<font style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); font-family: verdana,sans-serif;" size="4">Good day Brent,<br><br>I agree with you. All over the world soil convervation aspect is not given as much attention as is required. Soils are fast degrading and eroding. Carbon content in the soil is depleting very fast day by day and seldom it is replinished. Farmers have been suffering a lot on this account. The yesteryear practice of returning the herbage to soil after harvesting the produce is seldom practised by the present generation of farmers and only a few farmers are concerned. In good olden days majority of the farmers used to compost crop residue and animal dung at their backyards. Those recycling methods are rarely seen now. <br>
<br>The input of 25 kgs of dry leaves (as suggested by Dr. Karveji) may not be sufficient unless and otherwise there is a reserve of carbonaceous matter in the soil and periodical replenishments are taken care of in that particular region. As we all know, some crops pull very heavily from the soil and that amount need to be replineshed and balanced if we expect to grow crops by the coming generations . As long as there are reserves, soil responds even to small doses of input but once the reserves exhaust, I do not think small quantities of carbonaceous material is sufficient.<br>
<br>Anaerobic Digester replacing animal and the harmful methane is converted into a renewable source of energy. Pulverisers, Chopppers occupied the place of grinding teeth and the Digester occupied the place of gut, rumen and intestines of animals. The chain of microbes are transferred from animal to Anaerobic Digesters (anaerobic digestion of greens). Most of the weed seeds and pathogens that pass on to the soil from the animals are taken care of in the digester (if proper care is taken). The digestate with fibres and trace elements has to go back into the soil. <br>
<br>There are restrictions to spread the effluent directly on to the soil unless and until you prove that they are pathogen free and every precaution has been taken. Of course in developing countries the government is not yet enforcing the laws in this regard. It is funny that digester effluent is restricted and undigested dung and other such materials still openly left in the environment are not bothered. As long as God gifted microbes are allowed to survive and mankind does not monkey with Nature, I do feel that there is no need to concern much on this account.<br>
<br>Krishna.</font><br><br><br><br><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Jul 1, 2011 at 10:27 PM, bingham <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:bingham@zekes.com">bingham@zekes.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">
<u></u>
<div bgcolor="#ffffff">
<div><font face="Corbel" size="2">Dear A.D. Karve,</font></div>
<div><font face="Corbel" size="2"></font> </div>
<div><font face="Corbel" size="2">I am not sure I follow your point? </font></div>
<div><font face="Corbel" size="2"></font> </div>
<div><font face="Corbel" size="2">As part of my degree we studied cotton production
in the Mississippi River Delta region of the US,</font></div>
<div><font face="Corbel" size="2">wheat production in the Mid West US and truck
farming in California US.</font></div>
<div><font face="Corbel" size="2"></font> </div>
<div><font face="Corbel" size="2">Many of the really old plantations and farms kept
very complete production records. </font></div>
<div><font face="Corbel" size="2">Unfortunately they were not very smart
farmers.</font></div>
<div><font face="Corbel" size="2">They planted the same crop for decades with out
adding anything to the soil.</font></div>
<div><font face="Corbel" size="2">There crop yields dropped miserably each year
until the river would flood.</font></div>
<div><font face="Corbel" size="2">After the soil dried out and farming could resume
and the crop yields rose back to previous levels.</font></div>
<div><font face="Corbel" size="2"></font> </div>
<div><font face="Corbel" size="2">The Wheat farmers in the Mid West and the
truck farmers in California had similar problems but there were no floods
so NPK was </font></div>
<div><font face="Corbel" size="2">added in later years and yields
returned.</font></div>
<div><font face="Corbel" size="2"></font> </div>
<div><font face="Corbel" size="2">Old dried Samples of the wheat and produce
were found stored that dated back 60 to 100 years.</font></div>
<div><font face="Corbel" size="2">When the old samples of produce were analyzed and
compared to modern samples they had marked differences in the </font></div>
<div><font face="Corbel" size="2">amounts of the trace minerals they
contained. </font></div>
<div><font face="Corbel" size="2"></font> </div>
<div><font face="Corbel" size="2">The old samples had higher levels of almost all
trace minerals than there modern counterparts.</font></div>
<div><font face="Corbel" size="2">Some of the trace minerals were totally absent in
the new samples of wheat and vegetables.</font></div>
<div><font face="Corbel" size="2"></font> </div>
<div><font face="Corbel" size="2">Soil samples of the areas where the food samples
were taken showed the minerals were depleted from the soil in the root
</font></div>
<div><font face="Corbel" size="2">zone of the crops. </font></div>
<div><font face="Corbel" size="2"></font> </div>
<div><font face="Corbel" size="2">In some deeper samples the concentrations of the
trace minerals improved but they were unreachable by the
plants.</font></div>
<div><font face="Corbel" size="2"></font> </div>
<div><font face="Corbel" size="2">Is your point that the minerals necessary to grow
the plants are replenished through natural chemical and biological
actions</font></div>
<div><font face="Corbel" size="2">faster than the plants remove them?</font></div>
<div><font face="Corbel" size="2"></font> </div>
<div><font face="Corbel" size="2">I have a theory that the food we now eat is
missing many of the nutrients that were in food eaten by our
progenitors.</font></div>
<div><font face="Corbel" size="2">As a result of the missing nutrients we are now
less healthy and prone to exhibit a number of health problems.</font></div>
<div><font face="Corbel" size="2"></font> </div>
<div><font face="Corbel" size="2">If the soil where your "organic manure" is
obtained has been depleted of the trace minerals it may aide plant growth
but</font></div>
<div><font face="Corbel" size="2">not the plants nutritional value.</font></div>
<div><font face="Corbel" size="2"></font> </div>
<div><font face="Corbel" size="2">The areas we applied AD byproducts showed
improvement to the soil trace minerals in the plants over time.</font></div>
<div><font face="Corbel" size="2">I did not have the time money or patients to
determine why the improvement took place only that it does
happened.</font></div>
<div><font face="Corbel" size="2"></font> </div>
<div><font face="Corbel" size="2">It may be the result of a new bio-chemical
processes beginning in the soil introduced from the AD or from AD
byproducts</font></div>
<div><font face="Corbel" size="2">themselves.</font></div>
<div><font face="Corbel" size="2"></font> </div>
<div><font face="Corbel" size="2">Brent</font></div>
<div><font face="Corbel" size="2"></font> </div>
<div><font face="Corbel" size="2"></font> </div>
<blockquote style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 0px; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 0px;"><div class="im">
<div style="font: 10pt arial;">----- Original Message ----- </div>
<div style="font: 10pt arial; background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(228, 228, 228);"><b>From:</b>
<a title="adkarve@gmail.com" href="mailto:adkarve@gmail.com" target="_blank">Anand Karve</a>
</div>
<div style="font: 10pt arial;"><b>To:</b> <a title="digestion@lists.bioenergylists.org" href="mailto:digestion@lists.bioenergylists.org" target="_blank">For Discussion of Anaerobic
Digestion</a> </div>
</div><div class="im"><div style="font: 10pt arial;"><b>Sent:</b> Wednesday, June 29, 2011 8:13
PM</div>
<div style="font: 10pt arial;"><b>Subject:</b> Re: [Digestion] Digestate as
fertilizer.</div>
<div><br></div>
</div><div class="im"><div>Dear List,</div>
<div> The fact that the soil micro-organisms contribute to soil fertility
is accepted by all agricultural scientists. Logic tells us that high
calorie, non-composted organic matter would serve the microbes best as
nutrition. From this point of view, we conducted experiments and found
that plain sugar or pulped green leaves were excellent as soil
amendments. The rates of application were 25 kg dry matter per
ha. Capillary water in the soil always has soil minerals dissolved in it.
When one applies a carbon source to the soil, the microbes absorb the
necessary soil minerals from the capillary water. There is no need to add
minerals through the organic matter. That is why even plain sugar
causes soil microbes to increase their numbers. The concentration of
minerals in the capillary water is at a dynamic equilibrium. If a mineral
molecule is removed from the capillary water by a microbe, it is replaced
by a molecule going into solution from the un-dissolved pool of minerals in
the soil. We have about 30 km of earth's crust under our feet. New soil
is being formed every day. Only 5% of the dry weight of plants is constituted
by minerals. Therefore there is an unlimited supply of minerals in the soil.
Don't think that it would ever get exhausted by agriculture. And when you
apply an organic manure to the soil, don't calculate the NPK in it but count
the nutritional calories in it. </div>
<div>Yours</div>
<div>A.D.Karve </div>
<div> <br></div></div></blockquote></div>
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