Watersupply for the plants
Tiny soil aggregates are needed
How to improve the water supply of plants?
Soils in a good condition (pH, calzium, soil life, etc.) look like a sponge with a lot of large and middle-sized pores. Within this pores water can infiltrate into the soil and is stored for dry periods.
The problem is, that not all soils are in this good condition, have a bad soil structure and are not able to store water for the plants.
How to improve soil structure to improve water supply for the plants?
The goal is to get round-shaped soil aggreagtes– because round-shaped aggreagates generate more pores for water storage. As you can see in the picture below a soil with round aggreagates can store way more water than soil with platy particles.
The question is, how to form these round soil aggregates?
The soils must have sufficient calzium and/or magnesium content.
Calzium and magnesium stick the very small soil particles together and form small round-shaped aggregates. These aggregates are the starting point for soil life and plant roots to form bigger round-shaped soil particles.
You need three things for a good soil structure and water supply of the plants:
- Sufficient calzium and/or magnesium soil content (liming)
- active soil life (soil pH, water, etc.)
- Plant roots (crops and cover crops)
With these three measures you can transform a soil with a bad soil structure and bad water supply for the plants into soil with good “sponge” soil structure with a very good water supply for the plants.
