You can help your plants grow greener, and help Ohio’s waters turn bluer, by testing the soil in your yard or garden. And now’s a perfect time to do it. Get the scoop. (Photo: Stockbyte.)
soil quality
How (and why) to start composting
Connie Jackson, a Master Garden volunteer in the Erie County office of OSU Extension, CFAES’s statewide outreach arm, shows you how to get started with composting in an April 12 story in the Sandusky Register …
New life for spent foundry sands
Spent foundry sands are safe for certain soil-related uses, such as in soil blends for use around homes, a recent risk assessment has found. The sands are a byproduct from the metal casting industry. A CFAES study played a key role in the assessment. (Photo: iStock.).
Learn to go big, then go home
“Composting,” says CFAES scientist Fred Michel, “allows the valuable nutrients and carbon that organic materials contain to be used again, reduces fossil fuel use for fertilizers, reduces greenhouse gas emissions from landfills and can be done economically.” Learn how to compost in a very big way.
Dec. 3: Conference for farmers on no-till
For a farmer, choosing not to till the soil can make it more fertile and keep it from eroding, the former a plus for food production, the latter a boon to water. On Dec. 3, CFAES experts will speak on science-tested ways to carry out the practice. Details here and here (PDF). (Photo: No-till soybeans, NRCS.)
Red clover, red clover, send clean water over
There’s a lot to be said for cover crops, and a new guide says it. Co-written by CFAES experts, Midwest Cover Crops Field Guide shows the hows and whys of growing red clover (pictured with a guest), alfalfa and many others, including some new possibilities. Look inside here. Buy it here. Cover crops’ pros include protecting and improving both soil and water.
Video series features soil health, ‘farmers who do things differently’
Healthy soils, as the saying goes, support healthy plants, healthy animals and healthy people. Healthy water, as it turns out, too. A new YouTube video series, whose contributors include experts from OSU Extension, CFAES’s statewide outreach arm, shows farmers how to achieve those soils, which form a foundation for sustainable agriculture. Soil microbes (3:09), cover crops and compaction (4:26) are some of the topics. Read more.
‘The mineral that could help balance others’
In a story in yesterday’s Farm and Dairy, Chris Kick talks to CFAES’s Warren Dick, among others, about gypsum’s benefits to soils, crops and water.
Managing manure can serve double doody: Can help both crops and water. Learn how …
Manure has two shades of green, so to speak. The green of greater farm crop yields. And the green of a healthier environment, especially cleaner water. Organizers of the Aug. 14 Manure Science Review say farmers can see both at the same time and that the event will show how to do it. Read the story …
Soil saver
New bulletin just published by CFAES’s outreach arm, OSU Extension: How to keep your on-site sewage system, and the soil around it, sustainable.