quick question - I heard yesterday that leaving grass clippings on the
lawn to decompose and feed the microbes will also promote the growth of
moss here in rainy Portland - any truth to this?
Linda
----Original Message-----
From: soilfoodweb_at_aol.com [mailto:soilfoodweb_at_aol.com]
Sent: Sunday, March 21, 2004 11:33 AM
To: compost_tea_at_yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [compost_tea] Tea For Turf - Compact Soil - Looking For
Resources?
Softening the soil comes down to having the microbes in the soil that do
that work for you - AND - feeding them.
If toxic chemicals, which kill bad guys as well as good guys are used
continuously, you are going to go backwards on the productivity scale.
If you allow the microbes to colonize, and give them food to flourish,
then you go forward on the scale of productivity.
With grass growing and staying green, what was going on? No toxic
chemcials being applied - so the organisms were no longer being killed.
The grass was growing, so the plant itself was delivering foods to the
microbes around their root systems. And thus, normal soil softening
processes were occurring. The biology builds soil structure.
It can be that easy. In commercial ag, the results need to come along a
bit faster than we tolerate in our lawns, however. So we get more
aggressive about returning fertility in commercial enterprises. WE have
to make money from commercial ag, and so crops have to succeed. In your
lawn, we are less demanding, so often, just letting nature take it's own
time and do things slowly is just fine.
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
http://www.soilfoodweb.com
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Received on Mon Mar 22 2004 - 12:56:12 EST