[Greenbuilding] New Type of Chipboard

[Topher]

On 9/18/2014 9:31 AM, RT wrote:
> So, in addition to depleting nitrogen from the soil (nitrogen being
> essential to leafy vegetative growth), the long decomposition time of
> the very coarse debris hinders planting of the next growing season's crop.

My understanding is that this should be phrased as 'binding up nitrogen
during the decomposition'.  In other words, decomposing woody materials
requires nitrogen in the process, but that nitrogen eventually becomes
available to plants again, it isn't lost (to the atmosphere, for example).

That said, soil chemistry and biology is incredibly complex, and we
generally appear to be doing almost completely wrong.

The basic take away is that removing ANY organic materials from the
biological cycle, beyond a minimal surplus*, is going to reduce the
efficacy of the system.

* - Minimal surplus can be guesstimated at 1/1Millionth of yearly
production (calculated from our current usage of fossil fuels at the
rate of a million years of production per year).

Thank You Kindly,

Topher

-- 
Topher Belknap
Green Fret Consulting
Kermit didn't know the half of it...
http://www.GreenFret.com/
topher at greenfret.com