Compost On Top

By Atom Bergstrom

Atom’s Blog

Gary Matsuoka, according to his resume, is “a professional horticulturist dedicated to educating people about a variety of topics, including the ideal soil, how to care for certain plants, the right fruit trees for someone’s area, and much more.”

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According to Gary Matsuoka …

“In those days, you know, we’d water every day, fertilize once a month. My Dad said, ‘Oh, this industry is really easy. If you follow those rules, water every day, fertilize once a month, plants grow. You can grow your money just by putting it in the pot with the soil.

“So in the 1980s, things started rotting. We had always grown quite a few of our own plants. In the ’80s we decided, well, maybe our time is better spent buying plants from other growers, and things started rotting. My Dad called them, the agricultural agents; they told him, ‘You can’t water your plants every day. They’re gonna rot,’ and he turned to me after a few minutes and said, ‘You figure this out. I’ve been watering my plants every day for the last 30, 35 years, and now it doesn’t work. What’s going on?'”

What’s going on is “the speed of science.”

Agricultural science is going down the tubes just as fast as any other mainstream “science.”

Maybe we should eat the academic eggheads instead of eggs?

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Did you ever grow an avocado seed in a jar of water, three toothpicks suspending the pit?

Did it drown?

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Plants are designed to grow in SOIL, not in COMPOST.

A thin layer of compost goes ON TOP, like the yellow, clumpy “skin” on top of Brown Cow yogurt.

A forest doesn’t grow in compost. It grows in soil with a layer of DUFF (dead stuff) on top.

Duff is “decaying vegetable matter covering the ground under trees.”

Plants don’t eat dead plants. They eat carbon dioxide and water.

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According to forestry specialist Jay Hayek (University of Illinois Extension) …

“What percentage of the mass of a tree is water?

“It varies by species and other factors; however, it is often reported that live trees are approximately 50% water by weight and 50% carbon (oven-dried weight).

“More precisely: ‘Dry (moisture-free) wood is about 48-50% carbon, 38-42% oxygen, 6-7% hydrogen and a number of other elements, such as nitrogen and sulfur in very small percentages. These percentages are based on the weight of the elements as a percentage of dry wood mass.

“‘Living trees, however, are very wet. In fact, although there can be great variation between tree species (and seasonally), a living tree may be made up of more than two thirds water by mass. Thus, a living tree is made up of 15-18% carbon, 9-10% hydrogen, and 65-75% oxygen by mass.’

“Source: Jeff Howe, PhD.”

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Is soil even necessary?

Some of the best tomatoes I’ve ever eaten were grown without soil by my high school buddy, Frank Broeske, under UV lights in his garage.

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According to Science Buddies (last edited Dec. 29, 2021) …

“A plant with roots in soil has to work hard to extract its nutrition from the soil, and it can waste a lot of energy doing that. But a plant in nutrient-rich water can spend its energy growing bigger leaves, fruits, and flowers in a shorter amount of time. One benefit of growing plants hydroponically is that the nutrients in the water can be completely controlled, and the plant can receive exactly the right amount of nutrients at exactly the right time. Another benefit of hydroponics is that it works in areas where the soils are not arable (not suitable for farming) and in areas where there is no soil.”

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