Without oxygen in the soil, nothing works

Oxygen is one of the overlooked but most important requirements for microbial and root development. In fact, I’d even posit that it is more important than food, water, and warmth. Microbes can last a few days without food, maybe a couple of hours without water but within a few minutes of being deprived of oxygen, their entire body stops. This is true for the plant roots as well.

Here’s why

Microbes and plants need oxygen for cellular respiration. Cellular respiration basically means breaking down/converting food (carbohydrates particularly) into an energy “currency” which the microbial and plant body can use. Think about it in a similar way where foreign currencies are converted to dollars and can be used anywhere in the world. Microbes, as well as plants, can take those “dollars” and use them in any cell they want in their bodies. This process also produces important by-products such as carbon dioxide, water, and heat. Microbes can actually generate their own heat and water for a period of time, how cool is that? This obviously comes as an advantage in dry and cold periods.

Practical lessons

Making sure there is enough oxygen in the soil profile should be the top priority for a farmer. Yes, we often say soil disturbance is not good for the soil, however poor soil aeration has far more detrimental effects.  Therefore it is important that farmers should always fix a hardpan or compaction layer as soon as possible. I think it is completely unacceptable to only be oxygenating and farming with only the top 5 to 10 cm of the soil profile. If you have compaction and roots are not penetrating below 15cm then you need to get rid of the compaction. You are losing out on subsurface fertility and moisture.