World soil day. December 4

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8 years ago

last modified: 8 years ago

http://www.fao.org/soils-2015/en/

The report will come out on the status of worlds soil.

We have to stop ploughing and using chemical fertilizers.

2015 was International year of the soil. Let's see how we did.

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strawchicago z5

8 years ago

last modified: 8 years ago

Thanks, Sam, for honoring the importance of nature and soil's health. I'm waiting for the 2 large trees nearby to lose their leaves, but these 2 trees are hanging on to their leaves as of today, Dec. 2, thanks to our wet week.

Have you ever noticed that trees lose leaves fast during a dry-spell, but hold on to their leaves LONGER when it's a wet fall? It's God's design of trees' shedding leaves to keep theirs roots moist for the winter.

So when trees are shedding leaves, that's when I put leaves to protect roses' roots. Advantages of putting leaves WHEN NATURE dictates, rather than some ARS-rosarian who doesn't even live in my soil nor climate !!

U . of Connecticut did a research on the time-span that grass-clipping release their nitrogen: it's within one-month. So the grass-clippings best FALL down to fertilize WHERE and WHEN they are cut with a lawn-mower, rather than collected to enrich the soil where the compost pile situates. In the same way, leaves are best left around trees, to protect trees' roots from winter's dryness. Many of my neighbors lost their trees through a dry winter, thanks to the practice of disposing leaves elsewhere.

Soil forum folks report that the soil BELOW the compost pile is rich with many earthworms. One person broke up her rock-hard clay by making a compost pile on top, to feed earthworms, which made the soil below fluffy and fertile

If we follow nature's time-frame: collecting leaves WHEN they fall down (in a dry spell), then put that IMMEDIATELY on roses .. that will protect roses in dry & cold spells prior to ground freezing. Winter-protect when it's dry & ground is warm makes more sense: less gunking up of leaves, and faster & more time to decay, plus benefit the soil & earthworms underneath.

I had done the wrong way: collected grass-clippings from neighbors, then dumped a bunch on my tomato bed ALL AT ONCE right before the ground freeze. That gunked up, could not decompose, and became a wet-fungi-mass in summer. When I planted my tomatoes in June 1, the top few inches were decayed & wet & acidic grass. That summer my tomatoes had verticullum wilt (black-fungal infection of the stem), or "wet feet" and died after planting.

The next year I collected grass-clippings from the neighbor, and layered them with soil during the DRY AND WARM PERIOD, so they decomposed fast. We got a bumper-crop that way. Advantage: Cover plants when it's dry and warm, so the stuff on top can break down fast. Layering with soil helps to neutralize the acid released by decay-organic matter (leaves or grass).

It makes more sense to put leaves on roses in many intervals: whenever trees shed leaves in dry & warm periods ... rather than a big blob when the ground freeze. Following nature's time-frame, leaves fall down when it's dry, makes more sense.

Winter-protect when the ground has already frozen: zero benefits, earthworms already went into deeper layers, and roots can't be protect when the ground has already frozen. I go with nature's time-frame, rather than some "experts" who don't even know my soil, climate, nor this year's changing climate before the ground freeze. We don't have a fix-date for winter, since there're dry & warm vs. cold & wet spells before the ground freeze.

As to bunnies or mice nesting in the mass of leaves? They chewed on my canes even when there was zero leaves. That's when I didn't have an open-compost pile to feed them.

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jim1961 / Central Pennsylvania / Zone 6
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
I will tune in Dec 4th Sam! Sounds interesting....Thanks
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Original Author
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Yes on that website.

I don't know where to listen to it. I will try to find out. Cet is central European time. 5 hours before est . 7 am for us.

I wanted to posts this to spread the word for anyone who might be interested.
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jim1961 / Central Pennsylvania / Zone 6
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Once I plant something I do not even like to disturb the soil because we have tons of Earthworms now...We have more worms now since I went back to using compost compared to using wood mulch.. In the past when I was using fertilizer I worked the fertilizer into the soil but I noticed I was disturbing the worms... I hate to even remove grass as I disturb worms etc. So now I just feed Earthworms by applying compost etc. to the surface of the soil...

I have to say I've never lost an in the ground Perennial plant/shrub/rose here yet... knock on wood

That excludes annuals....lol...I have lost those...lol
strawchicago z5
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Jim: Most roses are hardy to zone 6b ... so you are lucky to be in a warmer zone. Niels in Denmark, zone 5b, lose 1/3 of his roses, the same year I lost over 10 roses. Except that he has over two hundred roses, versus my 50+. Niels Poughman lost Frederic Mistral just like I did. He has acidic clay, and winter-protected roses with sand. Mas who used to post here also lost Frederic Mistral, and that's a VERY BIG root rose, like Dr. Huey-rootstock.

Predfern, Ph.D. in Physical chemistry, also lost plenty of own-root roses in our Chicagoland. Own-roots ARE VERY RISKY for zone 5a and zone 5b, since they are so small, esp. when they are listed as hardy to zone 6b.

I went out to dump my compost, checked on my roses. Dreuil du Raynaud, and OGR hardy to zone 5b, retains all of its leaves ... leaves are perfect & zero blackspots as of today, Dec. 2. That's the 1st one which I winter-protected with leaves, one-month before Thanksgiving. Acidic trees like maple lost their leaves 1st in late Oct., and the alkaline trees like Ornamental Pears still have green leaves as of today, Dec. 2.

I got maple leaves late in Oct., so I mixed that with a bag of cow-manure, and topped Dreuil du Raynaud .. weather was warm, so that decomposed & flattened down. My most healthy roses with leaves intact, as of Dec. 2, are the ones with the most stable temp. and stable moisture: 2 roses in pots in my garage, and Dreuil du Raynaud. Dreuil's close relatives, hardy in zone 5b, are: Madame Isaac Pereire and Souv. Du President Lincoln, which I didn't put leaves, lost all their leaves. It snowed heavily today, but will be up to 40's for the next days.

So early & gradual winterization in synch. with nature's schedule: whenever leaves fall, put that on roses help to maintain steady temperature and moisture for best-foliage-health and root-growth. Will post pic. of Dreuil soon.
strawchicago z5
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
I figure out why compost is known as "high phosphorus". The release of nutrients for green materials like grass clippings, chicken manure, veggies & fruits scraps is immediately. 90% of nitrogen is released from grass clippings within the 1st month of being cut. When these GREEN matter break down, they enrich THE SOIL BELOW.

Nitrogen mobility is a 10, rain moves that down to the soil BELOW THE COMPOST PILE. Potassium mobility is a 3, takes a bit longer to move down, but that move down into the soil below the compost pile. Phosphorus mobility is a 1, that stays put in the decayed materials above the soil.

When people scrap off the compost pile to fertilize, what's in decayed matter is mostly phosphorus, plus carbon (brown) matter like bark, plus cellulose component of leaves. The soil BELOW the compost pile is richest in nutrients, esp. in nitrogen, potassium, plus earthworms. I checked my compost pile: the compost itself has no earthworms, but there's tons of earthworms in the soil BELOW the compost pile during the summer.

In my garden of heavy clay, where it's high in magnesium & very compact & alkaline ... there's zero earthworm. So I dug that up to break up heavy clay with organic matter like leaves, alfalfa hay, or cracked corn, plus gypsum. Less than a month later, I came back to the hole, and there's tons earthworms. When I researched on earthworms, it listed manure and organic matter as food that earthworms like, plus wetness.

I tested topping soil with various materials, and here's what I found after I dug below the topping, either through moving roses, or digging for better drainage:

Almond solids leads the pack in creating tons of earthworms below. There's a spot in my garden that many roses failed, due to rock-hard-clay. I left that spot alone for 1 year. Then broke up the clay with expensive Charlie's compost (organic chicken manure & corn stalk, zero antibiotics), cracked corn, and gypsum. Planted Sweet Promise rose. Water still can't soak down fast enough. Too lazy to dig that up, so I topped the rose with layers of almond solids plus soil. Two months later, after Thanksgiving, I dug up Sweet Promise, there's tons of earthworms (at least 10) on the top 6", enriched with almond solids. Earthworms went up there despite the cold snow.

Cocoa mulch is 2nd place for creating earthworm below, also high in potassium & magnesium like Almond solids. Alfalfa hay is 3rd place for creating earthworms below. There's a dirt path between raised beds which get muddy, so I "carpet" the entire path with alfalfa-hay-squares. It rained lots, when I pulled up a clump of half-composted alfalfa-hay, below were the biggest Mommy worm, plus 3 babies. NPK of alfalfa hay 3-1-2, with higher nitrogen than alfalfa meal.

Greens like grass clippings, tomato leaves are 4th place for creating earthworms below. NPK of Green clippings 0.66/ 0 .19 / 0.71

The higher the nutrients that leach down, the more earthworms. NPK of cocoa mulch is 2.5-1-3, much higher in potassium than alfalfa hay, thus attracting more earthworms.

Leaves are 5th place for creating earthworms. NPK of leaves like red maple is 0.52 / 0.09 / 0.04, with 4.7 pH. I put fresh leaves on my tomato bed. After 2 weeks, I raked the leaves into the soil, there's lots of earthworms where previously none. The release of nutrients downward is also immediately for leaves. Leaves seals moisture well, and earthworms like moist soil.

Brown, or carbon-component such as wood chips hold the last place for creating earthworms below, due to zero nutrients, plus inferior to leaves in holding moisture.

http://gardening.yardener.com/Material-For-Composting

NPK Percentage Value of Leaves In Compost

Nitrogen Phosphorous Potassium pH

Red Maple 0.52 0.09 0.04 4.7

Sugar Maple 0.67 0.11 0.75 4.3

American Beech 0.67 0.10 0.65 5.1

White Ash 0.63 0.15 0.54 6.8

White Oak 0.65 0.13 0.52 4.4

East. Hemlock 1.05 0.07 0.27 5.5

Balsam Fir 1.25 0.09 0.12 5.5
strawchicago z5
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Nature sheds leaves gradually to keep trees' roots moist for the advancing cold weather. Plus the release of nutrients is immediate with both grass-clippings and leaves. To be in synch with nature: leaves are best put on roses right after they fall off trees.

The nursery's advice of winter-protect roses AFTER the ground freeze IS A BAD ADVICE. That caused me more than $500 loss of both grafted-on-Dr.Huey and own-root roses for the past 2 decades in my zone 5a. That bad advice only benefit nurseries, with people having to buy roses to replace the ones that died through the winter.

Disadvantage of winter-protect AFTER the ground freeze: 1) No scientific evidence that works, and in my soil & climate that doesn't work whatsoever.
1. Dumping a heap of leaves AFTER the ground freeze only make the leaves gunk together in a wet & acidic sheath, unable to decompose due to cold weather.
2. When leaves fall down, the release of nutrients is immediate to enrich the soil below. I found tons of earthworms, after 2 weeks of topdressing with leaves, in areas where there's zero earthworms beneath.
3. AFTER the ground freeze is too cold, who wants to work with wet leaves, or bagged soils that are frozen? Really hard to winter-protect with frozen-rock-hard-soil, or wet leaves. One year I meant to winter-protect after the ground freeze, but the ground froze weeks ahead of normal, so I could not winter protect, and 10+ roses die. Roses die through the winter NOT because of cold temp., but because of dryness of roots. The purpose of leaves falling down from trees is to protect trees' roots IN ADVANCE of the coming cold.
End of Oct.,I dumped a large wheelbarrow of maple leaves mixed with 1 bagged cow manure on top of that rose. Thanks to the warm & dry Oct. weather, the leaves decompose fast, and flattened down AWAY from the upper stems. Here's a picture of Dreuil D. Raynaud rose, taken Dec. 3 amidst the snow.
jim1961 / Central Pennsylvania / Zone 6
8 years ago
Very interesting articles in that link you provided Sam...

Oct 1st was Happy International Coffee Day...

http://www.fao.org/soils-2015/news/news-detail/en/c/332990/

Lots of articles under Highlights:

http://www.fao.org/soils-2015/news/en/?page=1&ipp=10&no_cache=1&tx_dynalist_pi1[par]=YToxOntzOjE6IkwiO3M6MToiMCI7fQ==
strawchicago z5
8 years ago
While looking through Organic rose forum for the Australian's soil-company recipe for rooting roses vs. growing roses from seeds ... I re-post this info. on the pH of leaves, which will help with staging winter-protection: put down acidic leaves first so it dries out and become less acidic ...Nature let the acidic leaves fall down 1st for that reason. The trees with alkaline leaves are the last ones to lose leaves in my zone 5a, many still retain leaves as of today, Dec. 5:

For pH values of fresh leaves: http://www.asecular.com/forests/phleaves.htm

Most acidic is Eastern Redbud (pH 4.3), Virgninia pine (pH 4.4), sugar maple (4.5), black maple (5.4), black walnut (pH 4.6), white oak (4.6), black oak (5 to 5.5), white ash (5.8 to 6.1), American Beech (5.8 to 6.9), flowering dogwood (5.5 to 6), Slipper elm (7 to 7.9), Hackberry at pH 8.

World soil day. December 4

strawchicago z5

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jim1961 / Central Pennsylvania / Zone 6

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World soil day. December 4

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