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 not quite sure what is the point of this thread. In this one meta analysis, they reviewed 343 previous studies done, examining and measuring nutritional content of organic vs non organic vegetables. Is that right? Yet, after 343 studies done, they still find very little difference in the nutritional value of both groups. No difference that would actually support recommending one over the other for nutritional content. After 343 studies. That to me is a very large waste of time and money to do that many studies when the first 50 probably told you all you needed to know. I also have to wonder, who was paying for these studies? Is some organization trying to gain support for their point of view with 'scientific studies showâ¦'? At any rate, I haven't expected that organic produce has significantly higher amounts of nutrition over non organic produce. I simply understand that pesticides and fungicides actually are designed to kill bugs and fungus. Why would I want to eat foods that were sprayed with any kind of agent that can kill, even if it is just a small bug? And had them repeatedly applied? And that the soil that they are growing in has had years and years of them being applied? The other reason I choose organic gardening, is because an ecological system clearly exists. Why ignore that rather than try to understand it and work with the system rather than against it? None of these studies address either of those reasons why I choose organic.

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

I also consider myself a middle of the road gardener. I try to take advantage of any organic matter that I have. But you can have too much of it as anything else. If you try to grow plants in 100% organic matter you will likely have problems such as draining or compaction even low fertility; because your plant swill not be able to use the elements It contains First the organisms in the soil must break it down into a soluble form the plant can take up in its roots. Most experienced gardeners have an understanding of the importance of the NPK and trace elements. They are important to the plants and also to the microbes and fungi, as well as us animals. I see people that use buzz words and terms such as organic vs inorganic, synthetic vs natural chemicals. Salts are bad for the environment. No till is better than tilling the soil. But the simple fact is the world is made of chemicals, including life. All chemicals are made from the basic elements, and by definition natural. If the elements in a chemical are the same it makes no difference to the plants if they are manmade or by any other organism. Salts are bad because they can build up in the soil.. That is possible but it is not a common occurrence. It happens primarily in deserts where there is not enough rainfall. I would offer the chemical definition of a salt. Chemistry. any of a class of compounds formed by the replacement of one or more hydrogen atoms of an acid with elements or groups, which are composed of anions and cations, and which usually ionize in solution; a product formed by the neutralization of an acid by a base. The key words for this topic are; which usually ionize in solution: that is dissolves in water. I would say that when most people see or hear the word salt they think of table salt Sodium chloride, which has little use in the garden. But there are many chemicals classed as salts. Plants can only take minerals from the soil when they are dissolved in water, and for the most part those chemicals are salts. No till is better than tilling the soil. It is true you can over till your soil if you pulverize it to the point it causes compaction. But the reason for tilling soil is to mix up the top mostly organic layer with the mineral nutrients in the lower area. And to incorporate air which is as important to the biomass of the soil as water. If you make your own compost you know how much faster things happen when you turn your compost pile. That is you are tilling your compost. Even no till lasagna gardens are tilled but it is primarily done by earth worms. Worms are great but they are much slower than a garden tiler or garden fork.