Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Catherine Fenner" <c1fenner@comcast.net>]

Thank you so much for posting this. Now I feel like I'm cooking with gas.

Please correct me if I'm misunderstanding what you're saying. What I think
you're saying in the quote below is that there are two tests; one for what
percentage of organic matter is in the soil and the second is the percentage
of humus?

Somehow I think I'm not quite getting this.

Catherine

-----Original Message-----
Soil testing methods can ascertain the percent organic matter on a dry
weight basis using acid digestion of soil
samples.   This is the percent OM that is displayed on a 
soil test.

But there is a second test known as the Humus Value test which is available
thru several labs or by using your own test kit.  It is a sodium hydroxide
extraction, then determined by colorimetry.  It is expressed as a relative
value from 0 to 100.  The higher the number the *darker* the color, and the
higher degree that organic matter has undergone
humification.   






_______________________________________________
Livingontheland mailing list
Livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/livingontheland