Vinumitineris : The Soil - Part 3

The following article is the last part of my essay regarding soil life.

Clay creation

The vertical root system goes deep in the ground and reaches the source rock. The roots transform the source rock in clay. This process was unknown till the late 80s when Canadian and Australian researchers studied how root’s acid transforms source rock in clay. This functioning is incredible!!! Roots attack source rock to draw some mineral elements (thecation elements). After taking cation elements, source rock are left with a high concentration of silica, iron, and aluminium. When in nature there is high concentration of minerals they tend to crystalize, which is what happens when in source rock there is too much concentration of silica, iron, and aluminium which lead to the creation of clay.

Soil creation

The soil is created through a very complex process which combines together clay creation by roots deep down in the soil and humus which is created on the surface. How can those two elements reach one another?
The protagonists of this process are earthworms that eat clay during the night from the vertical roots and the humus on the surface.
Worms have a gland in their stomach that is rich in calcium that has 2 positive charges which can attract the negative charge of humus and the negative charge of clay and give birth to the clayed and humus complex, which is earth.
Worms are essential for our life because they are the only animal able to transform the most complex mineral in the world (clay) into the most complex environment of the world which is the clayed and humus complex.
Earth erosion’s causes are the intensive agricultural systems which tend to use pesticides and chemicals.
Worms are extremely sensible to chemicals products and they are the only source through which the earth can regenerate itself. In Europe before the introduction of chemicals there were 1000 KG of worms per hectare. Now a day there are only 100 Kg per hectare.
There are two major problems related to the lack of worms.
The first one is that they represent the only way through which nature can regenerate earth and the second one is that if worms don’t eat the clay produced by roots, this one together with all the chemicals will be absorbed by aquifers and contaminate drinkable water.

Mushrooms functioning

Plants live in symbiosis with mushrooms.
There is a mutual exchange between them. Plants give to mushrooms sugar which help them in growing and they create humus to feed plants and to generate the earth.

To summarize

Soil and plants are very important for our life as they are essential for our feeding. As a consequence, if the agricultural methods are wrong we will be eating and drinking unhealthy and tasteless products. The soil is very complex and delicate and the best thing we could do is try to understand how it works and to stop intoxicating him. Our agricultural systems are not the right way to proceed due to the extensive use of chemical and the lack of respect for nature.
Many critical situations could be avoided by understanding soil and plants and by growing plants in an organic and more natural way. This article is just a summary of the enormous world of soil which is incredibly interesting but complex as it requires specific knowledge.

This article was an introduction to plants in general included vines. In the next article, I will explain vines terroir and its influences on wines.

All the best
Dylan