Dschall- In answer to your questions-- Compost is a free input. We make it by hand cutting the rice grass and mixing it with dried rice straw and vegetable kitchen waste. No manure. I was referring to suggestions that involved spending money when I said we had no money for inputs. I apologize if that was unclear. We have a solar panel, sugar, and an aquarium pump. If we applied the finished compost to our 4 acres it would provide almost zero improvement in pH and be washed out during rainy season. Further, the hottest month of the year here is April and we keep the compost tea in the shade, so I think it is probably aerating sufficiently. We teach Soil Science, English, and Systems of Democracy in the classroom 6 hours a day, five days a week. This week in Soil Science we taught the nitrogen cycle and how to mix inputs into compost tea differently to get a finished product that is bacterial or fungal, and which plants to which to apply which type of tea. Scrap wood is plentiful around here, especially bamboo. We do not have a shredder so it is difficult to compost or otherwise grind wood products, however, burning for ash would make the wood more easily applied. I will answer each of your questions and maybe you can explain their relevance to my initial inquiry. How many acres do you have access to? 4 How many acres are in rice paddies? a little over 3 What crops do you grow in the non-rice season? Chinese cabbage, bitter gourd, chiles, yard long bean, many asian eggplants-- however, if we cannot raise the pH signifigantly we will probably switch to crops that grow better in low pH. Does grass (not just bamboo) grow in the area? rice grass Is there anything green growing in the ditches? No, they are waterways. Are there wild or farm animals in the area? If so, what are they? Ducks Was there ever a forest or grassland in the area? Dunno. Maybe 1000 years ago? How many people are being supported by the land? 20 Do they get food from anywhere else? The goal is to be self sufficient. The low pH of the soil last year provided a smaller than necessary veg harvest and we had to raise $$ to buy food that was our intent to produce. Thus this inquiry for answers. Are they vegetarians? They eat whatever is put in front of them. If veg is all we have that's all they eat. They eat duck and duck eggs fairly regularly, as well as snakehead fish and snails that we net from the ditches. That soil test was not particularly good. Make a note for your journal to get a better test next time. --Soil test was free and is the standard test provided by Chiang Mai University. They won't do another free test for 5 years. We were lucky to get that one, as soil testing paid for by the Thai government provided free to Burmese refugees has a complicated political element to it. When these folks return to Burma, many will not have access to electricity to power a pump, IPM strategies must be developed to address their twin pests of monkeys and parrots, and they will NEVER have access to the results of a soil test. So when I say we are teaching organic farming it is in much the same vein that Hawkeye Pierce would teach surgery to a Korean med student, if you get my drift. Who is Buzz Killington? I've been working in the jungle too long to keep up with pop culture. Lazygardens, Nandina-- azolla?? Cool. we have a small pond with water hyacinth which I chop and use in a basket layered with rice straw to germinate mushroom spores. I'll look into azolla. Will the ducks eat it?

I'm pretty sure Dr. Ingham would not agree with Kimmsr's suggestion on soil test from your local university as it's geared for synthetic program. A lab like Texas Plant and Soil Lab which is geared for organic program would be better. Soil Food Web also tests your soil to find out what your soil biology is like which is far more important than soil tests that's geared for synthetic programs. Soil biology is the one that's responsible for turning insoluble nutrients into soluble that can be taken by plant roots. I never saw the point in getting soil test from local university nor having a pile of compost when it's a lot easier and cheaper to just use organic cheap fertilizer like soybean meal and spray molasses to get soil biology activities going than compost. Most don't have large space to generate large amount of compost nor have the time to compost a large pile of OM to be enough to be used each year. Because, I understand how plant succession works, Kimmsr's way is to way too slow to improve soil in my case. I'm willing to spend a few dollars more to speed up the process perhaps turn 20-30 years of slow process into 10 years of faster process to improving soil. We don't have that long of a life span that is needed to see plant succession from barren ground to old forest on their own which can take hundreds of years. My ground was completely ruined so were hundreds of thousands across the USA when house was built every year or from over usage of chemical products. Fungi is very fragile and it's something that takes very long time to the point where trees can depend on them without the help from us. The bacteria part is very easy but if you want healthy trees that will perform well on their own, soil fungi is what is needed. It doesn't take much to kill them outright. Here is a link that might be useful: Texas Plant and Soil Lab

Thanks Patsy. We have free range ducks. It is interesting how big the eggs get the day after they eat fish--Ducks patrol the paddy and lay eggs in the duckhouse. We need to be self sufficient in food production. I have learned to love eating the snails, simmered in rosa, garlic, chiles, and coconut milk-- they are Aunt Bea good. It turns out that ducks make lousy mothers--won't sit on the eggs. We collected 10 eggs from the duckhouse and put them with 3 chicken eggs under the hen--she hatched them but is looking for the rooster to give him a whuppin' for making such ugly chicks with big noses and funny looking feet! In a rice paddy there is a flow through of water from uphill to downhill. It may look flat, but gravity moves the water. There is adequate access to water during dry season. Interestingly enough, there is very little soy grown in these parts. The vegetables of choice locally are yard long bean, Lao orange eggplant, yellow eggplant, chiles, small onions, chinese cabbage,okra, and rosa (a green that tastes lemony). It is a little hot for spinach here. I got an interesting suggestion from another respondent--get some busted up pieces of concrete from a construction job and place them at the headwater of the irrigation to the paddy. Will leach out limestone for free. Anyway--thanks for your kind words and helpful link.

A lot of people might use organic methods but live right on top of large farms that use lots of chemicals so these chemicals are within an 1/8 mile or less. I believe as this is just my opinion that this negates any claims that their stuff is chemical free. Runoff is water from rain and melted snow which is not absorbed and captured by the soil, but runs over the ground and in and out of loose soil. Farm runoff is water leaving farm fields because of rain - melted snow - or possibly irrigation methods. As runoff moves, it picks up and carries pollution, which it can deposit into rivers,small ponds, lakes, coastal waters, and underground sources of drinking water. Agricultural runoff include,s pollution from soil erosion, livestock feeding systems, grazing, plowing, animal waste, and herbicides-pesticides, irrigation water, and fertilizer. Pollutants from farming include soil particles, pesticides, herbicides, heavy metals, salts, and nutrients such as excessive nitrogen - phosphorus. Large levels of nitrates from fertilizers in the runoff can infiltrate drinking water I wonder if these so-called organic method gardeners that say they are chemical-free explain this to their customers. All certified organic growers are the proper distance away from farm fields that use lots of different chemicals to prevent cross contamination or at least they should be. When I choose to grow produce for sale I do not mention anything even close to the word organic because I am NOT certified and tested and inspected and licensed ORGANIC If people ask me what chemicals I use for my operation they get all of my information. If they don,t ask I do not say anything because the weed/bug sprays that I use are available over the counter and are legal to use without special fed, or county-govt. permits. Nick