Should I Use Gypsum or Lime – & What Type of Gypsum?

Rainfall washes out, or leaches nutrients from the soil, thus lowering soil pH (called power or potential of hydrogen). Arizona receives very little rainfall, and so nutrients – mostly “salts” – remain in the soil to the point that there is too much salinity, and plants can’t grow.
 
Calcium is “the foundation of a good feeding program” (JR Mittleider), because it’s the main ingredient in plants’ cell walls, and so adding calcium improves soil fertility, and in doing so raises soil pH. There are two main types of calcium fertilizer, lime and gypsum. Lime raises soil pH, and is used in growing conditions having more than 20″ of annual rainfall.  Gypsum does NOT raise soil pH, because it contains almost the same amount of sulfur – which lowers pH – as calcium, and so is used in growing conditions that receive less than 20″ of annual rainfall.
 
Gypsum comes in different particle sizes, from powder to “pebbles”. The size of the particles determines the solubility, and thus how quickly it is available to the plants. So, if you want/need instant availability you choose powder, but if you want availability over a long time you choose pebbles. 

Danger to Soil Organisms from Using Commercial Fertilizer

Q. Jim, I listened to your discussion on YouTube w/ LDS Prepper on the 5-6 reasons that some other “organic” grower wouldn’t use the Mittleider method, along with several others.  I have one important question on the Mittleider system that I haven’t found an answer to yet – wondering if you could just answer it for me. QUESTION:  I’ve been told by a few soil experts that, at a certain point, as the count on the chemical fertilizer (NPK) goes up, it starts to kill the micro-organisms in the soil.  For this reason I have tried to use a 13-13-13, and still had some decent success.  What I would like more detail (and scientific evidence on) is at what point do standard chemical fertilizers kill off the micro-organisms?  Can you provide any information on that?   Thanks,   Ted
A. Thanks for asking Ted. Your soil experts are correct in their assertion that too much chemical fertilizer can hurt and even kill soil organisms, just as it can hurt and kill your garden plants.  The reason for this is something called “salinity”.  Most fertilizer compounds are “salts”, and too much salt in the soil reverses the osmotic process by which nutrients are drawn from the soil into the plants, and instead pulls the moisture out of the plants and kills them. However, what they are not telling you (or perhaps are not even aware of or thinking about) is that everything in this world is chemical. “Plants cannot tell the difference between nitrogen from a leaf and nitrogen from a fertilizer bag” – J. I. Rodale  The same holds true for the other 12 nutrients essential to plant growth.  The point is that “chemical fertilizers” are the same, whether from compost or from a commercially produced bag. The question that needs a good answer then, is how much fertilizer is being applied to the soil. The Mittleider system of growing applies 1/2 OUNCE per running foot of a balanced mixture of 10 water-soluble mineral compounds to the soil in the growing area of an 18″-wide soil bed or Grow-Box (only 18% of the total garden area), and does it several times throughout the growing season (a separate application of mostly calcium 2 or 3 times per season does not cause salinity).  The typical family garden likely receives 10-12 feedings in a growing season.  Because the total actual salt content of the Weekly Feed fertilizer is about 47%, a 30′-long garden bed would receive 5.28# of fertilizer salts per year, properly balanced between all of the essential plant nutrients, and applied as the plants need it throughout their growth cycle. An organic garden, on the other hand, typically receives 2-3″ of organic material, such as horse manure or other compost, and it is applied all at once before the crop is planted.  Also, most often the compost is applied to the entire garden area, including the aisles and periphery.  For the moment let’s just consider the effect of the compost applied to the actual growing area of the plants. Loamy-clay soil 12″ deep in a soil-bed will weigh somewhere between 3,000# and 3,500#.  Let’s assume that compost weighs 1/3 as much as soil.  Therefore, 2 1/2″ of compost spread over this 18″ X 30′ bed would weigh something in the neighborhood of 250#.  If compost contains 1% each of N, P, and K, as is generally claimed. and the other 10 nutrients are represented in lower amounts, would it be fair to assume that total fertilier salts would be 5%-6%?  This would indicate that the garden soil in that bed would receive between 12.5# and 15# of fertilizer salts, applied all at once at the beginning when the seeds or plants are tiny, weak, and most vulnerable to being hurt or killed with too much salt. So, which growing method poses the greater danger to garden plants and beneficial soil organisms from the application of too much salt to the soil – the Mittleider Method with its 5.28# of salts applied evenly over 4-5 months, or the organic method with its 12.5#-15# applied all at once at the beginning?  And let’s not forget that the organic gardener applied compost/manure to the entire garden!  That multiplies the amount of fertilizer salts by 5 1/2 times, for a total of fertilizer salts in the organic garden of 68# to 82#! If the foregoing explanation has not put your concerns to rest, perhaps the following will help complete the job for you.  A few years ago, in response to accusations from a couple of college educated “soil experts” that the Mittleider Method was killing soil organisms, hurting the plants, leaching into the ground water, and likely hurting humans and the environment, we hired the BYU Soil Lab in Provo, Utah, and the Stukenholtz Soil Lab in Twin Falls, Idaho. They instructed and supervised us in running a comprehensive set of soil tests on 3 Mittleider gardens – a 5-year garden, a 10-year garden, and a 20-year garden, specifically to determine the validity of the charges leveled against Mittleider Gardening.  The results evidenced that NONE of the accusations were true, in any of the Mittleider gardens, and I have a copy of those results, in the event anyone doubts what I’m saying. Let me know if there is anything else I can do to assist you,        
 

Organic Fertilizing and Nitrogen Deficiency

Q. Sometimes I have seen gardens with compost and manure as the fertilizer of choice become very yellow. What causes this, and how do I avoid that happening to my garden?

A. What you have seen is “Induced Nitrogen Deficiency.” Soil amendments, including straw, tree bark, shavings or sawdust, peat moss, and manure (almost always containing a large percentage of bedding straw or sawdust) can induce a nitrogen deficiency on plants. The reason is that these materials are very high in carbon content, and therefore adding them into the soil raises the carbon to nitrogen ratio.

The carbon to nitrogen ratio is the amount of carbon in relation to the amount of nitrogen in the soil. This ratio should be 10:1 or lower. When the soil has ten parts of carbon, it should have at least one part of nitrogen or the plants will not be able to obtain the nitrogen they need. When carbonatious soil amendments are added, the amount of carbon is raised in relation to nitrogen. Micro-organisms in the soil attempt to break down the carbonatious material and in this process they use some of the nitrogen from the soil, making the ratio even worse. The micro-organisms have the ability to take the nitrogen before the plant can, so oftentimes adding soil amendments induces a nitrogen deficiency for the plant population. Therefore, whenever soil amendments are used, it is important to add some nitrogen, to bring the carbon to nitrogen ratio back to a ten to one, so that both the plant and the micro-organisms requirements are satisfied.

Do Commercial Fertilizers Harm Soil Microbes or Make Nutrients Unavailable to Plants?

Q. It is my understanding the microbes found in organic compost materials is what packages the nutrients for the plants. Sort of like the good bacteria that your body needs to maintian the right balance in the blood stream. I also understand that synthetically produced fertilizers will kill these microbes. This is the difference between a naturally packaged fertilizer and a synthetically produced one. How can man’s synthesis be better for the plants than the Earth’s Natural processes? When compared on other subjects, man’s synthetics cannot always produce safe results.

A. What you’re describing, I would suggest, includes some hyperbole being spread by organic promoters.

Reality is somewhat different. Nature provided us with large rock deposits containing one or more of the 13 essential plant nutrients, in many places around the earth. In the past 100 or so years, man has discovered these deposits, learned how to use them properly, and how to mine them. In the mining process, other elements are removed, including heavy metals, and sometimes the essential minerals are concentrated. It is important to understand that the concentration process applied to natural minerals from rocks does not make the material “synthetically” produced, nor does it make it unsafe or harmful to microbes, plants, or humans.

The above described process is what has allowed our farmers to feed 250 million of us and allow us to do other things with our time (1 feeds 100), rather than slaving on the farm as our grandfathers did, using manure (organics) as our only fertilizer source (1 fed 4 or 5).

Please remember that 90-95% of our food is produced using modern equipment and these same natural mineral nutrients from commercially produced fertilizers.

It is important to distinguish between potential problems associated with the misuse and/or over-application of pesticides and herbicides, and the valuable, safe, and highly productive use of natural mineral nutrients, usually referred to as commercial fertilizers.

Are Chemical Fertilizers Threatening Our Reproductive Capacity?

Q. I’ve heard that chemicals may cause low sperm counts in men, and that people who eat organically produced produce are healthier. Is it true?

A. It has been reported for some time that male sperm counts in America and Western Europe are declining and that in many cases we are threatened with infertility. Some people claim the reason for this decline is people eating food produced using chemicals.

There is nothing in the studies I have read that implicates the natural mineral nutrients used in growing a Mittleider garden! Please do not be led into throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Increased estrogen, caused primarily by materials fed to beef cattle, and lower fiber in our diets, are the main two culprits as I read it, and nothing is said about minerals that are mined from the earth, purified and concentrated, and properly applied in tiny quantities as fertilizers to food crops.

Why IS this decline in male sperm counts happening? I’ve reproduced some of the information below, for your consideration, as taken from this website https://www.alkalizeforhealth.net/Lspermdamage2.htm.

One explanation suggests “environmental chemicals called endocrine disrupters that masquerade as hormones. Specifically, synthetic chemicals that mimic the female sex hormone estrogen may influence male development in utero or during the formative years of early childhood when hormone sensitivity is high.”
“In 1993, a study published in The Lancet traced the decline to males being exposed in the womb to female sex hormones that permanently alter their sexual development, and greatly reduce a man’s ability to produce sperm. (6) The study, along with one published later in 1993 in the Journal of Endocrinology established several diet-linked sources of increased estrogenic exposure to males in the womb (7) :

“1) The modern diet increases the levels of natural estrogen in women. Fiber in the diet today is lower than it was 50 years ago. Natural estrogens excreted in the bile are more readily reabsorbed into the bloodstream when the lower intestine contains little dietary fiber. Thus, a fetus today may be exposed to higher levels of the mother’s own natural estrogens, compared to a fetus 50 years ago. (Fiber is found in all whole grains, vegetables and fruits; and is absent in all meats, dairy products, and eggs.)

“2) Synthetic estrogens, including DES, were fed to beef cattle from the 1950s through the 1970s to make them grow more meat faster. Though DES has been outlawed for use in U.S. livestock, hormones such as Steer-oid, Ralgro, Compudose, and Synovex are still used in virtually every cattle feedlot in the country. This is the primary reason the European Economic Union refuses to import U.S. beef. Such practices have increased the quantity of estrogens in meat-eating women, and may have contaminated some water supplies.

“3) Another source of increased estrogens in women today is the many synthetic organic chemicals and heavy metals that have been released into the environment in massive quantities since World War II. Some of these compounds, such as PCBs and dioxins, concentrate in ever higher levels on higher rungs of the food chains. Vegetarians, and even more notably vegans, thus enjoy some degree of protection.”

Can a Mittleider Garden Be Organic?

Q. Can a Mittleider Garden Be Organic?

A. In response to a woman who is growing a 1-acre organic garden in California, I wrote the following. I’ve enumerated a few of the principles and procedures which make the Mittleider Method unique – and better than most others.

Many have referred to the Mittleider Method as “better than organic” because most of our gardens can qualify as organic (once in a while growers in hot countries have to use pesticides or lose their whole crop).

The reasons they may be better than organic include, but are not limited to:

1) because we leave nothing to chance, but apply small amounts of natural mineral nutrients to assure fast, healthy growth. This also helps our plants ward off pests and diseases that will often take less healthy plants.

2) We encourage growing healthy seedlings in a clean, warm environment, which gives the plants a major head-start and avoids much of the problems encountered upon germination and emergence – with cold soil, hungry bugs, damping-off, etc.

3) We water only the root zones, thus not encouraging pest and disease proliferation caused by sprinkling or flooding.

4) We prune any leaves touching the ground to minimize disease and pest infestations from that common source.

5) We allow no weeds – nor encourage putting mulch, etc. on the ground – since both of these harbor pests and diseases.

6) Since our plants grow very fast and reach maturity quicker than typical gardens, the diseases and pests have less chance to take over.

7) Then we harvest and remove a crop immediately at maturity, to avoid the buildup of pests and diseases that occur when people leave their crop too long in the garden (all too common in home gardens).

With these preventative cultural practices, plus fast healthy growth, Mittleider Method gardens have much less need to use pesticides or herbicides anyway.

Natural Fertilizers Preferred

Q. I am curious if there are any Mittleider Method materials that have been adapted for organic vegetable production. I have grown vegetables for many years and prefer avoiding soluble commercial fertilizers.

A. We do not use soluble fertilizers, such as Miracle-Gro, but prefer to use the simpler, more natural compounds. All of the materials we use and recommend have been approved by the USDA for use in organic gardening.

We know exactly what we are feeding our plants, whereas organic growers often find themselves not knowing what they have, especially with the micro-nutrients.

Our experience around the world has also taught us that manure and compost often contain weed seeds and diseases, and sometimes even bugs. We get great yields for an entire growing season while some of our organic neighbors watch their gardens stop producing in July and August.

If you are skeptical, I recommend you plant some of your garden using each method separately, and compare the results.

Organic or Chemical – Or Both? – What Kind of Garden Should You Grow?

Today we will discuss a fundamental question in gardening. Previously I was posed this question: “I hear that chemicals are poisoning our waterways, and that organic growing is much healthier than using chemicals. What’s the truth, and how do I grow a healthy, productive, and sustainable garden without hurting the environment?”

This important question deserves an accurate answer. Therefore let’s learn about plant nutrition. First, plants receive nutrition only as water-soluble mineral compounds through their roots. When we put plants, compost or manure into the soil, the organic material must first decompose, and the nutrient compounds must revert to water-soluble minerals before the next generation of plants can use them. This takes time, and sometimes as much as half of the nutrients are lost in the decomposition process. Nitrogen is particularly susceptible to loss because it is volatile and returns to the air very easily.

Second, there is no real difference between organic, and mineral or chemical nutrients. Everything in this world is a chemical! To the chemist, the elements in the soil are called chemicals, to a geologist they are called minerals, and to an organic enthusiast they are called organics, but they are the same substances. To quote J. I. Rodale, from Organic Gardening magazine, “we organic gardeners have let our enthusiasm run away with us. We have said that the nitrogen which is in organic matter is different (and thus somehow better) from nitrogen in a commercial fertilizer. But this is not so.” And “actually there is no difference between the nitrogen in a chemical fertilizer and the nitrogen in a leaf.”

Third, there is no difference between soil and rocks except for the size of the particles, and 12 of the 13 mineral nutrients plants require are essentially ground-up rocks! They are natural, and there’s really nothing “synthetic” about them.

So you see, there is no difference between “organic nitrogen” and mineral or chemical nitrogen, except two primary things. 1) the nitrogen that is part of an organic substance must decompose and revert to the water-soluble mineral state before being available to plants, and 2) mineral-source nitrogen is much higher in nutritional content, so much less is required to feed your plants.

As further evidence that mineral nutrients are not bad per se, I’ve researched which fertilizers meet the requirements for qualification as a Certified Organic garden, and 12 of the 13 nutrients we use in a Mittleider garden are approved. And the 13th – nitrogen – is the one that’s most often used by organic gardeners, both in the garden and to aid in composting! Go figure.

This being the case, what should you do to assure you have the best garden and the healthiest plants possible? Give your plants accurate dosages of the best combination of nutrition you possibly can. The Mittleider natural mineral nutrient formulas are available at www.foodforeveryone.org/learn. You can mix your own “from scratch”, or get the micro-nutrients from the Foundation website in the Store section. And never over-use any kind of fertilizer. Both manure and mineral compounds will harm our water supply if allowed to leach into the water table.

Meanwhile, remember that 99% of us depend on 1% to feed us, and commercial growers feed their crops! They use formulas like ours and call them “The preferred horticultural mix.” Just check out Scott’s Peter’s Professional Pete Lite as an example.

This is not to say that organic materials don’t have a place in the garden. You can improve soil texture and tilth by adding materials that have desirable characteristics, and even add some nutrient value. However, improving the soil in that way is not necessary to have a good garden, and people often introduce weeds, rodents, bugs, and diseases into their gardens, or provide a haven for them with their organic mulching practices. It is for this reason that we do not emphasize or encourage composting and manure.

Mittleider gardens qualify as “organic” because we don’t use pesticides or herbicides. However, I suggest they are even better than organic, because the plants receive just what they need, they grow fast, and we almost never have insect or disease problems because there are no weeds to provide a home, and the plants aren’t in the ground long enough for the pests to get established.

Dr. Jacob Mittleider’s gardening books, CDs, and Software, as well as natural mineral nutrients, are available at the Foundation website – www.foodforeveryone.org.

Jim Kennard, President Food For Everyone Foundation “Teaching the world to grow food one family at a time.” www.foodforeveryone.org

Jim Kennard, President of Food For Everyone Foundation, has a wealth of teaching and gardening training and experience upon which to draw in helping the Foundation “Teach the world to grow food one family at a time.” Jim has been a Mittleider gardener for the past twenty-nine years; he is a Master Mittleider Gardening Instructor, and has taught classes and worked one-on-one with Dr. Jacob Mittleider on several humanitarian gardening training projects in the USA and abroad. He has conducted projects in Armenia, America, Madagascar, and Turkey by himself. He assists gardeners all over the world from the https://www.foodforeveryone.org website FAQ pages and free Gardening Group, and grows a large demonstration garden at Utah’s Hogle Zoo in his spare time.

Gardening Books, CDs and Software are available at https://growfood.com

Do Your Fertilizers Pollute the Ground Water?

Q. I have one concern about the Mittleider Method. Since you use mineral nutrients from commercial sources, do those – or could they – cause a toxic build-up in the soil, and might they leach into the groundwater, eventually adding to the problems we have in our streams, rivers, and oceans? Hopefully, you have a good answer, because I love everything else I am seeing with this method of growing!

A. We do indeed have an answer. In 1998 Dr. Mittleider and I hired two highly respected soil labs to perform extensive tests for us regarding this very question. The two labs were Stukenholtz Labs, in Twin Falls, Idaho, and the Brigham Young University Soil Testing Lab, in Provo, Utah.

I don’t remember the number of test holes drilled, but I think it was 45. Three gardens were tested for build-up of fertilizer salts. Test cores were used at 1′, 2′, and 3′ depths in each hole.

One garden was Dr. Mittleider’s own backyard garden, which had been used for 21 years at that time; the second location was my garden at Utah’s Hogle Zoo, which had been used for 9 years; and the third garden was a very visible large garden 20 miles South of Salt Lake City at a place called Thanksgiving Point, which had been in use for 4 years.

There was NO toxic build-up of salts in ANY of the test sites. There was NO indication of ANY fertilizer being flushed into waste-water systems. And some of the test holes even had LOWER salt levels than the controls, which were taken from non-fertilized aisles and garden periphery.

This did not surprise us (although it surely did surprise a few folks who had been accusing us of polluting the groundwater), because we use very little mineral salts, and we spread their application over the growing season.

We only apply 7+ ounces of fertilizer salts to about 3,300# of soil, and do it every 7 days, but for most crops we only apply it about 5 times. Everbearing crops might get8 to 12 applications, spread over several months.

Compare this to the many POUNDS of fertilizer salts organic growers apply to their gardens ALL AT ONCE before planting. That concentrated one-time application is much more likely to cause run-off or seepage into the groundwater than the small amounts the Mittleider gardener applies.

Our vegetables are healthier, because they receive their nutrition throughout the season, as they need it. And being very healthy, they have high brix values, and are less susceptible to diseases and pests, as well.ssssss

WARNING! Antibiotics Fed to Animals Are Absorbed by Plants Fed With Manure!

The following just came to my attention, and makes me glad we don’t promote the use of animal manure to feed our healthy vegetables!

12 July 2007
Antibiotics Absorbed By Vegetables

Evaluating the impact of livestock antibiotics on the environment, University of Minnesota researchers have found that many vegetables uptake the antibiotics. The study, in the Journal of Environmental Quality, shows that food crops can readily accumulate antibiotics from soils spread with cattle manure.

The findings were based on a greenhouse study involving three food crops: corn, lettuce, and potatoes. The plants were grown in soil modified with liquid hog manure containing sulfamethazine, a commonly used veterinary antibiotic. The researchers found that the antibiotic was taken up by all three crops.

The antibiotic was found in the plant leaves and concentrations in the plant tissue increased as the amount of antibiotic present in the manure increased. Worryingly, it also diffused into potato tubers, which suggests that other root crops – such as carrots and radishes – may be particularly vulnerable to antibiotic contamination.

Researcher Satish Gupta said that contaminated plants had the potential to cause allergic reactions in people with antibiotic sensitivity. He also noted that contamination is likely to foster antimicrobial resistance, which can render antibiotics ineffective. And co-researcher Holly Dolliver warned that antibiotic contaminated plants may be of particular concern to the organic farming industry, where manure is often the main source of crop nutrients.

While the USDA stipulates that organic producers must manage animal materials in a manner that does not contribute to contamination of crops by residues of prohibited substances, manures containing antibiotics are not formally banned or prohibited. Dolliver concluded that further research is needed to investigate how different plants absorb different antibiotic compounds.

Related articles:
Prevalence Of Antibiotic Resistance Surprises
Prof Ponders Bacterial Benefits
Down On The Farm: Yields, Nutrients And Soil Quality
Increasing Soil Erosion Threatens World’s Food Supply

Source: Soil Science Society of Americass