Re: Hot Sandy Soil
Sal Schettino (sals@rain.org)
Wed, 22 Feb 1995 18:33:46 -0800 (PST)
> In common usage, quality is used todenote the degree of excellence of
> an object, substance, idea, etc. While it is true that sandy soils
> in tropical climates can support high crop yields given appropriate
> modifications and inputs (irrigation, drainage, fertilizer, pest
> management, improved crop varieties, etc) the soil itself has low
> inherent quality for intensive production. In the past agriculturists
> have spoken of the soil suitability for certain crop production. This
> is in recognition that sooils differ in chemical, physical,and biological
> character and are varied in their "suitedness" for particular crops.
>
I heard you can take even sandy soil and make it have inherent quality.
You can
maybe add rock p and k and lots of microorganizems and humus and get it
started and compost can you slowly organicly bring even sandy soil to
life. Look at Televive (sorry spelling) was a desert now it looks like its
quality soil. Ofcourse they had to plant a few trees. humm. I think I
would like to know how to make soil that's
not quality good. I think adding rock P and K and adding losts of
microorganizems maybe some humus so the microoganizems have something to
eat.Start planting and turning under, mulching one could take even dead
sandy soil and slowly bring it back. Ofcourse you need water.
I know it
takes nature 100 's of years to make humus and mankind only a few years
to kill it off but in this modern day of
mined humus,rock,microorganizems can't we with good management make our
soil good.do in say 5 to 7 years what took nature so long. Once you get
that life going will it slowly start suporting itself and be
substainable? If you put a few years into it could you get 100's of years
out of it? I'm hopeing so. How do we make that quality soil and how do
we masure our progress. I can't just masure NPK and other salts when
I'm looking for sustainable soil but the stuff in it that make it
a live and able to substain itself. .
Sal Schettino,Organic Farmer,don't panic eat
organic,sals@rain.org
or check out my homepage: http://www.rain.org/~sals/my.html