Check out MN Institute for Sustainable Agrigulture

 <A HREF="http://www.misa.umn.edu/">Click here: MISA</A>

Here is a website for MN Institute for Sustainable Agriculture.  If you click
on the link for Publications, you'll find subjects like "Organic Matter
Management" and "Soil Biology and Soil Management".

The following info is from a chart showing what happned to nutrient holding
capacity and water holding capacity when organic matter decreases (I tried to
copy the chart, but the columns didn't line up right)

If soil texture is loamy sand (5% clay) and organic matter decreases 2% to
1.5%
then nutrient holding capacity decreases by 14% and available water holding
capacity decreases by 12%

If soil texture is silt loam (20% clay) and organic matter decreases 4% to
3.5%
then nutrient holding capacity decreases by 4% and organic matter decreases
by 7%.

How can I apply this to my gardens, where I have about a foot of sandy soil
over clay?    Organic matter seems to be alot more important in sandy soils.
 Can anyone share any experiences related to this if they have gardened in
different types of soils?  Could you tell the difference in how your plants
grew?  How much you had to water? etc.  Ok, I like to hear ANY stories about
gardening experiences, related to this or not!!

Thanks,
Cindy Johnson
White Bear Lake, MN
zone 4a
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