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Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, it's Josh and Chuck your friends, and we

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Speaker 1: are here to tell you about our upcoming book that's

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Speaker 1: coming out this fall, the first ever Stuff you Should

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Speaker 1: Know book, Chuck. That's right. What's the cool, super cool

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Speaker 1: title we came up with. It's Stuff you Should Know colon,

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Speaker 1: an incomplete compendium of mostly interesting things. That's right, and

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Speaker 1: it's coming along so great. We're super excited, you guys.

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Speaker 1: The illustrations are amazing, and there's the look of the book.

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Speaker 1: It's all just it's exactly what we hoped it would be.

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Speaker 1: And we cannot wait for you to get your hands

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Speaker 1: on it. Yes, we can't. Um, and you don't have

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Speaker 1: to wait. Actually, well you do have to wait, but

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Speaker 1: you don't have to wait to order. You can go

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Speaker 1: preorder the book right now everywhere you get books, and

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Speaker 1: you will eventually get a special gift for preordering, which

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Speaker 1: we're working on right now. That's right, So check it

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Speaker 1: out soon coming this fall. Welcome to Stuff you Should Know,

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Speaker 1: a production of My Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey,

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Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark and there's

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Speaker 1: Charles W. Chuck Brian over there, and this is Stuff

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Speaker 1: you Should know, the Dirty Dirt edition the best I

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Speaker 1: could come up with. And I even had days to

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Speaker 1: think of that, and that was it. Chuck, I'm sorry. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: this is a cool one. You know, we're into gardening,

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Speaker 1: so it's always nice to talk earth biology. Yes, agreed, Agreed,

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Speaker 1: And like I had a pretty I guess I thought

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Speaker 1: a dcent idea about this, but wait, did this article

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Speaker 1: open my eyes? Yeah? And this, you know, we covered sand,

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Speaker 1: and we covered compost, permaculture, perma culture, like we sort

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Speaker 1: of danced around soil. We danced in soil. Yea, our

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Speaker 1: toes are all dirty. But yeah, this is good to

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Speaker 1: finally check this one off the old list. Agreed. So

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Speaker 1: people are probably like, I don't know about this one.

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Speaker 1: I would hope that it's been, you know, long enough.

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Speaker 1: We've been at it long enough to just trust us

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Speaker 1: that if it sounds boring, we're gonna find something interesting

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Speaker 1: in it. And I dare say that that is going

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Speaker 1: to be the case with this one too, Chuck, I hope.

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Speaker 1: So to understand soil, we have to understand what soil is,

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Speaker 1: where it comes from, and soil is basically just worn

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Speaker 1: down rock, just like sand is. Right, I think we

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Speaker 1: talked about and like, are are we running out of sand?

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Speaker 1: Episode that like, rocks get weathered and kind of taken

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Speaker 1: down stream all the way to the sea and they

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Speaker 1: get gently um broken down over time into this very

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Speaker 1: nice little beach sand and washed up on shore, and

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Speaker 1: that's where sand comes from. Well, basically that is also

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Speaker 1: part of the same process for producing dirt as well.

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Speaker 1: It's just weathered rock that's broken down into different um

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Speaker 1: sizes that that are that that basically make up different

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Speaker 1: types of so oil. That's one the main structure of

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Speaker 1: it is basically just weathered rock of various sizes. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so you can you know, wind can do that over time.

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Speaker 1: Water and obviously the combination of all these is where

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Speaker 1: you really get your money money's worth. You've got your win,

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Speaker 1: you've got your your water um. When you get weather

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Speaker 1: going on in your seasons, you get the freeze law cycle,

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Speaker 1: which is a really kind of speedier way. Once that

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Speaker 1: water gets in those little tiny fractures in the rock

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Speaker 1: and freezes and unfreezes and cracks, that will really speed

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Speaker 1: things up. And then you get a little help from

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Speaker 1: our our little tiny critters under under our feet. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: tiny critters of all shapes and sizes from like microbes

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Speaker 1: like bacteria and fun guy all the way up to

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Speaker 1: like prairie dogs and gophers. They're basically taking all this

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Speaker 1: stuff and mixing it together. But the stuff that they're

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Speaker 1: mixing together is so you've got the structure of the

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Speaker 1: soil from broken down rocks. But that's just one big component.

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Speaker 1: You have to have life living among it or else

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Speaker 1: it's not gonna do anything. It's just it's just dead.

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Speaker 1: There's nothing to it. So um part of the process

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Speaker 1: of forming soil is taking those little gritty pieces of

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Speaker 1: weathered rock and adding decomposing organic matter to them. And

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Speaker 1: that's where we finally start to get to what we

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Speaker 1: understand is soil. Yeah, because once you have that, it

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Speaker 1: can hold a little bit of moisture, and then that

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Speaker 1: means little plants can grow. Those little plants grow, they

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Speaker 1: eventually die. It's very sad for the plant and the

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Speaker 1: plant's family, but it happens to all of us. And

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Speaker 1: then those little plants that die, they decompose and they're

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Speaker 1: holding all that carbon dioxide and their little skinny stems

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Speaker 1: and leaves and body, and that carbon dioxide stays behind

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Speaker 1: and it's dissolved by water, and then that forms carbonic acid,

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Speaker 1: which isn't you know, if you want to throw a

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Speaker 1: body in a barrel, you don't want to use carbonic acid.

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Speaker 1: Now you're gonna get caught. Still, you're gonna get caught.

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Speaker 1: So it's not super strong, but it is strong enough

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Speaker 1: to help break down all those little rocks and everything

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Speaker 1: even more, and before you know it, you've got soil. Baby, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: you've got so So those decomposing all that decomposing organic

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Speaker 1: matter is full of like nutrients that kept the thing

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Speaker 1: alive while it was living. And then all those little

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Speaker 1: tiny animals and microbes that eat that stuff break it

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Speaker 1: down even further, which unlocks all of the nutrients and within,

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Speaker 1: and that means that plants can start to take them

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Speaker 1: up in its roots and use those nutrients to grow.

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Speaker 1: And so that's a big part of what soil is.

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Speaker 1: It's like a nice little substrate of medium for holding nutrients,

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Speaker 1: and then the whole thing is actually held together itself

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Speaker 1: even further by the roots that the plants that grow

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Speaker 1: in the soil spread out in stabilized too. So I

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Speaker 1: think one of the things we've just hit upon. One

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Speaker 1: of the reasons I love soil so much. It's harmonious

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Speaker 1: and um symbiotic, Like everything living in the soil almost

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Speaker 1: is involved in keeping everything else going and alive. It's

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Speaker 1: like part of a really beautiful, complete system. Yeah, and

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Speaker 1: that's why, you know, we always make a big deal

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Speaker 1: and science makes a big deal out of the disruption

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Speaker 1: of this and not just this process, but all earth processes.

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Speaker 1: One little tiny thing will lead to another little tiny thing,

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Speaker 1: and before you know it, you got you got issues

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Speaker 1: on your hands. Yeah, you do, for sure. You can't

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Speaker 1: let it get out of whack. Luckily, from what I found,

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Speaker 1: I started to get into um into like long care

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Speaker 1: and stuff like that happen at some point and it's

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Speaker 1: fun to me years ago and I was like, you

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Speaker 1: just wait, Yeah, it's true. It's true. And I've learned

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Speaker 1: not to flood my lawn with a quarter inch of

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Speaker 1: um of water. But um, the best fertilizer and aeration

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Speaker 1: that I found is just basically feeding microbes to your lawn.

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Speaker 1: Like you don't need to like go dig holes and

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Speaker 1: core plugs in your lawn, just if you add the

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Speaker 1: right kind of microbes to your lawn and all of

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Speaker 1: that will just kind of turn it into this healthy

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Speaker 1: soil beneath it on its own, which I just love

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Speaker 1: because it's just springing microbes onto the ground. What's more

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Speaker 1: beautiful than that. Well, we've got the opposite. We have

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Speaker 1: zero grass now. Basically, oh, I know, I know, you

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Speaker 1: just love to my face and that. But still no,

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Speaker 1: it just kept going more and more and it got

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Speaker 1: smaller and smaller, to the point where I was like,

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Speaker 1: why am I holding onto this tiny little patch of grass?

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Speaker 1: Why do I even have a weed whacker? At this point,

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Speaker 1: I know I've used a weed whaker in two years.

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Speaker 1: It's great, that's awesome. I got a big old honking

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Speaker 1: gas powered lawnmower even too. So I'm basically going the

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Speaker 1: exact toposite direction, is you do you have a writer now? No? No, No,

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Speaker 1: it's not that big. It's not that big. Yeah, it

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Speaker 1: runs on like the tier of baby deer. That's what

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Speaker 1: John Dear means. So, um, if you're talking soil, you

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Speaker 1: need to talk soil horizons, and you know, we'll get

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Speaker 1: to sort of the list of the different horizons here

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Speaker 1: in a few minutes. But soil horizons are these horizontal levels,

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Speaker 1: these striations that you know, if you look at like

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Speaker 1: if you go to any science center, they'll probably have

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Speaker 1: some kind of cool um piece of glass with a frame,

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Speaker 1: and you have soil in there, and they have little

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Speaker 1: lines drawn to mark these different soil horizons, because soil

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Speaker 1: is not all the same. From the the very top

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Speaker 1: of the top soil down three feet, it gets very different.

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Speaker 1: And you want space in there, you want air in there. Uh,

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Speaker 1: you want to have water to be able to travel

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Speaker 1: through there. I think they say if you want, like

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Speaker 1: really good soil should be about fifty just fifty percent

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Speaker 1: soil and then fifty just space for air and water. Yeah, exactly,

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Speaker 1: And then you want about half of those spaces to

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Speaker 1: be filled with water. So you've got about soil air pockets,

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Speaker 1: water filled pores. That's ideal for sure. And that's yeah.

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Speaker 1: And that the reason the way that you get those

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Speaker 1: those pores in those pockets and everything is because there's

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Speaker 1: different types of soil. There's different shapes of soil um,

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Speaker 1: and there's different sizes of soil. Like we said, you know,

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Speaker 1: there's sand, but there's also silt, and there's also and

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Speaker 1: get ready for your socks to be not clean off

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Speaker 1: your feet. There's also clay, which clay Whenever I think

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Speaker 1: of clay, it's like a big hunk of something that

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Speaker 1: I'm like having to dig through to plant a plant,

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Speaker 1: and it's enormous. But it turns out that clay is

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Speaker 1: actually the finest, uh smallest type of soil, and it's

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Speaker 1: so fine that it compacts together into these large aggregate

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Speaker 1: pieces of clay that we think of when we think

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Speaker 1: of clay, But that's actually huge, enormous chunks of extraordinarily

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Speaker 1: tiny pieces of dirt of soil that are so small

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Speaker 1: you can only see them with an electron microscope if

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Speaker 1: you want to look at them individually. Yeah, and clay

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Speaker 1: is important. It's all part of the mix that we'll

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Speaker 1: talk about here in a minute. But you know, if

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Speaker 1: you start off with just a barren rock landscape. There's

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Speaker 1: a very smart lady who who did this one? Was this?

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Speaker 1: I think that Grabster helps us out with this. This

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Speaker 1: is the Grabster um. He must have been interviewed doctor

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Speaker 1: Caitlin Hicks Priests, who's an assistant professor of biological sciences

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Speaker 1: at Dartmouth, and she said, you know, if you start

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Speaker 1: off We've seen it happen if you start off with

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Speaker 1: just bedrock in about a hundred years, you could probably

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Speaker 1: grow a tree there in the soil that you would

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Speaker 1: get seen it happen a million times hundred years. That's

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Speaker 1: all you need, right, And well, reason why it can

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Speaker 1: happen so fast is because some plants are early colonizers

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Speaker 1: and they can grow and just a little bit of

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Speaker 1: you know, soil, just a little bit of fine rock um,

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Speaker 1: and as long as there's like nutrients and water coming

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Speaker 1: to it, it's it's fine. It doesn't need a big

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Speaker 1: thing of like top soil or potting soil. It can

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Speaker 1: make do like that. And then once those plants start

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Speaker 1: to die, they start to decompose, and then it really

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Speaker 1: kicks off. So yeah, you can have like soil, a

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Speaker 1: couple of horizons of soil in a hundred years if

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Speaker 1: you're really boogian. Al Right, should we boogie on down

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Speaker 1: and take a break. Yeah, let's let's get her hands

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Speaker 1: dirty and we'll come back and we'll talk about these

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Speaker 1: horizons right after this, okay, chuck. Horizons. And speaking of horizons,

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Speaker 1: I think there was a Disney World ride or at

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Speaker 1: Epcot Center ride called Horizons or something like that, and

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Speaker 1: there was this group of people who infiltrated it they

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Speaker 1: figured out how to get basically behind the scenes and

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Speaker 1: would hang out there for like entire weekends and like

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Speaker 1: high during the regular hours and then just hang out

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Speaker 1: like they were part of the set um after hours.

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Speaker 1: After no it was about future life, like what life

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Speaker 1: was going to be like in the future. It's really cool.

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Speaker 1: But the upshot of all this is that they documented

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Speaker 1: the whole thing with pictures and it's somewhere on the internet.

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Speaker 1: I can't remember where, but I'm pretty sure it was

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Speaker 1: called Horizons. But it's a closed down Epcot ride where

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Speaker 1: a bunch of people documented it in the early nineties,

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Speaker 1: just with cool pictures of it. So check it out,

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Speaker 1: and that's probably why they closed it down. I don't

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Speaker 1: remember why they closed it down and what it became,

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Speaker 1: but think it's not nearly as cool. I never got

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Speaker 1: to write it, but seeing those pictures, maybe I wish

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Speaker 1: I'd been able to go. So here are a bunch

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Speaker 1: of the horizons. When if you're talking about pedology, which

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Speaker 1: is a study of soil, it's a bit of an

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Speaker 1: unfortunate name. Um, but we're gonna talk about horizons, not

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Speaker 1: the event horizon, not the Gateway to Hell itself, No

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Speaker 1: chaos and disorder of unparalleled horrible nous. Did you see that?

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Speaker 1: I loved it? Yeah, Yeah, it's pretty good. Huh. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: when's the last time you saw it? But when it

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Speaker 1: came out, I don't think I ever repeated that one.

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Speaker 1: I saw in the last couple of years, and it

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Speaker 1: holds up. I've been several times since it came out,

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Speaker 1: and it's it's a really genuinely good horror movie. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: I agree. I also saw Solaris too recently, and that's

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Speaker 1: a really great movie too. The Russian version of these,

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Speaker 1: I've still never seen the Russian version. I've seen the

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Speaker 1: Soderberg version. Yeah, it was good. I would recommend the Tarkovsky.

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Speaker 1: It's a bit of a grind, but worth it. Sure,

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Speaker 1: his movies are all worth it, but they're just you know,

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Speaker 1: they're tough. You don't if you're sleepy, don't try it. Okay, Okay,

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Speaker 1: it's like The Irishman, but Russian and in space and

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Speaker 1: good okay. Um. So the o horizon, these are some

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Speaker 1: of the different horizons. The horizon is that's like not

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Speaker 1: even top soil yet. It's the leaves that blow off

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Speaker 1: of trees and are sitting sort of on top that

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Speaker 1: counts as the horizon. They're basically the things that are

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Speaker 1: in the initial state of decomposition right on top of

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Speaker 1: the dirt. Yeah. Exactly underneath that then is the A horizon.

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Speaker 1: So this makes zero sense already because we went from

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Speaker 1: oh to A. None of this makes sense. The A

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Speaker 1: horizon um is what we would consider like top soil um.

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Speaker 1: It has most of the organic matter that's really begun

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Speaker 1: to decompose and break down into smaller and smaller bits,

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Speaker 1: and it's usually kind of dark in color. This is

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Speaker 1: where the highest concentration of minerals are and this is

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Speaker 1: also where you're going to find them the roots of

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Speaker 1: plants to because they really like those those minerals and nutrients. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: And by the way, when I said this makes no sense,

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Speaker 1: I'm sure and our scientists is gonna say, guys, it

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Speaker 1: makes perfect sense. And and here's why. Uh, you have

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Speaker 1: the E horizon next, which stands for alluviated horizon, and

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Speaker 1: that's where you've got this water draining down and those

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Speaker 1: minerals that you were talking about in the A horizon,

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Speaker 1: it's leaching those minerals and all that stuff out, and

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Speaker 1: you've got sort of this light colored soil in its wake. Right, Um,

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Speaker 1: that is not a common or I shouldn't say common,

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Speaker 1: it's you're not going to find that in every UM

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Speaker 1: soil sample that you take. Right. It's usually a product

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Speaker 1: of say, like um, a patch on like a hilltop

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Speaker 1: where it's it's like the dirt's in place, but all

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Speaker 1: the nutrients have been leached out over time. So anytime

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Speaker 1: you just dig with the shovel into some dirt, you're

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Speaker 1: not necessarily going to find an E horizon. Yeah, and

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Speaker 1: we should say that for all this stuff, it's all

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Speaker 1: going to vary according to where you are and what

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Speaker 1: kind of rain and flooding and uh and drainage that

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Speaker 1: you have and stuff like that. What's next, You got

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Speaker 1: the B horizon that's the subsoil, and this is where

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Speaker 1: you finally get down to some of the finer uh particles,

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Speaker 1: and you've got like a lot of silt, a lot

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Speaker 1: of clay. Uh. It's it's you're starting to get down

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Speaker 1: to the good stuff at this point. And all this

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Speaker 1: makes sense too if you think about it, like, um,

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Speaker 1: when the water, when rain water trickles down through the

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Speaker 1: soil and percolates, it's far easier for it to bring

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Speaker 1: with it smaller and smaller particles. So the further it travels,

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Speaker 1: the further or the smaller the particles you're gonna find

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Speaker 1: going down with it. So you've got your bigger particles,

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Speaker 1: your looser, coarse or bigger top soil. Then you've got

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Speaker 1: the subsoil, which is a little tighter together, and then

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Speaker 1: in that um in the b horizon, in the subsoil,

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Speaker 1: you've got compacted. That's where you're gonna hit like your

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Speaker 1: lay layer, because again, clay's made up of those tiniest

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Speaker 1: little particles that have been brought all the way down

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Speaker 1: as far as it can go with the water that's percolated.

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Speaker 1: That's right, And it's much more stable than top soil

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Speaker 1: as well. For sure, sometimes it's too stable and like

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Speaker 1: water and roots can't really penetrate it. Yes, or shovels

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Speaker 1: it can be. It can be a problem child as

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Speaker 1: far as soiled soil horizons. You know my story when

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Speaker 1: I was trying to dig my fence post holes for

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00:17:29,960 --> 00:17:33,840
Speaker 1: my privacy fence years ago, was I rented a two

303
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Speaker 1: man auger, a two person auger, and it just spun,

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Speaker 1: it just it compacted the clay even more. It did

305
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Speaker 1: not break it up at all. It's spun it like

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Speaker 1: a potter's wheel. Nice, did you go give me some clay?

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Speaker 1: Oh wait, that was bad? Did you get it? That

308
00:17:50,840 --> 00:17:53,920
Speaker 1: was a pottery joke, but it tied into your problem.

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Speaker 1: That was maybe the smartest joke I've ever made in

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Speaker 1: my life. Well, no, wonder I didn't get it. Uh

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Speaker 1: And and I think I mentioned this on the show before.

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Speaker 1: If you if you do have that kind of problem,

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Speaker 1: if you're going to plant and you have really tough

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Speaker 1: clay that you're trying to get through, or rock for

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Speaker 1: that matter, get a San Angelo tool, which is that

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00:18:14,200 --> 00:18:18,520
Speaker 1: big heavy spike um that you see at the hardware

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Speaker 1: store that's, oh yeah, six ft long, has a pointy

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Speaker 1: end on one side and a flathead on the other

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Speaker 1: in ways like you know, twenty pounds or something. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I never knew what they were called. They look like

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00:18:29,400 --> 00:18:32,639
Speaker 1: sharp pointing lightning rods basically, right. Yeah, I mean you

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00:18:32,720 --> 00:18:36,040
Speaker 1: just it's backbreaking. But if you voice that thing into

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00:18:36,040 --> 00:18:37,800
Speaker 1: the ground as hard as you can and just wiggle

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Speaker 1: it back and forth a million times, and then you're

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Speaker 1: gonna be able to well, you're gonna be able to

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Speaker 1: break up anything. Basically, and then you hit it with

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Speaker 1: the auger or post hole diggers. Uh no, I mean

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00:18:47,400 --> 00:18:49,560
Speaker 1: the augur was useless at that point. You just loosen

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Speaker 1: and use a shovel. Did you get your money back

330
00:18:52,000 --> 00:18:55,479
Speaker 1: and say this augur is worth nothing? No, because they

331
00:18:55,520 --> 00:19:02,119
Speaker 1: would say welcome to Georgia. Thing. That's the slogan, and

332
00:19:02,160 --> 00:19:04,240
Speaker 1: not all over Georgia, but particularly where we are, like

333
00:19:04,320 --> 00:19:06,040
Speaker 1: up in the mountains and stuff it can get it can.

334
00:19:06,080 --> 00:19:10,680
Speaker 1: The soil is very rich and very uh a pliable. Yeah, yeah,

335
00:19:10,680 --> 00:19:12,679
Speaker 1: for good stuff as long as you don't hit the

336
00:19:12,680 --> 00:19:16,720
Speaker 1: granite underneath, which can happen. Yeah, as a matter of fact,

337
00:19:17,119 --> 00:19:21,000
Speaker 1: because those those pieces of granite that you hit as

338
00:19:21,000 --> 00:19:23,800
Speaker 1: you get closer and closer to the Appalachians further north

339
00:19:23,840 --> 00:19:28,399
Speaker 1: and Georgia, that's bedrock that's like the outermost rock of

340
00:19:28,440 --> 00:19:31,960
Speaker 1: the Earth's crust, right, so you're actually touching the earth.

341
00:19:31,960 --> 00:19:34,200
Speaker 1: It's almost like the soil that builds up on top

342
00:19:34,240 --> 00:19:38,240
Speaker 1: of the bedrock is I don't know, dander maybe, And

343
00:19:38,280 --> 00:19:42,080
Speaker 1: the bedrock is really the Earth's outer skin. So you're

344
00:19:42,119 --> 00:19:45,800
Speaker 1: touching the Earth's skin when you're touching bedrock, which can

345
00:19:46,040 --> 00:19:47,960
Speaker 1: which can poke through the ground every once in a

346
00:19:48,000 --> 00:19:51,320
Speaker 1: while is what we call rock outcroppings. Yeah, and so

347
00:19:51,400 --> 00:19:54,320
Speaker 1: as far as the horizon levels go just above the bedrock,

348
00:19:54,359 --> 00:19:57,359
Speaker 1: I don't think we mentioned the sea horizon that is

349
00:19:57,400 --> 00:20:01,440
Speaker 1: also rock. But that's rock that um his weather down

350
00:20:01,480 --> 00:20:05,280
Speaker 1: some but didn't quite make it to soil level, right,

351
00:20:05,359 --> 00:20:08,200
Speaker 1: because remember, some plants can come in and colonize that

352
00:20:08,280 --> 00:20:11,880
Speaker 1: rock and pretty quickly start building up soil. And if

353
00:20:11,920 --> 00:20:15,720
Speaker 1: that's that rock beneath isn't exposed to that weathering process

354
00:20:15,760 --> 00:20:17,840
Speaker 1: from wind and freeze, thaw and all that stuff, it's

355
00:20:17,880 --> 00:20:21,000
Speaker 1: never gonna get broken down, right, It's just gonna be

356
00:20:21,040 --> 00:20:25,960
Speaker 1: hard on the old auger uh, and then the bedrock.

357
00:20:26,000 --> 00:20:28,360
Speaker 1: And then you've got what's called hard pan and these

358
00:20:28,400 --> 00:20:32,959
Speaker 1: are mineral deposits that I mean, this stuff, I don't know.

359
00:20:33,440 --> 00:20:35,520
Speaker 1: I guess it's harder than bedrock. It just sounds like

360
00:20:36,000 --> 00:20:39,720
Speaker 1: nothing will will grow and there's no chance for anything

361
00:20:39,760 --> 00:20:42,159
Speaker 1: to permeate it. Yeah, and hard pan the is not

362
00:20:42,400 --> 00:20:44,960
Speaker 1: under bedrock bedrocks as low as it gets before you

363
00:20:45,200 --> 00:20:47,560
Speaker 1: like that's the Earth's crust. Hard pan is just kind

364
00:20:47,560 --> 00:20:48,919
Speaker 1: of I think he's just kind of tossed that on

365
00:20:49,000 --> 00:20:51,800
Speaker 1: where it's like this is this is another. It's like

366
00:20:51,840 --> 00:20:54,400
Speaker 1: an e horizon, like an alluviated horizon. You're not gonna

367
00:20:54,440 --> 00:20:57,160
Speaker 1: find it everywhere. When you do, you'll know it because

368
00:20:57,160 --> 00:20:59,560
Speaker 1: it's very hard to dig through and there can be

369
00:21:00,040 --> 00:21:04,440
Speaker 1: streaks of it within another you know, soil system um

370
00:21:04,960 --> 00:21:08,400
Speaker 1: of different horizon layers, uh, and you just don't want

371
00:21:08,440 --> 00:21:10,720
Speaker 1: anything to do with that. Neither do plants either. It's

372
00:21:10,760 --> 00:21:14,200
Speaker 1: basically impermeable as far as water and roots and shovels

373
00:21:14,240 --> 00:21:18,160
Speaker 1: go no good. Another term that I think is really

374
00:21:18,320 --> 00:21:23,600
Speaker 1: just cute is parent material, And that doesn't mean whether

375
00:21:23,680 --> 00:21:25,879
Speaker 1: or not you would be a good papa or a

376
00:21:25,880 --> 00:21:30,679
Speaker 1: good mama to a human child. Parent material is the

377
00:21:30,720 --> 00:21:32,760
Speaker 1: type of rock that you started out with, the type

378
00:21:32,760 --> 00:21:35,720
Speaker 1: of mineral that you started out with millions of years

379
00:21:35,720 --> 00:21:39,240
Speaker 1: ago that was weathered down there to create what kind

380
00:21:39,240 --> 00:21:43,200
Speaker 1: of soil you've got, And depending on where you live

381
00:21:43,280 --> 00:21:46,439
Speaker 1: and what was there hundreds of thousands or millions of

382
00:21:46,480 --> 00:21:49,000
Speaker 1: years before you, you're gonna have much different kind of

383
00:21:49,000 --> 00:21:51,880
Speaker 1: soil than uh, maybe another place in the world. Yeah,

384
00:21:51,920 --> 00:21:54,320
Speaker 1: Like if it started out as igneous rock from a

385
00:21:54,400 --> 00:21:56,960
Speaker 1: lava flow, that's going to be different kind of it's

386
00:21:56,960 --> 00:21:59,760
Speaker 1: going to produce a different soil from you know, sedimentary

387
00:22:00,240 --> 00:22:03,200
Speaker 1: that was weathered down from a granite outcropping by a river.

388
00:22:03,720 --> 00:22:06,879
Speaker 1: It's just different soil. But it can also come about

389
00:22:06,880 --> 00:22:10,119
Speaker 1: in different ways, like like that rock outcropping that was

390
00:22:10,160 --> 00:22:12,520
Speaker 1: worn down by a river and just kind of sunk

391
00:22:12,560 --> 00:22:14,520
Speaker 1: further and further into the ground and was built up

392
00:22:14,560 --> 00:22:17,080
Speaker 1: a top of it. Soil layers were that would be

393
00:22:17,080 --> 00:22:21,360
Speaker 1: called residual, where it's developed in place. There's also transported

394
00:22:21,560 --> 00:22:24,080
Speaker 1: where it could be moved by like ice, like a

395
00:22:24,119 --> 00:22:27,560
Speaker 1: glacier pushing soil from one place to another. Um and

396
00:22:27,600 --> 00:22:31,480
Speaker 1: then there's also cumulose, which is basically like peat, where

397
00:22:31,880 --> 00:22:37,159
Speaker 1: organic materials basically suspended in in suspended animation by water.

398
00:22:37,359 --> 00:22:41,600
Speaker 1: It's it's prevented from full decomposition. That's right. Those are

399
00:22:41,600 --> 00:22:45,320
Speaker 1: the kinds of parents that soil can have. So let's

400
00:22:45,320 --> 00:22:50,480
Speaker 1: talk about the soil texture triangle. Okay, this is where

401
00:22:50,960 --> 00:22:55,720
Speaker 1: it gets pretty cool because if you're talking soil and

402
00:22:55,720 --> 00:22:57,679
Speaker 1: and I think people should start using the word soil

403
00:22:57,760 --> 00:23:00,919
Speaker 1: more than dirt because I just think it's more evocative

404
00:23:00,960 --> 00:23:04,880
Speaker 1: of what you're really talking about. I think it's kind

405
00:23:04,880 --> 00:23:07,639
Speaker 1: of reductive. I saw a dude who is like a

406
00:23:07,680 --> 00:23:12,600
Speaker 1: soil sciences professor explain that to him, at least dirt

407
00:23:12,840 --> 00:23:17,840
Speaker 1: is like dead soil. Soil is like living, breathing, you know,

408
00:23:17,880 --> 00:23:20,800
Speaker 1: it's almost like a It's a symbiotic organism formed by

409
00:23:20,840 --> 00:23:25,240
Speaker 1: the by all these different other bits of life working together,

410
00:23:25,480 --> 00:23:28,720
Speaker 1: whereas dirts is like dead stuff that maybe will become

411
00:23:28,800 --> 00:23:32,040
Speaker 1: soil one day if it behaves itself right, if it

412
00:23:32,480 --> 00:23:35,800
Speaker 1: if it plays his cards right. So this texture triangle,

413
00:23:36,280 --> 00:23:38,879
Speaker 1: if you're talking soil is a mixture, and this is

414
00:23:38,880 --> 00:23:43,280
Speaker 1: all soil of uh, sand, silt and clay sand. Well,

415
00:23:43,359 --> 00:23:45,560
Speaker 1: it's a really good podcast episode on it. I think

416
00:23:45,560 --> 00:23:48,199
Speaker 1: we did um that is the most course, which is

417
00:23:48,840 --> 00:23:51,919
Speaker 1: funny to think about because sand seems super super fine,

418
00:23:52,680 --> 00:23:57,359
Speaker 1: but when compared to silt, I think sand is two

419
00:23:57,400 --> 00:24:01,000
Speaker 1: to point zero five millimeters in diameter compared to silt,

420
00:24:01,320 --> 00:24:04,800
Speaker 1: which is point o five to point o two. And then,

421
00:24:05,000 --> 00:24:07,080
Speaker 1: like you mentioned earlier, it's hard to wrap your head around,

422
00:24:07,520 --> 00:24:10,240
Speaker 1: but clay is a really really fine kind of soil

423
00:24:11,200 --> 00:24:14,560
Speaker 1: point o o two millimeters in diameter. And you've got

424
00:24:14,560 --> 00:24:16,800
Speaker 1: to get that microscope out if you want to take

425
00:24:16,840 --> 00:24:20,080
Speaker 1: a look at it. Yeah, and because the different sizes

426
00:24:20,119 --> 00:24:22,160
Speaker 1: when they're put up against one another. If you've got

427
00:24:22,160 --> 00:24:25,560
Speaker 1: a bunch of sand, the pores in between the grains

428
00:24:25,560 --> 00:24:27,840
Speaker 1: of sand are going to be really big, which is

429
00:24:27,880 --> 00:24:30,639
Speaker 1: why beaches don't have a lot of plant life growing

430
00:24:30,640 --> 00:24:33,320
Speaker 1: on because water just drains right through them and it's

431
00:24:33,400 --> 00:24:38,480
Speaker 1: very difficult to keep organic matter suspended within it. Right silt,

432
00:24:38,560 --> 00:24:41,119
Speaker 1: it gets a little easier, a lot easier because the

433
00:24:41,280 --> 00:24:44,000
Speaker 1: from what I saw, the pores in between silts are

434
00:24:44,040 --> 00:24:48,240
Speaker 1: basically ideal. They're just big enough that they drain really well,

435
00:24:48,440 --> 00:24:50,879
Speaker 1: but they also can hold some water. And then clay

436
00:24:50,960 --> 00:24:54,719
Speaker 1: because the pieces are so close together, the pores between

437
00:24:54,720 --> 00:24:57,199
Speaker 1: them are so small that they hold a lot of

438
00:24:57,240 --> 00:25:01,199
Speaker 1: water and they they basically sealed off the waters escape.

439
00:25:01,600 --> 00:25:04,119
Speaker 1: So clay can either prevent water from coming in or

440
00:25:04,160 --> 00:25:07,320
Speaker 1: it can hold it in and and drown things. Either way,

441
00:25:07,400 --> 00:25:12,000
Speaker 1: it's not necessarily very good for roots. Super compacted clay. Yeah,

442
00:25:12,040 --> 00:25:14,560
Speaker 1: you want a nice mix, and it doesn't all have

443
00:25:14,680 --> 00:25:15,919
Speaker 1: to you know, it depends on what you want to

444
00:25:15,960 --> 00:25:18,320
Speaker 1: do and what you're working with, But it doesn't have

445
00:25:18,359 --> 00:25:22,120
Speaker 1: to be the exact same mix either. Um. I'm sure

446
00:25:22,119 --> 00:25:25,679
Speaker 1: there are ideal versions, but uh, depending on where you are,

447
00:25:25,720 --> 00:25:27,359
Speaker 1: you can only do so much with your soil, Like,

448
00:25:27,400 --> 00:25:30,560
Speaker 1: you can't make an entire farm uh something that it's not.

449
00:25:30,760 --> 00:25:33,640
Speaker 1: You can augment it and help it out, but you're

450
00:25:33,720 --> 00:25:37,119
Speaker 1: kind of working with what you got to a certain degree. Um.

451
00:25:37,160 --> 00:25:39,400
Speaker 1: I think one of the cool things from this research

452
00:25:39,520 --> 00:25:41,960
Speaker 1: was that you know, if you see a farmer in

453
00:25:42,000 --> 00:25:45,439
Speaker 1: a movie bend down, and that the scene that's in

454
00:25:45,480 --> 00:25:48,159
Speaker 1: every movie about a farmer when they grab that soil

455
00:25:48,240 --> 00:25:51,359
Speaker 1: in their hand and they look at it and twist

456
00:25:51,400 --> 00:25:53,359
Speaker 1: it between their fingers and then let it fall gently

457
00:25:53,359 --> 00:25:56,240
Speaker 1: out of their hand onto the ground. Not only does

458
00:25:56,280 --> 00:25:59,400
Speaker 1: that make for a nice movie moment, but that's real

459
00:25:59,480 --> 00:26:03,440
Speaker 1: deal stuff. If you're a pro farmer or a soil scientist,

460
00:26:04,320 --> 00:26:06,800
Speaker 1: you can tell exactly what's going on with that soil

461
00:26:06,880 --> 00:26:09,639
Speaker 1: by how it clumps in your hand, how it moves

462
00:26:09,640 --> 00:26:13,119
Speaker 1: in your hand, how it holds together, what shape it is. Uh.

463
00:26:13,240 --> 00:26:15,280
Speaker 1: So it's not just a sort of a BS thing

464
00:26:15,320 --> 00:26:17,520
Speaker 1: you see in movies. No, you can also run a

465
00:26:17,600 --> 00:26:21,880
Speaker 1: lab test to figure out what the ratios are. Right. Yeah, hey,

466
00:26:21,920 --> 00:26:25,960
Speaker 1: college boy, you need to get yourself a farmer um

467
00:26:26,480 --> 00:26:30,320
Speaker 1: with hands either way? Right, But if you if you, um,

468
00:26:30,680 --> 00:26:34,280
Speaker 1: you there is an ideal combination between it depending on

469
00:26:34,320 --> 00:26:37,160
Speaker 1: what you're trying to do. For sure, Um, you don't

470
00:26:37,160 --> 00:26:39,280
Speaker 1: want it to clay, you don't want it too sandy,

471
00:26:39,520 --> 00:26:41,400
Speaker 1: you don't want it although I don't know, I think

472
00:26:41,440 --> 00:26:43,520
Speaker 1: you do kind of want everything to be kind of silty.

473
00:26:43,600 --> 00:26:47,119
Speaker 1: But um, where they interact is going to going to

474
00:26:47,720 --> 00:26:50,600
Speaker 1: describe what kind of dirt you're dealing with. And there

475
00:26:50,600 --> 00:26:52,320
Speaker 1: are things you can do too. There's a reason for

476
00:26:52,480 --> 00:26:55,400
Speaker 1: understanding that because you can say, oh, if I add this,

477
00:26:55,480 --> 00:26:57,840
Speaker 1: if I if I bury a bunch of grass clippings,

478
00:26:58,119 --> 00:27:01,560
Speaker 1: is going to turn this clay into more silt um

479
00:27:01,600 --> 00:27:04,080
Speaker 1: and everything's going to just jump for joy from that

480
00:27:04,119 --> 00:27:08,280
Speaker 1: point on. Yeah, And if you're a home gardener, uh,

481
00:27:08,320 --> 00:27:13,040
Speaker 1: you can certainly manipulate your yard or any potted soil

482
00:27:13,080 --> 00:27:16,040
Speaker 1: that you have. You can amend all that stuff until

483
00:27:16,119 --> 00:27:18,920
Speaker 1: you get exactly what you need. Um. And then once

484
00:27:18,960 --> 00:27:20,879
Speaker 1: you have it in a good place, there's upkeep. But

485
00:27:21,520 --> 00:27:23,720
Speaker 1: it's it's not like you just have to do it once,

486
00:27:23,720 --> 00:27:25,560
Speaker 1: but you have to do it once really really well

487
00:27:26,280 --> 00:27:29,359
Speaker 1: and then just sort of keep that good mix going. Yeah,

488
00:27:29,440 --> 00:27:31,359
Speaker 1: and then you can just go get one of these

489
00:27:31,440 --> 00:27:34,080
Speaker 1: things that you you hook onto the end of your

490
00:27:34,080 --> 00:27:36,080
Speaker 1: hose and spray it once in a while with some

491
00:27:36,200 --> 00:27:43,040
Speaker 1: microbes and sit back and watch everything that's exactly right

492
00:27:43,080 --> 00:27:47,560
Speaker 1: made out of deer hide. O. God, it doesn't It

493
00:27:47,640 --> 00:27:50,440
Speaker 1: doesn't burn very well and it's kind of noxious smelling,

494
00:27:50,480 --> 00:27:53,720
Speaker 1: but it really makes a point, you know. I know

495
00:27:53,800 --> 00:27:58,920
Speaker 1: we mentioned regularly and I want to say terraforming and

496
00:27:59,040 --> 00:28:03,840
Speaker 1: other episodes mm, but this Sometimes people say this as

497
00:28:03,880 --> 00:28:07,600
Speaker 1: a word for soil, but it's really much more than that.

498
00:28:07,760 --> 00:28:11,320
Speaker 1: It's kind of like anything on top of the bedrock

499
00:28:11,880 --> 00:28:14,840
Speaker 1: basically can be called regular, and that's not And we

500
00:28:14,920 --> 00:28:19,359
Speaker 1: mentioned terraforming because if you talk about the Moon or Mars,

501
00:28:19,920 --> 00:28:21,919
Speaker 1: you talk about regular as well, and whether or not

502
00:28:21,960 --> 00:28:26,680
Speaker 1: we could grow stuff there, which apparently we could, right. Um, yeah,

503
00:28:27,080 --> 00:28:29,840
Speaker 1: if we added the right nutrients and water, it would

504
00:28:30,000 --> 00:28:33,120
Speaker 1: it would hold, which is essentially all it is. At

505
00:28:33,119 --> 00:28:35,800
Speaker 1: that point, It's like what that that soil science? This

506
00:28:35,840 --> 00:28:39,120
Speaker 1: guy was saying that it's um, it's a it's it's dirt,

507
00:28:39,240 --> 00:28:41,760
Speaker 1: not soil. It's dirt because it doesn't have anything living.

508
00:28:41,760 --> 00:28:44,560
Speaker 1: But you can add that stuff to it as needed, right,

509
00:28:44,880 --> 00:28:52,760
Speaker 1: make Mars great again? Oh God? So you want to

510
00:28:52,760 --> 00:28:56,280
Speaker 1: talk about the carbon cycle? Yeah, what is I mean?

511
00:28:56,440 --> 00:28:59,600
Speaker 1: Does carbon have anything to do with the Earth. No,

512
00:29:00,080 --> 00:29:03,840
Speaker 1: has nothing at all to do with it. Um. But

513
00:29:04,360 --> 00:29:06,080
Speaker 1: actually it has quite a bit to do with it, right,

514
00:29:06,120 --> 00:29:10,280
Speaker 1: So so um carbon is essentially the building block for life,

515
00:29:10,640 --> 00:29:14,880
Speaker 1: and there's a big cycle of carbon moving through the environment.

516
00:29:14,880 --> 00:29:16,600
Speaker 1: There's a lot of it in the atmosphere in the

517
00:29:16,640 --> 00:29:20,840
Speaker 1: form of c O two, and the atmosphere itself forms

518
00:29:20,880 --> 00:29:23,360
Speaker 1: what's known as a carbon sink, which, if you haven't

519
00:29:23,360 --> 00:29:25,720
Speaker 1: been paying attention in the last few decades, one of

520
00:29:25,760 --> 00:29:28,680
Speaker 1: the reasons that climate change is happening is because we've

521
00:29:28,720 --> 00:29:33,160
Speaker 1: been um overwhelming that carbon sink in the atmosphere by

522
00:29:33,160 --> 00:29:36,240
Speaker 1: burning fossil fuels and releasing a lot of carbon dioxide

523
00:29:36,240 --> 00:29:39,440
Speaker 1: that have been sequestered in the ground, which leads us

524
00:29:39,480 --> 00:29:44,120
Speaker 1: to this point that plants and soil help lock carbon in,

525
00:29:44,200 --> 00:29:47,160
Speaker 1: so that in addition to the atmosphere being a carbon sink,

526
00:29:47,560 --> 00:29:51,960
Speaker 1: soil is also a really major carbon sink too. Yeah,

527
00:29:52,240 --> 00:29:56,320
Speaker 1: and you're thinking about agreeing with that or not. No, no, no,

528
00:29:56,400 --> 00:29:58,760
Speaker 1: I totally agree with it. But I mean it's kind

529
00:29:58,760 --> 00:30:03,800
Speaker 1: of like when you know, Amazon rainforest caught on fire. Uh,

530
00:30:04,080 --> 00:30:06,920
Speaker 1: that's it's almost like you're getting a double whammy there,

531
00:30:09,360 --> 00:30:12,640
Speaker 1: Like even just cutting the Amazon down to to grow

532
00:30:12,680 --> 00:30:16,320
Speaker 1: crops there too. Like you're you're, you're creating quite a

533
00:30:16,320 --> 00:30:19,760
Speaker 1: bit of harm even without burning it down, because all

534
00:30:19,800 --> 00:30:23,440
Speaker 1: those trees are really good at sequestering carbon dioxide from

535
00:30:23,440 --> 00:30:26,200
Speaker 1: the air and creating a carbon sink in the ground.

536
00:30:26,800 --> 00:30:29,000
Speaker 1: But then also it will find out later when you

537
00:30:29,080 --> 00:30:31,680
Speaker 1: till the ground, a lot of that carbon that's been

538
00:30:31,680 --> 00:30:35,000
Speaker 1: trapped under there, and we'll stay that way for a

539
00:30:35,040 --> 00:30:38,680
Speaker 1: thousand or so years, is suddenly released just by tilling it.

540
00:30:39,040 --> 00:30:42,720
Speaker 1: So there's basically the main point I would like everybody

541
00:30:42,800 --> 00:30:47,600
Speaker 1: to take away from this entire episode, maybe our entire podcast, Chuck,

542
00:30:48,040 --> 00:30:52,800
Speaker 1: is leave the rainforests alone. Just stop messing with the rainforest,

543
00:30:52,880 --> 00:30:55,400
Speaker 1: because it's really screwing things up in ways that we

544
00:30:55,440 --> 00:31:00,760
Speaker 1: are yet to fully realize. Yeah, agreed, that was my soapbox.

545
00:31:01,400 --> 00:31:05,560
Speaker 1: That's you and Don Henley Man arm in arm Yes,

546
00:31:05,640 --> 00:31:08,680
Speaker 1: he's a big rainforest guy. You know. Well we're always

547
00:31:08,720 --> 00:31:10,960
Speaker 1: chatting it up about the rainforest. I got a lot

548
00:31:11,000 --> 00:31:14,360
Speaker 1: of my ideas from him, you know, thanks to stuff

549
00:31:14,400 --> 00:31:19,680
Speaker 1: you should know. Listener Clayton Jaynes, who was a guitar Well,

550
00:31:19,920 --> 00:31:21,760
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna say exactly what he does, but he

551
00:31:21,760 --> 00:31:24,680
Speaker 1: he worked on this last tour for the Eagles and

552
00:31:24,920 --> 00:31:28,280
Speaker 1: invited Emily and I down before the show. I got

553
00:31:28,280 --> 00:31:32,960
Speaker 1: to like touch Don Henley's drum kit and Joe Walsh's guitars.

554
00:31:33,200 --> 00:31:35,880
Speaker 1: I remember you saying that, and Joe amazing because he

555
00:31:35,920 --> 00:31:37,960
Speaker 1: happened to be standing next to his guitars at the

556
00:31:37,960 --> 00:31:41,080
Speaker 1: same time. It's pretty cool man. And you're like, I'm sorry,

557
00:31:41,120 --> 00:31:43,440
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. He's like, it's okay. Life's been good to

558
00:31:43,520 --> 00:31:47,440
Speaker 1: me so far. Uh, something's wrong with me today, man,

559
00:31:47,800 --> 00:31:52,400
Speaker 1: something's bad wrong, all right. So let's talk about carbon dioxide,

560
00:31:52,640 --> 00:31:55,520
Speaker 1: um for a second here, because plants draw that in

561
00:31:55,520 --> 00:31:59,040
Speaker 1: from the atmosphere and then eventually they're going to break

562
00:31:59,080 --> 00:32:03,240
Speaker 1: that down because as uh think, you know, photosynthesis happens

563
00:32:03,280 --> 00:32:06,400
Speaker 1: and they use that carbon to build up that plant.

564
00:32:06,440 --> 00:32:09,560
Speaker 1: We're talking about the roots, the leaves, the stems. Carbon

565
00:32:09,600 --> 00:32:11,560
Speaker 1: plays a big part in that. But eventually, like I

566
00:32:11,560 --> 00:32:14,680
Speaker 1: said earlier, that plant is gonna die or leaves just

567
00:32:14,720 --> 00:32:17,320
Speaker 1: fall from a tree or whatever, and that carbon is

568
00:32:17,360 --> 00:32:20,640
Speaker 1: locked inside that leaf or that dead plant on the

569
00:32:20,640 --> 00:32:23,920
Speaker 1: ground that you stepped on right exactly. So, Um, what's

570
00:32:23,960 --> 00:32:26,440
Speaker 1: great about this is that plant used that carbon and

571
00:32:26,440 --> 00:32:29,800
Speaker 1: when it died, it died with that carbon and it

572
00:32:29,840 --> 00:32:33,400
Speaker 1: was locked in like you said, but it's able to

573
00:32:33,440 --> 00:32:36,360
Speaker 1: be used by other plants that come along, which is

574
00:32:36,400 --> 00:32:40,280
Speaker 1: part of that whole like beautiful system that just works

575
00:32:40,360 --> 00:32:45,120
Speaker 1: so intricately well because to unlock that carbon you have,

576
00:32:45,280 --> 00:32:47,360
Speaker 1: that's where all that life that lives in the soil

577
00:32:47,440 --> 00:32:51,920
Speaker 1: comes along and uh becomes extra extremely important because they

578
00:32:52,000 --> 00:32:55,480
Speaker 1: break that stuff down and decompose it. Depending on whether

579
00:32:55,480 --> 00:32:59,320
Speaker 1: you're talking about bugs that chew up leaf litter um

580
00:32:59,360 --> 00:33:02,720
Speaker 1: into smaller, smaller pieces, which makes it easier for microbes

581
00:33:02,800 --> 00:33:07,080
Speaker 1: to break down more quickly. Um, the microbes themselves get eaten,

582
00:33:07,400 --> 00:33:10,000
Speaker 1: and that carbon that was locked in the plant is

583
00:33:10,040 --> 00:33:13,600
Speaker 1: suddenly unlocked and available in the soil for other plants

584
00:33:13,640 --> 00:33:16,160
Speaker 1: to take up through their roots and build their own

585
00:33:16,200 --> 00:33:20,080
Speaker 1: structures and use for photosynthesis too. It's it's the circle

586
00:33:20,160 --> 00:33:23,160
Speaker 1: of life, right, or it doesn't use at all, and

587
00:33:23,200 --> 00:33:27,680
Speaker 1: some of that carbon is then released back into the atmosphere. Uh,

588
00:33:27,880 --> 00:33:31,360
Speaker 1: then we get to the humus. And I think we

589
00:33:31,440 --> 00:33:34,800
Speaker 1: might have talked about this. Surely we did in composting, Yes,

590
00:33:34,920 --> 00:33:39,160
Speaker 1: we definitely, maybe we did. One of earthworms, right, yea,

591
00:33:39,320 --> 00:33:44,000
Speaker 1: they talked about in earthworms. We talked about um in permaculture.

592
00:33:44,040 --> 00:33:47,040
Speaker 1: I believe we may have also talked about it in

593
00:33:47,240 --> 00:33:55,800
Speaker 1: desertification and droughts. Right, that was a good one. That

594
00:33:55,960 --> 00:34:01,080
Speaker 1: was good. So humist is that? Um, it's basically, if

595
00:34:01,080 --> 00:34:05,880
Speaker 1: you'd compost something years later, you're gonna finally get down

596
00:34:05,880 --> 00:34:09,080
Speaker 1: to humus. It's what's left over after all that snacking

597
00:34:09,200 --> 00:34:12,480
Speaker 1: is done. Uh. And it's you know, if you have

598
00:34:12,520 --> 00:34:15,800
Speaker 1: a home composter, I don't think that you have humus

599
00:34:15,800 --> 00:34:18,399
Speaker 1: after a couple of months of doing a really good

600
00:34:18,440 --> 00:34:23,479
Speaker 1: job composting, because it takes like many years to become humans. Yeah. Um,

601
00:34:23,560 --> 00:34:26,040
Speaker 1: And like it's just a very small percentage of the

602
00:34:26,120 --> 00:34:29,080
Speaker 1: stuff you compost will break down into humus because apparently

603
00:34:29,400 --> 00:34:32,800
Speaker 1: the precursor of humans is proteins, and most compost is

604
00:34:32,840 --> 00:34:38,360
Speaker 1: made up of carbohydrates, plant materials, or carbs, right, Um, yeah,

605
00:34:38,400 --> 00:34:42,560
Speaker 1: that's right. Um. So when it breaks down, this humus

606
00:34:42,680 --> 00:34:46,480
Speaker 1: is it's almost like a Some soil scienists apparently consider

607
00:34:46,600 --> 00:34:50,320
Speaker 1: humus a third state of life where it's not just dead,

608
00:34:50,360 --> 00:34:54,759
Speaker 1: it's very dead. Decomposition is not really happening anymore. But

609
00:34:54,840 --> 00:34:57,480
Speaker 1: there's a lot of minerals kind of locked in their

610
00:34:57,640 --> 00:35:01,920
Speaker 1: inorganic materials. UM. But the thing is you want humus.

611
00:35:01,920 --> 00:35:04,560
Speaker 1: The more humis you have, the more lively in life,

612
00:35:04,560 --> 00:35:08,520
Speaker 1: affirming your soil is UM. It's like eat, prey and

613
00:35:08,560 --> 00:35:13,320
Speaker 1: love down there, you know, because humis forms an ideal

614
00:35:13,880 --> 00:35:17,040
Speaker 1: house for all that other life to live in. It's like,

615
00:35:17,120 --> 00:35:21,399
Speaker 1: exactly what is needed for the other organisms that make

616
00:35:21,520 --> 00:35:26,920
Speaker 1: soil alive in this um symbiotic network. That's what they want,

617
00:35:27,080 --> 00:35:31,040
Speaker 1: is humist and and it's it's extraordinarily important stuff. But

618
00:35:31,120 --> 00:35:35,080
Speaker 1: we don't fully understand why it doesn't necessarily keep breaking

619
00:35:35,080 --> 00:35:39,279
Speaker 1: down after a point. Yeah, it's it's very dark, it's

620
00:35:39,320 --> 00:35:43,560
Speaker 1: like black. Basically, it's very spongy. UM. It has great

621
00:35:43,560 --> 00:35:47,759
Speaker 1: water retention. It can hold nine of its weight and water. Uh.

622
00:35:47,800 --> 00:35:49,719
Speaker 1: And it's sort of like the bond. It's like the

623
00:35:49,840 --> 00:35:52,880
Speaker 1: cement that helps. You know, when you clump that soil

624
00:35:52,960 --> 00:35:55,960
Speaker 1: together in your hand and it stays together, you can

625
00:35:56,000 --> 00:35:58,560
Speaker 1: thank humus for that. Yeah, as a matter of fact,

626
00:35:59,000 --> 00:36:01,359
Speaker 1: you should thank humans out loud when you can. When

627
00:36:01,440 --> 00:36:04,799
Speaker 1: you squeeze soil in your hand, you totally should thank

628
00:36:04,840 --> 00:36:09,280
Speaker 1: you humus. So it's like you said, like humust holds

629
00:36:09,280 --> 00:36:13,000
Speaker 1: the stuff together, but it also creates those air pockets

630
00:36:13,080 --> 00:36:16,759
Speaker 1: or those gaps that are so important in um in

631
00:36:16,880 --> 00:36:20,439
Speaker 1: healthy soil, right, it keeps things from getting sticking too

632
00:36:20,440 --> 00:36:24,480
Speaker 1: close together. Yet it also keeps it in aggregations or aggregates, right,

633
00:36:24,560 --> 00:36:26,520
Speaker 1: So it's really weird if you really stop and think

634
00:36:26,520 --> 00:36:29,480
Speaker 1: about it. It holds things together, but not too much together.

635
00:36:29,840 --> 00:36:31,759
Speaker 1: It kind of holds them together at just the right

636
00:36:31,760 --> 00:36:36,480
Speaker 1: distance so that you have that ideal mixture of soil

637
00:36:37,719 --> 00:36:42,040
Speaker 1: um gaps. And then those gaps are you know, can

638
00:36:42,120 --> 00:36:45,920
Speaker 1: hold water moisture. Yeah, and you've got to have that

639
00:36:45,920 --> 00:36:50,240
Speaker 1: that right mix, because too much sand is not able

640
00:36:50,400 --> 00:36:52,319
Speaker 1: to hold any water. Like you mentioned, if you go

641
00:36:52,360 --> 00:36:55,160
Speaker 1: to the beach, you can just see this in action. Um,

642
00:36:55,239 --> 00:36:57,680
Speaker 1: you've got to have some of that clay though, because

643
00:36:57,719 --> 00:37:02,000
Speaker 1: that's the smallest one and it's uh those little micropores.

644
00:37:02,400 --> 00:37:06,520
Speaker 1: They're gonna as what's called capillary action. That's uh adhesion

645
00:37:06,560 --> 00:37:10,120
Speaker 1: and surface tension mixed together in a bag basically, and

646
00:37:10,320 --> 00:37:13,239
Speaker 1: that's super super strong. And if you have clay in

647
00:37:13,239 --> 00:37:16,000
Speaker 1: your soil, it's gonna hold that water and it'll even

648
00:37:16,080 --> 00:37:18,919
Speaker 1: draw water up from the water table and say here

649
00:37:18,920 --> 00:37:22,319
Speaker 1: you go go out and feed. Yeah, I saw yet

650
00:37:22,360 --> 00:37:25,960
Speaker 1: another soil sciences professor talk about capillary action, and he

651
00:37:26,080 --> 00:37:29,600
Speaker 1: surprised me because he showed that um sand has the

652
00:37:29,680 --> 00:37:32,799
Speaker 1: least amount of capillary action. There's some you know how

653
00:37:32,800 --> 00:37:35,680
Speaker 1: like when you're digging into the sand, right before you

654
00:37:35,719 --> 00:37:38,520
Speaker 1: get to the to the water beneath it, it's wet.

655
00:37:38,719 --> 00:37:41,040
Speaker 1: That's because the sand has still been wicking some water

656
00:37:41,200 --> 00:37:46,040
Speaker 1: up through those gaps. Um And But rather than clay

657
00:37:46,160 --> 00:37:49,960
Speaker 1: being the the strongest with capillary action or the best

658
00:37:50,040 --> 00:37:53,680
Speaker 1: for soil, I should say, um, it's actually silt. He

659
00:37:53,760 --> 00:37:56,560
Speaker 1: had like three tubes silt, sand and clay, all next

660
00:37:56,600 --> 00:37:59,520
Speaker 1: to each other, and the silt one just rocked the

661
00:37:59,520 --> 00:38:02,319
Speaker 1: other two for how far it had wicked water up

662
00:38:02,560 --> 00:38:05,799
Speaker 1: this tube. So apparently that's the ideal. Silt is just

663
00:38:05,840 --> 00:38:08,239
Speaker 1: as good as it gets. Is from what I can tell,

664
00:38:08,680 --> 00:38:11,520
Speaker 1: it's your own team silt. I am super team silt

665
00:38:11,840 --> 00:38:15,000
Speaker 1: from now and forever. All right, I think we should

666
00:38:15,000 --> 00:38:20,000
Speaker 1: take another break perhaps, and we'll talk about what all's

667
00:38:20,040 --> 00:38:22,160
Speaker 1: living down there in that soil and what this all

668
00:38:22,239 --> 00:38:51,040
Speaker 1: has to do with climate change right after this, all right,

669
00:38:51,400 --> 00:38:56,000
Speaker 1: So we talked about early on things living in the soil. UM.

670
00:38:56,080 --> 00:38:59,719
Speaker 1: I know it's It's easy to think about um, little

671
00:38:59,760 --> 00:39:02,640
Speaker 1: mike robes and bacteria and things in soil because we

672
00:39:02,680 --> 00:39:05,680
Speaker 1: know it's just rife with that stuff. But you can't

673
00:39:05,680 --> 00:39:08,680
Speaker 1: ignore the big things too. There are little moles that

674
00:39:08,719 --> 00:39:11,279
Speaker 1: live in the soil, their prairie dogs, their lizards, there

675
00:39:11,280 --> 00:39:15,560
Speaker 1: are snakes, um, all this stuff. Every like kind of

676
00:39:15,680 --> 00:39:19,720
Speaker 1: larger animal disrupts the soil. But that's a good word

677
00:39:19,760 --> 00:39:22,799
Speaker 1: in this case. You want that soil disrupted because it's

678
00:39:22,840 --> 00:39:26,440
Speaker 1: redistributing nutrients. It's you know, you want them peeing and

679
00:39:26,480 --> 00:39:28,719
Speaker 1: pooping in that stuff and mixing all that stuff in.

680
00:39:29,320 --> 00:39:32,360
Speaker 1: And you've got this sort of larger, small to larger

681
00:39:32,400 --> 00:39:36,960
Speaker 1: animal system acting as a little composters along the way. Yeah,

682
00:39:37,000 --> 00:39:40,680
Speaker 1: and and they're actually also mechanically mixing the soil. Like,

683
00:39:40,719 --> 00:39:43,920
Speaker 1: you don't want your soil just be big, medium small.

684
00:39:44,280 --> 00:39:47,560
Speaker 1: You want it to be fairly mixed together, because big

685
00:39:47,719 --> 00:39:51,120
Speaker 1: is just to the the the gaps between are too

686
00:39:51,160 --> 00:39:53,520
Speaker 1: big and small the gaps between or two small, you

687
00:39:53,560 --> 00:39:56,320
Speaker 1: want them mixed well. And so like an earthworm burrowing

688
00:39:56,360 --> 00:40:00,840
Speaker 1: actually is mixing the the earth together. Gophers apparent mixed

689
00:40:00,840 --> 00:40:05,520
Speaker 1: together something like eighteen hundred cubic meters per square kilometer

690
00:40:05,680 --> 00:40:10,160
Speaker 1: every year. That's a tremendous amount of soil mixing in there.

691
00:40:10,239 --> 00:40:13,200
Speaker 1: It's they're doing it for free, basically. Yeah, and that's

692
00:40:13,200 --> 00:40:15,640
Speaker 1: when they're getting along. Like you want to really mix

693
00:40:15,719 --> 00:40:19,320
Speaker 1: up some soil, you get a gopher rumble, Sure happening.

694
00:40:20,600 --> 00:40:22,440
Speaker 1: You can get ugly, but your soil is gonna be

695
00:40:22,520 --> 00:40:26,200
Speaker 1: super mixed afterwards. Oh man, it's gonna be fantastic. Plus

696
00:40:26,239 --> 00:40:28,800
Speaker 1: you can roll cigars out of their hides, the hide

697
00:40:28,800 --> 00:40:32,799
Speaker 1: of the loser. Oh boy, you've also got spiders. You've

698
00:40:32,840 --> 00:40:37,799
Speaker 1: got a little scorpions. Um, you've got centipedes, you got millipedes,

699
00:40:37,800 --> 00:40:43,600
Speaker 1: you got termites, you have uh roaches. Unfortunately, I think

700
00:40:43,920 --> 00:40:46,320
Speaker 1: right here it says in a sample of one square

701
00:40:46,360 --> 00:40:50,880
Speaker 1: foot of two inch soil in the forest, two hundred

702
00:40:50,920 --> 00:40:56,120
Speaker 1: species of mites alone. Yeah, that pretty impressive. I've got

703
00:40:56,160 --> 00:40:58,160
Speaker 1: one even better than that. Right, let's go down in

704
00:40:58,239 --> 00:41:01,319
Speaker 1: order a magnitude or so. Oh, I know where you're headed. So,

705
00:41:01,360 --> 00:41:04,360
Speaker 1: the microbes in the soil are so abundant and so prevalent.

706
00:41:04,520 --> 00:41:08,480
Speaker 1: Apparently a teaspoon of soil has more microobs in it.

707
00:41:09,239 --> 00:41:13,719
Speaker 1: Microbes is another pronunciation, um than there are than there

708
00:41:13,719 --> 00:41:18,080
Speaker 1: are people on Earth and one teaspoon of soil, right,

709
00:41:18,480 --> 00:41:23,480
Speaker 1: and all these little microbes, their bacteria, there's viruses, there's um,

710
00:41:23,560 --> 00:41:27,520
Speaker 1: there's fungi. All these my all this microbial life are

711
00:41:27,560 --> 00:41:31,960
Speaker 1: like the last the last layer of decomposition. But they

712
00:41:31,960 --> 00:41:37,319
Speaker 1: do even a lot more than just decompose dying things. Um.

713
00:41:37,560 --> 00:41:42,160
Speaker 1: There's there's a function of fungus that we're just now

714
00:41:42,239 --> 00:41:45,840
Speaker 1: starting to wrap our heads around called um micro riz a,

715
00:41:46,600 --> 00:41:50,560
Speaker 1: which is a symbiotic relationship. So so soil itself is

716
00:41:50,600 --> 00:41:54,120
Speaker 1: a symbiotic relationship. This is a symbiotic relationship within the

717
00:41:54,160 --> 00:41:58,279
Speaker 1: symbiotic relationship where fungus basically says, hey, roots, I like

718
00:41:58,360 --> 00:42:01,560
Speaker 1: what you're doing there above me. Um, I'm gonna hang

719
00:42:01,560 --> 00:42:04,200
Speaker 1: out around you and maybe grow my own system of

720
00:42:04,320 --> 00:42:08,520
Speaker 1: roots out of fungus me that connects to your roots

721
00:42:08,800 --> 00:42:10,680
Speaker 1: but also goes through the ground and connects to other

722
00:42:10,760 --> 00:42:14,000
Speaker 1: roots too. And I'm going to take up, you know,

723
00:42:14,120 --> 00:42:17,120
Speaker 1: nutrients from the soil and help you accept them into

724
00:42:17,120 --> 00:42:19,719
Speaker 1: your roots, maybe bring you some water here there, and

725
00:42:19,719 --> 00:42:24,200
Speaker 1: I'm gonna let you communicate with other plants through your roots,

726
00:42:24,239 --> 00:42:26,680
Speaker 1: through me to the roots of the other plant too.

727
00:42:27,719 --> 00:42:30,080
Speaker 1: So it's like if you look at um. A micro

728
00:42:30,200 --> 00:42:33,400
Speaker 1: is a if you pull up like a plant, it

729
00:42:33,520 --> 00:42:37,719
Speaker 1: has like this thin, almost long like film around it.

730
00:42:37,840 --> 00:42:40,680
Speaker 1: That's the fungus. That's it's like a root system around

731
00:42:40,680 --> 00:42:42,759
Speaker 1: the roots system made up of fungus. And we're just

732
00:42:42,920 --> 00:42:46,120
Speaker 1: starting to understand this and it's just beautiful to know

733
00:42:46,239 --> 00:42:50,200
Speaker 1: that it exists like that. It's the fungus amongus. It is,

734
00:42:50,560 --> 00:42:55,319
Speaker 1: And there's actually humongous fungus amongus, isn't there. Yeah, so, um,

735
00:42:55,320 --> 00:42:57,600
Speaker 1: what you were talking about is a mutualist. They're kind

736
00:42:57,600 --> 00:43:00,400
Speaker 1: of three kinds of fungus. And I love that they

737
00:43:00,400 --> 00:43:02,920
Speaker 1: call it a mutualist. It's a great name for that. Uh,

738
00:43:03,000 --> 00:43:09,680
Speaker 1: the symbiotic relationship. There's the name for like a neo folk. Sure, yeah,

739
00:43:09,719 --> 00:43:12,520
Speaker 1: why not get it? Get a tweed vest and a

740
00:43:12,600 --> 00:43:16,279
Speaker 1: jaw harp and have have a good time. I just

741
00:43:16,320 --> 00:43:17,879
Speaker 1: got a jaw harp in the mail. By the way,

742
00:43:18,160 --> 00:43:20,680
Speaker 1: is that the one that has the shoulder mountains? No,

743
00:43:20,840 --> 00:43:22,600
Speaker 1: the jaw harp is the twangy thing you put in

744
00:43:22,600 --> 00:43:25,600
Speaker 1: your mouth. It's like to have it here. If you

745
00:43:25,640 --> 00:43:27,000
Speaker 1: want me to go get it, I would love you

746
00:43:27,040 --> 00:43:30,520
Speaker 1: to go get it. I think we'll wait. The fungus

747
00:43:30,520 --> 00:43:35,560
Speaker 1: that eats decaying matter is called a sacrifice. Then you've

748
00:43:35,600 --> 00:43:38,600
Speaker 1: got your mutualist, and then you've got an actual parasitic fungus.

749
00:43:38,600 --> 00:43:41,040
Speaker 1: Those are the jerks of the of the forest world.

750
00:43:41,560 --> 00:43:45,080
Speaker 1: But you were talking about humongus fungus. I know, I

751
00:43:45,120 --> 00:43:47,480
Speaker 1: feel like we've talked about this at some point. Pando.

752
00:43:48,400 --> 00:43:50,719
Speaker 1: Was it in Pando? Okay? I thought it might be

753
00:43:51,000 --> 00:43:55,960
Speaker 1: um in mal Here National Forest. Um there is something

754
00:43:55,960 --> 00:44:00,080
Speaker 1: called Janet D and a big network of fung i

755
00:44:00,800 --> 00:44:04,440
Speaker 1: is a genet and Janet D is the humongous fungus

756
00:44:04,560 --> 00:44:09,040
Speaker 1: is considered the largest living individual on Earth two thousand

757
00:44:09,120 --> 00:44:13,319
Speaker 1: acres worth. Apparently it's all connected. Yeah, and it was not.

758
00:44:13,560 --> 00:44:16,480
Speaker 1: It's the biggest by area. I think in Panda is

759
00:44:16,560 --> 00:44:19,239
Speaker 1: the biggest by mass. Like if you wade Pando, it

760
00:44:19,280 --> 00:44:22,040
Speaker 1: would weigh more like this one was still covers a

761
00:44:22,080 --> 00:44:26,320
Speaker 1: lot bigger area, but it's just one big, single organism

762
00:44:26,400 --> 00:44:30,399
Speaker 1: and it is it's underground and it sucks onto um

763
00:44:30,400 --> 00:44:32,560
Speaker 1: onto roots. And actually they found it because there was

764
00:44:32,600 --> 00:44:34,319
Speaker 1: a bunch of dead trees and they're like, what's going

765
00:44:34,360 --> 00:44:37,040
Speaker 1: on here? And they discovered that it was this one

766
00:44:37,880 --> 00:44:42,080
Speaker 1: a m A stoy a fungus that um was killing

767
00:44:42,080 --> 00:44:45,440
Speaker 1: off trees because it can be one of those jerk kinds.

768
00:44:45,600 --> 00:44:50,640
Speaker 1: The parasitic fungus, what are they called, just parasitic fungus.

769
00:44:50,680 --> 00:44:54,600
Speaker 1: There's not a great name for them. Uh, No, parasitic fungus.

770
00:44:54,640 --> 00:44:56,680
Speaker 1: But the ones that so they live in the soil.

771
00:44:56,719 --> 00:45:00,040
Speaker 1: No one likes them. They're they're they're considered jerks, like

772
00:45:00,080 --> 00:45:02,680
Speaker 1: you said, um, the ones that everybody likes. So the

773
00:45:02,760 --> 00:45:06,359
Speaker 1: mutualists are the sacrifices which eat decaying matter and then

774
00:45:06,400 --> 00:45:09,160
Speaker 1: sometimes they eat one another and all this stuff just

775
00:45:09,440 --> 00:45:11,520
Speaker 1: the I don't want to say the point of it,

776
00:45:11,880 --> 00:45:13,719
Speaker 1: because who knows if there even is a point. But

777
00:45:13,760 --> 00:45:17,759
Speaker 1: if there is a point, it is that UM that

778
00:45:18,280 --> 00:45:23,120
Speaker 1: nutrients that get used by living things and locked into

779
00:45:23,120 --> 00:45:25,520
Speaker 1: the living things when they die get unlocked so that

780
00:45:25,600 --> 00:45:28,239
Speaker 1: other things can use them. All right, So do you

781
00:45:28,280 --> 00:45:31,040
Speaker 1: want to talk about the nitrogen cycle? Yeah, because I

782
00:45:31,040 --> 00:45:34,080
Speaker 1: mean that's another thing they can get locked and unlocked

783
00:45:34,120 --> 00:45:38,520
Speaker 1: thanks to these organisms in their symbiosis. UM nitrogen is

784
00:45:38,560 --> 00:45:41,520
Speaker 1: extremely important to plants. They used to make chlorophyll, They

785
00:45:41,600 --> 00:45:46,080
Speaker 1: use it to make some of their UM proteins and structures. UM.

786
00:45:46,120 --> 00:45:49,319
Speaker 1: But it's and there's it's super abundant in the atmosphere,

787
00:45:49,320 --> 00:45:52,600
Speaker 1: in the air. But now plants are really good at

788
00:45:52,800 --> 00:45:56,359
Speaker 1: unlocking it um actually, which is right, which is why

789
00:45:56,400 --> 00:46:00,840
Speaker 1: you need some plants called nitrogen fixers to come along.

790
00:46:01,080 --> 00:46:03,319
Speaker 1: And I think legums are a really good example of

791
00:46:03,320 --> 00:46:07,839
Speaker 1: this in like alf alpha peanuts, you know those things

792
00:46:08,239 --> 00:46:09,960
Speaker 1: um and they can take it out of the air

793
00:46:10,520 --> 00:46:13,840
Speaker 1: and turn it into a usable form. And they actually

794
00:46:13,880 --> 00:46:16,440
Speaker 1: do that, I saw, not on their own accord. They

795
00:46:16,480 --> 00:46:20,080
Speaker 1: have to become infected by a bacteria called rhizobium, And

796
00:46:20,120 --> 00:46:23,880
Speaker 1: it's actually the infection from ryriezobium that alters the plant

797
00:46:23,920 --> 00:46:26,879
Speaker 1: to make it so that it can take nitrogen out

798
00:46:26,880 --> 00:46:30,760
Speaker 1: of the air and deposited in its roots for storage. Yeah,

799
00:46:30,840 --> 00:46:33,480
Speaker 1: most plants can't do that. They have to draw it

800
00:46:33,520 --> 00:46:37,160
Speaker 1: from the soil around them. And you know, we we

801
00:46:37,360 --> 00:46:40,040
Speaker 1: mentioned the balance and nature that we always are seeking

802
00:46:40,080 --> 00:46:43,760
Speaker 1: that homeostasis, which you would like is a balance between

803
00:46:43,760 --> 00:46:47,520
Speaker 1: these nitrogen fixers and dead plants adding nitrogen into the

804
00:46:47,560 --> 00:46:50,640
Speaker 1: soil and then also those plants that are drawing that

805
00:46:50,719 --> 00:46:52,759
Speaker 1: soil out, like you want that all to sort of

806
00:46:52,760 --> 00:46:56,680
Speaker 1: balance out together, right exactly, And again it's because there's

807
00:46:56,800 --> 00:46:59,920
Speaker 1: help from bacteria helping fix nitrogen and nodules on the

808
00:47:00,480 --> 00:47:02,839
Speaker 1: on the roots that other plants can come along and use,

809
00:47:03,200 --> 00:47:05,680
Speaker 1: and to fix what's called a fixed form, so it's

810
00:47:05,719 --> 00:47:09,440
Speaker 1: fixed nitrogen. Like you can have, UM, say a glass

811
00:47:09,480 --> 00:47:12,040
Speaker 1: of sea water, and you're really thirsty, but you can't

812
00:47:12,120 --> 00:47:14,080
Speaker 1: drink it because it's not in a usable form, even

813
00:47:14,080 --> 00:47:16,680
Speaker 1: though it's still water. But if you run it through

814
00:47:16,719 --> 00:47:20,560
Speaker 1: a reverse osmosis filter and desalinate it, now it's usable water.

815
00:47:20,880 --> 00:47:23,520
Speaker 1: So you can think of nitrogen fixing is like the

816
00:47:24,120 --> 00:47:28,279
Speaker 1: Earth's version of reverse osmosis for nitrogen converting into a

817
00:47:28,360 --> 00:47:32,759
Speaker 1: usable form for plants. The thing is that we kind

818
00:47:32,760 --> 00:47:35,759
Speaker 1: of talked about it before UM and you just hit

819
00:47:35,840 --> 00:47:39,480
Speaker 1: upon it. There's like a natural cycle and natural process

820
00:47:39,520 --> 00:47:44,600
Speaker 1: to all this, which things like agriculture, especially UM has

821
00:47:44,760 --> 00:47:48,479
Speaker 1: really kind of disrupted. And even after the research that's

822
00:47:48,480 --> 00:47:53,000
Speaker 1: been produced over time, we're still we're either being like

823
00:47:53,280 --> 00:47:57,000
Speaker 1: willfully ignorant or still figuring it out, or people are

824
00:47:57,040 --> 00:47:58,600
Speaker 1: still trying to get the word out. I don't know

825
00:47:58,640 --> 00:48:01,600
Speaker 1: what the issue is UM. If it's just too expensive

826
00:48:01,640 --> 00:48:03,480
Speaker 1: to do it right, I don't know. I'll have to

827
00:48:03,480 --> 00:48:06,400
Speaker 1: go back and listen to our permaculture episode again. But

828
00:48:06,520 --> 00:48:08,480
Speaker 1: one of the ways, like you said, that we we

829
00:48:08,640 --> 00:48:12,279
Speaker 1: disrupt this natural cycle, or the nitrogen cycle in particular,

830
00:48:12,640 --> 00:48:15,920
Speaker 1: is by not um planting things like cover plants that

831
00:48:15,960 --> 00:48:19,879
Speaker 1: are nitrogen fixers to replenish the soil. Instead, we use

832
00:48:20,440 --> 00:48:24,760
Speaker 1: factory made fertilizer, which is just fixed nitrogen itself UM

833
00:48:24,800 --> 00:48:27,640
Speaker 1: to replenish the soil, which is much harsher and can

834
00:48:27,719 --> 00:48:32,239
Speaker 1: have um all sorts of uh cascading negative effects on

835
00:48:32,280 --> 00:48:36,200
Speaker 1: the surrounding environment as well. Yeah, because if you're doing

836
00:48:36,480 --> 00:48:41,399
Speaker 1: a major agriculture job and you're pulling that nitrogen out,

837
00:48:41,480 --> 00:48:43,879
Speaker 1: you've got to artificially put it back in. And that's

838
00:48:43,880 --> 00:48:48,760
Speaker 1: all fertilizer is, because you're feeding that manure or whatever

839
00:48:48,840 --> 00:48:52,359
Speaker 1: fertilizer you're using. Manure has a lot of nitrogen, so

840
00:48:52,400 --> 00:48:54,799
Speaker 1: that's why it's used as a fertilizer, but you're just

841
00:48:54,840 --> 00:48:57,520
Speaker 1: pumping it back into the soil. Uh. There's a great

842
00:48:57,560 --> 00:49:03,440
Speaker 1: documentary that's called I Think Big Little Farm maybe not

843
00:49:04,520 --> 00:49:08,600
Speaker 1: about this couple who you know, dropped out and started

844
00:49:08,600 --> 00:49:11,480
Speaker 1: their own farm, but started a farm that they wanted

845
00:49:11,520 --> 00:49:15,960
Speaker 1: to do right and to be and balance like naturally

846
00:49:16,719 --> 00:49:21,120
Speaker 1: with itself. It's really good and daunting and inspiring all

847
00:49:21,160 --> 00:49:24,400
Speaker 1: at once. It's it's cool. It sounds a bit like um,

848
00:49:24,480 --> 00:49:27,759
Speaker 1: the movie All of Me, where Lily Tomlin takes over

849
00:49:27,800 --> 00:49:31,480
Speaker 1: Steve Martin's body and they have to learn to coexist

850
00:49:31,560 --> 00:49:34,120
Speaker 1: together kind of harmoniously. And I think they do at

851
00:49:34,160 --> 00:49:37,320
Speaker 1: the end if I remember correctly. It's not big little farm,

852
00:49:37,520 --> 00:49:40,560
Speaker 1: Biggest The biggest little farm is what it is in Texas.

853
00:49:41,280 --> 00:49:44,520
Speaker 1: Uh No, that's a Burt Reynolds movie, right, Okay, And

854
00:49:44,680 --> 00:49:47,359
Speaker 1: you said this is a documentary Biggest Little Farm. It's

855
00:49:47,360 --> 00:49:50,640
Speaker 1: really good. You should check it out. Okay, Um, well,

856
00:49:50,640 --> 00:49:52,520
Speaker 1: people should check out All of Me too, if you

857
00:49:52,560 --> 00:49:54,960
Speaker 1: ask me. Um. The thing is, Chuck is when you're

858
00:49:54,960 --> 00:49:58,280
Speaker 1: talking about nitrogen fixing and say like, okay, well, farmers

859
00:49:58,280 --> 00:50:01,799
Speaker 1: should just grow alfalfa and then whatever, say, if you

860
00:50:01,920 --> 00:50:05,160
Speaker 1: harvest corn or something like that, you till it into

861
00:50:05,160 --> 00:50:08,120
Speaker 1: the grass. Whatever is left over after you've harvested the corn,

862
00:50:08,560 --> 00:50:10,840
Speaker 1: you till it into the ground. I mean, and that

863
00:50:10,960 --> 00:50:13,759
Speaker 1: buried stuff actually provides a lot of food for all

864
00:50:13,800 --> 00:50:17,880
Speaker 1: of those microbial life and um, earthworms and all that stuff.

865
00:50:17,880 --> 00:50:19,880
Speaker 1: So they actually leave the roots of your plants alone.

866
00:50:20,040 --> 00:50:23,399
Speaker 1: That's great, but even doing that requires more care than

867
00:50:23,440 --> 00:50:27,040
Speaker 1: you would think, because if we go back to humus, remember,

868
00:50:27,160 --> 00:50:30,080
Speaker 1: humus is a really great way to lock in carbon

869
00:50:30,239 --> 00:50:34,239
Speaker 1: for hundreds or thousands of years. But we're finding that

870
00:50:34,320 --> 00:50:39,160
Speaker 1: it can be fairly easily disturbed by agricultural practices like tilling,

871
00:50:39,520 --> 00:50:41,920
Speaker 1: and that once you disturb it, all of a sudden,

872
00:50:41,920 --> 00:50:43,759
Speaker 1: it's like, oh, yeah, well I'm done, I'm out. If

873
00:50:43,760 --> 00:50:45,759
Speaker 1: you're not gonna appreciate me, I'm not gonna hold onto

874
00:50:45,760 --> 00:50:48,319
Speaker 1: your carbon anymore, and it starts to release it. So

875
00:50:48,360 --> 00:50:52,720
Speaker 1: we're finding that agricultural practices like um tilling are actually

876
00:50:52,760 --> 00:50:57,560
Speaker 1: having a contribution and impact to climate change as well. Yeah,

877
00:50:57,600 --> 00:51:00,640
Speaker 1: and it's not uh and I think this came from

878
00:51:00,640 --> 00:51:05,000
Speaker 1: the same interview with the professor assistant professor Um. She's saying,

879
00:51:05,000 --> 00:51:07,759
Speaker 1: it's not like it's the same as the burning of

880
00:51:07,800 --> 00:51:11,880
Speaker 1: fossil fuels. UM. There was an estimate is that soils

881
00:51:11,920 --> 00:51:15,480
Speaker 1: have lost a hundred and twenty uh pg. What does

882
00:51:15,480 --> 00:51:21,919
Speaker 1: that stand for pedigrams of carbon since we've been since

883
00:51:21,960 --> 00:51:27,000
Speaker 1: the dawn of agriculture basically, and that since seventeen fifty one,

884
00:51:27,840 --> 00:51:31,760
Speaker 1: uh fossil fuel burning has had a cumulative total over

885
00:51:31,840 --> 00:51:37,440
Speaker 1: four hundred pedigram so it's not on par but it is,

886
00:51:37,800 --> 00:51:40,560
Speaker 1: you know, something to think about, and especially when you're

887
00:51:40,560 --> 00:51:43,920
Speaker 1: talking about perma frost, and you know that's why we

888
00:51:43,960 --> 00:51:47,279
Speaker 1: talk about when UH climate change is sort of like

889
00:51:47,320 --> 00:51:50,600
Speaker 1: this vicious cycle where things are heating up and then

890
00:51:51,040 --> 00:51:53,840
Speaker 1: UH ice caps are melting, and when that stuff melts,

891
00:51:53,920 --> 00:51:57,920
Speaker 1: that's releasing this perma frost. Soil that has been stored

892
00:51:58,080 --> 00:52:00,800
Speaker 1: you know, stored carbon for thousands and thousands of years,

893
00:52:01,120 --> 00:52:04,360
Speaker 1: all of a sudden released back up into the atmosphere. Yeah. Yeah,

894
00:52:05,160 --> 00:52:09,399
Speaker 1: because humus is most stable as a carbon sink when

895
00:52:09,400 --> 00:52:12,920
Speaker 1: it's cold. So if it's so cold that it's been

896
00:52:12,920 --> 00:52:16,680
Speaker 1: frozen for years, um, it's very stable. But yeah, as

897
00:52:16,680 --> 00:52:19,600
Speaker 1: climate change warms it up, that starts to get released,

898
00:52:19,600 --> 00:52:21,840
Speaker 1: and that is a problem. I mean, yes, a hundred

899
00:52:21,840 --> 00:52:27,319
Speaker 1: and twenty pedigrams over the last years. It doesn't seem

900
00:52:27,400 --> 00:52:29,200
Speaker 1: like much, but we're getting to the point now where

901
00:52:29,200 --> 00:52:31,400
Speaker 1: every little bit counts, and I think as part of

902
00:52:31,440 --> 00:52:37,840
Speaker 1: the Paris Climate Agreement, you can um count your carbon sinks,

903
00:52:37,880 --> 00:52:41,600
Speaker 1: like the kind of soil you have against your output

904
00:52:41,760 --> 00:52:44,480
Speaker 1: to to show whatever reduction you're working on. So it

905
00:52:44,520 --> 00:52:46,960
Speaker 1: does count, it is taken into account. It's just nothing

906
00:52:47,040 --> 00:52:49,840
Speaker 1: like fossil fuels, but it is an important component, it

907
00:52:49,880 --> 00:52:53,440
Speaker 1: seems like. Yeah, So basically, you know, that's what they

908
00:52:53,480 --> 00:52:55,440
Speaker 1: did in the biggest Little farm is get back to

909
00:52:55,520 --> 00:52:59,360
Speaker 1: basics of the dawn of agriculture when they practice really

910
00:52:59,560 --> 00:53:05,560
Speaker 1: sound soil management. Um for the most part, tilling you know,

911
00:53:05,640 --> 00:53:08,640
Speaker 1: only what needs to be tilled. Don't go super deeper,

912
00:53:08,680 --> 00:53:11,239
Speaker 1: super wide if you don't need to that ground cover

913
00:53:11,320 --> 00:53:15,040
Speaker 1: that you were talking about, shades that soil, and don't burn.

914
00:53:15,480 --> 00:53:16,960
Speaker 1: And this is one of the big problems with Big

915
00:53:17,000 --> 00:53:20,320
Speaker 1: agg is burning plant waste. Yeah, you don't want to

916
00:53:20,360 --> 00:53:22,040
Speaker 1: do that. You want to bury that stuff and put

917
00:53:22,080 --> 00:53:25,520
Speaker 1: it back into the earth. Put it back into the earth, everybody,

918
00:53:25,520 --> 00:53:28,960
Speaker 1: because the life down there wants It's right. That's the

919
00:53:29,000 --> 00:53:32,879
Speaker 1: slogan for this one. Okay, agreed. So get out there

920
00:53:33,000 --> 00:53:35,720
Speaker 1: and get your hands dirty and go feel the soil

921
00:53:35,880 --> 00:53:38,879
Speaker 1: and remember to say thank you Humus as you let

922
00:53:38,920 --> 00:53:42,480
Speaker 1: it move through your fingers. Okay, okay, everybody. And in

923
00:53:42,520 --> 00:53:48,320
Speaker 1: the meantime, I think, chuck, it's a listener mail. Yeah,

924
00:53:48,360 --> 00:53:52,600
Speaker 1: this is uh from a teacher. I think is this

925
00:53:52,640 --> 00:53:58,439
Speaker 1: a teacher? Yes, biology teacher. Appropriately, Hey, guys, just listen

926
00:53:58,480 --> 00:54:00,400
Speaker 1: to the episode of arcolepsy. Thought it would clear up

927
00:54:00,400 --> 00:54:04,120
Speaker 1: a confusion about the difference between a disease and a disorder.

928
00:54:04,719 --> 00:54:06,920
Speaker 1: As a high school biology teacher, I had to explain

929
00:54:06,960 --> 00:54:10,560
Speaker 1: the difference every year. The difference is subtle, but there

930
00:54:10,640 --> 00:54:13,560
Speaker 1: is a simple way to remember. A disease is caused

931
00:54:13,560 --> 00:54:17,120
Speaker 1: by a path pathogen like a virus or bacteria. A

932
00:54:17,120 --> 00:54:22,440
Speaker 1: disorder is a malfuncttion malfunction due to genetics, trauma, chemical toxicity,

933
00:54:22,520 --> 00:54:26,240
Speaker 1: or other non living factor. The lines can become blurred

934
00:54:26,239 --> 00:54:28,360
Speaker 1: a bit because the disorder can be triggered by a disease.

935
00:54:28,840 --> 00:54:32,280
Speaker 1: Some cancers are triggered by viruses. May be a clearer example,

936
00:54:32,320 --> 00:54:35,680
Speaker 1: as HIV AIDS. A person can be HIV positive and

937
00:54:35,680 --> 00:54:38,680
Speaker 1: if the viral disease is discovered in time and treated,

938
00:54:39,000 --> 00:54:41,520
Speaker 1: they may never succumb to the disorder that is AIDS,

939
00:54:41,920 --> 00:54:45,000
Speaker 1: which sets in when the infected person's immune system has

940
00:54:45,040 --> 00:54:48,719
Speaker 1: been effectively eliminated. Hope this helps the issue. Thanks again,

941
00:54:48,840 --> 00:54:51,120
Speaker 1: keep up the good work. And that is from Rich

942
00:54:51,280 --> 00:54:57,120
Speaker 1: Brusk from Manhattan, Kansas. That's a man of hat A, Kansas.

943
00:54:57,560 --> 00:55:00,480
Speaker 1: That's right. That is a world class biolo g teacher.

944
00:55:00,640 --> 00:55:07,640
Speaker 1: Chuck totally what was his last name, Brusque with a B. Sure,

945
00:55:08,000 --> 00:55:12,239
Speaker 1: Thanks Mr Brusk from Manahatta, Kansas, UM. We appreciate that,

946
00:55:12,360 --> 00:55:14,880
Speaker 1: and we appreciate you being a biology teacher in a

947
00:55:14,880 --> 00:55:17,759
Speaker 1: world class one at that. If you want to show

948
00:55:17,800 --> 00:55:19,680
Speaker 1: off what a world class person you are, you can

949
00:55:19,680 --> 00:55:22,600
Speaker 1: get in touch with this too, like Mr Bruss did. Uh,

950
00:55:22,760 --> 00:55:24,880
Speaker 1: you can send us an email send it off to

951
00:55:25,200 --> 00:55:31,800
Speaker 1: Stuff podcast at iHeart radio dot com. Stuff you Should

952
00:55:31,800 --> 00:55:34,040
Speaker 1: Know is a production of iHeart Radios How Stuff Works.

953
00:55:34,320 --> 00:55:36,560
Speaker 1: For more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the iHeart

954
00:55:36,640 --> 00:55:39,120
Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your

955
00:55:39,160 --> 00:55:39,840
Speaker 1: favorite shows,