Spring has Sprung, Let's Toil with Soil!
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What are the key considerations for growers this time of year? Madeline Mckeever is an organic grower and seller of open pollinated seeds in Cork. Her blog, Brown Envelope Seeds, recently carried a very useful post with the quite technical title “ Soil temperature is the best indicator of when it is the right time to sow vegetables”.
Less technically, it referenced the bygone Norfolk method of soil temperature testing – dropping your cacks and using the posterior as a thermometer. Weather station reads or a soil thermometer, she points out, are probably just as good as the Norfolk method.
Here in Cloughjordan, growers with the community farm I'm a member of Pat Malone and Doug Dudley are always working out ways to innovate to supply the members with the best veg possible: nutritionally dense, varied, robust foods for the 50 or so family memberships.
I asked Doug about what he thought was important for growing at the end of March and into early April.
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“We depend on the whole biological system, we need the temperature above 12 degrees for this system to start to work”
He elaborated on what the whole biological system means to him.
“We are always trying to balance chemistry, physics and biology. So if there is, for example, a calcium magnesium imbalance the soil will be more like a clay, but if you get balance right - say if you apply calcium - it opens it up a bit more. The chemistry is calcium, physics is opening up the soil, which in turn allows more air in the soil enabling aerobic activity which is the biology. Its about balancing all three.”
He is, as was becoming clear, very focused on analysing the soil.
“We did a soil test last year, and this tells us how much of for example phosphorus or calcium we need to apply. Then we add amendments. The analysis comes back both with the deficiencies and the amendments. So inputs like calcium carbonate or epsom salts might be needed, depending on what's deficient.”
He continued: “In our case, our soil testing showed that there was not enough calcium available to the roots yet. When the whole system works, more nutrients will become available.”
Perhaps counter-intuitively, in this era of transatlantic trade talks, and the pre-emptive opening of markets for Irish beef in the US, restrictions are also being imposed on agri-food interactions across the ocean.
“We used to sent soil tests to the states, but homeland security won't allow soil to be sent to the US anymore.” Tilling green manures is happening now too:
“This time of year we are tilling, ploughing in green manures which, again, are temperature dependent on the ability of the biology to break down”“We also ordered in, from From Fruit Hill Farm distributors in Cork, High P.”
High P is a granular mineral based product, which also contains important secondary nutrients including Calcium, Iron, Sulphur, Zinc, Copper and Manganese. Phosphate is vital for root growth and plant establishment.
“High P is a more available phosphate; it breaks down easier; rock phosphate won't break down as easily, because we are over limestone.”
Perhaps most interestingly, there is also a pair of new certified organic inputs from France available, which is causing waves amongst growers and farmers, organic and conventional.
“We also use an input from a French company, Sobac, called Bacteriosol. This is a certified organic biological humus building product from France. It comes in pellet form, and breaks down when it gets wet, activating the soil. Again, it needs the right temperature.”
Bacteriosol and, for farmers, bacteriolit may be a great new tool for food producers. We'll come back to these soon.
