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  • From: Daniel Jager <dfjager@yahoo.com>
  • To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Quora question: How does one build soil? http://www.quora.com/How-does-one-build-soil
  • Date: Mon, 26 Dec 2011 07:12:28 -0800 (PST)

I think more in terms of climate suitability for composting.

In the true tropics, composting is plain silly. Everything decomposes so
readily that any speed-up is undesirable.

In the subtropics, decomposition is usually seasonal. High decomposition in
the rainy season, and low decomposition in the dry season. Example: In
central and northern Thailand, many indigenous trees are deciduous; losing
leaves in the dry season to prevent water loss AND conveniently mulching the
forest floor that otherwise would feel the direct rays of the sun (and thus
dry out much quicker). I also only mulch my homegardens in the dry season,
and let it all decompose over the rainy season, adding only what naturally
falls from my fruit trees at that time. No need for compost here either (IMO)

In the Arid and Mediterranean regions, mulching is obviously preferable over
composting (in most cases), since mulching lowers the soil temp and preserves
moisture (in the hot dry summer). Though it is of course risky if you have
neighbours that like to burn of OM any change they get.

In the temperate regions, finally, composting is a boon. Mulching might
create nice habitats for not-so-beneficial insects and pests. Also, the mulch
may be too persistent and get too thick, wet and moldy over time. This is
especially not so good near vegetable beds and the like. Luckily though, the
sun is not so strong, and exposed soil to sunlight is not so detrimental.
Speeding the decomp of mulch up in a compost heap to get compost is thus a
good option here.

Daniel


On 12/26/2011 5:39 AM, Christian Skiba wrote:
> Hi Dieter,
>
> if you have ever seen a good made compost - dark, good smelling,
> loose structure and full of life - you wouldn't say so. There are
> lossses of amount, that's true. But what you get, when the process of
> composing comes to an end, is more valuable than the loss.
>
> Alwin Seifert, a german pinoneer of organic gardening, explained it
> like this:
>
> a wild crab aple tree (with small fruits which are only a shell for
> the important seeds) grows and lives only from that, what he took
> from the soil and what he got back from the leaves falling down in
> autumn and return to the soil again. This one layer of leaves is
> enough for him.
>
> But for our productive apple trees, with big amount of apples this
> one layer is not enough.
>
> Because it is not possible to put the necessary ten or twenty layers
> around the trunk he did it on another side nearby - the compost
> heap.
>
>
> In my garden I do both: composing (espacially when a lot of organic
> matter accumulates in a short time without free space on the garden
> beds) and applying organic matter directly whenever possible.
>
> Compost I also need for potting soil, for my greenhouse and as a
> fertilizer for cabbage and others.

If you have a diversified permaculture homestead you probably have a
continuous but regulated supply of various manures, other nitrogenous
materials (food waste, vegetables and fruit, meat scraps, etc) plus
plant biomass from a number of sources with varying C/N ratios. Applying
this or layering these materials directly on crop soil within an
existing layer of surface litter or into various types of cover crops
can be considered a natural process in balance with and in harmony with
existing soil conditions. Site drainage is all-important
to maintain aerobic conditions therefore trenching between raised beds
is wise. These trenches can contain a deep layer of compost and mulch
into which raw soil amendments can be carefully added. Rotating cropping
areas allows for adding larger concentrations of nitrogenous amendments
to a garden site by lightly cultivating them into an existing, deep,
layer of litter being careful to maintain aerobic conditions. Making a
"cold" compost pile is also useful to create large quantities of
enriched humus to use in seed starting, potting plants or top dressing
seedling starts. Of course you could glean this same material from the
surfaces of fallow gardens in a rotation sequence.
Gaining seed starting and potting compost could always be accomplished
by removing controlled quantities from fallow gardens. Raw materials can
be added directly within the drip zones of tree and shrub crops, into
existing beds of high-fertility litter, for high efficiency utilization
of raw soil amendments.





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