The Ideal Soil v2.0 (second edition) by Michael Astera is now available.  http://www.soilminerals.com/Ideal_Soil_Main_Page.htm

A "must read" for all farmers and gardeners. State of the art soil science and easy to understand writing, with clear directions for making significant soil improvements for plant, crop and animal health.

 

Here's the brilliant, inspired first chapter on The New Agriculture

http://www.soilminerals.com/TIS_Ch1.htm

Here's the introduction to CEC, one of the most important things to know about soil and plant health.

http://www.soilminerals.com/Cation_Exchange_Simplified.htm

If you are ever on Koh Samui, the luxury Six Senses hotel is very committed to sustainable land practices and has a biochar retort. Current GM Gay Henden is personally interested in this, and you could probably arrange for someone to show you their retort/oven. Sometimes they have bags of goat manure for sale if you are short of ki 555

On 8/3/2017 at 3:41 AM, islandguy said:

If you are ever on Koh Samui, the luxury Six Senses hotel is very committed to sustainable land practices and has a biochar retort. Current GM Gay Henden is personally interested in this, and you could probably arrange for someone to show you their retort/oven. Sometimes they have bags of goat manure for sale if you are short of ki 555

Correction: Gary Henden

 

See my upcoming trip report. 

Thanks for this informative post.

On 9/25/2017 at 10:04 PM, TRey said:

Thanks for this informative post.

Hey TRey, Welcome to the organic farming forum. 

 

Are you referring to post on The Ideal Soil, or the Six Senses? 

 

FYI, Michael Astera's The Ideal Soil, Handbook for the New Agriculture is available as an e-book through www.soilminerals.com. 

 

The case for lPM and organic program compatible soil improvements is bolstered by a 28 Oct 'Opinion' article in a Bangkok English language newspaper (including on-line edition) about pesticides. I am unable to quote it here because the newspaper is a perceived competitor to The Nation, a TV sponsor/partner. Too bad, because it's an important article in the public interest.  

 

In addition to outlining a controversial issue on the DOA and banning of the highly toxic pesticides paraquat and chlorpyrifos, the author made an important observation on the effects of chemical fertilizers, that should wake us up and encourage alternatives to chemical farming. 

 

 

 

Any body have a answer to wilting seedlings. It seems to be a fungus of some type. The seeds are planted into the soil(100% organic matter) and just as the first true leaves start to develop they start wilting. Not all of them show these symptoms but at least 50% do.

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14 hours ago, scubastephen said:

Any body have a answer to wilting seedlings. It seems to be a fungus of some type. The seeds are planted into the soil(100% organic matter) and just as the first true leaves start to develop they start wilting. Not all of them show these symptoms but at least 50% do.

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Likely to be "damping off" disease.  search that term for more information.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damping_off

Agreed Dr. T. Unfortunately something that has many causes and few cures. It seems that prevention is the way to go. Attached is a video which explains the problem and uses vermicompost as a means of innoculating seeds against one common form of fungal infestation, pythium

 

I left them for a week and the plants came back strong and healthy. The bed I planted in is a new one, 6m x 0.9 m x 0.55 high.
I filled it with potting mix(So called, sand ,coconut fibre) plus bags of chook manure, more coconut fibre than chook manure. Now building compost heaps for the next one.

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New podcast from Graeme Sait, Nutrition Farming.

 

https://anchor.fm/nutrition-farming/episodes/Harnessing-Humus-edpkuo/a-a24v891