Market Farming

[Leslie Moyer <unschooler AT lrec.org>]

Thanks, Bill--this is a lot of help!  It's the direction I was leaning and will be the cheaper option as well.  I was a little concerned that it wasn't well composted, but what you said relieves that concern and it will, of course, compost in-place.

We will be adding a lot of wood chips as mulch and we'll also be adding soft rock phosphate, MycoGrow Soluble (www.fungi.com), humic acid, and kelp when we plant.  Any other suggestions along those lines?

We'll be doing another soil test really soon here to see where our pH is and will add lime accordingly.  We do have a tendency toward slightly acidic soil here, so we expect to have to add lime periodically, but hopefully the biological life in the soil that we're building will buffer that some.  

Unfortunately, the last guy who brought our lime could not tell us how much calcium was in the lime. The chicken litter we had delivered was from a laying house, which should have some calcium in it. We had a soil test done before this last set of amendments, but will do a comprehensive test again ASAP before the trees arrive.

Thanks!

--Leslie

On Jan 29, 2011, at 10:31 PM, Bill & Izabella wrote:

Definitely the leaves.  They will break down quickly and trees

definitely need the carbs.

 

Mushrom compost is aged horse manure and is high in ammonia and

high in sodium.

 

Carey Reams said fruit trees make 50% of their own nitrogen so they

don't need as much N as the university says.  They need P and Calcium

which are made available by fungi, especially micorrhyza, and fungi

do not like N, they thrive in high carb.  Think of a forest soil; leaves and

branches layered.  Not green manure cover crops.

 

If I was you, I would add wood chips, lime and soft rock phosphate.

 

Bill

 

On Sat, Jan 29, 2011 at 10:13 PM, Leslie Moyer <unschooler AT lrec.org> wrote:

I'm getting ready to plant a 7-acre mixed fruit orchard (tree fruits) and I'm wanting to bring in some compost just before I plant.  We've been readying the soil for the past year+ by growing a couple of cover crop successions on it.  We've also raised the pH to proper levels and brought in chicken litter to bring up the NPK to good levels.  However, I'd like to add more organic matter to the soil and, most importantly, increase the bio-diversity of soil organisms.  I have easy access to two kinds of compost in my area. Mushroom compost and leaf compost.  The leaf compost isn't very well composted.  I would more appropriately call it leaf mulch.  It is shredded, but the composting process is incomplete, to say the least.  I think that the fungal life in the leaves would be good for the fruit trees, but I know that some tannins can be harmful to fruit trees.  On the other hand, the mushroom compost is-as I understand it--"sterilized". Doesn't this kill much of the "good" biolo
 gical life in the soil?  Of these two options--mushroom compost or leaf compost--which would you recommend?  Or shall I search for another option?  (We do have a human waste compost available here that I've used on ornamentals and it works *great*, but I'm unwilling to use it on edibles.) We used to have composted chicken litter available, but they went out of business (and I already have all of the nitrogen I need right now anyway).

--Leslie