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ping songbird: a theory to run by you
On 08/27/2016 05:25 AM, songbird wrote:
T wrote: Hi Songbird and All, I was told that alkalinity blocks the "cracking" of nutrients from the soil. think of it this ways, life is mostly mediated by water and water is a great solvent for almost everything. the more life you have going the more likely the pH will adjust to "neutral" aka 7.0pH. that is just how it goes... there are certain plants that prefer different types of pH. you can learn how to evaluate an area by looking at the plants that grow and knowing this. yes, it's true that high pH will make certain nutrients less available to plants. but some garden veggies are ok at higher pH too (spinach, beets, cantaloups, cabbage, ...). another approach is to add some sulfur, gypsum, ammonium sulfate or iron sulfate. if you also add a little clay that helps hold nutrients too (it doesn't take much). Now I have used the self same compost from the local guy that everyone else uses for years. They grow wonderful vegi's. I got small harvest of small fruit. Compost did not work for me. compost is only a part of the story. good topsoil is a mix of sand, clay and loam with some compost added to keep the bacteria/fungi happy. compost itself often has very little in the way of nutrients. it is a long term and slow release fertilizer. gives surface area to bacteria and carbon source for fungi to break down. I am thinking that I am looking at compost all wrong. I should look at it as nutrients and not as anything that will create soil from dirt blown in from the desert winds. in sandy soil compost often breaks down a lot more quickly too if there is enough water. what you want to do is add some clay if you don't have any clay at all and plenty of organic material too. the clay will help hold both water and nutrients. And compost, or any fertilizer, won't do any good, unless I change my soil Ph to crack to nutrients from the compost. (Peat holds water and changes the Ph.) compost added will be better than nothing, but too much peat moss will also not do much as it also has so very little nutrients. The peat is to retain moisture and lower the ph. I have never seen dirt so very dry in my life. Weird, six inches down, I found tiny tunnels with black beetles about 1/4 to 3/8 long making their homes. I have seen them come out at night. They don't seem to be hurting anything. Never realized where they lived. I put vegi scraps at the bottom, then mix the peat with the native dirt. I also use Dr. Earth's all purpose fertilizer. And, I have been asking around. The folks with success with the compose also bought his soil as well, which I did not do (can't afford it). Am I on the right track or am I all wet? building topsoil in a poor soil situation takes time. i've been at it here for a long time too and it is coming along, but it doesn't happen overnight. in an arid climate i think it will take even longer. have you ever looked around for free fill? some times people advertise it. A member of the family is chemically sensitive, so I have to be paranoid as hell if it is not organically certified. I am ready for next year's crop of weeds! Free compost! I wonder if the chickens will dare show up. Chuckle. I may have to switch to bolted purslane. chickens? I was making fun of the weeds. After I started harvesting them for compose, they seemed to take off to parts unknown. I will see next spring if they are gone permanently. the growing of a winter cover crop will help. songbird I think I will go back to compost AFTER I get the soil improved. I save all my worm crack (melon rinds) for burying. It ain't soil until it passes ... It is nice to see things FINALLY coming together. A lot of that has to do with you. Thank you! |
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