Soil Report from Acres USA Conference
Friends Nancy and Alan remind me that I’ve not been upholding the promise of keeping “in touch” through Wink’s blog. Thanks for the nudge; it’s great to know that folks out there are watching! We are back on the farm after a ten-day post-Thanksgiving road trip to Saint Louis to attend the Acres USA (”the voice of eco-agriculture”) annual conference and trade show and a visit with our new grandson, Roman, his parents Nik and Julie, and aunty “Cioca” Aniela.
With our ecological footprint in mind, and after determining that the Amtrak schedule simply wouldn’t work, we chose to drive. Our aging Volvo (220K miles) ran like a top and averaged better than 30 mpg, but more important, the enforced sociability gave us a chance to talk, dream, and plan for Mesa Winds Farm’s year ahead and beyond. The conference provided a lot of nutrients for the soil of this conversation.
We had already resolved that 2009 is to be our year to focus on farming better. It is propitious that, in our fourth season on the farm, we give our trees, vines, and garden the attention they deserve. We are focused on understanding and improving the health of our soils. An axiom that was oft repeated at the conference is that the farmer’s job is to nourish the soil and the soil will take care of the plants. You, dear reader, will appreciate the departure this represents from the “cheap food” mentality that has predominated wherein the soil is regarded as no more than a matrix to hold the roots while the farmer adds petroleum-based synthetic “nutrients” the plant requires.
Ecological agriculture understands that nutrition and human health, as well as quality and delicious flavor, start in the soil. Soil, microbes, water, sun, and air work in concert to create the vitamins and minerals that are transferred to the grains, vegetables, and fruits we eat. When soils are rich with life through this beautiful and complex process they support good health and disease resistance for land, plants, and people.
We followed a “track” of lectures and workshops that helped us refine our understanding of a healthy soil. It’s an incredibly fascinating study that defies full explication here (or anywhere): Soils vary with the locality and the history, both geologic and human, of every shovel-full of soil we turn. It is written that there are more organisms in a half-cup of organic soil than there are human beings on the entire earth. The synergies, competition, cooperation, and ecologies of this teeming mass is what we mean by “soil life.”
It has also been said that we know more about the soil on the moon than we know about soils here on Earth. I don’t know about that but, clearly, important discoveries are still being made and yet to be made. Within the complexities and variability there are, nevertheless, broadly applicable principles and similarities, so study and discussion remain relevant. One division represented at the conference is between those who believe that, for the plants to get all they need, farmers need to help by providing external additives and those who would rely on the soil itself to “grow” these crucial attributes.
We arrived with this very question on our tongues. Most of our organic fruit-growing neighbors apply some kind of fertilizer to their orchards. And they till the plant rows to reduce weed competition and open the soil to accept the organic matter. They admonish us to do likewise. In our first year we applied organic nitrogen pellets, composted chicken manure, and natural sulfur (to lower pH and release minerals bound up in our alkaline soils) — external, off-farm additives all. We kept an open mind on tilling even though we didn’t actually put the rototiller to work in the orchards.
Miro’s eco-agriculture class took up the question and designed a survey protocol and tests that they applied to our orchards and to those of our neighbors. The conclusions were incontrovertible: tilling breaks down the hard-won soil structure and soil aggregates which, in turn, reduces the soil’s permeability to oxygen (soil organisms breathe, too) and water, and soil life is impoverished as a result. What was a true surprise is how many more earth worms we have. Worms do much of the heavy lifting in building soil organic matter and are an accepted measure of soil health. We shelved our thoughts of tilling.
Last year we didn’t apply the nitrogen, sulfur, and compost — but for reasons unrelated to the needs of the trees — and our Crest Haven peaches were disappointing. Why? Was it the hot, dry summer (driest on record)? Was it the lack of nutrients? The expert opinion is that the trees “ran out of gas” and need nitrogen fertilizer. We have a lot of the stuff left over, so we’d already decided to give ‘em another “fix” in hopes of a better crop this year. That’s fine for this year. But what about the future?
Can we grow the nutrients and organic matter the peaches need right there next to the trees? Our vision is to nurture cover crops that feed the soil and its denizens and provide, from below, all that the trees and vines need and, from above, the flowers and habitat for our bees and beneficial insects. After sitting through any number of presentations by consultants bent on selling their services and proprietary products, at the very last session I finally heard a spirited presentation that confirmed that this is not only possible but ideal. Bob Shaffer put it all together for us. Plus he was applying these principles to perennial crops, especially grapevines, applicable to Mesa Winds Farm.
That’s more than enough for today’s bloggage. I hope to further explicate Shaffer’s teachings next time I find the impulse to write.
December 13th, 2008 at 7:38 pm
I attended and was inspired by the level of energy of attendees and speakers. One cannot underestimate how good “firing up” feels after a long season of hard work.