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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] TWO AGRICULTURES, NOT ONE, By John Michael Greer

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Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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  • From: Dieter Brand <diebrand@yahoo.com>
  • To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] TWO AGRICULTURES, NOT ONE, By John Michael Greer
  • Date: Mon, 27 Sep 2010 01:26:40 -0700 (PDT)

--- On Sun, 9/26/10, John D'hondt <dhondt@eircom.net> wrote:
> Well, I have been planting trees for 25 years. It took
> about then years before they took off though but now the
> effects are already very clear. Annual leaf fall is a
> serious fertilizing factor ...

John,

This shows well that you farm under very favorable conditions. I have giant
oak trees that must be 100 or 200 years old, where the soil has not been
disturbed for centuries. Yet when one of these giants tumbles over and its
roots rip open the earth, you won’t see more than a quarter inch of black
soil and leaf mold on top of pure clay and rock. In this arid and hot
region, the combination of zero rain during the main growing season in the
summer and the high temperatures of around 40 C mean that humus is faster
depleted than produced. Tests have shown that in a hot climate like in the
South of Portugal humus is depleted 6 times faster than in the North of
Europe.

Dieter Brand
Portugal









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