You're listening to the Joe Gardner Show, the podcast all about gardening, where we cover

everything you need to know to grow like a pro, no experience required.

And now here's your guide, National Gardening Television Host, and the Joe Behind Joe Gardner,

Joe Lample.

Hi everybody, it's Joe Lample, the Joe Behind Joe Gardner, and welcome to the Joe Gardner

Show.

You know, we've been on a roll lately with several geek alert episodes around soil

science, including last week's five star geek alert on soil bacteria and rhizophagy.

And if you don't know what in the world I'm talking about right now, I urge you to listen

to that mind blowing episode from last week, it's episode number 282.

But today we keep that geek alert alive as we explore another facet of soil chemistry.

If you've ever heard the term cation exchange capacity, or CEC for short, the term explains

a lot about how protons and electrons influence soil moisture and fertility.

Now hang in there with me, even if you're not up on your soil chemistry or related terminology,

sit tight because you don't have to be.

But listening to our guest today, Debbie Flower, will give you a much better understanding

of how water moves through the soil, and it has a lot less to do with gravity than you

might think by the way, plus how water nutrients become available to our plants.

And that's something we should all know more about, especially if you want to be a

better smarter gardener, having a basic understanding behind the science of how water nutrients

move through the soil and into plants is huge.

So let me just briefly tell you how this episode came together.

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