pump up the fertilizer NOT

--- In spacesettlers@y..., "Brad Walsh" wrote:
> Yeah, you're saying more succinctly what I was trying to say. The
system
> actually dropped some dashes from my first posting, it should have
said that
> man-made fertilizers replace 3 to 4 of the essential nutrients that
crops
> leach out, not 34. So I'm with you, let's let the real pros make
soil, the
> microbes. And give them the raw materials (including atmospheric
nitrogen)
> to do it.
>
> Dad Astra
>
> >Ouch , try and stay away from the artificially produced
fertilizers. Here
> >on earth we get away with them for a while because of the over
size of the
> >earth; yet in intesive farming areas you find the salting of the
soil where
> >the environment gets worse and worse because of the salt left
behind from
> >the artificial fertilers. yeah the stuff looks great in textbooks,
but in
> >real life it just don't work right.
> >
> >Cosnider the quality work you get when you are on speed... you
feel like
> >you are super efficint and fast, but how much productive things
did you
> >really do? And then for how long will your organism sustain the
metabolic
> >rate and hyped nergy level? It may work for you on isolated
circumstances
> >but to depend on it for everyday you'll crash and burn.
> >
> >Artificial fertilizers may appear to produce large robust plants;
but on
> >careful analysis they are devoid of many of the elements they
need. You
> >cant generalize with NPK and let it go at that. The pests know
that the
> >plant is inherently week and attack it causing the need for
pesticides etc.
> >Also the ultimate end product for plants is nutrional food for US.
Check
> >out the real nutrient level in produce from this and you will see
it
> >actually falls short in many essential areas. After all why
bother growing
> >food if it doesnt do the job. You can fill your gut with empty
food
> >calories; but to what end?
> >
> >Don't take the mistakes of the Earth into the next adventure. Live
and
> >learn.
>

I STRONGLY disagree with you. The goal is to give people plenty of
food to eat and pleanty of clean air. Whatever it takes will be done.
You cant pollute a artificial water supply. Energy is cheep in space,
so there are pleanty of ways available to clean water- and extract
the fertilizer elements BACK for reuse- that are cost prohibitive on
earth due to the energy costs. But pumping up the fertilizer is
probably NOT what the lunar soil needs. Rather its adding microbes to
extract and process the nutrients already available into a form that
earth plants can use.

In the long run their will be pleanty of colonies so eco-religionists
can try their ideas of what is "natural" on one or more of them if
they so wish.