On Mon, 10 Mar 2003 18:00:26 GMT, (Terry Horton) wrote:

But there's a sustainable gardening wing at aggieland universities
too. Remember that our Texas Master Gardener and Texas Master
Naturalist programs are out of TAMU. Benny Simpson, Skip Richter,
Jill Nokes to name a few... all Aggies products. The fellow that held
the lecture on high P soils was recommending Sustane (this was
pre-Ladybug :-).

I didn't know that about Jill Nokes. I do know the Grow Green program and it is
getting there, slowly.


Whether or not this applies to you in Round Rock you'll have to
determine. Organic gardeners (like me) who live on high-moderate P
soils (100ppm or so) can not turn away from the devastating effect on
soil mycorrhizae referred to earlier. Mycorrhizal association is an
_integral part_ of the physiology of most of the plants we grow.

I have a mixture on our land. Some is very calciferous and caliche, some is
black, but friable, then there's what I call "the goo!" I garden accordingly.
We are on the same page regarding mycorrhiza. I've been using it for several
years now. On plants which benefit, I use some on the roots at planting time.
I mixed the soil once, when we first bought the house. I'm very gentle on it
now so I don't disturb the fungal mat I've created. Have you ever watched the
series with David Attenborough "Private life of Plants?" I bought the
collection on VHS some years ago. I've yet to see anything remotely close to
showing the world how plants work and how phenology represents when.


Reducing nutrient input to help grow soil organisms that will extract
those nutrients for you.... organic gardening doesn't get any more
cool than that.

Agreed.