permaculture

[Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject:        Re: [compost_tea] Re: Go Neil! go Jeff!
Date:   Mon, 28 Oct 2013 13:11:16 -0400 (EDT)
From:   soilfoodweb@aol.com
To:     compost_tea@yahoogroups.com

Go Neil!  Go Jeff!

Microbes Rule!

Ok, another try at explaining microbes and what they do for us in a
simple, but pretty much inclusive way .....

Plants "know" what they need based on limitations to their growth, or
limitation to the ability to make flowers, seeds, etc.  The plant puts
out those exudates, in the specific part of the root system (based on J.
Loper's work, and many others at this point, in root exudate types and
amounts) that it needs specific nutrients, to spur specific bacetrial
and fungal individuals to grow.  As these specific species of bacteria
or fungi grow, they make enzymes to solublize the nutrients that the
plant needs (depends on the exudate the plant put out) straight from the
rocks, pebbles, sand, silt, clay and / or the organic matter present in
the soil.

Until your soil runs out of sand, silt, clay or organic matter, there is
really no need to put out any inorganic fertilizer.  A lack of any
nutrient for your plant is really more a lack of the proper sets of
microorganisms being present in the soil to do the job the plant needs
to have done.  No organism to do the work, no soluble nutrients can be
made for the plant.

The enzymes made by the bacteria and fungi to solubilize the particular
needed nutrients are taken up by the bacteria and fungi that made the
enzymes.  Thus those solubilized nutrients are no longer soluble, but
instead tied up inside the bacteria and fungi, held in the soil and not
leachable.

Protozoa, nematodes, and microarthropods need to eat the bacteria and
fungi to release the organic nutrients inside the bacteria and fungi.
These released nutrients are now in the form that plants can easily take
- up, either as chelated nutrients forms, or the soluble mineral
nutrient forms that plants require.

All of these interactions are most concentrated at the root surface,
where the plant is releasing exudates to start the whole process.  Or
course the predators of bacteria and fungi are going to be concentrated
and most active around the roots, because the plant is feeding their
prey.... i.e., bacteria and fungi...so the prey is in high numbers
(biomass).

Our major function  as growers is to make sure the full diversity of
what the plants needs in terms of bacteria, fungi, protozoa, nematodes
and microarthropods are present and functioning in the aerobic
environment that selects for the beneficials.


Hopefully, pretty clear and understandable.  Questions?

Elaine R. Ingham
Consultant

<>
On soil tests, nutrient availability, restoring soil health, etc.
<>

Actually, I can show you many soil chemistry tests that show extremely low
soluble nutrients present in the soil, but plenty of that nutrient in the
plant.   As you said,there are many cases of plenty of soluble nutrient in
the soil, but none getting into the plant.

Since there isn't good agreement between solublenutrient concentrations and
whatactually getsinto the plant, it leaves one to question the veracity of
a soluble nutrient soil chemistry assessment.

Now, we know that plants need to have the soluble forms of these nutrients
in the area around the root because a fair amount of research has
documented that addition of the soluble form of  the nutrient is what moves
into the plant.  No argument there from anyone ..... ok there are some
interesting studies out there that bring caveats to the  simplicity of
that view, but lets set those a side as things to be assessedat a later
time.

The question really is, how do nutrients come to be in those soluble,
inorganic forms, or chelated forms, in the area around the roots.

You will agree with me that no one has been out pouring inorganic
fertilizers on the soil in any natural system ever.  and yet those systems
manage to be highly productive, right?  So there is a natural mechanism
that works to supply soluble inorganic nutrients to plants.  that natural
set of interactions is what the soil food web does.

Another point you are missing in this is that  ALL SOILS contain massive
amounts of ALL NUTRIENTS.  Look in any soils book, look at the TOTAL
nutrient concentration of any mineral element in soil.  No..... not the
SOLUBLE, inorganic nutrient concentration.  Those are two VERY DIFFERENT
THINGS.

Most people steeped in the fertilizer world misses the point here the first
couple times I go through this.  So let me repeat.....

TOTAL MINERAL NUTRIENT CONCENTRATION is not lacking for anything in any
soil we use for agricultural purposes.  Maybe some exception when dealing
with highly weathered, bottom of the ocean sediments for some million plus
years, but not really usedfor agriculture, although we overcome that
through addition of organic matter and organisms.

SOLUBLE, INORGANIC NUTRIENT CONCENTRATIONS are a totally different, tiny,
tiny fraction of the total nutrient concentration.

How does one move nutrients from the TOTAL into the SOLUBLE pool?

Let me point out that M3 misses about 75 to 90% of the total mineral
nutrients in soil. And that because the same parent material makes up the
sand, silt and clay content in that loam as in that alluvial soil (washed
in from where?  Just a little upstream?), the total mineral concentration
in the sand,silt, clay, pebbles and rocks are not really different enough
to worry about.

The ONLY reason the Green Revolution "works" is because the organisms doing
the work of converting nutrients in the rocks, sand,silt, clay, etc into
soluble, inorganic, plant-available forms were destroyed through
agricultural practices.

How do we stop destroying the very organisms on which our continued
existence depends?

 Elaine R. Ingham

<>

I have worked most closely with EAL, but the same tests have been done and
can be done in any soil chem lab.

In fact the table of nutrient concentrations I use in my talks come from a
standard intro to soil textbook and from Sparks' original paper.

  Elaine R. Ingham
President, Soil Foodweb Inc.

<>

Speaking one Scot to another; the conversion from nuked dirt back to
living, functioning soil only requires replacement of the proper biology,
plus the foods to feed that biology.  Plants provide the food, as long as
the beneficial organisms are present in the soil.

Thus, you ---- or a friend -- really have to use a microscope to figure out
whether you have any life in your dirt to start out, what life is missing
and then as you try to put that missing life back in the dirt to convert it
to soil, you have to be able to KNOW the organisms are returning and
functioning as they ought.

If you don't have a shadowing microscope or don't know how to use it, you
are functioning like a doctor without a thermometer, stethoscope, or
syringe.

How fast could a doctor heal someone of an illness if they have no tools to
diagnose the illness?  How would they be able to tell the difference
between pneumonia and strep throat?  After the patient died?

So, use that analogy to think about how fast you can fix a lack of biology
if you have no way to assess if the full food web is present, other than
you good yields (live patient), or no yields (dead patient) at the end of
the growing season.  Overwhelming weed problems mean that isn't soil you
are farming in, it is dirt.  Fix the biology, turn that dirt into soil, and
the weed problem gets less and less overtime.

How long does it take?

It takes as long as it takes to get the biology right.

People have converted their dirt into soil overnight with the right
compost, containing the right biology,

I know people who have tried for 33 years or more to convert their dirt
into soil, but have yet to make one iota of progress in that conversion,
because they refuse to understand that the black, stinky, smelly, anaerobic
stuff they insist is compost is, in fact, not compost at all.

Putrified organic matter kills the very organisms that are needed.  Lime,
gypsum, inorganic fertilizers kill the very organisms that are needed to do
the conversion. Excessive tillage kills the very organisms that are needed.

If you don't know what is in your soil, you can't manage it, and most
likely then, it will take you decades, if not centuries, to fix nitrogen
cycling.

When destruction is constantly visited upon the organisms that are meant to
do the job of converting the mineral, not-plant-available nutrients that
are in sand, silt and clay  --- and oh yeah, organic matter too ---  who
could possibly be surprised that the organisms aren't doing their jobs, and
the biological approach "isn't working"?

Don't expect dirt to do the job of soil.

 Elaine R. Ingham