Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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

I tend to agree with Ken on that. What we're not given is the amounts of 
"other things" added for three years - what does "in moderation” mean - very 
little? or amounts added with the charcoal. Without knowing that, there could 
be a cumulative effect at work to explain yield. We're also not told possible 
impacts of weather, pests, cultivation, or planting methods. All in all, we 
have no way of guessing about the reasons for results.

I have experience with trying to grow in soil too sandy. Soluble nutrients as 
fertilizer will leach out as fast as you can irrigate, because - soluble 
nutrients are soluble. It’s useless. Sandy soil can only hold nutrients when 
enough finished compost amended soil is added. Nutrients are bound with 
decomposed plant matter in soil. Greensand is said to help along with that. 
Undigested compost won’t cut it.

I’m also going to caution readers about using large amounts of hard wood 
charcoal. The bagged charcoal we can buy locally has dangerous petrochemicals 
added, and is not intended for food production.

paul tradingpost@lobo.net

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

On 12/7/2010 at 10:56 PM richard green wrote:

>Once again the yields "did not" increase after adding the other things
>for three years, only after addition of innoculater charcoal did the
>yields increase drastically! What I suspect is that the charcoal holds the
>nitrogen ect. in my sand.
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>Rick
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>Date: Tue, 7 Dec 2010 07:17:24 -0800
>From: minifarms2@yahoo.com
>To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
>Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] the learning curve
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>The yields increased due to the other things you added; not the charcoal.
>The other things is what soil needs.
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>Ken Hargesheimer
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>--- On Mon, 12/6/10, richard green <greenrw71@hotmail.com> wrote:
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>From: richard green <greenrw71@hotmail.com>
>Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] the learning curve
>To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
>Date: Monday, December 6, 2010, 5:23 PM
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> I wish to add to the line concerning the use of charcoal, I live in north
>florida and have very sandy soil. In my back yard I have a small vegetable
>garden approx. 1000sqft. that I've had for the past three years. The first
>year the yields were nothing spectacular but good. Use of COF as Steve
>Solomon recommended, also chicken manure and some horse manure used in
>moderation. Leaf and garden clipping compost from a former garden site.
>The second year the production yields were way down both summer and winter
>gardens. The first half of the third year was not good either. I happened
>across several articles concerning charcoal, having nothing to lose I
>tried adding it. I crushed ten forty pound bags of hard wood charcoal I
>soaked the crushed charcoal in a liquid solution of 1 part dry chicken
>manure, 1 part leaf compost and 1 part comfrey tea (the part being a 2lb
>plastic coffee container I use for measurement) I put the dried parts in
>donated panty hose and soaked in 25 gal. of tap water maybe 2 weeks prior
>to use. This being a liquid fertilizer I commonly use. I am now into the
>last month of the third year and the yields thus far have exceeded my
>wildest expectations. I am growing the garden I had wished for. Simply put
>the ground/sand has come alive. Inoculate the charcoal prior to amendment
>to the soil.
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>Rick
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