Charge

This appeared in the July 1, 2021 edition of The Fish Wrap.

A big thunderstorm hit RLF and it got us thinking about electricity in the atmosphere and soil and how electricity powers plant growth. Lightning starts when turbulence in clouds builds up a static charge. Static electricity wants to flow, and when it gets strong enough, the negative charge in the cloud looks for the nearest positive charge on the earth. When it finds it, ZZZZAP!  

Soil is made up of sand, silt and clay plus the organic matter that lives in the soil. Ideal soil has a balanced mix. The clay particles have some added benefits when electrically charged. Tiny clay particles are shaped like disks. If they’re in a vertical stack, it’s compacted like a pile of frisbees. When charged, the particles bond together in an alternating horizontal/vertical pattern that makes a nice, porous soil. Clay also has a lot of bonding sites for nutrients so more surface area means more nutrient sequestration.

Regenerative farming guru John Kempf is doing cutting edge work on the importance of electrical conductivity in soil. Plants don’t grow from nutrients, they grow from the energy that is provided by those nutrients. Kempf suggests that the agronomy of the future will focus on biophysics rather than chemistry and genetics. Mainstream agriculture increases the conductivity of soil with inputs that have downstream negative effects. But the microbes living in healthy soil contain all the electricity necessary for thriving plants.

Healthy soil beneath your feet contains millions of microbes, each holding about half a volt of energy. Don’t worry, you won’t get zapped. The energy is cleanly, safely stored within the cell walls. That energy becomes bioavailable to the plant when the microbe dies, or when the living microbe directly releases it as part of its symbiotic relationship with the soil. Living soil is electric!