Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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

I did make a fleeting mention of that. We've started multiplying comfrey this 
year and digging up a few plants for transplant makes a lot of roots 
sprouting in spring. Use leaves for compost or surface mulch. And there's 
alfalfa. We buy alfalfa meal in bulk to save the labor and expense of 
composting green alfalfa hay, and it mixes uniformly in a wheelbarrow with 
screened manure and bone meal to all work into the beds. That gets the greens 
and browns close together. I like having all these ingredients decompose 
right in the soil where the soil microbes are instead of composting 
separately. We're seeing better and better results from basically dead soil 
to begin with, and got to a point where no-till now saves a lot of labor.

paul tradingpost@lobo.net

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

On 9/25/2010 at 8:37 AM Harvey Ussery wrote:

>Unless I missed it in the thread, I don't think anyone has mentioned
>very deep rooted fertility plants (dynamic accumulators) in the
>equation. Certain plants with extremely deep roots "mine" the deep
>subsoil of minerals not available in the top layers of the soil profile.
>When they die or shed their leaves on going dormant, the minerals become
>available to more shallow rooted crops. Of course, they can be cut and
>applied elsewhere as mulches or to make compost.
>
>Examples are alfalfa (which has been found to grow roots as much as 23
>ft deep) and comfrey (roots 8 to 10 feet)--there are many others.
>
>I read the observation somewhere that in a typical soil profile there is
>enough mineral fertility in the depths to support agricultural
>production for 100,000 years. A fanciful claim, perhaps, but it
>illustrates the value of certain useful plants that can serve as "pumps"
>of deep subsoil mineral fertility.
>
>~Harvey
>
>--
>Harvey in northern Va
>www.themodernhomestead.us
>
>My book, THE MODERN HOMESTEAD POULTRY FLOCK, will be published next year
>by Chelsea Green Publishing.
>
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