4 ms·

Whats a sterile soil and why is it less absorbent?

• KaiserPro 3y ago
  A sterile soil is something that has been weed-killed to make sure no other plants grow on it. Thats useful for growing sensitive crops like wheat/potatoes etc, as they tend to be dwarfs and can easily be out competed/shaded by other plants. Its also used when changing from one crop to another at the end of a season. This prevents crops being contaminated by previous rotation The downside is that it also kills off the mechanisms that make soil hang together, like fungi, fibrous roots, moss. That process creates a spongy interlinked mesh that separates soil from something like raw clay/sand. think carbon/glass fibre vs raw epoxy. Anyway, those fibres of organic matter decay/get eaten by insects, worms and fungi. This "airates" the soil by leaving voids, making it much less dense. This provides much more surface area (and holes) for water to soak into. does that make sense?