Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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

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