{"id":6278,"date":"2017-05-01T11:07:38","date_gmt":"2017-05-01T15:07:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/agriculture\/?page_id=6278"},"modified":"2020-11-19T09:31:14","modified_gmt":"2020-11-19T14:31:14","slug":"soil-health","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/agriculture\/soil-health\/","title":{"rendered":"Soil Health"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Soil health refers to the ability of a soil to support and nourish plants. Healthy soils have good structure and tilth that allows water to soak in and plant roots to penetrate and grow, and have active soil microbial communities that cycle nutrients. Healthy soil is fundamental to growing healthy, productive, and profitable crops. The primary strategies to improve and maintain soil health are reducing soil disturbance, keeping the soil covered as much as possible, growing a variety of plant types, and adding organic materials, such as crop residues, manures, and compost. Click on the links below to learn more about specific soil health strategies and how farmers are using them in Maine.<\/p>\n<h3>Soil Health Strategies and Topics<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/agriculture\/soil-health\/cover-cropping\/\">Cover Cropping<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/agriculture\/soil-health\/no-till-and-reduced-tillage\/\">No-till and Reduced Tillage<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/agriculture\/soil-health\/soil-amendments\/\">Soil Amendments<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/agriculture\/soil-health\/soil-health-evaluation\/\">Soil Health Evaluation<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Soil health refers to the ability of a soil to support and nourish plants. Healthy soils have good structure and tilth that allows water to soak in and plant roots to penetrate and grow, and have active soil microbial communities that cycle nutrients. Healthy soil is fundamental to growing healthy, productive, and profitable crops. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":7,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"templates\/page-withsidebar.php","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-6278","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Soil Health - Cooperative Extension: Agriculture - University of Maine Cooperative Extension<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/agriculture\/soil-health\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Soil Health - Cooperative Extension: Agriculture - University of Maine Cooperative Extension\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Soil health refers to the ability of a soil to support and nourish plants. Healthy soils have good structure and tilth that allows water to soak in and plant roots to penetrate and grow, and have active soil microbial communities that cycle nutrients. Healthy soil is fundamental to growing healthy, productive, and profitable crops. 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