Dr. Jill Clapperton, PhD. “Soil Biological Fertility — The Link to Mineral Nutrient-Dense Food, Grains & Forages”

After overhearing several hallway conversations about Jill Clapperton’s Friday workshop on soil biological fertility, I decided I better catch her lecture the following day. Dr. Clapperton is a rhizosphere ecologist and founder of Rhizoterra, Inc. near Missoula, MT. Her talk ranged from very basic principles (what is soil? what is dirt?) to specific interactions (biological properties of faba beans). The overarching theme of Dr. Clapperton’s talk was no-till management. Opinions on whether or not to till varied between speakers, but Dr. Clapperton was perhaps the strongest proponent of no-till I encountered during the Conference. Her stance on tillage seems to have been cultivated (pun intended) throughout her career; her early papers include long-term tillage effects on earthworm populations, and tillage effects on temperature and moisture interactions. In the untilled field, significantly more earthworms were found; and not tilling effectively armored the soil, helping it maintain temperature and moisture.

Her talk, in my mind, seemed to accurately portray the basic tenets of soil ecology, and of a broader ecology. She discussed the role of species and structural diversity (including an interesting discussion of root depth) within the soil profile, fungi (especially micorrhizae), and interspecific interactions. A few of Dr. Clapperton’s statements seemed to stick particularly well with the audience. First, that resting soil is actually starving the soil. This is consistent with her recommendation to keep green on the ground and plant seasonal mixes. Second, that insecticides are the worst of the “cides”. I think there is an argument for fungicides being the worst for soil ecology, but of course “worst” is usually dependent on the situation. Her argument was that by spraying insecticides, we also deplete the population of natural predators for those pests, since their population dynamics are linked. She said the more we use insecticides, the more we throw those dynamics out of balance (She humorously suggested that a farmer anxiously awaiting an emergence of natural predators in the face of pest pressure should just go inside, take a valium, and sleep for a few days). Lastly, she suggested using daikon radish to break up plow pans, which are normally handled with tilling. I was skeptical of this; a brief search of Extension material showed that sometimes the large varieties of daikon radish can break up compaction, but sometimes they “take a right turn” and produce a bent tuber. I guess if no-till is your guiding practice, it’s worth trying a few times, especially, as Dr. Clapperton suggested, if you look at some of the newer varieties.