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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] the feet of the farmer/ Soil test results

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Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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  • From: "Ryan Albinger" <ryalbinger@earthlink.net>
  • To: "Healthy soil and sustainable growing" <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] the feet of the farmer/ Soil test results
  • Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2006 12:34:46 -0500

Soil tests offer the ability to give you an idea where you are at, how far
you've come, and where you're headed. By the time you wait for defciency
symtoms to occur, the problem has manifested itself beyond correction to a
point a rescue, if one is even available. Tests also tell where not to go.
In Greg's case, compost will likely do more harm than good. Tossing more K
in that situation through compost or whatever will add a lot of fuel to the
fire. Had he not tested the soil, he could have spent years, decades,
trying to decipher the problem and thrown dollars and time to attempt to
remedy it. Now he knows a course of action and what not to do as much as
what to do.
Weeds are wonderful in the right context. My soybeans have a nice
companion weed crop as we speak. Weeds are there to fix the soil's
problems and in time will. Weeds are the cheapest and best cover crop for
a soil, arguably. Just don't let them go to seed.
Ryan


> [Original Message]
> From: TradingPostPaul <tradingpost@riseup.net>
> To: <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Date: 6/22/2006 9:43:36 AM
> Subject: [Livingontheland] the feet of the farmer/ Soil test results
>
>
> IMHO testing for the so called "basics" won't tell you much more than you
> can see with your own eyes. One can diagnose certain deficiencies in the
> plants themselves a lot cheaper, purplish, curling tip growth on tomatoes
> for example. Simply knowing what has or hasn't been done with the soil can
> suggest what's needed. We have to learn to look as the soil and see what
> we're looking at, feel it in the fingers, even taste it like the old
> farmers. And what do the weeds tell us about the soil? Nettle? Far as
> spending the money for the higher priced tests, I'm a little skeptical of
> the general necessity for that. Reason being, there are a limited number
of
> soil improvement practices. If we follow those practices there isn't much
> more we can do. If we don't, adding a bit of this and that may leave the
> soil pretty much as it was or worse. It's not a simple chemical soup as
> once thought. We can add a bit of what's supposedly lacking, but how will
> the soil biology deal with it? Some experts state that soil science is
> still in its infancy, and I believe it. I'm certainly not thoroughly
versed
> on this but simply adding some chemical element (the "basics") may have
> unintended effects, and finished compost may be safer or more productive.
>
> Someone said, the best fertilizer is the feet of the farmer. Maybe more
> truth than poetry.
>
> paul, tradingpost@riseup.net
> ---------------
>







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