How do plants extract nutrients from the ground?
I've been doing quite a lot of gardening in the past 3 years.<p>There is a plethora of home gardeners and/or permaculture resources on the internet that generally like as much organic matter as possible.<p>I some of that strategy as it's convenient at home to supply nutrients to plants without much work.<p>But, I can't help but feel it's all sort of wish washy science.<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHZHy3_7PPE" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHZHy3_7PPE</a><p>^ I found this guys videos much more satisfactory to "need the facts" mindset. He uses knowledge from the agricultural industry instead of the "organic" approach.<p>In short, plant roots actually love sand, silt and clay, and actually don't like organic matter around their roots as it causes rot. He suggests that you should always just top feed your plants. (throw compost around the top of the plants only) 
When people say don't over water your plants, it's not because of the water, but because of the organic matter in your pots mixing with water and making sewerage. (e.g. this is why hydroponics works)<p>Anyway, I'd suggest watching some of his videos on perfect soil for an opinion you don't find much of in home gardening videos.<p>(This was touchy for me because when I started gardened everyone described my soil as sandy, shit and told me to amend it with X, Y and Z. I was too lazy to listen at the time and noticed that my plants were perfectly fine growing in sand as long as I top fed regularly.)