permaculture

["Felicity Wright" <flickwright@ozemail.com.au>]

Ditto, my plantings are nearly all perennial.
Apart from physically bringing stuff in (usually requiring lots of
fossil fuels) or running animals  - the only way new organic matter
will come on-site and/or shift around the site is via wind, water or
wild animals (usually birds) - the rest needs to be captured, stored
and then protected by the plants through their interactions with the
elements/sun. 

f  Felicity Wright Management Advisor Live & Learn Cambodia +855 (0)
77 319 018 skype: flick.wright 

----- Original Message -----
From: "permaculture" 
To:"permaculture" 
Cc:
Sent:Tue, 27 Dec 2011 23:57:56 -0800 (PST)
Subject:Re: [permaculture] [soilandhealth] Organic matter percentage

 Fascinating discussion. 

 I reckon I am adding organic matter to my permaculture site's soil by
1% a year. For small sites and establishment phases I think it is
great to bring in outside organic matter. As much as you can get (or
afford).  I also think biochar has a lot to offer. 

 But for larger acreages and for the long haul we mainly need to grow
the organic matter on site.  Perennial systems accumulate and annual
systems degrade. Annual is possible only by bringing in outside
inputs.  

 My plantings have a lot of trees, shrubs, perennial herbs and
weeds.  Every year they produce more above-ground and below-ground
biomass.  I imagine it will keep increasing for 50 years or more. 

 Keyline plowing on pasture can deepen topsoil and organic matter by a
huge factor. 

 Michael Pilarski

 --- On Tue, 12/27/11, Neil Bertrando  wrote:

 From: Neil Bertrando 
 Subject: Re: [permaculture] [soilandhealth] Organic matter percentage
 To: "permaculture" 
 Date: Tuesday, December 27, 2011, 12:16 PM

 this might be a reasonable way to jumpstart a system towards a state
of
 on-site carbon cycling and sequestration via incoming sunlight and
 photosynthetically active radiation.

 I think an important aspect of this process is the management plan to
 retain SOM and encourage it's development on-site.  if we don't use
 management practices that build soil then we'll still lose SOM
regardless
 of whether we import it or grow it on site for a short period of
time.

 Neil

 On Mon, Dec 26, 2011 at 11:12 PM, Toby Hemenway wrote:

 > Although 50,000 lbs sounds like a lot, it's only about 20 cubic
yards per
 > acre, 40 at most. So it's not that hard to boost SOM using compost
(even
 > though I'm a big fan of mulches).
 >
 > Toby
 > http://patternliteracy.com
 >
 > On Dec 26, 2011, at 3:13 PM, Glenn Gall wrote:
 >
 > On 9/18/2011 2:03 AM, m_astera wrote:
 > > How much compost or manure would one need to add to raise the
Soil
 > > Organic Matter SOM content of an acre of soil 6" deep by 1%?
 > >
 > > SOM percentage is calculated by weight, not volume. The
convention
 > > used is that 1 acre of soil 6-7" deep weighs 2,000,000 (two
million)
 > > pounds. Or a hectare of soil 15cm deep weighs 2,000,000 kg. One
 > > percent of that is 20,000 lbs/acre or 20,000 kg/ha
 >
 > >
 > > Compost and manure can be assumed to be around 60% moisture and
40%
 > > dry organic matter. So
 > >
 > > 20,000 / 0.40 = 50,000
 > >
 > > To add 1% organic matter to the top 6" or 15cm of soil would
require
 > > about 50,000 lbs/acre or 50,000 kg/ha of organic matter at 60%
 > > moisture content.
 >
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