Andrew McGuire

As I wrote in my last post, the focus and excitement around soil biology leads many to believe that they have a soil biology problem. To fix this perceived problem, some recommend trying various types of soil amendments or inoculants to enhance the soil’s microbial community. This includes compost, manure, and their extracts and teas. There is a problem with this strategy though; the microbes at home in manure, compost, or in their extracts, tend to die off in the soil.

I am not sure of the causes. Perhaps it’s the demand for soil health information which far surpasses the supply of science-based content? Or maybe the speculation and exaggeration that this high demand produces? The intense focus on soil biology for soil health (Coyne et al. 2022) is surely a factor. And the excitement that comes with learning about the new discoveries in soil microbiology. Whatever it is, the results are clear.

Healthy soils produce healthy crops. right? Nope. Although it would seem the very definition of soil health, this popular thinking does not match what plant pathologists find (Janvier et al., 2007). It’s not true.

In my last post, we found that soil health was not a major factor for crop yield but is useful in fine-tuning crop nutrient supply. Here, we will look at soil health fine-tuning of soil water use

Farming requires a lot of knowledge and skill. You have limited time and resources. It pays to know where your efforts will return the most benefits, your ROI. What is the ROI for investing in soil health?

Most environments are limited by the lack of nitrogen. This explains why the world stays green and why it pays to follow the nitrogen. But why is this so?

There is a problem with how soil health indicators are being developed. We start with farmers using soil health practices, for instance, no-till, crop rotation, cover crops, and application of manure or compost. Then we look for…

“Follow the money” is a reliable tactic for figuring out people’s actions. Money is scarce, people want it, and do stuff with it. For plants, what works is “follow the nitrogen.” Nitrogen is scarce, plants and other organisms need it…

The world is green with plants. The world also has thousands of species of plant-eating insects and other organisms. Why don’t all those insects eat all the plants? Why does the world stay green? TCR White, an entomologist from New Zealand, asks this question in a book (White 2005) and a series of fascinating papers. White argues that the answer is not…

What do weeds and gamblers in Las Vegas have in common? They both manage the risk of unpredictable outcomes through a strategy called bet-hedging. Could farmers use this same strategy by planting cover crop mixtures?…