Here are the 5 principles of Soil Health

• Limit mechanical disturbances in the soil
• Keep armor on the soil
• Encourage biodiversity
• Keep a living root in the ground for as long as possible
• Cycle nutrients through animals/livestock

1. Limit or eliminate mechanical disturbances in the soil

When it comes to soil building, tillage is the most destructive thing ever and should be avoided unless absolutely necessary. Take this photo for example. On the left is a protected ecosystem, while on the right is vulnerable topsoil soil that is at risk of severe erosion.

All tillage:

• Destroys soil structure soil (aggregates)
• Reduces water infiltration
• Reduces organic matter
• Increases weeds

Protect soil aggregates by not tiling

Soil aggregates are clumps of dirt that are held together by glomalin, a sticky protein that is produced by mycorrhizal fungi. This fungus helps keep soil from washing and eroding away and tilling fractures and kills the soil’s fungal network. You might notice how sandy and dry it is to the touch in degraded soils. That is what happens when tilling, fungicides, and pesticides have killed off the soil’s microbiology.

In healthy soils, glomalin and fungal hyphae work together to glue everything together into large granules that promote airflow and drainage. This creates excellent conditions for roots to spread through the soils in search of water and nutrients, so stop tilling and let nature do all the heavy lifting.

Protect water quality by not tilling

Once tilling has broken up the soil, it is vulnerable to erosion via wind and rain. Strong winds might transport soil particles away from the farm and heavy rain will definitely wash away tilled topsoil. Nitrogen is especially vulnerable to leaching out of tilled dirt and is more likely to be washed into the nearest water reservoir. This leeching of nutrients is the cause of many water quality issues across America, resulting in algal blooms and oxygen-poor waterways.

Thanks to glomalin’s ability to create aggregates, healthy topsoil has the look and feel of chocolate cake. The aggregation in healthy soil helps form large particles that hold onto moisture, rather than compacting into a hard surface for the water to slide over. Instead, water infiltrates deep down into the earth’s groundwater reservoirs for plant roots to access it year-round.

2. Keep armor on the soil

By “armor”, I mean plant residue. “Plant residue” refers to both living plants and the previous cover crop’s decomposing remains. They help to shield the topsoil from physical and photochemical degradation.

Plant residues regulate soil temperature

The sun can be harsh on the soil, especially now that temperature extremes are increasing due to fossil-fuel-funded climate change.

Plant residues help to keep the topsoil cooler than the ambient temperature above. This aids the plant’s ability to retain the moisture needed to transport nutrients and grow. The chart below shows the general heat tolerance of most vegetation:

Plant residues suppress weeds

Any experienced grower knows how difficult manual weed management is. It is a reality of growing anything in soil because all soils contain some amount of lingering weed seeds. While annoying for gardeners, this is just nature’s way of applying protection to otherwise bare soil.

Rather than competing with the persistent weeds, or applying toxic herbicides, dense cover cropping can help eliminate the need for such strenuous management.

A sheet of rolled-over cover crops will act like construction cloth on the soil, blocking solar energy from reaching lingering weed seeds. Then with each season, successive rolling of each crop after harvesting will create more armor on the soil. This cycle enhances the land’s weed impression capabilities and gives growers a pristine surface for planting the next season’s crop.

Plant residues provide homes for beneficial insects

For farmers that don’t use synthetic poisons to manage pests, crimped-over vegetation provides shelter for insects.

Yes, pest species might be able to shelter in the knocked-over brush, but so will their natural predators. In a healthy ecosystem, about 100 predator species will gladly manage pests for you.

Managing water through cover crops

Depending on the region, you may encounter one of these three scenarios concerning precipitation:

“My land gets too much water”

In this case, you’ll want to plant cover crops densely to get more roots in the ground to manage that water. Roots provide structure to the soil, keeping it from washing away. Also, roots help contribute pour space and organic matter.

“My land gets too little water”

If your region is prone to droughts, you’ll need to increase the water-holding capacity of your soil. This is possible by growing lots of vegetation and developing a diverse bacterial/fungal community.

“My land gets enough water”

Congratulations! Now grow something!

3. Encourage biodiversity

This concept directly contradicts conventional agricultural methods. Nature is meant to support multiple species that fill specific roles which keep the ecosystem productive.

Encourage insect diversity

Pests, especially insect pests, are a reality for virtually all farmers. However, for everyone pest, there are hundreds of beneficial predating, pollinating, and soil conditioning insects. For example, aphids are common and ravenous eaters that multiply rapidly if unchecked. Thankfully, ladybugs are equally ravenous carnivores of aphids.

To get these natural predators to manage pests, first, diversify crops with plants that attract beneficial bugs. Next, stop using harsh chemicals to destroy pests. Synthetic pesticides do not just wipe out the pest, they kill the beneficial insects as well. Finally, give the good bugs a place to shelter and hunt through a layer of plant residues. Earthworms will especially thrive beneath plant residues that protect them from drying out.

“build it and they will come.”

Encourage plant diversity

Nature does not favor monocroping. Growing one or two crops consecutively is a major detriment to soil health while growing diversly drives soil health. In fact, farms that implement diverse regenerative cropping strategies report yields triple that of mono-crop farms.

Why? Because plants bridge the nutrient cycling gap between microorganisms underground and larger organisms that feed off the plants. This includes insects, livestock, and humans. The rest of the world’s creatures enjoy eating a wide range of food just like humans do. It only makes sense to feed that biology and grow more nutrient-dense food in the process!

Encourage microbial diversity

Finally, the most important reason to promote plant diversity is to cultivate a thriving microbial ecosystem beneath the soil. This is the potent secret ingredient of regenerative agriculture and it works exceptionally well because mother nature encourages it.

Bacteria/fungi have evolved with plants over millions of years to develop a symbiotic relationship. through photosynthesis. plants will share sometimes 80% of the products from photosynthesis with soil microbes through their roots. Fungi/bacteria will feed on those root exudates and in return, they deliver a buffet of nutrients for the plants!

Specifically, mycorrhizal fungi are the most important fungus for growing nutrient-rich crops. These fungi will spread out between root cells, creating fungal highways to receive and deliver nutrients. This synergy makes distributing nutrients between plants easy and possible only in untitled soil.

4. Keep a living root in the ground for as long as possible

Bare soil is unproductive and vulnerable soil. It’s like through a town with no restaurants or pit stops. Anywhere area with bare soil is an opportunity to grow something that captures solar energy and feeds the microbial communities.

Cycle carbon

Photosynthesis is nature’s way of carbon sequestration. Plants grab sunlight and carbon from the air, process it, and store it in the ground. This process provides sustenance for the plant and food for the bacteria/fungi providing essential nutrients for the plants.

Feeding microbiology

Through the roots, the plants feed this processed carbon to the tiny organisms in the form of root exudates. In turn, the organic feed nutrients back to the plant.

This symbiotic relationship is what builds the soil’s microbial community that drives the productive ecosystem that mother nature encourages agricultural projects to emulate. Once you learn to work with nature and provide the framework to grow these beneficial bacteria/fungi, you can farm nutritious food without synthetic fertilizers.

5. Cycle nutrients through animals/livestock

Cycling Nutrients

The waste products of animals can serve as rich crop fertilizers when managed responsibly. For example, this chart shows the nutrient output of 100 cows after grazing 1 acre for 1 day:

In regenerative models, farmers harness nutrient cycles to both revitalize their soils and practically eliminate fertilizer expenses. Most notably, farms that cycle nutrients through their livestock are generally more profitable and less dependent on expensive synthetic inputs like fungicides, herbicides, etc.

Grazing

Strategically managing grazing herds to allow the landscape to fully recover before returning is an excellent way to cycle more carbon into the soil.

Some farmers achieve this by subdividing their grazing land to track which sections are recovering from grazing, which sections need to be seeded, and which sections are ready for grazing.

Regardless, no one grazing strategy is fit for every farm. Developing your own strategy through careful observation of the native perennial pastures and animals is recommended over copying someone else.

Learn how to apply these soil health concepts in your garden/container garden!

Organic no-till agriculture is an incredible way to cultivate food security and resilience in a world full of uncertainty. Look into this course from Local Harvest. It is a year-round guide on what it takes to farm nutritious food and continuously develop nutrient-rich soil. In fact, the first and most important module is about developing nutrient-dense soil without using expensive fertilizers.

You will also learn about:

• Permaculture
• Irrigation strategies
• Water retention methods
• Bokashi composting
• The advantages of succession planting
• Starting seeds indoors
• Irrigation strategies
• Winter gardening
• And much more!

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