I get the message, can I at least put my
http://www.WatsonRanchOrganic.com on my posts??? Opps there I go again.
Hay, are we not all trying to make a living here?
Ok, to answer a few organic questions….
Lime, I don't have a problem with lime and yes I believe you could still use lime in an organic program, but why??? I have many customers that had soil PH from the low 4s to the high 8s and they all went to 6 go 7 PH within a few years. The life in the soil will take care of itself as long as you stop with the chemicals, and take care of the life in the soil as you would your livestock.
Here is what I have found during some of my studies the past 12 years.
Each spoonful of mellow soil contains billions of living microscopic organisms. Multiply this by the number of spoonfuls of soil in an acre and you have figures that are astronomical. In fact, the living bacteria alone in an acre of soil of average fertility would weight as much as a medium size cow. This seething mass of microorganisms constitutes a crop of three to five tons per acre foot of soil that the farmer sustains beneath the soil surface, in addition to the crop that he grows above the ground. If the crop of microorganisms beneath the surface does not have adequate food, the crop above the ground will suffer from competition for mineral nutrients and be more susceptible to disease.
"Micro-organisms eat the first table. They are in contact with almost every particle of soil. Plant roots are not. Without micro-organic life, soil, the dynamic perpetual system that sustains terrestrial life, would become an inert mass incapable of providing food. Micro-organisms decompose organic material and release elements and organic food for repeated use," states Dr. T.M. McCalla, research microbiologists, University of Nebraska.
Microorganisms need three things: air, water and an energy source starting with the organic matter. John Box, Extension agronomist, Texas A & M, has written, "Mike," the microbe is your best friend and may be the most important livestock you produce. Microbes live in the surface layers of soil in fantastic numbers. Since we cannot see them, we often neglect them, Mike and his cousins can perform chemical miracles that man has not yet learned to duplicate. Treat him well and give him the raw material with which to work, and he will keep your soils in top production."
In addition to food supply you can help by preventing soil compaction. Compaction reduces air supplies, limiting the ability of microbes to perform. Compaction has an adverse effect on root development and the soil's ability to absorb and hold water.
Without active soil micro-organisms, man would long ago have been covered up by his own waste or would have had to find a way of putting his refuse on the moon or elsewhere; but, thanks to Mike and cousins, these waster materials are recycled and made into compounds that can be reused over and over
Thanks for listening,
Brad