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A comment on RNA demethylation increases rice and potato yields 50%. Parent comment

Re:RNA demethylation increases rice and potato yields 50% by AngryData on Friday July 23, 2021 @12:46AM (#27927310)
The soil is not a mere substrate, it is an entire ecosystem into itself. Topsoil depth is directly correlated with crop yield, and top soil depth has been shrinking. It takes atleast 50 years, often longer, to turn shit soil into good top soil worth anything and it requires sacrificing a lot of the yield to do so.

Growing alfalfa would help, but that is often not that profitable compared to reaping the soil and throwing on more artificial fertilizer until the soil is garbage.

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Re:RNA demethylation increases rice and potato yields 50% by soperj on Friday July 23, 2021 @01:43AM (#27927598)
People have done it alot faster than 50 years.

Method boils down to, no till, plant a mix of cover crops, and don't plant mono culture. Ended up getting a inch of top soil a year.

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Re:RNA demethylation increases rice and potato yields 50% by tremon on Friday July 23, 2021 @04:42AM (#27928559)
plant a mix of cover crops

You're starting halfway on the track. Most things you plant in arid soil won't grow, which is the situation where the GP started from. Sure, once you have a soil quality where your crop mix grows, it will take less than 50 years.

"How to get an inch of topsoil?" - "first, have an inch of topsoil" isn't really the scenario the GP was thinking of.

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Re:RNA demethylation increases rice and potato yields 50% by soperj on Friday July 23, 2021 @04:02PM (#27934968)
The prairies in Canada/US are very arid, and they have no problem growing things.
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Re:RNA demethylation increases rice and potato yields 50% by d110af5ccf on Friday July 23, 2021 @01:45AM (#27927603)
> It takes atleast 50 years, often longer

Or, crazy idea, just do exactly what we do with fertilizer. Identify what's missing, prepare it en masse, and add it back in. This could include microbes, minerals, certain types of organic material, you name it. As our understanding of a system improves so too does our ability to efficiently manipulate it to achieve the end result that we want.

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Re:RNA demethylation increases rice and potato yields 50% by ClumsyPilot on Friday July 23, 2021 @05:42AM (#27928905)
You don't understant the volumes involved in farming, 4 inches of soil * area of 1000 hectares = 3 million tons of material.
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Re:RNA demethylation increases rice and potato yields 50% by d110af5ccf on Friday July 23, 2021 @06:08AM (#27929026)
No one suggested replacing the soil wholesale. I described additional things which might be incorporated into existing fertilizers in the future. I believe many of them already include organic matter of various sorts.

For the record, I believe you drastically underestimate our current practices and capabilities. We've been performing nitrogen fixation on an industrial scale since the early 1900s.

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Re:RNA demethylation increases rice and potato yields 50% by imtringued on Friday July 23, 2021 @08:45AM (#27930042)
No, it's exactly what you suggested. Let's say you can get a microbial solution manufactured in a lab. You still have to distribute it and let it "grow" into the soil. That is exactly the opposite of what you said you wanted though. It's not the instant application process that fertilizers have. Therefore you actually do need to supplement the soil wholesale for an instant result. Waiting for the "dumb bacteria" to do their job costs money so it won't happen.
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Re:RNA demethylation increases rice and potato yields 50% by ClumsyPilot on Friday July 23, 2021 @06:58AM (#27929330)
You are talking about replacing 30% of topsoil, thats how much organic matter as a percentage of soil you need to have for soil to be soil and not sand.

Its not about capabilities, ita about cost.

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Re:RNA demethylation increases rice and potato yields 50% by FooBarWidget on Friday July 23, 2021 @02:23AM (#27927789)
Why is it hard to restore topsoil?
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