Re: ashing
Allan Balliett wrote: PS But I, for one, don't think you need to pepper for your snakes. I think you need to investigate your bioregional biological interelationships and 'solve' your snake problem by maximizing diversity rather than 'reducing' it I couldn't agree more. Nevertheless, there is a problem most of us can not solve. Myself, for one. I am sorrounded by farmers who do everything the American Way: hybrids, pesticides, fungicides, heavy machines, chemical fertilizers you name it. If the big companies say it brings quick profit they will try it. Now, my little farm is (more os less) 1 km x 0.2 km. How can I prevent the envenoming of little animals that go back and forth among the farms. Birds that eat snakes, for instance. They tend to be big and walk (or fly) long distances. Like the ema (rhea) who I have not seen for several years now. Even the sariema (a much smaller rhea) is much less common than it used to be. So, the fact is that securing a bioregional biological interelationship is much harder than it seems at first sight. It does not seem you can convince most people that every single form of life on Earth should have a fair chance to manifest itself and live its destiny. Let alone convince them that this is even profitable! - fernando -- REDUZIR, REUSAR, RECICLAR -- Dever de todos, amor aos que virão REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE -- Everybody's duty, love to those who are to come Fernando CabralPadrao iX Sistemas Abertos mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.pix.com.br Fone Direto: +55 61 329-0206 mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] PABX: +55 61 329-0202 Fax: +55 61 326-3082 15º 45' 04.9 S (23 L 0196446/8256520) 47º 49' 58.6 W 19º 37' 57.0 S (23 K 0469898/7829161) 45º 17' 13.6 W
Re: ashing
Cow shit or fish guts and breath deeply. Barbara and Woody Aurora Farm is the only unsubsidized, family-run seed farm in North America offering garden seeds grown using Rudolf Steiner's methods of spiritual agriculture. http://www.kootenay.com/~aurora -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Tuesday, January 08, 2002 6:25 PM Subject: Re: ashing In a message dated 1/8/02 10:26:30 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: SStorch: That was Barbara and Woody advice, and in fact Barbara's initiative. Woodyh well dip me in shit...sstorch
Re: Soil Foodweb Questions?
Let's be smart enough, though, to actually find her website: www.soilfoodweb.com not .org Frank - Original Message - From: Allan Balliett [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, January 08, 2002 11:18 PM Subject: Soil Foodweb Questions? Hey, Friends! I'm very excited to announce that Dr. ELAINE INGHAM has agreed to answer questions posed through BD Now! from now until the end of the day Friday. Regardless of where you are at in working with the soil foodweb techniques, now is the time to get maximum clarification from the leading voice in biological soil testing, custom composting, and compost teas for disease control and fertility. Do me a favor: let's not let Elaine think that we are all too smart to learn more about Elaine's work. If you need some background, check out http://www.soilfoodweb.org Thanks -Allan
Re: Hydoponic BD
Hi Allan, Check out: http://www.townsqr.com/snsaqua/page2.htm Found at http://www.attra.org/attra-pub/aquaponic.html#speraneo and see also http://www.attra.org/attra-pub/aquaponic.html That would start you out with an organic, hydroponic system working in tandem with fish rearing, that presumably could be manipulated with BD methods. www.google.com is your search engine jumping off point. - Original Message - From: Allan Balliett [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, January 08, 2002 8:04 PM Subject: Re: Hydoponic BD I disagree. Use bd wherever you can. A barrel compost made with 500-508 would be an excellent hydroponic tool. This summer I intend to spray the preps on a body of water from my boat to heal the abuse the bay has taken. Like John Mellancamp says, It's what you do and not what you say, if you're not part of the future then get out of the way There is no one on this list that is so friggin' smart that they should discourage anyone from trying anything new. SStorch Steve. It's not 'smart' that's dis-interested in applying biodynamics to industrial system like hydroponics, it's humility. -Allan PS But just to be flexible: in practice, are manure solutions currently being used in hydroponics?
Re: Soil Foodweb Questions?
Let's be smart enough, though, to actually find her website: www.soilfoodweb.com not .org Frank Oh, Frank. You're setting yourself up! ;-)
Re: Soil Foodweb Questions?
I have black rot problems in my vineyard. I have heard lots of people say the way to prevent is to keep the vineyard floor cleaner than your kitchen table which I interpret to mean, no mulch under the vines. 1. Do you agree? 2. Do you know whether compost teas are effective against black rot? 3. If not compost teas, then what organic/bd remedy would be effective? thanks, Dorothy __ Do You Yahoo!? Send FREE video emails in Yahoo! Mail! http://promo.yahoo.com/videomail/
Re: Soil Foodweb Questions?
For those of us still dowsing impaired, lab tests are important in assessing results. The cost of testing compost tea to determine the diversity of microbial life and the effectiveness of various additions to the brew can be a barrier to perfecting a compost tea product. You can't always wait until your plants are giving you signals. Does Dr Ingram have any insights on simple tests that could easily be performed at the farm for not much cost to determine quality of a batch of compost tea? -Original Message- From: Allan Balliett [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Wednesday, January 09, 2002 12:22 AM Subject: Soil Foodweb Questions? Hey, Friends! I'm very excited to announce that Dr. ELAINE INGHAM has agreed to answer questions posed through BD Now! from now until the end of the day Friday. Regardless of where you are at in working with the soil foodweb techniques, now is the time to get maximum clarification from the leading voice in biological soil testing, custom composting, and compost teas for disease control and fertility. Do me a favor: let's not let Elaine think that we are all too smart to learn more about Elaine's work. If you need some background, check out http://www.soilfoodweb.org Thanks -Allan
Re: ashing
Incidentally, if you don't have a plague of foxes then you probably don't know that they get into your raised beds and dig GREAT BIG HOLES (looking for something they think is in there to eat, I assume) If you plant small patches for diveristy, they can destroy an entire crop overnight. They also trample things (again, looking for prey) and, as inexpicable as it is, dig tunnels into the little mountain of rock dust we have here. (American wire fence going up around the garden before this coming growing season) -Allan PS Yes, and they've eaten almost a hundred chickens this yearbut if they catch that damned weasel, they might be worth having around! ;-) So, the fact is that securing a bioregional biological interelationship is much harder than it seems at first sight. It does not seem you can convince most people that every single form of life on Earth should have a fair chance to manifest itself and live its destiny. Let alone convince them that this is even profitable! Fernando - I understand what you are saying. What I am hearing from permaculture people and from some biodynamic people - - from their experience, btw, and not from conjecture, is, essentially 'build it and they will come.' I'm assuming that what we will eventually find out is that the ramifications of the soil foodweb are much broader than we currently area aware and that when a healthy soil micorbiology is re-established, it effects the higher animals in ways that we have not yet quantified. I, my friend, have fox troubles. It's hard for me to wish for the biological solution for foxes (essentially hungry wolves), but I will not resort to ashinging because ashing 'creates a hole' and that could not be in my best interest: whether it is filled or goes unfilled! -Allan
Re: ashing
Allan Balliett wrote: (American wire fence going up around the garden before this coming growing season) Let me tell you, if they are as smart there as they are here, they will find a way to dig a tunnel under your American wire fence... - fernando -- REDUZIR, REUSAR, RECICLAR -- Dever de todos, amor aos que virão REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE -- Everybody's duty, love to those who are to come Fernando CabralPadrao iX Sistemas Abertos mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.pix.com.br Fone Direto: +55 61 329-0206 mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] PABX: +55 61 329-0202 Fax: +55 61 326-3082 15º 45' 04.9 S (23 L 0196446/8256520) 47º 49' 58.6 W 19º 37' 57.0 S (23 K 0469898/7829161) 45º 17' 13.6 W
Questions about NZBDA Pub: Biodynamic Perspectives
Kiwis!! I'm in the process of writing a review of BIODYNAMIC PERSPECTIVES and have just realized that I know about the writers (other than Peter Proctor) There seems to be no biographical information in the book itself. Can anyone help me with this? (I'll post a list of authors, it that is helpful, but I'm hoping that people are already familiar with this promising publication. Thanks -Allan Balliett
Advertisements for BD Now!
BIODYNAMICS Journal has offered to run announcements for BD Now! in their future issues. The 'ads' will be text-based and small, similar to the 'ads' currently run for Caretaker Gazette. (The deadline is also immediate. No later than tomorrow.) Those of you who have been reading BD Now! for a while know that this is a rather momentous event and I want to give public thanks to everyone involved with the Journal for making this possible. The question: what words would you chose to make people new to biodynamics aware of what the discussion here can offer them? Other biodynamic publications will be running announcements for BD Now! in the near future and I expect a regular ad in ACRES to become possible later in the year. Viva diversity! No? Thanks -Allan Balliett
Re: ashing
My experience is that foxes are especially numerous this year, as are weasels. Probably to highlight the burgeoning political atrocities, similar in energy. Essie At 08:48 AM 1/9/02 -0300, you wrote: Allan Balliett wrote: (American wire fence going up around the garden before this coming growing season) Let me tell you, if they are as smart there as they are here, they will find a way to dig a tunnel under your American wire fence... - fernando -- REDUZIR, REUSAR, RECICLAR -- Dever de todos, amor aos que virão REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE -- Everybody's duty, love to those who are to come Fernando CabralPadrao iX Sistemas Abertos mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.pix.com.br Fone Direto: +55 61 329-0206 mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] PABX: +55 61 329-0202 Fax: +55 61 326-3082 15º 45' 04.9 S (23 L 0196446/8256520) 47º 49' 58.6 W 19º 37' 57.0 S (23 K 0469898/7829161) 45º 17' 13.6 W
Re: ashing
Let me tell you, if they are as smart there as they are here, they will find a way to dig a tunnel under your American wire fence... - fernando Yes, fernando. That sort of narrows it down, doesn't it? -Allan
Re: Hydoponic BD 2
haha! mulching is good David! the cold system however cools the soil down to 40's with air temp in 80's...a bit more than mulchings shade effect :-) cooling the soil also seems to switch on and off signals to the plant so it goes into turbo charge mood. With temperate climate plants it allows 4 growing seasons per year in the tropics. its common to see a pear tree with fruit after only a year or so of age.( but 4 years in plant time). same with grape clusters; bunches in relatively short time! to feed these growths and provide a healthful and sustainable yield you can see my interest in nutrients and what BD may possibly contribute. this can do two things; require less rainforest space for food growing and provide a monetary stability for the country folk. bob bob
Re: Hydoponic BD 2
At 10:07 PM 1/8/02 -0500, you wrote: As I understand it, plants are basically a thermo engine, using warm leaves evaporating moisture to create the sucking to pull up the nutrients absorbed by the cooler roots. The greater the temperature difference (delta T) between roots and leaves, the more sucking there is. Sort of, but there is more to the energy than simple thermo. The energy flux is not simply due to temp difference. The more nutrients the plant can ingest, the healthier the plant. BD says there is more to it A brix reading of the plant seems to bare this out. The higher the brix, the healthier the plant seems to be...the healthier the plant the more umph its product have ( fruit, flowerettes, leaves, etc). It seems that the higher the health level of the plant is, the less disease, parasites etc. it has. Not necessarily, you can have carbo compounds that signal an unhealthy condition and attract pests, you can have overly lush growth that is ripe for pests. Most plants seem to have the greatest spurts of growth in Springtime when soil is still relkatively cool and the Sun is warming the young leaves. BD says there is more to it Herein lies my interest in what BD may do. Since the procedure above is not chemical in nature, rather it utilizes the normal thermo dynamic process. OK, but there is more to the plant growth process than just thermo Someone suggested or perhaps they miss understood the procedure I described thinking it was a hydroponic system. I of course was open to discuss this twist on the cold ag system I was familiar with and the concept of blending it with hydroponics. Sounds like you are familiar with use of cold water, say seawater, in pipelines to cool tropical soil and permit the growing of temperate crops, such as lettuce. That's a way to establish a temperate ecosystem in another climate, it could be done using BD principles in the soil beds. I expect you would find some differences, Grohman makes the point that etheric forces extend further out of the soil in tropical latitudes. Better read up on BD first. == Dave Robison
Re: Soil Foodweb Questions?
Regarding the backyard scale, aquarium bubbler compost brewer, what is the current research regarding how that compost tea compares to commercially brewed tea? We have heard that commercial brewers must take care to sterilize the walls and surfaces between batches. Why is that? Why do the surfaces serve as inoculation sites for bad organisms? What are the problems with surface-dwelling organisms? == Dave Robison
Elaine Ingham, Soil Foodweb, Compost Tea, Clay-Humus
Soil Foodweb Week at BD-Now: Here are some additional resources as background material to the soil foodweb week at BD-Now, Elaine Ingham's work with compost teas, etc. Notes on Compost Teas: A 2001 Supplement to the ATTRA Publication Compost Teas for Plant Disease Control http://ncatark.uark.edu/~steved/compost-tea-notes.doc This is a brand new update to the ATTRA publication from 1998. It lists the equipment suppliers for compost tea brewers and their websites; it provides a summary of Elaine Inghams' characteristics for healthy soils, composts, and compost teas; it provides an intrepretive summary of the key points to compost teas; and it provides a big collection of web links to resources on compost biology, compost teas, compost disease suppression, etc. Some of these web links are exceptional resources from Ingham, Brinton, OFRF, CWIMB, etc. A complementary compost tea item on my web page, PowerPoint slide notes from the seminar at Mtn. Organic Grower's School in NC: Compost Teas: A Tool for Rhizosphere-Phyllosphere Agriculture [Six slides per page -- print for quick reference format; = 1303K] http://ncatark.uark.edu/~steved/compost-tea-print.pdf Next, my home-spun treatise on clay-humus: clay-humus, food and shelter for the soil foodweb, clay amendments, rock dust amendments, applied microbiology, paramagnetism, bioenergetics, biodynamics, eco-farming, Luebke compost, etc. Clay-Humus: The Seat of Soil Fertility; A Treatise on the Vital Role of Clay-Humus Crumb Structure and Organo-Mineral Complexes in Soils http://ncatark.uark.edu/~steved/clay-humus.html Finally, Web Resource Collections on Soil Biology Sustainable Soil Management: Web Links to Make Your Worms Happy! http://ncatark.uark.edu/~steved/soil-links.html Content: Web resource list from ATTRA Soil Biology Information Resources For Land Managers, Resource Professionals, and Educators http://www.statlab.iastate.edu/survey/SQI/SBinfo.htm Content: Web resource list from NRCS-Soil Quality Institute Steve Diver
Re: Soil Foodweb Questions?
Dr Ingham, I would appreciate comments on VAM's, including answers to the following (excuse my fundamental ignorance of this topic): -The literature which I have access to indicates that they are of significance in the growth of trees, but there is nothing on their role in annual crop production, such as vegetables, herbs and pastures. What role do VAM's have in annual crop production? -Similarly, do they have a role in fruit production, including vines (e.g. grapes and Passion fruit) and berries (such as raspberries)? -Are there any indicators which the layman can look for which would indicate whether the soil should be innoculated with VAM's? -What is the best way to innoculate the soil with VAM's, or does one assume that they are part of the benefits of applying compost? -Once innoculated, are there any special techniques to ensure their continued existance in the soil, or is compost the answer? Thank you Stephen Barrow
Fwd: Re: ELAINE: BDNOW: Creating superior compost
How are we to create a superior fungal-bacterial compost to spray on commercially worked farmland to improve and maintain a high level of fertility [shown by life in the soil???] SStorch Hello S. Storch - The way to achieve a more fungal compost is to add more fungal foods. Typically, the recipe we use for compost is about 25% high N plant material (manure, legumes, young grass clippings), 35% green plant material (normal C:N ratios with lots of sugars, proteins, carbs), and 40% woody material (sawdust, chipped wood, chunky stems, paper, cardboard). This gives a fairly well balanced fungal-to-bacterial compost. If you also add some humic acids, fish oils, yucca, and things like this then the compost usually is fungal-dominated. Once you have high fungal compost, you then need to extract the fungi, bacteria, protozoa and nematodes from that compost into the compost tea. Tea means that the organisms are extracted, as opposed to extracts or leachates where only the water-soluble nutrients are extracted. Mixing or agitation of the compost is critical to achieve extraction of the organisms. Most of the compost tea machines on the market do an adequate job of extracting organisms; two of the machines on the market do not do an adequate job, so you have to ask for data from the machine maker to know which machine gives decent results. If the tea machine maker will not give you data on their machine, don't buy the machine. If you have a good fungal compost, and add humic acids, fish oil, yucca, fruit pulp, etc to the tea, you will enhance fungal growth in the tea. Bruce Elliott has done a great deal of ressearch with me on this topic, and he sells the resultant recipe that made the fungi grow extramely well in the tea. His e-mail is: [EMAIL PROTECTED] There are some tea machine makers who, because their machines do not extract decent levels of fungi, or whose food resources do not allow fungi to grow in the tea, say that fungi do not grow in tea. This is poppycock, but you can see why they say these things. Fungi are critcally important to disease prevention, to protect your plants from pests, and to form good soil structure. Want to reduce water use in your lawn? You MUST get the fungal component back into your soil. Need good fungi in the compost? Feed them the right foods. Need good fungi in the tea? Feed the extracted fungi the right foods. Humic acids (the brown color in compost), fish oils (Dramm makes a great liquid fish as does Nutrapathic. Other liquid fish that we've tested have been too high in salt, or they removed the oils which means they are more bacteiral foods, not fungal), and yucca (NO PRESERVATIVES) work well. What are the wrong foods? Nitrate. Nitrate helps the fungal pathogens grow. Anaerobic organic acids help pathogens grow. Lack of oxygen helps the pathogens grow too, that's why it is critical that tea, or compost, stay aerobic. In aerobic conditions, the pathogens will be out-competed by all those beneficial organisms. But if oxygen concentrations drops, then the E. coli, Salmonella, Shigella, Pythium, Phytopthora, Fusarium, etc can win for those foods. Tea can go anaerobic and then get re-aerated, but then you have developoed a less than wonderful community of bacteria, and lost most of your fungal community. People who make anaerobic tea have a view that fungi aren't important, because fungi don't survive well in anaerobic conditions. But, disease suppression is much, much higher if the beneficial fungi are present. How much higher? We can apply 5 gal of tea per acre and protect plants from disease and most pests, if the organism density is appropriate. If organisms are lacking, then you have to apply 10, 50, or even as much as 100 gallons of tea before you can protect your crops. I have heard Jerry Erickson of Soil Soup say that they recommend 100 gallons per acre of the tea their machine makes. Well, yes, you have to put that much on to get leaf coverage because the organisms in the tea are that low. Earth Tea machines, Microb-Brewers, Sotillo machines, and Xtraktors all only require 5 gal to the acre, given the use of good compost, molasses and kelp. Do BD preps have a good concentration of organisms in them? I don't know for certain, but the few preps we tested had great organism numbers. But to be scientifically acceptable, we need more replication. Statistics requires three replicates, minimum, of the prep, but three replicates of a control, such as water, to compare the prep for the organisms. It would be even better to assess the soil, or the leaf surfaces the prep is sprayed onto to find out if the organisms on the leaf surfaces is improved, or the life in the roots around the plant is enhanced. Again, three replicates of an area sprayed with the tea, or to which the compost was added, as compared to three replicates from an area without any tea sprayed, or compost added, but which has been treated the same in every
Re: Soil Foodweb Questions?
A current problem for those of us who accept manures, yardwastes, and agricultural materials such as straw from off site, is contamination with xenobiotic substances. A recent arrival on this front is Clopyralid, and its sister compound Picloram which have contaminated commercial composts and university composts in Washington State, Pennsylvania, New Zealand, and California. Clopyralid has been approved in Canada for use in food crops, and presence in foods in amounts as high as 7 parts per million. It is listed as acceptable for barley, oats, wheat, strawberries and various brassicas. And Dow is promoting it for turf use, as well. Those on this list following the classical organic/biodynamic concept of maintaining as much of a closed system on their farms as possible, won't feel this is much of a problem, but others who import organic matter will need to be more careful than ever. I'm thinking here of Roxbury farms and the leaves, of Allan, and of myself and some others in start up phases where imports may be needed. What can you tell us about research that is being done on this problem, what foodweb conditions in compost and soil would help remediate it, and what colleagues and other soil people you know are saying about it? I know Jean-Paul Courtens of Roxbury farms relied on Will Brinton's assurances that composting would generally clean up any contaminants likely to be brought in in yardwastes, leaves, and the likenow this seems to be in question, right? Best regards, Frank Teuton - Original Message - From: Allan Balliett [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, January 08, 2002 11:18 PM Subject: Soil Foodweb Questions? Hey, Friends! I'm very excited to announce that Dr. ELAINE INGHAM has agreed to answer questions posed through BD Now! from now until the end of the day Friday. Regardless of where you are at in working with the soil foodweb techniques, now is the time to get maximum clarification from the leading voice in biological soil testing, custom composting, and compost teas for disease control and fertility. Do me a favor: let's not let Elaine think that we are all too smart to learn more about Elaine's work. If you need some background, check out http://www.soilfoodweb.org Thanks -Allan
Fwd: Re: ELAINE: BD NOW! Amendments for compost tea
Allan Balliett wrote: What are some practical amendments and microbial stimulants for tweaking the teas. I've written a 75 page book about this, which you might want to get. I hate to advertise myself, but just in case you are interested, the book is: The Compost Tea Brewing Manual, $25 plus shipping and handling, available from [EMAIL PROTECTED] Just e-mail and ask about it. You might also want to get the Soil Biology Primer, available from SFI as well. $6. It explains bacterial versus fungal needs, and goes over the kinds of foods to grow fungi versus bacteria. Good compost is the most important thing in tea. AEROBIC Match the foods with which you made the compost with the microbial needs of the plant. Early successional plants are pretty much strictly bacterial, crops are balanced one-to-one bacteria and fungi, while perennial plants like fungal-dominated. Use a compost that matches the plant you want to grow. Typically you will also reduce weed pressure if you do this. Then, use foods that match the plant's needs as well. Bacterial foods are sugars, simple proteins, simple carbohydrates. Fungal foods are complex sugars, complex proteins, complex carbohydrates, perhaps the most complex of which are humic acids. Humic acids are not used by fungal pathogens, but by the beneficial fungi. So, by using these foods, and keeping things aerobic, you get just the good guys growing. There are microbial inoculants available from various sources. With these, you need to contact us with your specific problem and we can work with you on getting the specific biological condition or organisms needed. But there are too many specific situations for me to give out general information about these interactions. If you want to e-mail again with your specific problem, I'd be happy to consdier it. Just remember, there's alot we don't know much about! :-) Elaine Ingham
Re: foxes
- Original Message - From: Allan Balliett [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, January 10, 2002 12:14 AM Subject: Re: ashing Incidentally, if you don't have a plague of foxes then you probably don't know that they get into your raised beds and dig GREAT BIG HOLES (looking for something they think is in there to eat, I assume) If you plant small patches for diveristy, they can destroy an entire crop overnight. They also trample things (again, looking for prey) and, as inexpicable as it is, dig tunnels into the little mountain of rock dust we have here. (American wire fence going up around the garden before this coming growing season) -Allan PS Yes, and they've eaten almost a hundred chickens this yearbut if they catch that damned weasel, they might be worth having around! Allan. Foxes You may get some short term relief in the garden by sprinkling cayenne pepper around the beds and paths ( I wonder whether this would work if potentised?) As far as the chickens are concerned you are going to have to get serious, either kill a couple of foxes (for ashing) or eat the chickens before the foxes do! I guarantee no matter how determined you get you will not do long term damage to the fox population. They are amazing critters, in any given area the fox population will always adjust to the available food supply by increasing the number of females that breed, increasing the size of each litter, and an improved survival rate of young. Chemical farmers in our district have been doing an organised poisoning program for ten years and I still see just as many foxes as when they started except there are now a lot more percentage of younger ones!! I have seen once where a single vixen and two small pups bit the tongues out of 52 new born lambs in a single nights work Yep just knocked em down, bit out the tongue way back in the mouth and went on to the next one, after the first few the tongue was spat out near the kill. Sure she is teaching her young to survive but if you were depending on those lambs for your own survival I figure its time to adjust the fox population a bit! The rock dust thing is interesting, they poo in, piddle in it, dig in it for months, praps because its foreign in their patch or maybe they feel the extra energy (ours is paramagnetic rock dust) ps never seen a real live hungry wolf - sounds like a bad idea to me Cheers Lloyd Charles
Fwd: Re: ELAINE: BDNOW: Optimal tillage for SFW
Allan Balliett wrote: *Optimum tillage for annual crops, what sort of balance can growers look towards in light of the soil foodweb. Comments on deep tillage such as spaders to no-till like Groff to heavy mulching like Emilia Hazelip to surface cultivation such as Eliot Coleman. The answer here depends on where you are starting from. It's not that simple an answer. Consider that you want to match the biology in the soil with the requirements of the plant you are growing. If you want ryegrass growing with need for fertilizer, with minimum weed pressure, and without the need for pesticide, you need to have bacterial biomass at a minimum of 125 µg bacteria, 100 µg fungi, 20,000 protozoa and 20 beneficial nematodes, several hundred microarthropds per m2. If you lack fungi in your soil, you want to till to the absolute minimum amount, so you leave the fungi intact, living and increasing in biomass. If fungi are fine, and you lack bacteria, then you want to till, to bring the ratio of fungi to bacteria back into line. If you have a well-balanced foodweb, you don't need to till, because the foodweb will maintain soil structure. So, ask the question why do you till? If you till because the soil is tight, it is crusted, water puddles on it, or it erodes easily, Mother Nature is telling you that you've killed off the biology in your soil, and you will have all kinds of disease, weed, and stressed plant problems until you fix that biology. You are forced to till to break open the soil physically. Stop doing that by letting the bactea, fungi, protozoa, nematodes and microarthropods do it for you. They are so much less expensive than plowing. No gas, no hired help salary, no machine repair, just have to feed them on occassion. Feed them with cover crops or compost. Lots of variation in foods, please, because it is diversity that is important! If you till to prepare a seed bed, why not direct drill? Soil too hard? See the previous answer. No machine, ok, then just strip till the line you are planting in, and add compost to the tilled strip so soil life will be enhanced, and your seeds will germinate and grow within mere days instead of weeks. Why do you deep rip? Your soil is compacted at 3 to 6 feet? Why is that? Because the life in your soil has been destroyed, and then the soil will compact when you drive equipment on it. Need to get the life back in your soil, and you break up hardpan at 4 feet in 6 months. Harry Hoitink has shown this happens time and again by adding great compost to the soil's surface, and the hardpan disappears in short order. Why plow? You just keep killing the critters you need to have in your soil. Spaders disturb the soil to a much less extent than discs, or harrows, or rototillers. OK, a one-time pass. If you spade five or six times in fall-spring, you lose any benefit. So, it is the intensity of the disturbance that is important. Consider the USDA definition of soil. I love this example, it really points out the plowing issue. Back in the 1950's, the USDA said soil was aerobic in the top 4 to 6 inches, and ended there, because it was anaerobic below that depth. So, soil was only the top 4 to 6 inches. But then in the mid- to late '70's, the attitude started to change and by 1985, soil depth was defined as 18 inches. Aerobic to 18 inches, anaerobic below that. In 1994 or '95, I forget, soil depth was RE-defined, as down to 4 feet. Aaaerobic below that. Why these changes? And really, how far down do aerobic conditions occur in soil? In a NATIVE soil, in an old-growth forest, or prairie, how far down does the aerobic zone go? We obtained soil from 12 miles deep, and found the microbial community fully aerobic. Why does the USDA have this definition of soil based on aerobic/anaerobic? And why could it change with time? It's the kind of machine we plow with. We used mold-board plows in the 50's, in the late 70's everyone had switched to discs, or chisel plows. By 1996, everyone was deep-ripping to 4 feet. The anaerobic level is strictly an artefact of plowing. Aerobic/anaerobic depths have nothing to do with real soil, they are the result of plowing and killing the appropriate life in the soil. Why do you surface cultivate? Weeds. OK, may be needed, but it is better to figure out what your weeds are telling you. And fix the chemistry in your soil. You may need biology in your soil in order to fix the chemistry. You may need to adjust the chemistry to help the biology. People who say that I say that biology can fix everything have never listened to me. Open up the closed doors in your minds, and listen. Biology and chemistry together, along with the sand, silt, clay in your soil determine the physics of your soil. They work together. They all influence each other, and you have to understand that to be able to select against your weed problems, and for your crop. So, surface cultivation may be able to be reduced as your soil is
OFF: sust.mining?! FW: New Crop Can Mine Nickel at a Low Cost
BDers: This reminded me of the potential for abuse when science stumbles onto yet another more efficient means of doing human bidding by a more direct Life-process. Let them not discover too quickly/unqualifiedly the various plant/colour/metal/planet correlations... manfred - Original Message - From: Lon J. Rombough [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, January 09, 2002 9:09 AM Subject: FW: New Crop Can Mine Nickel at a Low Cost -- From: ARS News Service [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: ARS News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: New Crop Can Mine Nickel at a Low Cost Date: Wed, Jan 9, 2002, 7:04 AM STORY LEAD: New Crop Can Mine Nickel at a Low Cost ___ ARS News Service Agricultural Research Service, USDA Lupe Chavez, (301) 504-1627, [EMAIL PROTECTED] January 9, 2002 ___ Mining for nickel now requires little more than a green thumb, thanks to a patented process created by the Agricultural Research Service and Viridian Resources, L.L.C., of Houston, Texas. Metal-loving plants can extract nickel and other metals from the earth without machinery. ARS and Viridian partnered with the University of Maryland, Oregon State University and the United Kingdom's University of Sheffield to show that phytomining--the use of plants to extract useful amounts of metal from soil--is commercially feasible. Utilizing certain plant species that accumulate nickel from contaminated soils, scientists developed an environmentally friendly alternative to traditional mining techniques. ARS agronomist Rufus Chaney, working with Scott Angle (Maryland), Alan J.M. Baker (Sheffield), Yin Li (Viridian), and Richard Roseberg (OSU), targeted a number of plant species that hyperaccumulate, or recover unusually high amounts of metals through their roots. By evaluating several hundred strains of hyperaccumulating plants for favorable genetic characteristics, the team developed the first commercial crop capable of hyperaccumulating nickel, cobalt and other metals. This hay like crop is burned after harvest to create an energy byproduct, and the ash is a lucrative source of metal. Phytomining creates a win-win scenario: the inexpensive cleansing of contaminated soil and the production of a valuable cash crop. Phytomining on contaminated soils is more lucrative than growing traditional crops on the same land. Harvests from low-grade pastures or forests grown on such land would fetch about $50 to $100 per hectare per year. But a phytomining crop growing on the same land would produce an annual 400 kilograms of nickel per hectare worth more than $2,000 even at today's depressed market price for nickel. After selling the byproduct energy, the annual per-hectare value of a phytomining crop exceeds $3,000. Additionally, the crop can tap the vast mineral deposits in the United States and other countries that are unavailable through today's conventional mining techniques. ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific research agency. ___ This item is one of the news releases and story leads that ARS Information distributes on weekdays to fax and e-mail subscribers. You can also get the latest ARS news on the World Wide Web at www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/thelatest.htm. * Feedback and questions to ARS News Service via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * ARS Information Staff, 5601 Sunnyside Ave., Room 1-2251, Beltsville MD 20705-5128, (301) 504-1617, fax 504-1648.
Re: Fwd: Re: ELAINE: BD NOW! What is the future of compost tea?
Allan Balliett wrote: BD preps work the same way, I think. Why? They have the organisms in them that inhibit, compete with and consume the disease-causing organisms. I think we could do alot to making certain that the BD preps work every time if we understood the organisms in the preps better. Just as we have done for compost tea. Elaine How do you explain the success of potentised BD preps as fungal or pest protection when they are firstly in 12% alcohol and diluted to 10X 30??? Whats doing it? Glen Atkinson
