Subject: Re: minerals

From: "Eugene F. Monaco" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 16 Sep 1997 23:11:04 -0400

>In a good organic soil, rock powders can become
reasonably available pretty quickly..... <

There's a lot of difference between organic farming and permaculture.  To
me, using rock powders as a method of making inorganic minerals available
to crops, misses the point of permaculture.  It's more of an organic
farming technique which is okay in its own right, but is expensive in
permaculture terms.

The permaculture princilpe here, I think, is that the plants--acting as
translators between the element 'air' and the element 'earth'-- among other
things, mine minerals from the bedrock below and make them available in the
soil for other plants and animals.  I have heard these refered to as
'dynamic accumulators' of which there is an extensive list.  I'd post it
but I don't have a scanner and it's too much to type, (perhaps it's on the
web already somewhere).  No matter how poor a soil you think you have,
underneath it is rock, and some plant can mine that rock and make it
available for something else.  The problem occurs when we don't accept
nature's gift of that particular plant at that location in time.  But if
for discussion's sake we did, we'd find a 'weed' at work which was setting
the stage for later succession.  Perhaps the application here is to
encourage dynamic accumulators by weed seeding, then slash and mulch in
place making the minerals in those plants VERY available to the next group
of plants--bootstrapping your way up to good soil health so you can then
grow your corn or tomatoes, wringing out the soil until next time.  I'm
thinking that learning to eat wild accumulators would be a good skill.

Phosphorous generally comes in nature from animals.  Better to get those
ducks and geese to shit on the field than to haul powered phosphorous which
is strip mined, transported using fossil fuels, and contains high levels of
cadnium and uranium.

Some food for thought.

Gene Monaco
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
East Tennessee Permaculture  ([email-masked])
Herbs, consultations, & training for total health and environmental
sustainability
PO Box 11851, Knoxville, TN  37939      (423) 457-4354
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

---

From: "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 25 Sep 1997 23:38:44 -0400 (EDT)

Recommended reading on plants as indicators of enviromental conditions:

From:
http://sunsite.unc.edu/london/orgfarm/biocontrol/weeds-as-soil-indicators:
-
>From [email-masked] Fri Feb 18 12:37:32 1994
Date: 17 Feb 1994 14:10:03 -0500 (EST)
From: [email-masked]
To: [email-masked]
Subject: Weeds as indicators of environmental conditions

In response to the query on indicator weeds, here is a partial list 
of references on the topic.  There is also a lot of information
available through the phytosociology literature but it is often 
in german or french.

Good reading.

Daniel Cloutier
Agriculture Canada
Experimental Farm
801, route 344
P.O. Box 3398
L'Assomption, Quebec, Canada
Tel: (514) 589-2171
Fax: (514) 589-4027
E-mail:[email-masked]

Brooks, R.R.  1972.  Geobotany and biochemistry in mineral exploration. 
Harper and Row, New York.  290 pp.

Chaphekar, S.B.  1978.  Biological indicators: the concept and new
additions.  International Journal of Ecology and Environmental
Sciences.  4:45-52.

Chikishev, A.G. (Editor)  1965.  Plant indicators of soils, rocks, and
subsurface waters.  Consultants Bureau, New York.  210 pp.
(Translation of a Russian book).

Clements, F.E.  1920.  Plant indicators: the relation of plant
communities to process and practice.  Carnegie Inst.  Wash.  Publ.
No. 290.  388 pp.

Cocannouer, J.A.  1964.  Weeds: guardians of the soil.  Devon-Adair, New
York.  179 pp.

Dale, M.H.  1966.  Weed complexes on abandoned pastures as indicators of
site characteristics.  Canadian Journal of Botany  44:11-17.

Dale, M.H., P.J. Harrison, and G.W. Thomson.  1965.  Weeds as indicators
of physical site characteristics in abandoned pastures.  Canadian
Journal of Botany  43:1319-1327.

Duke, J.A.  1976.  Perennial weeds as indicators of annual climatic
parameters.  Agricultural Meteorology 16:295-298.

Hill, S.B. and J. Ramsey.  1997.  Weeds as indicators of soil
conditions.  Macdonald Journal June 1997, p.8-11, 16

Holzner, W.  1982.  Weeds as indicators for the whole complex of
environmental factors.  Geobotany 2:187-190.

Pfeiffer, E.E.  1970.  Weeds and what they tell.  Reoriented by
Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Association, Inc.  P.O. Box 550,
Kimberton, PA 19442, USA.

Rogers, L.H., O.E. Gail and R.M. Barnette.  1939.  The zinc content of
weeds of volunteer grasses and planted land covers.  Soil Science
47:237-243.

Rorison, I.H. and D. Robinson.  1984.  Calcium as an environmental
variable.  Plant, Cell and Environment 7:381-390.

Sampson, A.W.  1939.  Plant indicators - concept and status.  Botanical
Review 5:155-206.

Shantz, H.L.  1911.  Natural vegetation as an indicator of the
capabilities of land for crop production in the Great Plains area. 
U.S.D.A. Bur. Pl. Ind. Bul. 201:1-100.