Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Michael Nevin <mikepnevin@yahoo.ca>]

Hi - on the other hand, I do not want to discourage people from applying finished compost. Suppose one really adds a lot of compost. Instead of raising the % of organic matter in the top soil hozizon, might it not deepen the organic-rich layer. I remember reading somewhere that prairie soils, before the plow, had a very deep organic layer. In other words, deepen the good top soil.

Just a thought.

Cheers, Mike in Toronto

Ken Hargesheimer <minifarms2@yahoo.com> wrote:

Mike, apparently you are right about the percentage of organic matter.  I read one time that when the organic matter in the soil in a field or garden goes over 12%, the flora of the soil changes and it is bad.  I do not remember the details. 

 

Ken Hargesheimer

Michael Nevin <mikepnevin@yahoo.ca> wrote:

Hi - where I work as the food scrap composter, our rule of thumb is to use about 1/3 well-aged, well-screened finished compost to about 2/3 planting mix for our seedlings.  Pure compost might be quite rich. However, if you are doing intensive ag in raised beds such that the plant roots can not spread out due to the density of your planting, you might wish to jack up the fertility of your soil by going with more compost.

Is there any chance you could try several different %s of compost in otherwise identical raised beds? Many books on soil and compost seem to say that  organic matter % could be in the 5 - 10 % range. In other words, there is a lot of sand, clay,  air space, water in addition to organic matter.

Cheers, Mike in Toronto

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