Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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

I see at Bookfinder.com that goes for $20 all the way up to $140. That's
one I don't have BTW. Eliot Coleman doesn't put much faith in soil tests,
other than pH testing, since tests require subjective interpretation.
Personally I add composted manure, bone meal and alfalfa meal, but  it's
hard to identify specific mineral deficiencies. Composting in general adds
minerals as do deep rooted crops like alfalfa. It's believed some minerals
don't become available until plants need them and then microbes make them
available. 

paul tradingpost@lobo.net

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

On 1/19/2007 at 6:50 AM E. E. Mitchamore Jr wrote:

>I just listened to a CD, produced by TOFGA, on which Gary Zimmer gave the
>best overview of soil treatment for better crops that I've ever heard.  He
>covered all the steps and related them to each other: Soil tests, mineral
>correction for the crops you want to grow, fertilization to replace
>nutrients you remove with crops, the role of humus and soil biology.  Good
>stuff!  His book is The Biological Farmer.
>
>E. E. "Mitch" Mitchamore
>www.hillcountrynatives.biz
>  ----- Original Message ----- 
>  From: TradingPostPaul 
>  To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org 
>  Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2007 11:05 PM
>  Subject: [Livingontheland] Building Soils for Better Crops