Soil Archives - Page 5 of 9

Is Soil Fertility Decreasing?

Is Soil Fertility Decreasing? Are agricultural soils less nutritious today than they were 50 years ago? I think most people believe these statements to be true. The idea has certainly been promoted a lot in the last 20 years. The claim is that our food is less nutritious than it used to be, and the main reason is that soils are being depleted of nutrients.

There is also a big movement to remineralize our poor soils. Hopefully, adding things like rock dust will bring it back to historical levels. The organic movement is also very big on solving these kinds of soil issues. Before we can understand the benefits of such actions, it is important to determine how big of a problem we really have. How depleted are our soils? Which nutrients are missing?

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Soil Factory Using Bokashi Ferment

I am seeing the term soil factory used more often, usually in discussions about Bokashi or Vermicomposting. I’ll restrict this blog to discussions about Bokashi, but most of the comments also apply to Vermicomposting.

It is claimed that Bokashi ferment, the material remaining after the fermentation process, can be used to make soil, which can then be used for house plants or in the garden. This would be quite a feat if true. It takes nature millions of years to make soil, and now Bokashi enthusiasts can do it in a couple of weeks.

Bokashi Soil Factory, by GardenMyths.com

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Can Leaves be Used to Identify Nutrient Deficiencies?

There are lots of examples of people trying to use plant leaf characteristics to identify nutrient deficiencies in the soil. This seems to make a lot of sense. If the soil is lacking a specific nutrient, it should show up in the plant and it seems to follow that by examining the physical characteristics of the leaf you should be able to identify the nutrient deficiency.

How reliable is this method of diagnosis? Can you really identify a nutrient deficiency in the soil by looking at plant leaves?

Plant Nutrient Deficiency Symptoms by Permablitz

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Soil for Raised Beds – Which One is Best?

You have decided to make raised beds and now need to fill them with soil. What is the best soil for raised beds? How often does it need to be replaced? How much compost should be added? Should you mix in some garden soil? I’ll answers these and other question in this post.

Before we start, lets define the term raised beds. I discussed raised beds in Raised Beds – Pros & Cons, and defined them as having walls. I will continue to use this definition in this post.

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Walnuts, Juglone and Allelopathy

The common statement “nothing grows under walnut trees” is not true. “Walnuts produce juglone” is not entirely true either. “You need to compost walnut wood chips before using them in the garden” is false. “The allelopathic properties of walnuts are well understood” – not true.

This is a popular subject that is routinely discussed and written about, but the truth around walnut trees is anything but clear.

Black Walnut - Walnuts, Juglone and Allelopathy — Black Walnut – Walnuts, Juglone and Allelopathy

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Tighty Whitie Soil Test – A Brief Review

The tighty whity soil test is a great way to measure soil health and demonstrate the value of no-till gardening.

In this post, I will have a brief look at the science behind the test.

Tighty Whitie Soil Test - measures the microbe population in your soil — Tighty Whitie Soil Test—measures the microbe population in your soil

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Does Sand and Clay Make Concrete?

What happens when you add sand to clay soil? Many people claim that this will make concrete and others say that it results in soil that is easier to dig. How can there be such large discrepancies about something that is so easy to test?

Why is this a problem? Gardeners with heavy clay find it difficult to dig, so they want to loosen it up. Sand is very easy to dig and it makes a lot of common sense to add it, to create a looser soil.

Soil texture triangle - sand and clay soil — Soil texture triangle – sand and clay soil

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Compost Tea – Does it Work?

Compost tea is all the rage but does it really work? Research studies so far have produced mixed results. The science to support the use of aerated tea on crop plants, lawns, shrubs, or trees is very weak, at best.

There seems to be a lot of work done in this area but much of it is not published in peer reviewed journals and most of it has been done in labs and greenhouses, not in the field. Until the work is repeated in the field we can’t conclude it works in gardens.

The other problem is that controls have been poorly selected. For example, in one study (ref 3) they compared ACT compost tea to water, using lettuce that had been under-fertilized. Guess what, compost tea improved growth. This only proves that adding nutrients, when they are deficient, will improve growth. The study never compared compost tea to adding nutrients in other ways.

In this post I will review one study that compared the use of compost to compost tea, in field conditions.

Effects of compost tea on the growth of trees, by Garden Myths (data from reference 2)

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Mulch – How Does It Affect Soil?

Mulching the garden is a very common recommendation. Mulch will reduce the number of weeds and it will hold moisture in the soil but how does mulch affect the quality of soil?

There are lots of claims that mulch improves soil but have you ever seen numbers to validate them? I haven’t either. How exactly does mulch improve soil? It should add organic matter, but how much? It should increase the number of microbes, but is this really true? Unfortunately, almost nobody studies landscapes and gardens because no one will fund the work.

Luckily I was able to find one very good research paper that looked at this exact problem.

Effect of fertilizer and mulch on soil, by Garden Myths (based on reference 1)

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Sterile Soil – Does it Really Exist?

There is lots of talk about using sterile soil. Some people even sterilize their soil before they use it. Others buy bags of sterile soil. All of this is done in an effort to reduce pests, diseases and sprouting seeds. This all seems to make a lot of sense but there are a couple of basic questions that one should ask;

Does sterile soil really exist?
Does sterile soil make a difference to your plants?

I’ll deal with the second question in my next post. Today I want to discuss the existence of sterile soil.

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Soil and Compost – Selecting the Right One

You are in the market for some soil or compost and you visit the local nursery or big box store. There are so many products to choose from. Which one is the right one? Should you buy soil, or triple mix, or compost? Or is potting soil the right product to buy?

In this post I will try to sort out this confusion and show you which product to use for different types of jobs.

Planting trees – Soil profile showing top soil (layer O + A)

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Topsoil, Compost, Triple Mix – What’s the Difference?

Go to any garden center and you will find a large range of products that all look like soil. Many names are used including topsoil, triple mix, compost, potting soil, black garden soil, peat moss and garden soil. What is the difference between all of these products? It can be very confusing.

Some of these products are marked as certified. What does that mean? What kind of guarantee do ‘certified’ soil products offer the consumer?

These and more dirty topics will be discussed in this blog post.

TopSoil, Compost, Triple Mix - What's the Difference? — Components of Ideal Soil, by GardenFundamentals.com

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