permaculture

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

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [SANET-MG] Soil fauna
Date: Sat, 26 Mar 2011 10:10:58 -0400
From: Frank L Teuton III <fteuton@VIDEOTRON.CA>

There can be little doubt that the way most people do agriculture, the
original biomes are destroyed and replaced with agro-ecosystems that for 
the
most part represent a much degraded biodiversity, this both in terms of
flora and fauna. On a field scale this is particularly true, on a garden
scale it can be avoided completely with high inputs of organic matter via
composts, mulches, and cover crops; one can also take relatively poor land
and via various inputs and efforts greatly improve it for crop production;
thus the 'anthropogenic' soils lauded by Kropotkin and relauded in his name
by Eliot Coleman.

There are systems like permaculture which place more emphasis on perennial
crops, under which soil disturbance is minimal and both flora and fauna can
thrive without let.

There are also systems like those of Coleman and Jeavons where soil is
regularly disturbed, weeds eliminated as much as possible, and high
production attained and maintained via the good offices of composts,
mulches, cover crops, rotation, and high density crop planting.

I use on some small pieces of land permanent mulch approaches which
basically amount to 'bio-tillage' systems, since they encourage large
populations of earthworms (the posterboygirls of soil fauna in many 
people's
minds) ; as the daddy of soil biological science, Chuck Darwin, once said:

"The plow is one of the most ancient and most valuable of man's inventions;
    but long before he existed the land was in fact regularly plowed, and
still continues to be thus
    plowed by earthworms. It may be doubted whether there are many other
animals which have
    played so important a part in the history of the world, as have these
lowly organized
    creatures."

    Darwin, C.R. 1881. The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action
of Worms, with
    Observations on their Habits (Chapter 7). Murray, London.
    Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882).

In the case of Lumbricus terrestris, in my climate and region (Montreal and
further south in the Monteregie) this means you get burial of leaves and
deep burrowing to as much as 8 to 10 feet deep. Combined with the other
boygirl species (all worms are hermaphrodites) you can get this deep
burrowing, burial of surface materials, incorporation of organic matter and
its mixing at various levels, and if you have a big pile of organic matter
you can even get epigeic worms and vermicomposting.

Those who know of Ruth Stout and her somewhat clandestine mentor Scott
Nearing will know this system. And they will know it is largely a gardening
system. To put 6-8 inches of hay on acres of land requires huge amounts of
hay. If you do, though, you won't likely have a mineral shortage problem.

Still, a totally biotillage based approach is possible, but likely we will
continue to tweak the biotillage/ferro-tillage hybrid systems...for 
example,
by rotating land into pasture/hay for a number of years, you abandon
ferro-tillage in favor of biotillage and perennial growth in order to
restore soil organic matter and the fauna it supports. As the title of the
book says, "The Earthworm Forgives the Plow"....but only if the plow truly
feels sorry. ;-)

(Note that I used earthworms here to represent soil fauna in general. This
doesn't mean I am hatin' on the pseudoscorpions or dissin' the collembola,
but only that I find the earthworm to be well known and important, thus the
most useful example.)

As far as people with a tillage regime building soil organic matter, they
must be using (composts, mulches, manures, cover crops, rotations, leys)
because tillage in and of itself is a soil organic matter destroying
process. Are there situations in which in addition to these og matter 
inputs
an addition of suitable minerals is desirable? Of course. Are there other
situations in which replacing lost soil biology can make unavailable
minerals present in the soil come alive, as it were? Sure.

Is it very cool to watch large numbers of foraging Lumbricus terrestris
pulling down shredded leave bits into their burrows on a cloudy misty 
moisty
morning?
Yes. And just a little bit spooky, too.

My two cents on the fauna flora panorama,

Frank Teuton


----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Astera" <michael.astera@GMAIL.COM>
To: <SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, March 26, 2011 7:33 AM

> I work with hundreds of farmers and gardeners all over the world, almost
> all
> of them use organic methods along with permaculture ideas and quite a bit
> of
> Biodynamic agriculture as well.  ALL of them till their soil, and I can
> assure you that their soils are not barren or depleted; as a matter of
> fact
> they get better every year, more productive, more fertile.  Likely a good
> part of that comes from testing the soil mineral balance and replacing
> those
> minerals that are lacking, out of balance, or have been taken up by the
> crops and exported from the farm.
>
> I see stable or increasing levels of organic matter and fewer and fewer
> insect and disease problems, even in tropical and subtropical areas.  Why?
> Because the plants and the soil organisms have all of the nutrients they
> need, in balance, so the plants and the soil both have a strong immune
> system.
>
> These grower's soils are not suffering or being eroded or depleted, they
> are
> getting better and better each year, and as noted ALL of them till the
> soil.  Their goal and purpose is to grow food for people and animals, not
> to
> nursemaid soil organisms.  In a fertile and mineral-balanced soil, the
> soil
> organisms are well able to take care of themselves; as a matter of fact
> you
> can't suppress them if you tried.
>
> What does the book Teaming with Microbes have to say about essential
> mineral
> nutrients in the soil and what balance they should be in?  I already know
> the answer to that;  they say pretty much nothing because they know
> nothing
> about the subject, all they know about is organic matter.
>
> Here's a little tidbit of information:  When organic matter breaks down in
> the soil, it will turn to ammonia and most of it will be lost to the
> atmosphere along with the humus that could be being formed and built up,
> UNLESS the soil microbes have enough Sulfur to stabilize the Nitrogen and
> humus.  What's the Sulfur level of your soil?  Most soils are seriously
> deficient in Sulfur.
>
> Michael Astera
> http://soilminerals.com

On Sat, Mar 26, 2011 at 3:58 AM, tanya <tanyagarden@gmail.com> wrote:

> > I heard Jeff Lowenfels talk about the life in the soil again today.
> > His book Teaming with Microbes is essential reading.
> >
> > Lowenfels also recommended Nardi, Life in the Soil.
> > http://www.amazon.com/Life-Soil-Guide-Naturalists-Gardeners/dp/0226568520
> >
> > The ultrasimplified version is that plants spend half their energy to
> > produce root exudates that are customized to attract the bacteria and
> > fungi that, in turn,  produce substances that attract protozoa and
> > beneficial nematodes, which produce the type of nitrogen that plants
> > need (ammonium or nitrate).
> >
> > Tilling upsets this ecology and makes plants dependent on outside
> > inputs -- turns them into drug addicts, basically.
> >
> > So the purpose of agriculture is to nurture the soil, which supports
> > the health of plants and people.
> >
> > On Fri, Mar 25, 2011 at 6:13 PM, Randy Cutler <rcutler@tznet.com> wrote:
> > > What is the deal with soil life? I recall someone discussing that the
> > > practice of tillage was the worst thing you could do for plant growth
> > > of any kind.