Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Your Soil is Naked, Hungry, Thirsty and Running a Fever

You'd think from the title of this post that I was describing someone with a tropical disease like Ebola.

The title is referring to a picture of a bare field that Ray Archuleta uses in his seminars on soil health.

He says...

  1. The soil is naked, if you clean till. Soil in nature always wants to have plants growing in it and residue on the surface.
  2. Soil biology is hungry if you don't feed it. Biology is looking for plant residue and exudates from living plants for its energy source. Chemical nutrients by pass the soil biology and in most cases supress the biology.
  3. Heavy tillage utilizes moisture inefficiently. So the soil is thirsty.
  4. Lack of cover causes soil temperatures to be 20-30 degrees higher than what would be considered normal. This can retard biology and nutrient cycling.
Listen to some of Ray's seminars on UTube for a whole different perspective on soil health.

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