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The task is to understand how essential making and using compost in Garden Farms and fields is to maintain a living soil, know how to best make compost of the available materials under the local circumstances and how to use it.
Time:
hours
Introduction:
Hopefully your project or institution is harvesting ton after ton of produce from your Garden Farm. This is all well and good, but have you thought about how the nutrients you are taking from the field will be replaced with new ones for the next crops?<br /> <br /> Part of the nutrients are replaced as rocks and small soil particles are broken down by natural weathering - the movements of water or wind and due to movements caused by temperature changes. But weathering especially takes place because of the activities of all the soil organisms - from large earthworms and burrowing insects to the microscopic bacteria and fungi. It is estimated that the amount of nutrients released from a soil full of life to the water in the soil (so they can be used by organisms) is up to 100 or 1000 times greater than from the same kind of soil if it is lifeless. It is not just the movements of the organisms that causes this release of nutrients, but to a larger degree the various acids secreted by the organisms that contribute to breaking down the soil particles.<br /> <br /> So, here is clear evidence of the importance of maintaining a living soil. With a lifeless soil, as the one formed in most industrial farming, there is very little release of new nutrients in the soil. They must therefore be added to the soil. On large farms this takes place in the form of chemical fertilizer.<br /> <br /> Next point is that many of these added nutrients disappear further down into the soil, or run off the soil surface before the roots of the plant manages to absorb them. Again, this will happen much more in the lifeless, uncovered soil of industrial farms than in a soil full of organic material, humus and at least partially covered with live cover plants (e.g. green manure) or mulch. The organic material and especially the humus (the dark brown organic compounds resulting from decomposition of plant material that are very hard to break down and therefore stay in the soil for ages) function like clay particles so that water and nutrients are attracted to these. Less nutrients will therefore disappear down into the ground and more will reach the plants.<br /> <br /> Still, even with a soil that is living and efficient in preventing loss of water and nutrients, you will need to add some nutrients every year. This also applies in spite of you rotating your crops to ensure that nutrients are taken at different layers in the soil because of crops having different root systems, and some crops even adding nutrients - nitrogen - to the soil (leguminous plants).<br /> <br /> This is where your compost comes in. You cannot continue to grow crops on the same land year after year without adding nutrients. And the best way is to use compost. This not only adds nutrients in a form that is not easily washed away. It also contributes (because of its structure) to less leaching of nutrients and finally it also adds to the soil all the things the organisms need to flourish, thus contributing to a living soil.
Directive:
<ol> <li> <p>Read p. 11-32 in the file on production of compost.</p> </li> <li> <p>Find out - by investigating or asking some farmers - what materials are easily accessible in large quantities for compost production, and determine what is the best mixture for compost where your are.</p> </li> <li> <p>Make an instruction on how compost can best be produced in your area, including details about keeping the right humidity, whether turning the material is necessary, and also instructing when and how it should be used.</p> </li> <li> <p>Set up your own compost system, where you follow your instruction.</p> </li> <li> <p>Send your instruction and drawing or photo of your compost production to your tutor.</p> </li> </ol> <br /> ,<br />
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living soil, compost, garden farm, fields, soil, local circumstances, harvesting, nutrients, crops, soil particles, weathering, soil organisms, earthworms, insects, bacteria, fungi, acids, chemical fertilizer, organic material, humus, green manure, mulch, organic compounds, decomposition of plants
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