Article 1200 of alt.sustainable.agriculture:
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From: kdraeger@soils.umn.edu (Kathy Draeger)
Newsgroups: alt.sustainable.agriculture
Subject: mulches and the impending societal collapse
Date: 10 Aug 1993 12:19:47 -0400
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     This is in response to Anne's posting about mulches etc..... Is it 
just a religion or is there some "real" advantage to these systems? Many 
mulchies do have a regard for their systems that borders on the sublime, 
but don't get me wrong, some of my best friends are mulchies.
     One scientist here at the University of Minnesota did a controlled, 
replicated field experiment contrasting various chemical fertilizers and an 
alfalfa mulch system for horitcultural crops. He collected data on a number 
of soil and crop parameters and found some advantages to the mulch system 
in objective and scientific terms. Such work is going on at a number of 
research institiutions across the country.
     I would like to address this on an intuitive level- which is 
how many mulchies approach this issue (I myself am not one of their ranks). 
A mulch system is a slightly more approximation of nature- compared to 
monoculture and that, in my opinion, is good. With multiple crops we can 
increase the beneficial soil microbial populations such as rhizobia 
(alfalfa) and vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizae (VAM). And possibly thwart 
some of the pathogenic organisms.     
      Monoculture has worked for us, and mulching would certainly be more 
labor intensive- so it is a complex societal and scientific problem. There 
are scientists who are exploring the benefits of the mulch system and one 
day maybe we will have a better understanding of why this idea seems to 
grasp our imagination and even inspire devotion. I have some pretty far out 
ideas as to why we need to have these ideas and systems--some other 
time.     
     What exactly is this group that I am posting to and who is the 
audience here? I am in the dept. of Soil Scienc at the U of Minn., working 
with bean production in the Ecuadorean Andes. 
Kathy!

Email:        Kathy.Draeger@soils.umn.edu


