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

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  • From: Steve Bonney <steve@sustainableearth.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] [soilandhealth] Organic matter percentage
  • Date: Wed, 28 Dec 2011 15:16:27 -0500

I agree that the 3 tiered system is a good way of thinking. Building SOM is a continuous activity when growing plants. Who ever has too much organic matter? I must caution about bringing any biomass on to a food production system. Best to know if it's contaminated with toxic chemicals -- usually lawn chemicals in my region -- or unwanted seeds. So leaves raked from a lawn that's recently been sprayed will contain some of that grass.

John, if we are selling any farm/garden production fertility is leaving our land. A system that maximizes production exacerbates that loss. On the plains, it was the dung and urine and grazing of huge numbers of large ruminants (bison), followed by a rest period before others followed that created SOM in the 8-10 % range.

Steve


On 12/28/2011 12:11 PM, Toby Hemenway wrote:
I like Tom Ward's 3-phase system for implementing solutions: first, what he calls "quick fix", then
"retrofit," then what he calls "ultimate permaculture." So in this case the quick fix would be to get a
municipal compost program to deliver two 10-yard truckloads of compost per acre. That's the solution if you need organic matter
right now no delay, (say, hungry neighbors needing food!) and thus you will be a little less than choosy about what's in it.
It's taking advantage of the crazy abundance of resources this culture has at the moment. Then, "retrofit" would be
something like cover cropping and tilling it in. (We'll be doing a lot of "retrofit," in this society, given the
existing infrastructure that is so badly planned or damaged. We can't tear it all down at once, so we must retrofit what we
have.) But ultimate permaculture, like Steve says, would be a rotational grazing program, tree crops, and perennial fertility
builders. That will take a few years to get going, hen
ce the hierarchy of approaches. It also works at various scales: quick fix
on a small area to get a yield going, retrofit for medium size, and ultimate
permaculture to transform the whole system.

This 3-tier system has broad application to a lot of design problems; I
appreciate that Tom has given it some nomenclature.

Toby
http://patternliteracy.com


On Dec 27, 2011, at 8:44 PM, Steve Bonney wrote:


--
Steve Bonney
Sustainable Earth
a 501(c)3 not-for-profit membership organization
to promote sustainable farming and food systems

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