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market-farming - Re: peat moss substitute

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Chronological Thread  
  • From: Betsy <blevy AT rsocsun.tamu.edu>
  • To: market farming <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: peat moss substitute
  • Date: Thu, 25 May 2000 09:43:27 -0700


What about newspaper pulp? Does it have too many chemicals in it?

Alex McGregor wrote:

> 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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