Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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

Interesting.

paul tradingpost@lobo.net

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

On 1/28/2008 at 2:27 PM Dieter Brand wrote:

>Thanks Paul, that is pretty exhaustive as far as thinking
>  on soil and plant nutrition is concerned.  
>   
>  There is one item, though, that particularly appeals to me 
>  that isn't included here.
>   
>  According to a text I read recently, Aristotle considered that
>  _soil is the stomach of plants_ in the sense that soil performs
>  many function like the mechanical and chemical breakdown of 
>  organic materials which needs to occur before plants can access 
>  these materials as food.  These functions are performed in the
>  body by the teeth, the digestive track and other body organs.
>  In fact, it is possible to see the root system of plants as a 
>  digestive track turned inside out.  Both are colonized by 
>  bacteria needed for processing food.
>   
>  This, to me sounds like an explanation of plant nutrition as
>  intelligent as any provided by modern science.
>   
>  I don't know were Aristotle is supposed to have said this and
>  the text from which I cite is in German.
>   
>  Dieter
>
>       
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