More on Green Manures, free nitrogen

Please scroll down to the bottom after reading the query. (Photo of clover green manure.)

Heidi Hunt, Assistant Editor

Mother Earth News

1503 SW 42nd St.

Topeka, KS 66609

(785) 274-4322

www.MotherEarthNews.com

Dear Ms. Hunt,

I have a simple article proposal to destroy the myths about “organic” blood meal and colloidal phosphates. They are, respectively extremely energy intensive and unsustainable. Then I will explain how to avoid them altogether using green manures.

Title: How Sustainable are “Organic” Fertilizers? (And what to do about it.)

Fact 1: Environmental Costs of Making Blood Meal

Heating [blood meal] is initiated at 82°C (180°F) and progressively raised to 94°C (200°F) for about three hours, then elevated to 100°C (212°F) for 7 hours. (That’s a LOT of energy.) Drying is complete when the final moisture level in the dried product is about 12 percent.

Fact 2: Environmental Costs of Making Colloidal Phosphate

Phosphate ore must be chemically processed with sulfuric acid. When sulfuric acid reacts with the phosphate it produces a slightly radioactive byproduct known as phosphogypsum. According to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, there are a billion tons of phosphogypsum stacked across the state and 30 million tons are generated each year.

Followed by a discussion of how to skip these fertilizers using the production of corn with the use of home-grown green manures as an example.

Up to 1500 words. Photographs and line drawings available.

Thanks for your time,

Robert Kourik

NOTE:

Her response, from the magazine that has for decades been the steadfast promoter of living off the land and all things organic, was:

On Oct 28, 2009, at 6:22 AM, Heidi Hunt wrote:

“Robert, thank you! Can you please tell me what your green fertilizers are? Also, it looks as though the article is based on commercial corn growing. But we deal just with home gardens and always encourage the use of natural fertilizers.”

What has become of our gardening media? Who’s minding the store?

Let me know what you think.

Visit my web site to learn about my new book on drip irrigation and other gardening books.

NOTE: The comments section at the bottom of the post has disappeared. Click on the "___ Comments" button or the title under the "Blog Archives". Thanks, Robert

The Dutch Win

This is the last landscape I installed before moving to the Farallones Institute Rural Institute to run the Edible Landscape Program. I inherited the plans from a student of the Harvard School of Landscape Design. He specified a herbal lawn mix between the redwood rounds. I didn’t approve of the redwood rounds for the patio as I knew there was too much white sap wood for them to last very long. Nonetheless, I followed the plan. I had already seen the “herbal lawn mix” at a public display garden. I knew one section was always blocked off due to too much usage, spilled sodas (maybe), and unknown spillages and urines.

The mix was composed of: creeping thyme (Thymus serpyllum), dwarf yarrow (Achillea millefolium), Roman chamomile (Chamaemelum nobile, usually listed in catalogs as Anthemis nobilis), and Dutch white clover (Trifolium repens).

I dutifully planted the mixture between the rounds. A year later, only the Dutch white clover remained. It is an aggressive plant. When grown as walkways between vegetable beds as a nitrogen source, it requires constant attention to control its spread.

Luckily the clients have no children as clovers leave nasty stains and are very attractive to bees.

Yet, it did provide a nice green mosaic between the rounds.

Visit my web site to learn about my new book on drip irrigation and other gardening books.

NOTE: The comments section at the bottom of the post has disappeared. Click on the "___ Comments" button or the title under the "Blog Archives". Thanks, Robert