In article ,
"David E. Ross" wrote:

On 5/7/10 10:30 PM, EVP MAN wrote:

Lasagna gardening seems very popular these days! Why not in a bucket
then? That will indeed be this years experiment for me. Last year I
put a tomato plant in a five gallon bucket. It done well at first
producing nice fruits, but as the season progressed, the fruits got
smaller and smaller. I came to the conclusion that all the nutrients
were being washed from the soil because plants in buckets need much more
frequent watering. This got me to thinking a bit. Why not try lasagna
gardening in a bucket? What I plan on doing is this: drill drainage
holes in the bottom of a five gallon pail. Then cut a ring of cardboard
to fit inside the bottom of the pail. I will then put a thin layer of
grass clippings followed by a layer of top soil, dehydrated cow manure,
compost and then granular slow release fertilizer. I will repeat this
until the pail is filled all in very thin layers. I will only water the
tomato plant very sparingly in the morning only when it looks a bit
wilted. Hey, if lasagna gardening works so well in a bed, why not in
a bucket? It's just on a smaller scale. Your opinions please

Rich


Unless you are growing cherry tomatoes, patio tomatoes, or other
tomatoes with small fruit, a bucket is just not large enough. Tomato
plants can send their roots 10 ft down into the soil. A 15 gal can
(left over after planting a tree) might be sufficient.

If you are concerned about retaining moisture without drowning the
plants, consider my do-it-yourself potting mix. See
http://www.rossde.com/garden/garden_potting_mix.html. However, even
if you only use organic fertilizers, the excellent drainage of this mix
will generally mean you will lose nitrogen during the growing season.


The point in lasagna gardening, is to encourage soil organisms to
nourish your plants. Besides breaking down organic matter, these
microbes also build up soil structure. As they feed, certain soil
bacteria secrete gums, waxes, and gels that hold tiny particles of earth
together. Dividing fungal cells lengthen into long fingers of hyphae
that surround crumbs of soil and bind them to each other. These
miniclumps give microbially rich soil its good "tilth": the loose,
crumbly structure that gardeners and farmers strive for. Also, these
gooey microbial by-products protect soil from drying and allow it to
hold huge volumes of water.

Soil bacteria and fungi are like small bags of fertilizer, retaining in
their_ bodies nitrogen and other nutrients they gain from root exudates
and other _organic matter (such as those sloughed-off root-tip cells).
Carrying on the _analogy, soil protozoa and nematodes act as ³fertilizer
spreaders" by releasing ,_the nutrients locked up in the bacteria and
fungi ³fertilizer bags." The nematodes and protozoa in the soil come
along and eat the bacteria and fungi in the,_ rhizosphere. They digest
what they need to survive and excrete excess carbon_ and other nutrients
as waste.

You can buy special soil fungi at nurseries, called mycorrhizal fungi,
establish themselves in a symbiotic relationship with roots, providing
them not only with-physical protection but with nutrient delivery as
well. In return for exudates, these fungi provide water, phosphorus, and
other necessary plant nutrients. These occur naturally in soil, but it
is a good idea to inoculate pots with them.

Where humus really excels is in holding nutrients. The humus molecule
illustrated below shows that, from an atom's-eye viewpoint, the face
that humus presents to the world is a bristling array of oxygen atoms.
Oxygen has a strong negative charge, and in chemistry, as in much of
life, opposites attract. Thus, humus's many negative oxygen atoms serve
as "bait" for luring lots of positively charged elements. These include
some of the most important nutrients for both plants and soil animals:
potassium, calcium, magnesium, ammonium (a nitrogen compound), copper,
zinc, manganese, and many others. Under the right conditions (in soil
with a pH near 7, that is, neither too acid nor too alkaline), humus can
pick up and store enormous quantities of positively charged nutrients.

Yes, plants are quite capable of absorbing the water-soluble minerals in
chemical fertilizer. But plants often use only 10 percent of the
fertilizer that's applied and rarely more than 50 percent. The rest
washes into the groundwater, which is why so many wells in our farmlands
are polluted with toxic levels of nitrates.

In short, a properly tuned ecological garden rarely needs soluble
fertilizers because plants and soil animals can knock nutrients loose
from humus and organic debris (or clay, another nutrient storage
source) using secretions of mild acid and enzymes. Most of the nutrients
in healthy soil are "insoluble yet available," in the words of soil
scientist William Albrecht. These nutrients, bound to organic matter or
cycling among fast-living microbes, won't' wash out of the soil yet can
be gently coaxed loose ‹ or traded for sugar secretions‹ by roots. And
the plants take up only what they need.

The ultimate extension of lasagna gardening (a.k.a. sheet mulching)
would be to grow cover crops of "green manure" between plantings. This
would add organic material and nitrogen to your soil without the need
for amendment$.

Good Gardening ;O)
--
- Billy
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the
merger of state and corporate power." - Benito Mussolini.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Arn3lF5XSUg
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Zinn/HZinn_page.html