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market-farming - Re: peat moss substitute

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Chronological Thread  
  • From: Alex McGregor <waldenfarm AT sprintmail.com>
  • To: market farming <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: peat moss substitute
  • Date: Thu, 25 May 2000 10:42:33 -0400


Betsy,

I haven't heard of this, but doubt it. Peat is harvested as a soil and soil
mix additive, not
for composting. I've been wishing that we had hemp fiber growing cranked up
again so I could
use a local or regional waste product from the processing of hemp.

Kenaf is limited in production now due to (in part) resistance from the pulp
and paper industry
who own billions of acres of pulp forests. Their plants are also set up for
wood pulp. And
kenaf and hemp fibers can be recycled more and are more durable, meaning less
new paper
production for these guys. And it goes on.

Sudan is raised more as a cover and/or green manure crop and plowed down in
situ. And removing
plant material through cropping does deplete the soil unless some of the land
is used to grow
composting crops, or a rotation with green manure crops is used, or we close
the circles and
return our waste to the soil instead of in landfills and streams.

Alex

Betsy wrote:

> Hi Alex - I'm curious (and don't know). Do you know if people are
> experimenting with
> harvesting really high bulk cover crops like kenaf or sudan grass for
> carbon for composting?
> I don't know the ins and outs of what that does to the land where the crops
> are grown, or if
> you return only part of the crop to the place it's grown, if that's enough.





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