High quality soilsWASRe: Holy Organic

[Guest guest]

>

> >XXXXXXXXx Lots of weeds fit into that category Heidi.Mexican

sandburs

> >will laythere just existing for weeks and all of a sudden a little

> >rain and boom they are covering all the ground and full of seeds.

> >Fireweed will sit there as I sort of stroll by it a few weeks or

> >maybe months and boom it's 4 foot in diameter and 6 feet tall.

Those

> >are tumbleweeds in KS. Supposedly they (many weeds)thrive on hi

> >nitrogen soils(bacterial dominated) which are needing one or

several

> >minerals.OK see my disclaimer and hey, you heard it here. Dennis

>

> Are tumbleweeds the creosote bushes? I loved seeing them

> in the desert. The problem I have with the whole Albrect

> thing is that the low-rain areas will have higher minerals

> (which they do) but they also have less bacterial action

> and mulch (because there isn't much water). Forest areas

> have lots of mulch etc. but not many minerals, which is

> why slash and burn farming doesn't work very well. But

> once you start irrigating a low-rain area, you start

> washing the minerals away, and plants don't grow well without

> water generally. Anyway, I liked hearing about your low-tillage

> methods ... I'm not a farmer but out of laziness and lack

> of time we are doing something similar, and I'm concentrating

> on the " permaculture " kinds of crops. Chickens running around

> seem to add enough other stuff to the soil that the crops are

> thriving.

>

> -- Heidi Jean

Heidi fireweed grows here too and becomes tumbling tumbleweeds

sometime during the fall windy season. Our chickens are necessary

here to keep grasshoppers under control too. We're currently trying

to ready an old silage chopper to chop weeds(green and brown) and

brown crop residue to make a large compost pile. I obviously don't

have the weeds in control yet thru nutrient cycling and a healthy

soil food web. I hope to compost prior to the weeds maturation. The

healthy soil food web allows the plants to thrive on less water due

to much deeper roots,etc.We are having some success with blackberries

and barley and yes, wheat. But we did take about 20 acres out of

wheat production relative the previous owner. And I only grow around

40 bushels per acre instead of the NPK fertilized stuff which yields

around 70 bushels per acre. I would bet the successful permaculture

systems have a healthy soil food web. And our fresh warm (cow temp)

whole Brown swiss milk tested 10 on the refractometer today. Cow's

been fresh for 2 mos. Dennis Kemnitz