Dear Lloyd, Steve and fellow list members, In Bruce Copen's Agricultural rates there are the rates for soil testing with Carey Reams techniques. Amongst these rates is one for testing the vitality of the soil. Vitality of the soil seems to not get coverage on BDnow. Maybe one of the reasons is that until I started to research this concept I had never heard of vitality as being measurable parameter of soil. I write this in the hope that some of you who have experience of Reams techniques may be able to enlighten me, or head me in the direction of further areas of study of his methods.
Lloyd knows our property, red basalt soil, 3200 cgs on average, averages 6% organic matter, high mineralisation and a dream soil for anyone to start with. There is only one problem, when you test the soils in our cultivation paddocks radionically it gives a reading of about 10% vitality, and the same for fertility. My definition for fertility is the ability of plants grown to reproduce true to type with maximum viability, which is a true reflection of the fertility of the soil. In other words they need to have inbuilt vitality and an inbuilt toughness. This ties in with other strands which are developing on the list about trace elements and nutrition, and whether we can claim that food is better if grown biodynamically. I love my plants and take great delight in growing plants that have a look of vitality about them. Although they may appear to be very vital plants, each year the seed loses some of it's vitality. My problem then became how do I increase vitality, when within the existing theories that I had been exposed to, at university and on the list there was not a lot which I could do with this soil. Most minerals were within acceptable standards, copper and Sulphur down a bit. The pH has increased from 5.5 to 6.8 over the last 3 years and is in general a very pleasant soil to work with. It appears that the plants may have been living on their inbuilt vitality, but were not getting much assistance from the soil. There was something missing. The missing thing was indefinable, however I instinctively knew that something was wrong, that there was some missing ingredients in the brew. At first I thought that vitality was being lost from the cultivated areas into the surrounding forest, on the basis that energy travels from the lowest to the highest. In amongst my other radionic broadcasts I put out one for vitality, and another one for fertility. The results are that now that the drought has broken, there are no bare patches that were there before. It seems that there is a vitality that was not there before, even although it appeared to be as good as any mortal person could hope for. My question is what is vitality and what enlivens it in the soil. Regards James ----- Original Message ----- From: "Lloyd Charles" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2003 10:35 AM Subject: Re: Electronic homeopathy for plants. Was Re: late winter farm > > From: Steve Diver > > > The typical NPK > > soil test, even the Albrecht soil test, is largely irrelevant from > > this humus perspective. > Hi Steve > I would like to pursue this a bit. Maybe I think a bit different to most but > I reckon the main benefit of a proper soil test (a good Albrecht type > analysis) is the detailed trace element analysis - of course you have to pay > the rate to get it and many people are not prepared to go whole hog on a > soil test. The majors are simple and cheap - you can get Calcium , > magnesium, potassium and sodium off any old twenty dollar soil test and run > an 'Albrecht balance' off those numbers and most times you will come out > with a workable result - there is a bit of math involved and some conversion > figures sometimes - it helps to know the cheap test numbers in comparison to > a perry or brookside but you can do this . OTOH A decent trace element > analysis is not something you can get cheap. For trace element numbers you > need to go to a good lab and pay the price and also do any retests with that > same lab. Trace element nutrition is something that many organic farmers > neglect almost as badly as their chemical cousins and I really dont see how > you can get this right (or know that it is right) without some proper soil > testing. > Of course I dont know those Swiss soils - maybe they are so loaded with > minerals and energy that the farmers dont need to look for anything xtra - > Quartz crystal that I have seen from there is the best energetically. > Tell us what they are doing that makes testing irrelevant > Cheers > Lloyd Charles > >
