North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[jhecksel@voyager.net]

Lucky Pittman wrote:
> 
> At 12:06 PM 04/18/2001 -0400, you wrote:
> >It snowed here today in Maine.  A warm, wet spring snow, barely
> >enough to stick to the ground.  I was in the Blue Hill post office
> >this morning and as each new person came in the door they would make
> >some comment about the weather and usually finish off with,  "Yup.
> >Poor man's fertilizer."
> 
> Phil,
> As Vic stated, it's in relation to the N cycle.
> I'd seen a similar discussion several years back - seemed the old-timers
> attached some significance to the N dissolved in snow(but wouldn't the same
> , or more, N be dissolved in rainwater?); one respondent even related her
> memories of her father or grandfather getting out and plowing(with a
> two-bottom plow) the snow under, in order to incorporate that N directly
> into the soil so it didn't sublimate away when the snow melted.
> Don't know if it really works or not.  Maybe some of our more
> learned/experienced NAFEXers will weigh in with more info.
> Lucky Pittman
> USDA Zone 6
> Hopkinsville, KY

I was hoping that some of the more learned/experienced NAFEXers would
weigh in, but I see that more baiting is required.

Snow is reputed to be even more of a culprit than rain for "acid rain",
or more generically, acid precipitation.  The cause is not clear to me. 
It could be that there is more room in the crystal lattice for SO++ and
NO++ ions to dissolve in the ice crystals.  Or it might be due to the
fact that the lacy structure of snow flakes can attract more ions
electrostatically than a raindrop.

In the frozen North, early spring N availability due to decaying organic
material is limited by soil temperature.  Most soil is not biologically
very active at temperatures below 50F (about 10C).  There is just not
that much N being freed up from decaying organic sources.  This 50F/10C
number is a very interesting number.  That is the soil temperature that
is associated with the start of corn/maize germination, lamb survival
(per Joe Rook) and the air temp associated with accumulation of degree
days for fruit trees.  In my neck of the woods, that occurs between
April 15 and May 1.

I suspect that Poor Man's Fertilizer is valuable due to the bottleneck
effect of organic sources of N in the very early spring.  Poor men not
having the money to buy (or perhaps valuing the money so as to not buy)
"chemicallized" nitrogen.

End of baiting.

> 
> 
> 
> 
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