Day 6 Course Outline - Soils and Cultivation

Nutrients in soil

• Nutrition for plants, animals, humans, availability and uptake

Design and systems

• Limiting Factors in design
• Systems and energy – open and closed systems
• The efficiency of natural processes – “exergy” and “lethargy”

The nitrogen cycle in soils

• Importance of nitrogen fixers

Polycultures

• Plant guilds, interaction matrices

Lunch

Life in soils

• Pulsing, ethylene, ferrous/ferric switch

Soil building in zones 1 and 2

• Composts, fertilisers and mulches

Polycultures 

• Livestock and climate
• Rangelands, permanent pastures, mob stacking and
• Holistic Management.
• Alley cropping – strategies and techniques for cereal growing

Soil as a construction material

• Terraces, roads, dams, houses
• The basics of earthwork – working with machines