Re: Soil mineral replenishment?
- To: pumpkins@mallorn.com
- Subject: Re: Soil mineral replenishment?
- From: S*@aol.com
- Date: Wed, 10 Feb 1999 22:08:27 EST
In a message dated 99-02-10 21:06:28 EST, you write:
> Just growing AG pumpkins in your
> > soil will cause imbalances, they are heavy feeders, what they take from
> > the soil is not necessarily going to be replenished in the proper
> > proportions just by adding compost. It may help for a few years, but
grow
> > them in the same place long enough and you will end up with deficiencies
> > that compost won't make up.
Not really true....if you have the right kind of compost. There is no way you
are going to be able to do better than nature, as far as nutrient balances are
concerned. There are probably even millions of factors that are not even
discovered yet that have to do with the growth of plants. You are trying use a
few decades worth of knowledge to replace millions of years of evolution.
>>when you start trying to play God and
> > start "making up for deficiencies" by adding a little of this and a
little
> > of
> > that, which causes something else to become unbalanced, so you try to fix
>
> > that
> > by adding a little of something else, which causes yet 2 more previously
> > unaffected things to become unbalanced, which you try to fix by adding
> > something else which might raise or lower the pH which will cause several
> > other thing not to be taken up right, so you add something ELSE to adjust
> > the
> > pH back, which in effect, creates once again, a deficiency in the element
> > you
> > were trying to correct in the first place! Nature KNOWS what plants need,
> > and
> > it has all been worked out over millions and millions of years, why mess
> > with
> > it?! When you start using chemicals and trying to "cure" deficiancies
> > chemically, you are just opening up a whole new bag of worms.
>Thanks,
> > I'll take the worms.
I meant that figuratively, actually, but now that you mention it, so will I. I
liek the little red ones! Covered with chocolate they ain't half bad. Oh yeah,
they are for the garden too.
Yes compost is great stuff and I love to see it when
> > it's full of worms. But I also believe in better living through
> > chemistry. You cannot answer all your problems by building a bigger
Trying to one-up, and control nature, hey? Hmm, have you seen "Jurassic Park",
by any chance?
I beleive in HELPING nature, not controlling it, or taking over for it.
> > compost pile and spreading it on your patch. I don't consider it playing
You can solve 99% of the problems that way. Oh well, not the problems that you
caused yourself by years of chemical and pesticide use, but see, that is my
whole point.
> > "God" to use amendments to help bring your soil into balance. Besides,
But does it REALLY bring it back into what YOU term "balance". How would you
know what true balance is when there are tons of factors not even discovered
about the micronutrients in soils?
> > thousand pound pumpkins weren't exactly something found in nature. They
> > were developed through a lot of trial and error and hard work and
> > determination by Mr. Dill and others who have built on his foundation.
EXACTLY! They were selectively BRED, which is bascially working WITH nature,
just speeding evolution up a bit, (O.K., a LOT)! But all of the basic factors
of nature are not disturbed.
> > Some areas have soil that you cannot grow anything in and that is just as
> > natural as deep rich loam and humus. We don't all have that to work
with.
Yes, but that is the way it needs to be. ALL soil can't be fertile for all
plants, that would be a definite imbalance!
> > The soil I grow in is very high in organic matter. If I add as much
> > compost as I would need to bring the nutrient levels up the the optimum I
> > would be too high in organic matter. It would hold too much moisture and
> > not allow oxygen to get to the plants roots. I didn't plan on getting
There is no way compost will BLOCK air from getting to plants, it HELPS it!
Where did you hear this from?!
> > into a pissing contest with someone who probably hasn't walked this earth
How exactly would a contest like that work?! ....oh never mind.
> > as long as I have been scratching it. You grow your pumpkins on your
> > compost pile and I'll grow mine using all the resources and knowledge I
> > can access. That means compost, organics, and better living through
I never said to grow on pure compost, since some sand would probably help
drainage. But if it was a well balanced compost, you could. Compost is what
all the plants in nature grow in.
> > chemistry and we'll see who's pumpkins weigh in heavier in October. Go
BETTER living through chemistry? Well, to a certain extent. But as far as
gardening is concerned, give me ONE example of a chemical that has benefited
gardening that had no drawbacks. Most natural methods can do the same thing
and HAVE NO drawbacks. People are messing with nature, trying to play God, and
poeple are finally finding out the mess they got themselves into. All the caes
of cancer and hormonal messups in people because of years of application of
pesticides on crops, people getting cancer after years of exposure to even the
smallest amount of chemicals when gardening. Prolonged use of chemical
fertilizers chase away worms and kills tons of microorganisms, how many, we
don't know. No matter how much you think you know, no one can possibly
concieve all the intricacies of nature. Something will always get messed up
along the line. All because people think they can outsmart nature. It looks
good at first, but not in the long run.
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