Soil Secrets

     Arid lands across the globe are being impacted by water shortages that are having grave economic consequences. In the arid west of the United States, this is causing a conflict between cities and agricultural entities which are competing for the same water!    At the same time, arid soils have been compromised due to common management practices and therefore are not functioning at optimum capacity.    As a result, these soils provide relatively low levels of water and nutrition to vegetation.  These compromised soils lack or are deficient in Mycorrhizal fungi and Humic substances; both Mycorrhizal fungi and Humic substances greatly increase a soils capacity to hold water and a plant’s ability to uptake nutrients.        If we do not restore compromised arid soils, we cannot maximize crop success nor the conservation of water in arid lands of the Western United States, nor anywhere else on the globe.       Mycorrhizae associate with roots and help improve the uptake of wate

This image illustrates 3 of the essential components of a healthy soil.  Essential Components Include: Macroaggregates - the large brown clumps. Form when Humic substances are present in a soil system. Pools of water - water will penetrate and remain in a soil system when macroaggregates are present. Mycorrhizal Fungi - are represented by white lines which look like roots, because they are essentially an extension of the plants root system. Mycorrhizal fungi aid in macroaggregate formation.