Tag: nutrient cycling

Recycling Organic Materials to Improve Your Florida-Friendly Edible Landscape

Compost pile without receptacle. Credits: Tiare Silvasy, UF/IFAS

This new 7-page publication of the UF/IFAS Environmental Horticulture Department is intended to educate homeowners on environmentally friendly ways to enhance soil fertility for vegetables, herbs, and fruits in the home landscape. It discusses strategies for recycling nutrients in place or via composting systems to create productive edible landscapes with less waste. Adopting these methods into your landscape maintenance routine will build organic matter and add nutrients to the soil naturally. Written by Terra Freeman, Tiare Silvasy, Lynn Barber, Tom Wichman, Esen Momol, Tina McIntyre, Jacqlyn Rivas, and Jen Marvin.
https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ep599

An Overview of Key Soil Nitrogen Cycling Transformations

Turfgrass with a sprinkler in the foreground and a man approaching the camera from the back left of frame. UF/IFAS File Photo.

Although nitrogen (N) is one of the most abundant elements in the biosphere, it is generally at levels that are limiting for optimum plant growth and crop production in Florida soils. To maintain adequate N levels in Florida soils without having detrimental environmental side effects, one must understand and manage N cycling transformations and processes. This new 5-page article, published by the UF/IFAS Department of Soil and Water Sciences, provides an overview of the N cycle by describing key N transformations that result in soils gaining or losing N. The biotic and abiotic processes that govern these transformations are described, as well as practical examples of these transformations in Florida soils. Written by Clayton J. Nevins, Sarah L. Strauss, and Patrick Inglett.
https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ss684