Soil Health: Spring 2022
Since most of my readers have an interest in soil health and a lot of you are growing food, we thought we would include a topic about it in our newsletter. As we can read in the beginning of the Bible, God used dirt to build a man. We are dirt, so we should be very interested in the dirt beneath our feet and try to understand it as much as we can. But most of all, we need to be concerned about how it gets treated. Our livelihood depends very much on it. If we kill our soil we will kill ourselves.
The best food for your body comes from your land and was grown and prepared by your hands. With that being said, if you want to grow your own food, a few simple tips on soil health can go a long way to increase the nutrient density of the food you grow.
And God said, Behold I give you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of the tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. Genesis 1:29
As we can read, God created the world with abundance. A lot of food can be grow in just a little plot or a backyard. If we take care of our soil it will take care of us. A whole world of life we have only began to understand lays beneath our feet. What we see growing on top is only a reflection of what is happening underneath. Since we can only see what is happening on top we tend to forget about what is going on below and make decisions based only on what we see.
As stated in the last issue, the plant, microbes, fungi, and the bacteria are constantly communicating with each other to keep each other alive. The bacteria and the fungi are key components to keep other microbesalive. The ideal environment for the microbes to thrive in is a 20 fungi to 1 bacteria ratio.
Although much more complex that this, for the sake of keeping this simple, we will just say this the fungi build long term stability in your soil and the bacteria release nutrients and make them available to the plant. A forest, for example, has about a 100 to 1 fungi to bacteria ratio and a corn field has about a 30 to 1 bacteria to fungi ratio, neither is ideal.
So let’s take a look at what happens when we plow a piece of ground; the fungi get destroyed, the bacteria come charging in, and release all the nutrients that the fungi have built and stored. The crop being grown will do really well because of all the nutrients that are available. Now we come along, and since that worked so well, we plow it again the next year and the same thing happens only this time fewer nutrients are available because the fungi have not recovered enough to store any. If this continues every year, after a while, no more nutrients will be available and the crop will do poorly. This is usually when we call a salesman and they sell us a product that has available nutrients for the plant so we can grow crops. This is ok, but we need to realize the only reason this is necessary is because of what we have done to our soil.
Most soils have already been depleted to the point that inputs are necessary to even get something to grow; however with good management, we can reverse this.
Cover crops and mulch will do a lot to support fungal life. If possible, grow only cover crops for a year, then plow them down and plant vegetables the following year. This is a great way to support more fungal life in your soil since you will only be plowing your soil every other year. That way a lot of carbon gets plowed down and it will give the fungi a much quicker recovery time. Wood chips, straw, or any high carbon mulch on your soil will suppress weeds, thus eliminating the need to plow and greatly enhance the fungal life in you soil.
Read the book The Organic No-Till Farming Revolution by Andrew Mefferd, available from Acres USA, for some very successful no-till gardening stories.
Caution needs to be used when applying any kind of manure or even compost, as this could put an imbalance of nutrients on your soil, thus causing disease and a whole other host of problems. The best solution is usually cover crops and carbon based products like wood chips or straw and a little bit of compost. If the soil is very depleted, putting on a lot of carbon will tie up all the available nutrients (especially nitrogen), the fungi will basically take over and the bacteria won't have any nutrients to release to the plant. A little compost or manure will provide available nutrients for the plants while the fungi build the soil. Soil testing and balancing soil with amendments is also a good way to get the soil headed the right way but caution needs to be used, as this will become an addiction for you and the soil. It should only be used as a tool to get you to were you want to go, not a long term plan unless the soil continues to be abused. We would recommend whenever possible, to build soil using cover crops and compost that can usually be made with waste products from your farm or home.
Just remember every time you see bare soil that the soil life is diminishing. Although fresh plowed, loose soil is fun to plant into, a price is always paid. Nice, neat, weed-free rows and a garden that has just been cleaned out for the winter do cause satisfaction, but also at a price. Our garden will never get cleaned in the fall. All the crops will stay were they are to feed the soil for next year. Corn or the taller crops can be weed-eated and cover crop planted right in the remains. This will create a perfect environment for the bacteria and fungi to thrive in.
Remember brown feeds fungi, green feeds bacteria. Fungi build long-term soil health, bacteria release nutrients and feed the crop. Both fungi and bacteria are important for the microbes, but both need to be kept in balance for long-term soil and human health.
The hardest thing to change is usually our mindset. Everything we do on our farms and gardens will either have a positive or negative compounding and cascading effect, soil is never neutral. If we're not making positive effects, then we are making negative effect, and a little compounding positive effect will go a long way with time.
Remember, Acres USA is a great source of info (800-355-5313), or feel free to call us with any questions. We would be happy to try to answer the best we know, or try to direct you to book that will help.