Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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

Rob, here's a suggestion for your "control" parcel, and you certainly won't
have to wait two years for productive soil.  Shred those leaves fine with a
lawnmower and mix it up with the manure. If the manure isn't fresh it'll
need nitrogen added to break down the leaves, like bags of alfalfa meal
mixed in. With aged manure or bedding/straw manure I'd mix alfalfa meal in
at 1:1. Keep it moist, not soggy, in a layer about a foot deep to start
with. With moderate weather it should all decompose in a few weeks. Cold
weather takes longer of course. At that point mix it with soil 1:1 and let
it sit a few more weeks under a layer of mulch, but don't let it dry out
completely. If it's well mixed you can forget further turning and mixing.
This is just standard composting principles, greens and browns shredded
together with soil, moisture and warmth, and Mother Nature. The basic
principles have been demonstrated by organic researchers and writers for 70
years. Really not rocket science - OR some "secret" formula. You'll have
productive soil by spring. 

The other day I finally located a nearby source for alfalfa meal in 40 lb
bags, same price as alfalfa pellets but much easier to decompose, and best
of all it mixes dry with aged manure, screened dirt, bone meal, greensand,
and worm castings. After mixing I'm watering it in a trench and covering
with clear plastic to build up daytime heat and keep from freezing at
night. I uncover it when afternoons are warm. If the trench keeps fairly
warm for 3 mos it'll be rich potting soil for starting 60+ tomatoes in 1
gal pots. I've never tried soil building in the dead of winter before so
it'll be a good test. Cross my fingers we don't see another heavy snow
before Xmas.

paul tradingpost@lobo.net

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

On 12/6/2006 at 6:35 PM rfreez wrote:

>I'm probably going to try Melendez's potion, but I agree that we need to 
>haul organic debris to our farms.  I hoard the leaves from my
>neighborhood, 
>and I make about 80 trips to a horse farm every year (sure wish I had a 
>bigger truck!).  I take the bagged leaves that I hoarded from my idiot 
>neighbors, rip open the bags, and make an 18 inch fluffy pile of leaves, 
>then I seal the top and sides of the pile with horse manure.
>
>My ground (it can't be called soil) is New England red clay.  The topsoil 
>was scraped off by the $%@!ing developers who built my house.  So I'm 
>rebuilding this land from scratch.  I'm willing to try anything, including

>Melendez's nostrum, and I will report back with brutal honesty about 2
>years 
>after I use his product.  I will report on his product with both text and 
>pictures.  I'll give it 2 years, and I will only use it on a parcel of my 
>land, and keep another part as a "control" parcel.
>
>By the way, I do some onsite composting.  I have a three pronged fork hoe 
>thingy I got from Ace Hardware, and it works great to pull up scrub
>grasses 
>jutting out of clay.  I pile up the scrub grasses, and make a layer cake 
>with either horse manure or chicken manure.  It's interesting to watch the

>piles descend and descend as thermophilic composting happens.
>
>I understand what Melendez is saying when he says, "hauling in compost is 
>unsustainable," but I disagree.  There will always be some form of compost

>available, even if it's the rotting corpses of our fellow man.  Just make 
>sure you have a sturdy wheelbarrow.
>
>So you see, it's a self regulating system.
>
>Rob
>
>----- Original Message ----- 
>From: "TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>
>To: <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
>Sent: Wednesday, December 06, 2006 1:53 AM
>Subject: [Livingontheland] Not amused/ was another picture of humus 
>growingin Arizona
>