Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Greg and April" <gregandapril@earthlink.net>]

Alan,

Have you thought of using something that was more woody than grass? 
Something that was more woody, would take longer to decompose.

Greg H.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Alan Whitaker" <alan@dunbrokeus.com>
To: "Healthy soil and sustainable growing" 
<livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Wednesday, June 14, 2006 6:26
Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Organic delusions


> 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
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