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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] learning curve

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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] learning curve
  • Date: Tue, 7 Dec 2010 13:07:48 -0800 (PST)

Barbara,

If you use fresh manure, don't plough it under. You can plough under
composted manure, leaves or any other OM. But uncomposted material need to
go on top. I would use a layer of fresh manure topped by a layer of leaves
or other OM to keep the manure from drying out. Tests have shown that using
fresh manure is about 2 to 4 times more effective than using composted manure
because you loose a lot during heap composting.

Dieter

--- On Tue, 12/7/10, Barbara Money <bmoney9@verizon.net> wrote:

> From: Barbara Money <bmoney9@verizon.net>
> Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] learning curve
> To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
> Date: Tuesday, December 7, 2010, 7:06 PM
> We save wood ash from our main
> heating source, and some of it ends up in the garden.
> Theoretically, in place of lime for raising pH. It does have
> small pieces of charcoal in it, and it contains potassium.
> why is excess K bad? Someone mentioned that it ties up
> calcium, ...OK, got that. But why is it in the common
> fertilizer "formula"? What does it do for the plant?
>
> Regarding added organic matter: we have tons of leaves,
> llama manure, and may get some aged horse manure and fresh
> hen manure. How should I put theses on the garden this fall?
> Last year we got a load of oak leaves and ran them through a
> shredder or mowed over them in place, which was a lot of
> work. I mixed horse and llama manure with the shredded
> leaves in the beds. This year it is a mix of oak, ash,
> hickory, and maple, not yet shredded. I still have some
> uncovered piles of shredded oak leaves //that have not
> broken down all last winter and this summer.// I'm wondering
> if it's worth the bother to shred the leaves, and just use
> them as a weed-suppressing mulch once the veggie seedlings
> are up. Maybe layering the manures on top of the leaves
> (shredded or not) over winter so nutrients leach through
> them to help them break down? The shredds I put in the
> garden beds did break down, mostly (I hand-cultivated them
> in 2-3 inches, not deep--the tiller went deeper); maybe
> contact with soil is what they need?
>
> Don't yell at me for tilling, I don't want to anymore! But
> Hubby, who studied horticulture in the 70s, still thinks
> soil must be mixed up.
>
> Barbara M
> Foster, RI
>
> -- "Animals Are A Gift"
>
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