Carbon - A Quiet Evolution

The world’s first conference on soil ecology was held in 1989. That was 20 years after we’d put men on the moon. For decades, we knew more about moon dust than we did about soil here on Earth. Today, soil science is one of the most fascinating studies. There is a quiet evolution of understanding underway.

Since the end of World War II, farmers have largely practiced hydroponics. We had to find uses for all the bomb making materials we’d learned to create. Some of those materials became the fertilizers we’ve used for the past 60 years. We learned that these fertilizers could create higher yields, thus greater productivity on our farms. But we didn’t realize we were short circuiting real plant nutrition. We were feeding the plant directly with water soluble nutrition. We didn’t know about the profound complexity of soil microbes, humus and the role of carbon in nutrition. Thus, we used soil as a medium to hold our plants upright while we spoon fed them water-soluble nutrients.

The emerging mantra of soil science and plant nutrition is we need to feed the soil and let the soil feed the plant. This is quite a different nutritional paradigm, but it’s the foundation of life on this planet and we need to understand it better. We all learn about photosynthesis in grade school. Photosynthesis is the process unique to plants whereby sunlight, water and carbon dioxide are converted into carbohydrates to feed the plant (and all life eventually). Well, the part we don’t learn about is that up to half the carbohydrates created by a plant are actually pumped into the rhizosphere (the dynamic, fluid zone between a plant’s roots and the soil). At first note, that seems goofy. Why is the plant doing that?

The plant pumps all those precious carbohydrates into the soil to feed (and select for) microbes that help them solubilize nutrition from the soil. In healthy soils, the plant works with microbes to solubilize nutrition stored in the soil humus. Humus is decayed and complexed organic matter. And humus has the ability to store, transfer, sequester and buffer all nutritional elements. The evolution of understanding that is taking place primarily involves microbes and humus in the rhizosphere.

This profoundly complex study is yielding information that will help us grow better, healthier, more nutritious plants in an economically sustainable manner. We have a long way to go before we really understand the world of the rhizosphere, but we’ve already made some important discoveries. Perhaps the most important is our renewed appreciation of carbon in the fertilization process. I say renewed because there’s evidence that ancient civilizations knew about carbon’s role in plant nutrition. For more detailed information see http://humusandcarbon.blogspot.com.

All life on Earth is carbon based. Thus, all decaying plant and animal material releases carbon into the soil. This decaying carbon becomes humus through processes that we still haven’t fully explained. The fertilization paradigm for the past 60 years has ignored the role of carbon. In fact, our extensive use of tillage burns carbon out of the soil. So many (in fact most) soils today are very low in carbon. This is why we’ve had to increase the amount of soluble fertilizers just to maintain the same yields. It’s also why we have so much nitrate and phosphorous run-off into our ground and surface water supplies. The carbon was sequestering it before and now there’s not enough carbon to hold those nutrients in the soil.
OVS, along with several manufacturing partners, including Actagro, Redox and others, is working with growers to explore the use of fertilizers containing carbon. We have some very positive results so far. In 1992, I met Frank Wann (an agronomist for Pacific Calcium). I remember one powerful lecture he gave me while we stood in the Tualatin Fred Meyer parking lot. He told me to use carbon in the form of humic and fulvic acids to enhance uptake of foliar nutritional sprays. I’ve done so ever since, and this practice has helped me consistently improve my grape quality and reduce disease incidence. I now believe that most of my nutritional work needs to be through the soil, but my experience with carbon-enhanced foliar sprays convinced me of its efficacy a long time ago.

Progress can be made nutritionally to assist in further distinguishing the Oregon quality advantage. With improved nutrition we can realize improved growth, crop consistency and disease resistance. What’s more, it can all be done with environmentally sound practices. Join the quiet evolution now; learn more about the exciting frontier under your feet.