Has anyone else became a freak about soil health?

[Rit]

Anyone else? Is there no one else? I am not sure about anyone else but I find this stuff beyond fascinating. If I had a do over I’d become a soil scientist. I bet I read something about soil health everyday. Initially out of necessity because of my heavy heavy clay but now it’s strictly because I enjoy the fact finding missions.

In the plot above you will find a lot of sorghum, millets, sunflowers, grasses, sunn hemp, clovers, peas, beans, brassicas, and so much more. I’d say conservatively there are at least 16 different seeds. Most of the beans and sunflowers were browsed out. Even some weeds due to no rain and heavy clay. I will be drilling into this mix around Labor Day. I have not quite decided how I will proceed. I may drill green, then clip half then spray. But whatever I decide this will probably be the last time I spray my plot. I am hoping to have a heavy stand of Winter Rye by next Spring.

I have mentioned before but I love Sorghum. There are 5 different varieties of sorghum in this plot. The bottom picture is young sorghum plant maybe 30 days old. The root structure is spectacular. I bet on the sorghum still growing those roots go down 36”. I broke one off that over wintered last year and they were 18” at the break.

I no longer visit my plots without a shovel. I dig up most species several times a year to look at the roots just to see what I can learn. I have considered buying a microscope to look at the soil biology.

 

[Rit]

Sunn hemp fixing a little N

 

[sandbur]

Who was it that dug down about 4 feet to look at winter rye roots and he also documented the change in the soil.

Crimson?? Was his handle, maybe.


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[omicron1792]

View attachment 45153
View attachment 45156

Anyone else? Is there no one else? I am not sure about anyone else but I find this stuff beyond fascinating. If I had a do over I’d become a soil scientist. I bet I read something about soil health everyday. Initially out of necessity because of my heavy heavy clay but now it’s strictly because I enjoy the fact finding missions.

In the plot above you will find a lot of sorghum, millets, sunflowers, grasses, sunn hemp, clovers, peas, beans, brassicas, and so much more. I’d say conservatively there are at least 16 different seeds. Most of the beans and sunflowers were browsed out. Even some weeds due to no rain and heavy clay. I will be drilling into this mix around Labor Day. I have not quite decided how I will proceed. I may drill green, then clip half then spray. But whatever I decide this will probably be the last time I spray my plot. I am hoping to have a heavy stand of Winter Rye by next Spring.

I have mentioned before but I love Sorghum. There are 5 different varieties of sorghum in this plot. The bottom picture is young sorghum plant maybe 30 days old. The root structure is spectacular. I bet on the sorghum still growing those roots go down 36”. I broke one off that over wintered last year and they were 18” at the break.

I no longer visit my plots without a shovel. I dig up most species several times a year to look at the roots just to see what I can learn. I have considered buying a microscope to look at the soil biology.

 

[yoderjac]

View attachment 45157
Sunn hemp fixing a little N

I don't consider myself a freak on the subject. Soil science is one of my weakest areas. I do know enough to know that dirt drives everything on the land and it is a major key to long-term wildlife management!

 

[Tree Spud]

I find myself watching YouTube 30-60 minute videos at night on soil health & chemistry, cover crops, etc. Actually had a soil science class in college. When the iowa Ag extension is in your top 5 watched items, you have a pretty boring night life.

 

[SD51555]

Recently, I've come to a new way of thinking, and that is that I no longer deal in absolutes. The journey of soil health has very little to do with soil, and has everything to do with us and what we think. I went down my own path of doing thing conventionally and having big wins. If 30 year old me had a conversation with 38 year old me, 30 year old me would have told 38 to blow it out his ass, he didn't know what he was talking about.

I've come to realize we've all got to walk the path. I got that gem from my walk the path guy. None of us require any behavioral change until what we're doing doesn't work anymore. I'd be a liar if I said I jumped from successful conventional right to successful regenerative. I had to fail at the first to try the second, and then i failed at the second for a long time until I didn't. Had I never failed, I would have been trying to fix something that wasn't broken. I try really hard not to jump in and give an answer to a question nobody has asked, or is ready for anymore.

All that being said, it's still a huge passion of mine to this day. In the bigger picture, it's all connected for me. Sick soil makes for sick plants. Sick plants make for sick animals and then onto sick people. All my stuff blended together for me. My land was sick, I was sick, I was tired of it, tired of failing, and tired of crappy hunting. Had I not gotten to that point, I'd have never changed. Hunting, habitat stuff, gardening, rural living, healthy hobbies, exercise, good food, good friends, purpose, and a connection to the land make a good foundation for lots of good things in a person's life.

Now if I could just find that great white buffalo, i'd have it.

 

[SwampCat]

I dont really worry about it. My soil is high pH and I have learned not to fight it. I try not to disk my highly erodible soil. Other than that, all my deer plots are wheat and durana clover planted the first week of October. No fertilizer. Very little herbicide. A little bush hogging. Deer eat them to to the ground. I have planted about every type of cool and warm season seed. For me, now, simple is better.

 

[homerj1]

and tired of crappy hunting.

so your personal epiphany has lead to much better hunting?

 

[SD51555]

so your personal epiphany has lead to much better hunting?

It's gotten better every year.

 

[Wild Thing]

Anyone else? Is there no one else? I am not sure about anyone else but I find this stuff beyond fascinating. If I had a do over I’d become a soil scientist. I bet I read something about soil health everyday. Initially out of necessity because of my heavy heavy clay but now it’s strictly because I enjoy the fact finding missions.

In the plot above you will find a lot of sorghum, millets, sunflowers, grasses, sunn hemp, clovers, peas, beans, brassicas, and so much more. I’d say conservatively there are at least 16 different seeds. Most of the beans and sunflowers were browsed out. Even some weeds due to no rain and heavy clay. I will be drilling into this mix around Labor Day. I have not quite decided how I will proceed. I may drill green, then clip half then spray. But whatever I decide this will probably be the last time I spray my plot. I am hoping to have a heavy stand of Winter Rye by next Spring.

I have mentioned before but I love Sorghum. There are 5 different varieties of sorghum in this plot. The bottom picture is young sorghum plant maybe 30 days old. The root structure is spectacular. I bet on the sorghum still growing those roots go down 36”. I broke one off that over wintered last year and they were 18” at the break.

I no longer visit my plots without a shovel. I dig up most species several times a year to look at the roots just to see what I can learn. I have considered buying a microscope to look at the soil biology.

Yup - I've been known to go out with a shovel and take a look at my soil...checking for earthworms....N nodulation... Pretty sure I am now a regenerative ag convert. Haven't turned any dirt in over 7 years and I don't buy fertilizer any more.











And I do enjoy seeing good soil test reports to confirm what I am doing is working...

 

[4wanderingeyes]

I am not a nerd by any means, I try to do what is best for my soils, but I also want production. If I plant small seeds, I just throw and mow/roll, if I am planting larger seeds, I will still rough the soil up with a spike toothed drag.

My soils were in the mid 5's for ph, but now mid 6's, but I also put lime down. It has been holding pretty steady for the last 5 years though with no new amendments to most of my plots. I still add N to my turnips and radishes, because experience tells me, about 1-2 weeks after I put the N on it, it really takes off, and the deer start to hammer it. When I skip the N, I dont get much for bulbs, and the deer hardly touch it. Just my observance from my plots, and the deer around me. My OM% runs upper 3's to lower 4's, and for the silty loom soil we have, I feel that is pretty decent. Worms are thick in my food plots.

I dont plant stuff primarily to improve soil, but I plant stuff and run the land with the soil in mind. I try to keep something growing in the soil at all times, during our growing season.

 

[Wild Thing]

Y

I am not a nerd by any means, I try to do what is best for my soils, but I also want production. If I plant small seeds, I just throw and mow/roll, if I am planting larger seeds, I will still rough the soil up with a spike toothed drag.

My soils were in the mid 5's for ph, but now mid 6's, but I also put lime down. It has been holding pretty steady for the last 5 years though with no new amendments to most of my plots. I still add N to my turnips and radishes, because experience tells me, about 1-2 weeks after I put the N on it, it really takes off, and the deer start to hammer it. When I skip the N, I dont get much for bulbs, and the deer hardly touch it. Just my observance from my plots, and the deer around me. My OM% runs upper 3's to lower 4's, and for the silty loom soil we have, I feel that is pretty decent. Worms are thick in my food plots.

I dont plant stuff primarily to improve soil, but I plant stuff and run the land with the soil in mind. I try to keep something growing in the soil at all times, during our growing season.

You calling the rest of us Nerds 4wanderingeyes??

 

[4wanderingeyes]

Y


You calling the rest of us Nerds 4wanderingeyes??

I am not, but if you are feeling a bit guilty, and feel the "Nerd" explanation may have been about you, then you are probably a soil nerd

 

[SD51555]

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[Wild Thing]

I am not, but if you are feeling a bit guilty, and feel the "Nerd" explanation may have been about you, then you are probably a soil nerd

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My name is Wild Thing....and I'm a Soil Health Nerd....and I am ready to begin the 12 steps to recovery....

 

[Wind Gypsy]

My name is Wild Thing....and I'm a Soil Health Nerd....and I am ready to begin the 12 steps to recovery....

 

[TreeDaddy]

I find myself watching YouTube 30-60 minute videos at night on soil health & chemistry, cover crops, etc. Actually had a soil science class in college. When the iowa Ag extension is in your top 5 watched items, you have a pretty boring night life.

Belongs on a thread i started somewhere,but........

If the Iowa ag extension is in your top 5 watched items on YouTube.......

..........you might be a habitat guy

bill