living soil
I dislike this term, since if you were to go dig in a native grassland, one of the most nutrient rich and biologically diverse soil ecosystem out there, it wouldn’t meet the definition they’re getting at here.
The system they are describing is manmade one with heavy organic inputs. Nothing wrong with that, just semantics I guess. It’s kind of disheartening that horticulture is so far removed from growing things in actual soil that we need to specify it when compared to other growth media.
One other thing I want to add is that not all soil amendments are created equal, and some may have both positive and potentially negative effects. A good example of this is cattle manure. They have good C:N ratios, and supply nutieents, but EC and SAR (salinity parameters) can be high. It’s in your best interest to test both fertility and a bunch of other things before applying them
You will appreciate this organization here. https://sunandearth.org/
not all soil amendments are created equal, and some may have both positive and potentially negative effects.
Absolutely agree here. Another good example is bat guano. It’s organic and has absolutely amazing benefits for plant growth. But the process for harvesting it is so detrimental to the ecosystems where it’s found. Harvested from caves that have had their own tiny, niche ecosystems evolve over millennia and the harvesting process isn’t much different from strip mining…
My neighbor is all about this, he’s got a worm farm going in one of his closets and his soil has all kinds of stuff going on it. He grows some killer bud!
