Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>]

As I understand it, finished compost makes excellent mulch, possibly the
best mulch.  If it were me I'd thoroughly compost any manure before
applying it as a soil cover. By that point the nitrogen should be bound up
in compounds by biological and chemical processes in composting, esp if
rock dusts or other minerals have been chelated with humic substances in
compost. Someone have more on that? (I'm not the expert on soil biology
here)


paul tradingpost@lobo.net

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

On 9/1/2006 at 7:44 PM Harvey Ussery wrote:

>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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