Soil Health

What We Do

This website, Purdue Soil Health, provides hands-on soil health educational activities for high school teachers, a photo and video library, and general information about Purdue soil health research and educational workshops. Ultimately, we hope this collaborative work will lead to improved, soil-friendly farming and gardening practices thereby improving environmental quality, sustainability, and efficiency.

Goals

  • Improved understanding of the importance of soil health
  • Improved understanding of how agriculture professionals, farmers, and gardeners can achieve soil health
  • To provide the tools that teachers (both formal and informal) can use to educate others about soil health.

Contact Us

Walt Sell
Assistant Program Leader
Diversified Farming and Food Systems
wsell@purdue.edu
615 W State Street
West Lafayette, IN 47907
(574) 201-8065

Soil Basics

Soil Basics

Soil Samples
Soil Basics

Soil Basics includes lessons on soil origins, profiles, components, structure, pesticides, and ag soils.

Click to Learn About Soil Basics

Soil Health Basics

Soil Health Basics

Harvesting potatoes
Soil Health Basics

Soil Health Basics includes how healthy soil should look and smell, economics, increasing OM, and urban gardening.

Click to Learn About Soil Health Basics

Soil Photo & Video Library

Soil Photo & Video Library

Gathering vegetables in a garden
Soil Photo & Video Library

Our specialists have compiled a list of photos and videos regarding Soil Health. Check out these photos and resources about soil basics, health, and additional resources.

Click to view Photos and Videos

Additional Resources

Additional Resources

the roots of a vegetable
Additional Resources

Click to view additional resources that can help with keeping your soil healthy.

View Additional Resources

photo of farm
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 Dan DeSutter - Attica, Indiana

Dan DeSutter farms 4,500 acres in west central Indiana, using no-till, cover crops and manure to improve soil quality while maintaining high levels of crop production.

 Jamie Scott - Pierceton, Indiana

Jamie Scott, of Pierceton, Ind., farms 2,000 acres as part of a family operation. All tillable acres are no-tilled or strip tilled and have had cover crops planted for the past seven years.

Purdue Extension

Purdue Extension is a service tailored to meet the needs of Indiana, needs we know firsthand. Our educators, specialists, and volunteers live and work in all 92 Indiana counties. Purdue Extension provides the link between Land Grant research and Indiana citizens.

North Central SARE

Some of the images found on this website were supplied from the SARE Photo Library and Educator resources were developed with a grant from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under award number 2016-38640-2538 through the North Central Region SARE program under subaward number ENC16-152, PI: Natalie Carroll, Ph.D..