Plants Dig Soil™

Dec 02 2024 99 ep. 12 mins 49

Plants Dig Soil™ Podcast artwork

#RealisticRegenAg | Climate-Smart Agriculture for the Canadian Prairies | Author and independent agronomist Scott Gillespie presents scientifically proven practices that benefit the planet and, just as importantly, farmers' economic sustainability

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Plants Dig Soil https://www.plantsdigsoil.com/ Newsletter signup: https://mailchi.mp/plantsdigsoil/newsletter https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/6944029544697802752 Practical Regeneration: Realistic Strategies for Climate Smart Agriculture https://www.plantsdigsoil.com/books My consulting packages: https://www.plantsdigsoil.com/pricing/#consulting Speaking, Teaching, &

616 The Cover Crop Disconnect: Ignoring what the data says

Dec 02 2024 7 mins

#RealisticRegenAg | Welcome to the final newsletter of the year! As mentioned previously, I’ll be taking a break over the holiday season but will return in early February. If you’re in southern Alberta and would like to connect before then, I’ll be at the Irrigated Crop Production Update on January 23rd in Lethbridge. You’ll find the registration link included in this email

615 Plant genetics drive microbial diversity & abundance

Oct 21 2024 7 mins

#RealisticRegenAg | As the season winds down here in southern Alberta, I’ve been busy teaching both diploma and degree students at Lethbridge Polytechnic (formerly Lethbridge College). As is my annual tradition, I’ll be slowing down my newsletter and podcast production during the fall and taking an extended break over the holiday season. You can expect one final newsletter in e

614 Cover Crop Emission Surprise

Sep 09 2024 10 mins

#RealisticRegenAg | Cover crops might be giving off more greenhouse gases than bare ground. It's a surprise, for sure. It all comes down to how long they sit in cool and wet conditions. They pull up and hold onto more nitrogen than bare ground, however when they die they can give off much greater nitrous oxide emissions compared to a bare field. So check out the articles below

613 Tight Soils – Sodacity, Salinity, and Alkali Explained

Aug 27 2024 12 mins

#RealisticRegenAg | White patches in a field are often referred to as alkali patches. The underlying problem may be high pH – alkalinity – but the salt in and of itself is not at a high pH and therefore is not alkaline. When you see salt on the surface it is more properly called salinity. The reason for this is that alkalinity may or may not be there. If present it may be near

612 The Circular Carbon Economy

Aug 12 2024 9 mins

#RealisticRegenAg | I’ve been thinking more and more about the circular economy recently. Truly regenerative agriculture will return the nutrients back to the land. It may not be possible to bring it back to the exact piece of land, but starting to get more of these nutrients back to any piece of land is the starting of getting to the goal of regenerative. Most of the articles

611 Making a Weed into a Crop

Jul 29 2024 7 mins

#RealisticRegenAg | Have you ever thought that a weed could become a crop? They seem to grow no matter what you do, so why not find a use for it? The plants we use today for crops have been around for centuries and even for millennia. I heard about a new crop being developed from weed and it got me thinking: How do you go about this? This episode is mostly a thought experiment, but

610 Adapt. Then Mitigate.

Jul 15 2024 7 mins

#RealisticRegenAg | The heat has come to southern Alberta! After never making it above 30C we are now in week well over 30C. This is going to be tough on nearly every crop as it’s right at flowering time or early seed fill. In the case of potatoes, the first set has been made and they are deciding how much to keep of their second set. Hopefully they keep them and get bulking! How

609 The Fit for Cover Crops

Jul 04 2024 8 mins

#RealisticRegenAg | Cover crops aren’t required in every situation. This is a key theme throughout my book “Practical Regeneration”. In this episode I’m going to talk about the development of no-till and how it might give us some clues on how to think through where cover crops work best. Welcome to the sixth season of Plants Dig Soil, a podcast about #RealisticRegenAg. I’

608 Natural Areas Benefit Agriculture

Jun 23 2024 12 mins

Welcome to the sixth season of Plants Dig Soil, a podcast about #RealisticRegenAg. I’m your host, Scott Gillespie, and I’m an agronomist from the Western Canadian Prairies specializing in climate-smart agriculture. I discuss scientifically proven practices that benefit the planet and, just as importantly, farmers' economic sustainability. Be sure to visit my website, www.pl