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  • From: road's end farm <organic101 AT linkny.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Soil Mystery
  • Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2006 21:54:56 -0400


On Jun 23, 2006, at 3:53 PM, Andrew R. King wrote:

<x-tad-smaller>The peas and chives were on different sides of the field.</x-tad-smaller>
<x-tad-smaller>Yes the soil test included micronutrients and </x-tad-smaller>
they were ok.
The peas and chives germinated then did poorly.
The dill never germinated.
I am starting to think there is to much organic matter in the soil and that is causing the germination problem.
<x-tad-smaller> </x-tad-smaller>

That I haven't heard of. Most people are trying to increase soil organic matter.

What was the % organic matter on the soil test?

Crops are grown on "muck" soils -- drained swampland -- with extremely high natural organic matter levels. I don't have muck soils, but a quick search found reference to crops being direct seeded into them, so it seems unlikely that even very high organic matter would inhibit germination.

Does anybody else know of this as a problem?

Oh yes -- were you using fresh seed? was the source reliable? had you planted the same seed in another field, or done any germination tests, and if so what were the results? And, is there any possibility of herbicide contamination, including carryover from previous years? Some crops are more susceptible to this than others, I have no idea whether basil is relatively resistant.


-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 5 mostly
Fresh-market organic produce, small scale



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