SARE-funded project focuses on soil improvement in rural Alaska

Would-be gardeners in seven remote Alaska communities will learn how to prepare soil with local ingredients, thanks to a special $48,500 Western Sustainable Agriculture and Research Education grant to UAF’s School of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences.

Jodie Anderson, (pictured above working on a composting project) SNRAS researcher and instructor, said more and more people around the state are interested in growing their own food. “And you’ve got to start with soil,” she said.

Producers in an island off of Juneau, in Naknek, Minto, Galena, and Kotzebue will participate in the project, dubbed “Building Alaska Garden Soils from the Ground Up: Local Soils Research and Demonstration Projects.”

“Many Alaska communities have stated an interest in food production, but perceive that a lack of adequate soils inhibits gardening,” Anderson said. Alaskans frequently encounter soil problems, such as thin root zones, nutrient-poor soils with low organic material content, and issues with permafrost. Despite the high cost of shipping people often import potting soil, not realizing that many of the necessary soil components can be found locally. Compost is one key ingredient that is often neglected or overlooked.

The project will address perceived gardening barriers during two community workshops. The research component will compare the nutrient availability throughout the growing season in locally built and amended soils with locally built synthetically fertilized soils, and will compare vegetable yields, using potatoes as the common crop. Producers in each location will build four raised beds and fill them with locally prepared soils. Two beds will be fertilized with local organic nutrient sources and two beds with synthetic fertilizer.

The soils project is designed to get Alaskans growing food in raised beds and to motivate and educate local producers by teaching them how to build garden soils from locally available materials.

Videos emphasizing coastal areas and river locations will be produced to share with other rural communities.

“I hope this will teach people that they have all the soil components they need in their own area and they can make their own garden soils to grow their own veggies,” Anderson said.

Other contributors are Associate Professor Mingchu Zhang, Assistant Professor Jeff Smeenk, and UAF Cooperative Extension Service Agents Heidi Rader and Darren Snyder.