Sustainability on Steroids: Organic Farmer Grosses $100K an Acre


I also have lots of wood ashes and use them readily in my garden, I am sparing with them because as mentioned they do raise the ph, or alkalinity (sweeten) your soil, and in the parts of the garden that I keep the soil sweet,
I use lots of a special form of lime that I am able to get locally and cheap. I'll talk about this super lime later, I have studied Bio-Char and found it interesting these post's have renewed my intrest its to late to get into it hard and heavy this year, we have already started planting here in Texas, so I will do some small plots and record the results, as i was reading the post's I was hoping that everyone didnt thik that the wood ashes from there fireplaces and stoves were the same because they are not.
 

BIGSCOTT said:
I also have lots of wood ashes and use them readily in my garden, I am sparing with them because as mentioned they do raise the ph, or alkalinity (sweeten) your soil, and in the parts of the garden that I keep the soil sweet, I use lots of a special form of lime that I am able to get locally and cheap. I'll talk about this super lime later,
Click to expand...

Yes, I've read that over and over again. Right now I have more wood ashes than anything else, and the values I see for it are in insect control, and as you said - sparingly in the soil. We do have a separate thread here in the Survival Tips forum on the many uses of wood ash. The initial area I plan on putting my beds has a PH of 7.5, so I will need to get some lime on that. Should I put lime on the existing soil before I build the beds? I look forward to what you have to say about your super lime, may very well be something I'm interested in.

I picked up a Mosser Lee Soil Master Moisture Light & PH Meter at Lowe's for testing my soil. But I've seen a whole lot of testimonials where people sent their soil in for testing. My soil has lain untended for over 50 years, grows heavy grass, bushes, grape vines everywhere, and is right by 3 streams merging into one. As I recall, Granny did use commercial fertilizer, but her garden was across the creek. I'm going strictly organic, but won't be going Certified Organic. It was my understanding that certification takes 7 years. I would assume that her use of fertilizer would no longer be a factor here.

Should I send my soil in for testing? I've pondered that, but really don't know if it's a waste of money and time.

BIGSCOTT said:
I have studied Bio-Char and found it interesting these post's have renewed my interest its to late to get into it hard and heavy this year, we have already started planting here in Texas, so I will do some small plots and record the results,
Click to expand...

In your case, and in my case later, I'm wondering if putting just a little Biochar in the mulch around the plants would be beneficial.

BIGSCOTT said:
as i was reading the posts I was hoping that everyone didn't think that the wood ashes from there fireplaces and stoves were the same because they are not.
Click to expand...

I don't have a fireplace, so that's not an issue for me. But I'd never even considered that. What would be the difference?

Thanks for your post, another step along the way of so many things to consider!
 

I'm going to send a sample off this summer to get tested. Find your county extension service, and ask them about getting your soil tested. In nc it's free from April to november, and $5 I think from November to april. I just fill up a bucket with soil from random places in my garden, mix it well and pull out enough to fill the sample box to the fill line. There is paperwork to fill out with it, with your situation you would mark that the soil is currently lawn, and will become a mixed vegetable garden. When you get your paperwork back in the mail, it will tell you how much n/p/k lime etc that you need to add to bring it up to snuff.
 

If you want to know how to make a really simple charcoal retort, I've been sitting on plans for one for a while.
 

Thanks jon, I'd love to have that plan for the charcoal retort!

And, you are right about the testing, I'm just a slackard... But, can't be a "chemist" if you don't know what chemicals you're messing with...

I'm on the Burpee site right now trying to order fruits, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, and goji berries. Darned site won't let me "checkout"... Ordered my grapes from them and it worked fine then...
 

Deep, I did a Google search for 'extreme composting' yesterday. Found a great thread from the homesteading g today forum. Very insightful, I read the first 15 or so pages of 179.
 

I am going to do this in seperate post's i just typed it all out then lost it just like when I tried to post that video of a charcoal retort.
 

Deepseeker ADS
you say you have a thin layer of good black looking humous type soil then clay with intermiton rocks. you have a ph of 7.5 thats not bad for this time of year later in the spring when the soil wakes up more
it will probably raise some more. in the place's I grow my irish taters carrots and other acid (sour soil lovers) I till in hardwood bark mulch, a little sulpher and as I use cotton seed meal for nitrogen it also acidizes somewhat, I try to achive a 6.8 to 7.0 at planting time, by harvest time it's usually about a 7.5.
 

When you do get ready to lime (sweeten) the area's that you are going to grow Tomato's, squash, melon's, beans and other sweet soil lovers choose you lime wisely.

Dont use dehydrated, hydrated, of kiln dried (powdered lime), when they kiln dry lime (Calcium Carbonate) it looses one molecule of carbon turning it into (Calcium Hydroxide) a much stronger form of lime,
I have used it in the past, almost every year here in Texas we have a false spring around the end of january, so early in january or late december I would go into the woods
and establish small plots of radishes, chive, green onions, shallots, scallions,society garlic and such, as I am a bit of a gruella farmer, I would make plots about 10' x10' use a parmesian cheese shaker to spread the lime as lightiy and even as possible about 1 to 1 1/2 lbs per 10' x 10' area,and till it in real good with lots of organic material that i would rake up from around the plots, then wait till i saw the 7 to 10 days of warm weather coming i would check the ph and plant usually about a 7.8 to an 8
this along wth the warm spell would help the germination
 

Then you have granualated lime, this is crushed limestone, and it is hard to overlime with this type of lime, it will keep working for 10 years or longer, although its most active in it's first 3 years.
it is also the cheapest, most fertilizer services will deliver and spread 10 tons for about $30 per ton, that becomes a problem because they usually only haul it in their spreader trucks and have to buy
a whole load to get that price, but it can be purchased at the feed store for about $4 a sack.
 

And then there is pelletized lime, they crush it to a powder then turn it into pellets, this breaks down and works much faster than granualated, and many of the manuafactuers of these type of lime get their lime
from several different source for blends that are full of minerals and stuff that is good for your soil.
you do good to talk to an old fertilizer or feed store guy, cause the kids that work at Home Depot, and Lowes will tell you they are all the same. if you should over lime
you can counterreact this with small amounts of epsom salt or amonia sulfate and lots of water.
 

American Plant Food Co. used to get some of their lime from the same place I get mine. they simpley called it garden lime, it came in a clear sack and was gray pelletized lime, I havent seen this product at the
feed stores in several years, and the dont list on their website, it worked very well, you could spread it generously over your plot and till it in and the soil would come alive and smell just delicious
 

My farm is in San Augustine Texas, there is a fault that runs through the county, I have looked for the name of this fault and canot find it, but it is definitely a fault I have drilled oil and gas wells on both sides
of the fault and the formations change by about 800', on one side of the fault the ground is sand, sand, and more sand, lots of good watermelons come out of San Augustine Texas, on the other side it is red dirt,
now the first time someone said red dirt, I said clay, they said no its red dirt, in my mind it still has to be mostly clay, upon inspection this was not the case i dont know if its from all the organic materiel in it
because there is alot, even though it gets a little gooey and sticky when wet it will still crumble in your hands, it is blood red beautiful dirt. I only wish I had more of this on my land I only live about a mile from
the fault but i am in an area that the fault overthrusted, I have some sandy spots and when digging around you find some patches of that beautiful red dirt but mostly just dirt that i have improved to where
it is black and loose for the most part.
 

I only have to walk about 200 feet down the road and there is a patch of about ten acres that is this red dirt, throughout the county there are patches of solid red clay and red sand, ive found patches of obsidian,
but they are small peices, one particular part of the county they found a coral reef that had overthrusted, and began selling this for road base, then the oil field move in and they used it to build locations
before long all the rural roads in the county and adjasent county were paved with this stuff, but its not the best roadbase in the world so alot of quarries that were digging it shut down.
 

joncutt87 said:
Deep, I did a Google search for 'extreme composting' yesterday. Found a great thread from the homesteading g today forum. Very insightful, I read the first 15 or so pages of 179.
Click to expand...

Geez jon, another forum I'll get addicted to!
 

BIGSCOTT said:
I am going to do this in seperate post's i just typed it all out then lost it just like when I tried to post that video of a charcoal retort.
Click to expand...

Great information Scott!

I'll copy and paste them all into one text file and print if for reference! Thank you....
 

When a geologist looks at a sample that has to do with ancient marinelife it is deemed glauconite or glauconitic their slang term for something glauconitic is whale sh!tt. before I bought any land in San Augustine I went down there to meet a friend of a friend and do some farming and gardening, we had an old mail jeep to run around working out of, planting and running irrigation and such, and lots of seeds would fall out on the
road and cme up volenteer, most of these did as good or better than the plants in the garden that we were taking care of, I determined it was because of the glauconite, I went to the quarry and asked if they had ever had it tested she handed me a sheet that showed all kinds of wild stuff and asked me why had there been a problem with some of the rock they had sold? I told her no I was thinking about using it for lime in my garden she named off about 10 old timers in the county that were already using it and that is when she told me that American Plant Food was buying about 50 tons a month.
 

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