Can Legumes Increase The Nitrogen in the Soil?

Keith has been fascinated with soil from the time he was growing up on a mixed farm in Bruce county, Ontario, and has been lucky enough to make that fascination into a career that has spanned four decades. This has included time working for a fertilizer and farm supply retailer, the Ontario government as a soil fertility specialist, and the Canadian government as a soil scientist developing methods to keep phosphorus on the land and out of the Great Lakes. Throughout this time, there have always been gardens to tend. Writing “Improving Your Soil” was an opportunity to share what he has learned in a clear, approachable way for gardeners wherever they are, spanning the gap between the cursory treatment in most garden books and the complexity of a university textbook.

His book is widely available through Amazon/Indigo/etc.

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[DavidMFChapman]

This fellow is awesome. Can’t get enough of him.

[kevindelisle]

Thank you. Based on your Keith Reid interview, I picked up his book at my local library for a good read during my recent vacation. I found the book informative and understandable - my biggest, immediate take-away was his 6 plot rotation table - something that I will try in 2021. I only have 400sqft to garden so my efforts are small compared to others that really depend on their land for food production.

[johngault]

Some very interesting information in various Regenerative Farming/Agricultural videos on Youtube. Many of the farmers, such as Gabe Brown, have completely stopped adding fertilizers/amendments (both synthetic & organic) to the soil, instead using very diverse mix of cover crops, no till, animal integration, armor on the soil and always having roots in the ground. Another interesting person to listen to is Ray Archuleta -- very interesting videos.

[luckychicav]

Hello Greg, A another good one👍🏼, thank you!😉

[ginfonte]

Excellent, ! Thanks Greg. I don't think you mentioned the effect on nitrogen content by adding microorganisms to the soil? I guess they're specifically microrhryzoids?

[grantraynard]

Wonder if the pea and beans compete when they are interplanted with something else? Or are the beans making enough nitrogen to fill their own needs and leaving the original soil nitrogen to the other crop.

[wildedibles]

Choping and dropping clover in my garden some ways but it can be a fight too lol
But i think the clover a black maddick clover i see the nodes on the roots they are interesting
But i think they really helped my parsnips this year but the parsnips roots look like they have nodes on their hair roots
I hear too much nitrogen can cause weird parsnip roots but i do not know how?
Just heard weird lol
This garden bed had been fed compost and bunny poop with bedding mulch
And clover too i try to mulch the clover out lol

[mtadventures]

So, if I had a thick patch of clover in the fall, could I ruth stout right over it in late fall and take advantage of the elevated nitrogen in that spot for let's say corn? Or could the clover overcome the deep straw?

[katipohl]

Legumiosae like soybean are symbionts with mycorrhiza fungi and can fix nitrogen from the air this way.

[ForageGardener]

only if you also add carbon to the soil. the nitrogen will just run away and drain from the soil without carbon to attatch to