permaculture

[woodyw@juno.com]

Scott:

Can you suggest a source for dikon seed in bulk quantities?  I have a
plot of heavy clay that was heavily compacted by construction equipment
traffic.

Woody Wodraska--Seeking Common Ground CSA
Honeoye Falls, NY          woodyw@juno.com
"The greatest fine art of the future will be the making
of a comfortable living from a small piece of land." -A. Lincoln



On Mon, 24 Nov 1997 21:35:45 -0800 (PST) swrpi@igc.apc.org writes:
>At 05:56 PM 11/22/97 -0800, Permaculture West wrote:
>I invite people to
>>share their strategies for cultivating the garden beneath the soil.
>>
>>                                                              Regards,
>>                                                              Kirk 
>Hanson
>>
>One of my favorite techniques for increasing soil fauna is using dikon
>radish as a deep breaking plow and letting it go to seed.  I don't 
>harvest
>but a few of these big rooted vegetables and leave most to decompose 
>and
>form large pockets in the soil.  This is particularly good on clayey 
>soils
>with little percolation.  A couple of years and the soil is soft and 
>full of
>micro organisms.
>
>I also use a product called Nitron which is a yeasty smelling solution 
>which
>is supposed to add beneficial enzymes to the soil to increase 
>microbial
>activity. I have used it on hard pan created by construction traffic 
>and in
>a few weeks am able to rototill or shovel down some six inches - where
>before I couldn't open the soil with a pick.  
>
>The problem with the alkaline/clay soils in New Mexico and other parts 
>of
>the Southwest is that the cover crops such as alfalfa, vetch, cowpea, 
>etc
>can't penetrate to a depth to get good aeration and water penetration.
>Without aeration the nitrogen fixation is minimal.  I have been more
>successful planting dikon, or cow turnips first and then follow with
>nitrogineous ground covers.  
>
>This year we are covering our field with leaves from our trees - many 
>are
>black locusts which means some nitrogen - and hoping for a wet winter 
>which
>will help the decomposition process. We used this technique in our 
>garden
>for the past three years and the worm population has exploded.   
>*************************************************************************
><swrpi@igc.apc.org>
>Permaculture Institute
>Scott & Arina Pittman 
>PO Box 3702
>Pojoaque, NM 87501
>
>Ingenio Patet Campus
>
>