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  • From: Bill Jones <billj AT harborside.com>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Homestead] Re: Garden Soil: It's More Than Just Dirt
  • Date: Mon, 07 Mar 2005 11:13:48 -0800

Gene forwarded:

So if you are buying mulch, get a printout from the company or municipal group providing it, listing everything in the material. "That means microelements to major elements," Dr. Ribeiro said. "You can have too much nitrogen in compost, or high levels of micro-elements like lead and cadmium."

I'm suspicious when someone mentions nitrogen and lead in the same breath. How can an organic fertilizer have too much N? If that's so, use less of it. For instance, the second year I grew peppers with alfalfa pellets as the N source, and there was too much nitrogen (*in the bed*). Of course, they were huge and leafy and green, with no plant pathogens whatsoever, and overall as healthy as can be. If I'd been in the Tropics, they'd have gone on to become giant trees, with hundreds of peppers, but they didn't mature fast enough for the onset of winter here. Now when I grow peppers, I use much less of the soaked alfalfa pellets, diluting it with hi-potash peat, and now they turn out great. The *fertilizer* doesn't have too much nitrogen; I once just put too much of it on.

If anything, the products labeled "mulch" and "compost" available in little bags in town are little better than blackened sawdust. If they had much nitrogen in them, you might be tempted to skimp on fertilizer, and that would be bad for the fake fish emulsion business.

I suspect that if I check them out, I may find that they're offering a horrifically expensive organic fertilizer which, conveniently, does not contain too much N. If that's not so, then it's likely that what the good Doctor's real concern is how the high-N runoff from your garden might cause detrimental algal blooms in ponds downstream. I appreciate people whose concern for the environment outside my garden is greater than their concern for my garden itself, and I fully allow them to have their value system, but I'd appreciate it if they just let me know that first before giving advice.

I also feel that if someone were really out to give you advice on how not to cause harm to your garden, they might mention that conifer waste breaks down into compounds that are toxic to all plant life except those that dwell among them here in the forest: ferns, rhodies, etc. Nearly always when there is free "manure" available, it's mostly conifer shavings, and it's usually red cedar (the most toxic of all, according to Steve Solomon). I've even heard it billed as manure without the stinky element. I've learn to detect that smell of red cedar in the blackened sawdust mix, and politely refuse it.

But the Doctor's concern about lead and cadmium in compost is also valid. I checked out the analysis of the Eugene, OR, city compost, and the zinc content alone could never have come solely from plant products. It's obviously mixed with sewer sludge that contains paint residues.

The USDA says their research shows that these toxic elements aren't absorbed much by food crops (I wouldn't bet on taproot crops), but still it makes me that much happier to know that I can have a virtually unlimited "garden from a bag" without using any known toxics, or being a slave to exorbitant fancy ferts.

Bill
S. Oregon coast







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