Carbon Sequestration

Michael Melendrez

Carbon Sequestration, how soil turns into top soil. I've shown you the foundation of our research into what the significant carbon based molecules of soil are and I've shown you how a ruined dispersed clay soil can be fix, healed, by inoculating it with a biomimetic soil ecology process developed by Soil Secrets that will capture carbon, change the color of the soil and change the structure of the soil, all in rapid sequence. In this post I'm showing you the roots of a young Shumard Red Oak that was cut down at the Morton Arboretum in Chicago. The wood found in tree roots is composed of cells that have cell walls made up of a sugar called Cellulose. Cellulose is a complex sugar made up of the same sugar that's found in our blood called Glucose, but in the case of Cellulose the Glucose is linked together to make a larger molecular substance that is structurally strong and able to be the structural backbone of wood. As you can see in these two images there's a lot of wood that has grown in the soil under this tree and the carbon making up the molecule of the cellulose will contribute to the soil building process as part of the soil carbon sequestration process.

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Question: How close to my house can I plant a Cottonwood tree?

Cottonwoods grow to be immense trees attaining dimensions of up to 40 - 50 feet tall and wide with a root system to match. Cottonwoods have a surface root system that can heave sidewalks, crack walls and home foundations if planted too close. Cottonwoods should be planted a minimal distance from structures of at least 25 feet if not further. Trees That Please Nursery carries two varieties of cotton-less, Cottonwood Trees. Please contact us or stop by the store for more information.

All About the Shantung Maple!

The Shantung Maple ( Acer truncatum ) is also known as the Purple Blow Maple due to the color of its newly emerging leaves which are red-purple (see photo below). These young expanding red-purple leaves change to green as they mature. Leaves are small, about the size of Japanese Red Maple leaves, perhaps 3’-4’ wide at maturity. The Shantung Maple grows 1′-2′ annually reaching 25″ tall and wide. This is our tree for all planting situations. This Maple does well in heavy clay, sandy soils, full sun, or part shade. It can be planted in a lawn or next to a hot asphalt street (see photo below). It seemingly is a happy tree enjoying life wherever it is placed. One place we would not recommend planting this tree is in a rockscape which is just too hot and inhospitable to support this beautiful tree. A smaller tree, the Shantung Ma...

How does nitrogen work in the soil, and where does it come from when we don't have a bag of fertilizer to supplement it?

I've spoken many times on this subject at conferences and it was the main theme of my talk when I represented North America at the World's 1st Humus Experts Meeting in Vienna Austria back in 2013. Most of the Nitrogen used by the vast tropical rain forests, or the fastest growing biomass place on Earth, the Coastal Redwood Forests of California, comes from the production of protein by the Free-Living Nitrogen Fixing bacteria in soil and the massive biomass structure of the mycorrhizal fungi. The proteins as it breaks down in the soil into amino acids are the building blocks of life and the explanation of the Soil Food Web. However, in order for those amino acids to enter a plant and be part of the nitrogen budget of the plant they must have the assistance of the mycorrhizal fungi. It's much more efficient for a plant to uptake amino acids whose molecules include nitrogen needed to build tissues than to uptake just nitrogen minus the amino acid. ...

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