Re: Beneficial Soil Microbes

From: Elaine Ingham (Soilfoodweb@AOL.COM)
Date: Tue Dec 17 2002 - 01:26:40 EST


Hi Sal -

Sure, the point is to get all these great organisms back in the soil and keep
them happy. You don't have to keep adding them over and over. When did
anyone say you had to keep adding them forever?

People have been assuming things again......

Organic growers have to give up the sulfur and the copper, and need to reduce
tillage to the greatest extent they can.

PLEASE, listen to what I just said. I did not say stop tilling. I said to
the minimum extent that you can. You slice and dice the fungi whenever you
till.

Of course, you don't till in an orchard under the trees, so you can get that
soil fungal and keep it fungal. You just have to add back into the soil the
nutrients you remove in your crop each year. And how do you add back those
nutrients?

IN THE COMPOST. Or the compost tea. And while you are at it, make sure you
add back any of the organisms you might have lost as the result of air
pollution, pesticide drift, early freeze, drought, etc.

We always see people able to back off and reduce the compost tea sprays they
use. Some of the golf courses we work with had to apply tea weekly to deal
with disease at first, but they are now only applying tea three to four times
through the whole summer. Compaction has been dealt with, disease not
present, weeds reduced nearly completely (we are still working on the Poa -
bentgrass question).

So, with time, getting the organisms back, maintaining food resources for the
organisms, maintaining nutrient inputs, raising crops gets to be easier. The
system maintains itself. Will it ever be maintenance free? Don't think so.


Elaine Ingham
President, Soil Foodweb Inc.
www.soilfoodweb.com


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