----- Original Message -----
From: Gil Robertson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Saturday, December 14, 2002 9:32 AM
Subject: Re: Perfect Orchard
Hi Gil
I disagree very strongly with some of what you have recommended in
this post to Per Garp !!
lets have a look
> but in the short term use one to four tonnes of gypsum to the
> hectare, will break the clay and allow water penetration and largely break
> the pan without ripping.
Man - four tonnes of gypsum is way way too much for the good health of
soil - sure it will open up that clay - almost blow it apart!! - and with
the rains or irrigation a whole bunch of valuable mineral nutrition will be
flushed out into the drainage system along with some of what is causing the
problem. For gosh sakes go gently with this stuff! Use a little bit!
> Soil carbon and soil biota activity are inter-related. In Oz we have very
> low soil carbon and are for ever looking for ways of adding carbon. Coal
> dust from a coal washing facility/ some fly ashes from power stations,
Coal dust is inert carbon, almost USELESS for soil nutrition in the short
term - yes it pumps up the soil carbon numbers on a soil test but is not
active. Power station fly ash is a prime suspect for contamination and the
few samples I have looked at have in every case I tested brought the
radionic energy of the soil sample DOWN.
> composts of high carbon materials etc can be used if available.
Thats better!!
> Calcium will come from the application of gypsum.
And leave almost as quick as it came! LIME is the way to get good calcium
levels, gypsum is a real good source of sulphur at fertiliser rates and a
good softener for sodic soils but never forget that with gypsum you are
applying sulphur in the active sulphate form and too much will do a lot of
long term harm. There are farms in the US that started with applications of
4 to 5 ton /ha gypsum and have progressed rapidly to using neat sulphuric
acid as a soil amendment because they blew all their nutrients off the soil
colloid with excess gypsum
> As far as traffic impacted soil, try and keep the loading as low as
> possible, particularly when wet. Also I note that the soil does not
compact
> as much if the full BD cycle is carried out.
>
> Gil
The other advice given with regard to green manuring, tillage, wet weather
traffic, etc is good and I agree with all of that just not these points
listed above.
Sorry but on this soil amendment stuff I just cant go the conventional big
hammer chemical agriculture track.
cheers
Lloyd Charles
