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262 points gnabgib | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.677s | source
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ralusek ◴[] No.43744184[source]
I'm a gardening and landscaping enjoyer, but I am constantly confused about the bordering magical thinking surrounding dirt, among other aspects of growing things.

If you look at hydroponics/aeroponics, plants basically need water, light, and fertilizer (N (nitrogen) P (phosphorous) K (potassium), and a few trace minerals). It can be the most synthetic process you've ever seen, and the plants will grow amazingly well.

The other elements regarding soil health, etc, would be much better framed in another way, rather than as directly necessary for plant health. The benefits of maintaining a nice living soil is that it makes the environment self-sustaining. You could just dump synthetic fertilizer on the plant, with some soil additives to help retain the right amount of drainage/retention, and it would do completely fine. But without constant optimal inputs, the plants would die.

If you cultivate a nice soil, such that the plants own/surrounding detritus can be broken down effectively, such that the nutrients in the natural processes can be broken down and made available to the plant, and the otherwise nonoptimal soil texture characteristics could be brought to some positive characteristics by those same processes, then you can theoretically arrive at a point that requires very few additional inputs.

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cellular ◴[] No.43744595[source]
I am terraforming my limestone rocky terrain using leaves.

I believe they have trace minerals and the grub larve eat the oak leaves and poop amazing soil.

I now have 6" of black soil with earthworms!

This is in dry central Texas. Moisture helps microbial/fungal life. Leaves retain moisture.

Another key ingredient is pressure/compaction of leaves.

I have results on my YouTube channel: theRainHarvester

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1. hammock ◴[] No.43747278[source]
You ought to visit Iceland. Knowing that the entire island went from 30-40% woodland to being basically 100% deforested in a span of 100 years (the first 100 years following the Vikings arrival), and with the bare ground being fields of barren volcanic rock, to see all the sheep grazing pasture that exists today, gives you great appreciation for the amount of terraforming that was required to get even 1% of the land into that state.