Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Dieter Brand <diebrand@yahoo.com>]

Thanks Paul, that is pretty exhaustive as far as thinking

on soil and plant nutrition is concerned. 

 

There is one item, though, that particularly appeals to me 

that isn't included here.

 

According to a text I read recently, Aristotle considered that

_soil is the stomach of plants_ in the sense that soil performs

many function like the mechanical and chemical breakdown of

organic materials which needs to occur before plants can access

these materials as food.  These functions are performed in the

body by the teeth, the digestive track and other body organs.

In fact, it is possible to see the root system of plants as a

digestive track turned inside out.  Both are colonized by

bacteria needed for processing food.

 

This, to me sounds like an explanation of plant nutrition as

intelligent as any provided by modern science.

 

I don't know were Aristotle is supposed to have said this and

the text from which I cite is in German.

 

Dieter

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