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How to feed and care for your Soil Foodweb.



I clipped the following from Elaine Ingham's Soil Foodweb site and am
sending it out to all the gardeners I know. If you haven't been to her
webpage, go! <http://www.soilfoodweb.com/index.htm> Its dripping with
useful information about healthy soils. You can also subscribe to her
Free online newsletter.

PRODUCTS

                        The following are products that help resuscitate
different organisms in the
                        foodweb. The two main categories are:

                           1.food resources for organisms to grow on,
and
                           2.products that contain organisms.

                        Often inorganic minerals additions should be
considered as well, such as Ca,
                        Zn, Bo, Fe. Quite often, when life in the soil
has been lost, so has the ability to
                        hold micronutrients beyond the minimal level
that the sand, silt and clay
                        fractions of the soil can hold. Sandy or silt
soils cannot hold many nutrients.
                        Soils that are irrigated, or where significant
rain or snow fall occur during some
                        part of the year, mineral micronutrients will be
leached and long-gone as soil
                        organic matter was lost.

Bacterial Food Resources

                        1. Commercial products. Working with product
companies, the following
                        products have been shown to result in
significant increases in bacterial
                        biomass in the following conditions:

                           a.Estecol and Hydra Hume Plus (Helena
Chemical Company). Shown to
                             increase bacteria in clay, silt and sand
soils, in both lab greenhouse
                             tests and fields trials in California. When
bacterial biomass are below 5
                             µg per gram dry soil, apply 1 gallon per
acre. If bacteria are greater
                             than 5 µg but less than 100 µg per gram,
apply 1 quart per acre. Repeat
                             applications if bacterial biomass does not
increase to desired level. It
                             may be beneficial to apply a soil
conditioner such as Ece-X to drive
                             salt out of the soil, and add calcium
products or rock dust or Eco-Min
                             to replace lost or leached micronutrients.
                           b.Blend (Advanced Agri-Tech, Pasco, WA).
Testing has been done on
                             particular soils in Washington and Idaho
and shown to improve both
                             bacteria and fungi.

                        2. Simple sugars such as table sugar, syrups or
molasses. The question
                        always becomes how much sugar in what volume of
liquid over what amount
                        of land area. Dosages need to be worked out, but
generally, try an increasing
                        gradient of concentration. Start with 1 gram of
sugar in 100 ml (1% sugar) and
                        apply to a 1 meter square area. Apply a solution
of 10 grams in 100 ml (10%) to
                        another area, and a solution of 20 g in 100 ml
(20%) to another area. Wait a
                        week, perhaps two, and test to see if this was
effective in increasing bacterial
                        biomass. Be aware that too high a concentration
of sugar will cause a bacterial
                        bloom, and will cause symptoms of N-deficiency
in the plants. Avoid
                        concentrations that result in plant yellowing.

                        3. Molasses - There are a few humic materials in
molasses, giving molasses
                        the dark color. Blackstrap molasses contains
more of these humic materials
                        than less thick and dark molasses suspensions.
Test as above for rate.

                        4. Plant extracts usually contain the sap of the
plant material, which are
                        combinations of simple sugars, protein,
carbohydrates.

                           a.Yucca extract is a product that appears to
enhance "stickiness,"
                             selecting for bacteria that produce
extracellular slime. About 1 pint per
                             acre.
                           b.Nettle extract contains an unknown compound
with antibiotic-like
                             qualities. Typically made in the same
fashion as a compost tea, but
                             using mown nettles instead of compost.
Highly variable potency.
                             Testing from batch to batch is required.

                        5. Fulvic acids appear to be food resources for
bacteria. Apply at about 1
                        quart per acre. The molecular weight of these
"humics" is less than that of
                        humic acid, and at least in some cases, supply
food for bacteria more than
                        fungi. More work is needed to understand the
difference in microbial
                        communities selected by fulvic versus humic
acids.

                        6. Yeast provides vitamins for bacterial growth.
The kind of yeast is important,
                        as Baker's yeast provides quite different sets
of vitamins than Brewer's yeast,
                        or champagne yeast, as examples. This material
has not been well-tested for
                        it's dose-response, so testing on your own land
will be required.


Fungal Food Resources

                        1. Commercial products. Working with product
companies, the following
                        products have been shown to result in
significant increases in fungal biomass
                        in the following conditions:

                           a.REMIT (1/2 - 1 gal per acre) plus Hydra
Hume AN (1/2 gal per acre) or
                             BIO FOL (1/2 gal per acre) when fungal
biomass is less than 25 µg per
                             gram dry soil in row crop or grass soil is
indicated to get things
                             growing again. If fungal biomass is less
than 100 µg in perennial crops
                             (orchards, vineyards), since perennial
crops require higher fungal
                             biomass in the soil for healthy conditions,
use 1 quart to 1 gallon
                             Remit plus Bio-Fol. Again, use of a soil
conditioner may be useful if
                             salts have accumulated, and use of calcium
or rock dust products to
                             replace exchange sites with calcium, or
other micronutrients, may be
                             necessary as well. These rates are based on
testing in California field
                             trials and in lab and greenhouse tests with
clay, sand and typical
                             agricultural soils.
                           b.REM (1/2 gal per acre)plus Hydra Hume AN
(1/2 gal per acre) or Bio
                             Fol (1/2 gal per acre)(Helena Chemical
Company). When fungal
                             biomass is more than 25 µg, but less than
100 µg in a row crop soil, use
                             1 quart to 1 gallon REM plus Bio-Fol. Shown
to increase fungi and
                             bacteria in clay, silt and sand soils, in
both lab greenhouse tests and
                             fields trials in California.
                           c.Estecol plus calcium (Helena Chemical
Company). When fungal
                             biomass Increased fungi in clay, sand and
silt soil in both greenhouse
                             and field trials.
                           d.LASE (Advanced Agri-Tech, Pasco, WA). Shown
to increase fungi in
                             field trials in Washington, Idaho,
Colorado.

                        2. Cellulose, the structural element of plant
cell walls, is a food resource for
                        fungi more than bacteria. Often, however, there
are some simple sugars,
                        proteins and carbohydrates left in plant leaves,
stems etc., to result in some
                        initial bacterial growth. Newspaper, wood chips,
hay, straw, or dead, brown
                        leaves all contain high percentages of
cellulose.

                        3. Dead leaves contain tannins, terpenes, and
phenols, which are recalcitrant
                        precursors to humic acids. Some tannins and
phenols are toxic, preventing
                        plant germination or growth as times. Some care
is needed to make certain
                        volatile terpenes and phenols are gone, or
consumed by fungi, before using
                        the material with growing plants. Fresh pine
chips, cedar chips, even fresh
                        peat, contain high concentrations of terpenes
that kill many plants.

                        4. Lignin is one of the major breakdown products
from microbial
                        decomposition of plant material. This is a
structurally very complex molecule,
                        with a mixture of very hard-to-break down
(recalcitrant) chemical bonds
                        embedded in the material. Only fungi can use
this material.

                        5. Humic acids, the long molecular weight, long
chain portion of humics.
                        Again, the condensation of the chains of
materials make enzymatic attack of
                        this material difficult, just as difficult as
lignin. Only fungi can use this
                        material, and for the most part, only fungi
produce the long molecular weights
                        chains as metabolic by-products of their
metabolism. The action of
                        extra-cellular fungal enzymes also produce humic
acids from smaller chain
                        materials in soil. These reactions resulting in
the building of ever-more
                        complex molecules are called condensation
reactions, and result in the most
                        recalcitrant, most difficult to break down soil
organic matter. The "half-life" of
                        humic acids in soil may be 300 to 3000 years.
Only fungi have the enzymatic
                        abilities to consume this material. As a saving
account, it can't be beat, but the
                        more nasty and condensed the material, the less
likely it is to be a source of
                        food that will result in improved fungal growth.
Be careful of the color and
                        smell of humic acids. The nasty, impossible to
use humic acids smell like tar or
                        petroleum products (which is what petroleum is -
really old humic acids). Use
                        the brown to dark brown, NOT BLACK, humic
products.


Protozoa Food Resources

                        Protozoa eat bacteria. Therefore, anything that
grows more bacteria will result
                        in more protozoa eventually. The lag between
more bacteria growing and the
                        protozoa "noticing" this increase in food
resource is about 2 weeks in the
                        spring, about 4 weeks in the winter (not-frozen
soil), and about a week in a
                        warm, moist soil in the early summer. When soil
moisture is below wilting
                        point, the protozoa may never notice until soil
moisture increases.

                           1.Hay infusions are good sources of protozoa.
Stick clean hay (no
                             pesticides!) in clean water, keep warm,
well-aerated and by day four,
                             protozoa will be high in number. Bacteria
grow on the sugars extracted
                             from the hay. The protozoa that were
dormant on the hay eat the
                             bacteria. Algae will grow too, if in
sunlight, but it's not a problem. The
                             protozoa eat them too.
                           2.Composts and compost tea. If compost is
made correctly (see compost
                             page), then both these material will
contain tens of thousands, if not
                             hundreds of thousands of protozoa.

Nematode Food Resources

                        Nematodes come as four types: bacterial-feeders,
fungal-feeders, root-feeders
                        and predatory nematodes. Predatory nematodes eat
other nematodes, while
                        the name of the other groups indicate what
organisms they eat. Like protozoa,
                        when the organisms that nematodes eat increase,
then an increase in
                        nematodes occurs, about 2 to 6 weeks later with
many of these groups. The
                        lag between more food and more nematodes is
greater than for protozoa.

                        The only two good sources of material containing
a wide diversity of
                        beneficial nematodes are good compost and
healthy forest 'O' horizons. BUT
                        BOTH MUST BE CHECKED to make sure it does not
contain root-feeding
                        nematodes, or lacking beneficials. There's quite
a bit of material labeled as
                        compost that should only be sold as organic
matter, and maybe not even that.
                        Be careful - old growth forests that have been
disturbed can have very sick
                        soil. It can take ten years for the trees to
start showing the effects of a
                        compacted soil, or fertilizer impacts, or
atmospheric pollution. Test the soil
                        first to make certain it's ok.

Inocula of Bacteria and Fungi

                        1. Commercial Inocula. Mostly just bacterial
species are available
                        commercially. Decisions on which set of
bacterial species to buy depends on
                        a whole list of things, and it is easier for you
to e-mail the reasons you need
                        an inoculum to SFI than for me to go on for
another 400 pages to explain the
                        things to think about. Don't ask us to make
these decisions on the phone.
                        Time to consider is required.

                        2. There are two fungal inocula available on the
market - Trichoderma and
                        Gliocladium. These are two fungi that parasitize
other fungi, and are quite
                        effective at what they do. BUT, they stay alive
only as long as they have
                        other fungi to parasitize. One of the things
agricultural and turf management
                        has done is to destroy the fungal biomass in the
soil. So, these fungi do a
                        good job on the pathogenic fungi that are
present when you inoculate them,
                        but then they run out of food, and go to sleep.
No more control. It's not the
                        fungus' fault you didn't feed it.

                        3. Compost is a great source of both the
organisms and the food they need to
                        do their jobs. A great diversity of bacteria,
fungi, protozoa and beneficial
                        nematodes occur in good compost. But beware!
There is quite a bit of organic
                        matter sold under the name of compost, and it's
not worth the money spent on
                        it. Improperly composted material can kill
plants (phytotoxicity), and can add
                        all kinds of nasty organisms, from fungal
pathogens to root-feeding
                        nematodes. Test the compost first, and know the
conditions of composting
                        before you buy the material. A good compost can
grow grass directly seeded
                        into 100% compost, and you will never see grass
grow more beautifully. But
                        so much of what is sold has serious salt, heavy
metal and toxic anaerobic
                        problems that care must be taken. See the
Biocycle column papers that appear
                        in the ARTICLES section of the website.

                        4. Compost tea - a liquid extract of compost.
One of the problems with
                        compost is that it costs a lot of money to
spread. Compost tea solves this
                        problem because it can be applied through the
irrigation system. Tea made
                        from a GOOD compost - emphasize good - can
significantly reduce foliar
                        pathogens because it provides the organism and
the food needed to make a
                        good biofilm. We've pretty well documented Goal
1 for compost tea, but are
                        working on Goal 2. How can we improve the tea
making process so the most
                        beneficial bacteria are present in the tea?
Working with golf course folk, we
                        should be able to tie this down fairly quickly.

                        Clearly, there is a great deal of work to be
done to optimize application of
                        Foodweb Technology. But the work that needs to
be done is straightforward.
                        Does this or that work better or worse in this
condition? We need to get out
                        there and see.