Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[paul@oneseedling.com]

We make use of a lot of mulch in our gardens but do it somewhat differently. 
Our goats are rotated thru as the garden is done. They are pinned up at night 
and deposit everything eaten during the day out in the pastures in the form 
of little fertilizer pellets. After 30 days they are moved to the next plot 
and the pigs are let in to till it and take care of the coastal bermuda which 
is so invasive here in central Texas. Paul 

Sent from my iPhone

On Sep 24, 2010, at 7:53 AM, <pbunch@cox.net> wrote:

> I have not been actively working my garden plot long enough to estimate a 
> ratio but I suspect it may be similar to your situation. Rainfall here is 
> high  but the temperatures are cool and the soil has low nutrient levels. 
> Where I have applied nutrients, growth is good if a bit slow. I don't have 
> animals yet so my local source of nutrients has been heap compost and some 
> urine on ornamental plants. 
> 
> The carbon:nitrogen ratio in the native grasses appears to be high based on 
> their texture, slow decomposition in the piles and on the soil surface. 
> There are a couple of areas that have been invaded by Thunbergia alata 
> which I am clearing and composting the residue. This plant is a bad weed 
> here but grows very rapidly and has soft growth. It also decomposes rapidly 
> but I don't surface mulch with it due to the presence of seeds.  The only 
> other thing that grows rapidly is kikuyu grass which also is a non-native 
> invasive and sprouts from just about any stem that has a node. I also am 
> trying to eradicate it and have to be very careful when adding it to the 
> piles.
> 
> I think I am going to have to import a lot of chicken manure to enhance the 
> nutrient pool. Scarlet runner beans grow well in this climate and I can use 
> them as a nitrogen source but to really grow well they need other nutrients.
> 
> I also have experimented with some chemical sources on a very limited scale 
> but I don't plan to continue their use. What I have learned is that KNO3 
> produces very good growth. Based on this I think the P content of the soils 
> is pretty good. This makes sense as it is relatively insoluble and should 
> not leach out as rapidly as the N and  K. It may be that a combination of 
> legume derived nitrogen and potassium from ashes would do the trick. 
> Neighbors burn the residue from mowing their properties so I can import the 
> ash with ease. Processing the ash through the compost piles should reduce 
> the risk of adversely affecting the soil flora and fauna and also should 
> raise the pH. In the long run this would not be a sustainable practice as 
> it requires transporting nutrients with a net loss where the ash is 
> produced. Also since the K leaches rapidly there will be unavoidable losses 
> with time.  
> 
> Phil
> Piedras Blancas, Colombia
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ---- Dieter Brand <diebrand@yahoo.com> wrote: 
>> In my case it is about 1 to 10; i.e, I use mulching materials from 10 
>> acres to feed 1 acre of vegetable beds.  But that is probably not typical 
>> since I live in an arid climate with poor soils.  The ratio is bound to be 
>> much lower in regions with more rain and better soil where more biomass is 
>> produced per acre.  Also, mulched gardening is unusual for arid regions.  
>> Traditional farming in this like most other arid regions uses bare soil 
>> cultivation together with manure from goats which can survive on shrub 
>> land during the summer when grasses and other annuals have dried.  But no 
>> matter whether we use mulch or manure, there is a constant transfer of 
>> fertility from the fields to the garden.  The question really is; what is 
>> more efficient: manure or mulch?  But I guess the answer will very much 
>> depend on local conditions.
> 
> Regarding the question of compost versus manure, I think manure always 
> ought to be composted, while plant residues should be returned as surfaces 
> mulches for in-place composting whenever possible because heap composting, 
> especially high temperature composting, always involves a loss of 
> nutrients.  I only use heap composting for plant residues when I don’t have 
> enough water to keep the mulched area wet because without humidity the 
> mulch isn’t going to decompose.  It requires less water to keep a compost 
> heap wet than a mulched area.
> 
> Dieter Brand
> Portugal
> 
> 
> --- On Thu, 9/23/10, pbunch@cox.net <pbunch@cox.net> wrote:
> 
>> From: pbunch@cox.net <pbunch@cox.net>
>> Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] TWO AGRICULTURES, NOT ONE, By John Michael 
>> Greer
>> To: "Healthy soil and sustainable growing" 
>> <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
>> Cc: "Dieter Brand" <diebrand@yahoo.com>
>> Date: Thursday, September 23, 2010, 3:03 PM
>> Interesting observation. I wonder
>> what the ratio between intensive:extensive growing has to
>> be. Also what differences might be required in compost
>> verses manures as means of transporting the nutrients. I
>> suspect that P, K and trace minerals would become critical
>> as legumes can supply the N. It would seem that human
>> waste  recycling would become a critical component.
>> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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