Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Dieter Brand <diebrand@yahoo.com>]

Defining healthy soil is not so much different from defining health

in human beings. In fact, in the cycle of biological substances

(soil > plants > animals (humans) both are closely related.

Determining health in both cases has more to do with subjective

judgement rather than with a figure range for certain parameters.

Mostly, you know when you are well even without having a blood

test done.

 

Health in soil can hardly be defined by the absence or presence

of pests or disease. If there is a relation, then it must be the

soil’s ability to deal with pests or disease. A healthy soil will

grow healthy plants that are more likely to survive pests or

disease than unhealthy plants. Just like a flue virus in humans,

if you are in good shape the virus won’t do much harm, if

your systems are run down you may be unwell for months.

 

There are some who define soil health as soil fertility, that

is, the degree of biological activity or cell reproduction in

the soil. A test of soil fertility by means of it’s cell count

has been proposed.

 

Dieter Brand

Portugal

Ryan Albinger <ryalbinger@earthlink.net> wrote:

How do you describe healthy soil? Where is the defining line between a
healthy and unhealthy soil and what is the grey area between? Numbers,
characteristics, or is it a race without a finish line? Is a crop healthy
because it has no bugs or disease or is a crop without bugs or disease
because it is healthy and is the absence of bugs and disease the only
defining line to healthy crops?
Ryan


> [Original Message]
> From: TradingPostPaul
> Can't raise healthy crops without healthy soil. And we can't raise healthy
> children without healthy crops.
>
> paul tradingpost@lobo.net
>
> *********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********


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