permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <venaurafarm@bellsouth.net>]

On 1/2/2011 12:50 PM, sals3 wrote:
> IMHO that's why I think the best soil test for my trees is taking you
> hand and move back the mulch and picking up a hand full of dirt and look
> at it. dig around and look how deep it goes . Do the trees look stressed
> can you see fungus doing its job can you see the little clumps of rich
> dirt alive and can you see wood in different stages of decay. pruning's
> you took last year gone new pruning's so strong before turning to soil
> in different stages of decay. every thing on top turning into soil, the
> ground eating it up. you can see it. smell it . different kinds of
> mushrooms, bugs and worms you see branches turning to dust with a little
> pressure. you can see it working. after all that talk about soil test
> IMHO you can tell a lot by just looking. . look at a forest floor and
> look at your floor they should look the same maybe yours may be even
> richer. NO hoarding yet sustainable. living . it should go on forever.
> hope I'm right . what a nice set up and it was here when I got here all
> set up to work for me but not good enough for big ag. who thinks he
> needs to lab make dna changed life forms mixing dna from where ever into
> what ever mixing up life on earth and they can not control it and they
> are polluting the whole earth with their abominations. give me natural
> living soil any day . .

That and infinite variations on what Sal has said should work for most 
people. The farms that have very deep rich black, humus-rich dirt don't 
have much to worry about other than keeping GMO's, chemicals and all 
categories of pesticides off their land plus implementing natural 
strategies to deflect predatory insects, disease and weed pressure and 
maintaining fertility levels; Great Pyrenees dogs for gopher, vole and
deer control (with adequate fencing).

<>

Look at this great video on a mainland Chinese family who emigrated to 
Canada to start and successfully run an oriental vegetable farm, using 
migrant Mexican labor housed on site, sanctioned by their government.
Look at that loose black dirt - see him disk under previous crops 
preparatory to new plantings. Look at the appearance and size of the 
napa and bok choy, acres and acres of it and it all has the same 
excellent quality. This is a must see (free) video for vegetable market 
farmers:
Hulu - Earth to Mouth - Watch the full feature film now. - Sent using
Google Toolbar
http://www.hulu.com/watch/196596/earth-to-mouth?c=News-and-Information
Earth to Mouth
Feature Film|41:36|
Wing Fong Farm in Ontario boasts 80 acres of succulent Asian
vegetables. Here Lau King-Fai cares for young shoots, with the help of
her son and migrant Mexican workers. It's a long way from a tumultuous
life in China and an oasis of peace for 'Ma.'

<>

I don't have black 12' deep prairie dirt but I do have red Georgeville 
silt loam dirt turned tan to dark brown with OM, 12-16" deep, and its 
reliably productive and will remain so through notill or minimum till 
strategies, light cultivation to remove weeds, naturally cycling through
successive weed communities as cover crops providing OM, weed control 
and soil moisture retention.