GOOD SOIL
Good soil has a rich layer of topsoil. It has good tilth, which is the physical condition and quality of soil as it relates to plant growth. Soil with poor tilth is compacted and has surface crusting, poor water infiltration, hard clods, poor root development, erosion susceptibility, and waterlogging.
Conversely, soil with good tilth has a crumbly, granular texture, good aggregation of soil particles, balanced pore spaces for air and water, and the ability to maintain structure when wet. These physical properties mean the soil has:
Good drainage while retaining adequate moisture
Proper aeration for root growth
Easy root penetration
Resistance to erosion and crusting
Workability (ease of cultivation)
WATER AND AIR
Topsoil needs to breathe. A good soil is crumbly, not a pile of dust nor hard like stone. It has texture and air pockets. The need plants have for water is obvious, but they also need oxygen for their root systems. Soil creatures need oxygen as well.
With poor soil structure, rain and surface water cannot penetrate the surface and become runoff. In other situations, poor soil can become supersaturated with water, which chokes out oxygen and promotes anaerobic organisms, leading to rot and decay.
Soil compaction can also lead to the suffocation of plant roots and soil organisms. Plant root systems and soil organisms need air and the proper amount of water. Soil with good texture provides these.
MICROBIAL HABITAT
Soil with a crumbly texture and air pockets provides soil organisms with habitat, secure places to live and thrive. The health of the soil is directly correlated to the biomass of living organisms. Those organisms need space and organic matter in which to live and grow.
Destroying the structure of the soil directly kills soil microbes, leaving organic matter to putrefy since air pockets have been destroyed. Anaerobic conditions in soil can lead to root rot and to pathogens, which can not only be dangerous to people but can prevent good soil ecology from returning. The killing done by tilling is more than just the act of tilling itself.
Running vehicles over soil will have the same effect, destroying the soil texture through compaction. Even soil under human pathways can be compacted and suffer. Design your system so that soil compaction from vehicles and walking is limited.
MYCELIUM NETWORK
The Mycelium Network is an underground network used as a community warning and resource-sharing system. It is created by undisturbed fungal growth. Interesting discoveries have been made recently showing how plant communities communicate over large distances, largely using the mycelia of fungi.
One of the things plants communicate through these Underground Networks is the appearance of pests and other dangers. If the soil communication network is widespread, it can broadcast the appearance of pests and disease from great distances. This gives plants time to mount chemical and other defenses long before the threat reaches them. Let your plants keep their Emergency Broadcast System.
It is well known that plants produce more than they need, excreting excesses from the root systems in a sticky, sugary substance called root exudates. Root exudates give soil texture by clumping soil particles together.
But the exudates also serve another function. Through the network of microbes and soil creatures the valuable resources found in root exudates can be shared in the community. While we think of plants as competing for resources, the truth is most plants, as long as they have enough space, air, and sunlight, act cooperatively.
MOTHER TREES
The concept of a Mother Tree was featured in the movie Avatar. The inspiration for this fictional tree was the work of Suzanne Simard, whose memoir is called “Finding the Mother Tree,” based on her work at the University of British Columbia. She found that large hub trees, which she calls Mother Trees, have a profound impact on forests.
Using radioactive carbon isotopes, she found that the Mother Tree would transfer carbon compounds to other plants in the forest. Furthermore, she discovered that trees can recognize kin, and the transfer of elements went preferentially to her own Daughter Trees.
Her work illustrates that not only do plants interact and communicate through the mycorrhizal networks, but that they share resources and can do so preferentially. Clearly, the ecosystem in the soil is much more complex, and plants are much more social than we previously knew.
LET NATURE DO THE TILLING
Nature is very good at building good soil structure and integrity. Worms, for example, are capable of tunneling up to 7 meters (23 feet) deep! As worms tunnel down in the soil, their excrement, or worm castings, carries microbes and nutrients, and this takes soil microbiology and fertility farther & deeper. Worm castings spread microbes, which soften rocks and can be used to turn rocky soil into good soil.
Besides aerating the soil and breaking down rocks, soil organisms bind soil particles together, creating a dark, rich, crumbly soil tilth. With intact tilth, soil can develop the underground communications systems mentioned earlier.
With proper conditions, the soil microbes and small animals to do the tilling for you in a deeper, more regenerative way. Topsoil will be built up, and resources such as water, nitrogen, and carbon will be maintained, even increased.
One of the best ways you can create and maintain soil integrity is, of course, to not till the soil. Tilling caused the infamous Dust Bowl. Tilling was one of the major causes of the hard, compacted clay I started with on the tea farm. Practicing No-Till is important for several reasons.
Benefits of No-Till
Water and Air are needed for plant survival. Tilling destroys air pockets and promotes runoff.
Microbial habitat is destroyed with tilling.
The Mycelium Network, the underground communication and defense network of fungal mycelium and biochemistry, is destroyed.
Worms, able to drill down up to 7 meters deep, carrying soil biology and fertility with them, are killed with tilling.
Microbes are a sink for Carbon & Nitrogen. Tilling releases carbon and nitrogen into the atmosphere.
Microbes are 80% water and, thereby, a reservoir for water in the soil.
A plant that is 100cm high, grown in untilled earth, will have a 100cm root system. The same 100cm plant grown in tilled soil will have a root system that is only about 20cm deep. ~Master Cho Han-Kyu
TURN SOIL INTO CARBON & NITROGEN & WATER SINKS
The exoskeletons of soil organisms are a sink for Nitrogen and Carbon. The more microbes in the soil, the greater the carbon sequestration. Untilled soil means that Carbon & Nitrogen are kept in the soil rather than released into the atmosphere, where they can affect global climates.
Soil Microbes have been shown to hold 11kg per 0.1 hectare* of Nitrogen N and 70kg of carbon C every year. The amount of carbon lost to the atmosphere by tilling is significant, on the order of 70kg per quarter acre. (*0.1 hectare = 1000m2 = 1/4 acre)
Additionally, microbes are 80% water. Destroying soil microbiology means the loss of a great amount of water held in the soil. A lot of the improvements in water retention made by organic gardening, permaculture, and regenerative techniques work because they keep the water in the soil by holding water directly in the bodies of microbes. Increasing the microbial levels in your soil will increase the water stored in your soil.
SOIL INTEGRITY
Soil structure and integrity do not come in a package. It cannot be purchased at any price. It can only be built by Nature, by soil communities.
Tilling destroys the benefits of good soil structure and integrity. It creates soil erosion. It destroys air pockets and creates soil erosion. It destroys the mycelial networks used for communication & defense. It releases the carbon, nitrogen, & water that was locked in the soil into the atmosphere, and it kills the soil organisms that turn dirt into soil.
Fertilizers lead to imbalances in plant nutrition and, more importantly, create imbalances, even death, of soil microbes, which are vital to soil health. Even fields properly managed using the best science available are slowly destroyed by the “proper use” of fertilizers.
Soil Diseases are caused by improper soil tilth, leading to imbalances in water and air, and due to the lack of proper soil biology. Good soil means proper soil tilth and abundant soil biology and ecology. Good soil means far fewer soil diseases and far fewer pests. Good soil needs less money and labor to maintain and is, therefore, of great economic benefit.
HOW NATURAL FARMING AND KNF CREATE AND IMPROVE SOIL INTEGRITY
The practices of Natural Farming create and maintain conditions that preserve and improve soil integrity, just like Nature does in the wild.
Korean Natural Farming (KNF) is largely based on using Indigenous Micro-Organism (IMO) Technology. IMO was developed to improve soil at an accelerated rate without harming any natural functions. IMO is a medicine that will restore any soil, including building soil from rocks and rocky soil. This technology is the key component of the Soil Foundation.
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