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Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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  • From: Harvey Ussery <huboxwood@earthlink.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] No-till manure application
  • Date: Fri, 01 Sep 2006 19:44:56 +0000

I'm starting an article on soil building and care for Mother Earth News. I plan to stress the minimizing of tillage, which is where my own practice is going as well.

A question: How does the incorporation of manures work in completely no-till systems? As manures dry out, their nitrogen content is converted to ammonia, which is lost to the atmosphere as a gas. So is it possible to prevent this nitrogen loss by mulching the manure heavily enough to keep it moist? Presumably the nitrogen would then be washed down into the soil with each rain, where it would be available for soil micros and plant roots--and the organic matter would be incorporated over the season by earthworms and micros.

One could ask the same question about compost.

How about it, you no-till specialists: How to apply manures and composts in completely no-till systems?

Thanks.

~Harvey
--
Harvey in northern Va
www.themodernhomestead.us

"How we eat determines, to a considerable extent, how the world is used." ~Wendell Berry




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