Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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

This is a reprint of a post I made over a year ago on Soilmakers,
predecessor list  to Living On The Land

paul tradingpost@lobo.net
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Beyond Organic: Humus-Intensive Growing for Yield, Quality, and Profit

Humus-intensive growing means producing more and better in less space at
lower
cost. It's no secret, nothing new; the benefits simply aren't realized by
the
methods of many organic growers. It simply combines the well known
practices of
organic composting and wide beds, on a farm scale as well as the backyard
garden. Other practices such as companion planting, cover crops,
subsoiling, and
remineralization may be included depending on local conditions and needs.
We
call it humus-intensive when the decomposed organic matter and other
amendments
are concentrated in growing beds rather than spread over an entire field or
garden which is what happens in row cropping. Aisles and walkways take up
half
the total area; growing beds make up the other half. Obviously, when
amendments
are limited to the beds, the beds get twice the amount of humus and other
amendments they would get if the same amount was spread all over the field
or
garden. Nothing new about that. Costs go into the growing area instead of
the
aisles.

Yield and Quality

So why is that important? It's commonly claimed that organic means lower
yield.
Organic row croppers don't realize the benefits in humus-intensive beds.
Yields
and quality of produce for a given area of field or garden are normally
greater
than row cropping - sometimes much greater. And with double the
concentration of
amended humus that makes healthy soil in the growing beds, the soil is more
moisture-retentive, drains better, shows better particle aggregation and
tilth,
and naturally produces more. Further, the healthier the soil, the better
for
taste and nutrition in the produce (the fraction of dissolved solids in
plant
juices measured as Brix). These effects are well known. Humus-intensive
produces
more and better than row cropping for the available amount of amendments
over a
given area.

Costs

But that's not all. With the actual growing area limited to beds that are
more
moisture retentive, irrigation costs go down (water is getting scarce in
some
areas), and the labor needed for weeding goes down, because the growing
beds are
only half the total area that have to be watered and weeded in row
cropping.
This is true whether you work a backyard garden or large field for market.
Do
the math. It's commonly believed that going organic raises labor costs,
lowers
total production, and runs up the price to the customer. It certainly can
if
organic is done by row cropping.

The work of Howard, Pfeiffer, Chadwick, Jeavons, and many others who built
on
the knowledge of past cultures is fairly well known. But larger operators
apparently assume intensive methods are only for home or hobby gardens. And
lots
of growing operations are caught in a deadly cost-price squeeze. Perhaps
organic
row croppers believe beds are impractical or run up labor costs for
harvesting.
They may believe mechanical harvesting in rows is necessary for large
operations. It may be for corn or some grain crops. Many organic row
croppers
seem stuck in the era of Jethro Tull's row machinery in England of a
century
ago. But for produce generally, manual harvesting allows better quality
control
and less waste - which translates to more saleable product per unit of
land.
Read that again. Not a small factor considering the rising cost of
farmland.
True, hand harvesting is more labor intensive, but making payments and
interest
on expensive harvesting machinery can easily squeeze profits more than
paying
labor.

Organic growers know that the bulk of the work and cost of soil improvement
goes
into initial soil building; once soil is brought up to a healthy condition
then
annual sheet composting may be sufficient to maintain structure and
fertility.
Cover crops or catch crops, infrequent liming, and mulches may be used also
as
needed. Annual labor and compost costs go down after healthy soil is
attained.
And growers who do tilling in the initial soil building phase only need to
till
the bed areas, not the aisles and walkways for an entire field. There's
upfront
cost for building healthy beds, but that should be compared with rising
annual
costs of fuel and specialized machinery in row cropping. Getting big to
justify
the cost of specialized machinery is part of the cost squeeze behind the
decline
of home farming and consolidation of big chemical agribusiness. We're
talking
realistic alternatives.

There are cautions to be aware of in any growing system. For example,
repeated
application of uncomposted, fresh manures can add to buildup of sodium or
calcium salts which can tie up certain necessary minerals. Undecomposed
organic
matter can tie up soil nitrogen and oxygen, both of which are needed for
microbial processes that feed plant roots. But in general well made humus
buffers pH, and organic amendments are slow release. Healthy plants in
microbe-rich, healthy soil take what they need.

Healthy soil makes healthy crops, and healthy crops make healthy animals
and
people. It can be practical and affordable. And fossil fuel problems may
rule
out mechanical row cropping financially - not to mention chemical
agribusiness.
The argument for humus-intensive bed growing gets more realistic each year.