Compost/Organic Matter Issues

Using more compost than necessary can create gardening problems. Depending on the compost origin and amounts used, soil minerals can actually become excessive and unbalanced. Correct ratios of minerals in the soil are important. Practices like “Lasagna” and/or “Square-Foot” gardening call for large amounts of organic matter. These are practices that will generally not yield vegetables that are dense in nutrients. With an excess of soil nitrogen, you often get excessive vegetative growth and poor fruit and seed development. Excessive use of compost can also raise the P, K, and Ca levels to more than are needed. Remember, if you keep a healthy (non-chemical) soil, it will be moving in the direction of increasing the organic matter on its own, through all the natural processes.

I have dealt with these issues with gardeners this past month. The AR Soil Lab would not even do a soil test on “soil” sent in from one Square-Foot gardener. The Soil Lab reply was, “send us some mineral soil, not just the soil mulch.” This does not surprise me. The recommended Square-Foot gardening “soil” material is all derived from various kinds of organic matter.

I have looked at many materials for advice on application of compost. The book, How to Grow More Vegetables, by John Jeavons is certainly one of the best for organic/sustainable gardening approaches. John recommends, “a maximum maintenance dressing of ½ inch of compost should be added to the soil before the crop per 4-month growing season.” That is equivalent to 4 cubic feet per 100 square feet of garden bed. I only recommend using high quality, mature compost. Cheap compost that is not fully decomposed is generally not a bargain.

For new beds in our typical NW Arkansas soils (where soil depths can vary from 6 to 20 inches), I recommend that you begin by double digging. In such cases, I recommend that you put 2/3 inch of compost into the lower layer and 1/3 inch on the surface. That equates to 40 and 20 gallons on each respective layer per 100 square feet. So, as you begin, 1 cubic yard of soil is enough for more than 300 square feet.

Tomato Time Hopefully, you have set your tomatoes out and they are doing okay. If you buy plants in tiny pots, I always recommend that you first move them to larger pots. See they picture below. Both plants are of same age (7 weeks), but note the huge (more than doubled-size difference), when the one plant on the left was moved to a 2-gallon pot when the plant was 6 inches tall.

Raised Beds and Double-Digging

You can follow organic gardening practices with or without raised beds. The advantages of raised beds are well worth the extra effort, especially in wet and/or cool springs. The biggest advantages are that they are better drained, better aerated, and warm up more quickly in the spring. If you have a wet and/or cool spring, like we have this year, the raised beds are very nice. Once formed, they also make planting, weeding and harvesting just a little easier.

When you think “raised beds” you might think in terms of building frames and bringing in extra soil. That is one option, but you can easily have raised beds without sideboards, simply by using the soil you have on the site. Whether to bring in extra top soil is usually determined by the depth of the top soil you have in place. With topsoil that is 12-18 deep, you can build 12-15 inch raised beds easily without bringing in soil.

I advise building raised beds in the process of double-digging the garden. I have shown many times, how double-digging jump starts the soil to becoming biologically active and healthy. There is no room for details here, but see Jeavons, “How to Grow More Vegetables” for details on double-digging.

Steve Moore, at University of North Carolina, described another value of double-digging where he compared old-style practices and double-dug beds, where he was teaching in South Africa. In the test with spinach, a heat wave occurred soon after establishment. In the old-style (conventional) plots, 99 percent of the plants died. In the double-dug plots, 1 percent of the plants died. Plants respond accordingly to the environment that is provided.

The 15- inch raised beds shown above were established in September and seeded with a cover crop of Austrian winter peas and oats. In reality, you can double-dig and build raised beds anytime of the year. Be sure moisture content is adequate, but not too wet, if you try to do it in mid-summer.

The GROW BIOINTENSIVE® approach of John Jeavons, which includes double-digging, is not something new. It is used around the world. The Manor House Agriculture Center in Kenya has graduated 400 trainers over the past 25 years, and the practices are being used by millions around the world. This is a significant movement. The World Bank, UN-FAO, and others have recently stated that small-scale farming may hold the solution to the world hunger problem. It is also true, that our continued conventional path is damaging to the environment and not sustainable.

Each of us has the ability to be part of the solution to the world hunger challenges in the world today. We just need to start! If it is a question about how to get started with growing a few vegetables, I am always available to help.

How to Identify NUTRIENT-DENSE Produce - BRIX it!

It seems a long way off to picking vine-ripened, scrumptious, tasty tomatoes, but now is the time to prepare for that event. The taste that you are after is very much dependent on getting the soil organic matter, microbial populations, and all the minerals in the proper amounts and ratios. When you get all the numbers “right,” the result will be tomatoes that are tasty and NUTRIENT DENSE.

A nutrient density index can be measured with a refractometer. It measures the sugar/mineral content in units called “BRIX.” It’s an easy process that involves extracting a few drops of plant juice, from either the leaves or the fruit. When BRIX levels are high, the minerals are abundant, taste is superb, shelf life is extended, insect and disease problems are greatly reduced, and the plants are more winter hardy.

This issue of nutritional quality of produce is not a new concern. USDA alerted the public to the declining quality of produce in 1936. (This is not a typo). It made the news and was actually read into Senate Document 264.

If this subject is new to you, you can get additional information by checking out “high brix gardens,” or www.nutrient-dense.info. In the future, we are likely to see produce marketed on the basis of the BRIX readings. That will benefit the consumer.

The first North American Conference on Nutrient-Dense produce will take place in Wisconsin, Nov

7-8, 2010. High BRIX production goes beyond standard organics. Research has been done, and many farmers and gardeners are on board.

You cannot assume that your produce will have a high brix reading, just because it looks good. Only by doing a BRIX test (or other expensive type of nutrient analysis) will you know the nutrient density value for your produce. Here is an example with green beans of why the nutrient density issue is so critical. It was reported in June, 2007 Acres U.S.A. magazine by Jon Frank.

Rating Sample #1 Sample #2

Brix Rating 4.2 6.1

Dry Matter 8.1% 16.6%

Protein 1.75 g 3.34 g

Calcium 70mg 130 mg

Magnesium 30mg 50mg

Phosphorus 40mg 80 mg

Potassium 190mg 580mg

Copper 0.1 mg 0.4 mg

Iron 1.3 mg 2.1 mg

Zinc 0.7 mg 2.3 mg

Manganese 0.29 mg 0.35 mg

The data speak for themselves. By going from BRIX readings of 4 to 6, dry weight, protein content, and nutrient density essentially doubled. I have tested many vegetables from stores and gardens in the area and many are in the 4 (poor) range. I know from my own garden that by moving up to the 8 and 12 range (Good) the vegetables taste is noticeably improved.

What you do now will determine the taste of that summer tomato. It starts by getting a soil test, and adding appropriate amendments.

Parachutes, Dots, and Biodynamic Gardening

To New Master Gardeners: The 50 previous articles I have written for Garden Thyme cover a wide array of organic gardening topics and are posted on my website www.harmonygardens.blogspot.com If growing your own vegetables and organic gardening interests you, see me for details. I cover a lot of material in the 8-hour course that I teach on organic gardening. For more information, send me an email.

This year I will delve more deeply into topics that I have previously covered. Whatever the topic, I will try to be clear and straight forward. Here are some topics on my list for 2010: the soil food web, mycorrhizae and glomalin, humus and humic acid, diatomaceous earth, soil cation exchange capacity, and soil energy. Stay tuned.

Parachutes and Dots: “The mind is like a parachute. It only works when it is open.” It is easy to pass this saying off as applying to someone other than ourselves. To keep an open and stretched mind, I often look into unfamiliar topics. New knowledge on unfamiliar subjects can help to broaden provide a different perspective. It can also serve to help “connect the dots” on familiar topics. An appropriate topic in this mind-stretching vein is that of Biodynamic Gardening.

Biodynamic Gardening (BG): One common question is, “how does BG differ from organic gardening?” If we think of the original gardening practices, we could call them all “organic.” There were no refined chemicals, pesticides and GMOs. For eons the “organic” practices were the “conventional” practices.

The current, so called “conventional” practices (of the past 75 years), are really in their infancy and we are now seeing many changes away from them. Some say that the conventional gardening/farming of the past 75 years, with emphasis on use of refined chemicals, will go down in history as a short-term fad.

Despite the facts of the long term history in organics, today’s short-term orientation puts “organic gardening” as beginning in the 1940s with Rodale and others. It has never been considered a well-defined, single, procedural practice. It’s holistic and complex. It followed some of the practices of BG. Rudolf Steiner, considered the official originator of BG, gave his first lectures on the topic as early as 1912. In 1924, a group of farmers and others concerned with the depletion of soils, and deterioration in crops and livestock, asked Steiner what might be done. His 8 lectures, often called the Agriculture Course, addressed the uniquely healing, ecological, and spiritual approach to sustainable care of the earth.

BG centers on the garden or farm as a self-contained organism, embedded in the living landscape of the Earth, which itself is embedded in the energies of the cosmos. The BG practices embody integrating plants and animals, recycling nutrients, and working with the stars and seasons, as well as spiritual realities. The central core practices involve nine “homeopathic” preparations to enhance soil quality and stimulate plant life. Another mainstay in the program is the use of the Cosmic calendar, i.e. planting by the signs. I like the one called Stella*Natura, published by Kimberton Hills. Whether you use these techniques or not, you might just find them worthy of study. It might just help you in keeping your parachute open. Think of it as exercise – stretches for the mind.

Agriculture-Nutrition History

Calvin F.Bey CFBey1936@cox.net

 

Agriculture history goes back thousands of years to the time when the hunter-gatherer people began planting seeds and tending their crops. Although archeologists can trace some of the early agriculture history through seeds, it is the written material of the past 100-200 years that gets most of our attention. So what are the standout agriculture "discoveries" of the past 100 years? History books list machines, genetics, fertilizers, pesticides, and some cultural techniques. No doubt there have been some revolutionary changes, but, unfortunately, little attention has been paid to the integration of basic concepts into holistic systems. What has happened along these lines?

We might begin by asking, "What do Drs. William A. Albrecht, Royal Lee, Cary Reams, Weston A. Price, and Sir Albert Howard have in common?" These were holistic scientists, working in the 1930s, 40s and 50s, establishing the relationships between soils, farming practices, and consumer health. They answered many questions of their day, and in "alternative agriculture" circles today, their approaches and conclusions have great value. If you sum up their contributions in one diagram, it is the following:

Healthy Soils Healthy

Plants Healthy Produce (High

Brix) Healthy Consumers

Dr. William A. Albrecht, a distinguished and well respected soil scientist, worked at the University of Missouri. He wrote volumes of papers, including a major summary on organic matter and nitrogen for the 1938 Yearbook of Agriculture. His studies showed that farming with corn, wheat and oats, (without the addition of manure) drastically reduced the soil organic matter. He showed how nitrogen became depleted, how it related to other minerals, and how it could be maintained and restored. His studies also included how mineral depleted soils adversely affected the plants and health of the animals that ate them.

In a similar vein, many other scientists did essentially the same thing -- showed the relationship of the soil to the health of the plants and the consumers. While this is not a foreign concept, it is rarely the emphasis in commercial agriculture today.

So if this information was so valuable, why was it not incorporated into best-management practices? Unfortunately, the answer lies in the fact that promotion of new products (commercial fertilizers and pesticides) actually pushed out the holistic concepts. In some cases, as with Albrecht, holistic scientists were criticized, demoted, and told to curtail their research. Chemical companies grabbed control of the commercial agriculture industry.

My point in this article is that much of the older research is as valid today as when it was published. Ignoring much of it for generations has not been in the best interest of consumers' health. At the root of fixing health care problems today is the remineralization of our soils. It seems to be a difficult lesson for us to learn. I wonder why. Maybe some reflection on and study of agriculture history would be useful.

Biochar - What is it all about?

Biochar is a fine-grained highly porous charcoal. It can be made from any organic material high in carbon, like wood, switch grass, or many others. It is produced by pyrolysis or gasification, essentially baking biomass in the absence of oxygen. Indigenous people often make charcoal by burning wood covered with a layer of soil.

Some time ago I read in National Geographic a very interesting story about the rich black, man-made soils that were discovered in Amazon Basin in Brazil. These 6-foot deep soils were called Terra Preta, meaning "dark earth" in Portuguese. They were unusual in that after several thousand years of heavy rainfall and continuous forest production, the soils were still deep, rich and productive. These soils were in sharp contrast to the soils on adjacent lands where the natural soils were acidic and depleted of minerals. That story left me with a one big question, "How could we recreate soils like that?"

For those keeping up with new agriculture developments, you know that the question has been addressed and the current interest in biochar is high. Although relatively few scientists are addressing associated issues, an international conference is planned for November. Interest has been prompted by those wanting to use biochar to increase soil productivity, and those looking for a way to reduce carbon dioxide levels in the air.

Those studying the original Terra Preta soils believe the indigenous people actually made low-temperature charcoal and added it to the soil. The carbon in biochar resists degradation and thus stays in the soil for centuries. As a rule we think of charcoal coming from wood. In reality, it can come from anything high in carbon, even chicken litter. That is why Tyson is interested in making biochar.

A series of early experiments have demonstrated that biochar does great things for the soil. It provides some nutrients, reduces leaching of nutrients, improves water holding capacity, increases microbial activity, moderates soil acidity, stimulates nitrogen fixation, and in the process increases plant growth. One article talks about it being effective to remove contaminants (heavy metals, pesticides, oil, etc) from the soil. Another dimension, which has not been addressed, is the fact that burned material has an increased paramagnetic value. Because of this, the soil microbes and the plants benefit from increased magnetic energy.

Like variability in compost quality that I wrote about last month, all biochar is not alike. The quality depends on the processes used in manufacture.

In short, I am excited to hear what is happening on this topic. It may or may not turn out to be practical. I have joined an International Biochar study group to keep posted on the subject. I will be looking for a supply of biochar and doing some testing and demonstrations. As this all develops, stay tuned. If you have extensive knowledge about the topic, outside contacts, and /or a keen interest, let me know.

Compost Evaluation and Winter Worms

The Washington County Fair is mentioned elsewhere in this issue, so I won't dwell on it here. It was fun to work with many Master Gardeners, and to meet folks bringing in vegetables. Above all else, the real highlight of the Fair was to see the delight of 5-year old Oliver, who had entered a sunflower seed head. He proudly told me how he had planted it, watered it, and now it had won a ribbon. The color of the ribbon was not important. The beaming smile on his face was proof positive that the fair was a rewarding experience for him. That genuine sense of awe that comes from a youngster partnering with Nature and following through is what I will long remember about this year's Fair.

.

Compost Quality—All compost is not alike! Even though it is all derived from organic material, it can be very different in quality. Quality of compost is determined by what goes into the pile and the process itself. High quality compost is microbial diverse, stable, and mature. If you are buying compost, ask for some kind of an analysis that addresses these factors.

Microbial Diversity -- In addition to compost being full of nutrients, you should expect your compost to be high in microbial diversity. These microbes will include bacteria, fungi, actinomycetes, and Pseudomonas. These organisms are there to digest the organic matter in the soil, make the minerals available for the plants, and help to detoxify the soil. Compost with high microbial diversity will be more complete and responsive in its role of ameliorating the fluctuating and stress situations in the soil.

Compost stability refers to the degree to which the organic matter has been decomposed into more stable materials. In stable composts, the rate of further decomposition is very low and very little carbon dioxide is being given off. If you buy compost that contains large pieces of organic matter, or if it still heats up, you do not have high stability compost.

Compost maturity is another way of evaluating compost quality. It is a measure of how toxic the compost is when tested on germinating seeds. Immature composts contain more growth inhibiting compounds like salts, phenolic compounds, ammonia, and organic acids. Look for composts that are very fine and granular.

Winter Worms – If you are using red wigglers to eat your garbage, then start to think about how you will help them survive over the winter. If your worm box gets below 40 degrees, you may lose worms and they will not be eating very much garbage. I leave some worms outside for the winter, but I cover them heavily with straw and other materials. I also put many worms into the proper worm medium in 20-gallon containers and bring many in to my furnace room. It is convenient for feeding them the peelings and other kitchen scraps over the winter, and they survive and reproduce very well.