Permaculture - E-book - THE ROLE OF ORGANIC MATTER IN SOIL LIFE

Permaculture - E-book - THE ROLE OF ORGANIC MATTER IN SOIL LIFE - section from my book.

THE ROLE OF ORGANIC MATTER IN SOIL LIFE

 

Because mineral elements essential to plant growth are easily leached out of the soil through water and exposure to air, they need to be converted to large, stable, insoluble molecules. Humus provides these stable molecules. Humus has little to do with directly feeding plants and more to do with soil structure. What it does do is provide a large surface area with lots of negatively charged ion exchange sites. This means that they can capture positively charged ions of ammonium (containing nitrogen) potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, copper, and zinc. Humus therefore, acts as a large magnet for essential elements, preventing them from leaching, or escaping into the air. Bacteria can then separate off these charged particles – which is easier than breaking down huge humus molecules – and make them available to plants.

 

Permaculture - Wild Olive Guest Farm:

 

Permaculture is both a lifestyle ethic as well as a design system which utilizes a systems thinking approach to create sustainable human habitats by analyzing and duplicating nature's patterns (ecology).

 

The word 'permaculture', coined by Australians Bill Mollison and David Holmgren during the 1970s, is a Portmanteau-style contraction of permanent agriculture as well as permanent culture.

 

Permaculture is also about careful and contemplative observation of nature and natural systems, and of recognizing universal patterns and principles, then learning to apply these 'ecological truisms' to one's own circumstances in all realms of human activity. Please call me on Tel: +27+28-7542719 or e-mail me to order my permaculture course book enquires@wildolivefarm.co.za.