subject: How Living Soil Improves CEC [print this page] How Living Soil Improves CEC How Living Soil Improves CEC
The two concepts may not seem to be remotely related at all, but rest assure the two ideas go hand in hand. Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC) by itself is a complete soil chemistry discussion that can be as detailed as the PhDs writing college textbooks. Our discussion will be overview comparatively. The entire concept of CEC can be summed up like this; think of your soil as a battery. Some batteries are 9 volt batteries, some are small watch batteries, some are car batteries. The remarkable thing about CEC is that even when you put significant amounts of fertilizer and water down (like charging up the soil), if the battery is full, the fertilizer or water becomes a "contaminant" to the groundwater because just like charging a battery, once it is fully charged, no more charge can be put into the battery and the rest of the charge is either expelled or causes damage to the battery.
There are a few ways to influence CEC in living soil and we should be always striving to increase CEC. One way is to increase the amount of fines (clay and preferably expandable clay). Another way is to increase the amount of organic content in the soil. Too much of either one at a time can be detrimental to your gardening efforts. Living soil uses the organic content to generate CEC. Throwing lots of organic content at your soil is worthless without somehow making that organic material available to the plant (we're after humus here). The organic material becomes available once the bacteria, fungi, and other living soil organisms do their magic. Those organisms require simple sugars in many cases to propagate and multiply and work for you. Good healthy living soil has an average of 50 Billion microbes per tablespoon, more around the root system. That is an incredible army at your disposal if you will allow them to do their job uninhibited.
Anhydrous ammonia is a common fertilizer, but consider that during WWII anhydrous ammonia was used to harden the ground to make runways for aircraft. It burns out organic content creating the hardening effect they needed. It burns skin and it destroys the living aspect of your soil. Other synthetic fertilizers and specifically ones ending in -chloride- form insoluble chloride salts. Other synthetics (the strong acids and bases) react with protein in the soil to create formaldehydes and alcohols. If you cannot or should not have it on your own skin, you should not put it on your living soil.
The most important thing to remember about increasing your CEC is that it does not change instantly, but with the proper treatment of your living soil, your CECs will consistently be increasing and your garden will continue to reach its genetic potential. You deserve the best from your garden and your living soil will serve your plants so your plants can serve you and your family. For more information about living soil, please visit the link in the resource box.
