Soil Judging

Soil Judging

soil

Janette Porter and I served as the scoring officials for the Section 11 FFA soil judging cotest held in Brown County today.  I always enjoy the chance to  interact with future agriculturalists.  It was kind of a  long drive, but it is also a good chance to look at soils in pits rather than a probe core.  I am not sure how long this activity has been a part of FFA, but I attended my first contest in 1969.  I have been involved in soil judging off and on ever since.  I can't say how many contests.  Some years there were many and some years one, and some years none.

Practice Pit

Sun Valley's Terra Machine

Sun Valley's Terra Machine

flower farming greenhouse soil terra international Terra Machine

As you know, we grow all our flowers in soil. This rich, organic matter--a special mix of our own compost, tree mulch, and some sand--is partly responsible for our strong tulips, big lilies, and beautiful irises.

Soil grown tulips

Because we are dedicated to planting all our crops in this nutrient-rich soil, you can bet this equals some serious heavy lifting.  The first step of the process is planting bulbs in soil-filled crates, and then we must lay out those crates in a line--typically thousands to one greenhouse bay.  We do this almost every single day, and, just as often, we are cleaning up rows of spent crates and picked-out flowers, preparing the bay for the next round of growing flowers.
 

Greenhouse bays packed with soil-filled crates

One crate probably weighs around a million pounds.  Okay, realistically, more like 25 pounds, but to me that might as well equal a million.  Luckily, in the last few years, Sun Valley has acquired our treasured TERRA MACHINE.

 
This machine picks up and drops crates in a straight line, which makes life a whole lot easier for our team of  crop-tenders.  As you can imagine, lifting and setting down crates full of soil for 8 hours a day is not a friend to anyone's body, no matter how strong or healthy they may be.

Inside the Terra Machine

How It Work : Planting

The Terra Machine is run by two team members who ensure it is operating safely and properly.  They set up the tracks it will move on, load the machine with ready-to-go crates, and start her up. Its first function is to "drop" the crates in an even line.

Terra Machine dropping sprouted crates of tulips

The finished greenhouse

How it Works: Clean-Up

Once we have harvested the flowers, the Terra Machine is brought back into the greenhouse, where the planting process is repeated, but this time in reverse.  The Terra Machine picks up those same crates so that we can collect the spent soil and steam and reuse it.

The Terra Machine picking-up spent crates

The Terra Machine is just one of the tools that we use in our efforts to continually improve and innovate.  The machine helps maintain consistent planting practices, which makes tending and picking the flowers easier and more efficient, all the while protecting the backs of our team members and, of course, providing the world that famous Sun Valley color. 

Just a little help from our Terra Machine.

Build the Soil

Build the Soil

Agriculture health soil

We started off the morning with our great elementary students with our "what we know about agriculture" lesson, but this time shared it with 4th graders. At the end of the lesson they raised the chain above their head while in a circle and stated "Agriculture feeds the world!" in both Creole and English.



Next we had some down time before our afternoon activities so we loaded up and headed to a

Precision Farming in Haiti

Precision Farming in Haiti

Education GPS Haiti soil

Today was a great day filled with agriculture and education! We started off the day with 5th and 6th graders at the elementary school. We shared a lesson revolving around agriculture awareness. We had the students create a list of agriculture related concepts in Haiti. They compiled a great list that we discussed. We will return tomorrow morning to address questions that arose from this activity

France's Plan for Carbon and Soil

France's Plan for Carbon and Soil

carbon France soil

We take a look at an ambitious plan by the French to increase the amount of carbon going into the soil. This has many benefits as noted in the linked article below. Read through the article below and use the discussion points to guide conversations around the globe.

How France Plans to Bury Carbon Emissions

Discussion Points


What role does soil play with carbon emissions?
Explain France's

Permit Requirements For Septic Discharges.

Permit Requirements For Septic Discharges.

Ag regulation soil

Maybe this is not timely, but I have not written about it, so....  New private sewage disposal regulations took effect in 2014.  Since most farmers have a septic tank and filter field, it seems an appropriate topic.  New and replacement systems need to have a soil investigation completed in order to get a permit from your county regulators.  This requirement is new in some counties.  In some counties, the soil investigation is required before a building permit will be issued.  In other counties, I sometimes do investigations as the home is being built.

Most Illinois soils are not well suited to septic tank filter fields.  Some soils have drainage issues.  Some have permeability issues.  Some have both.  One of the popular ways to overcome the limitations in the past has been to install an aeration system with a surface discharge.  Under the new law, an NPDES permit may be required if you discharge into Waters of the United States. Waters of the United States is broadly defined and interpreted so surface discharges are to be avoided where possible.  An article from FarmWeek News has more information. Click on the link.

Year of Soil (Urban Life)

Year of Soil (Urban Life)

soil

My 2015 Soil Planner has information about soils supporting urban life.  I once had the privileged of listen to Dr. Francis Hole speak and entertain on the subject of soil.  Dr. Hole's definition of soil is - "Soils is what we walk on."  That is one of the things I think of when I think of urban soils. He said that all surfaces imitate soil in some way.  One of  his examples was that a carpet imitates a lawn.  Another was that a sidewalk imitates a caliche soil.  Urban soils tend to be churned up and disturbed by human activity. Even when we use soil to support our human activity, it is still key to our lives.

The calender also mentions urban farming.  The term urban farming is gaining popular support.  While I don't believe that cities will feed themselves with urban farming, I applaud the effort.  growing things is therapeutic.  Some people like pets, I prefer plants.  I have been planting garden since I was an 8 year old 4-Her.  Growing food calms the nerves and gives a sense of accomplishment.  Not to mention the enjoyment of fresh vegetables.  There are no vine ripened tomatoes in the store.  You may find them in a roadside stand, but nothing beats growing them your self.  Continue to enjoy the year of soil. 

Most Interesting Area I Soil Mapped

Most Interesting Area I Soil Mapped

ecology soil

I worked on soil surveys in Madison, Lee, Bureau, and Putnam Counties in Illinois early in my career.  In my  7 1/2 years as an NRCS soil scientist I covered about 150,000 acres on foot looking at soils and attempting to map out the soils I was seeing according to the five factors of soil formation.  The area is part of Franklin Creek State Park near Franklin Grove Illinois.  Lots of geological formations converge near the center of the map.  The state park link above explains that there are three bedrock formations in the area.  The bedrock includes both sandstone 397F (Boone) and limestone 403F (Elizabeth).  Some soils have glacial till and bedrock influences 509D (Whalan) and 761F (Eleva).  361D (Kidder) is a soil formed from sandy loam Illinoisan age glacial till. 243A and 243B (St. Charles) are soils formed in loess underlain by old alluvium on a stream terrace the 570B is also a stream terrace soil, but contains more sand.  The area of 1776 (Comfrey) is a very poorly drained bottomland soil that is extremely wet because of a beaver dam in the creek. the 3451A (Lawson) and 8776 (Comfrey) areas are also bottomland soils, but they are not so wet that they could not be farmed.   To add to the extreme soil diversity of the area, The upper right hand of the map is 280B (Fayette), a well drained soil formed entirely in loess.  I spent a whole day near the center of the map looking at 160 acres of landscape that was very confusing at the time.  160 acres is normally 2 or 3 hours of work.

I don't remember every acre I ever mapped, but t his is one area I will never forget.  Some 25 years after the field experience I was sitting at a table having supper with NRCS State Soil Scientist Bob McLeese and Northern Illinois soils professor Mike Konen. Konen was tell McLeese about an interesting area he had been taking is students to because of the diversity of the soils.  As I listened to him describe the area, I realized that he was describing the area I had mapped many years before.  I told them about mapping it and how difficult it was to define the boundaries. 

It is also interesting that this ecological wonder is located less than a mile away from the Nachusa Grasslands, another ecological wonder.Click on the map below to enlarge. 

World Soil Day

World Soil Day

soil

December 5, 2014 is the first ever World Soil Day.  We recognize the importance of soils in our daily lives and look to maintain our soil for sustainable productivity.  Our very existence depends on soils.  Kansas State University put up summary of the importance of soil. Soil Science Society of America Encourages Readers to Know Soil, Know Life.  Dr. Walter Lowdermilk published the Conquest of the Land Through 7000 Years in 1940.  He tells us what happens when we don't take care of our soil.  Chuck Rice of KSU explains the importance of soil in this video. 

The Secret is in the Soil

The Secret is in the Soil

#compost dirt Lilies Redwoods soil Tulips

Confess yourself to heaven,
Repent what's past, avoid what is to come,
And do not spread the compost on the weeds
To make them ranker.
                                            -Hamlet

What happens to the flowers that aren’t up to snuff? What happens to all the leaves and stems that get trimmed out? They return to the earth, and get composted on an enormous level. Since we grow our stunning flowers in real soil, we need to be continually replenishing and refortifying our soil supply. What better way to do this than composting all our organic flower waste?

This isn’t like that cute composter in your backyard that makes your kitchen scraps into superb soil for your flower beds or vegetable garden; we compost over 15,000 tons of plant material annually. This operation involves dirt piles 50 feet high, dump trucks and bucket loaders. Have a look at what happens in our compost heaps.

At the beginning of the process, our bulbs are placed in crates with rich soil, packed with nutrients. The bulbs take off in our optimal growing conditions and after the set amount of weeks, the tulips, iris or lilies are harvested. Over the weeks of growing, crews pull out the imperfect stems and keep the area clear of debris. When harvest time comes, an enormous amount of green waste is generated. Using our lilies as an example, each stem is about 44-48 inches long, most get trimmed to 32, 28 or 24 inches. All the foliage below a certain point is also removed; when you are harvesting thousands of stems this equals pallets and pallets of organic waste.


Imperfect lily blooms that have been trimmed and green lily leaves.

This organic waste gets moved by forklifts.  It is combined and dumped into truck to be taken out to the compost area.  This takes some skillful forklift operating and seems to be a never ending task here on the farm.



After the flowers are picked out, a team comes in with forklifts and loads all the individual crates out of the greenhouse.  The crates are stacked on palletes, sometimes with some "late bloomers" still poking up.  These rows of crates get loaded on a flatbed truck and taken out to the compost lot.  Here they get dumped, and then the good crates are taken, washed, disinfected and used again, while the broken ones are recycled.

Late Bloomers

Here the compost stream splits. Tulip soil, old tulip bulbs and all green waste goes into one huge pile.  This combination is left to compost and after it breaks down, it is used to fortify the fields.  Usually being left to go fallow and return nutrients to the soil. 

The lily bulbs and their soil are diverted to a different pile.  The old lily bulbs and the dirt in which they grew are ground up and saved.  After this soil rests for a bit, it will be added back into our soil production.  The soil we grow our lilies in is truly something special.  It is part compost, then a recipe of redwood mulch, two types of fir tree mulch and spruce mulch. The tulip soil is similar but with a little coarse sand in the mix.

I recently spoke with Lane DeVries about this unlikely combination. He says about twenty years ago he started using this mix, and because of the beneficial microbes in the soil. Now, the lilies and tulips have a great natural resistance to diseases due to the soil.  Over the last twenty years, this has virtually eliminated the usage of fungicides to protect against root rot.

I asked Lane what his soil ratio is, hoping to create a special batch for my own garden, thinking maybe he would write out his recipe. Lane smiled deeply as he held imaginary handfuls of soil, "You know, a little of this, a little of that."

I realized this is like asking a fisherman where he caught his trophy fish.  The fishermen replies pointing to his cheek, "right here."

Standing on a compost heap, looking back on fresh soil and the hoop houses of Sun Valley

The same soil elements that grow the world's tallest trees, the Coastal Redwoods (Sequoia Sempervirens) also grow our tall, vibrant tulips and lilies.  Coincidence?  Not a chance.

“The ground's generosity takes in our compost and grows beauty! Try to be more like the ground.”
                                                                                                                             -Rumi

Please forward this email onto all the compost fanatics in your life.

-Lily