#soil fertility

[divine-nonchalance]

Making Desert Land Fertile with Water Bunds

Water bunds | Landscape restoration technique | Justdiggit

We dig semi-circular bunds to capture rainwater, restoring the water balance of the soil. Learn all about bunds that re-green the Earth

[viseorganic]

The thing about synthetic nitrogen fertilizer is that it works — fast, predictably, measurably. and then the soil gets a little quieter every year.

the bacteria that legumes evolved to work with get outcompeted, starved, or simply don't need to work anymore because the nitrogen is already there in a bag. over time you lose the relationship. you lose the infrastructure.

what i find interesting about microbial inoculants — the kind vise organic makes for leguminous crops — is that they're not complicated. they're just putting back what was there. rhizobium strains matched to the host plant, introduced at sowing, establishing in the root zone, doing what they've always done.

the cost reduction is real. the input dependency loosens. but what strikes me more is how it reframes the question: instead of "how much nitrogen do i apply?" it becomes "can i build a soil that grows its own?"

that's a different relationship with the land entirely.

[farmerstrend]

Why Smallholder Farmers in Western Kenya Are Championing Native Tree Restoration

Smallholders in Western Kenya strongly support native-tree restoration due to long-term benefits for landscape restoration, productivity and livelihoods, new research shows. Digital tools and community buy-in are successfully backing restoration projects A farmer waters seedlings along the Nzoia River in Siaya, Kenya. African nations have grand ambitions to green up landscapes with trees; the…

Why Smallholder Farmers in Western Kenya Are Championing Native Tree Restoration

[simplefoodsmallfarmz]

Old school simplicity with new school flava.

[dropsofsciencenews]

Yak Poop, Happy Soil

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When we think about food webs, we usually imagine predators and prey in a never-ending cycle. But there’s another, less visible chain, made up of soil organisms that decompose leaf litter (dead leaves, twigs, plant fragments). A network of worms, insects, springtails that break down, mix, and transform organic matter, releasing vital nutrients back into the soil. These nutrients feed plants, which feed herbivores, which feed carnivores, and so on.

To speed up decomposition, adding manure is a well-known practice, especially in agriculture. But not all poop is created equal. That’s why a team of researchers set out to discover how yak dung affects litter decomposition. The study was conducted on a Tibetan plateau in China, at 3500 meters above sea level. Scientists observed yaks for six days, recording the amount and distribution of dung and urine. They collected fresh dung and urine (stored separately in freezers to preserve nutrients) and also gathered plant litter, which was sterilized, dried, and cut into 2 cm pieces.

They used this material to create 15x15 cm decomposition bags (litterbags), each containing 10 g of litter. Some had coarse mesh (allowing soil invertebrates to enter – “with fauna”), others had fine mesh (excluding fauna – “without fauna”). Each bag received one of four treatments: no addition (control), dung only, urine only, or dung + urine. The bags were placed in a yak-free plot and left to decompose. The study lasted a total of 660 days.

Results? In the absence of soil fauna, there were no major differences between treatments. But in their presence, bags with dung (alone or with urine) decomposed much faster – decomposition rates increased by up to 116%!

Animal feces provide sugars, proteins, and amino acids – nutrients for microbes and decomposers. Soil fauna mix, break down, and stimulate microbial biomass. In short: yak poop works, but only if the soil is alive.

See You Soon, and Good Science!

Source Pic by Dylanleagh

[mauricesmall]

It’s so beneficial, peaceful and important.

[whats-in-a-sentence]

Where once we were all pretty much farmers, or very close to the land, and we rotated crops, studied yields, used livestock as land fertility aids and worshipped soil gods over lifetimes, not just financial years, now we just ring up the agronomist and order NPK. Where we once all felt, in our hands and backs and stomachs, the health of the soil that nurtured us, now we look at spreadsheets and averages and statistically relevant results. For a while, we lost the gratitude our forebears had for the soil they worked, the land they trod, the wisdom they garnered by growing stuff and watching the earth with more than passing interest, and more of a survival instinct.

"Soil: The incredible story of what keeps the earth, and us, healthy" - Matthew Evans

[turtlesandfrogs]

What's the difference between organic and chemical fertilizers?

When we buy fertilizers, they generally have NPK listed on the front, which gives the concentration of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium in the fertilizer. Organic fertilizers typically are sourced from plant or animal sources, while non-organic or chemical fertilizers are specific elements that we've determined plants need, and may have been synthesized in a lab or mined from the earth. Why might you favor one type of fertilizer over the other? It comes down to nutrient availability, which is a double edged sword. To understand why, we need to know a bit about mycorrhizal fungi.

Plants need nitrogen and other minerals, and when growing without excessive fertilizers, they form symbiotic relationships with ecto and endomycorrhizal fungi, which have vast mycorrhizal networks with incredible surface area. This allows the fungi to much more efficiently absorb minerals and water from the soil, which they exchange for plants' root exudates, which have sugars that the plants have fixed through photosynthesis. Plants with these symbiotic fungi are more resilient to disease and drought, and grow better. The mycorrhizal fungi can also reduce plant's uptake of heavy metals, and can prevent nutrient rich runoff.

When nitrogen, potassium, and especially phosphorus are too available, plants kick out their symbiotic fungi because they no longer need them to get these nutrients. However, this has a down side: symbiotic fungi protect against pathogenic fungi, so now those plants are more vulnerable to fungal infections. They also can no longer can take up water as easily, along with other micro nutrients that may or may not be in the fertilizer.

However, you may have noticed that I didn't specify chemical fertilizers in the above paragraph, and that is because you can see the same effect in some organic fertilizers, like manure, rock phosphate, bone meal, etc. So it's not JUST chemical fertilizers that can negatively impact fungi and their symbiotic relationship with plants- it's any fertilizer that is too rich and too available. If our goal is to support mycorrhizal networks, ideally we would add just enough fertility and in a form that is more available to fungi than plants, thus encouraging those symbiotic relationships.

However, that does not mean that chemical or readily available fertilizers don't have their place. If I'm growing something in a pot and it's going to be in a pot it's whole life, I'll often use some kind of fertilizer that I wouldn't use in my garden. Chemical or quick release fertilizers are great for when you've spotted a nutrient deficiency and want a quick turn around for your plants. I usually use some very rich sources of fertility for my cucurbits and raspberries, but learning this has made me rethink this practice.

I think an apt analogy between a box of strawberries and a soda. The box of strawberries has sugar, but it also has more micronutrients and will feed the kind of symbiotic bacteria we want in our gut in the long term. Meanwhile, the soda has a lot of sugar which will rapidly increase our blood sugar and feed the kind of bacteria that aren't as beneficial. However, if your blood sugar is crashing and you need to bring it up, the soda is the better choice. Each has their place, and it's best to analyze your situation and determine which is the better choice.

If you want to read more, here's some sources:

"A Gardener’s Primer to Mycorrhizae: Understanding How They Work and Learning How To Protect Them (Home Garden Series)" by Linda Chalker-Scott, available for free from WSU.

"The complete guide to restoring your soil Restoring your soil" a book by Dale Strickler, very in depth and a great book to read if you want to know more about soil.

This is a very complex topic and our understanding is expanding rapidly. I could not possibly cover everything there is to know about this in a single post, but I do think this is at least a good taste.