Soil regeneration at the MonViso Institute

The journey from lack of attention and destroyed top soil to soil restoration and accompanied social learning.
A real example from praxis around the MVI hemp fields on 1500m asl, Italian Alps.

Part 1 - lack of attention and awareness leading to degenerated soils

The starting point: A mistake to learn from.

2016-17. Years ago, when major earth

movements happened at the initiation of the
MonViso Institute (MVI) campus in the Italian
Alps, we did not pay attention at the time when
workers took off top soil from this slope to the
left, to fill up a driveway leveling below the road.
It was both a lack of awareness and attention.

Some m3 of soil were needed to level out the

terrain below the road and allow for a terraced
access to the sloped land. The "easy fix" was to
scrape off soil from the meadow above the road,
which is part of the MVI custodial land, since
there was no use plan yet at that time.

The humus rich top soil up here on 1500m asl in

the mountains is about 10-15cm thick. After the
first few centimeters of plant litter (O-​horizon) we
find the surface A-​horizon where most soil life
takes place. Up here at MVI, O and A make up
about 15cm.
Down below from this we find a not very
structured B-​horizon, the layer where substances
from the top soil accumulate, such as iron oxides
and clay minerals. Then the main C-​horizon
"substratum" follows with partly weathered rocks.
Finally the bedrock R-​horizon forms the largely
continuous mass.
(source: World Reference Base for Soil Resources
(WRB))

The entire top soil A-​horizon was taken off, which

was a mistake. The photos taken from a drone
show the soil "wound" with the white excavator
above the road.

Instead, what we should have paid attention to is

carefully scraping the O/A top soil off, putting it
aside, then taking out the layers below for the
needed leveling below the road, and finally
refilling the top layer back into place.

We were left with an infertile, degenerated soil.

Without humus, without the microbe rich top soil,
the A-​horizon.
Not much regrew on this soil. It was unprotected
from the hot summer sun and prone to erosion
from strong mountain rain, hail, and storms.

Even the first years of trying to grow hemp to help

the restoration process failed - too barren, too
degenerated with lack of humus and microbes,
and without water storing capacities, was the
ground.

MVI / T. Luthe & A. Rodewald _ page 1/3

Soil regeneration at the MonViso Institute
The journey from lack of attention and destroyed top soil to soil restoration and accompanied social learning.
A real example from praxis around the MVI hemp fields on 1500m asl, Italian Alps.

Part 2 - soil restoration

The soil regeneration journey began with its

restoration.
First, we terraced the land, carefully by hand, to
prevent further soil erosion by water, through the
heavy rains after thunder storms in early summer.
The manual work involved airing and loosening
the compacted soil from the weight of the
excavator.
As well, we started depositing organic matter to
the site, on top of the barren soil, slightly mixing it
under - foliage, cut grass, wood chips, straw, goat
manure, kitchen compost.

Then, we began to collect charcoal from the fires

on campus - the social fire dish for barbecues,
and the pizza oven. We used to mix the charcoal
with wood saw dust for the dry compost toilet, but
now reapplied the majority of the fire "waste" as
soil enrichers with millions of micropores and a
huge "hidden" surface, ready to capture and host
moisture, nutrients, and build a new microbiome
to help rebuild the soil.

To infuse the charcoal's micropores with

nutrients, we used the abundance of local nettles
on campus (stinging nettle, Urtica dioica) - prone
to former cow grazing's eutrophication and our
attempt to control their growth - to soak them in
water and extract some of the plant's nitrogen
(and further minerals, flavanoides, amino acids,
proteins and vitamins), which would, after some
days in water, form a very rich natural fertilizer.
For free, from "waste" materials.

We experimented with two different ways for

infusing the charcoal with the fertilizer.
One was to soak the charcoal for days in the
water-​thinned liquid and then spread the infused
coal into the soil; the second was to burry the coal
and then pour the thinned liquid over.
Make sure you thin the nettle fertilizer with water
1:10 or 1:20 for direct application.

Recap:
Soils are amongst the most biodiverse places on
Earth, hosting bacteria, fungi, worms, termites.
Soils rich in organic matter and covered with
greens store massive amounts of CO2, they filter
and retain water, they are the foundation to grow
food via their nutrient recycling functions.

(More info: https://www.fao.org/soils-​portal/soil-​

biodiversity/en/)

MVI / T. Luthe & A. Rodewald _ page 2/3

Soil regeneration at the MonViso Institute
The journey from lack of attention and destroyed top soil to soil restoration and accompanied social learning.
A real example from praxis around the MVI hemp fields on 1500m asl, Italian Alps.

Part 3 - social learning and harvest

With both techniques, the infused dark charcoal needed

to be buried and slightly covered with topsoil, so that
the sun would not heat up the coal to 40°C and more,
which can harm and kill the microbiom regenerating
form the infused microsurface of the charcoal pieces.

This entire process was shared with our communities,

with students, with visitors, with volunteers, and with
locals. The co-​learning and co-​creation process of
learning from failure, of creatively designing with low
tech in a circular way, and the embodiment of touching
soils that are healthy, degenerated, restored, and
regenerating, together form the real-​world
experimentation around soil regeneration.

On the left photo, the MVI team is sowing hemp. On the

right photo, a student course learns about soil
regeneration through physical onsite work.

Spring 2023.
6 years after destroying the soil of this site, with
continuous depositing of organic matter to rebuild
humus, of terracing against erosion, and of infusing
"loaded" charcoal, the hemp finally kept growing, and
many herbs have been naturally re-​occupying the site.

Hemp further helps rebuilding the soil through its

strong soil-​airing root system and its independence
from pesticides.

2016 - hemp growth before the soil degeneration.

Hemp is a circular plant. At the MVI we embody the

entire hemp system, from its growth to its harvest, to
the fiber-​shive separation, to fiber composite skis
building, to hempcrete insulation material for buildings,
to CBD oil generation, to hemp nuts for oil, flower, and
as snack (photo left below).

Anna Rodewald of the MVI team is a textile engineer and

permaculture designer - here shown while manually
airing the top soil (right photo).

Further information, sharing of other practices and

feedback with Anna:

anna.rodelwald@monviso-​institute.org
https://monviso-​institute.org

Photos and text: Tobias Luthe

MVI / T. Luthe & A. Rodewald _ page 3/3