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  • From: "Marsha Hanzi" <hanzibra@svn.com.br>
  • To: <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] Borrowed cows and on-the spot composting...
  • Date: Thu, 19 Sep 2002 22:53:32 -0300

I have just bought 23 acres of sandy land ( almost a beach) with close to
no organic matter in a tropical drylands area...
Although I plan to use the strategy of intense dryland polycultures to
create on-the -spot organic matter, I will be able to do this at best in
January ( if the summer showers come) or at worst in April when the more
reliable winter rains come ( I´m in Brazil, that´s why the inverted
seasons...) În the meantime I am full-speed covering the area where I will
do annual cropping ( about 1 acre) with the material I have avaialble:
tree-prunings from the nearby town, sawdust, and leather trimmings(vegetable
tanning) , all of which I have in almost unlimited supply.

My question is to those with experience in composting ( we normally just
apply organic material directly on the soil instead of composting). Unlike
the other regions where I have worked, where there was enough micro-life to
kick off the system, I see these materials becoming dry straw and not
actually creating that micro-interface soil/ mulch, even though the ground
is humid from the last winter showers. There just does not seem to be
micro-life available yet for this...

My hunch is to make a big pile of a mixture of these materials in a pen
and to "invite " the neighbor´s cows to spend a day or two on top of it, to
saturate the material with urine and fresh manure ( with the
micro-organisms) to accelerate the process, and then wet the pile before
taking it to the field ( which is possible when it is a pile, but not when
it is on the field). The neighbors would love to lend me some animals, as
pasture is already running out ( one of the city trees is a kind of
tree-cotton which the animals love, and which I can supply as fodder)...

My doubt is: should such a pile be distributed on the sandy soil now , even
though the dry season is beginning, or should I build such a pile/piles and
distribute only when the rains actually come, even if that means eight
months from now. As I am after organic matter/microbial activity, would it
be better to make the mixture and distribute it immediately as sheet
compost, or would that be useless as it would dry out anyway...Or would the
microbes continue there in potential when the rains come?

With or without the manure I would still cover the soil as best I can. My
question is if ,under dry conditions, I would lose all the extra
nitrogen/microbial activity anyway(wasted effort), or if there would still
be a residual effect... Anyone have an answer for this?

Marsha Hanzi
Instituto de Permacultura da Bahia





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