Dirt Is Alive! How Soil Feeds a Plant

Scoop up one spoonful of soil from a garden, and you are holding more living things than there are people on the whole planet - tiny bugs, wiggly worms, and even smaller helpers called microbes that are too small to see!

What lives inside soil and what it does How a plant's roots drink water and food from soil Why soil, sun, and water all work together What happens to a seed with no soil at all

Worms dig little tunnels through soil, and those tunnels let air and water sneak down to plant roots. Microbes, which are living things too tiny to see, munch up old dead leaves and turn them into food that plants can use. Soil also has tiny bits of broken-down rock mixed in, giving plants minerals they need to grow strong.

A plant's roots grow down and out through the soil, reaching toward water. Water in the soil carries dissolved food called nutrients, and the roots soak both up together, like a straw sipping a smoothie. That water and food travels up through the stem to feed the leaves and help the whole plant grow.

A plant needs all three of its helpers at once. Sunlight gives the leaves energy, water and nutrients come up through the soil and roots, and the soil itself holds the plant steady so it doesn't fall over. Take away the soil, and even a plant with plenty of sun and water has nowhere to root and no nutrients to eat.