08/04/2021
Dr Joseph Mercola... snake oil salesman, or natural health dynamo?
I want to share a story of my experience with Dr. Joseph Mercola. Just before the founding of The Ponkan Patch, I discovered an article and documentary created by Dr Mercola elucidating the practice and benefits of mulching. As it turns out, had it not been for his work in this area, The Ponkan Patch would not be as it is today.
Mulching improves soil structure by adding humic substances, increasing pore space, thereby increasing aeration while also improving water retention.
On just 2.2 acres, our small farm sequesters around 100 tons of carbon, in addition to what was there before we arrived. By adding around 200 tons of dry wood chips, the subsequent breakdown and increase in humic substances resulted in accelerated plant growth, moisture retention and aeration. More carbon is sequestered in the form of crop residues every year. As long as organic management continues, that carbon will never escape in to the atmosphere.
The trees thrive as a result of the increased fertility, but w**d management also requires more inputs here than in a conventional grove, made more difficult as we do not use glyphosate at the base of the tree like conventional groves. However, as the trees mature, w**d management requirements continually decrease.
Our nitrogen inputs at this point are about 1/3 of a conventional orange grove. This is due to natural nitrogen fixers and supportive cover crops that could not exist in the w**d free, biologically inactive soils characteristic of a typical conventional orange groves.
Phosphorus is one of the three main plant macronutrients required for all plant growth. Current conventional farming practices use almost exclusively mined phosphorus, a finite resource. The entire world supply of phosphorus is expected to last another 85 years. Additionally, most of the remaining phosphorus ore is in one country... and it's not ours. In organic citrus, we get more than enough phosphorus (actually, excess) from composted animal manures. Animal manures are used some by conventional farmers, but most pile up in waste areas unused. When they are treated like garbage and poorly managed, the result is what we have seen with hog lagoon flooding, damaged waterways and wetlands.
Little did we know how crucial Dr Mercola's guidance would prove to be. Growing under a screen enclosure requires high performing crops as the planting density is high and the structure itself is expensive to build and maintain. Had it not been for Dr Mercola's guidance, the grove would have survived, but based on our experiments with small areas without mulch, the grove would have not performed as well and may have even been sold to a conventional grower in order to maintain operation. Today, we are proud to say that our grove operates equally to or in excess of our conventional counterparts, without the use of conventional inputs (urea, mined phosphorus, pesticides or herbicides).
Our thanks to Dr Mercola for his contribution to The Ponkan Patch and to a healthier, more sustainable planet earth.
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/10/05/wood-chips-ground-cover.aspx?x_cid=youtube Natural health expert and Mercola.com founder Dr. Jo...
