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Re: Prairie Soil Fertility

Could you please describe the "mechanics" of how to plow newspaper into the
soil. How do you distribute it and how do you keep it from balling up and
the plow just dragging a wad of paper across the field?
Ed Cook
So. Illinois

-----Original Message-----
From: Geoffrey Stanford <gstanf@swbell.net>
To: prairie@mallorn.com <prairie@mallorn.com>
Date: Friday, April 28, 2000 10:49 AM
Subject: 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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