HORT 3503 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Soil Health, Soil Compaction, Soil Horizon
Document Summary
Goals of sustainable and organic production include: improve soil quality and health and improve soil biodiversity. Farmers are responsible for identifying measureable indicators to evaluate how they are achieving goals and objectives in certified organic production. A fundamental understanding of the characteristics and indicators of soil quality and health are a keystone to sustainable and organic production systems. You cannot change soil type but you can improve soil quality and soil health! Soil is composed of: inorganic/mineral elements: organic and biological elements: air and water. 3 main soil components: 45% mineral material; 25% water filled; 25% air filled; 5% organic matter. Soil quality and health overlaps the physical, chemical and biological properties. The general picture of soil"s capacity to support plant growth without degradation (sustainability). The terms soil quality" and soil health" can be used interchangeably. Quality may infer more qualitative while health may be more subjective.
