Once upon a time, there was a little boy who assured his mom he had not been “out back of the barn smoking again.”
It was true. He hadn’t been back of the barn smoking. This time it was in the carriage shed.
(I know this to be true for a fact. I’ve known the fellow for many years. Probably you can guess his identity!)
Smoking: Soil Conditioning
Now, smoking has nothing to do with soil conditioning.
It’s just that somehow the advertising of the synthetic-resin soil conditioners makes me think of that little boy and his truthful reply.
“Crime Of Omission”
The unexplained is often more important than the explained. So I wouldn’t say it was exactly what journalists call the “crime of omission.”
This could cause a lot of aching backs needlessly.
Here, in this dissertation, I want only to point up the thought that “someone” omits to dwell upon the Elbow Grease it takes to “condition” a few feet of soil with the synthetic stuff. Have you tried it, brother?
Natural Soil Conditioners
Certainly, I don’t want your back to ache, yet I can promise nothing on that score because I’m afraid any guy who wants a prize garden must limber up the back muscles a bit.
The moral is that if you’re going to oil up those muscles, you might as well use genuine, natural soil conditioners which add something to the soil. More about that later.
Most-Advertised Synthetic
Another little angle skimmed over lightly is the hunk of money you lay on the line for the privilege of working — and I mean working — the plastic stuff into your clay.
Remember, I said clay … for if you have the soil of any other type, chances are you won’t be reading those ads anyway. (Or will you?)
A can of the most-advertised synthetic says it’s suitable for “conditioning” 40 square feet of soil 6” inches deep.
It costs around seven bucks by mail. Honey, that’s almost Seven Thousand Dollars an acre!
Half-Acre Of Clay
Suppose, tho, that you have a half-acre of clay in your garden and lawn, and you also have $3500.
Before you spend it, stop and recall that you can make or buy a lot of compost for 3500 pesos!
Commercial Compost
At the open-market price of $20+ per yard for commercial compost, you can spread 175 yards for 3500 bucks. (Tons!)
Of course, you don’t need anything like that much compost, and it’s not only easier to apply.
Also, you’ve got something for your money — not alone conditioning values, but nutrient, mineral, and humus values as well.
Conditioning Values
Most importantly, the vital, dynamic, living organisms, the hormones, vitamins, enzymes, and those mysterious forces of Nature, the biotic substances.
Without these values, you cannot grow even a weed!
For that matter, you also get more for your soil-conditioning money in ActivO… or in peat-moss and dry peat-humus, and I’ll even go along on vermiculite.
(Let me add that I haven’t invested a dime with any moss, peat, or vermiculite producer!)
Using Synthetics in a Tiny Garden Plot
But the truth is, for either an acre or a tiny garden plot, conditioning isn’t merely flocculation. It isn’t merely improving friability. It’s these and more, too.
Out in Kansas, the synthetic only made more soil blow away. In Ohio trials, they grew more roses where manure was used as a conditioner.
In a magazine, I saw a mention of a report from one of the state experiment stations. A synthetic under test flocculated the soil all right.
But geraniums grown in it developed root rot, while those in the untreated check plot did not. Logically, the disease might be invited.
In Hard-Packed Clay Soil
Where you have hard-packed clay soil low in organic matter, the synthetic may only open it up to let more disease spores in.
No counteracting biotics exist, increased nitrogen loss, and depressed potassium take-up. So?
So now you go out and buy some fungicides to kill the disease. Then you still have to buy some compost, minerals, and what not to balance up and make the soil productive!
Natural Conditioner-Energizer
Get the point? Instead, why not wisely use a true, natural conditioner-energizer in the first place? Save yourself money, work, and worry.
Of course, I realize that my voice is just a tiny one. On the other hand, some of the plastic-material outfits are powerful critters.
They gotta lotta dough. Considering the short-shoestring of the guy who’s peddling Activo, it may remind you of the old story about the flea and the elephant.
Moreover, I’ll freely admit merit: If you can afford it, and your muscles are in trim, you may find nothing to equal, per dollar or pound, the flocculating effects of these plastic chemicals on “problem” clay.
“Miracle” Cheaper Synthetics
Nor will I argue with those “miracle” cheaper synthetics which, the ads say, you need merely sprinkle on and don’t have to dig in.
My point is, belabored that you ought to spend your hard-earned soil ceremony to the best advantage.
If I were in your shoes and had some poor clay soil for a test, I’d spend seven bucks for that most-advertised “conditioner.”
ActivO Organisms: Most-Advertised “Conditioner”
Then I’d buy myself 6 or 7 dollars worth of ActivO. I’d lay off two plots of 40 sq. ft. each (say 5×8) side by side except for a 2-foot lane to keep those virulent ActivO organisms from helping the “synthetic plot.”
I’d dig them both in, 6” inches deep, and moisten them — just like the directions for the synthetic resin say.
Planting Grass Seed Or Beans
Finally, I’d plant the two with the same amount of grass seed, beans, or something. Then I’d sit back and see which won.
If you want to try this on any soil, I’ll give you back the dough you spent for the ActivO if it doesn’t win!
ActivO: Quicker Compost
ActivO — and here comes some more “commercial” — in case you haven’t been reading this magazine regularly, is a rich, black, velvety, moist humus .. . teeming with billions of Nature’s own:
- Vital organisms
- Enzymes
- Hormones
- Vitamins
- Minerals
- Biotic substances
It’s alive with energy. Widely used for making rich compost quicker and easier from all sorts of vegetable and animal wastes.
Fertilizing and Mulching
It’s now even more extensively used for activating mulches, stretching fertilizer, and energizing and conditioning laggard soils.
Many mixes it with their fertilizer or apply it to seed like an inoculant or seed treatment. Look for AD.
44659 by W. L. B.