Half Day Training in Soil Health with Niels Corfield
tom okane
- Market gardeners & growers
- Nursery workers
- Horticulture managers
- Apprentices, trainee growers
The soil health principles work. Across the globe they're being implemented from the very large scale to human scale. Where they are implemented most thoroughly they bring real results: better soil structure, healthier crops and animals and more consistent yields. And what's more, practitioners that have rigorously applied these principles have the more profitable operations today.
Niels Corfield is a designer, educator and consultant, working to create sustainable/regenerative landscapes and farms in the UK and Europe. He is someone with a diverse skill-set who can tie together disparate projects into a coherent whole using cutting edge- and best practice systems.
We will be covering some of the below Topics/Structure
The empirical case for good soil management
- How different strategies affect soil structure
- Slake test etc
Defining Soil Health
- How it's articulated, and
- How to measure it
- Evidence for soil health: aggregates etc
- Spade tests/visual soil inspection
Soil food web
- Theory and relevance
Soil organic matter and soil carbon
- What is it and how it differs from straight organic matter
Composting systems
- Fast hot composting
- Wormeries
Cover crops
- Novel types: cocktail cover crops etc
- Selecting/designing mixtures appropriate to your situation
Selecting appropriate soil management practices, to:
- Preserve soil structure and biology
- Accumulate SOM and soil carbon
- Minimise weed burdens
Rotations and crop planning exercise
- Identifying points of intervention in existing rotations to improve soil health
- Exercise - based on student's own examples
Site planning
- Sizing operations for best returns
- Maximising productivity
Amendments
- Biochar, compost, minerals etc
Nutrients and Nitrogen
- Which fixes more N: clovers or maize?
Monitoring and testing
- DIY soil health tests
- Lab tests