THRIVING after the FALL

The Index · A subject

Soil and compost

Feeding sand until it will feed us, with compost, manure, green manure, char and the soil test.

8 documents · 1 chapter · 53 rows

In the chapters

Documents 8

Sources

  • Guide The VDLUFA humus ledger

All the sources

In the log 53

  • 30 confirmed
  • 13 amended
  • 3 partly confirmed
  • 7 unresolved
  • 14 marked for safety
  • G10 amended Safety The Rieselfelder soils are contaminated with cadmium, lead and other metals and much of the land is still unsafe for food crops; Hobrechtsfelde is grazed to keep metals …
  • G11 amended Safety PFAS and microplastics pass through composting, digestion and vermicomposting unchanged; only source separation protects
  • G3 amended Safety Humanure compost rests a full year after the hot phase and goes only under fruit trees and grain, never under anything eaten raw
  • G4 amended Safety Urine: sterile on leaving the body, hydrolyses to ammonia in a day or two; store a month closed, dilute 1:10, apply to soil not leaves, a month before harvest, never on …
  • G5 amended Safety Immature compost carries ammonia, acetic, propionic and butyric acid and kills seedlings; cress germination index 60 % usable, 80 % clean; phytotoxicity gone by day 56 …
  • F6 amended Safety Potassium soap: KOH lye handling (add flakes to water), 55 g KOH for 250 g oil, pH ~9, >2 % burns, dusk, never on bloom, kills bees wet, hard water scum
  • F66 amended Safety Hotbed: trench 60 cm × 1.40 m east-west, 10 cm gravel, horse manure 45 to 50 cm in 15 cm lifts at 55 to 60 % moisture, 5 cm buffer, 20 cm medium; passes 45 °C in 48 to …
  • F71 amended Safety Tomato seed ferment 24 to 72 h, never over 72 (sprouting), pH 3.8 to 4.2; hot-water seed treatment 50 °C (value lost, standard) 20 min brassica, 25 min carrot and …
  • O1 amended Safety Fox tapeworm: eggs on low leaves/berries, 190 days in soil, 10–15 yr latency, liver 98 %, ~41 cases 2022; washing and −20 °C useless; 70–80 °C ≥5 min kills; cook …
  • A15 amended Safety Red mite: diatomaceous earth LT50 31–34 h, dust bath 70 % sand 30 % soil with DE and ash, repeat every 7–10 days three times; lime-wash cracks; coccidiosis oocysts …
  • B19 unresolved Safety Lye and lime: wood-ash lye burns, eyes covered; 1 kg tallow ≈ 140 g NaOH or 200 g KOH; egg-float test (coin-width cap); slaked lime 1 kg/20 l burns eyes and skin, …
  • B20 confirmed Safety Anthrax: a hide from an animal that died on its own of nothing visible is not skinned; anthrax spores in old grazing soil and in a hide for years; such an animal is not …
  • C5 amended Safety Botulinum spores survive boiling for hours; pH 4.6 line; 116 to 121 °C kills spores; a few millionths of a gram of toxin kills an adult; toxin destroyed by boiling
  • J2 confirmed Safety Well at least 30 m from and uphill of privy, midden, pig and stall; sand filters nothing; nitrate from manure reaches the well within a season; nitrate causes …
  • G13 amended Brandenburg soils are Pleistocene glacial sands, Arenosols, rated 25 to 40 Bodenpunkte; the scale runs 7 to 100, set by the Reichsbodenschätzung of 1934, with 100 at the …
  • G19 confirmed Albrecht Thaer, physician, founded the academy at Möglin in 1806 and taught the humus theory; Liebig's 1840 book replaced it with the mineral theory
  • G20 confirmed VDLUFA humus ledger: cabbage and vegetables −1,000, potatoes and roots −760, winter rye −280, grain legumes +160, clover-grass and vetch +600 to +1,400 kg humus-C/ha/yr; …
  • G21 confirmed Thünen study: organic rotations up to 39 % clover-grass and legumes against 11 % conventional, reaching similar humus levels
  • G22 confirmed Sand's organic matter oxidises faster than in any other German soil because of free air between the grains
  • G23 unresolved Own arithmetic: top 20 cm of a hectare of sand about 3,000 t (bulk density 1.5); 1 % humus = 30 t, about 17 t C; 1 point in ten years on 100 m² needs about 200 kg …
  • G25 confirmed Manure analyses dry weight: poultry 3.03 % N, cattle FYM 0.5 %, sheep 3 %; poultry loses ammonia unless bulked with carbon and releases N in the first 30 days
  • G33 confirmed Eisenia fetida (with Eudrilus eugeniae) the composting species; eats about half its weight a day; 15 to 25 °C best, dead at frost and above about 30 °C; a kilogram in a …
  • G34 confirmed Charcoal carbon persists in soil for centuries to millennia; Amazonian terra preta metres deep and fertile after a thousand years, made of char, potsherds and bone
  • G35 confirmed Raw char immobilises nitrogen; charge by co-composting at 5 to 15 % of volume (absorbs ammonia) or by soaking in diluted urine; field rate 10 to 20 t/ha on sand (1 to 2 …
  • G37 confirmed Blue lupin fixes 150 to 180 kg N/ha, about 80 % Ndfa, peak about 110 days after sowing, taproot 2.5 to 3 m, 70 to 100 plants/m², acid sand pH 5.0 to 6.8; white and …
  • G40 unresolved Fizz tests: vinegar on a rainwater paste fizzes above about pH 7.5 (free carbonate); bicarbonate fizzes well below 6; tap water gives false readings
  • G41 confirmed Red cabbage anthocyanin: red at pH 1 to 3, purple to violet 4 to 7, blue to blue-green 8 to 11, yellow above 11; extract by boiling; calibrate against buffers; poor …
  • G42 unresolved Brandenburg sand mostly pH 5 to 6.5
  • G44 confirmed Deficiency signs: N yellowing from the oldest leaves, P purple and stunting, K scorched margins on mature leaves; potash on sand leaches and >90 % of soil K is locked in …
  • G51 confirmed Swale 45 to 60 cm wide, 15 to 45 cm deep, on contour, spoil downhill over logs; Yeomans, 1950s, Keyline, topsoil 10 to 15 t/ha/yr
  • F15 confirmed Humus ledger figures (cabbage −1000, potato −760, rye −280, lupin +160, clover 600–1400; −75 kg floor)
  • F16 amended Clubroot spores 10–20 yrs, 4–6 yr pause, lime to pH 7.2, no mustard/radish covers
  • F33 unresolved VERN e.V., Greiffenberg (Uckermark), >650 cereal provenances; five ryes named; Champagnerroggen pre-1900, 2 m, no fertiliser
  • F43 confirmed Beet 16–20 % sucrose, Sep–Nov, −760 humus, 3–5 yr gap, hand weeding hurdle, organic 0.3 % of EU, clamp frost
  • F46 confirmed Cumin needs >15.5 °C soil, 100–120 days, Alternaria from dew; caraway substitute
  • F60 confirmed Garlic planted 10 to 25 October at 8 to 10 °C soil at 10 cm, never before 1 October or after 10 November, 6 to 8 cm deep, 12 to 15 cm in 25 cm rows; scape removal +25 to …
  • F61 confirmed White rot sclerotia live 20 to 40 years; bait of 10 kg crushed allium waste per 100 l, 7 days, applied midsummer at 15 to 20 °C soil with no host, hyphae die in 10 to 14 …
  • F67 confirmed Clubroot spores 10 to 20 years, favoured pH 5.2 to 5.8, suppressed 7.2 to 7.6, brassica pause 6 to 7 years (133 also says six and eight), ash four weeks before …
  • F77 confirmed Second-round disagreements printed in the Broker's paragraph: onion consumption 30 (132) vs 12 kg/person (134); curing 14 to 21 (132) vs 10 to 14 days (134); onion seed …
  • O27 unresolved Union a hand above soil; below = scion roots; ~10 % more dwarfing per exposed inch; burr knots
  • A22 confirmed German (and Brandenburg) soils selenium-poor, feed supplementation supplies eggs and pork; phytate halves zinc absorption from whole-grain diets; inland goitre, iodised …
  • A31 confirmed Brandenburg sand grassland 3–5 t DM/ha unfertilised, 5–7 with manure and clover; 60 % grazing utilisation; 200 grazing days × 18 kg = 3.6 t = 1.2 ha
  • A43 confirmed Pig pasture 10–15 sows or 25–30 finishers/ha, move at 5–8 cm, rest 4–8 weeks; growers 5–15 % DM from sward; Ascaris eggs 5–10 years in soil
  • A52 confirmed Deep litter: 10–15 cm to 25–30 cm, C:N 25–30, moisture 40–65 %, +5–6 °C (55 says +10 °F), cleared twice a year leaving 5 cm, biochar 5–15 %
  • A72 confirmed Goat milking 70 to 90 strokes a minute, pre-dip thyme and sage, post-dip sour whey with tallow or rosin, canal open 30 min, healthy milk pH 6.4 to 6.7; buck 150 m …
  • C13 confirmed Soil at 1 m around Berlin holds about 9 to 10 °C all year; daily swing vanishes within 0.5 m
  • R5 confirmed Rye starter: false rise day 2 to 3; Berlin hard water delays pH drop to day 4; climax by day 14 at 100:1 LAB to yeast
  • M15 unresolved Acid sets milk at pH 4.6; "the same number as the canning line and not a coincidence"
  • M24 partly confirmed Mozzarella stretches at pH 5.2; Campania found it "three hundred years before" measurement
  • D24 partly confirmed Berliner Weisse: 3 parts wheat malt to 1 barley; wort not boiled; mixed yeast and Lactobacillus; pH 3.2 to 3.4; hops barely used; "champagne of the north" story stands …
  • D27 partly confirmed Werder: island town on the Havel, two centuries of fruit for Berlin, sand over clay, south slopes, the Baumblütenfest, fruit by barge and night soil back to the orchards
  • T57 confirmed Bleach cycle: lye with lime 8 to 12 h, grass 7 to 14 days wetted every 2 h, buttermilk sour 1 to 10 for 24 to 48 h, repeated 4 to 8 times, lye never over 3 % on cloth; …
  • J17 confirmed 117 assumes roller crimper, no-till transplanter, engineered biochar, inoculants, fleece for an "autarkic" household; the book's household has fork, scythe, heap, char …