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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] The only way to tell what your soil really needs???

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Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] The only way to tell what your soil really needs???
  • Date: Tue, 24 Aug 2010 11:38:47 -0600


The bottom line is simple - too simple for the soil test experts. To replace
what's taken from the soil, put plant matter back into the soil.

I just pass on what's come from personal experience and lots of books. I
never did a soil test here, but observed only one kind of clump grass grew
and a couple kinds of arid bushes like fourwing saltbush. I amended with lots
of aged manure and alfalfa meal, with a dash of bone meal which comes
ultimately from the plants livestock eat. I've posted pictures of the results
in the past. The plant growth and vegetable flavor rival the claims in old
issues of Organic Gardening. For decades the pages of Organic Gardening
magazine featured endless organic growers simply incorporating plant matter
and/or manure and getting wonderful results.

What soil tests do is data collection; what organic growers do is not. It's
intuitive observation of plant health and weeds, and gaining a "feel" for the
soil. Data is only as good as the person collecting it and soil test people
generally can't think outside the chemical box. I mean they can't see
anything but bare elements - when the big picture includes the soil biology
and thousands of biochemical substances. And the soil biology has everything
to do with what nutrients and biochemical substances are made available to
plants. Without the biological perspective the data can be misleading or
downright harmful.


paul tradingpost@lobo.net


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

On 8/24/2010 at 11:08 AM mdnagel@verizon.net wrote:

Paul, we're talking past one another, and seemingly in circle. <sigh>

Again, you mention balance in compost. That balance is what provides balance
in the soil. You open your response with this statement:

"Balance is one of those deceptive concepts pushed for chemical farming"

This may speak to chemical farmers, but it doesn't mean a one-to-one
correlation with soil analysis. Soil analysis is NOT chemical farming.

Nature's balance is all fine and well should one find such an environment.
But, and this was the reason why most people started hanging out here, that
on the whole things are horribly out of balance.

Again, I agree that applying a balanced (buffered) compost on balanced soil
is the way to go.

I'm still looking for some way that people can learn how to assess what is
lacking in their soils. And yes, one can become "in tune" with this
understanding by looking, touching, and smelling soil, but... is this not
data collection? Isn't that what soil tests do? Data without a proper
understanding, whether from a novice grower or from some lab technician (or
computer generated response from a soil readout), is just data- does really
nothing: the data, however, DOES has value as a placeholder for review come
time that proper understanding IS available.

I think that we're needlessly condemning the baby because the bathwater is
dirty.


-Mark Nagel
Everett, WA






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