[compost_tea] desert climate, compost and water needs

From: John A Perazzo <jperazzo_at_lvcm.com>
Date: Mon, 9 Jun 2003 15:19:16 -0700

Hello group,

I've been off the air (just collecting the emails in a seperate folder) for
some time. I downloaded that MailWasher thing to help me deal with some
spam. Feel like it's safe to try again.

Summer is here in full force and the heat of it with our water district's
"worst drought on record" media line has me thinking about quality compost
and water conservation. The 30 to 50% savings in water from Compost Tea
(improving the soil food web) I understand to be from the efficiency of the
fungi colaboration on the roots. I'm not much of a business person, much
less a politician, but I sure would like to apply this solution to this
problem. I think about it when I wake up, I think about it when I go to
sleep, I dream about it when I am asleep or awake.

Also in the news was a local pig farm having trouble with the neighbors
about the oder. I wonder if increasing the carbon content of their bedding
would help (how small would the wood chips have to be as to not scratch
their skin if they wallowed in it). That and quality compost with some CT
sprays I understand has kept the 40 tigers on the other side of town
smelling pretty. (Do Sigfreid and Roy use the same at their house? The
local Zoo?)

The Plant Production CD from SoilFoodweb is great. I listen to it when I
fall asleep. I now feel my most valuable part of our property is under our
cypress (conifers) because of the fungal soil and greater diversity of
organisms I expect there. (To be tested...) As a result, all my recent
wood chips are going there to be composted under their shade and mingled
with their soils.

In the reworking of the Turf Systems CD Dr. Ingham, are you going to address
water issues specifically (lots of water like Seattle and little water like
Phoenix)? I'd like to look further at that "astro lawn" advertisement
("Waterless lawn"). I was wondering if after airation (those plugs they do
with the roller), compost (quality) could be spread to go down those holes.
Wouldn't that provide a habitat like Tom's LiveSoil vertical mulching
technique?

In desert plant systems, the diversity is low. In rainforest plant systems
the biological diversity is high. As a desert moves from low to higher
diversity (or attempts such), what is needed to maintain that diversity?
Stop watering and I see the status quo returning. Who knows more about
Malcolm Beck's work in San Antonio? (/The Secret Life of Compost/ ACRES
book) talks about bio waste from New York (really?) sent by train to the
deserts in Texas and voila! Deserts are blooming!

Is this enough for now? Like the desert, when it rains, it pours. Hope
this flash flood hasn't washed any readers away. If any are threatened,
just put my email on their black-list in that MailWasher thing and not
another drop will fall your way.

John Perazzo
Las Vegas, NV


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Received on Mon Jun 09 2003 - 19:29:14 EDT

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