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permaculture - Re: [permaculture] permaculture Digest, Vol 32, Issue 21

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Subject: permaculture

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Chronological Thread  
  • From: Scott Pittman <pci@permaculture-inst.org>
  • To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] permaculture Digest, Vol 32, Issue 21
  • Date: Thu, 15 Sep 2005 11:33:57 -0600


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Today's Topics:

1. Re: dealing with hard ground (Shane Perry)


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Subject:
Re: [permaculture] dealing with hard ground
From:
Shane Perry <rymnel@gmail.com>
Date:
Thu, 15 Sep 2005 08:51:49 -0400
To:
permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>

To:
permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>


I've been seeing those all over the place where I live. Up to this point I've avoided them because I didn't want whatever fescue that was growing in the field dominating my garden. Have you tried this yourself? I'm curious as to weed issues that arise from using hay as a sheet mulching compound. Sorry if this is a noob question.

Shane

While agreeing in principal to all the advise that you have been receiving, the devil is in the details.

1. The source of your manure is important, not from feedlots (full of salts), not from poultry operations that use antibiotics in feed, horse manure is full of seeds of whatever they are fed on and those seeds are ready to germinate as soon as the opportunity arises, so compost first and be sure that temperature reaches 160 - 180 degrees F. To avoid seed use cow, poultry, or sheep manure.

2. Straw is great for mulch but you will get the errant seed from the pulse crop. Straw is not hay! Hay can be full of grass seed or alfalfa seed and other plants not easily dealt with in the garden situation, again compost is a solution.

3. I have had very good success with a product called Nitron, which is manufacatured in Arkansas and is the secret formula of Joe Finger but seems to be a fermented enzyme product that works wonders in flocculating clay soils, which seems to be your problem - deflocculated soil, which can happen with high water tables. Spray on the Nitron to dampen the soil then wait a couple of days and work the loosened surface and then spray again with a back pack sprayer. The second application should produce a few inches of loose soil which you can then plant with dikon, buckwheat, or hairy vetch to add organic material and use root power to further loosen the soil.

4. Now get into the mulch heavily and innoculate with worms - they seem to thrive on the sugars in the glue that holds the laminates together in cardboard. It is also amazing how useful a little molasses/water spray is for inhancing the activity of both fungi and microbes.

Good luck,

Scott Pittman



  • Re: [permaculture] permaculture Digest, Vol 32, Issue 21, Scott Pittman, 09/15/2005

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