permaculture

[Steve Diver <steved@ncatark.uark.edu>]

The question arises, how to encourage fungal populations in
the soil:

Growing perennials, vines, and trees in combination with
polycultural planting schemes like intercropping, strip cropping
or alleycropping is one of the principal ways to increase
fungal abunance and fungal diversity.  Perennial plants foster a
fungal-dominated rhizosphere.  Secondly, the tillage associatd
with annual cropping systems disrupts fungi and favors bacteria.
So it is literally a combination of predominant plants in the
landscape / agroecosystem (and the pattern in which they are
arranged) as well as the management practices in terms of
tillage and associated amounts of crop residues / mulches.

Chapter 2:  The Food Web & Soil Health in The Soil Biology
Primer, contains this diagram illustrating the impact of
above-ground plant ecosystems on below-ground soil foodwebs:

Biomass of Soil Organisms in Four Ecosystems
http://www.statlab.iastate.edu/survey/SQI/SoilBiology/images/B-1.jpg

As well as this table that provides additional perspective on
the fungal and bacterial dominance in agricultural, prairie, and
forest soils:

Typical Numbers of Soil Organisms in Healthy Ecosystems
http://www.statlab.iastate.edu/survey/SQI/SoilBiology/images/B-2.jpg

For a broad perspective, here is the complete Soil Biology Primer;
one of the most important publications in the history of U.S.D.A.

Soil Biology Primer
http://www.statlab.iastate.edu/survey/SQI/SoilBiology/soil_biology_primer.htm

Composts and compost teas are recognized as a dynamic way
to inoculate soils with beneficial microbes as well as provide
food and shelter for beneficical microbes.

"Notes on Compost Teas" contains the typical amounts and
diversity of microbes in soils, composts, and compost teas.
Looking at healthy soils, you may encounter 5,000 to
10,000 fungal species in a teaspoon full.  Composts have
*greater* abundance and diversity than soils.

Notes on Compost Teas
http://www.attra.org/attra-pub/PDF/compost-tea-notes.pdf

If you wish to bring soil, or clay, on the farm into the re-inoculation
picture, I suggest you add it to the compost pile at the initial
compost pile building stage so it has time to undergo clay-humus
transformation rather than adding raw soil to compost tea
brewing process.  The compost tea brewing process itself is
focused on high quality, finished compost.

Clay-Humus: The Seat of Soil Fertility
http://ncatark.uark.edu/~steved/clay-humus.html

Herbal teas, prepared from plants growing on the farm,
are another way to encourage inoculation and transformation.

BD preps help organize subtle energy patterns, bring etheric
life energy to the farm, and metabolize biological processes
such as decomposition of organic matter and formation of
soil humus.   The BD-Now discussion group is a great place
to learn about BD preps in action.

BD-Now Web Archives and Join
http://csf.colorado.edu/biodynamics/

Steve Diver


Elijah Smith wrote:

> In the literature I've read about glyphosates, it's mentioned that while
> there's a drop in the populations of many fungi in treated soils, a few
> fungi have increased populations - indicating (to me at least) that those
> funguses are cleaning it up.
>
> Steve, I think you mentioned biodynamic preps as a strategy for cleanup, and
> since soil life seems to be the main way Roundup gets decomposed, I was
> thinking of making aerated compost teas with some of the soil from the land
> to try to spread that fungus that cleans glyphosates.