Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Soilsecrets@aol.com]

Hi Bob,

 

The picture I sent showing a farm in the desert of Northern Arizona is not really a commercial farm, but rather is a CSA Organic farm.  They grow only for members!   It's about 1 difficult hour drive outside of Snowflake as the roads are extremely rough.  The farm is completely off the grid which is why they use solar powered well pumps to get water.  Another interesting point about the site is that for 15 years this person practiced an intensive double dug lasagna technique to try and develop the soils.  And in fact even developed a DVD and a class for the local community college called 'Double dug lasagna for building your soils'.  She did this and also had huge compost piles always in the works, adding the finished compost to the soil.  She also used Compost tea faithfully.  But after 15 years there was still not that much humus soil formation found on the site.  Her production was ok, but not great and her water needs where high.  She has now used our protocol on the site for 4 to 5 years and there is now a thick A horizon of humus rich topsoil and her watering needs have dropped significantly.  While this is exciting for me to see, it does not surprise me as we've replicated this success in desert areas all over the world.  Check out this photo of the soil. I'm sorry if the image does not email across for you, it's the only way I know how to send pictures. 

 

Michael Martin Melendrez

www.soilsecrets.com