Some, reading what I have to share will say, “I knew that. I know all about this”. Please read on and tell me later if perhaps there was more to the story than you thought or if there should be more.
Sand, silt, clay, pebbles, rocks – the mineral fractions of the soil= DIRT. Without organic matter, beneficial microbes and growing plant root systems, it is just DIRT.
Organic matter – dead & decaying organic materials feed beneficial bacteria and fungi but mostly these feed on the sugary exudates from plant roots. Bacteria make massive amounts of glues to form micro-aggregates – the smallest structures in our soil – and bind themselves tightly to them. These microbes and aggregates are not easily washed or blown away – holding them in place close to the roots that feed them.
“So What?” you say.
Without such structure the soil compacts and can become incredibly toxic.
Fungi build strands and filaments that pull micro-aggregates together into larger aggregates. The spaces between aggregates allow water, oxygen and roots to go deeper down in the ground accompanied by more beneficial microbes, sequestered carbon and nitrogen. Plus … did you know … every tonne of sequestered carbon can hold 10 tonnes of water storage for future plant needs. Beneficial microbes absolutely require oxygen to live and flourish.
Most of the food in the soil to feed beneficial bacteria and fungi comes from the plants themselves, in the form of exudates via their root systems. Exudates specific to the needs of each valued species of microbe.
Some soil scientists say that “simple diffusion” pulls plant needed nutrients into the root systems, but you have to ask, “where do these 42+ essential plant nutrients come from to be taken up in this way”?
Without microbes your plants would fail.
Every nutrient we can identify is available in parent soil (all over this planet) but UNAVAILABLE to plants – not mineralised to allow metabolism. Inorganic chemical salts – fertilisers – are expensive, wasteful and counterproductive in that they inhibit or eliminate needed microorganisms. Also, you need to know, 80% of these expensive inorganic chemical fertilisers either volatilise as gasses or wash away with the rain – as pollutants. The current largescale degradation of soils, worldwide, has been closely connected with the use of salty soil fertilisers, herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, etc.
I apologise if this information offends, but nearly 80 years of our believing wealthy chemical company propaganda has radically depleted soils in nearly every part of our earth – the evidence is mountainous.
Plants that photosynthesise CO2 using sunlight, produce exudates – sugars, some proteins and some carbohydrates which they release (approx. 40% – a significant investment) from their root systems to signal, activate and encourage beneficial bacteria and fungi to link with the plant roots, to be fed, and in return, they make the enzymes to harvest all the plant needed essential nutrients from your dirt and make them available to the host plant in return.
Additionally, these microbes surround and protect the roots from diseases and pathogens and environmental crises like drought, flood, fire, frost and other temperature extremes.
However, if you have soil with only bacteria and fungi your plants are still in trouble.
Plants also need beneficial protozoa, nematodes and micro-arthropods to eat and control bacterial and fungal growth to keep balance and more importantly to ‘poop’ out mineralised nitrogen as ammonium, phosphorous as phosphate, sulphur as sulphate and also to chelate calcium, potassium, sodium, iron, zinc, boride, iodine, etc. Chelation simply means that the nutrient is stuck to a protein or amino acid. It only happens in soil when processed by microbes that then are eaten by bigger microbes and pooped out.
Because the microbes grow and reproduce surrounding the plant roots that feed them, they are located close by the root system when they are eaten, pooped out and are thus easily available to the plant – in the perfect plant available mineralised form to be simply taken up and metabolised, close to the roots.
The pests, diseases and pathogens grow in reduced oxygen environments. Should your dominant microbes become anaerobic (grow in the absence of oxygen) not only are they the diseases, but they are also the problems that make horrible chemical compounds that kill plants. Anaerobic conditions will cause your nitrogen, phosphorus and sulphur to gas off – how then would you feed your surviving plants?
We need to maintain a massive diversity of beneficial microbes for fertile productive soils. Good soil at 13 degrees C. requires about 1,000 species of bacteria, another 500-600 fungi, 10-20 species of protozoa and some species of nematodes. Every soil temperature change and soil type require very different microbe species. Every type of plant requires different microbes in varying conditions. Thus, enormous diversity of microbes and massive numbers of each are critical for plants to survive and prosper as change occurs.
For example, to keep nutrient cycling going we need 75,000 bacteria per teaspoon of soil. More specifically we need about 1 million bacteria species, 750,000 fungal species several thousand protozoa species and loads of nematodes per acre.
Fungi in the soil can fill 50 to 700 times the area that roots do so in synergy with fungi the entire root system can become massive for even a small plant like rye grass with 4.5m to 7.6m deep roots possible. Fungi also make most of the humic acid and eat most of it too. Humic acids when fed to plants can stimulate faster, more vigorous growth earlier, more abundant flowering and fruiting, more fruits sooner and even tastier.
Chemical fertilisers can promote growth but offer no protection from diseases, pests, or environmental stress. In fact, these fertilisers regularly create the environment for toxic bacteria and fungi to dominate and cause havoc for our plants. When chemical salts cause beneficial microbes to go dormant or die the resultant microbial ‘vacuum’ encourages more resilient and often nastier microbes to take their place. These conditions would usually encourage the use of ‘cidal’ chemicals to kill the resultant diseases, but additionally kill off even more of the helpful microbes and thereby grow more problems, as well as weeds.
So, what is the solution to all this? How do we sustainably overcome these problems?
A super-efficient and cost-effective way to inoculate your soil, plants and pastures with all the best microbes is through applications of well-crafted composts, particularly worm castings (vermicompost), extracts and teas.
Vermicycle specialise in the production of concentrated, Premium worm castings – solids or liquids – loaded with a massive diversity of beneficial microbes and already saturated with plant available nutrients and minerals to jumpstart and sustain your plants. Humic acids, with all their benefits for plant growth and fruiting, abound. Plants grow so much better and are effectively protected by amazing microbes.
(Inspired by Dr Elaine Ingham’s video, “Building Soil Health for Healthy Plants” available from YouTube)
If you have comments for or against the above, let us know. [email protected]