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nafex - [NAFEX] Kelp sprays and BD preps

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  • From: "Kieran and Donna" <redherring@tnaccess.com>
  • To: <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [NAFEX] Kelp sprays and BD preps
  • Date: Thu, 5 Feb 2004 20:33:23 -0600

I haven't used Spray n Grow, but I have used kelp sprays. We have a very
large garden and our soil is horrible, laterite according to an old soil
book, so it's not just my imagination. It took about 4 years to get the
soil into any kind of shape at all, and without seaweed sprays during that
time, we'd have had no crops at all. The plants would green up and grow
really well for 10-14 days after they'd been sprayed. We hauled lots of
stuff for compost, but the area was and still is too big to give it all what
it needs. I don't want to use chemicals, and my husband has said absolutely
no chemicals, so I can't even cheat a little. We have added high phosphate
clay and rock dust and lots of organic matter, but still it's pure acidic
yellow clay starting about 8" down. When we bought the place, there was no
topsoil at all.
I have been given the BD cowhorn stuff and the barrel compost several
times by a local farmer who says that other farmers gave him preps and said
see what happens. He got results, so he uses them. What I have seen is
that when my husband has stirred a handful of the stuff in water for 20
minutes and sprinkled it around about 1/10th of an acre, that the garden
grows like crazy for about a week. It gets green and lush.
If you all start out with good soil and then fertilize it well, maybe
you will see no effect from these materials. But not everyone has great
soils. Harvey Lisle is a retired soil scientist and NAFEX member who uses
biodynamics. He said that in most of the US that soils average 2 to 2 1/2 %
organic matter, and that when you get your soil up to 3 1/2 to 4% organic
matter, that everything would start growing a lot better. He said that
Australian soils have 1/2 of 1% organic matter, and that chemical
fertilizers simply don't work there. 3 million acres in Australia are
farmed biodynamically, the farmers mix up the stuff in barrels and fly it
on. I've read that the soil is much softer and more porous in BD farms
compared to neighboring fields.
I keep touting HANDS ON AGRONOMY by Neil Kinsey. In my most recent
rereading of it, I read about "soil conditioners" which he says are useful
on some soils but not needed on others. He doesn't go into the subject, so
I went looking on the Net, and I think he's referring to either some kind of
bacterial inoculant or maybe humic acid. I know a local guy named a product
that I think was one of these soil conditioners, he said it was wonderful
and made the soil looser and more porous. That is exactly what we need!!!
Neil Kinsey keeps talking about how every farm is different, even every
field is different, that due to climate, soil type, drainage and the past
history of a field, it neeeds more or less of different fertilizers. He
does not dismiss a product as useless just because it doesn't work in every
situation, and neither should you. BD and kelp sprays work for us. Our
soil is terrible, it needs a lot more work, but at least I can say "Thank
God it's not Florida sand." Donna




  • [NAFEX] Kelp sprays and BD preps, Kieran and Donna, 02/05/2004

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