Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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

All manure has some population of wide varieties, and so does the soil it
gets mixed with. I'm told the kind of microbes that come to dominate or
proliferate depends on what they've got to eat. I'm told molasses
encourages a shift to soil bacteria. Be that as it may, I'm taking aged
manure and mixing it with soil, small amounts of alfalfa meal, greensand
and bone meal, and sprinkling it good with dilute molasses and fish
emulsion. That and clear plastic over beds covered with this mix should
compost in place through the cold months. This grew 8-10 ft tomato plants
last season and mountains of tomatoes. We'll see. 

paul tradingpost@lobo.net

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

On 12/14/2007 at 12:41 PM E. E. Mitchamore Jr wrote:

>Manure has been used to enrich soil since the beginning of agriculture,
>but I still have not found much in-depth science about how, or why, there
>is such a benefit.  Recently, while reading about grass-fed beef, a point
>struck me: Ruminants digest cellulose by bacterial action in their gut,
>with the result that their manure is pre-inoculated with beneficial
>microorganisms.  This was a revelation to me, and explains a lot while
>raising other questions.  For example: Do browsers (who eat more woody
>material), have bacteria well adapted to that purpose, or do they deposit
>fungi that are normally required to break down the lignin in woody matter?
>
>And, does poultry manure, well-known to be hot (a lot of Nitrogen), have
>any such beneficial microorganisms?
>
>While I'm thinking about such matters, does anyone have any thoughts about
>"fuel" being necessary to get the benefits of inoculating soil (like with
>compost tea)?  We've acknowledged that most soils are humus-deficient, so
>it seems like you must add organic matter that is biologically active
>(good compost), or organic matter + inoculation.  Seems like the fuel has
>to come first, then the microbes.  Once established, good soil should
>maintain itself if enough organic matter is left or added.
>
>Sure, you can do the right thing without understanding, but understanding
>is better.
>
>E. E. "Mitch" Mitchamore
>www.hillcountrynatives.biz
>
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