World Soil Day Special
Today is World Soil Day, an annual celebration for bringing attention to the importance of healthy soils and promoting the sustainable management of soil resources - a major success factor in organic farming systems.
Soils on Organic Farm Knowledge
The Organic Farm Knowledge Platform offers a wide variety of relevant tools about different soil management practices, assessment methods for soil quality and soil disease prevention and management. The platform also provides the Themes & Discussion section with a variety of organic farming topics concerning soils, where you can join the discussions, exchange ideas and information with colleagues and scientists.
How do I find the Themes & Dicsussion section?
- Step 1: Visit the Organic Farm Knowledge Website.
- Step 2: Go to the Themes & Discussion section.
- Step 3: Go to the Soil section and choose soil management, soil biology or soil health and quality.
How do I find tools about soils?
- Step 1: Visit the Organic Farm knowledge Platform.
- Step 2: Go to Search Toolbox.
- Step 3: Search by Theme (Soil), or search by a more specific keyword.
Here you will find a selection of useful tools concerning soils:
Tools by Best4Soil
Best4Soil Tool - Practical information for soil health
This tool provides an overview of measures you can take to build or maintain healthy soils and describes how the soil food web and management practices lead to a healthy and productive soil. The role of soil organic matter and humus are explained, as well as resilience against soil borne diseases.
Visit video tool
Visit factsheet tool
Best4Soil Tool - Soil organic matter
This tool explains the impact of soil organic matter on physical, chemical and biological characteristics. Because some soil organic matter is always lost through farming activity, increasing levels is not only possible, but also necessary, some methods include crop rotation, cover crops and green manures, perennial crops, composts, manures, organic fertilizers, soil amendments, biochar and mob grazing.
More tools on soils
The Basics of Soil Fertility
This brochure highlights the soil fertility from various scientific and farming perspectives. Its aims are to supplement practical observations of farmers, to encourage them to reconsider their relation to their soil and to practice a truly sustainable soil culture. The booklet tries to achieve this goal by providing information on soil matter such as important soil organisms and soil characteristics like root density, soil structure and alkalinity and by showing possibilities of how to assess and improve them.
Sort Out Your Soil: A practical guide to green manures
The booklet is a compendium of green manures species used in UK. The introduction explains the reasons why to grow green manures and the benefits they bring into the system. What follows is a guide to the choice of the species to use as green manure, with details per species (leguminous species and other species) and some comparative assessments among the species.
DiverIMPACTS Practice Abstract: The potential of biofumigation to control soil borne pests, pathogens and weeds
Biofumigation involves incorporating brassicaceous cover crops into the soil; they produce a range of secondary metabolites including glucosinolates which can control pests. Brassicas also contain an enzyme called myrosinase. When combined with water and glucosinolates, this enzyme produces volatile compounds (isothiocyanates) which help limit the proliferation of certain pathogens (bacteria, fungi, nematodes) and weeds.
OK-Net Arable Practice Abstract - Aerated compost tea (ACT) to improve soil biology and to act as a biofertiliser/biofungicide
There is a growing body of evidence supporting the benefits of aerated compost tea (ACT) application, but not all studies have shown this conclusively. Compost tea application helps build healthy soils which can lead to benefits for the crop including improved crop health and nutrition, improved crop quality, as well as growth promotion and plant protection through pathogen suppression.