Soil |
Some ideas about soil – Your Backyard
Many of you have experienced the frustration of underdeveloped, bloomless or fruitless plants. And many of you have waged war against this by repeatedly fertilizing, fumigating and watering your plants or your lawn. Ultimately, and far too often, this barrage of weaponry fails. All the time and money spent just leaves you as depleted as the very same garden you are trying to save. Some of you won’t give up. If you keep feeding your precious plants they will eventually get happy, right? Persistence always perseveres, right? Not always. There is a solid chance that your efforts are in vain because no matter what you do to your plants, they may be growing in a medium that has simply lost its capacity to sustain life. If your soil is no good, nothing will prosper. Period.
This page is about the soil found in backyards and home gardens: the very complex and often overlooked brown stuff under our feet. As a gardener, healthy soil can be your best friend and most important ally. Very often, however, soil can become a very frustrating enemy and saboteur. The best advice a new gardener can heed is this: devote your energy to your soil so that it can devote its energy to your plants. In order to do this, we must start by understanding soil.
The Encyclopedia Britannica defines soil as:
“soil, the biologically active, porous medium that has developed in the uppermost layer of the Earth’s crust... Soil is one of the principal substrata of life on Earth, serving as a reservoir of water and nutrients, as a medium for the filtration and breakdown of injurious wastes, and as a participant in the cycling of carbon and other elements through the global ecosystem”.
The key words to this definition of soil are “biologically active.” So, as you increase your soil’s organic matter and biological activity you will see an increase in the quantity and quality of nutrients available to your plants.
The key words to this definition of soil are “biologically active.” So, as you increase your soil’s organic matter and biological activity you will see an increase in the quantity and quality of nutrients available to your plants.
What is in a living soil?
When you go to the woods, to a national park or to a preserve, the soil you step on is truly alive. In addition to water, air and mineral particles, there are communities of organisms actively evolving and sharing or competing for nutrition and survival.
In a simplistic way of looking at them, these organisms consist of fungi, bacteria, protozoa, nematodes, bugs and earthworms. OK, let’s talk about them:
Fungi: There are three types of fungi in soil:
-Saprophytic (decomposers): These fungi break down organic matter into nutrients, break down some pollutants and produce organic acids that help in the creation of humic acid (humus).
-Mycorrhizal (mutualist): These fungi establish symbiotic relationships with plants by inoculating and colonizing the roots. Mycorrhizae produce microscopic filaments called hyphae which in turn form a network in the soil (mycelium), improving the root system, increasing nutrient intake.
-Pathogens (parasitic): cause disease or death of plants when they colonize roots.
Bacteria: Bacteria in a living soil have many functions: decomposers, nitrogen fixing, preventing erosion, producing antibiotics and pathogenic bacteria.
Protozoa: Protozoa consist of single cell organisms that play an important part in making nutrients available to plants. They also keep at bay the bacterial population and compete with and feed on pathogenic organisms.
Nematodes: Nematodes are non-segmented worms. Some feed on bacteria and fungus, others on plants roots and algae and some feed on smaller organisms and other nematodes. When they eat they release excess nitrogen and other nutrients in forms that are easier for the plants to absorb. The root-feeders are parasites and can affect the health of plants.
Bugs: There are many species of bugs in a living soil including beetles, springtails, ants, sow bugs and centipedes, spiders and mites and larger like scorpions. They can eat dead plant matter, bacteria and fungi, living roots and other parts of plants and other insects.
Earthworms: Their presence indicates a healthy living soil. They stimulate microbial activity, mix and aggregate soils, enhance porosity of the soil, feed on bacteria and fungi, decompose organic matter and transport nutrients through the soil.
The soil in your backyard:
When your home was built, the builder either transported top soil to your site or soil was “made” by mixing dug earth with some peat and other moisture retaining materials. Unfortunately this mixed or man-made soil is lacking in minerals, nutrients and organic matter. In comparison to the soil found in nature, it is not nearly as ‘biologically active.’
Now imagine this weak soil and add years of fertilization to the mix, fertilizers and agrochemicals that deplete the soil of even more life and minerals. In many cases this abuse transforms already unhealthy soil into a lifeless mixture of mineral particles.
There is good news however: You can dedicate some time to your backyard soil and restore it to its natural glory!
You can wage war against your unproductive soil and transform it into the active foundation of a beautiful healthy garden by doing the following:
Evaluate your soil: Many factors define the quality of a good soil. Besides biological activity, soil has physical characteristics such as structure (how the particles are aggregated together), texture (capacity to hold water and drain, capacity to hold air, resistance to erosion), pH (acidity vs. alkalinity) and fertility (presence of nutrients, minerals and other elements). It is always a good idea to evaluate your soil. You can scoop some of your garden’s soil and feel it with your hands. Feel and recognize the moisture, porosity, the color and size of the lumps and how they break. When your soil is no longer active, particles do not lump and it is rather light in color. Healthy soil has a very earthy smell whereas unhealthy soil does not. A search in the web for images of soil will give you an idea of what a good soil should look like.
Bring mycorrhiza to the game. Inoculate the whole garden with a good mycorrhizal inoculum like our SYMBIVIT® endomycorrhiza. Most of your plants in your backyard are endomycorrhizal. Symbivit contains a mixture of six different endomycorrhizas of the Glomus family.
Composts: Compost is decomposed organic matter in its various stages. Composting is then a decomposition process. Organic roughage (green waste) is decomposed by fungi, bacteria and other soil organisms. Adding compost will provide the soil with needed microorganisms, bugs, worms and humus. These organisms, as explained above, eat and digest these decomposing organic matters transforming nutrients into forms that can be absorbed by the plants. It is very important to know the maturity of the compost. Immature compost may retain nitrogen in the soil not allowing it to be available to plants.
Humus: A by-product of organic decomposition, humus is the end product of composting. Humus contains nutrients that will be released slowly to plants and often gives the dark color to the soil.
Worm castings or Vermicompost: a good source of organic matter richer in nutrients, worm castings can be pricier than compost and mulch. Worms eat and digest organic matter and their excretions contain organic matter, which serves as a reliable food source for your plants. Worm castings are an organic way to feed your soil, and in turn, your plants.
Organic or natural slow release fertilizers: Quick release fertilizers, usually synthetic and less expensive, need to be applied frequently. If applied in excess and repeatedly, these fertilizers can hurt your plants, burn your lawn and deplete your soil organisms. Natural and organic fertilizers come from either plant or animal products. Most release nutrients over time, are not water-soluble and do not require frequent application. These are a little more expensive but in the long run will better serve your soil, garden and yard.
Reference: for more information please visit SOIL BIOLOGY (USDA-NRCS):
http://soils.usda.gov/SQI/concepts/soil_biology/biology.html
Web Sites with information about soil quality:
http://www.sarep.ucdavis.edu/soil/websites.htm