Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Mark Nagel <activism98201@verizon.net>]

I'm not Paul (and never played one on TV either), but I'll give it a shot...

Plants require minerals in order to grow, not other plants.

It's the process of breaking down biomass in order to present minerals for 
plant uptake that we're after.  Microbes primarily (only?) perform this work.

Now Paul, about that idea of sticking one's hand in the pile to see if it's 
warm enough, should I look to do this if I was composting humanure? :-() 
(which I'm not)


-Mark Nagel
Everett, WA


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From: Nancy Babbitt <nbabbitt2003@adelphia.net>

Paul,
Is it likely then, that composting (allowing microbes to decompose the plant 
material) before it's applied to the soil, can have a negative effect on 
humus formation.  What I mean is that if less plant material is is present in 
the final compost, than before composting, and that lesser amount is added to 
soil, then there is less to potentially become humus.