New Lazy Potager in the 37

[Did67]

Agronomy is a complex science! The "particle size" designates the "sieving" of a soil to determine the proportion of sands, silts and clays (defined arbitrarily by the size of the particles). This is "transcribed" into what is called the "texture" of a soil (which is therefore nothing other than the result of the granulometry!).

The fact that the soil is constituted in aggregates, in more or less fine clods, which in my case I describe by the expression "couscous" is called "structure" of a soil: the structure is more or less compact, or more or less "lumpy" (made up of lumps).

Clay or loamy soils are necessarily more compact.

And the formation of humic substances, in the presence of calcium, will correct this "defect" by the formation of what is pompously called "clay-humic complex" (known as CAH). In fact, the two (clays and humic substances) combine and "coagulate" in lumps ...

So the "aggregation" effect is less rapid in "heavy" soil, but it will be all the more spectacular, as time goes on ... And so we can go there with a lot of rollers. hay!

[Did67]

never mind, I'll put a little more fertilizer.
You see, I understood everything ...

There, it is so big that even me who always leaves the quarter turn, I see the humor !!!!

[pheno37]

never mind, I'll put a little more fertilizer.
You see, I understood everything ...

There, it is so big that even me who always leaves the quarter turn, I see the humor !!!!

A fish-based fertilizer, Corsican egg!

Joke in the corner, next to my rectangle of hay, there is a small area (15m2) "worked" with the tiller in November. And there, by hoeing the weeds, I noticed that the surface was already "crusty". Suddenly, what seems "wet" under the hay must indeed correspond to the normal and necessary reserve of humidity.
I answer in advance to the question "But after all, why keep this deleterious technique going ???"
but to compare the results, what the hell. Like Saint Thomas.

[pheno37]

The multimeter has given its verdict (several measurements disseminated):
pH: 8.0. I think we will have to deal with ...
Humidity :
- Under hay: DRY + (???). I checked the hygrometer in a "soaked" balcony; he did say WET!
- Excluding hay: DRY +
Temperature:
- Under hay: 11 ° C
- Excluding hay: 13 ° C

I prefer to insure by adding an overlay of hay (1/3 of the initial dose) even if I think I could have put straw. Here, the additional cost is marginal.

[Did67]

I have one, but I do not know the reliability of these "multimeters" ...

- if the pH is really 8, you should be on a limestone bedrock ????
- avoid the addition of ash
- massive inputs of organic matter should lead to the formation of "humic substances" in quantity, some of which are "humic acids"; to be verified, but this should, over time (half a dozen years?) tend towards more neutrality
- you can have blockages of certain elements: iron and phosphorus, which in alkaline medium, in the presence of a lot of active calcium, precipitate in insoluble form; iron deficiency is called "chlorosis" and is recognized on the leaves, which turn yellow except along the veins (eg on roses)
-use of BRF / ground wood (compensated by inputs of nitrogenous materials - or nitrogenous fertilizers) to support fungi, uncomfortable in alkaline conditions but capable of mobilizing insoluble phosphorus for your vegetables ...

This is a good example which makes me say "to each HIS vegetable garden of the lazy", according to a diagnosis. And we will not do the same thing - hence my reluctance to write a "recipe book" (even if it is that people demand the most - they especially do not want to think; they want to remain a slave to a thinker. . Go understand the man and his torments!).

[Did67]

- Under hay: 11 ° C
- Excluding hay: 13 ° C

At 11 ° C, the bacteria are not very active. Nitrification has broken down. The seedlings grow slowly. The vegetables in place - except alliaceae or legumes - are green-yellow! We should wait.

At around 14 °, nitrification starts. So in bare ground outdoors, we're almost there ...

Do not take to the nearest degree. Your fridges are not all set to the theoretical temperature and yet it keeps ...

[pheno37]

I have one, but I do not know the reliability of these "multimeters" ...
- if the pH is really 8, you should be on a limestone bedrock ????

It is clear that one can doubt a little of the reliability of a "general public" device whose manufacture is subcontracted to the Martians by the Chinese ...
It is a lot in a shared garden that has existed for 40 years. (perhaps fitted out on an old waste reception center, I have been told; therefore a "more or less" vegetal land reported).

This is a good example which makes me say "to each HIS vegetable garden of the lazy", according to a diagnosis. And we will not do the same thing - hence my reluctance to write a "recipe book" (even if it is that people demand the most - they especially do not want to think; they want to remain a slave to a thinker. . Go understand the man and his torments!)

I agree that there is no recipe and that I will have to rely a lot on my own experience in-situ, and it does not worry me. There are as many methods as there are vegetable / gardener pairs. As there are as many baeckeoffe recipes as there are from Alsace ...
I'm just asking BA-BA to avoid the classic beginner's blunders.
As for your next book (?), When we start, we especially need to assimilate, for example, the interest of hay compared to straw (and other types of cover), to discover the primordial role of bacteria, fungi, anecics and make them feel better! In short, great basic principles and a little methodology. (ie your furrow)

In another vein, to cover my 50m2 I used
- mid-October 2017: 22 bundles of 10 / 12kg (44 €)
- April 2018: 7 bundles of 10 / 12kg (14 €) for a small overlay

It was the latest news from the Indre et Loire front.

[Did67]

It is clear that one can doubt a little of the reliability of a "general public" device whose manufacture is subcontracted to the Martians by the Chinese ...
It is a lot in a shared garden that has existed for 40 years. (perhaps fitted out on an old waste reception center, I have been told; therefore a "more or less" vegetal land reported).

On topsoil added, if it is vegetable, I doubt a little ... Unless, if indeed, it is a soil from a soil taken from a limestone base. But in 40 years, an excess of calcium should have been regulated by the living ...

It makes me think that I wanted to make a video on pH !!! Now may be the time!

[But I shoot at the rate of 3 "events" per week and have the greatest difficulty to take care of my vegetable garden lazily!]

[pheno37]

Three weeks later ...

1) the new bindweed has arrived ... and in impressive quantity. Systematic uprooting every two days.
2) slugs in large quantities and only under hay. they cleaned twelve lettuce plants in one night. But not the lamb's lettuce plants (?) => Feramol but that doesn't really limit snacking. They also eat the carnation plants! While the plants transplanted next to the "bare" area: no attack!
http://pheno37.free.fr/_img/limace__.jpg

Suddenly, I put my deckchair on the "good corner". We must remain pragmatic.

Well, I know: it is a plot that has been cut, tilled, weeded for 30 years and that the bindweed rhizomes are chopped menu but I did not expect to §A (there is not only at home). The problem is that when we see two leaves appearing on the hay, there are already 40 cm below it smeared in the straw. A real joy!
As for the slugs, it is perhaps normal too but I fall from a height after having cultivated "traditionally" a vegetable garden of 80-100 m2 for 10 years not very far in the same department, without having been in the least inconvenienced by that kind of "visitors" ... Just a mole, some years. I only have very rarely used Feramol
I also know, (I understood correctly) that in phenoculture, one cannot (should) not expect "miracles" the first year and maybe even the following ones, as well as an implantation on an old one. prairie is perhaps less hazardous.
I'm going to bring out my lumbar belt!
wait & see ...

[denis17]

The bindweed, at home too grows well in the 17th, but almost exclusively in the old garden, I tear off as and when. Some slugs too, but it's very reasonable at the moment.
Denis