Sadb O'Conner wrote:
tel jetson wrote: goats would probably be a decent biological control if black locust suckers and seedlings start getting out of hand. one place there aren't any little locusts is in the long-term goat paddock. there are three big trees, but no seedlings or root suckers. there are poultry in there, too, and so I guess there's also a chance they're eating the seeds.
Yep! Like yours, our goats LOVE black locust. They'll strip the bark from BL saplings even up to 5" diameter trees. The bark changes significantly when the locust gets older, and at that point the goats will ignore it, but until then they act like it is candy, and will run straight to the locust stands in each pasture as we rotate them through. They'll eat locust leaves and bark here even before they eat the grass, and at the same rate as multiflora rose and autumn olive.
Black locust does seem pretty resilient here in USDA zone 7, and it definitely responds to cutting/pruning by growing suckers all over the stump and surrounding roots, but our goats sure can kill it. Their bark-stripping work is the only reason we even have pastures at all, and not just locust groves. So long as the locust is young (under 5" diameter), and the goats get access to it at least twice in a year, it only takes a couple years to kill the tree. Maybe the bark-stripped trunks and branches keep demanding energy from the roots, and use it up, killing the roots instead of promoting suckering from them.
Of course, here in Virginia, there are always more locusts being planted; the seed pods are very popular with wildlife, so we always get new tiny seedlings popping up for the sheep and goats to munch on. Maybe we just need more chickens!
Joseph Lofthouse wrote:
I keep the purslane completely weeded out of most of my fields.
Eric Hanson wrote:It blows my mind that comfrey is considered to be a weed. I went way out of my way to plant it. In fact, my very first Permies post was about how to plant comfrey.
Eric
Bryant RedHawk wrote:hau Andrea, to me the creation of biochar is for making habitat for the microbiome, not mineralization. Biochar is not going to hold onto minerals, it does hold water and microorganisms. I love the use of seaweeds for mulching since that gets the minerals where the microorganisms can uutilize them or store them for plant use.
Redhawk
Bryant RedHawk wrote:indeed you do have to activate with minerals and microbiome organisms, how you do it can be simple or you can do it in steps as you laid out John.
I have an old water trough that holds about 100 gal. of water that I use for charging fresh made char but I do a one step inoculation of my char.
I fill the trough about half way with char then dump in two coal scoops of finished compost then I add water to cover the char and compost.
That will sit for up to two weeks then I suction off the liquid and use it on garden beds, the char is mixed with compost and spread where I want it.
I like your plan, adding minerals is never a bad thing as long as you know the starting point.
Note: most microbiologist consider additions of minerals mostly unnecessary because of the mineral content of soils is considered by them to be already present but unavailable without the microbiome.
My personal take on this is that you will not find a complete mineral base (complete meaning 97 minerals, soils tend to only have 74) on dry land (not ocean floor), so I think we need to make sure our soil has all minerals available to the microbes.
Most here know that I use Sea-90 for mineral additions since it has the 97 minerals I want available to my plants.
Redhawk