Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[richard green <greenrw71@hotmail.com>]

My compost is made from horse manure, chicken manure, oak leafs ,and garden clippings sprinkled with some garden soil. Alas my friend sold the horse I think the pigs manure which I am collecting daily(keeping the smell down)will come in handy in the future. The only difference between beds 3 and 2 is the COF in bed 2. Cotton seed meal,rock phosphate,kelp meal,lime are an expense I would like to minimize. Beds 2 and 1 are the same except for the addition of inoculated charcoal in bed 1. My soil is builders sand it cant grow a radish without lots of prayer. I have considered doing four raised beds three foot wide fifteen foot long. Bed 1-as the soil is, Bed 2-compost only, Bed 3-compost, COF only, Bed 4-compost, COF,Inoculated charcoal. My space is limited in an urban setting but this I could do. Looking back at my original post ,the numbering of the three beds was I see confusing.  

Rick

 

> From: dhondt@eircom.net
> To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
> Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2011 22:34:35 +0000
> Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Bio-Char test garden
>
>
> The results could be a lot better science if you made sure the nutrients in
> all three plots were the same to start with. Bed 1 gets much more nutrients
> than bed three and bed two where you supposedly test compost is definitely
> worst off. If it is a matter of nutrients you are biassing the experiment
> from the start. I suppose a lot depends on how good your soil is to start
> with and of what quality your compost. If your soil is very good to start
> with it may not make much of a difference but if not then it is obvious from
> the start what result you hope you will see. Bad science!
>
> You might make more scietific sense if you left out the compost in bed 1
> altogether and added more to bed 2 to compensate for the extra nutrients in
> the COF in bed 3. This would at least tell you whether charcoal in your soil
> is any use and also whether your compost was any good. My compost gets a lot
> of fish to digest what is in yours? Some commercial compost is actually bad
> for growth.
> I am absolutely certain that COF is good fertilizer but unfortunatly I think
> unsustainable as you might soon find out with rising food prices. Seeds with
> 40% protein content can't be cheap for much longer.
> john
>
>
> I'd be following decades of highly successful methods reported by Rodale
> Press and Organic Gardening magazine, instead. I hope you do understand that
> tilling in charcoal won't even begin to create Terra Preta as found in the
> Amazon. But it's your call.
>
> paul tradingpost@lobo.net
>
> *********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********
>
> On 2/16/2011 at 10:15 PM richard green wrote:
>
> >I am expanding the size of my garden in my back yard. The work
> >crew(two-piglets) were installed inside four moveable hog panels Sunday
> >noon (easier to be forgiven by code enforcers,than to get permission.).
> >And promptly escaped by means of breaking the zip ties holding the corners
> >togather. Now held togather by bailing wire, Houdini and Houdini 2 have
> >spent four nights and days tearing up the grass preparing the soil and
> >gaining weight. I expect within ten days I will move them off the plot and
> >divide it into three raised beds of equal size. In Bed 1 I will
> >incorporate 40lbs of crushed charcoal I currently have soaking in a liquid
> >solution(Magic Juice)of chicken manure and plant juices. Additionally
> >compost and COF will be applied to bed 1. Bed 2 will have an equal amount
> >of compost only. Bed 3 will have an equal amounts of COF and Compost only.
> >I will plant each bed the same with equal number and type of plants. If I
> >determine the need for liquid fertilization(magic juice )is needed it will
> >be applied equally to all beds. All harvested vegetation will be weighed
> >and recorded per bed. This test should determine if biochar increases
> >yields. The photos record the future garden plot, the green mound is an
> >old pile of grass covered with soil(bed 2 future location) that grew
> >pumpkins last fall and currently planted in dakon radish the pigs ate. The
> >compost used will be a pile I've made and is ready to use. COF is made
> >following Steve Solomon's instructions. Any comments or suggestions, be
> >nice....
> >Rick
> >
> >
>
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