This is the second of a two-part series about how to find and recognize the best soils for market farming.

By Brett Grohsgal

Rarely will a farmer find land with perfect soil, so it’s important when buying or renting land to know what kinds of soil problems can be easily remedied, which can be fixed with a lot of work, and which just can’t be improved.
First among the problems that are easily fixed are the chemical aspects of soil infertility. Conventional start-ups have the fullest spectrum of choices to add N, K, Ca, Mg, S, and micronutrients. Phosphorus deficiency is easy to address as well, and P excess (a common issue in heavily fertilized fields) can be readily ameliorated with P extraction by your cash crops. County extension agents will give you free and useful advice on chemical fertility needs and approaches. Organic growers have many fewer options but still a reasonable array of paths. At this writing, organic start-ups will likely get better advice on specific amendments from more experienced certified growers than from the average conventionally-oriented extension agent.
The second simply addressed soil problem is low soil organic matter. While I do not idolize SOM, I do join the rest of the crowd in recognizing that healthy levels of SOM can greatly improve yields, tilth, and crop vigor under stresses of drought or flood. There are at least three ways to increase SOM levels: intensive cover cropping, large additions of animal manures or composts, and minimizing tillage. Our farm uses all three but we are committed most to cover cropping (winter and summer) and to minimal tillage.
The third easily cured problem is inadequate or sporadic rainfall. Unless you are looking for land in one of the really wet zones, be sure that you assess each property for potentially available irrigation water (e.g., generous ground water levels, deeper aquifers that aren’t being fought over, promising pond sites, etc.). Commodity grain crops, pastures for livestock, and tree crops are infrequently irrigated, but even with these you are rolling the dice –especially in the establishment phase– if you cannot easily water as needed. Growing For Market has nicely covered irrigation approaches and suppliers in prior issues, so I’ll move on.
Another relatively easily cured problem for start-up farmers is possible contamination of the soil by prior and recent application of pesticides (this is mostly an issue for those seeking organic certification). Provided the soils are well-aerated, intensive cover cropping over a one- to three-year period will do wonders for soil microbes. And these microbes are your principal allies in cranking off pesticide residues in soil. Industrial wastes and heavy metals (e.g., from sludge) are not easily ameliorated.

Problems requiring a lot of work
Poor soil tilth is an insidious threat to nearly all market crops. Poor tilth, especially under conditions of too much rain, causes seeds to rot, seedlings to stunt, certain diseases to proliferate, and yields to plateau at low levels. In really dry years poor tilth produces concrete-like, crusted soils, hardly a good environment for seedling emergence. And too often farmers blame the weather rather than the more proximate cause: us. Certainly really clayey and really sandy soils have inherently poor tilth. But inappropriate management –most especially excess tractor use– by farmers is what most often and most thoroughly ruins tilth. New farm owners may inherit this problem from prior users’ ignorant or non-respectful attitude towards this key resource. On most silty or clayey soils, the ways to improve tilth are straightforward: a) use your tractor only when the soil moisture conditions are perfect, regardless of how inconvenient this might be; b) till minimally, regardless of how tempting it is to plant into a “putting green”-style seed bed; c) use cover crops as heavily as possible, as often as possible, and in as many seasons as possible; d) improve drainage, if appropriate, with ditches or raised-bed management systems; and e) consider very heavy organic matter additions, as well as raised-bed management systems. In sandy soils, increasing soil organic matter is your key to improving tilth. The tools you can employ toward this end are cover crops, longer-term pastures (irrigating these during droughty periods), or large and fairly frequent additions of manures or composts.
Stony soils are also fixable, but I pity any new farmer who must remove a lot of rock on top of all the other labor you must invest as a start-up.
Sloping soils can be addressed with common sense and extension-agent help. First, realize that moderate slope can be of great use in some kinds of farming. Rolling-hill microclimates have long been skillfully exploited by orchardists, grape growers, coffee farmers, et alia. Arguably the wisest use of sloping acreage is planting to such perennial crops. Grain and vegetable start-ups need to use contour tillage and/or contour beds of stabilizing cover crops in order to minimize gullying and erosion problems. But new farmers who are considering working hilly acreage must first and foremost be cautious. The fastest way for a start-up to fail is for the farmer to die or be maimed, and on hilly ground tractor roll-over accidents have killed a lot of experienced farmers. Level ground is more forgiving, and the steep learning curves of all new farmers require some safe terrain.
Highly eroded soils (i.e., where most or all of the topsoil has been lost, and the previous subsoil is now at the surface) are fixable and are very common in parts of the US. Treat these in two ways: a) address any simple chemical deficiencies that are indicated by soil testing and b) add organic matter generously to make the soil more stable and profitable. Cover cropping and/or judicious manure applications are your tools.
With brevity as my goal I omit detailing other resolvable soil problems. Heeding the advice of the more experienced –be they farmers or extension agents—is the best bet when start-ups face more localized soil issues.

Permanent soil problems
These are the problems that you will struggle with continually and that will most likely still plague you after years of hard work. Accept them and their implications or do not buy those particular soils. And do not delude yourself, in your yearning for land, that these are fixable by the typical resource-strapped new farmer.
I’ll begin with three straightforward dilemmas: chemically contaminated soil, not enough soil, and not enough water. Naturally contaminated barrens (notably the serpentine soils) or salt flats borne of human activity occur most frequently in the western US and are locally recognized as acreage to avoid. Human-induced contamination from industrial dumping or excess sludge application can be harder to recognize, as many plants can tolerate and even thrive in soils laden with heavy metals. As a start-up market farmer you will lack the resources to clean up such problems, so try to learn the application history of each site you are considering for purchase.
Not enough soil is a problem in geologically young regions, especially mountainous or marine sites. Trucking in dirt is costly. Do not consider any “farm” site where there is precious little soil.
Not enough water really means that irrigation water is short. While drip and trickle irrigation are invaluable tools in arid regions, even these require a ready source. Farmers are increasingly competing with other users for water, and in regions where this is an issue the situation can only get worse. Be sure of your water source or don’t buy the land.
As a farmer in the eastern US, the single biggest permanent soil problem that I witness, and that I will emphatically detail, is poor drainage. Too much water at the wrong time can kill as many crops as can drought. The easy side of poor drainage can be caused by farmers, most typically when we and our beloved tractors reduce soil tilth and create traffic hard-pans. Soil tilth was amply addressed above. To fix traffic hard pans, use a sub-soiler or deep chisel plow (requiring a lot of horsepower and fuel) or put the area into a long-term pasture or cover crop (1-2 years) after doing very deep moldboard plowing under perfect soil conditions. Gypsum may also help.
The worst kind of poor drainage, though, is naturally occurring. Causes include topography, excess clay, deep impervious soil layers (yes, nature does make hard pans), high water tables, proximity to wetlands of various forms, etc. Naturally occurring severe drainage problems are impossible to wipe out unless you can invest a true fortune in massive earth-moving projects. More practically, you can use drainage ditches or raised bed systems to make the acreage workable. But in wet years you will still have huge challenges and frequent crop failures. The Soil Survey well details drainage problems in specific soils, since excess water greatly limits what all users, barring pond lovers and waterfowl, can do with the land. Simple indicators of long-term poor drainage include gray clay, excess SOM in topographically low spots, wetland plant species, and oddly low real estate price tags.
It takes great skill and experience to farm these soils profitably, and novices nearly always fail. Look for something more user-friendly.

I hope that this primer has been of use to potential new farm buyers. I apologize for my biases and for anything in the soils arena that I have neglected. I also urge other experienced market farmers to write to GFM to correct any of my analytic omissions.
And to those start-ups who may help to re-invigorate American farming, I urge you to research your land purchase with a cool head, with plenty of time, and with hard work. Buy the best soils you can possibly afford. Remember that farmers too often face unforeseen and often harsh challenges. The soils that you will tend need to be trusted and treasure allies in your endeavors.

Brett Grohsgal co-owns Even’ Star Organic Farm with his wife, Dr. Christine Bergmark, in Southern Maryland. They grow diverse vegetables, cutting flowers, strawberries, and melons, and retail through a subscription service and at farmers’ markets and wholesale to 8 restaurants, two grocers, and two universities.