What We Can Do To Improve Soil Quality

Every combination of soil type and land use calls for a different set of practices to improve soil quality. However, there are a few practices that usually apply in most situations. These include:

  • add organic matter
  • avoid excessive tillage
  • user fertilizer and pesticides carefully
  • increase ground cover
  • increase plant diversity
  • avoid soil compaction

Add Organic Matter

Periodic additions of organic matter improve soil quality.

Organic matter may come from crop residues at the surface, cover crop roots, animal manure, green manure, compost, and other sources.

Organic matter, and the organisms that eat it, can improve water holding capacity, increase nutrient availability, and protect against erosion.

Whether your soil is naturally high or low in organic matter, adding new organic matter every year is perhaps the most important way to improve and maintain soil quality.

Regular additions improve soil structure, enhance water- and nutrient-holding capacity, protect soil from erosion and compaction, and support a healthy community of soil organisms.

Practices that increase organic matter include:

  • leaving crop residues in the field
  • choosing crop rotations that include high residue plants
  • using optimal nutrient and water management practices to grow healthy plants with large amounts of roots and residue
  • growing cover crops
  • applying manure or compost
  • using low or no tillage systems, and
  • mulching.

Avoid Excessive Tilling

Tillage has positive effects, but it also triggers excessive organic matter decomposition (due to the addition of large amounts of soil oxygen), destroys soil structure, and can cause compaction.

Reducing tillage minimizes the loss of organic matter and protects the soil surface. New equipment allows crop production with minimal disturbance of the soil.

Use Fertilizers and Pesticides Carefully

Pesticides and chemical fertilizers revolutionized U.S. agriculture. However, they also harm non-target organisms and pollute water and air if they're mismanaged.

Manure and other organic soil amendments can also become pollutants when misapplied or over-applied.

On the positive side, fertilizer can increase plant growth and the amount of organic matter returned to the soil.

Nutrients from organic sources also pollute when misapplied or over-applied. Efficient pest and nutrient management means:

  • testing and monitoring soil and pests
  • applying only the necessary fertilizer and pesticide, at the right time and place to get the job done
  • taking advantage of non-chemical approaches to pest and nutrient management such as crop rotations, cover crops, and manure management

In other words, organic gardening.

Increase Ground Cover

Bare soil is susceptible to wind and water erosion, and to drying and crusting.

Ground cover and mulch protect soil, provide habitats for larger soil organisms, such as insects and earthworms, and can improve water availability. Cover crops, perennials, and surface residue increase the amount of time that the soil surface is covered each year.

Ground can be covered by leaving crop residue on the surface or by planting cover crops. In addition to ground cover, living cover crops provide additional organic matter, and continuous cover and food for soil organisms.

Ground cover must be managed to prevent problems with delayed soil warming in spring, diseases, and excessive build-up of phosphorus at the surface.

Increase Diversity

Diversity is beneficial to soil quality for several reasons:

  • Each crop contributes a unique root structure and type of residue to the soil.
  • A wide variety of soil organisms helps control pest populations, resulting in less need for chemicals.
  • Different cultural practices can reduce weed and disease pressures.
  • Buffer strips, small fields, contour strip cropping, crop rotations, and varying tillage practices ensure good soil structure.

Avoid Soil Compaction

Compaction reduces the amount of air, water, and space available to roots and soil organisms. Compaction is caused by repeated traffic, heavy traffic, or traveling on and working in wet soil.

Deep compaction by heavy equipment is difficult or impossible to remedy, so prevention is essential.

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