To grow, plants need a few basic things: air, water, and food. (Sound familiar?) They get these things from the soil. If the soil is too dense (clay), the roots can’t breathe and therefore can’t take up the nutrients they need. So much of the work of creating a healthy growing environment is getting air into soil that is too dense, or “beefing up” soil that is loose (such as the sandy loam soil here at Canvas Ranch).
Water is necessary. But too much of a good thing can also drown the plant by preventing the roots from being able to get air. I practice dry-farming with some of my vegetables, which means no irrigation at all. In order for that to work, I have to make sure my soil is conducive to plant roots being able to reach down to the moisture reserves deep in it. (More on all this later.)
Carbon is the food of plants (and people). Plants get the majority of their carbon from the atmosphere – carbon dioxide. But it must be in balance with nitrogen, or the whole system doesn’t work. Raw organic matter is the ingredient that creates the right balance of carbon to nitrogen.
But, just as with people, too much of a good thing is bad. Adding too much high carbon compost or other materials to your soil causes the plant to use all its nitrogen to go with it – creating a leggy, scraggly plant that is actually starving.
And that’s exactly what was happening in the rainforest. The mega-doses of carbon materials from the forest canopy were great for the trees whose branches and roots reached tall and deep to pull in nitrogen. But the poor little veggie plants couldn’t get enough to be able to handle all the carbon – and died from too much of a good thing.
So remember, add compost to enrich your soil. And chocolate to enrich your life. But not so much of either that you are actually starving.
