livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing
List archive
- From: "norm cooper" <grapegro@aapt.net.au>
- To: <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
- Subject: [Livingontheland] re. mineral content in vegs
- Date: Thu, 6 Jul 2006 15:15:02 +1000
Hello Paul,
Much talk on this site about growing good produce. Two web sights worth looking at are:
www.mindfully.org/food-mineral-content-rutgers.
This one doesn't show on a google search, but it was reported by Firman E. Baer, at Rutgers University,
and www.whale.to/w/veg.html. Both these are interesting reading.
Regards, Norm Cooper
----- Original Message ----- From: <livingontheland-request@lists.ibiblio.org>
To: <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Tuesday, July 04, 2006 2:00 AM
Subject: Livingontheland Digest, Vol 48, Issue 1
Send Livingontheland mailing list submissions to
livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/livingontheland
or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
livingontheland-request@lists.ibiblio.org
You can reach the person managing the list at
livingontheland-owner@lists.ibiblio.org
When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
than "Re: Contents of Livingontheland digest..."
Today's Topics:
1. Re: My [unpublished] op-ed piece on ethanol (Greg and April)
2. Re: My [unpublished] op-ed piece on ethanol (Greg and April)
3. tillage, rotations, and weed control - and no-till
(TradingPostPaul)
4. Re: My [unpublished] op-ed piece on ethanol (Mark Nagel)
5. Re: Heating up a compost pile (Nancy Babbitt)
6. Re: Heating up a compost pile (Catherine Fenner)
7. calcium questions (Carrie Shepard)
8. Re: Heating up a compost pile (TradingPostPaul)
9. Some important excerpts from ATTRA (TradingPostPaul)
10. Re: Heating up a compost pile (Michael Nevin)
11. Re: Heating up a compost pile to Paul & Carol (Nancy Babbitt)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Sun, 2 Jul 2006 10:54:28 -0600
From: "Greg and April" <gregandapril@earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] My [unpublished] op-ed piece on ethanol
To: "Healthy soil and sustainable growing"
<livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
Message-ID: <010e01c69df8$2f670a10$2101a8c0@GREG>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1250"
Mark,
After looking at this for a week, I have to say "I disagree".
There are ways and means to' have your food and ethanol too '.
Much of the corn that is used in the US, goes to feed lot production of beef, pork, and chicken. But, because the corn does not carry all the protein and other nutrients, they have to add protein fillers, such as soybeans and/or heaven forbid, meat by-products - mad cow disease anyone?
The solids and liquids left after the ethanol is distilled from the beer, go allot further to providing a balanced ration than corn does. Properly processed, remaining solids could even provide direct nutrition for human consumption.
There is a video, that shows spent grain ( from making beer ) being mixed with sterilized straw, and inoculated with mushroom spawn. Once the mushrooms are harvested ( for human use ), the spent material is then vermicultured, and the worms produced are blended with aquatic plants to provide food for fish grown in a green house ( the vermicompost is used to raise the fertility of soil ). The fish is then sold for human consumption. The water full of fish waste is used to grow vegetables ( for human use ) in the same green house. The water is then pumped into tanks with prawns ( for human use ) and aquatic plants ( to be mixed with the worms to make fish feed ). The waste heat from a distillery, can be used, to provide heat for such a green house to keep things running even in the middle of winter.
If anyone is interested, I can try and provide the video. I can not seam to access it while I'm off line, but, I can't figure out the exact web address either.
Paul - does the list have a place for storage of various files? If we do, we could try and store the video there for people to access.
Greg H.
----- Original Message ----- From: Activism98201
To: 'Healthy soil and sustainable growing'
Sent: Sunday, June 25, 2006 14:08
Subject: [Livingontheland] My [unpublished] op-ed piece on ethanol
The following is an op-ed that I sent off to the Seattle Times that did not get published. I had promised that I?d post it here, so here it is?
-Mark Nagel
Everett, WA
Are we ready to give up food for ethanol?
Scaling up ethanol production will promote fuel-crop production over food-crop production, and eventually will lead to irreparable damage to our cropland's soils.
It is said that land is a good investment because ?they just ain't making any more of it.? And this couldn't be truer for cropland. We have only a fixed amount of land that is suitable for growing widely used crops.
Corn is grown on roughly 25% of all cropland (the most of any crop). The majority of this cropland, 80%, falls within a handful of states comprising what is referred to as the ?Corn Belt.?
And corn just happens to be the current crop of choice for ethanol production. Although there are other potentials out there, none are likely to compete with corn for the foreseeable future. The reason? Because corn already possess a huge investment base. It should be no shock that Archer Daniels Midland Corp. (ADM), who controls over 50% of all US corn production, should be on the ethanol bandwagon.
Clearly the corn industry is huge, from seed companies to fertilizer and pesticide companies, and from trucking companies to processing companies. Corn is a highly coddled crop.
Because there is only a fixed amount of viable cropland it is a certainty that increased ethanol production will result in a redirection of corn exports toward local ethanol production (causing greater deficits in foreign trade) as well as a reduction in the cropland used to produce food crops. This, at a time in which Canada's National Farmers Union reported that the world is consuming more food than farmers are producing (deficit is made up from stored foods).
Are we ready to give up food for ethanol?
Arguments are likely to be made that just as we can shift an existing cropland from a food-crop to an ethanol one that we can just as readily shift it back. Well, it's not quite so simple. Corn is as entrenched as it is because of strong government support (subsidies). The ethanol lobby is likely to attain equally strong support. Combine the corn and ethanol lobbies and you've got one huge entrenchment... add in energy and automotive companies and you've got a heck of an immovable object!
But the biggest danger lies with soil depletion. Any backyard gardener or small crop farmer knows that you must have fertile soil in order to grow crops. This basic equation is not magically suspended for ethanol crops (corn or other).
Corn requires huge quantities of nitrogen fertilizers, with requirements increasing year by year as our soils become increasingly devoid of nutrients. University of Manitoba professor Vaclav Smil is able to calculate that roughly 40% of protein in all of human bodies world-wide wouldn't exist is not for modern synthesized nitrogen. This nitrogen is synthesized using natural gas. Natural gas makes up about 70% to 90% of the manufacturing costs of nitrogen: and natural gas prices are increasing. Remember this connection.
Ethanol proponents hold up Brazil as the model of ethanol success. Now that you've a basic primer on crops and fertilizers let's take a closer look at Brazil's ?success? and ask whether it is sustainable. A recent UN Food Agricultural Organization report (Fertilizer use by crop in Brazil [2004]) contains these concluding remarks:
?In general terms, the fertilizer nutrient balance in Brazilian agriculture is unsatisfactory. The removal of nutrients by the 16 main crops [of which sugar cane, the primary crop used for ethanol, is one] is higher than the quantities applied in the form of mineral fertilizers. The deficit is much greater in the case of nitrogen than in those of phosphorus and potassium. Thus the soil is being seriously depleted of nutrients and this represents a serious threat to long-term agricultural sustainability.? (emphasis added)
Brazil's soil heath IS deteriorating. The report also notes the rapid increase in natural gas imports. The connections and trends are disturbingly clear.
Now that you understand the importance of natural gas in producing ethanol you should probably know that the bulk of the world's natural gas reserves are in Russia and the Middle East and that US natural gas production is in decline.
Not only will we not escape energy independence (from Middle East fossil fuels), but by increasing ethanol production we'll be increasing the depletion of the very soil that grows our food. Many civilizations have collapsed due to infertile soil.
Are we ready to give up food for ethanol?
--
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.1.394 / Virus Database: 268.9.3/374 - Release Date: 6/23/2006
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_______________________________________________
Livingontheland mailing list
Livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/livingontheland
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/livingontheland/attachments/20060702/68530b9b/attachment-0001.htm
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Sun, 2 Jul 2006 12:01:33 -0600
From: "Greg and April" <gregandapril@earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] My [unpublished] op-ed piece on ethanol
To: "Healthy soil and sustainable growing"
<livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
Message-ID: <004701c69e01$8e16c290$2101a8c0@GREG>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1250"
Here is the video I mentioned.
http://media.exn.ca/exnmedia/exn20021001_1033517073.wmv
Greg H.
----- Original Message ----- From: Greg and April
To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing
Sent: Sunday, July 02, 2006 10:54
Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] My [unpublished] op-ed piece on ethanol
SNIP
There is a video, that shows spent grain ( from making beer ) being mixed with sterilized straw, and inoculated with mushroom spawn. Once the mushrooms are harvested ( for human use ), the spent material is then vermicultured, and the worms produced are blended with aquatic plants to provide food for fish grown in a green house ( the vermicompost is used to raise the fertility of soil ). The fish is then sold for human consumption. The water full of fish waste is used to grow vegetables ( for human use ) in the same green house. The water is then pumped into tanks with prawns ( for human use ) and aquatic plants ( to be mixed with the worms to make fish feed ). The waste heat from a distillery, can be used, to provide heat for such a green house to keep things running even in the middle of winter.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/livingontheland/attachments/20060702/17ff437b/attachment-0001.htm
------------------------------
Message: 3
Date: Sun, 02 Jul 2006 13:02:47 -0600
From: "TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>
Subject: [Livingontheland] tillage, rotations, and weed control - and
no-till
To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
Message-ID: <200607021302470280.00E805D3@mail.lobo.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Here's a eye-opener on tillage, rotations, and weed control. It's about
no-till
http://www.notill.org/leading_edge/rotations_anderson.pdf
paul tradingpost@lobo.net
Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.
--Henry David Thoreau
------------------------------
Message: 4
Date: Sun, 02 Jul 2006 14:34:29 -0500 (CDT)
From: Mark Nagel <activism98201@verizon.net>
Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] My [unpublished] op-ed piece on ethanol
To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing
<livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
Message-ID:
<14288654.7320131151868870141.JavaMail.root@vms172.mailsrvcs.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Well, I guess we'll just have to disagree.
Your discussion centers around mass production. While mass production is efficient, it is so at the expense of needing to promote growth.
None of this is sustainable in a growth environment. And seeing that the economic system that maintains these methods of production rely on growth in order to operate, it's not a workable system long-term.
Ethanol production (especially from corn) is going to ramp up big time. And it's not because it's a good idea, but rather because of the existing lobby groups.
As to your statement "Properly processed, remaining solids could even provide direct nutrition for human consumption," there's that magic word- "processed." At what cost is this production? How much energy are we going to pump into this?
Just because something can be done doesn't mean that it should.
I'll forgo comments on the environmental impacts from ethanol production/processing.
-Mark Nagel
Everett, WA
=====================
From: Greg and April <gregandapril@earthlink.net>
Mark,After looking at this for a week, I have to say "I disagree". There are ways and means to' have your food and ethanol too '. Much of the corn that is used in the US, goes to feed lot production of beef, pork, and chicken. But, because the corn does not carry all the protein and other nutrients, they have to add protein fillers, such as soybeans and/or heaven forbid, meat by-products - mad cow disease anyone? The solids and liquids left after the ethanol is distilled from the beer, go allot further to providing a balanced ration than corn does. Properly processed, remaining solids could even provide direct nutrition for human consumption. There is a video, that shows spent grain ( from making beer ) being mixed with sterilized straw, and inoculated with mushroom spawn. Once the mushrooms are harvested ( for human use ), the spent material is then vermicultured, and the worms produced are blended with aquatic plants to provide food for fish grown in a green ho
use ( the vermicompost is used to raise the fertility of soil ). The fish is then sold for human consumption. The water full of fish waste is used to grow vegetables ( for human use ) in the same green house. The water is then pumped into tanks with prawns ( for human use ) and aquatic plants ( to be mixed with the worms to make fish feed ). The waste heat from a distillery, can be used, to provide heat for such a green house to keep things running even in the middle of winter. If anyone is interested, I can try and provide the video. I can not seam to access it while I'm off line, but, I can't figure out the exact web address either. Paul - does the list have a place for storage of various files? If we do, we could try and store the video there for people to access. Greg H.
------------------------------
Message: 5
Date: Sun, 2 Jul 2006 15:24:12 -0400
From: Nancy Babbitt <nbabbitt2003@adelphia.net>
Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Heating up a compost pile
To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing
<livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
Message-ID: <65F207AA-27F9-47E0-965A-6B6BDB31A0B4@adelphia.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed
Paul,
Actually we do have something on how humus is formed, as I posted1st link doesn't work.
before.
http://www.soilsecrets.com/SoilEcologyandtheSoilFoodWeb.pdf
http://www.petrik.com/PUBLIC/library/ups.html#humus
2nd, I read, sort of understand that we know the microbes, some
working with others, form the humus. That's why I brought up the
idea of SCOBYs and Kefir grains. I was not inquiring about the
safety of its use as a food item, silly. I was suggesting the
symbiotic culture of more than one micro organism that produces the
SCOBY/Grains parallels the formation of humus by another relationship
between multiple types of microbes.
Sheet composting, is most closely what I am speaking of, but not
Laying the compost materials as a ground cover is called sheet
composting.
http://web.extension.uiuc.edu/homecompost/methods.html#4
tilling it into the soil, as described in the link. Simply laying
the material on top of the soil, as in Ruth Stout's deep mulch
method. No Till, also. Removing spent plants by cutting at soil
level so as not to disturb the soil. When weeding, removing and
laying them on top of the soil to act as a mulch, and compost.
You saidI am not really advocating composting or not, I am simply suggesting
Using finished compost as the cover would simply supply less of what
was originally used as composting ingredients, therefore less for
nature to use, therefore less humus.
Are you advocating not composting, just turning everything under?
that gardening or farming by imitating nature may be the key to
producing humus in the largest possible quantity. If compost then
gets disturbed to add to garden or field, then again there is a risk
to losing any humus that has formed, because it will get exposed to
the air.
OrYou just stated that oxygen breaks down humus. That is why I suggest
leaving everything on top? As we've seen there are drawbacks to
turning
under, one of which is, the more cultivation, the more soil humus is
exposed to air which oxidizes and breaks it down, leaving soil less
moisture absorbent and more prone to leaching of nutrients.
not turning a pile to heat it up (oxidize?). Am I correct in
believing that if it's necessary to get air into a pile to make it
heat up, then it's the oxygen that's allowing the the process that
heats up the pile to take place, therefore it is oxidizing the pile?
If I remember correctly (and I may not) that more humus is formed
when the plant material is broken down in a wet environment. That
implies that it's the anaerobic microbes doing the job.
------------------------------
Message: 6
Date: Sun, 2 Jul 2006 21:02:26 -0600
From: "Catherine Fenner" <c1fenner@comcast.net>
Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Heating up a compost pile
To: "'Healthy soil and sustainable growing'"
<livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
Message-ID: <001b01c69e4d$1d8c1d30$6601a8c0@Catherine>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
Nancy,
I'm confused about the confusion here. I would normally let this drop, and I
will after this, but I am still struck by the absolute need for a few people
in that GardenWeb thread to misinform other potential active composters by
telling them that composting produces less humus then just letting plant
material lay where it fell.
Humus is the end product of microbes breaking down organic material so it
interacts with minerals.
I wonder if you're thinking that compost is an end product. It's not. You
can't take well-composted material devoid of soil and grow healthy plants in
it. I've tried it myself and I've seen others try it and it doesn't work
because all of the materials necessary are not there.
You also cannot take a pile of leaves off the forest floor and grow healthy
plants in it. I'm not talking mushrooms here. You don't layer 3 feet of
grass, leaves and straw on a slab and grow corn. On the forest floor
organisms break down the organic matter into such small pieces that it's
eventually pulled into the mineral base. Then it becomes humus.
So yes, microbes form a symbiotic relationship to form humus. Microbes are
algae, bacteria, nematodes, fungi and protozoa. Perhaps you're thinking that
the heat of a compost pile affects living organisms adversely and therefore
sheet composting is more appropriate. The heat does affect activity but when
one type of microorganism drops off due to too much heat, differing moisture
environment, or salinity level, others step in and take up the slack. This
dance continues. It is incorrect to think that anaerobic organisms "do the
job."
I don't like fighting over things like this, and I'd prefer to stay away
from bad feelings and name calling. (I took Paul's link of the dark side of
the beverage as a responsible and caring addition.) Perhaps you would
prefer to sheet compost and I prefer active composting. In my mind the only
difference is that I want my plant diseases killed and I want more compost
produced more quickly so that once it's applied to soil humus results.
If you stack a cubic yard of random plant material next to a cubic yard of
properly combined moistened and oxygenated plant material and let the second
pile heat up, turn it and heat up again, you will end up with a far smaller
batch of heat-activated compost then the passive pile. But that does not
imply that heat produces less humus. It just means that there's more volume
in the first pile then the second; not that there will be less humus
manufactured once added to soil.
Catherine
-----Original Message-----
2nd, I read, sort of understand that we know the microbes, some
working with others, form the humus. That's why I brought up the
idea of SCOBYs and Kefir grains. I was not inquiring about the
safety of its use as a food item, silly. I was suggesting the
symbiotic culture of more than one micro organism that produces the
SCOBY/Grains parallels the formation of humus by another relationship
between multiple types of microbes.
------------------------------
Message: 7
Date: Sun, 2 Jul 2006 15:01:29 -0700 (PDT)
From: Carrie Shepard <carrieshepard@yahoo.com>
Subject: [Livingontheland] calcium questions
To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing
<livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
Message-ID: <20060702220129.78496.qmail@web51904.mail.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
What's the difference to the soil between: egg shells, milk, calcium nitrate, low magnesium limestone?
Carrie
---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
Everyone is raving about the all-new Yahoo! Mail Beta.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/livingontheland/attachments/20060702/8878da69/attachment-0001.htm
------------------------------
Message: 8
Date: Sun, 02 Jul 2006 22:51:28 -0600
From: "TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>
Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Heating up a compost pile
To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
Message-ID: <200607022251280620.001E98C3@mail.lobo.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
I don't write as a soil expert but as a learner. It's my understanding that
most plants form symbiotic relationships with mycorrhizal fungi, and it's
the fungal hyphae that produces the glomalin that aggregates clay particles
with certain elements and biological compounds that ends in what we call
humus. This does not happen in the compost pile but in the soil with plant
roots. Finished compost is not humus.
You say
If compost thenand
gets disturbed to add to garden or field, then again there is a risk
to losing any humus that has formed, because it will get exposed to
the air.
You just stated that oxygen breaks down humus. That is why I suggest
not turning a pile to heat it up (oxidize?). Am I correct in
believing that if it's necessary to get air into a pile to make it
heat up, then it's the oxygen that's allowing the the process that
heats up the pile to take place, therefore it is oxidizing the pile?
As I said, humus isn't formed in the compost pile, but in the soil with
plant roots. Turning the compost to aid in heating and speed decomposition
won't oxidize humus that isn't there yet.
Some interesting sites on glomalin
http://ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2003/030205.htm
http://invam.caf.wvu.edu/methods/mycorrhizae/glomalin.htm
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/oct97/glomalin1097.htm
http://abstracts.co.allenpress.com/pweb/esa2000/abstracts/MAT-3-58-40.html
And esp Organic Matter, Humus, and the Soil Foodweb at
http://attra.org/attra-pub/PDF/soilmgmt.pdf
I hope that helps.
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 7/2/2006 at 3:24 PM Nancy Babbitt wrote:
Paul,
Actually we do have something on how humus is formed, as I posted1st link doesn't work.
before.
http://www.soilsecrets.com/SoilEcologyandtheSoilFoodWeb.pdf
http://www.petrik.com/PUBLIC/library/ups.html#humus
2nd, I read, sort of understand that we know the microbes, some
working with others, form the humus. That's why I brought up the
idea of SCOBYs and Kefir grains. I was not inquiring about the
safety of its use as a food item, silly. I was suggesting the
symbiotic culture of more than one micro organism that produces the
SCOBY/Grains parallels the formation of humus by another relationship
between multiple types of microbes.
Sheet composting, is most closely what I am speaking of, but not
Laying the compost materials as a ground cover is called sheet
composting.
http://web.extension.uiuc.edu/homecompost/methods.html#4
tilling it into the soil, as described in the link. Simply laying
the material on top of the soil, as in Ruth Stout's deep mulch
method. No Till, also. Removing spent plants by cutting at soil
level so as not to disturb the soil. When weeding, removing and
laying them on top of the soil to act as a mulch, and compost.
You saidI am not really advocating composting or not, I am simply suggesting
Using finished compost as the cover would simply supply less of what
was originally used as composting ingredients, therefore less for
nature to use, therefore less humus.
Are you advocating not composting, just turning everything under?
that gardening or farming by imitating nature may be the key to
producing humus in the largest possible quantity. If compost then
gets disturbed to add to garden or field, then again there is a risk
to losing any humus that has formed, because it will get exposed to
the air.
OrYou just stated that oxygen breaks down humus. That is why I suggest
leaving everything on top? As we've seen there are drawbacks to
turning
under, one of which is, the more cultivation, the more soil humus is
exposed to air which oxidizes and breaks it down, leaving soil less
moisture absorbent and more prone to leaching of nutrients.
not turning a pile to heat it up (oxidize?). Am I correct in
believing that if it's necessary to get air into a pile to make it
heat up, then it's the oxygen that's allowing the the process that
heats up the pile to take place, therefore it is oxidizing the pile?
If I remember correctly (and I may not) that more humus is formed
when the plant material is broken down in a wet environment. That
implies that it's the anaerobic microbes doing the job.
_______________________________________________
Livingontheland mailing list
Livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/livingontheland
------------------------------
Message: 9
Date: Sun, 02 Jul 2006 23:37:41 -0600
From: "TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>
Subject: [Livingontheland] Some important excerpts from ATTRA
To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
Message-ID: <200607022337410989.0048EA52@mail.lobo.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"
Here's some excerpts from SUSTAINABLE SOIL MANAGEMENT
By Preston Sullivan, NCAT Agriculture Specialist
May 2004 ?2004 NCAT
http://attra.org/attra-pub/PDF/soilmgmt.pdf
Research supports our central ideas behind this list. This is basic to the
most productive, sustainable growing for home or market - and the survival
of the family farm.
paul, tradingpost@riseup.net
---------------
Organic matter and humus are terms that describe somewhat
different but related things. Organic matter refers to the fraction of
the soil that is composed of both living organisms and once-living residues
in various stages of decomposition. Humus is only a small portion of the
organic matter. It is the end product of organic matter decomposition
and is relatively stable. Further decomposition of humus occurs
very slowly in both agricultural and natural settings. In natural
systems, a balance is reached between the amount of humus formation
and the amount of humus decay (11). This balance also occurs in most
agricultural soils, but often at a much lower level of soil humus. Humus
contributes to well-structured soil that, in turn, produces high-quality
plants. It is clear that management of organic matter and humus is
essential to sustaining the whole soil ecosystem.
The benefits of a topsoil rich in organic matter and humus are many. They
include rapid decomposition of crop residues, granulation of soil into
water-stable aggregates, decreased crusting and clodding, improved
internal drainage, better water infiltration, and increased water and
nutrient holding capacity. Improvements in the soil.s physical
structure facilitate easier tillage, increased water storage
capacity, reduced erosion, better formation and harvesting of root crops,
and deeper, more prolific plant root systems.
A soil that drains well, does not crust, takes in water rapidly, and does
not make clods is said to have good tilth. Tilth is the physical condition
of the soil as it relates to tillage ease, seedbed quality, easy seedling
emergence, and deep root penetration. Good tilth is dependent on
aggregation.the process whereby individual soil particles are joined
into clusters or .aggregates..
Aggregates form in soils when individual soil particles are
oriented and brought together through the physical forces of wetting and
drying or freezing and thawing. Weak electrical forces from
calcium and magnesium hold soil particles together when the soil
dries. When these aggregates become wet again, however, their
stability is challenged, and they may break apart. Aggregates can
also be held together by plant roots, earthworm activity, and by glue-like
products produced by soil microorganisms. Earthworm-created aggregates
are stable once they come out of the worm. An aggregate formed by
physical forces can be bound together by fine root hairs or threads
produced by fungi.
Aggregates can also become stabilized (remain intact when wet) through
the by-products of organic matter decomposition by fungi and
bacteria.chiefly gums, waxes, and other glue-like substances. These
by-products cement the soil particles together, forming water-stable
aggregates (Figure 2). The aggregate is then strong enough to hold
together when wet.hence the
term .water-stable..
When USDA soil microbiologist Sara Wright named the glue that holds
aggregates together .glomalin. after the Glomales group of common
root-dwelling fungi (12). These fungi secrete a gooey protein known as
glomalin through their hair-like filaments, or hyphae. When Wright
measured glomalin in soil aggregates she found levels as high as 2% of
their total weight in eastern U.S. soils. Soil aggregates from the
West and Midwest had lower levels of glomalin. She found that tillage
tends to lower glomalin levels.
A well-aggregated soil allows for increased water entry, increased
air flow, and increased water-holding capacity (13). Plant roots occupy
a larger volume of well-aggregated soil, high in organic matter, as
compared to a finely pulverized and dispersed soil, low in organic matter.
Roots, earthworms, and soil arthropods can pass more easily through a
well-aggregated soil (14). Aggregated soils also prevent crusting of the
soil surface. Finally, well-aggregated soils are more erosion
resistant, because aggregates are much heavier than their particle
components. For a good example of the effect of organic matter additions
on aggregation, as shown by subsequent increase in water entry
into the soil, see Table 5.
(see link for complete article)
------------------------------
Message: 10
Date: Mon, 3 Jul 2006 10:01:28 -0400 (EDT)
From: Michael Nevin <mikepnevin@yahoo.ca>
Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Heating up a compost pile
To: c1fenner@comcast.net, Healthy soil and sustainable growing
<livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
Message-ID: <20060703140128.51907.qmail@web34405.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
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.
Some composting in containers or hot composting as opposed to sheet composting is motivated by waste handling concerns.For example, where I work, we have appx 200 -300 kg of rotty, smelly food and kitchen scraps to deal with every week and very little garden space on site to use for sheet composting. Dealing with "waste" is a driver of our actions.
Given our waste issues, hot composting leading to the creation of finished compost is our best way to go. Whether our approach maximizes humus production as opposed to resorting to sheet composting or turning plant and food scraps into soil, I could not say.
Our compost is sold to local small-scale hobby and community gardeners who will pay a premium price because of the purported quality of our compost and the need in urban ag to -as it were- force feed nutrients to plants in the confined spaces available in cities.
It seems obvious that our pricey compost would be prohibitively costly for large-scale farmers many of whom are forced to cut costs and who are maintaining their farms by off-farm employment. It is quite possible to compost on a large scale as municipalities do. But the best bet for a farmer would be to use a cover crop/green manuring either disced in or left on the surface to break down instead of applying finished compost which is hard to create in quantities sufficient for large acreages anyway.
So, maybe the "method" of composting is not always determined by humus considerqtions but by concerns such as suggested here.
From The Sugar Cane by a James Grainger (1721 -1767) and I glean this excerpt from Very Bad Poetry, edited by Kathryn and Ross Petras, Vintage Books, 1997, p43,44
Whether the fattening compost in each hole
`Tis best to throw; or, on the surface spread;
Is undetermin`d: Trials must decide.
Unless kind rains and fostering dews descend,
To melt the compost's fertilizing salts;
A stinted plant, deceitful of thy hopes,
Will from those beds slow spring where hot dung lies:
But, if `tis scattered generously o'er all,
The cane will better bear the solar blaze;
Less rain demand; and, by repeated crops,
Thy land improv'd, its gratitude will show.
I think we are still debating issues that 18th century planters were puzzling over.
Cheers, Mike in Toronto
---------------------------------
Make free worldwide PC-to-PC calls. Try the new Yahoo! Canada Messenger with Voice
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/livingontheland/attachments/20060703/9b73e638/attachment-0001.htm
------------------------------
Message: 11
Date: Mon, 3 Jul 2006 08:17:50 -0400
From: Nancy Babbitt <nbabbitt2003@adelphia.net>
Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Heating up a compost pile to Paul &
Carol
To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing
<livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
Message-ID: <6E54CBB1-E938-4442-B660-44C913B94480@adelphia.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed
Thank you Paul.
Roots of living plants in combination with microbes, produce humus.
Do I have it right?
I'll read the links you included on glomalin.
Carol, I am not trying to be argumentative or mis-informative, just
someone who is trying to get a better understanding. Maybe, it
shows . . .
I'm a fairly new gardener.
Nancy,
On Jul 3, 2006, at 12:51 AM, TradingPostPaul wrote:
I don't write as a soil expert but as a learner. It's my
understanding that
most plants form symbiotic relationships with mycorrhizal fungi,
and it's
the fungal hyphae that produces the glomalin that aggregates clay
particles
with certain elements and biological compounds that ends in what we
call
humus. This does not happen in the compost pile but in the soil
with plant
roots. Finished compost is not humus.
You say
If compost thenand
gets disturbed to add to garden or field, then again there is a risk
to losing any humus that has formed, because it will get exposed to
the air.
You just stated that oxygen breaks down humus. That is why I suggest
not turning a pile to heat it up (oxidize?). Am I correct in
believing that if it's necessary to get air into a pile to make it
heat up, then it's the oxygen that's allowing the the process that
heats up the pile to take place, therefore it is oxidizing the pile?
As I said, humus isn't formed in the compost pile, but in the soil
with
plant roots. Turning the compost to aid in heating and speed
decomposition
won't oxidize humus that isn't there yet.
Some interesting sites on glomalin
http://ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2003/030205.htm
http://invam.caf.wvu.edu/methods/mycorrhizae/glomalin.htm
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/oct97/glomalin1097.htm
http://abstracts.co.allenpress.com/pweb/esa2000/abstracts/
MAT-3-58-40.html
And esp Organic Matter, Humus, and the Soil Foodweb at
http://attra.org/attra-pub/PDF/soilmgmt.pdf
I hope that helps.
paul, tradingpost@riseup.net
---------------
------------------------------
_______________________________________________
Livingontheland mailing list
Livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/livingontheland
End of Livingontheland Digest, Vol 48, Issue 1
**********************************************
--
----------------------------------------
I am using the free version of SPAMfighter for private users.
It has removed 553 spam emails to date.
Paying users do not have this message in their emails.
Get the free SPAMfighter here: http://www.spamfighter.com/len
-
[Livingontheland] re. mineral content in vegs,
norm cooper, 07/06/2006
- <Possible follow-up(s)>
- Re: [Livingontheland] re. mineral content in vegs, Steve Diver, 07/06/2006
Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.