I always thought that what was local was best and cheaper. I swear by wood chips. Marton NJ 20 miles away gave me green sand and I purchased granite dust in the day. Other things brought in was various manures if I cleaned it up the coop or stall. Green manures are a given sort of like roots trying to help the soil. Dried blood and bone meal too. (Prions) I've also composted barber hair and sea weed along with fish and game innards.
Question ....are some amendments deleterious more than others?
1) What is suitable for domestic composting? I have composted corpses too but you have to bury them deep or some kindly neighbour will unearth them for you. My heaps are large and away from houses.
2) What is acceptable to the residents? In this district chicken litter is applied to the fields in quantity (but usually only once a year or less) which is clearly not possible in a city for several reasons. Some farmers were using sewerage sludge often and not following the rules about turning it in straight away. They were castigated and required to cease.
3) What can be harmful in itself to the environment? Some minerals eg gypsum can contain heavy metals and so long term application is not good. Some sewerage sludge can also contain things like heavy metals. Inappropriate application of soluble fertiliser near waterways pollutes them considerably. Blooms of algae and water plants can be a huge environmental headache.
4) What is a reasonable price in cash? I don't know about the sustainability of harvesting peat moss, I don't use it because it is very expensive here and there are plenty of alternatives, probably because it has to travel a long way. That in itself may render it unsustainbale here in the long run.
5) What is not sustainable in the long term? Fill in your own blanks here, probably anything with a fixed supply and a growing rate of use, petroleum and phosphate rock are obvious. Anything that has to be carried a long distance is doubtful. Anything that is a byproduct is attractive provided it passes the other tests.
In summary use what is local as much as possible and THINK before you apply it every time.
Another approach is to only use "organic" fish emulsion. Besides Mercury, fish may contain Selenium, DDT, PCBs, Dioxins, pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), which are used widely as flame retardants. All bad stuff.
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March 2010 lawsuit filed by a California environmental group claims that eight popular brands of fish oil supplements contained excessive levels of PCBs, including CVS/pharmacy, Nature Made, Rite Aid, GNC, Solgar, Twinlab, Now Health, Omega Protein and Pharmavite.
I'd think it would depend on what they are. I'll only use "organic" fish emulsion now. Part of the problem is the vast amount of plastic from shopping bags to six-pack holders that is in the oceans now. A distressing attribute of plastic is its ability to attract and concentrate PCB, PBDE, dioxins, and DDT. The plastic breaks down into smaller and smaller bits, which are taken up by aquatic life, and hence to the top predators (us). Municipal sludge is out as was seen in the fiasco of Michelle Obama trying to plant an organic garden where sludge had been sprayed on the White House lawn (heavy metals). Fresh manure or house hold sewage is acceptable, as long as it is kept off the the parts of the plant to be eaten for at least 4 months.
Selenium is bad? I thought that was a needed mineral for the body.
Whew... Glad you did not mention the Fisol brand. I take the one that has 70% strength, deep ocean fish and no mercury listed on the bottle and expensive about $35/bottle. Doctor Prescribed it for my Mom who has AMD, Age-related macular degeneration, so if it is good for my mom, its good for me?????
Selenium is a trace element required by some plants and animals, it is also used in dandruff shampoo. It isn't very toxic. Mercury, PCBs and Dioxin are another matter.
The principle is sound though that you need to to read the fine print regarding minor components of soil amendments, especially regarding long-lived and cumulative toxins.
It's a question most gardeners I know grapple with Bill. I live in the country and the garden on this farm has been made on the side of a stoney slope. Farmers don't put their houses on good soil, they put it on the shitty stuff because income comes from the good soil.
The unimproved soil was appalling - dunno how to describe it but it's the colour of the poo a calf with the scours produces - yellow, unhealthy looking stuff - it's full of small rocks quartz and shale/mudstone.
Everything I need for the garden except animal poop has to be brought in, but to get some of the animal poop eg, the chook poop, I need food for the chooks to be brought in. I have to hunt the plops the cattle leave all over the paddocks.
I recycle and return to the soil as much as I can but all rose prunings go to the tip and in spring when I'm overwhelmed with giant weeds, some of those go to the tip too as I can't get to them before they get seed heads and I can never make and turn a hot compost. My compost tends to be more weed piles that rot over time. I'm better at tumble compost bins. Dead chhoks get buried in the bottom of these weed piles.
I've found straw bales work as a good soil improver for me and also sawdust. The sort of quatities of peat that you Nth Americans write about using has never, ever been possible here in Oz. The most we could even buy would be a small pack that could be used to line hanging baskets with so we've never had the chance to use it to add to beds to 'lighten' the soil. In fact I can't even imagine why you'd use it to 'lighten' the soil. I add sand and rotted stuff from the bottom of my weed piles or rotted hay bales to break up my clayey soil. That and turning in old dead stuff dropped on the surface from weeding.
Interesting question. I'll have to think about it some more.
Why can't you make a hot compost pile? Sounds like you have a farm. If you have a tractor with a front loader, you can easily turn a large hot compost open pile.
Why add sand? I thought sand + clay = concrete. I believe organic material alone will help modify the soil.
In other words, as they say in the real estate business, it all boils down to location, location, location. Here in my location, Southern Ontario, Canada, in spring, every garden center, hardware store, big box store or roadside stand has bales of sphagnum peat moss for sale. Usual size is 3.8 cu. ft. and the bales are compacted making them relatively heavy and hard as a brick. Price averages CND$8.00/bale. End of season on sale prices can be as much as
50% off. According to the International Peat Conference, Canada has an estimated 272 million acres of peatland, second only to the former USSR (371 million acres). Australia & Oceania combined have less than 2.5 million acres.
Therefore, in reply to your post where you stated:
I'm stunned that any gardener these days would recommend, approve or in any way encourage the use of either spagnum or peat. The use of these in any garden where the gardener has even any mild concern for the environment is a total no-no. Coconut fibre is OK and is a very good replacement.
I, and many of my fellow gardeners have very much more than a mild concern for the environment and, if we lived in Oz, where sphagnum peat moss is basically an "endangered species", we would probably agree with you. However, it is unfair to belittle gardeners in another area where it is a renewable, economical, readily available and excellent soil amendment. Without the slightest twinge of conscience, I will eschew coconut fibre and continue to use sphagnum peat moss, along with material from our own compost pile(s) on the gardens.
you'll see that it was sponsored in part by: Canadian Wildlife Service, Environment Canada, and North American Wetlands Conservation Council (Canada),
2 groups which must be familiar with Canadian resources, yet still call for conservation.
So if peat is plentiful, and renewable, why not use it? You will have noticed that peat bogs are wetlands, and I think that it is in the functioning of wetlands that you will find your answer.
Wetlands:
1) purify water,
2) offer habitat to support biodiversity,
3) in relation to the above, provide sustainable food to local communities,
4) function as a carbon sink by sequestering atmospheric CO2. The carbon stored in peat represents one quarter of the World's soil carbon pool
The fact that peat deposits are large and renewable doesn't alter that their diminution adversely affects the above 4 points.
Sand + clay will lead to harder soil. Sand + clay + organic material (rye, buckwheat) will lead to more workable soil. Organic material must be renewed to maintain soil fertility.
The best garden soil is 30% - 40% sand, 30% - 40% silt, and 20% - 30% clay. Amend as necessary to approach these numbers. The above should constitute 90% - 95% of the soil. The other 10% - 5% should be organic material.
My soil is mostly sand, some silt, negligible clay, and zero organic matter. I don't need to add any more sand. I do need organic matter by the truckload.
Some peoples waste is another' s gold. I had to travel for wood chips
40 years ago. Today KC tree service delivers wish I could say the same for manures. I no longer have access to a pickup truck. But with three plies two cold and one hot our soil loaded with earth worms is pretty good. I'd guess the rock amendments for 1965 are still breaking down.
Cool, I buy about four hundred pounds of sand for weight for my two wheel pickup truck for winter driving. I use to put the sand down the cracks in the clay soil just to get rid of it in the spring. So I though I was just getting rid of it and now I was probably helping the soil. I will now mix the sand with my compost before I put it down in the spring.
In the past I always thought it was bad to add sand to clay. But now if I add compost with it, it will even better. Cool.
Cool, I buy about four hundred pounds of sand for weight for my two wheel pickup truck for winter driving. I use to put the sand down the cracks in the clay soil just to get rid of it in the spring. So I though I was just getting rid of it and now I was probably helping the soil. I will now mix the sand with my compost before I put it down in the spring.
In the past I always thought it was bad to add sand to clay. But now if I add compost with it, it will even better. Cool.
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