Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Alan Whitaker <alan@dunbrokeus.com>]

Laura McKenzie wrote:

> Dedicated organic consumers tend to buy locally and not at Walmart so the 
> niche Walmart thinks it is going to corner will be a shaky one at best. 
> Families thinking about buying organic and who see no problem with buying 
> from Walmart might be tempted to buy organic but I don't think they will do 
> so on a regular basis.  I agree too that organic standards are going to be 
>  


Laura,  here in Alabama, the extension service is responsible for 
setting up the farmers markets.  They are doing this so they can 
administer the
FMNP (Farmers Market Nutrition Program).  You might ought to call the 
extension service and talk to them about it. 
I'm assuming that you are in the northern half of Alabama, maybe close 
to Birmingham?  Anyhow, I've been here in LA (lower Alabama) since 2000
and I can attest to the condition of the sorry soils. I'm attempting to 
farm vegetables on 18 acres of some of the absolute sorriest soils I've 
ever been around.
My first season here, I planted 9 acres of sorghum-sudan grass and let 
it get about 6 foot tall then disked it in.  Thinking with a good-soil 
mentality, I figured
this would put a lot of organic matter in the soil.  It did for about 3 
months.  After three months, you could dig in the soil and you couldn't 
find a trace of the
material there.  Here in the deep South, we don't have the luxury of a 
cold winter to slow the decomposition of our organic matter.  My soil 
has a CEC of about
3.  Yes, that's 3.  It ain't good and I have sure learned a lot about 
soils since moving here. 
This year is another dry year.  The third out of 6 years.  Then when we 
have a wet year, we get those nasty hurricanes that'll dump 8-12 inches 
and show you that
old oak in the back wasn't so tough after all. 
When I first moved here,  I called the local farmers co-op and asked 
what they used for a plow-down here.  They didn't understand the 
question.  So I asked what they used for organic matter.  They said they 
didn't carry anything "organic"...............the extension agent found 
out I was organic, and he asked me "I hear
you use soap to kill bugs?".  They are clueless.  I believe the problem 
here is that the soil types don't hold the organic matter long enough to 
help you out unless you are using a good amount of mulch.  We don't have 
the luxury of a cold winter, and high CEC soils. 

Alan Whitaker
Georgiana, AL