permaculture

[Keith Johnson <keithdj@mindspring.com>]

Thank you Toby,
That was elegantly said, much better than I could have even though I 
wanted to reply along those lines.
I've personally been mulching with every kind of carbonaceous material I 
could lay hands on for 32 years and I've yet to see plants suffer from N 
deficiencies. In the case of already low-N soils or high demand from 
heavy feeders, extra N from urine, fish emulsion, manures, or compost 
supplied the shortfall.

In regard to hyphae crossing over from soil to mulch, I actually do see 
that quite regularly, though it may take a longer or shorter time to do 
so depending upon the material, humidity, temp, fungal type, etc.
Keith

Toby Hemenway wrote:
> Robyn Francis wrote:
>   
> > Mulches with a hard cellulose structure such as sawdust, wood chips,
> > eucalyptus leaves and pine needles have high N demands to break down. Some N 
> > will be drawn from air but can also use up N from the top soil layer.
> >     
> I'm having a hard time figuring out a mechanism for nitrogen to be drawn 
> up more than a couple of millimeters, then across an interface, and into 
> a fresh mulch layer. 
>
> Fungal hyphae can transport nutrients, but it would be unusual to have a 
> fungus with intact mycelial strands that cross the interface, from 
> nicely decomposed earth into rough woody mulch.
>
> I've always understood that the only place there is N lockup with mulch 
> is right at the mulch/soil interface. The mulch doesn't have much 
> nitrogen in it to start with (400 to 1 C/N or so), so what happens in 
> the mulch itself can't be called locking up, just absence. 
>
> I've never noticed N-starvation in wood-mulched plants (and I use woody mulch almost 
> exclusively. Quite the contrary--plants love it. But like I say, I'll listen to an alternative explanation.
>
> Toby
> http://patternliteracy.com
--
Keith Johnson
"Be fruitful and mulch apply."
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