substrate and then supplementing with a hydroponic solution. This means he is putting the mixture of nutrients required by the plant into the water, then soaking the manga in the water. It works well because the fibres of the pages of the manga soak up the water by capillary action and allow the plant roots to access it as required without becoming too waterlogged.

The pages are made up of cellulose which is a complex sugar, but plants make their own sugar by photosynthesis and don't take it up through the roots. I doubt there is much accessible nutrition in the inks, so the only way this can be working is hydroponically.

Ha, that sounds awesome. Although, they have this listed on gallery photos: "Comic book, Seeds（Radish sprout）,Water,Sun,Air"

Well you can germinate seedlings to quite a late stage with very little added nutrition - perhaps they are just growing using the nutrients stored in their seeds. They wouldn't get much bigger if that's the case.

Just admit it, the nutrients are the powerful bildungsromanesque emotions and metaphysical aesthetics of the ink.

Shh, if word gets out my stock in the fertilizer industry will plummet and the rural liberal arts will start a renaissance. The worst of both worlds!

Blahah Wrote:Shh, if word gets out my stock in the fertilizer industry will plummet and the rural liberal arts will start a renaissance. The worst of both worlds!

hehe