Underground problems.in a field of beans

Bill Kerr says the benefits of growing crops in healthy, organic soil was never adequately taught to him during his agricultural education.

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I have been through the whole process of starting with beans on soil in a poor condition, and over the years have experienced positive changes as the soil was improved from containing less than 19 humus to 5%.

The first problem I experienced was root knot eelworm, which was entirely unexpected as I was planting into virgin soil.

However, there were various weeds and grasses growing there before the land was ploughed, many of which undoubtedly hosted this pest. After experiencing eelworm damage, 1 had to fumigate the soil to enable me to plant a successful crop.

I also adopted regenerative agriculture and no-till, and the soil began to improve with the adoption of manure, compost, and a winter legume cover crop. As the organic content and structure of the soil improved, so did many other problems start to disappear, and I had no need to worry about eelworms anymore.