Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Robert Monie <bobm20001@yahoo.com>]

Hi Paul,

 

Robert Eliot, Norm Turner, and the other ley farmers following the "Clifton Park System" believed that they had found, by trial and error, the best nutrient recycling plants and the best deep rooted cover crops to produce humus. Their selection is, from our point of view, surprising. They found the cover crops most commolnly used today--white clover, hairy vetch, rye, buckwheat--to be valuable but of limited use, something like "icing on the cake."  The real substance of the "cake" was for them very aggressive, deep rooting plants like chicory, burnet, red clover, sweet biennial clover, and cocksfoot grass. They preferred these even to alfalfa and comfrey as the main actors in soil conditioning and humus production.  Could it be that they knew something that we have forgotten?

 

The ley farmers believed that in 4 years their ley crops would not only bring up minerals from deep in the soil; they would also, with their deep roots, virtually "double dig" the soil, cutting aerating channels, and--when killed--their decomposing roots would compost in the soil down to a foot or more.  Chicory, burnet, red clover, biennial sweet clover and cocksfoot grass would be vegetal workhorses pumping minerals, digging soil, composing their own biomass below ground, and making humus.  A regular soil-growing factory they had in their fields!  For forage (and still more variety in deep rooted cycling) the ley farmers often threw in sheep's sorrel, dandelion, and many other "herbal" ingredients. Impatient farmers (like most Americans) often let the leys grow for just two years before killing them and planting in the main crops, but they too reported significant improvement in soil tilth and richness.

 

For the past year I have been trying to grow my own experimental ley crops. I planted several kinds of chicory (including the red stemmed variety) along with burnet, red and sweet clover and American orchard grass. I have also--in the traditional spirit of ley farming--thrown in a few oilseed radishes, some dandelion and plantain, and yellow and white mustard. as well as very thick-rooted biennial sweet cover. I'm going to let these follow their natural cycles for at least another year, then kill them by mowing. So far, I have observed some extraordinary networks of roots driving into the ground from this plant combination that I have never seen from the usual buckwheat, rye, clover, vetch alternations.  I would not be surpised if, after another year, the soil covered by the ley crops turned out to be richer in nutrients and humus than any other soil I have. In a year, I can tell you if this was wishful thinking or not.

 

It is fun to look at the British website still devoted to ley farming and seed supplies.

They stoutly maintain to this day that nothing builds humus like the stalwart trio of

red clover, chicory and cocksfoot grass. See http://www.cotswoldseeds.com/longtermGM.htm for their "Long Term Green Manures" especially the "Soil Structure Imrpovement Two-Four Year Mixture." They boast that their Clifton Park ley mix utilizes "very strong tap root species for massive improvement in soil structure and humus."

 

I suggest that American farmers and gardeners might set aside a forgotten corner of their fields, put in some chicory, burnet, red clover, orchard grass seeds and other deep-rooted ley crops to see what alchemy they can work in 2 to 4 years. Some of the Fukuoka farming cognoscenti in Japan have even suggested that a few years' soil preparation with ley crops may be what farmers need to get the famous but elusive Fukuoka no-till method working in North America.  

Bob Monie

New Orleans, LA

 

 

Paul wrote:

 

And other minerals and organic matter can be returned by importing or from
elsewhere onsite. What's often missed is cover crops, green manuring, and
sheet composting can take advantage of the natural processes to rebuild
soil. Living plants use sun, air, and water to form organic material,
external inputs freely available all over the planet. Certain crops and
weeds pull needed minerals from the subsoil, and when added to the surface
mulch increase the overall mineral and organic content of the soil.


paul tradingpost@lobo.net

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

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

On 7/30/2006 at 5:45 PM Phil Bunch wrote:

>Perhaps I missed part of the conversation but if any part of the crop
>leaves
>the land it was grown on and the manure and urine that results from its
use
>does not return, there will be a net loss of nutrients. Nitrogen can be
>compensated by the planting on nitrogen-fixing crops but the other mineral
>nutrients are lost to the local system. They must be returned via some
form
>of fertilizer.
>
>Phil
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: livingontheland-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
>[mailto:livingontheland-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of
>TradingPostPaul
>Sent: Sunday, July 30, 2006 1:09 PM
>To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
>Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Wheat is the new oil
>
>
>I'll answer in between comments below.
>
>paul tradingpost@lobo.net
>
>Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.
>--Henry David Thoreau
>*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********
>



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