Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>]

Understood. Today we know of dozens of trace elements needed for healthy 
plant growth, and nobody has techniques for complete soil testing. Organic 
compost is the shotgun approach - whatever deficiency soil has can be 
remedied by composting. For this reason the Rodale books have long advised 
making compost from a variety of sources, not just a single source. Who knew 
that molybdenum was a necessary element?

But the most common deficiency is in the levels of organic matter or humus. 
I've only heard of one lab in this country that tests for it. The name 
escapes me.

paul tradingpost@lobo.net

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

On 3/22/2010 at 11:11 PM Andeanfx wrote:

>When I posed the original question I was thinking in the context of
>testing
>it for deficiencies not contaminates.  Dean
>
>
>Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken. - Oscar Wilde
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
>To: <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
>Sent: Monday, March 22, 2010 10:07 PM
>Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] soil testing
>
>
>>
>> Sorry, not to my knowledge. Unless you have a small fortune to shell out
>> for special testing for particular chemicals. And literally nobody can
>> afford to test for hundreds of potential contaminants. And generally
>> organic standards don't require soil testing OR produce testing.
>Surprise!
>>
>> We live in a chemical soup; that's our so called civilization. People
>> think if a chemical is being sold it must be approved as safe by the
>> government. Forget it. Some thousands iof chemicals were grandfathered
>in
>> years ago, untested, when EPA took effect as GRAS - "generally regarded
>as
>> safe". For food chemicals start with
>>
>http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/228741/Generally-Recognized-As-Safe
> .
>> Thousands of others never tested are approved for industrial,
>agricultural
>> and household uses.
>>
>> At least where we live, there's never been any industry and to our
>> knowledge this spot was never farmed in modern times if ever due to
>> historical climate.
>>
>> In the end, we can get to a point of obsessing over contamination and go
>> far past a point of diminishing returns, to a point where most of our
>> toxins come not from our food but from the water we drink and air we
>> breathe in a pristine wilderness. Let's think about that.
>>
>> paul tradingpost@lobo.net
>>
>> *********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********
>>
>> On 3/22/2010 at 8:44 PM Tommy Tolson wrote:
>>
>>>Doesn't a soil test indicate if your soil has toxic chemicals in it, so
>>>it won't pass organic standards for several years, at least?  By now,
>>>most soil in the US has been polluted, hasn't it?
>>>
>>>Smiles.
>>>Tommy
>>>
>>>On 3/22/10 7:46 PM, Ken Hargesheimer wrote:
>>>> Grow it: green manure/cover crops.  Ken H
>>>>