00:00All right, guys, welcome back to Grow the Earth.
00:02And I have read comments on the internet pretty regularly, and it's usually a bunch of new
00:10gardeners that are asking, hey, does my soil go bad?
00:15Do I need to change it out?
00:17How often should I change out my soil?
00:21All these questions are, it's not really an easy answer because of the simple fact that
00:30well, it all depends on what type of soil you're talking about and in what setting you're
00:37talking about.
00:39Now, of course, I'm staying out here in our raised beds, and this soil was brought in.
00:45I bought this from a company and had it, you know, put it in here, build these raised beds up.
00:50Now, this soil, you wouldn't change it out as much as you would amend it every year.
00:58With these, the soil is going to rot with the bacteria that's in the soil, and it's going
01:05to shrink over time because of the material that's in it, because of the compost that's
01:11in it, because of the different nutrients and things that are taking out of the soil.
01:17And as it shrinks down in that next season or before that next planting, what we're going
01:23to do is we're going to add compost, and we're going to have fertilizers and stuff to rejuvenate
01:28the soil.
01:29So in this setting, you would never really change out your soil because this is actually
01:37a natural biome.
01:38This is insects and bugs and funguses and different things interacting in an environment to not
01:52only make the soil better over time, but also to make the soil have nutrients available for
02:00the plants that you're planting in it.
02:02So if you put soil in here and then the next year you take all that soil out and you
02:08put
02:08new soil back in it, basically you're starting from zero every time you do that, because now
02:14new soil most times will not have the natural bacteria and things like that that are in this
02:21soil already that is collected from the air, from the water, and from various other places
02:28in order to help your plants grow better.
02:32Probably one of the most beneficial microbes or bacteria that you'd have in your soil is
02:37called mycorrhizae.
02:38And that is actually a bacteria that not only is kind of a soil miner, but it actually attaches
02:45to the roots of those plants.
02:47And it not only sends out little fingers like roots to mine minerals for the plant, but when
02:54it gives those to the plant, the plant gives it back the sustenance to expand and to grow
03:00more.
03:01So it's a beneficial bacteria for your plants.
03:06Now, just like a raised bed, you know, the smaller raised bed or in ground, your taller
03:11raised beds are going to be pretty much the same way.
03:14You're not going to change the soil out because this is a living, working soil that if you've
03:21put the right type of soil in here, if you haven't put a potting soil in here, if you
03:26put a garden bed soil, or if you've gotten soil from a local landscape supplier or something
03:31like that, this is going to have topsoil in it.
03:35This is going to have compost in it, probably some wood products and some other things that
03:41are going to make it a living soil that is going to be regenerative to a certain extent.
03:48And this, again, you're going to add compost to this, you're going to add your fertilizers
03:53to this, and you're just going to mix that stuff into the top layers of that soil and
03:58let it age and it will sink just like I told you previously.
04:04And that's where we're going to add our soil back to every year or whenever we deem that
04:11it's necessary to add more soil to it.
04:13So, one of the one places you probably will change out your soil is whenever you're growing
04:18in pots, and especially if you're using potting soil.
04:23The reason I say that is potting soil has usually a sphagum peat moss, a cocoa core, or a wood
04:32forestry product, something like that, something that is not an actual true soil.
04:36And it has a lot of perlite, a lot of vermiculite, even sometimes pumice in it as a soil aerator.
04:43And over time, what happens is, is that cocoa core or that peat moss breaks down into a compacted
04:51substance, which doesn't absorb water.
04:54It doesn't really, it stops being an aerated soil and it starts being a compacted mess.
05:02Also, what you've got to watch out for in a potted plant that you don't have to deal with
05:06in a raised bed or in an in-ground planting is the fact that there, if it is not in
05:14this
05:14soil, if you don't put it there, it won't be there.
05:18So, any of the micronutrients that you're going to get from natural soil, any of the nitrogens,
05:24any kind of fertilizers, the potassium, all of that stuff, the nitrogen, unless you put
05:32it in this pot, it is not there.
05:35So, over time, it depletes this, and actually it's a soil medium as much as it's more than
05:42it's a soil because there's no actual topsoil in it.
05:45Uh, and the, there's not really any beneficial microbes or bacteria in it because there's
05:54really nothing there for it to work with.
05:56So, with this, you usually get three to five years out of a potted plant before you need
06:03to remove it, add new soil, and put it back in and or up-pot it to give it more,
06:10more area
06:12to draw those nutrients from.
06:15Anything that you'll get from a topsoil, it's not in there.
06:19You know, the, the rock dust and the things like that, that you can't manufacture.
06:26It is not a soil, and it is not containing some of the natural things that a plant needs
06:32to grow.
06:33So, with your soil, it has a soil structure, and that is where your soil structure is going
06:40to be more in play as to why you're not going to change out certain types of soil more than
06:45anything.
06:47Because, your soil structure is, in effect, your soil will naturally separate out into layers.
06:55And I'll put a picture up here to where I can kind of, you know, you can kind of see
06:59what
06:59I'm talking about.
07:01On the very top, you're usually going to have a mulch or a very light soil, and then underneath
07:06that is where your, your compost and your, your kind of stuff that's breaking down is
07:15going to live.
07:16And then as you go further and further down those soil levels, you're going to get into
07:22an area that's going to be very compacted and is going to give the, the soil some substantive
07:28structure to it.
07:32Now, unfortunately, whenever you're dealing with a potting soil, this structure doesn't
07:38exist.
07:39Inside of a pot, that structure doesn't exist.
07:42So, you have very light aerated soil, which is going to be like your top two layers.
07:47That is throughout the whole structure of that pot, and soil is naturally going to want
07:53to separate into those, those different layers.
07:57So, what you end up having is, instead of having a very light, airy soil structure throughout
08:04that potted plant, you end up having all of it start to settle down, and eventually it
08:10becomes a hard mess that has hardly any nutrients in it.
08:16And inside of our raised beds, or in a, or if you're planting in ground, these structures
08:23exist, which is why there is a big push for a no-till gardening, and for all of these other
08:31different types of gardening to where basically, you add to the soil, but you don't, you try
08:35and not disturb the soil, especially when you get down in these couple of bottom layers,
08:40because you are disturbing the bacteria, you're disturbing the microbes, and all of the things
08:46that make your soil healthy.
08:47When you take these bottom layers and you bring it to the top, that encourages compaction,
08:54that encourages soil, microbe, and bacterial die-off, because those soil and those microbes
09:02and those bacteria exist at those layers because they're not being hit by sunlight.
09:09So, the minute you till that, those things up to the top of the soil, they die, because
09:15they can't exist in sunlight.
09:19So, we try not to disturb those layers.
09:22Now, I'm sure there are some people who argue with me.
09:25Big Ag is one who does a lot of tillage and stuff, but they also use commercial fertilizers
09:32fertilizers and non-natural fertilizers in order to grow all of your food that you find
09:37in the store for most accounts.
09:39Me, as an organic gardener, I'm relying on the microbes and the bacteria and my soil to
09:47feed my plants, not a commercial fertilizer that provides exactly what is needed for those
09:54plants to grow.
09:55Because if you didn't know, the fertilizer package that a commercial farmer uses are
10:02tailored to the type of crop they're growing for that season.
10:06So, if they're planting corn, corn has got a very specific type of fertilizer package they
10:13put on the soil for that corn for that grow period.
10:17Whereas, if they're growing a bean or something like that, it's a very different type of
10:25package in order to grow because they are putting exactly what fertilizer they need in that
10:32soil for that particular crop.
10:35And that is it.
10:36So, when they come through and they harvest that crop and they go through and they till
10:42up the soil and now they've destroyed all of that bacteria and those microbes and all
10:47of that stuff and they're actually destroying the structure of that soil, they go back in and
10:53they add what they need right back into that soil in order to grow that specific crop for
10:58that specific time period.
11:01And this brings up a whole other area of why you shouldn't use commercial fertilizers like
11:07that.
11:08But guys, as always, I thank you for joining me today.
11:12I hope you learned something.
11:14If you learned something, I want you to put it down in the comments and I want you to like
11:18and subscribe and share this around.
11:20Help me grow my channel.
11:22And as always, guys, I ask you to pray for your family, pray for your garden, and have
11:27a great day.
