Re: [biofuel] Farmers Turn To Composting, Georgia, USA sulfur
Hi Keith, Hi Hoagy Thanks for this, nice... Could be quicker, could be hotter too, only 120-130F. Still, that's okay, they're doing good. Makes you think, though, eh? - all that free heat going to waste. Wonder why they don't use it? I don't know. Whadaya suggest. The Mother Earth News used it to warm water in the cooler times of the year if memory serves me. I've done it before, it's easily arranged. It's said you need bulk for composting, but it's not really true if you know how to do it. For which, you'll find everything you need to know here: http://journeytoforever.org/compost.html In Tokyo we were living in a small flat, with a very small balcony. I had a 14x14x12 wooden box, only 1.36 cubic feet, composting kitchen wastes, which stayed above 60 deg C (140F) for about 10 days or more, freeze or shine - weather made no difference. Easy to arrange it so there are two such boxes, one of them always hot. A coil of copper piping and some insulation would have given us plenty of hot water for nothing, landlord allowing (which he didn't). That's a bit of an expert project, getting that much reliable heat out of so little bulk. I guess it showed what's possible for Tokyo apartment dwellers. We usually recommend at least 8 cub ft, others say more. But most people have a lot more room and a lot more resources - maybe a garden or a yard as well as just a kitchen for two. Anyway, if you're interested in this, here's where it all started, more than 60 years ago, and still unequalled. This is the man who first put composting on a scientific basis, and much besides. I've just uploaded it: And many thanks to you! More such on the way, as I can manage it, but An Agricultural Testament is the classic of them all. I think the guys at the Gromor project are swayed by more recent ideas that full thermophilic compost - well above 55C (131F) - ain't good, for this and that reason, so they turn it a lot with that tractor thing and water it a lot while they're at it to keep the temperatures down, so it stays below 130F and takes months. That's all BS, IMNSHO - from my own experience, and also from Howard's work and that of his followers, large-scale farmers all over the world, who consistently achieved excellent results with very hot compost, with much of the temperature range well into the 60s (C). This was always with layered piles, not shredded like Gromor's. Layered piles need one turn, certainly not this constant turning and watering. Shredding stems from a method developed at Berkeley, to increase the surface area and thus hasten the process, which works very well, but doesn't need much further attention after that, not even turning. This is borne out by a study by Will Brinton of Woods End Research Laboratory: Sustainability of Modern Composting: Intensification Versus Costs Quality: http://www.woodsend.org/sustain.pdf Brinton found no benefits from extra processing such as Gromor's, and indeed some disadvantages and losses. Here are his conclusions: CONCLUSIONS These findings support the notion that intensification of composting through technology may be unnecessary, certainly if the goal is on-farm nutrient and watershed management and land-application. The needs for pathogen reduction and stabilization are fully met provided the basic requirements for moisture and texture optimization are met. With these results in mind, a low-tech form of composting can be implemented without undue economic or management pressure. Composting methods that require intensification are a curious result of modern popularity and technological development of composting, as particularly evidenced in popular trade journals. They do not appear to be scientifically supportable based on these studies. Our view of sustainability is analogous to a reduced tillage approach to maximizing soil quality. By carefully managing composting to achieve proper mixes and limited turning, the ideal of a quality product at low economic burden can be achieved. Within bio-dynamic management, as an example, low-intensive composting has generally been the norm, but has been criticized by modern composters. Based on these studies, it would appear that low-tech composting is more sustainable in view of nutrient and humus-conservation and also costs. Important factors to consider in successfully implementing low-tech minimum turning approaches are correct amount of bedding and moisture control in the compost piles. In view of these results, current approaches to composting must be re-thought in view of modern, sustainable farming practice. So, it's all just a waste of energy and time. Sod all this modern crap, back to Howard et al, thanks. Reinvented wheels prove unsatisfactory. Next Howard upload to Journey to Forever will be this one: The Waste Products of Agriculture -- Their Utilization as Humus by Sir Albert Howard and Yeshwant D. Wad, Oxford University Press,
Re: [biofuel] Farmers Turn To Composting, Georgia, USA
For those interested, this beautiful book is available online at: http://www.weblife.org/humanure/default.html __ramjee. Hello Ramjee Very interesting too how Joseph Jenkins sells hard-copies of his book AND makes a free version available online at the same website. Would that more publishers realized the two are complementary, and that giving it away for nothing doesn't eat into hard-copy sales as alleged. Quite the opposite. More humanure resources here, by the way: http://journeytoforever.org/compost_humanure.html regards Keith - Original Message - From: Christopher Witmer [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: biofuel@yahoogroups.com Sent: Tuesday, July 02, 2002 7:27 AM Subject: Re: [biofuel] Farmers Turn To Composting, Georgia, USA A very welcome development indeed -- let us hope we shall also see wider application of the composting principles set forth in Jenkins' Humanure Handbook. MH wrote: Farmers Turn To Composting To Protect Crops, Revive Soils Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send quot;unsubscribequot; messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[biofuel] Farmers Turn To Composting, Georgia, USA
Farmers Turn To Composting To Protect Crops, Revive Soils Jun 04, 2002 Photos @ http://www.savannahnow.com/stories/060302/LOCsoil.shtml By Elliott Minor The Associated Press NORMAN PARK, Ga. -- A giant claw grabs limbs and leaves at Gromor Organics Inc. and puts them into a giant, red machine called The Monster that chews them into fine particles that become compost to enrich south Georgia vegetable fields. People look at what is on top of the soil, said manager Peter Germishuizen, a South African with years of composting experience in South and Central America. They don't look below. That's where the secret of life is. Three vegetable farmers formed Gromor in 1999 to increase the organic material in their soils and to prepare for a 2005 ban on methyl bromide, a widely used fumigant that kills insects, nematodes, weeds, and pathogens in more than 100 crops. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency imposed the ban after methyl bromide was found to deplete ozone. Germishuizen said the organic material in the farmers' fields had dropped to about half a percent. His goal is to bring the level to about 3 percent by adding compost. Gromor can produce 29,000 tons a year. The town of Moultrie, located about 10 miles southwest of the site, supplies the yard waste. Taxpayers save a little by having it composted rather than dumped in the landfill, and the partnership helps the town of 14,680 meet a state mandate to reduce solid waste by 25 percent, City Manager Tony Rojas said. It's nice to know it is recycled and it just doesn't go in the ground to rot, he said. Our savings are minimal. The biggest thing is it doesn't cost us any more, but we know it's recycled. Modern farming practices deplete soils of organic matter and eliminate microorganisms, earthworms and beneficial insects that promote plant growth and protect crops from pests. Depleted soil forces farmers to use more fertilizers, pesticides and water, which has become a critical issue for a state in its fifth year of drought. A growing number of farmers have responding by switching to more soil-friendly growing practices. They include the use of cover crops, such as rye or clover that enrich the soil, tillage methods that barely disturb the soil and the use of compost to increase organic material and fertility. Some use a combination of all three methods. Georgia has at least two other agricultural composting sites in Plains, which recycles peanut hulls, and Douglas, which uses municipal sewage sludge. The two essential ingredients for composting are carbon and nitrogen. Gromor mixes the yard waste, which supplies the carbon, with decaying vegetables or chicken manure, which supplies nitrogen. The mixture is then piled in rows about 4 feet high, some as long as 600 feet long, while the material turns into compost. In there is a factory, Germishuizen said, pointing to one of the rows. The workers are billions of microbes. If you look after them well, they'll never go on strike. Germishuizen digs into the side of a row with a shovel and steam drifts from the interior, where the composting process generates temperatures between 120 and 130 degrees. Periodically, supervisor Jesus DelAngel uses a machine that straddle the rows and flips the mixture with revolving paddles while injecting water. The process sends up clouds of white steam. Fungi start the process, bacteria take over during the hottest phase, and then the fungi resume their work as the compost nears completion in 12 to 13 weeks, Germishuizen said. Our composting process accelerates what nature would do over a long period, Germishuizen said. This eventually becomes black dirt ... free of weeds, seeds and pathogens. Kent Hamilton, one of Gromor's three farm owners at Southern Valley Fruit and Vegetables, said the growers hope the compost will improve fertility, increase the soil's water-holding capacity and increase carbon and microorganisms. The University of Georgia is conducting studies to assess the effectiveness of compost in controlling pests that were traditionally killed by the fumigant. Sharad Phatak, a horticulturist at the University of Georgia's Coastal Plain Experiment Station in Tifton, said he is impressed with the quality of Gromor's compost material. Phatak, a longtime advocate for cover crops and minimum tillage, said the growers who created Gromor are headed in the right direction. Every grower has to find their own comfort zone, he said. If they are comfortable with what they are doing and they are making money, I'm not going to argue with success. ` Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send quot;unsubscribequot; messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to
Re: [biofuel] Farmers Turn To Composting, Georgia, USA
Hi Hoagy Thanks for this, nice... Could be quicker, could be hotter too, only 120-130F. Still, that's okay, they're doing good. Makes you think, though, eh? - all that free heat going to waste. Wonder why they don't use it? Anyway, if you're interested in this, here's where it all started, more than 60 years ago, and still unequalled. This is the man who first put composting on a scientific basis, and much besides. I've just uploaded it: An Agricultural Testament by Sir Albert Howard, Oxford University Press, 1940. This is the book that started the organic farming and gardening revolution, the result of Howard's 25 years of research at Indore in India. The essence of organics is brilliantly encapsulated in the Introduction, which begins: The maintenance of the fertility of the soil is the first condition of any permanent system of agriculture. Read on! Full explanation of the Indore composting process and its application. Excellent on the relationship between soil, food and health. Full text online. http://journeytoforever.org/farm_library/howardAT/ATtoc.html If you do it this way and grow your own energy while you're at it, all those energy in-energy out figures people argue over will look completely different, and very much better. Regards Keith Farmers Turn To Composting To Protect Crops, Revive Soils Jun 04, 2002 Photos @ http://www.savannahnow.com/stories/060302/LOCsoil.shtml Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send quot;unsubscribequot; messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Re: [biofuel] Farmers Turn To Composting, Georgia, USA
A very welcome development indeed -- let us hope we shall also see wider application of the composting principles set forth in Jenkins' Humanure Handbook. MH wrote: Farmers Turn To Composting To Protect Crops, Revive Soils Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send quot;unsubscribequot; messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Re: [biofuel] Farmers Turn To Composting, Georgia, USA sulfur
Hi Keith, Hi Hoagy Thanks for this, nice... Could be quicker, could be hotter too, only 120-130F. Still, that's okay, they're doing good. Makes you think, though, eh? - all that free heat going to waste. Wonder why they don't use it? I don't know. Whadaya suggest. The Mother Earth News used it to warm water in the cooler times of the year if memory serves me. Anyway, if you're interested in this, here's where it all started, more than 60 years ago, and still unequalled. This is the man who first put composting on a scientific basis, and much besides. I've just uploaded it: And many thanks to you! An Agricultural Testament by Sir Albert Howard, Oxford University Press, 1940. This is the book that started the organic farming and gardening revolution, the result of Howard's 25 years of research at Indore in India. The essence of organics is brilliantly encapsulated in the Introduction, which begins: The maintenance of the fertility of the soil is the first condition of any permanent system of agriculture. Read on! Full explanation of the Indore composting process and its application. Excellent on the relationship between soil, food and health. Full text online. http://journeytoforever.org/farm_library/howardAT/ATtoc.html If you do it this way and grow your own energy while you're at it, all those energy in-energy out figures people argue over will look completely different, and very much better. Regards Keith Farmers Turn To Composting To Protect Crops, Revive Soils Jun 04, 2002 Photos @ http://www.savannahnow.com/stories/060302/LOCsoil.shtml Much appreciated Keith and the Small Farms Library Index http://www.journeytoforever.org/farm_library.html I got side tracked with the book below extracting excerpts with a few comments or questions] PAY DIRT Farming Gardening with Composts by J. I. Rodale c1946 Part Three: The Dangers of Chemical Fertilizers 1. Are Chemical Fertilizers Necessary? Plants growing in highly chemicalized soil do not have natural resistance to disease, just as people who do not have bodily resistance fall prey to disease more quickly than the average person. Then it becomes necessary to spray poisons on these sick plants to protect them against all manner of disease and insects. The use of these sprays, which are absorbed into the ground, further pollutes an already contaminated soil. Between the chemicals and the spray poisons, the biologic life of the soil is reduced almost to the vanishing point. Gone are the earthworms, and the bacteria and the fungi almost disappear; the soil is practically dead. The farmer might just as well farm in sand loaded down with chemicals. Dr. Ehrenfreid Pfeiffer mentions vineyards he has seen which, because of frequent applications of copper and lime sprays, do not show a single earthworm, and have thereby lost a valuable ally. MH: I must say this makes sense but I've never done a comparison MH: but do remember reading some exchanges on this list. In An Agricultural Testament, Howard describes a project in Indore, India, where humus was used exclusively on a cotton crop. The average cotton yield in surrounding country was 200 lbs. per acre. In the first year of the experiment (1927) the average yield on the experimental farm was 340 lbs. per acre. In 1928 it increased to 510. In 1929 it reached 578. A significant fact revealed by this experiment was that yields were maintained despite reductions in rainfalls which seriously affected the surrounding farmers' crops. MH: This reminds me of a switchgrass study once read MH: although I don't remember the yields per year. A very important reason for not using chemical fertilizers is the fact that their use makes the plant gradually lose its reproductive power. The seeds lose their potency, and the variety runs down; the species dies out. Where organic fertilizers are used in the form of green matter only, without the aid of animal matter, a similar problem of the running out of the variety seems to occur. Howard has found that animal matter in the form of stable manure or in other forms such as fish and chicken cuttings, must be used. MH: Looks to me the Gromor Group have reached this point. A simple test will soon prove my assertions. Grow half a dozen tomato plants either in pots or boxes filled with compost, particularly using old tomato stalks and leaves in the heap, and compare them for flavor with any quantity grown with artificials. You will not be disappointed either in weight of crop or flavor. Save your own seed from the half dozen plants and get even better results the following year. Then try saving seed from plants fed on artificials. There will be a marked difference in the third season; in fact, with the seed saved from these plants you will have difficulty in raising a stock after three years. MH: Save seed ? MH: Is it likely one could grow
Re: [biofuel] Farmers Turn To Composting, Georgia, USA
For those interested, this beautiful book is available online at: http://www.weblife.org/humanure/default.html __ramjee. - Original Message - From: Christopher Witmer [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: biofuel@yahoogroups.com Sent: Tuesday, July 02, 2002 7:27 AM Subject: Re: [biofuel] Farmers Turn To Composting, Georgia, USA A very welcome development indeed -- let us hope we shall also see wider application of the composting principles set forth in Jenkins' Humanure Handbook. MH wrote: Farmers Turn To Composting To Protect Crops, Revive Soils Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send quot;unsubscribequot; messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
