soil fertility/home gardening

[Guest guest]

Chi,

Can you recommend any books on increasing soil fertility for the home

gardener?

Thanks,

[Guest guest]

> Chi,

> Can you recommend any books on increasing soil fertility

> for the home gardener?

Hi :

Sorry , no I can't.

My interest in increasing soil fertility is for higher nutritional

values, not for higher yields which are obtained at the expense of

nutrition. Increasing soil fertility for nutrition requires a

different strategy than increasing soil fertility for yield.

A book that I would recommend for anyone interested in understanding

soil fertility is the " Acres, U.S.A. Primer " . Knowing nothing about

soil fertility, it was the first book I read on soil fertility. It

helped me understand the language of soil fertility as well as to

understand what a soil test tells you about your soil. The meaning of

terms like " base saturation percentage " and " cation exchange

capacity " became clear to me by reading the book.

The " base saturation percentage " of calcium is the first thing you

look at to judge soil fertility, not the " base saturation percentage "

of hydrogen or soil acidity. Forest soils, for instance, will

generally have lower values for calcium than will prairie soils.

Chi