Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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

Thank you for the explanation. Of course I'm not minimizing the value of
any amount of humus-rich soil; it's my passion. I'm not making light of
Kim's accomplishment.  But I don't need science to know that years spent
making productive, healthy soil out of dead dirt is a dead loss.  The point
I was trying to make was, given the time and money needed to do as she did
she could have got the same results a lot cheaper and faster by trucking in
some sort of real soil to begin with and then composting and applying the
biologicals. If productivity and economical operation are even a
consideration, then why start with the worst possible soil? Kim can do as
she likes; it's her money and her land. We're not told what her balance
sheet looks like. But under the circumstances I think her CSA has to be
sinking in red ink. Where I am my aim is producing more of our own food
cheaply and running a profitable market garden. I'd be nuts to look for the
worst possible dirt to start with. 

paul tradingpost@lobo.net


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

On 12/5/2006 at 5:39 PM Soilsecrets@aol.com wrote:

>In a message dated 12/4/2006 11:46:08 P.M. Mountain Standard Time,  
>tradingpost@lobo.net writes:
>
>but the  photo shows about three inches of
>topsoil built over 4 or 5 years. In my  book that would qualify as years
>totally wasted.
>
>Paul, 
> 
>Is it really wasted effort or time?  Well in your opinion  it may be, but
>in 
>my mind it's not and it's certainly not in the opinion of Kim  who has
>worked 
>tirelessly on this project.  
> 
>So let me explain what this 3 inches of humus rich top soil  really means.

> 
>1. To see 3 inches of humus rich top soil  form in just 4 to 5 years is a 
>daunting task even in a good climate where you  don't have the high
>elevation 
>intense UV burning up the organic matter of the  soil.  Or where there is 
>plentiful rainfall to produce weeds and grasses  that produce organic
>biomass easily, 
>thus providing an abundant pipeline of  calories that the Soil Food Web
>can 
>turn into Humus.  Most deserts of the  world don't have that advantage and

>neither does this site, so producing 3  inches of top soil in such a short
>time is 
>an amazing thing to see.  I've  been a Soil Scientists and a Plant
>Ecologists 
>for 30 years and I've only seen it  on a very rare occasion.  If you
>recall 
>your school days of Earth Science  classes, you were once told, and
>accurately 
>so,  that under good conditions  it takes nature at least 100 years to
>grow 1 
>inch of top soil.     So what's wrong with 3 inches in 4 to 5 years?
> 
>2. What does 3 inches of humus rich top  soil represent?  Well let me
>define 
>for you this information as it relates  directly to this site as we have 
>quantified it.  
>  -The soil on this site is not alkaline as you stated  but rather it is a

>decomposed sandstone that is acidic.  
>  -The bulk density of the soil is right at 98.3 pounds  per cubic foot.  
>  -The 3 inches of humus rich top soil weights 1,089,000  pounds to the
>acre. 
>  
>  -The humus percentage by weight of this soil is 60,000  pounds per acre
>in 
>the top 3 inches.  "Humus is a conglomeration of  biomolecules that are 
>essential for healthy and productive soils"  Journal of Chemical Education
>2001
>  -The caloric equation taking a super high quality  compost with a bulk 
>density of 90,720 calories per cubic foot and turning it  into pure humus 
>(Humification) is this: 10,000 pounds of compost = 40  pounds of humus. 
>Therefore in 
>order to make one acre of 3 inch deep top  soil that contains 60 thousand 
>pounds of Humic substances (per acre 3 inches  deep) you will need 15
>million 
>pounds of a super high quality compost! Most  compost made in windrows
>will have a 
>bulk density of about 17 - 20 pounds per  cubic foot, therefore it will
>take 
>about 28 thousand cubic yards of compost on a  acre in order to make
>enough 
>humus to make the 3 inches of humus rich topsoil  such as that found on
>this 
>Arizona desert organic farm.  It truly  is a daunting task!
> 
>3. While growing grass as a nurse crop,  ground cover and root-tunnel crop
>is 
>an excellent idea if the site allows for  it, growing grass by itself will

>not create a mycorrhizal environment.  If  the soils did not have a
>indigenous 
>grass cover that was mycorrhizal to begin  with the mycorrhizae will not 
>mysteriously appear just because you planted  grass! You will need to
>inoculate the 
>grass seed or soil in order to make this  happen!
> 
> 
>
>Fortunately most humus in the soil and on this site for sure  did not come

>from compost, or from sheet mulching.  Furthermore it did not  come from
>the 
>supplemental humus provided by Soil Secrets either as Kim only  added a
>fraction 
>of that 60,000 pounds that now occurs on the site.  Most  of it came via a

>process we understand to be called Carbon  Sequestration, where nature
>creates a 
>provision for long-term storage  of carbon in the terrestrial biosphere,
>most 
>found in the form of Humus and  Glomalin.  
> 
> I'm out of time and continue this later.  
> 
>Dr. Michael Martin Melendrez 
>