Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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

I'm not about to say what's best for larger acreages. Sheet composting
exposes more to the air with loss of nutrients including N. But on-farm
pile composting is being done some places. It takes mechanical equipment
but they can mow and rake cover crops into windrows that heat up (high N
greens) and decompose for later spreading. I assume they have suffcient
rainfall for the moisture factor!  If they have cattle manure there they
can incorporate that. Manure nutrients are best conserved by composting
first rather than just spreading on the field. Rodale books have been
urging that for years, including pit composting of manure. Others including
permaculturists have insisted that animals are a necessary part of the home
farm cycle. 


paul, tradingpost@riseup.net
---------------

Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes. 
--Henry David Thoreau 
*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 7/3/2006 at 10:01 AM Michael Nevin wrote:

>Hi - I am getting puzzled also by what I think is a difference between
>applying well-finished compost vs basically using a green manuring or
>sheet composting of  that plant matter already growing on site. And the
>issue is not always just humus creation although that is obviously very
>important.