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Regenerative Agriculture and Direct Drilling
Holistic Farming
infiltration doesn't work
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<blockquote data-quote="Blaithin" data-source="post: 7307484" data-attributes="member: 5764"><p>You seem to have high expectations of the water cycle.</p><p></p><p>Your infiltration is probably good. The fact you have 1-2 feet of topsoil above clay is also pretty darn good. What you need to be focusing on is increasing OM/humus to increase the soils water holding capacity. The healthier the soil gets, the more water it can hold before it becomes saturated. What’s the ratio, 1% more OM in soils helps increase the soils water holding by 20,000 gallons/acre. Something like that.</p><p></p><p>The entire purpose of the water cycle is that some water stays in your soil and some gradually makes its way down to underground streams or through the soil towards water bodies. Unless you live in a bowl or on a completely flat surface the water in your soil is slowly migrating towards other destinations. You want plants to help hold the soil together and slow the water down to prevent erosion and leeching. The fact you say it takes days to start to disappear means you have nice, slow movement instead of a damaging rush. So focus on increasing the humus and the holding capacity of the soil. Many people live above clay or rock that won’t allow water to drain down quickly. Coming from an arid area I say why would you want it to drain away quickly. I want that water to stick around as long as possible. The more I can keep for longer, the better.</p><p></p><p>Bump up your residue, give good rest periods, feed your soil trash, take videos of your squelchy foot steps in saturated soil and compare them to videos after the same amount of rain next year and the year after.</p><p></p><p>Clay soil will allow only a small portion of the water cycle to go down into underground streams. Most of it will move horizontally and be up-taken by plants and evaporation. There’s nothing wrong with that, just don’t try and make your location do what someone in sandy locations can do. Focus on soil moisture, it’s holding capacity, and managing surface runoff. Runoff isn’t bad in and of itself, but if your soil isn’t well covered and well anchored then runoff takes your soil with it. You want the water to run clear.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Blaithin, post: 7307484, member: 5764"] You seem to have high expectations of the water cycle. Your infiltration is probably good. The fact you have 1-2 feet of topsoil above clay is also pretty darn good. What you need to be focusing on is increasing OM/humus to increase the soils water holding capacity. The healthier the soil gets, the more water it can hold before it becomes saturated. What’s the ratio, 1% more OM in soils helps increase the soils water holding by 20,000 gallons/acre. Something like that. The entire purpose of the water cycle is that some water stays in your soil and some gradually makes its way down to underground streams or through the soil towards water bodies. Unless you live in a bowl or on a completely flat surface the water in your soil is slowly migrating towards other destinations. You want plants to help hold the soil together and slow the water down to prevent erosion and leeching. The fact you say it takes days to start to disappear means you have nice, slow movement instead of a damaging rush. So focus on increasing the humus and the holding capacity of the soil. Many people live above clay or rock that won’t allow water to drain down quickly. Coming from an arid area I say why would you want it to drain away quickly. I want that water to stick around as long as possible. The more I can keep for longer, the better. Bump up your residue, give good rest periods, feed your soil trash, take videos of your squelchy foot steps in saturated soil and compare them to videos after the same amount of rain next year and the year after. Clay soil will allow only a small portion of the water cycle to go down into underground streams. Most of it will move horizontally and be up-taken by plants and evaporation. There’s nothing wrong with that, just don’t try and make your location do what someone in sandy locations can do. Focus on soil moisture, it’s holding capacity, and managing surface runoff. Runoff isn’t bad in and of itself, but if your soil isn’t well covered and well anchored then runoff takes your soil with it. You want the water to run clear. [/QUOTE]
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infiltration doesn't work
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