"symplastless" expounded:

Webster online
1: firm land : earth2 a: the upper layer of earth that may be dug or plowed
and in which plants grow b: the superficial unconsolidated and usually
weathered part of the mantle of a planet and especially of the earth3:
country, land our native soil4: the agricultural life or calling5: a
medium in which something takes hold and develops

Nothing about living organisms. BTW, soil is dead and alive both. A
duality just as trees are alive and dead both. We have no word for a
substance that is both living and dead - wood, soil.

John, nothing is as cut and dry as you seem to see it. Soil is a
community consisting of what you've definied above and the organisms
that live in it. Without the organisms that live within the soil
nothing will grow. I don't care what a piece of paper says; nailing
down a dry definition isn't going to help our plants grow. Feed your
soil with organic matter and your plants will grow (my definition of
plants: anything that photosynthesizes, so that includes your beloved
trees). )
--
Ann, gardening in Zone 6a
South of Boston, Massachusetts
e-mail address is not checked
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