The secret to richer, carbon-capturing soil? Treat your microbes well Imagine if someone invented machines to suck carbon out of the atmosphere — machines that were absurdly cheap, autonomous, and solar powered, too. Wouldn’t that be great? But we already have these gadgets! The problem is, plants die. This has left people scratching their heads. Clive Kirkby was one of those government agents urging farmers to leave dead plant residues in their fields. As he was proselytizing, Kirkby began to bump heads with an agronomist named John Kirkegaard. This made Kirkby crazy. “I’ve been returning the stubble to the ground now for six years, and it’s just not going into the soil,” Kirkegaard told him. The way that soil locks up greenhouse gas has been frustratingly mysterious, but the basics are clear: After plants suck up the carbon, the critters (microbes and fungi and insects) swarming in the topsoil chew up plant molecules, subjecting them to one chemical reaction after another as they pass through a fantastically complex food web. “Humus!” This stopped me.
Soil An important factor influencing the productivity of our planet's various ecosystems is the nature of their soils. Soils are vital for the existence of many forms of life that have evolved on our planet. For example, soils provide vascular plants with a medium for growth and supply these organisms with most of their nutritional requirements. Figure 1: Most soils contain four basic components: mineral particles, water, air, and organic matter. Soil itself is very complex. Organic Activity A mass of mineral particles alone do not constitute a true soil. Humus is the biochemical substance that makes the upper layers of the soil become dark. It enhances a soil's ability to hold and store moisture. Organic activity is usually profuse in the near surface layers of a soil. Translocation When water moves downward into the soil, it causes both mechanical and chemical translocations of material. Soil Texture Clay is probably the most important type of mineral particle found in a soil. Soil pH
Soil Structure & Composition Sunday, 06 June 2010 07:35 The Plant Lady Living Matter Mostly in the top 4" of the soil. Good guys & bad guys...but large volume & diversity control the trouble makers by making it a competive environment for resources. 1 teaspoon of soil: 1 billion bacteria several yards of fungal hyphae several thousand protozoa few dozen nematodes Bacteria attracted by the root exudate (carbohydrates and proteins secreted from the plant roots). the numbers and kinds of bacteria that are attracted are controlled by the plant, depending on season and conditions most bacteria need carbon sources to live. bacteria use slime to stick to substrates and move around. this slime traps pathogens. this slime is also responsible for sticking soil particles together, giving soil its structure. vitmamins and antiobiotics are produced by some bacteria & fungi that help the plants bacteria also work in th ephyllosphere (leaf surface) Fungi fungal hyphae kill nematodes, which are after the plant roots Protozoa Nematodes earthworms
Soil and Health Library How to Assess Soil Composition The health of garden plants depends on the soil's composition — the proper balance of mineral pieces, organic matter, air, and water. Knowing the type of soil you have can help you choose techniques to enhance its good qualities. The best garden soil should have proper balance of minerals, water, organic matter, and air. The relative amounts of clay, silt, and sand particles determine your soil texture: Clay particles are microscopic and flat. Determine the type of soil you have. For most plants, the ideal mixture is approximately 40 percent sand, 40 percent silt, and 20 percent clay. Clay soils are naturally fertile, but the individual particles are so small that they pack tightly, leaving little room for water and air. Unfortunately, except by trucking in huge amounts of soil, you have no way to change your soil's texture. Many factors affect soil structure, but the most important ones include the following:
8 Steps for Making Better Garden Soil Starting to build a new garden isn’t difficult. Most people begin by going out into their yards with a shovel or garden tiller, digging up the dirt and putting in a few plants. Following the organic and natural methods, add a little mulch or compost, and you’re well on your way to make good soil for your homegrown vegetables. But in the long run, the success of your garden depends on making healthy garden soil. In the last issue, I discussed the value of soil care methods that imitate natural soil communities. In this article, I’ll focus on specific ways to achieve these goals. Add Organic Matter For the best soil, sources of organic matter should be as diverse as possible. 1. You should apply manure with care. However, because some nutrients from manures are so readily available, they are more likely to leach out of the soil (where they’re needed) into groundwater and streams (where they’re pollutants). When thinking of manure, it’s worth considering our own. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
Testing Your Soil pH Without a Kit I’m always looking for quick tips to make my gardening chores easier. I ran across a couple of gardening hacks about testing your soil pH without a kit and I thought I would try them out and see what I need to do with my garden. Let’s do a little kitchen chemistry! But first… Why do you care if your soil is alkaline or acidic? Knowing your soil pH is the key to understanding if essential minerals will be available to the roots of your plants. According to The San Francisco Chronicle, “if you live in an area with alkaline soil — which has a pH above 7.0 — you have two options. You can lower the alkalinity of your soil by adding organic materials like pine needles, peat moss, and composted leaves. According to the article, Your Garden’s Soil, in Mother Earth News, “Raising the organic matter content of soil will usually move the pH of both acidic and alkaline soils toward the neutral range. #1 – You can test your garden soil pH with vinegar and baking soda This test was fun to do.
Build Million Dollar Garden Soil - Life Is Just Ducky It’s not pretty to look at, tasty to eat, or a juicy tidbit to tell our friends, but without it you can kiss the hopes of a great garden goodbye. What is it? So how do you get it? To start with most of us don’t have it naturally. All vegetable garden soils can be improved Just like if you are fed bad things you will be unhealthy, more likely to get diseases and more likely to feel rundown, so will your plants if they don’t have a good diet. You need to find out what kind of soil you have Soils vary enormously from one area of the country to another. Clay has very tiny particles. Sand has very large particles. Loam is a happy medium. What you want is a soil that has a nice “crumb” to it. Oh! Earthworms are a really good sign Most of us don’t naturally have this really good “ideal” soil. No matter what type of soil you have, adding organic matter will improve it Organic matter will improve the ability of the soil to hold water but let the excess drain away. What is organic matter? or . Related
Właściwości gleby - jak zbadać glebę w ogrodzie Właściwości gleby w naszych ogrodach są jednym z najważniejszych czynników decydujących o możliwości powodzenia uprawy. W zależności od naszych potrzeb, a raczej od potrzeb roślin które chcemy uprawiać, możemy wpływać na jakość i żyzność gleby w naszym ogrodzie, m. in. stosując odpowiednie nawozy i metody uprawy. Zobacz jak zbadać glebę w ogrodzie aby ocenić jej właściwości i przydatność do uprawy roślin, a nastęnie dobrać odpowiednie metody uprawy i nawożenia. Właściwości gleby - jak samemu zbadać glebę w ogrodzie Badanie właściwości gleby - w czym nam to pomoże Jednym z często popełnianych błędów jest nawożenie "na oko", co może przynieść skutki odwrotne od zamierzonych. Aby otrzymać pewne i precyzyjne wyniki, najlepiej jest pobrać próbki gleby i oddać je do badania w jednej z rolniczych stacji badawczych. Właściwości gleby - piaszczysta czy gliniasta Pierwszym elementem jaki możemy ustalić, to rodzaj gleby. Jak zbadać odczyn pH gleby Uwaga! Kiedy trzeba zbadać glebę laboratoryjnie
How Plants Use Nitrogen - Organic Gardening - Heirloom Gardener Farmers, gardeners, and students of science all know that plants need an environmental supply of nitrogen to survive, much less thrive. Unlike carbon dioxide, which green plants can harvest from the gaseous atmosphere through photosynthesis, nitrogen gas (N2) isn’t available for plants’ aboveground parts to use. Instead, we growers apply nitrogen fertilizers to garden beds or manage soils with cover crops, green manures, and even animal manures to supply nitrogen in a form that plant roots can readily take up. Nitrogen’s Properties Symbol: NAtomic number: 7Atomic mass: 14.0067 u ± 0.0001 uElectron configuration: 1s22s22p3Electrons per shell: 2,5Melting point: -346 degrees FahrenheitBoiling point: -320.4 degrees Fahrenheit How Nitrogen Works in the Soil Nitrogen atoms are energetically predisposed to exist as pairs of individual nitrogen atoms bonded tightly to one another. In simplified terms, the principal forms of nitrogen that plant roots can utilize are nitrates and ammonium.
Your Garden’s Soil pH Matters - Organic Gardening To ensure that your garden crops make the most of the rich, organic soil you create, you need to understand your soil’s pH. The pH describes the relative acidity or alkalinity of your soil’s makeup, and it has important implications for plant health and growth. Soil pH impacts beneficial fungi and bacteria in the soil and influences whether essential minerals are available for uptake by plant roots. What Is Soil pH? A solution’s pH is a numerical rating of its acidity or alkalinity. Most food crops prefer a pH of 6.0 to 6.5, but you can have a productive food garden as long as your pH is about 5.5 to 7.5 (see chart in slideshow). A soil’s pH results from interactions among native rocks, plants and weather conditions over many years, and it varies with climate and physical surroundings. Some synthetic chemical fertilizers — mainly those high in ammonium or sulfur — can make soil more acidic, as can tillage methods that reduce soil’s levels of organic matter. How to Test Soil pH
Building Fertile Soil - Organic Gardening I Love My 4X4 But... Cam finds getting around in the country, especially in the winter, so much easier with his 4X4 truck... Composting Humanure Humanure management for maximum nutrient secuestration and minimum resource loss. Building fertile soil means learning how to feed the soil to feed the plants. It's a fundamental axiom of organic gardening and farming, and once you understand what "feeding the soil" means to building fertile soil, you'll also understand why organic methods, and no-till techniques in particular, work so well. Even though you can't see most of it, a complex soil food web lives in your garden; it's teeming with earthworms, mites, bacteria, fungi — all kinds of mostly microscopic, interdependent organisms that release mineral nutrients and create the loose soil structure crops need to thrive. Your crops actually help feed all this underground life. But this complex, mostly invisible soil ecosystem can be damaged easily. First, minimize plowing, tilling and digging.