Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>]

That's very interesting about my area.  I'd hope rye and buckwheat, maybe
vetch too, would build biomass and humus without waiting ten years for
optimum soil. I'm not familiar with the use of sorghum, and I don't know if
alfalfa is advisable for soil building. For a home and market garden with
this soil, it appears imports are needed for faster soil building, local
manures and shredded alfalfa hay for starters. But wouldn't you advise
composting these amendments for surface application rather than turning
them under and depleting existing humus?

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

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 7/9/2006 at 4:28 PM Soilsecrets@aol.com wrote:

>Paul is referring to  the area we call the Estancia  Valley and the East 
>Mountain area of the Manzano Mountains which were  farmed for Pinto Beans
>several 
>decades ago.  It's a high elevation short  grass oak savannah
>historically, 
>pre Spanish Conquest.  Much of the desert  edge ecotone of New Mexico was 
>originally an Oak Woodland zone just a couple of  centuries ago, with a
>few relic 
>areas still that way today.   When  pinto beans were king it was an easy
>crop to 
>grow as it did not require tilling  of the soil, irrigation or a long
>growing 
>season.  The seed was  drilled  into the ground (often by hand) without 
>disturbing the grass lands  while the spring moisture was still good.  The
>oaks had 
>already been  eliminated by a couple of centuries of Spanish mining 
>activities demand  for charcoal and were not an obstacle to these type of
>farming  
>activity.  But at the same time, the farming of pinto beans cannot be 
>blamed for 
>the loss of topsoil, natural grasslands or the dust bowl of the last 
>century. 
> It was the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression that ended dry land 
>farming 
>of pinto beans of this region.  But as an example of growing  organic
>biomass 
>for soil development, pinto beans are a very low biomass  producer even
>under 
>the best of conditions.  Perhaps with abundant  irrigation, a high biomass
>crop 
>like some sorghums could be grown, mowed down  and grown again and again 
>finally accumulating a mulch of organics along with  decomposing roots
>that would 
>contribute to good humus formation.   I've have experimented with root
>biomass 
>growing using sacrificial trees  for the objective of accumulating 
>decomposing root tunnels and organic matter  underground for soil building
>and again it 
>takes abundant irrigation  in New Mexico high and dry climate.   It works
>very 
>well, but it  does take about 10 years of constant effort.  
> 
>Dr. Michael 
>
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