Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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

Compost produced onsite without purchased rock minerals is basically free
except for the labor, but large acreage soil improvement is usally
approached differently from market gardens. Deep rooted crops like alfalfa
bring up subsoil minerals without buying them, and legumes fix nitrogen in
stable form. Appropriate green manure cover crops like rye build root mass
and soil structure to hold moisture, microbial populations, earthworms and
nutrients. This is standard practice for soil building, not blue-sky
theory. A few years of intelligent land management can pay for itself many
times over in future production. Old news.

paul, tradingpost@riseup.net
---------------
The outstanding scientific discovery of the twentieth century is not
television, or radio, but rather the complexity of the land organism. Only
those who know the most about it can appreciate how little we know about
it. 
   - Aldo Leopold in  Round River, 1933
*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 6/16/2006 at 7:44 AM Ryan Albinger wrote:

>By the time the compost is delivered and applied, $40 per cubic yard is
>ballpark.  My own compost will cost me about $105 per ton amended with
rock
>dusts and so forth.  I had the thought that 1 inch seemed normal for food
>growing crops.  And yes, I do know other, lower cost soil improvement
>tools.
>Ryan
>
>
>> [Original Message]
>> From: TradingPostPaul <tradingpost@riseup.net>
>> To: <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
>> Date: 6/15/2006 7:54:00 PM
>> Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] compost
>>
>>
>> I can't imagine why you'd pay $40 per yard for compost on a large scale,
>> unless you're trying to fail financially.  You don't know more
economical
>> practices on that scale for soil improvement? 
>>
>> paul, tradingpost@riseup.net
>> ---------------
>>
>
>
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