As a gardener, growth of the soil is very important to me. Poor soil causes so many unnecessary problems for the gardener, such as:
Adding organic matter
to a new gardening
area
The answer to these problems is simple. We must facilitate the growth of the soil. To achieve this, I use compost, animal manure, compost tea, manure tea, mulches, green manures, and organic fertilizers.
Increasing organic matter to a minimum of 3% and preferably 5% is one of the keys to growing healthy soil, because beneficial microorganisms that bring the soil alive depend on organic matter for food. Click here for a revolutionary way to quickly build top soil.
For growth of the soil in a new garden plot, I first till the ground, then till organic matter, like leaves and grass, into the top 6” of soil. Or, I add wood chips, but only till them into the top 2 inches of soil.
Unless it is green manure, it is best to till organic matter into the soil in the fall. The main reason is to prevent tying up nitrogen in the soil while it breaks down the organic matter.
Having used numerous methods to grow my garden soil, to me the most effective is to use ramial wood chips. Working these into the soil in the fall can start to produce fertile soil by the next spring!
Ramial Chipped Wood, or RCW, has a distinct advantage over every other method I have used to grow the soil. As RCW decomposes in the soil, it produces stable humus, which releases humic acids. Humic acid works like a glue to bind soil particles together, making the soil soft and crumbly instead of clumped and hard.
Of course, RCW isn't the only way to get the benefit of humic acids. Compost, and the breakdown of manure, green manure and mulches also produces a short-lived humus that can stay in the soil 1 to 3 years. It is also possible to apply liquid humic acids on the soil. For years I have used these on my garden and lawn with the following amazing results.
When we first moved into our house there were only weeds. Every fall I applied humic acids to my lawn. The spring after the first application a 6 foot by 12 foot patch of Bermuda grass appeared. The next year the Bermuda filled much of the yard in front of the house, and by the 3rd year it had taken over. Humic acids seemed to work miracles!
Even where I have
spread RCW on my
garden I
have applied humic acids to help speed up the
process of building rich soil. What is amazing is that, when
working well, soil microbes will produce more humic acids in the soil than
you would ever apply. This is one of the blessings of MyCorrPlus. It really
gets these soil microbes going, including mycorrhizal fungi, and these do a
great job of producing humic acid right in the soil.
As I
mentioned above, the very best way I know to
achieve growth of the soil is by using Ramial
Chipped Wood (RCW). Now I would like to talk
about the method of applying one inch of RCW,
then working it in to the top two inches of
soil. For smaller gardens it can be incorporated
into the soil with a garden rake. Three cubic
yards of RCW will provide a 1” covering for
1,000 square feet.
Why must it be wood chips, I wanted to
know. Couldn't I just lay down small branches
and cover them with soil? Wouldn't it do the
same thing? I found out that it won’t. Bark acts
as a barrier to microorganisms so that they
can’t penetrate into the wood. Therefore it’s
necessary to chip branches and twigs preferably
from ½ to 1 ½ inches in length, or to crush
them.
Fungi and bacteria need nitrogen to fuel their
work of breaking down ramial chipped wood.
During the first few months after disking in
RCW, available nitrogen in the soil is
temporarily locked up in the bodies of the fungi
and bacteria. Therefore, for proper growth of
the soil, it is best to apply RCW in the fall,
when crops don’t need a lot of nitrogen.
By spring, the initial fungi and bacteria have
died and are decomposing, releasing their
nitrogen for plants to use. When I apply RCW in
the spring or summer, I always apply it as
a mulch - I don't work it into the soil. As
a mulch that sits on top of the soil, it doesn't
tie up any nitrogen.
Many times in the fall there is actually a
surplus of nitrogen in the soil – nitrogen that
may be in danger of leaching into ground water.
If this is the case, an application of RCW can
help to tie this nitrogen up till spring. A
word of caution: Tilling in a two inch
layer of RCW can tie up nitrogen in soil for a
full year. If crops will be planted in the
spring and you want to disk in your RCW, it is
best to use no more than a one inch application.
It’s a very good
idea to plant a legume cover crop (like vetch,
clover or peas) a couple weeks or so after
disking in the ramial chipped wood.
Since legumes are able to pull nitrogen from the
air and fix it in the soil, they can help to
supplement the need for nitrogen. In the spring,
this cover crop can be turned into “green
manure”, enriching the soil.
In the spring, I don't roto-till my cover crop
deep into the soil, since that would take the
wood chips in with it. I either cut my cover
crop and leave it on top of the soil, or I work
it in to the top two inches. This keeps my RCW
within the top 2 inches, insuring that microbes
have plenty of oxygen to break it down. It's
best not to till the soil for at least 2 years
after applying RCW.
Personally, after initially tilling a new plot
of soil, I never till it again. Every time soil
is tilled it releases carbon (think organic
matter), harms the life cycles of the soil, and
hurts the structure of the soil. In fact, those
who till the soil every year find it difficult
to get their percentage of organic matter over
3%. Tilling each year is counterproductive for
the growth of the soil.
Green manures are plants that are grown
specifically for enriching the soil. While RCW
takes years to break down, when green manures
are incorporated into the soil they can break
down in just weeks, adding valuable organic
matter and releasing a ton of nutrients for the
next crop.
Though they only create about 0.1 percent humus
each year, their roots help to break up and
aerate the soil, and they feed a whole different
set of fauna and flora than RCW. Ramial chipped
wood and green manures are perfect partners,
working together for the growth of the soil.
For
growth of the soil, applying RCW directly on the
soil is superior to composting ramial
chipped wood and
then applying the compost. Why? Because, when
RCW is incorporated, fungi in the soil break it
down quite efficiently, creating stable
humus,
long-term fertility and soil stability. Also,
This is why for growth of the soil I prefer
direct application of RCW to my garden soil.
Sooner or later
farmers and gardeners must come back to the
central fact that we must make new soil.
RCW is especially
good for amending sandy soils poor in organic
matter, and clay soils that need to increase
their porosity.
RCW does lack
one very
important item: trace
minerals. These are important both to the soil
and to nutritional content of food. The best
balanced source of trace minerals I have found
is concentrated
sea minerals.
They supply a full spectrum of trace minerals,
plus they are super concentrated, so a little
goes a long way.
In his book “Mycelium
Running”,
Paul Stamets shares how helpful the Basidiomycete group
of fungi are for building the soil. The
mushroom family is included in this group.
Mushrooms also gobble up toxins and
pollutants. I used to react negatively any time
I saw mushrooms growing in my yard, but not
anymore. I am especially happy when I find them
in the ramial chipped wood in my garden. They
create such wonderful soil, plus provide a tasty
treat!
Ramial chipped
wood not only builds new soil, but supplies all
of the main elements needed for fertility:
Good news! Inoculating wood chips with fungi is
generally not necessary. The bark of chipped
wood usually contains fungi starter colonies.
Once the wood is chipped and worked into moist
soil, these fungi permeate the soil and quickly
begin to develop threadlike white hyphae. Within
a short time they weave together into a mat of
white mycelium (also called white rot). This is
the “root” portion of mushrooms and other
fruiting fungi.
This mycelium mat acts like a blanket to hold in
moisture and nutrients. As long as the soil
stays moist, fungi will continue to release
enzymes to digest the lignin in the wood chips.
As these fungi die, bacteria digest them. In
time, a whole community of beneficial organisms
are attracted to the feast provided by my wood
chips, including fat, happy earth worms.
Water logged soil is not conducive to growing
fungi, since the water fills in all the air
spaces, and literally drowns any fungi that may
be growing there.
A water logged area just isn't a good place to
grow a garden, unless you pull the soil up into
raised beds (constructing raised beds) so they
can properly drain. On the other hand, dry soil
is also a problem for fungi, since they require
moisture to survive and do their work.
In most of my garden I have a 4” covering of
ramial chipped wood. This works well for
growing larger plants and for transplants, since
I just pull back the wood chips and plant down
in the soil.
However, for crops like carrots and radishes
that are planted more closely together, tilling
1” of RCW into the top 2 inches of soil works
better than applying 4 inches of mulch, since I
can scatter my seed directly on the soil, and
then cover it lightly with dirt.
Once these crops grow up a bit, I then put some
ramial chipped wood mulch around them to keep
the soil from drying out and to help protect
from weeds. Then in the fall I work this mulch
into the soil to prepare for the next year, and
for growth of the soil.
Of course, in my areas that have four inches of
RCW mulch I can still plant my radishes and
carrots in rows, pulling the wood chips
aside and planting in the soil, but this isn't a
very efficient use of my garden space.
Once I have applied the initial application of
one inch of RCW, each succeeding fall I put out
another application of a half to one inch, and
work it into the top two inches of soil.
Each year my top soil grows richer, giving me
ever increasing yields of delicious vegetables.
Most organic gardeners utilize the following
good biodynamic practices:
What if we were
to add PEDOGENESIS (using wood chips to form
new soil) to the equation? It would give us
perhaps the BEST way in the world to grow
food while preserving soil fertility and
ecosystem diversity.
Yes, simply by
using traditional organic matter to feed soil
bacteria and then adding ramial chipped wood to
feed fungi, we have really helped the growth of
the soil.
To enhance my
garden,
I use compost piles, where bacteria break down
leaves, garden residue, grass, landscape
trimmings, and kitchen scraps. Each spring I
spread this compost over my ramial chipped wood.
The rains then
carry the nutrients down to the soil. My RCW
grows fungi for long-term growth of the soil,
and my compost supplies beneficial short-life
humus.
Another way to
get the best of both worlds is to disk in your
RCW, and then to grow a legume cover crop, which
supplies nitrogen needed to break down the RCW,
plus organic matter to feed bacteria. RCW and
green manure are great together, like a marriage
made in heaven!
What if you don't
have access to RCW for building humus - is there
an alternative? Yes. The best way to add humus and to help with soil growth is to apply MyCorrPlus.
I have applied this for years to
my lawn, and each year the soil improves.
With all of the great fertility that RCW and
compost provides, the
most important thing that
is lacking is a good source of trace minerals.
Many of the trace
minerals in our soils have been washed down to
the ocean. Because of this, both compost and
ramial chipped wood lack in trace minerals.
What I do is to
recycle these minerals back from the ocean to my
soil. The best product I have found for this
is concentrated
liquid sea minerals.
Next page, Where
to get Free RCW
(Return from Growth of the Soil to Fertility
Soil) ..
RCW temporarily ties up nitrogen
Planting a legume cover crop
I don't "plow in" green manure
Benefits of green manure
Soil apps. of RCW
vs. composting it
We must make new soil
Mushrooms are great soil builders
Inoculating with fungi
Too wet or too dry
Crops that favor 1" of RCW
Frequency of application
The Best of Both Worlds
Adding Pedogensis
The best or both
worlds in my garden
Adding cover
crops: the best of both worlds
Making up for missing trace minerals
