Of course it has limits. The assumption of your experts is that no measurable soil will be added through in situ conversion of substrate (e.g. regolith) to soil during a generation of agricultural use. So the depth of available soil will determine how long arability will last against soil loss under ag management. The maximum recommended figure you mention, 11 t/ha (5 T/A), is something like 4.5 pounds per square foot, which is something like an inch or two off the top a year. This is not a sustainable rate, obviously. Back to my mining analogy. Plants can convert subsoils to top soils but not very well under continual surface disturbance of agriculture and not at the rate of soil loss. No-till agriculture protects the upper soil much better than tillage does. Remember my previous post where I mentioned ag land as an area of dirt capable of holding up a plant while the ag. manager applies water and nutrients and protects the plants with pesticides. In the past, plowing (and in an earlier age, burning) not only loosened the soil for planting but got rid of the trash. Now the value of previous crop is recognized as protection against excessive erosion. A byproduct of this practice is adding or perserving organic matter and incorporated nutrients to the soil. Another byproduct of no-till is that the soil increases water permeability and water hold capacity. Wayne, thanks for the link. I hadn't read that piece since graduate school.

Been lurking for a short time... just recently got my first orchids... a Phal from the local garden center, and a cutting of Epi Radicans from a dear friend in Florida... she also sent me two other cuttings that didn't make the trip so well, and got frosted in the package... Anyway... couldn't help reading about the salts in coco coir questions... as a hippeastrum addict and grower, I use a lot of coco coir as the main growing medium... when buying coco products, just look for types that have already been leached of the salts... some companies, mostly hydroponic, I've found, sell the type that has already been cleaned of excess salts by the manufacturer. Read the product descriptions carefully. Of course, I use the ground product that comes in bales, but they also sell shredded and chunks, which I imagine would be more for the orchid grower... I have succeeded in over-watering my poor Phal, but thanks to reading all the great posts here, I have discovered a way to be sure of watering time... the simple wooden stake in the medium trick... it seems to be working for me so far... my poor Phal has dropped about 5 lower leaves, however, it does have a healthy spike growing, and a new nubbin of a root, I think? It's short, dark green, and hiding under a lower leaf... I also should mention that although several lower leaves have yellowed and dropped, the upper leaves are beautifully green and maroon, and new leaves are growing... I have my orchids very near an east facing window, and even though it's rather dry in my apartment, they are surrounded by clay pots full of flowering hippeastrums, which I hope will help a tiny bit with ambient humidity... I'm afraid to mist them too much as I don't want to cause crown rot or anything... Any tips anyone may have would be much appreciated, as I'm very new to orchids... I'd really like them to grow and bloom for me! :-)

Follow-up: Four out of fourteen S. clevelandii cuttings had roots. On one cutting the roots are just starting, so I put it back in the perlite/vermiculite medium for another week or two. For the rootless cuttings that yet have new growth, I trimmed them shorter to remove the black stems and re-stuck them. Along the way I've lost five cuttings: three simply wilted; two developed (apparently) the botrytis you described. So I'm four for fourteen so far. I have a lot to learn! OTOH, I'm impressed that it took only three weeks or less for good roots to develop on those that succeeded. I now have some S. eremostachya cuttings (taken Mar 29 and Apr 3), so we'll see how they go. The natural populations I've found grow in gravelly soil around granite boulders, often on north-facing slopes. I can post photos if anyone is interested. They are at about 3600 ft elevation, and they experience colder winters and high winds that we don't have here (my elevation in Temecula is about 1140 ft.).

The website is a bit confusing. 1. Commercial to RGB 2. HC-89 3. BM Color Preview Then you scroll down to where it states the name of the paint. To the right of that it should read: Get commercial tints, calculator, harmonies The get commercial tints is if you want this color in another brand of paint other than BM. That's what I clicked and then I chose SW from the drop down menu. Harmonies is if you'd like to see what other colors compliment BM Northhampton Putty. Please don't feel bad about this, I totally understand that overwhelmed feeling. I'm in the midst of trying to figure what color to paint my kids rooms. My painters are coming Monday and so far I've only narrowed down a color for my PR LOL. I still have 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms to go yikes! Here's another picture of my MBR. I think BM Yorkshire Tan is another contender for your LR. I can send you more pics of the BM Yorkshire Tan, let me know. BM Northhampton Putty I have a a few pillows similar in color to yours in my LR. I'll put them next to the BM Northhampton Putty and post the pics later today, (running late).