Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

permaculture - Re: [permaculture] [soilandhealth] Organic matter percentage

permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: permaculture

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Michael Pilarski <friendsofthetrees@yahoo.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] [soilandhealth] Organic matter percentage
  • Date: Tue, 27 Dec 2011 23:57:56 -0800 (PST)

Fascinating discussion.

I reckon I am adding organic matter to my permaculture site's soil by 1% a
year. For small sites and establishment phases I think it is great to bring
in outside organic matter. As much as you can get (or afford).  I also think
biochar has a lot to offer.

But for larger acreages and for the long haul we mainly need to grow the
organic matter on site.  Perennial systems accumulate and annual systems
degrade. Annual is possible only by bringing in outside inputs. 

My plantings have a lot of trees, shrubs, perennial herbs and weeds.  Every
year they produce more above-ground and below-ground biomass.  I imagine it
will keep increasing for 50 years or more.

Keyline plowing on pasture can deepen topsoil and organic matter by a huge
factor.

Michael Pilarski

--- On Tue, 12/27/11, Neil Bertrando <neilbertrando@gmail.com> wrote:

From: Neil Bertrando <neilbertrando@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [permaculture] [soilandhealth] Organic matter percentage
To: "permaculture" <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
Date: Tuesday, December 27, 2011, 12:16 PM

this might be a reasonable way to jumpstart a system towards a state of
on-site carbon cycling and sequestration via incoming sunlight and
photosynthetically active radiation.

I think an important aspect of this process is the management plan to
retain SOM and encourage it's development on-site.  if we don't use
management practices that build soil then we'll still lose SOM regardless
of whether we import it or grow it on site for a short period of time.

Neil

On Mon, Dec 26, 2011 at 11:12 PM, Toby Hemenway
<toby@patternliteracy.com>wrote:

> Although 50,000 lbs sounds like a lot, it's only about 20 cubic yards per
> acre, 40 at most. So it's not that hard to boost SOM using compost (even
> though I'm a big fan of mulches).
>
> Toby
> http://patternliteracy.com
>
> On Dec 26, 2011, at 3:13 PM, Glenn Gall wrote:
>
> On 9/18/2011 2:03 AM, m_astera wrote:
> > How much compost or manure would one need to add to raise the Soil
> > Organic Matter SOM content of an acre of soil 6" deep by 1%?
> >
> > SOM percentage is calculated by weight, not volume. The convention
> > used is that 1 acre of soil 6-7" deep weighs 2,000,000 (two million)
> > pounds. Or a hectare of soil 15cm deep weighs 2,000,000 kg. One
> > percent of that is 20,000 lbs/acre or 20,000 kg/ha
>
> >
> > Compost and manure can be assumed to be around 60% moisture and 40%
> > dry organic matter. So
> >
> > 20,000 / 0.40 = 50,000
> >
> > To add 1% organic matter to the top 6" or 15cm of soil would require
> > about 50,000 lbs/acre or 50,000 kg/ha of organic matter at 60%
> > moisture content.
>
> _______________________________________________
> permaculture mailing list
> permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
> Subscribe, unsubscribe, change your user configuration or find out more
> about this list here:
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture
> Garden Hand Tool Sourcelist and Biointensive Gardening Guide
> http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech/documents/gardening-hand-tools.faq
> permaculture forums http://www.permies.com/permaculture-forums
> Google command to search the message archives:
> site: lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture [searchstring]
> Make a donation toward list maintenance:
>
> https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=N8YGXK5XLTPAU
>
>
>
_______________________________________________
permaculture mailing list
permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
Subscribe, unsubscribe, change your user configuration or find out more about
this list here:
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture
Garden Hand Tool Sourcelist and Biointensive Gardening Guide
http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech/documents/gardening-hand-tools.faq
permaculture forums http://www.permies.com/permaculture-forums
Google command to search the message archives:
site: lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture [searchstring]
Make a donation toward list maintenance:
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=N8YGXK5XLTPAU






Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page