Five Soil Health Management Priorities for Producers in the Southeast US

The idea that farmers should manage their land and crops for soil health is not a new one but has been gaining popularity and permeated into mainstream farming over the last decade. There are advocates all across the board: from small-scale, organic vegetable farmers, large-scale conventional grain producers, livestock farmers, to permaculturists, and so on.

While the messaging on how to prioritize soil health is more or less consistent, the details often depend on the farming system, climate, and soil type. Farming organically in the Southeast has its own set of soil management of challenges—owing to the highly weathered clays of the Piedmont, and the droughty, low fertility soils of the Coast Plain—which shifts the way we prioritize management strategies for soil health.

Below are five management priorities for improving soil health, tailored to our Southeastern soils.

1. Focus on building organic matter

While there is no special sauce in soil health, soil organic matter is the closest thing. It is both a bank of soil nutrients (released upon decomposition) and a parking lot for plant-available nutrients adhered by ionic charges (i.e., exchangeable cations), and building soil organic matter is the most important way to improve your soil’s ability to retain and supply plant-available nutrients. This is particularly relevant in soils with a limited ability to hold onto nutrients—i.e., those with low cation exchange capacity (7 or less)—which is common among our old clays and sandy soils in the Southeast