Re: FW: So Far, This Corn Defies the Drought

Bargyla Rateaver (brateaver@earthlink.net)
Thu, 12 Aug 1999 02:11:36 -0700

Yeah. me

As you highly literate people all should know, there can not be any ice age
approaching, because the Creator has said that, instead, he will destroy this
whole system that man has built up, and restore Eden, where everyone will live
forever, always young, healthy, strong and happyl
Why do people like to think they know more than the Creator knows??????

Lawrence F. London, Jr. wrote:

> On Wed, 11 Aug 1999, Lon J. Rombough wrote:
>
> > Subject: FW: So Far, This Corn Defies the Drought
> >
> > Despite soil-parching drought, green sweet-corn plants tower six feet above
> > protective organic mulch in a cornfield in Beltsville, Md. Nearby, corn
> > planted in bare soil won't be worth harvesting.
>
> That says it all, almost.
>
> > Key to sustaining the corn through the drought is hairy vetch, a legume
> > grown as a cover crop. The vetch--killed before researchers planted the
> > corn--forms a dense mat. It helps rain or irrigation water seep in rather
> > than flow across fields and erode the soil. The mulch also slows evaporation
> > and supplies natural nitrogen fertilizer.
>
> What about organic matter in the soil and slight crusting of the soil
> forming a semi-impermeable barrier to evaporation _plus_ mulch, which
> helps. It seems to me water holding capacity of the soil is
> almost more important unless you have 1' or more of settled, aged
> compost or mulch on the surface.
>
> I have volunteer pigweed and other interesting catch crops (not very
> deep-rooted) growing vigorously with no mulch or supplemental watering in
> a new raised bed containing much aged manure and compost.
> There is a slight crust over the top of the bed; soil immediately
> underneath (2-4") in nice and moist.
>
> <><><>
> 1st fertilizer department
>
> Are we due for another ice age in the next 100-200 years? Anyone
> have any ideas about this besides Bargyla :-) (<---note polite, respectful
> smiley). Seriously though, I heard a ham radio operator talking about a
> serious possibility of this in the near future and thought I'm bring
> it up here as this would bear heavily on world food production. I guess
> those not living on another planetary body might be living underground
> eating cultivated microbes and reading by bioluminescence.
>
> <><><><>
> 2nd fertilizer department
>
> I have somewhere in my shop an old burlap Peruvian GUANO bag (probably 50#
> size) in good condition. If anyone would like this for a museum or other
> collection of agricultural memorabilia let me know and I'll be glad to
> donate it.
>
>
> To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
> "unsubscribe sanet-mg". If you receive the digest format, use the command
> "unsubscribe sanet-mg-digest".
> To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
> "subscribe sanet-mg-digest".
>
> All messages to sanet-mg are archived at:
> http://www.sare.org/htdocs/hypermail

To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
"unsubscribe sanet-mg". If you receive the digest format, use the command
"unsubscribe sanet-mg-digest".
To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
"subscribe sanet-mg-digest".

All messages to sanet-mg are archived at:
http://www.sare.org/htdocs/hypermail