Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>]

Thanks, I had a couple doubts about points made in Wikipedia, esp without a 
credible source named up front.  On the subject of the microbes, I recall Sir 
Albert decades ago wrote a great deal about Miccorhizae, which is fungal 
isn't it? What's it's role in humus forming? Or is it more important in 
feeding nutrients directly to roots?

paul, tradingpost@riseup.net
---------------

The outstanding scientific discovery of the twentieth century is not 
television, or radio, but rather the complexity of the land organism. Only 
those who know the most about it can appreciate how little we know about it.
   - Aldo Leopold in  Round River, 1933
*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 5/19/2006 at 1:27 PM Soilsecrets@aol.com wrote:

>While Wikipedia is a fun site to surf and look up stuff, it is not a
>solid
>source of information as it can be edited easily by anyone.
>
>Humus is made by an aerobic Humification process using only bacteria
>(never
>fungi directly*) which depend on oxygen and the proper calories and
>precursors to manufacture the organic acids that are arranged in a
>conglomeration of
>molecules we call humus.  The final material is not  static nor stable and
>in
>fact continues to break down in time with a half life  of about 50 years.
>Unless more oxygen and nitrogen are introduced into the  equation, in
>which case
>it breaks down faster.
>
>* Fungi being the goats of the soil will decompose more difficult
>materials
>such as the lignins of wood, resulting in those calories becoming useful
>to
>bacteria.  So indirectly fungi are involved in the process of
>Humification.
>
>Michael Martin Melendrez Ph.D.
>Soil Secrets LLC