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What actually is soil?
Soil isn’t just a bag of dirt. It’s a blend of ingredients that together make up what we refer to as soil. Some common ingredients in soil include: moss, sand, vermiculite, perlite, pine bark, compost, and other natural ingredients.
The type of ingredients that you want in the soil depends on what you’re growing and what characteristics you need from the soil. Adding a removing certain ingredients can affect the soil’s ability to hold water, provide ventilation to the roots, and deliver nutrients So getting the right soil composition for your plants is really important.
How do I know good soil when I see it?
Regardless of what you are growing, there are some general traits that are desirable when seeking a quality soil blend. As a rule of thumb, you always want a soil blend that is easy to handle, lightweight, and has a good texture. Ideally, soil should be fluffy. This will make the soil easier to work with and will encourage maximum growth. A soil that is too dry will result in low water retention. A soil that is too dense and clumpy won’t be able to drain properly. An idea soil mixture will also be free of pathogens. Soil pathogens can be harmful to soil bacterial or contain weed seeds that might interfere with your plant’s growth.
Tips about Commercial Soil
If you aren’t sure about the exact requirements of your plants or if you’re growing several different types of plants at once, commercial grade potting soil and some mulch is a great option. Potting soil is usually premixed and contains a good combination of essential ingredients – like compost, sand, sphagnum peat moss, and fertilizers – that deliver nutrients to roots. With soil selection, you typically get what you pay for. So cheaper options aren’t necessarily the best route for your plants.
Local & Organic Soil
If you find that a generic commercial soil doesn’t meet your growing needs, we suggest purchasing from a local and organic soil from a local soil company. Like food, soil is best when it is locally sourced and organic. To ensure the highest quality and consistency, aim to decrease the number of middlemen between you and your soil producer. Typically, locally mixed soils produce the best results because they are free from debris, pathogens, and contaminants that can negatively affect plant growth.
Special Situations & Optimizing Your Soil
Certain plants are meant to thrive in specific soil and environmental conditions. For example, succulents are a type of desert plant that requires soil with good water drainage.
After deciding what soil works best for your needs, do a trail run and take notes on the performance. When you notice that a soil mix performs well, then stick with it. If the soil you are using isn’t producing your desired results, consider Microbe & Plant Food soil amendments. If you still aren’t finding success, you can always ditch the soil all together, wash and reuse your fabric container, and start again.
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In a healthy soil food web, plants communicate with microbes in the soil by releasing hormones and other chemical signals to the microbes. The microbes receive these signals and respond, either by feeding the plant or defending it against disease by digesting minerals in the soil. At the end of the microbes’ life, the plants are able to absorb the nutrients from the decomposing microbes.
Unfortunately, conventional growing practices have made the soil devoid of microbes and caused the soil food web to become unbalanced. Here are a few ways:
Plowing or tilling
Tilling is the act of plowing or turning up the soil after each growing season. It’s a common practice for both commercial farmers and home growers alike. This practice releases carbon in the atmosphere, exasperating the global climate crisis. On a smaller scale, tilling destroys soil structure – killing essential microbes and negatively impacting plant vigor and yields.
Pesticides
Use of chemical pesticides has also had a major impact of Earth’s soil food web. While designed to eradicate invasive pests, pesticides have been proven to cause a decline in beneficial insect and bird populations. This major imbalance in the ecosystem impacts life above and below ground. By deteriorating the soil’s natural defenses, plants become even more vulnerable to pests, as well as diseases and stressors like drought and flooding.
Inadequate growing environments
We won’t argue that the ideal way to grow is directly in the ground, in living soil rich in beneficial microbes. Unfortunately, most native soil has a depleted food web. Soil can be reinvigorated with time and the right nutrients. For those who want to get growing quickly, container growing is a great alternative. But traditional growing containers can pose problems of their own. When growing in plastic or ceramic pots can prevent air flow. They can also cause dry pockets and root binding. That is not only bad for your plants, but also creates a constricted environment for life below the soil’s surface.
Here are some actionable steps you can take to implement regenerative practices in your garden.
Select the ideal growing environment.
If you’re going to grow above ground, there are alternatives to plastic, ceramic, and wood containers that not only are more beneficial for the soil but also are more affordable. Fabric pots and beds are made from breathable material that provides better aeration and air pruning for healthier roots. This allows the plants’ root systems to share space and nutrients. Fabric pots and beds ensure optimum moisture retention, eliminate dry pockets, and create the ideal environment for cultivating essential microbes.
Choose the right soil.
Soil itself can provide essential nutrients for microbes and plants alike. Nutrients from soil particles can be harvested by microbes like fungi and bacteria. Those microbes make the nutrients available for the plant to absorb.
Common soil ingredients include moss, sand, vermiculite, perlite, pine bark, and compost. The exact mixture of ingredients required depends on what you’re growing. Getting the mixture right is critical for plant success. Read more here about our recommendations on choosing soil.
Want to find the best soil for your region? Talk to your local garden supply retailer. Here are some retailers we recommend.
Feed your microbes.
When soil is rich in beneficial microbes and the soil food web is well-balanced, growers don’t need to use pesticides at all. A balanced soil ecosystem provides protection to plants from attack. It also acts as natural deterrent for weeds.
Feeding your microbes can at first seem complicated, because different species play a variety of roles during each phase of the growing cycle. Our line of Microbe & Plant Food line was designed to simply the process and alleviate the guess work for you. To see what products to use at each growth phase, check out our Feeding Chart.
Take the no-till approach.
Fight the urge to turn your soil or yank out plant roots after the growing season. Instead, chop off your plants at the soil line, allowing the roots to compost in the soil. By avoiding the intentional disruption of the soil, microbes will feed off the composting roots and later provide those nutrients to your next cycle of crops. Not only is this better for the soil food web and the environment, but it also saves you money on labor, fertilizers, and soil media.
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