Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Nancy Babbitt <nbabbitt2003@adelphia.net>]

Thank you Paul.

Roots of living plants in combination with microbes, produce humus.   
Do I have it right?

I'll read the links you included on glomalin.

Carol, I am not trying to be argumentative or mis-informative, just  
someone who is trying to get a better understanding.  Maybe, it  
shows . . .

I'm a fairly new gardener.

Nancy,
On Jul 3, 2006, at 12:51 AM, TradingPostPaul wrote:

> I don't write as a soil expert but as a learner. It's my  
> understanding that
> most plants form symbiotic relationships with mycorrhizal fungi,  
> and it's
> the fungal hyphae that produces the glomalin that aggregates clay  
> particles
> with certain elements and biological compounds that ends in what we  
> call
> humus. This does not happen in the compost pile but in the soil  
> with plant
> roots. Finished compost is not humus.
>
> You say
> > If compost then
> > gets disturbed to add to garden or field, then again there is a risk
> > to losing any humus that has formed, because it will get exposed to
> > the air.
> and
> > You just stated that oxygen breaks down humus.  That is why I suggest
> > not turning a pile to heat it up (oxidize?).  Am I correct in
> > believing that if it's necessary to get air into a pile to make it
> > heat up, then it's the oxygen that's allowing the the process that
> > heats up the pile to take place, therefore it is oxidizing the pile?
>
> As I said, humus isn't formed in the compost pile, but in the soil  
> with
> plant roots. Turning the compost to aid in heating and speed  
> decomposition
> won't oxidize humus that isn't there yet.
>
> Some interesting sites on glomalin
> http://ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2003/030205.htm
> http://invam.caf.wvu.edu/methods/mycorrhizae/glomalin.htm
> http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/oct97/glomalin1097.htm
> http://abstracts.co.allenpress.com/pweb/esa2000/abstracts/ 
> MAT-3-58-40.html
>
> And esp Organic Matter, Humus, and the Soil Foodweb at
> http://attra.org/attra-pub/PDF/soilmgmt.pdf
>
>
> I hope that helps.
>
> paul, tradingpost@riseup.net
> ---------------