Volume of compost

[Guest guest]

Can anyone tell me if there are any rough figures for the amount of compost

needed per acre for general vegetable production, or how many square foot of

land I would need to dedicate to compost production for two acres?

 

Thanks prabhus.

 

Your servant

Samba das

[Guest guest]

>My understanding is that 10 tonnes of Farm yard mnaure is a rough average

>per acre for vegetables, grass or grain. Potatoes would be very happy with

>20 tonnes of manure per acre.

 

>ys syam

 

Mark Middle Mountain wrote:

>Fresh manure applied to potatoes can cause scab.

 

That's probably why we have got it at Bhaktivedanta Manor.

- We have also had tomato failure in the polytunnel this year (no compost

applied)

 

My understanding comes from the great agronomist, botanist, mycologist,

economist and director of the institute of plant industry, Indore and the

chief agricultural advisor to the central states of India and Rajputana -

who was knighted for his work - Sir Albert Howard. [also cause of the

fornmation of the Soil Association in Great Britain (and subsequently the

world) which was formed by Lady Eve Balfour and Friend Sykes who were both

eminent authors in the same school as Howard. There were nine editions of

the wrok The Living Soil.]

 

He (Howard) stated that in 40 B.C. Varro drew attention to the great

importance of the complete decay of manure before it was applied to the

land. To bring this about, the manure heap, during the period of storage,

had to be kept in the right conditions....In A.D. 90 Columella emphasized

the importance of constructing pits (in which the farmyard manure was

stored) in such a manner that drying out was impossible..

 

comment by Radha Krsna das. This pit system was was to preserve moisture

(in hot climates). In the UK and similar climates the right conditions are

also necessary IE, the reverse conditions. The heaps have to be kept dry

enough etc.etc.

 

This is not done in the European farming system and is a mistake.

There is complete imbalance in the manure heaps of the west for the

following reasons:

1. too much moisture

2. too little air

3. no consideration to carbon nitrogen balance.

4. the lack of management, which is mentioned in an article by Radha Krsna

das to the current Soil Association magazine entitled 'Organic Farming'

(December, 1999).

 

Therefore you have a vastly inferior end product/resulting in scab, blight,

eel worm, wire worm, mildew, lodging etc. you name it.

 

Columella went on to say: that there is a need to turn this material in

summer to facilitate decay, and suggested that ripened manure should always

be used for corn, while the fresh material could safely be applied to grass

land. The Roamns, therefore, not only understood the importatnce of organic

matter in crop production but had gone a long way towards mastering the

principle that, to obtain the best results, it is necessary to arrange for

the decay of farmyard manure (FYM) before it is applied to arrable land. It

is interesting to turn from the writings of the ancients to the account of

the syposium of 'Soil Organic Matter and Green Manuring' arranged by the

American Society of Agronomy at Washington D.C. on the 22nd November 1928,

the main results of which appeared in the journal of the American Society of

Agronomy of October 1929. Without exception, the investigators who took part

in this conference laid the greatest emphasis on the importance of keeping

up the supply of organic matter in the soil, and on discovering the most

effective and most econnomical method of doing this under various

conditions, as regards moisture, which the soils of the United States

present.

During the 2,000 years which have elapsed since Varro wrote in in 40 B.C.

and the American investigators met in 1928, there has occurred only one

brief period in which the role of organic matter was to some extent

forgotten. This took place after LEIBIG'S 'Chemistry in it's Application to

to Agriculture and Physiology' first appeared in 1840. In which he suggested

that organic matter (in the right condition) was of little consequence

and that due to his discovery of the true origin of the carbon of

plants..and that of the Rothamstead experiment station (at Harpenden,UK)

views have since been held by the majoritory of agricultural chemists that

all that matters in obtaining maximum yields is the addition of so many

pounds of nitrogen, phosphorous and pottassium to the acre (NPK). The great

development of the artificial manure industry has followed as a matter of

course.

 

May I suggest that you, Syamasundar prabhu, while not taking the advice of

the modern agricultural chemists in applying artificial manure, you are

however, following somewhat knowingly or unknowingly, in the wake of the

line of the Leibig school, and not adhering to the advice of the ancients

and more recenlty the expertise of the more modern day organic farming

authors, who founded the Soil Association; a member of which you are seeking

to become.

 

 

 

Howard said in (1930) that properly made cpompost was 4 times more valuable

that Farm Yard Manure. (This I consider, today, to be an understatement, for

the discovery of the health/immunity issue from food derived from compost,

or properly fertile soil, and the retail potential was not written about

until much later.)

 

In todays terms (2000) properly made compost or growing media is worth £400

a ton (retail) and FYM about? £10.00 per ton wholesale. It is not sold

retail. This figure may vary from farmer to farmer but in Kingls Langley,

U.K. it's this price.

 

The whole of the soil association was consequently formed and changes were

to be effected...

 

How can a "farmer" ignore these facts when they are presented to him..with

the results that have been published as well.

The answer may take pages.