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ecmn | According to science the definition of healthy soil would be soil that could grow a good yielding nutrient-dense fruit resistant to insect disease and weed pressures, the healthy soil would also have good structure that would allow the soil to deal with water and be resistant to compaction.
What kind of numbers can we put to it. scientists claim that 200 lb or less on a soil probe means the atmosphere can still get into the soil and oxygen can get to soil life. It also means the soil is soft enough that plant roots can grow.
Soil with good structure should have 25% airspace 25% water space and the rest will be your silt sand and clay particles.
Conventional tilled soil pretty much will average around a half inch per hour and you will not be able to repeat it very soon. Healthy functioning soil should have a couple inches in an hour and you should be able to repeat that fairly soon.
We should not have black snow along our field edges. After every rain event we should not be relying on tile and we should not have dirty water leaving our field. If we are going to have runoff that water should be fairly clean looking. I can say a large part of the country does not have an excessive water problem it has a lack of infiltration problem
In healthy soil you should have at least seven worms per cubic foot. But that varies so greatly that that one's hard to really put a number to. How about his farmers we just say every shovel has some worms in it. This might sound funny but I dug a lot of holes out in central Minnesota where that soils supposed to be so rich and black. But it's As Dead As a doorknob. Have a hard time finding a worm.
During normal field operations the soil should be resistant to compaction. If you have that 25% airspace and you have a soil profile that is starting to give little cottage cheese nodules of soil versus just the grains of soil and the profile is full of root. You will resist compaction. | |
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"Soil Health" principles
