What is Living Soil?
Some of the key players in the Soil Food Web
Fungi in a symbiotic relationship with plant roots
Is Your Soil Alive or is it Dirt?
Have you ever considered how large trees grow in nature with no added human fertilizers? Nature has evolved a complex ecosystem that takes nuclear energy from the sun, mixes it with CO2 in the leaves of plants (called photosynthesis) and then deposits much of the resultant sugars into the soil to feed bacteria and fungi. These microbes do their part by extracting nutrients from sand and clay particles and feeding those nutrients back to the plant roots. But the cycle does not stop there. Microbial predators then consume massive numbers of these bacteria and fungi, depositing their waste for the plants to use as natural fertilizer. This is called nutrient cycling and without it plants in nature can not be healthy. With it they can grow to become healthy and vibrant, resistant to pests and diseases, and in the case of crops, full of valuable nutrients that we all need to thrive.
When this entire ecosystem is fully functioning we call it Living Soil. When it is damaged by chemicals and tillage, sadly we must call it dirt.