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Re: Prairie Soil Fertility

alan:   i think there is a confusion here:  prairie surely is one of the
most fertile soils -- but that is after it has been ploughed, and the mat of
surface roots is distributed into the soil;  there it is biodegraded and the
bacteria release all its sugars and proteins to the introduced crop

you can restore fertility and tilth easily and cheaply to any soil:  plow
under some newspaper, at about 5-10 tons/acre.  in about three years it will
have become suffused with nitrofixing organisms, and the cellulose will be
mostly consumed.  this 3-year period of 'nitrogen robbing' will be replaced
by some 4 years of superior soil.  you can add 5 tons/acre for several years
in a row, until fertility is restored.

yes, i've done it, and it really works.  after all, what is newspaper but
finely ground wood/tree?  and what is more fertile than woodland duff. and
what is woodland duff?  wood/tree finely ground by all the wiggly-wogglies
that live in and on the forest floor.     geoff


-----Original Message-----
From: Alan_Rider@illinoispower.com <Alan_Rider@illinoispower.com>
To: prairie@mallorn.com <prairie@mallorn.com>
Date: Friday, April 28, 2000 8:51 AM
Subject: Prairie Soil Fertility


>
>
>There have been several comments made recently about soil fertility and how
>natives 'best' survive in soil of low fertility.  On the other hand, we
have
>been told that prairie soils are among the 'richest soils in the world'.
This
>seems to be contradictory.  Perhaps it depends on 'what part of the prairie
you
>live', for example Illinois prairies should have better soils than western
>Nebraska due to the rainfall amounts.
>My reason for asking is I am restoring former  areas of Highly Erodable
Soil,
>where there has been significant erosion and little if anything has grown
there
>intentionally planted or otherwise.  I have added large amounts of grass
>clippings and leaves and tilled them into the soil.
>I would appreciate comments etc. on this fertility issue.  How much
fertility is
>too much?  How do you measure fertility?
>thanks
>
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