Undeveloped Soils: The Nevada Gardening Problem

Let’s look at the biggest problem facing gardeners in Nevada and in many other places across the United States, undeveloped or “immature” soils. To understand the difference between a mature or developed soil and the soils like we have here in Nevada, let’s look at an example.

Let’s take a new born human baby…what do they eat?

Of course they just aren’t born and want to go to a steak house and eat a top sirloin and all the trimmings. They are not capable of doing this kind of digestion. Babies are dependent on mother’s milk or formula in the beginning stages of their lives. As they develop they are able to move through the food chain and begin to digest more complex and diverse foods. From baby food onto cereals and then eventually having their first real meal…a Happy Meal haha! (for another day to discuss that Happy Meals may be the end of all mankind.)

Soils are just like babies. They take time to develop!! The environment that the soil is in determines the maturation rate that the soil goes through. Some soils, depending on their surrounding environments, happen to be more matrue then others and can digest a much more diverse and complex forms of organic matter aka “soil food.”  For Nevadans, we happen to have some of the most “immature” soils around. This is not because of how old the soils are but rather that the arrid desert environment has kept the soils in the same state as when they were first made. A perfect example of this is the famous ghost towns that are all throughout the state.

In many other environments, an old woden building would never stand a chance against the harsh environment and would be eventually be broken down through a long series of digestion by the environment itself. Here in Nevada and parts of California, eventhough the environment is very harsh, our soils are not capable of digesting such materials and buildings in Bodie or Virginia City are able to stand the test of time. This is very problematic when it comes to gardening and planting nutrious food for your family to eat.

If the soil can not digest the organic matter then it is not able to make these materials into readily availble nutrients for your garden. So how do you combat the problem of undeveloped soils? You give them baby food rather then steaks!

Many people try to fix their soils by giving them food that they cannot digest and or break down. Undeveloped soils need nutrients that have already been broken down into their most simple form. Just like babies can’t eat raw carrots but if you cook them and mush them up into baby food they can eat it. What is the equivilent of this for soils? HUMUS!

Just as we have discussed before…humus is the end result of composting that has broken organic matter down through the stomache of microbes to make the best food for soils. What do underdevoped soils, like the ones in Nevada, need? HUMUS. People put raw manures into their soils thinking that this will help the soil’s fertility when in reality it is giving the soil something it can do nothing with. It would be like putting a steak in front of a 5 month old and hoping it eats. Your soil needs to be nutured and this starts by giving it the best food for its maturity that it can then utilize to give your garden that extraboost.

Look to find the highest quality, fully composted, humus that will give your garden an extra boost. If you ask a so called expert if they have humus and they do not know what it is…this tells you to keep searching for a better product. If itjust looks like horse manure and wood shavings it has not been composted. If it can not break down by itself, why would it help your garden?? Give your garden food it can eat!!