Re: fungal vs bacterial/ till no? No till?

From: Elaine Ingham (Soilfoodweb@AOL.COM)
Date: Sun Apr 20 2003 - 21:16:53 EDT


You are right on, Gil! Excellent e-mail!

As you say, no hands in the soil, not a grower. People need to smell the soil after adding compost, or manure, and know what it means when it stinks or does not stink (know that this kind of sour smell is ok, but that kind of sour smell is not ok), look at the leaves (know that rough at this time of year is normal, whereas rough at another time of year is not good), touch the fruit, check root depth. It isn't real agriculture if you don't do those things.

No contact with the soil? the plants? the insects? Then you're dealing with a spray technician, not a grower.

As Arden Anderson says, "The plant is your patient. You have to talk to your patient!"

Given time and experience, soil tests are just confirmatory. You know what will happen when you do certain things, and if they work, and the outcome is what you expect, then keep doing what works. Do you really need the lab data then? I don't take a test unless I get stumped and need help figuring out what Mother Nature did to me this year.....

Starting out? Fresh piece of ground? Different story. Learning curve required. All parts of the story have to be understood, which means soil biology and chemistry needs doing.

Thanks for your passion! I love it!

Elaine Ingham
President, Soil Foodweb Inc.
SFI Corvallis, OR
SFI Port Jefferson, NY
SFI Lismore, NSW, Australia
SFI Hilversum, The Netherlands
SFI Cambridge, New Zealand
www.soilfoodweb.com




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