----- Original Message ----- From: James Hedley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2003 9:37 PM Subject: Vitality and fertility ofsoils
> Dear Lloyd, Steve and fellow list members, > In Bruce Copen's Agricultural rates there are the rates for soil testing > with Carey Reams techniques. Amongst these rates is one for testing the > vitality of the soil. Vitality of the soil seems to not get coverage on > BDnow. > Maybe one of the reasons is that until I started to research this concept I > had never heard of vitality as being measurable parameter of soil. I write > this in the hope that some of you who have experience of Reams techniques > may be able to enlighten me, or head me in the direction of further areas of > study of his methods. > > Lloyd knows our property, red basalt soil, 3200 cgs on average, averages 6% > organic matter, high mineralisation and a dream soil for anyone to start > with. There is only one problem, when you test the soils in our cultivation > paddocks radionically it gives a reading of about 10% vitality, and the same > for fertility. My definition for fertility is the ability of plants grown to > reproduce true to type with maximum viability, which is a true reflection of > the fertility of the soil. In other words they need to have inbuilt vitality > and an inbuilt toughness. Hi James Some of the followers of Carey Reams ideas would tell you that those really good soils like yours are often very difficult to manage when they get out of shape, they are strongly fertile and highly buffered and they resist our efforts to change them in whatever direction we are meaning to move. They can be exploitatively farmed for a long period but then restoration takes equally long, trace element imbalances that dont appear that serious can take a lot of effort to correct etc. When we look at the bush in your area there is a marked lack of diversity compared to poorer soil types nearby, this is something we see all over Australia, in the most fertile soil areas the natural vegetation appears as almost a mono culture (the mitchell grass plains or the riverina floodplain covered with redgum) whereas in the poorest soil types there is an unbeleivable diversity of species (west australias sand plain country or the pilliga for example) maybe this lack of diversity in the original vegetation also supports a restricted microbial species range that makes it difficult to grow some introduced crop plants even with the high mineral fertility that is there? > My question is what is vitality and what enlivens it in the soil. James when we get that figured out we will be able to retire on the proceeds. Seriously though I have a couple more questions to add When we test radionically for GV just what are we measuring? And (this one has been rattling around my head for quite a while) Is it really the best thing to treat a crop or seed or whatever so that we wind the GV reading up to the absolute maximum we can get? I guess I am thinking about balance - can we have too much vitality and not enough substance? See I have this picture of a fine bred arab horse that will run until it dies in mid stride - the vitality of spirit is far in excess of its physical ability. Cheers Lloyd Charles
