It is difficult to notice whether chemical fertilizers are bringing damage to your farm. Even pests failed to develop resistance to any kind of chemicals. Anyways, let’s flash forward to today, and you’ll see that several people are again marveling at organic farming.
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Composting offers social, economic, and environmental benefits on scales, whether small or large. Some might happen immediately while others will take much longer term. It’s time to learn about the benefits which you can get by using compost in organic farming.
What is organic farming?
This is a form of agriculture that heavily relies on organic matter’s natural breakdown. It uses techniques like green manure, crop rotation, biological pest control, and composting. Microorganisms play a chief role in driving this kind of biological process.
Composting can be used in organic farming to replace nutrients that are taken from your soil by previous crops. Through this, you can produce nutrients in the soil naturally, even throughout the growing season.
Benefits of using compost in organic farming
Improved soil moisture
When you’ll use compost there is less crust formation on the soil. Thus, water will disperse laterally, and it can hit the ground, in simple words, it will less quickly evaporate. With all such things, your plant roots will get water more effectively.
Reduction in plant mortality rate
Apart from growing stronger, your plants will not easily catch diseases. As an organic farmer, you know much it costs to have crop failure. That’s why compost comes into the picture, which acts as a way to save money while growing other plants.
Feed your soil food web
Compost will feed the plants growing in your soil, and they do so with existing materials usage. However, many of them are byproducts or free of the food system. Also, compost boosts the variety and number of beneficial fungi and bacteria which in return aid in plant growth.
Amend hard-packed soil
There is no need to till hard-packed soil as it can be a reason to disturb the activity done by microorganisms. Instead, add a compost layer which will surely work as a transformation into friable and loose soil.
Boost aeration
When there are pores, they not only drain water but also aid in holding air pockets. Soil enriched with compost directly encourages the growth of worms of microbes. Further, with such creatures, more air pockets can be produced.
More nutritious plant
With the usage of compost, you can notice the high quality of produce grown on your organic farm. The antioxidant defense machinery will surely improve and boost the plant’s ability to take nutrients. For instance, the wheat field will increase yield due to the usage of composted soil.
Control soil erosion
If you’ll add compost to the soil, then you can notice the prevention of soil runoff and reduction in soil erosion. With this streams and other waterways can be protected from turbidity that can easily harm aquatic invertebrates. So, the reason behind this is that composted soil is much better at retaining water.
Buffers PH level
Ions can be absorbed when there is the presence of compost. Otherwise, they can be just washed away, fortunately, compost will hold them. Also, earthworms are encouraged with compost. Thus, they will make your alkaline soil less alkaline and acidic soil less acidic.
Tips for organic farm
Be creative in planting choices
Before you start planting your seeds and plants, it is better to take time for learning about the plants. Also, don’t forget to take into consideration the distance you’ll leave between plants. The reason is that roots develop when there is space, so never plant them much closer.
Hit with small
Check the possibilities, pots, elevated raised beds, ground gardening, and raised beds. If you own an organic veggie garden, then it is a good idea to switch to raised beds. With this, you can manage soil better, and don’t forget to add newspapers at the bottom to avoid weeds.
Try earthworms
There is a vital role played by earthworms to break down any kind of organic matter while decomposing. Also, they are responsible for the incorporation of organic matter into the soil and the mixing of other soil layers.
Take a look at the local organic farm
You’ll surely learn so much from farmers’ techniques and knowledge related to nature and sustainability. So, it is the best thing you can do for your organic farm and yourself. After all, such farmers have many generations of knowledge.
Conclusion
If you use compost correctly, then there are chances to save money with reduced maintenance costs. Since the beginning of agriculture people used to use compost for their stunning organic farms. Overall, one of the easiest and simplest ways for you to improve organic farm soil is only compost.
