permaculture

["GlobalCirclenet" <webmaster@globalcircle.net>]

>It depends so much on your particular situation: soil type,
>climate, growing season, equipment, cropping system
>locally available amendments and organic fertilizers,
>your own soil fertility philosophy, and so forth.

Agree, and for compost application the general advice is, the more clay or
sand in your soil, the more compost is needed to loosen clay or retain
moisture in sandy soil.  For specific minerals and nitrogen, soil tests
don't tell the whole story due to Ph differences, soil microbial activity,
and moisture content. 

paul@largocreekfarms.com
http://medicinehill.net
*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 9/28/2004 at 8:29 AM Steve Diver wrote:

>Anne -
>
>My take is that Larry's soil amendment "rate of application" are
>astronomical and should be viewed as experimental.  
>
>Larry's advice on equipment and general approach
>to the "combinations" of soil amendments are sound, fyi.  
>
>You can get up and running as a 2 acre market farm,
>or a large garden at 100' x 100' or a smaller garden at
>50' x 50'....  with much more reasonable amounts of
>compost and rock dust and so forth.
>
>There are many ways you can build soil fertilty.  
>
>It depends so much on your particular situation: soil type,
>climate, growing season, equipment, cropping system
>locally available amendments and organic fertilizers,
>your own soil fertility philosophy, and so forth.
>
>May I suggest that you look at the resources and publications
>we've compiled on soils, compost, cover crops, etc.
>
>ATTRA
>http://www.attra.ncat.org
>
>Keep in mind that what you see on the web page
>is 1/5th of the resources we have in our archives.
>
>Calling and talking by phone is still the number one
>way to get connected and explore resources and
>alternative farming methods.   
>
>Steve Diver
>
>++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>
>LL,
>
>I've got a couple of acres that are in abandoned pasture and weeds
>(blackberry, thistle and canary reed grass) that I'm going to want to
>prepare for food production and I was interested in the methods you
>mentioned in your last post.  Are there any books that describe these
>methods in more detail, describing for example how to determine how much
>rock dust the soil can hold and when to apply it, what the "maximum
>allowable quantities" of manure are for a particular piece of land etc.  
>Basically, what the 12 month sequence to prepare land in this way would
be.
>
>Thanks!
>
>Anne in Seattle
>
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>permaculture mailing list
>permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
>http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture