Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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

I ran into this on a tomato list and I don't like it. It's also a commercial.
http://www.ag.purdue.edu/counties/marion/Pages/SoilSamplingTesting.aspx

"To grow good plants, you need good soil. The only way to tell what your soil 
really needs is to take a soil test. Applying too much fertilizer could be 
detrimental to your plants. You could waste money or pollute the environment. 
Adding too little fertilizer or the wrong fertilizer could produce little or 
no results."

Apply fertilizer? Hundreds of thousands of organic growers have used natural 
amendments or compost as the Rodale people urged for decades, and indigenous 
people for eons before that. A variety of organic materials provide 
everything soil needs. While soil tests can be useful I think that statement 
"The only way to tell what your soil really needs is to take a soil test" is 
way over the top.


paul tradingpost@lobo.net