Soil Secrets

Here is a very interesting link on plant nutrition: Dirt Poor: Have Fruits and Vegetable Become Less Nutritious? Related Blog:  The World Has Problem: The Cascading Failure of Soils!

From the desk of Michael Martin Meléndrez - Managing Member of Soil Secrets LLC: Much attention and concern has been recently paid to the increasing problem of salinity in soils, particularly soils found in arid and semiarid lands that are being irrigated. Where frequent irrigation is necessary, a residue of salts is left behind from the evaporation of water, gradually but imminently concentrating the salts until the soil can no longer support production. Plant roots generally do not absorb all the salts, so the proportion in the soil of salts gradually increases to a point of toxicity. The problem can be made worse by the use of animal manure based soil amendments in the form of raw manure or compost and from acid based fertilizers. The retention of salt in the root zone can cause negative ‘Fluid Dynamics of Plants’ inhibiting the movement of water and nutrition into the plant. Water water everywhere but not a drop to drink! Soil compaction and the dispersion of soil particles ...

Here are a number of scientific abstracts which cover Mycorrhizal effects on plant root growth. Please post a comment if you are interested in finding additional information. LANSAC AR; MARIN A; ROLDAN A. 1995.  MYCORRHIZAL COLONIZATION AND DROUGHT INTERACTIONS OF MEDITERRANEAN SHRUBS UNDER GREENHOUSE CONDITIONS.  ARID SOIL RESEARCH AND REHABILITATION 9: 167-175.           LANSAC AR, CSIC,CTR CIENCIAS MEDIOAMBIENTALES,SERRANO 115 DUPLICADO, E-28006 MADRID,SPAIN.           Juvenile plants of  Thymus mastichina ,  Thymus zygis ,  Lavandula pedunculata ,  Genista hirsuta , and  Cistus ladanifer  were transplanted from the field to the greenhouse; the soil used was the same in which they had grown at their natural site. The plants were grown to maturity to determine comparative growth, water status, and mycorrhizal colonization under greenhouse conditions and to ...

     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.       ...

Soil macroaggregates create a soil structure which is permeable (by air and water) and stable (resistant to compaction and erosion). Soil aggregates result when Mycorrhizal Fungi bind soil particulates together . To be more specific Mycorrhizal hyphae, or filaments, are  responsible  for increasing a plants overall root mass. These hyphae extend throughout the soils surrounding a plant, and in their search for water and nutrients end up binding soil  particles  together. As hyphae die and begin to decompose they release Glomalin into soil systems. Glomalin is a glue-like protein which  significantly  increases aggregate formation, by gluing organic matter to soil particles. This process, of binding Labile carbons (as you recall, organic matter contributes to the Labile Carbon pool) to soil particles, traps these rapidly decomposing carbons in the soil; thereby storing them for future use and preventing these carbons from being  released  into t...

Please see the following Power Point No Till and Water , by Mark Scarpitti.

Recently I was in an Albuquerque retail nursery where a fertilizer was being sold that stated it was formulated for alkaline soils of the Southwest.  It contained high levels of iron and sulfur, plus the N, P and K major nutrients.  Do any of the readers care to comment on this type of product?    Pros, Cons, etc.  I have my take on it, but I'll entertain what you want to say about it.  Michael Martin Meléndrez