[Stoves] Basic soil--Basic info !

[Tom Miles]

AD

When the crops are fed a high caloric organic matter does that limit the
crops to only those that are suited to those organisms? Or does organic
farming change the soil biology to accommodate a wider range of crops?

Biochar has been used as a carrier to improve or restore the populations of
suitable organisms that have been reduced by chemical applications. Minerals
like rock dust are sometime included in the mix.   

Tom

-----Original Message-----
From: Stoves [mailto:stoves-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of
Anand Karve
Sent: Sunday, December 16, 2012 3:36 AM
To: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves
Subject: Re: [Stoves] Basic soil--Basic info !

Dear Frans,
The nature of the micro-organisms living in any given soil depends on
the nature of the soil. If you applied sugar to a soil and incubated
it, you would find only such organisms multiply, that can survive in
that particular soil. Thus, if the soil is phosphate deficient, only
phosphate solubilizing bacteria would survive in it. If the soil were
nitrogen deficient, only nitrogen-fixing bacteria would survive in it.
In the case of the vertisol soils in our region, the soil pH is above
8.5. In this soil, the iron is in a trivalent form, which is not
available to the plants. Therefore, farmers are asked to apply iron
sulphate to their fields. But if you applied sugar to this soil, the
microbes that would be multiplied are those able to take up the
trivalent iron from the soil and convert it into divalent iron. Survey
of farmers who practice organic farming showed me, that the crops in
such farms never show any symptoms of mineral deficiency. I thus
realized that the mineral deficiencies in the soil are corrected by
the soil micro-organisms. Asking farmers to apply special kinds of
bacterial cultures to their soils for correcting the mineral
deficiencies amounts to cheating the farmers. The necessary microbes
are already in the soil. All one has to do is to feed them with a high
calorie organic material, so that they multiply their numbers.
Yours
A.D.Karve

On Sun, Dec 16, 2012 at 6:29 AM, Alex English <english at kingston.net> wrote:
> Andrew,
> Perhaps you have seen  solubility charts?
>
> http://www.avocadosource.com/tools/fertcalc_files/ph.htm
> It is slightly different for soiless media.
> Very much a chemist's take on soil fertility.
>
> Alex
>
>
> On 15/12/2012 5:20 PM, ajheggie at gmail.com wrote:
>>
>> Hi Frans, good to see your contribution.
>>
>>   On Sat, 15 Dec 2012 22:22:03 +0100,"Frans Peeters"
>> <peetersfrans at telenet.be> wrote:
>>
>>>         Basic soil needs humus to bring pH 8,5 to 6,5
>>
>> This is because humus (humic acid?) is acidic but so will low
>> temperature char that  still contains pyroligneous chemicals??
>>>
>>> Basic soil by Ca exess has lack of Mg take up to form Chlorofil leef
>>> green
>>> .Result yellow leaves .
>>
>> Ye Ca inhibits take up of magnesium, we have it once roots reach the
>> chalk on thin soils here, it's known as lime induced chlorosis.
>>>
>>> Char has no chemical effect .
>>
>> The carbon in char is inert but presumably its the ash associated with
>> the carbon matrix that makes high temperature char basic.
>>>
>>> Sometimes water and minerals into the char are usefull at pH 5,5 -7.
>>
>> Could you expand on that?
>>>
>>> Basic soil makes trace minerals unsoluble and not avaiable to take up .
>>>
>>> Zn and Se can profit of basic soil .
>>>
>>> Too acid under pH 5 dissoves Aluminium from clay ,a plant killer .
>>>
>> I take from that that if the soil becomes too acid the aluminium
>> becomes labile and available, hence it kills the plants.
>>
>> So similarly if the soil is too basic it makes zinc and selenium
>> unavailable?
>>
>> AJH
>>>
>>>
>>> Regards
>>>
>>> Frans
>
>
>
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-- 
***
Dr. A.D. Karve
Trustee & Founder President, Appropriate Rural Technology Institute (ARTI)

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