8.7: Summary

Ecologically sound crop and soil management focuses on combining proactive and reactive management to prevent most factors that might limit plant growth and to address the remaining problems when they occur. The three preventive goals are to grow healthy plants with enhanced defense capabilities, suppress pests and enhance beneficial organisms. There are a variety of practices that contribute to these overall goals and that have been discussed in this chapter as enhancing both aboveground habitat and soil habitat. There is some overlap because cover crops, crop rotations and tillage have effects both aboveground and belowground. The various practices that improve and maintain soil habitats are discussed in detail in the following chapters of Part 3. They contribute to soil building, maintaining soil health by increasing and maintaining the soil’s organic matter, aggregation, waterholding ability and biological diversity.

As indicated in Figure 8.2, in addition to the work of prevention (mainly accomplished before and during planting), there are routine management practices that are carried out during the season, and remedial or reactive approaches may need to be used if prevention practices are not enough to take care of a potential threat to the crop. However, just as with our own health, prevention helps us better deal with the inevitable health challenges because we cannot always rely on a cure after they develop. For this reason, the remaining sections of the book are oriented towards this more-holistic approach with practices that help prevent problems from developing that might limit the growth or quality of plants or harm the surrounding environment.