Gathering farmers around soil

When we heard that Dieter Geesing and Ahmed Lasisi, soil scientists working for the British Columbia Department of Agriculture, would be available to conduct a “Soils 101”-type course in our region, we volunteered our farm in Quick, B.C., as the location.   

The Ministry of Agriculture takes care of refreshments, a porta-potty, and so on, but the host farmer – that’s us, Eskerhazy Farm – needs to prepare soil pits so that soil profiles can be examined. So we call Dave Blackburn; he brings his small excavator and the process begins.  

“Is it OK?” Dave asks. 

“Yup, beautiful.”    

Soil testing 

One of our main reasons for hosting the Assessing Your Soil course was to bring together some local farmers and gardeners to meet and share communally and provide a basis for future discussions, for offering help to each other and advising each other from a large store of local experiences. 

A poll revealed that the vast majority of us, the participants, had not regularly been testing their soils prior to fertilizing and just using standard blends. Ahmed and Dieter showed us how easy it was to take samples, what equipment to use, and how to prepare samples for sending to a soil lab. Ahmed showed us various soil probes and described how to make samples that are representative of the field we are testing.  We learned that soil tests give us a start, something to consider when we are thinking about fertility.  

Neither too much emphasis nor too little should be placed on soil tests. It is up to the farmer who knows the property best to consider the results; the farmer knows the actual land better than a far-away lab worker who does careful work but doesn’t know local conditions.  

Local farmers and gardeners could help themselves quite a bit simply by taking soil samples, perhaps on a three-year rotation per plot. Not necessary, we learned, to do it every year, but we should have something to compare with.  

A deeper look 

Dieter showed us so many things in the soil pits that our minds were reeling. He often used his large knife as a pointer which helped me pay attention. Sometimes he misted the soil so the layers/strata would be clearer to the viewers. 

One of the most important things I learned came when I compared our lower field with the upper one which I termed “crappy.” Dieter mildly rebuked me and reminded me that each field is to be compared to itself; it is not helpful to label it “good” or “crappy,” but to look at the characteristics of each and then see what can be done with it. (I am mildly repentant).

Ahmed showed us how good soil has a crumb structure. The air spaces between the “crumbs” allow air and water to move. If the soil particles are too small (less space) or too large, the soil is prone to drought, for example. Proper crumb structure – think of a crumbly cake – allows the fungi and bacteria and micro-organisms to thrive. Ahmed showed us a simple test to see how a soil’s aggregation is affected by water. If a sample is placed in a “trap” and water poured over it, the water should drain freely. Some sedimentation will occur but the water itself will remain clear. (The water from our lower field passed with flying colours). 

Soil’s history 

Ahmed drove an empty cylinder of steel into the ground, removed the living grass and poured one inch of water into the 2” of the cylinder that protruded above the soil. Waterlogged soil severely hurts your crops. Soils that don’t absorb water quickly contribute to downstream flooding and, conversely, drought-stricken crops because precipitation or irrigation water stays on the surface. I didn’t take notes, but found out via Google that a good loam soil “absorbs water readily and is able to store it for use by plants. Loam absorbs water at a rate between 1/4 and 2 inches per hour. Sandy soil, because it has very large spaces, absorbs water at a rate of more than 2 inches per hour.”

Just think of the amount of water that races down pavements in towns and cities because it has no way to be absorbed by the soil. Did you know that lawns shed a very large amount of rainwater? “Scalped” hayfields combined with compaction do, too.  

Dieter looked at both our soil pits and showed us what he could see from the pit in the upper field. The first thing that struck me was how small the topsoil layer was. Then Dieter showed us a lighter (almost white) line of compaction that had come from the last time the field was ploughed (more than 25 years, although it had been no-tilled more recently). Root penetration was minimal. He also speculated, based on surroundings, that the parent soil was glacial in origin. 

Earthcare as vocation 

Although I knew about compaction in theory, Dieter’s presentation at this pit drove home to me just how fragile our soils are. It made me realize, too, that the back of our Eskerhazy T-shirts, which read “Earthcare,” ought not to be sloganeering or just words, but a calling, a vocation. 

We were happy to be the host farm because the condition of soil is so vital to successful agriculture. As one participant commented: “I didn’t know there was so much to learn about soil.”