I thought that this might interest a few folks here. The fertilizing trees seems quite exciting and not unlike dynamic accumulator plants. Evergreen Agriculture | World Agroforestry Centre Plants are so amazing!
I'll check it, but unlike a lot of people, a plant neural network is not that amazing to me. Seems natural. Somewhere in my Acres magazine, someone mentioned how superweeds are natures attempt to correct the imbalance man is creating with the soil.
A thought just occurred to me. An interesting technique mentioned at the cited source above, uses the shade and leaf droppings of trees as an integral part of the farm. Permaculture also promotes this It also corresponds to what I saw on my thanksgiving driving. Out in the wine country of Sonoma, we were driving through cattle fields, open grazing land. Typical California, small valleys, flat pasture land. The grass was mostly brown and dead, but with the recent rains, some of the areas were turning green. All of the areas under the trees, oaks mostly, were greener than the rest of the pastures. I'm starting to understand why Druids worshipped the oak trees now.
I find it amazing how plants can control us. They don't talk or have cute faces but they have us under their thumbs, and we definately do their bidding.....MIW
WeeDroid In one sense, the phenomenon you saw is how trees and shrubs feed themselves. The roots push into the subsoil accumulating elements which end up in the root zone and in the leaves. When the leaves fall at the base of the plant and decompose then those elements are released into the soil A good example of this would be the neem tree. We all know about how plants like Alfalfa, Clover, et al. are able to fix nitrogen in the soil. Some trees are also nitrogen-fixing and the neem tree is in this group. By being able to fix Nitrogen in the root zone of the tree and given the depth that the tree's roots push down, this allows for this tree to be grown in harsh conditions like the Sub-Sahara desert. LD
Trees seem to be very adaptable too. Our water table is only about 50 inches under the surface where i live. So the roots don't have to go deep at all to get moisture. But they do go exploring. I have had a compost pile in the same general location, since 1999. Although I move the pile around a bit, the area is at least 4 inches and up to 6 inches higher than the surrounding ground due to the tree roots pushing up into the compost to steal away nutrients. The ground under the pile is a solid mat of roots....MIW
MI W That's really amazing - 50" below the surface. How is the soil? One of the situations in Western Oregon is that the closer to a river will result in very high Potassium levels (available) which is why you don't find much need for mined Potash minerals until you get into the farmers that grow for farmer's markets, organic co-ops, etc. where raised beds are the norm. The high levels of Potassium also means that you have to have accurate soil analysis so that your mineralization and liming amendments are in sync. The soils overall are pretty acidic from the rain over many millennia. LD
That's really amazing - 50" below the surface. How is the soil? There is a thin duff layer about 4 inches then yellow sand. Totally crappy soil, but lots of calcium carbonate (ancient sea bed) and over the years with adding organic materials and manure I've managed a decent garden every year. And now that I've learned the secrets of thermo composting, it's not bad.....MIW
Pretty tough conditions to work with - Calcium and sand. Kinda like the desert in reverse as far as pH I would imagine. Is Sulphur or Gypsum recommend by the local organic farmers? More likely Sulphur than Gypsum with its high Calcium levels. LD
The local organic farmers recommend adding manures and organic materials. I don't remember them discussing sulfur, maybe, I don't know. One guy i talked with uses gypsum every couple of years he said, but he has more clay, he throws it on his manure pile (cows) and it goes in the spreader, the soil ph is around 7, so not totally bad. I did get a big bag of elemental sulfur myself to use on a few things, like blueberry bushes, shrubs, and on my garlic patch. On those things it seems to have made a small difference, but on the rest, I'm of the opinion if it ain't broke don't fix it, lol. Sadly i only know of two fully organic farms in my hood, and both of those are hobbie farms that generate enough to keep them self sustaining, but are small operations. One guy tried the share crop thing that seems popular near the cities, but could not get enough interest to keep it going. Organics just is not that big here, sad....MIW
I think I know what your talking about, we do soya bean to replenish the soil and corn every third year . You can't do corn every year because it sucks the life out of the soil , not in my shitty clay soil anyways , my friends family composts there septic tank for the crops