Bill Kerr says that increasing the organic and microbe content of your soil is the first step to ensuring healthier crops and ...

The respirometer vessel is an 8-oz. sample bottle in which the soil (usually 50 gm.) is placed. A small container with about 10 ml. of 2 M sodium hydroxide absorbs the evolved carbon dioxide.

Humus is highly recalcitrant, and this resistance to decomposition leads to a long residence time in soil. Plant debris is less recalcitrant, resulting in a much shorter residence time in soil.

The ideal soil for most plants is loam, which has a balance of sand, silt, and clay. Loam is also rich in an organic matter called humus. Dark and loose but not too loose, humus is composed of ...

Nera Leather Tanning asks…….What is the difference between ‘biodegrading’ and ‘composting’? The first difference is that composting provides the Earth with nutrients once the material has ...

The result is an organic approach to waste handling that also creates a fertilizer—just like regular compost. That's not to say that these toilets don't require any maintenance, but they don't rely on ...

"We'll cut it and till it in early spring," he says. "It'll help create better humus." Compost heaps also have given neighbors a place to put their kitchen waste to good use, and future plans are ...

Q: How do I overwinter an outdoor water garden in a trough? It has with two water lilies, King Tut grass, goldfish and an ...

A worm burrows its way through the dark earth, ingesting particles of soil and expelling nutrient-rich casts in a constant forage for food. Charles Darwin described earthworms as one of the most ...

One way to do your part is composting, but there are some entry barriers: space, equipment, and perhaps most notably, the smell and pests that often go along with composting. So as we wrap up our ...

A change in how multifamily communities in Austin collect compost is coming next week. Starting Tuesday, Oct. 1, the City of Austin will require all multifamily communities with five or more ...

Home vegetable or flower gardeners are often unhappy with their soil quality. They routinely incorporate organic matter in the soil each fall but don't see much change in their soil texture.