Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>]

This is part of our series supporting the role of high organic matter in food 
gardening for nutrition and profitability. This relates directly to 
successful fossil fuel-free growing for the home and local marketing.

paul, tradingpost@riseup.net
---------------

Role of humus in yield and nutrient value
Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Institute of Microbiology
N. A. Krasil'nikov, SOIL MICROORGANISMS AND HIGHER PLANTS
Published by the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Moscow 1958
Published for THE NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION, WASHINGTON, D.C. and THE
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, USA
http://www.soilandhealth.org/01aglibrary/010112Krasil/010112krasil.ptIIIa.html


Excerpts:

" Numerous observations and the results of accurate laboratory experiments 
have
proved the positive effect of humus on the growth and metabolism of plants."

"Vegetative composts, manure, and humic substances not only activate plant
growth and increase their yields but also improve their nutrient value which 
in
a matter of great importance. Plants grown in fields fertilized with manure 
are
richer in vitamins and other valuable substances than those grown in
nonfertilized fields."

"Data exist which show variations in amino-acid composition of plant tissues 
in
the presence of different fertilizers. According to Sheldon, Blue and Albrecht
(1948), lucerne and some other plants grown on fertilized fields, have a
different quantitative and qualitative amino-acid composition than those 
plants
grown in nonfertilized fields. The highest amino-acid content was found in
plants grown with manure."

"According to our observations and the available data in literature, the 
active
principles of humus and composts are not the mineral nutrients present in them
but the organic substances and the biologically active metabolites of 
microbes.
Mineral substances applied in amounts equivalent to the composts do not have 
an
effect comparable to the latter."

"The material presented by us shows that animal and plant residues and organic
substances in general have a favorable effect only after their decomposition 
and
processing by microorganisms, i.e., after they have been transformed into 
humus.
The active substances of humus are not the animal or plant residues but the
products of microbial metabolism, the products of secondary synthesis."

Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Institute of Microbiology
N. A. Krasil'nikov, SOIL MICROORGANISMS AND HIGHER PLANTS
Published by the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Moscow 1958
Published for THE NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION, WASHINGTON, D.C. and THE
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, USA
http://www.soilandhealth.org/01aglibrary/010112Krasil/010112krasil.ptIIIa.html