Eight Acres

I've had a compost worm farm for several years now.  Actually I currently have three worm farms.  They are a little addictive!  I didn't know anything about compost worms before I got them, but I fell in love with the concept of having somewhere to dispose all our organic (vegetative) waste that would also reliably produce compost and liquid fertiliser.  The worms and I have been very happy with our relationship and I thought I knew everything I needed to know, but then a neighbour (who we respect as a very good hay farmer) recommended this book - Organic Farming with Worms, by David Murphy  (and that's not even an affiliate link because its not on Amazon).  Not just recommended it, he actually raved about it and showed us his new compost worm farm, and he said he'd bought copies of the book for all his friends!  This really got my interest, so I ordered a copy for myself. This book is for anyone who is serious about getting more out of their ...

I am coming to realize that the science I learnt at university is no longer current, even though I graduated less than 10 years ago. The study, and more importantly, the application, of microbiology in soil is one area that seems to have advanced significantly and it is difficult to keep up with each new discovery. Fortunately, Teaming with Microbes: The Organic Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web  is a good summary of both the current scientific research and the practical applications in our gardens and farms. The first half of the book is a summary of different types of microbes and larger soil life, including bacteria, archaea, fungi, protozoa, worms and invertebrates, as well as a chapter each on soil chemistry and the physical nature of soil. Each chapter gives an explanation of the role that each type of microbe pays in the overall “soil web”. I summarized some of this information previously after I attended a course on sustainable agriculture, however there was far ...

Since I did the Sustainable Agriculture course in July last year, I have been reading The Biological Farmer, by Gary Zimmer .  This month I'm writing about permaculture principle "Catch and Store Energy", and one of the less obvious forms of energy is soil fertility.  Biological agriculture is all about maintaining soil fertility in pasture and grain crop farming, so I thought it was appropriate to tell you more about it this month. While biological agriculture shares many philosophies with organic agriculture, they are not the same thing.  Like organic agriculture, biological agriculture focuses on soil fertility and working with natural systems, however biological agriculture also uses limited amounts of synthetic chemicals where they will help the soil to rebuild.  This may seem a contradiction, but when you get into the detail it does make sense.  Its fairly obvious that all synthetic herbicides and pesticides will damage natural systems and these are...

We are commonly told to plant legumes in pasture or in the garden to increase the nitrogen in the soil.  It is true that given the right minerals and microbes in the soil, legumes will develop a symbiotic relationship with rhizobial bacteria, which can “fix” gaseous nitrogen from the air and make it available to the plant (more here ).  The important point is that this nitrogen is used by the growing legume plant and only minimal amounts are transferred to the soil orother plants . “The amount of nitrogen returned to the soil during or after a legume crop can be misleading.  Almost all of the nitrogen fixed goes directly into the plant. Little leaks into the soil for a neighboring nonlegume plant.  However,  nitrogen eventually returns to the soil for a neighboring plant when vegetation (roots, leaves, fruits) of the legume dies and decomposes.”   Therefore, the only way to harness the nitrogen produced by the legume/rhizobial relationship is to u...

Background My first two posts were about minerals in the soil and how plants use them, and about microbes (and larger creatures) in the soil and how they help to make minerals available to plants.  This post is about understanding how plants grow so that we can help them by applying minerals and encouraging microbes at times and in ways that will be most effective and efficient for us and for the plants. Stages of plant growth This is a huge topic and far too much for me to get into in one blog post, and I’m no expert anyway.  The main concepts that you need to understand are: ·           Seeds – what triggers them to start growing? What conditions will be the best start for a healthy plant? ·           Roots – how do they transport nutrients to the plant?  What are exudates? ·           Leaves – what is ph...

Another paradigm shift…. I began the first summary page ( Understanding Soil Minerals for Plant Nutrition ) with a paradigm shift – adding several more mineral requirements to the traditional NPK in agricultural fertilisers. This post also requires a shift in thinking, this time we need to change the idea that all microbes, bugs and germs are bad guys. Actually there are an amazing range of bacteria, fungi, protozoa and even nematodes that can help us to grow healthy, resilient and nutritious plants, and release minerals from the soil so that we don’t have to pay for them. We need to support these helpers so that our job is easier, if we try to kill any that are perceived as bad, it can disrupt the balance and start to make life difficult for us. The importance of humus Organic matter in the soil is classified as either raw organic matter, active humus (consumed in about 6 months) and stable humus. The stable humus is most important for several reasons: Retains moistu...

As I said last week, I recently spent a week studying biological agriculture.  On the first day we learnt about mineral management.  I have prepared a table with a summary of the signs of mineral deficiencies, which you can download  here , as it doesn't fit on a blog page! First a paradigm shift…. For decades NPK (nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium) have been regarded as the essential ingredients for plant growth and are the main components of most synthetic fertilisers.  This was due to work conducted in the 1800s by Justus Von Liebig , in a very crude experiment by modern standards, which showed that the main constituents of plants are N, P and K.  While this was technically correct, there are actually at least 9 other minerals also required by plants in varying quantities.  Plants that have access to a soil with balanced minerals will be more resistant to pest and diseases and will be more nutritious for stock and humans to eat.  Balancing...

If you're following my facebook page, you might have noticed that I recently spent a week in Yandina doing a "Biological Agriculture" course with Nutri-Tech Solutions .  The course was exactly what I needed.  We have been trying to figure out how to grow forage and hay crops organically, trying to understand whether we should be tilling the soil and generally confused about our soil test results.  I won't say that the course answered all my questions, but it did give me some key information that I've been able to research in more detail to help us come up with a plan. Biological farming is about farming with nature's cycles.  It doesn't necessarily mean using organic methods, but if chemicals are to be used, they are used at the most sensible times and using methods that minimise any adverse effects on the overall system.  The idea is to use natural methods to our advantage to increase production and reduce input costs.  For farmers and/or farms that...