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[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

> >James, How much drywall did you use over a given area?
> If I busted up a 4x8 sheet, how would you spread that out and how long
> would you wait until you 'amended' the soil again?  Would you test the
> soil a year after adding it or just wing it with your tongue?
> 

Short of piling the stuff up a foot thick, I doubt you can use too much.  It 
gets wet and sissolves right away, paper and all.  At the time I was using 
it, 
I had one of those chipper/shreader thingies.  It obliterated the drywall 
into pecan sized pieces ad smaller in an instant.  Not only did it not harm 
the 
chipper, it cleaned it out and it worked much better afterwards.  It was a 
Craftsman, just like one of the CRT tillers.

I've put smaller quantities on places since then and just roughly smashed it 
up with a hammer.  Some of it I put into a compost heap and piled stuff on 
top 
of it and it broke down into gravel sized pieces in one season.d

Oddly it didn't move the pH of the soil much, you've no doubt found out that 
in organic soil, you can't bully the pH.  The organisms will adjust it to 
suit 
themselves no matter much what you do.  But when that stuff touches hard 
clay, it loosens into very nice coarse soil.  Even a little added to hard 
clay 
makes a big difference.

I scarcely bother to test the soil any more.  Adding all the organic material 
I can get makes the soil heat up, play host to every sort of fungus and 
mushroom you can imagine, turn all and sundry shades, and it seems to reach 
an 
equilibrium that is not much affected by amendments.  After tresting the soil 
for 
several years in a row and getting the same neutral, middle of the road 
results, I quit doing it.

I've come to the conclusion that the soil tests do not have active organic 
soils in mind.  In chemical soils, the macronutrients are there or they 
aren't 
and you can measure that.  But in organic soils the form that nitrogen and 
phosphorous take for direct plant use are present only in very small  
quantities.  
As the nutrients are depleated by the plants, bacteria are call out of 
domancy and make more until the balance is restored.  The tests apparently 
have no 
means of testing that potential.

So I suppose I've subliminated from science to religion on the garden.  I put 
a continuous stream of organic stuff on it and have faith that the results 
will be there.


"Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things 
not seen."


James