Soil Biology

If you're an organic grower, soil biology should be one of your primary areas of focus. Without a healthy thriving soil microbiome, plants will not grow.

Soil biology is one facet of the larger study of Soil Science.

What Is Soil Biology?

Soil is comprised of both living creatures and inert minerals (along with water). Soil biology is the study of the living portion of the soil, the life under your feet.

For our purposes as growers, we're mainly interested in how plants interact with the soil biology.

Why Is Soil Biology Important for Plants?

Plants rely on the life in the soil for a ton of important things, including but not limited to:

• Communication
• Nutrient Liberation
• Nutrient Cycling
• Nutrient Uptake
• Nitrogen Fixation
• Water Access
• Water Storage

Regenerative agriculture puts soil biology first, with a focus on feeding the soil - which will, in turn, feed the plants.

Core Pillars of Soil Biology

Balance

Like any complex ecosystem, soil biology seeks to maintain equilibrium at a holistic level.

When soil biology falls out of balance, dominated by some organisms and deprived of others, pathology occurs and the overall health of the ecosystem decline.

As an organic growers, one of our primary jobs is to shepherd this delicate balance in the soils that we tend to.

DIY Raised Bed Plans

Build Yours Today!

Biodiversity

Every organism has a role to play, and only through biodiversity can complex soil food webs emerge - capable of cycling nutrients properly and supporting plant life.

Soils which lack biodiversity, such as those treated with pesticides, herbicides, and on which synthetic fertilizers have been used, often suffer reductions in biodiversity.

Over the long term, this results in serious degradation of the soil's ability to hold water, to cycle nutrients, and to resist erosion.

As an organic grower, seek to learn everything you con about fostering biodiversity within your soil. You'll find that plants practically grow themselves when soils are healthy and soil biology is diverse and balanced.

Any good results I've had personally as a grower have come after shifting my focus away from plants and pests, and onto soil health. Soil comes first!

Habitat

The soil itself is the habitat within which soil biology lives, and habitat is critical for biological organisms to thrive.

Soil structure, compaction, moisture retention ability, moisture infiltration rate, nutrient availability, presence of synthetic chemicals, and a number af additional factors all play into the quality of the habitat that soil biology call home.

Fungal-to-Bacterial Ratios

Supporting Topics

To better understand soil biology, I recommend reading up on the following topics, which are supporting and/or related components:

• Soil Science
• Nutrient Cycles
• Soil Organic Matter (SOM)
• Regenerative Agriculture