My experiments with Soil

Testing soil for chemical composition is like equivalent to today's medical tests.  After spending 200 dollars you will be given a complete 'profile' of your body in CD, Paper, graphs, certificates, conclusions only to confuse you further. You start reacting to the reports, you go mad very soon. If iodine is less, will you start consuming iodine? if calcium is less will you start eating calcium pills for example ? Beyond a point you won't know how your body will absorb them. Calcium supplements can interact with many prescription medicines, including antibiotics, bisphosphonates and high blood pressure medications leading to complications.

 Postmenopausal women were advocated heavy dose of calcium, which is now being questioned if at all it has any effect in preventing Osteoporosis (weakening of bone). Calcium accumulating on toes causing pain can be linked to your kitchen mosaic floor or calcium deficiency or excess calcium intake - no one knows for sure !  With increased adulteration in milk, people have stopped taking simple milk and yogurt. That is the whole problem.

I donot believe in making so much fuss about soil testing, analysis and choosing specific crops based on Ph factor. Soil conditions are always at a slice of time and specific to that period.  Soil should not be seen as a chemical compound but as a living entity. Just as for humans wholesome food is the answer for all ailments, the soil needs just the required biomass and water.

On a gross level what matters is the soil structure whether it is clay, sandy or in between and then the temperature. Crop can grow well with adequate supply of water, sunshine and biomass. Intervention with trace metals, organic and inorganic salts for a particular crop can give short term gain but can make the soil useless for other crops. Soil can grow almost any crop, given the right physical conditions.  How do you explain otherwise the rich red soil of Kerala, the dull clumsy clay of Panvel (Navi Mumbai), the dusty soil of Noida,  the rocky soil of Deccan all growing all types of crops. How otherwise you can account all rainforests that has multitude of genetic varieties growing on all soil conditions. Most of the crops that are grown today were once upon a time migrated or imported into the village and did not belong that region. But it grows. Potato, beans and cauliflower are not confined to Ooty alone. It grows well everywhere. So also Cabbage and others.  More and more organic farmers are proving the point...

Pot of useless contaminated mud, now thriving with living tissues

I had a lump of useless clay in one of the pots during my home experiment. It was having petroleum oil slick and detergent contamination. Visibly also it was looking worse.  Nothing grew in it and every attempt to grow anything including tough ones like money plant failed miserably. I did not throw the soil out, but took it as a challenge. Generous amount of cow dung, home made panjagavya were applied along with sufficient sunshine and time.  These inputs converted the soil into good one. I guess the microbes broke down the oil slick into its components. Within a period of two years, the soil has become fertile. Today there is throbbing life in that soil (See snaps).

Closeup. You can still see oil slick, but
is not behaving the way it used to be

I am confident that given any soil, we can always condition the same by adding biomass, grow weeds, make the soil workable and then use it for cropping. ANY CROP only limited by season and water.

Lack of water quickly hardens the soil whatever be the soil type. More than water, there is a moisture that is required to be preserved in the soil all the time. Too much water, the roots decay. Too less, the roots dry and the water carring capillaries in the root die down. Timing of water maintains required temperature as well. Watering little twice a day morning and evening is found to work better than watering once a day or excessive flooding once a few days. The continuous moisturisation of water is best achieved through drip irrigation or sprinkler. Both are found to be good technologies.  Dry air blown can carry away the moisture.

Therefore in RMF, the first step was to grow enough fence material so as to prevent dry air from blowing over the crops.  We have planned for 3 levels of plants - thorny bushes at outer layer (Bougainvillea, Casuarina).  useful bushes like Caesalpinia, Nerium Olender, Lawsonia inermis in 2nd layer and short trees in third row.  That will be followed by farm inner service road and then the crops.

For irrigation, we need powerful motors of 7 HP to operate Sprinklers or rain gun.  The farm will not have excess electric power or no electric power at all.  Therefore that idea is dropped. We will go for drip irrigation only mostly to take advantage of slow water filling, and gravity.

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