soil enhancement News
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Identifying factors in Atrazine’s reduced weed control
Invasive broadleaf weeds can destroy corn crops and fallow fields. Farmers use the chemical atrazine in herbicides to protect their plants. Despite atrazine’s controversial environmental impacts, it can provide long term residual control of many weed species. However, the loss of atrazine’s effectiveness has been a challenge for farmers in northeastern Colorado. In a collaborative ...
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Increasing diversity through crop rotation boosts soil microbial biodiversity and productivity
Planting a variety of crop species in rotation in agricultural fields increases the diversity of soil microbes below ground, recent research has found. This in turn positively affects soil organic matter, soil structure and aids the healthy functioning of the soil. The researchers say that rotational diversity can help farmers to grow crops in a more sustainable way that promotes soil stability. ...
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Deep ploughing reduces diversity and number of earthworms
Less invasive soil preparation methods in farming, such as harrowing, have a positive impact on the numbers, biomass, and species richness of earthworms, unlike conventional ploughing, according to new research. The long-term study compared the results of five different methods of soil preparation on agricultural land in Germany over a ten-year period. Earthworms play a major role in the ...
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Launching Covid-19 recovery plan for UK food, farming and land use
This week, Boris Johnson is expected to give more details on the UK Government’s ten-point green recovery plan. Ahead of this, we are launching our “Grow Back Better” manifesto, a ten-point plan for a post-Covid-19 recovery. Our Grow Back Better manifesto is a new route-map setting out how recovery efforts post Covid-19 must invest in areas focus on the interconnected nature of ...
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Soil carbon storage is not always influenced by tillage practices
The practice of no-till has increased considerably during the past 20 yr. Soils under no-till usually host a more abundant and diverse biota and are less prone to erosion, water loss, and structural breakdown than tilled soils. Their organic matter content is also often increased and consequently, no-till is proposed as a measure to mitigate the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide ...
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Why choose organic fertilizer?
Organic fertilizers contain a lot of organic matter. The state strongly advocates the application of organic fertilizers. The biggest advantage of organic fertilizers is that they are rich in organic matter! 1. Organic matter promotes the growth and development of crops. Humic acid in soil organic matter can enhance plant respiration, improve cell membrane permeability, and enhance the ...
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Using Biochar as an Ingredient for Compost Making
Where did 2017 go? Now that we are well into the New Year of 2018, this is the year I hope to be making even higher quality compost to spruce up my garden this spring. This article will be dedicated to the use of biochar as a “carbon” source for making the highest quality compost consisting of all the nutrients plants require and teaming them up with beneficial microbes (bacteria ...
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Star fruit could be the new “star” of Florida agriculture
It’s not just oranges that grow in Florida. Carambola, or star fruit as most in the United States call it, is gaining popularity. One researcher from Florida International University is researching how cover crops can help the sustainability of star fruit farms.“Tropical fruit production has become a prominent practice in Miami-Dade County,” says Ariel Freidenreich. “For ...
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Ohio State Team Promotes Nature-based `ECO-farming`
A team of scientists and educators from Ohio State University’sCollege of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciencesnow spells farming with three extra letters. The group studies, demonstrates and teaches about what it calls “ECO-farming,” a new approach aimed at boosting a farm’s production and profits while shrinking its environmental footprint. “ECO-farming ...
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