On Edible soils (from Dr. T. A., my friend in Ghana)
食土について (from トマス・アジャデー, ガーナの友人)
Hello Prof. Tsutsuki,
I have just read your research interests and found one of them to be; "Edible soils: characteristics and functions" This is very intriguing.
What are the edible soils? I know in Ghana, some women, especially pregnant women leak kaolin.
I would like to know about these edible soils you are researching.
Best regards,
Reply from Woodpecker
Thank you for your mail.
I am studying edible soils in Hokkaido, but I have not published a paper on this subject.
The indigenous people in Hokkaido used edible soils when they cook their food including wild vegetables.
I suspect that wild plants contain various toxic compounds such as alkaloids, and edible soils may detox these poisons.
I have also heard that many people in the world eat soils, including the people in Africa.
Japanese professor, Dr. Yanai has published a paper on this subject 5-6 years ago on JSSPN journal.
I would appreciate your information on what types of soil is preferred in your country by pregnant woman.
Please keep contact with me further.
Reply mail from Dr. T. A., my friend in Ghana
Hello Prof. Tsutsuki,
Very interesting! This appears to be an opening into Paleo-Environmental Pedology.
I am very excited by this. I wish you could send me the publication in JSSPN.
Reply from Woodpecker
Thank you for your reply.
...........
By the way, native people in the continents of north and south America also had a habit of eating soil.
Alexander von Humboldt reports this fact on his travelogue of expedition into Orinoco river basin in Venezuela.
I have harvested the apples, Fuji variety, remained on the tree on November 8. Some apples have been eaten by the birds. I have left two of them on the tree to feed the birds.
Comment from Dr. G.M. Panaullah, Bangladesh
Wow! Nice! The apples look plump and juicy!
My reply
Thank you, Dr. Panaullah. They are really sweet, because we have waited until they are ripe on the tree. The snow this morning told us that it is the time to harvest them.
Comment from Ms. Priyadarsani Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka
What a beautiful kindness...........two apples for birds........
My reply
Birds have already bored a big hole on the apple. Therefore, I gave it to them.
Comment from Mr. F.N. Nawabi, Afganistan
I show you the photos of my apples: Reed Shep variety.
My reply
Thank you, Mr. Nawabi. Your apples are always big and look delicious.
In the past, it also snowed during the golden week (national holidays week) in May, the months free from snow are only four months from June to September in Obihiro.
Crops should grow in these four months, and provide harvest. It is a hard work both for crops and farmers.
New apple tree was planted. I have two apple trees in my garden. Both trees gave us many fruits last year. However, one of the trees had been attacked by aphids and fungi disease and could not recover in this spring. Today, I dug up the damaged tree and planted a new tree. It belongs to a different variety as the former one. It will take six years until I can have the first harvest from this tree. Then I will be 71 years old by that time.
After the apple tree, variety Tsugaru, was withered due to fungi disease, I replaced the tree to a young tree, variety Ourin. We have to wait still 6 - 7 years until this tree bears its first fruits.
The remained apple tree, variety Fuji, bore only 13 fruits this year, though we had more than 50 apples last year.
One branch of Fuji was withered in the early summer due to the infection from the withered tree. I sprayed the apple trees with the mixture of neem oil, wood vinegar, and essential oil from some tree leaves every week.
Fortunately, the other branch, twigs and leaves remained healthy through the year, and I hope it will have flowers and fruits also next year.
The young tree, Ourin, also grew a little taller, and looks healthy.
We had the first snow on November 3, and the leaves of apples were covered with snow.
バレイショ(キタアカリ)の収穫。T.M.氏からの質問。 Harvest of the potato (Kita-akari). A question from Mr. T.M.
On July 30, we harvested the potato in the class of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition Practice. It was the 15 th and the last class day. For the timing of harvesting the potato, it was a little early, but we had to harvest it within the period of the practice class. However, still three rows are left unharvested. We will harvest them two weeks later though it is not included in the term of the class. The photo in the lower right shows the magnesium deficiency symptom appeared on the leaves of organic fertilizer plot. It was not the blight disease.
On August 13, I harvested the potato with the junior course students. The yield survey was the second time since two weeks ago. The yield increased very much and attained the level of 4.2 t/10a in the chemical fertilizer plot. The quality of the potato is good and tastes very good.
On August 27, I carried out the third yield survey of potato. Though I did not expect that some students come to help me as it is still summer vacation period, three students came to the field to help me. Four people were good number to harvest the potato in the four trial plots. Since August 13, the total yield as well as the weight of individual potato in the organic fertilizer plots increased remarkably. The yields of potato in the chemical fertilizer plots seemed to attain the maximum level already in August 13. This result revealed that comparable yield and size of potato could be attained even in the organic fertilizer plots if we grow the potato for the sufficiently long period.
その後、バレイショの規格別割合を個数当りと重量当りで計算してみました(下のpdfファイルをご覧ください)。8月13日から8月27日にかけて、有機肥料区のサイズ規格別構成割合が著しく改善されて、M および L クラスが主要なクラスとなりました。規格外のイモは重量で見れば痕跡量となりました。販売時の価格にも影響するので、十分にジャガイモが生育するのを待ち、適切な時期に収穫することが大切なことがわかりました。
ご質問とコメントを頂いたT.M.氏は、私がフィリピンの国際稲研究所でポスドクをしていた頃からの友人です。
T.M.氏は長年にわたってインドのアラハバード(Allahabard) で、奥様とともに、貧しいインド農村の人々を支援し生活教育をする"アーシャ=アジアの農民と歩む会" という活動に携わっておられます。
より詳しくは、"Makino School of Continuing and Non-Formal Education" という学校の校長先生をしておられます。
ホームページを運営しておられますので、そのアドレスを紹介します。"Makino School of Continuing and Non-Formal Education" についてはFaceBook のページもありますので検索してみてください。