North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Joe Hecksel" <jhecksel@voyager.net>]

Hi all:

I thought this might be of interest to some of the list members.

A major university used a lot of high priced equipment to determine 
that 87% of the carbon (organic material) burn rate in soil is due to 
soil temperature.  Actual mileage (or kilometerage if metric) will vary:

Temperature F,  Temperature C,  micromole CO2/m/m/s
50                  10              3
60                  16              5.5
70                  21              8.4
80                  27              12

So, cultivating soil might be "burning up" humus through soil 
temperature effects rather than because it is "poking the embers" and 
introducing more oxygen.

Shade that soil!

-- 
Joe Hecksel
Personal Webpage http://my.voyager.net/~jhecksel