>Date: Tue, 19 Mar 2002 08:31:29 -0800 (PST) >From: Michael Smith <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: Re:How to Grow Corn as a Soil Improvement Crop-- >To: Allan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >Dear Allan, > >Please fwd; > >Dear Hugh, > >First of all, nice web site guy. > >I have a question. I'll try to phrase it correctly. > >Have you noticed any relationship between the >actinomycetes and the corn plant? If so, which part >of the plant and/or seed development do they play a >role in? ... and which prep may be intrumental in the >actinomycete encouragement? > >Thanks, >Michael. > ><How to Grow Corn as a Soil Improvement Crop > >Corn makes a lot of organic matter. It sucks in a lot >of carbon dioxide and turns it into sugars, starches, >cellulose, etc. > >Ideally corn feeds the soil microbes profusely from >the breakdown of its cotyledon even before its leaf >sworl breaks the surface. It seems to do this better >when the soil is dryer at planting than if it is wet. >Ideally one should plant several days after a rain >rather than before a rain. > >Ever see where three, four or more corn seeds sprout >close together? Usually the middle one or ones will be >the most robust, even though it might seem they ought >to be competing for nutrients and the middle one(s) >should be short changed. But check it out. This is not >the case because the soil food web is what really >feeds the corn best and it will be cooking best in the >middle of the cluster where the concentration of root >exudates is highest. Which suggests it is a good idea >to plant corn at a density of three to four seeds per >foot rather than further apart if you want the corn >to really get off to a killer start. > >Corn is set for how much it will make by about the >time the sixth leaf node develops. That's still pretty >small, probably under a foot high for almost all >corns. So corn really has to get off to a good start >if it is to make well. For sure it doesn't need any >weed competition when it is just emerging, so again it >does better in dryer plantings than where the >moisture gets the weeds really going. > >But what can happen, and has happened frequently (not >always) for me is the corn starts feeding the >azotobacters (Pfeiffer isolated 54 strains in a >sample he studied of horn manure) before it ever >breaks the surface. > >The key is all those root exudates. If you sprout corn >you have to rinse it about 5 times a day to keep it >from souring. But in good soil the root exudates feed >the soil food web, and right away nitrogen gets fixed >and feeds amino acids to all the other microorganisms >in the soil. This actually works best when soluble >nitrogen levels are low in the soil, so if you expect >this to work you sure don't want raw manure or tankage >and you don't even want much if any compost. > >Azotobacters depend on adequate calcium levels, to say >nothing of molybdenum and some of the other trace >metals. And the soil should have good structure so it >gets air but also has enough cation exchange capacity >(mainly provided by clay and humus) to supply the >necessary minerals for nitrogen fixation to occur >robustly. If your soil isn't there yet you may >have to grow a legume like soybeans first. In fact, I >normally plant soybeans in the offsets between corn >rows as insurance for poorer areas. > >As long as the corn plant keeps making sugars and >translocating them to the soil (the role of boron and >aluminum in clay) and shedding these carbonaceous root >exudates into the soil food web feasting at its roots >it will get a large proportion of its nitrogen >requirement as amino acids excreted by the protozoans >feasting on the nitrogen fixers and their kin. >Because these excreta are right there along the roots >and easily absorbed the plant has a strong tendency to >take them up before they can oxidize to nitrates. Then >the corn's protoplasm is rich and turgid instead of >salty and watery, and the corn plant grows more >robustly than it would be able to if was fed nitrogen >fertilizers. And the corn quality is superb. The corn >plant assembles this rich diet of amino acids directly >into protein in its growing parts and builds its >peptides, duplicates its DNA, grows like >gangbusters and makes the soil rich without the >application of fertilizers. >I've estimated a robust, high population, open- >pollenated corn/soybean planting of 12 feet height can >add as much as half a percent organic matter to the >soil in a single season. > >Of course, you want to have rich organizational >patterns of energy in both the soil and atmosphere if >you want this to work like gangbusters. (See my >website, www.unionag.org for pictures.) In particular >using the horn clay patterns in my broadcasters seems >to have been the missing ingredient for this situation >to occur. Since I started using horn clay the soil >patterns of horn manure and the atmosphere patterns of >horn silica have joined together to really turn corn >into a high octane grower like a dragster running on >aviation fuel. Great stuff. I'd sure like to see >others >duplicate my success with this. Horn clay seems to >have made my bamboo stand go nuts and double its size >and growth rate too. It may do something similar for >grapes and various other crops. > >Like I say, it can be a bit finicky getting corn off >to a bang of a start in wetter soils where weeds may >give it early competition and the nutrients the soil >food web generates at the corn roots disperse more >widely. I've had my best yields in drought years. But >since I first started farming just seeing how the corn >seedlings in the middle of a cluster consistantly were >the most robust made me really wonder what was going >on. The rules for growing corn turned out to not be >what commonly was thought and taught--that corn was a >soil robber. Under the right conditions the >converse has proven true. > >Best, >Hugh Lovel> > > >__________________________________________________ >Do You Yahoo!? >Yahoo! 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