Archive Article: February, 2010
How healthy are the flowers, shrubs and trees in your yard?
Answer: a) During the growing season, healthy plants are green and growing, not yellow or brown. They have the desired shape and are not leggy or spindly. Healthy plants set fruit or seed and develop according to the expected timeline. Healthy plants are free of virus or disease symptoms, do not attract pests and are not attacked by root-feeding insects or nematodes.
Healthy plants contain properly balanced nutrient levels. Disease, pests and weeds occur in growing systems that lack nutritional balance. Plants must contain all the nutrients for balanced growth, which encourage active, healthy, beneficial organisms on and around the plant and its connecting parts. A healthy habitat, maintained by beneficial organisms, ensures disease and pests have no way to gain a foothold in the system.
If plants are deteriorating, make five or six holes in a circle around the plant, usually about halfway between the drip line and the stem of the plant. Angle each hole slightly toward the plant, if possible, in the ground about eight to 10 inches deep and one to two inches in diameter. Fill the holes with a mix of compost and sand (pea gravel works too). Use a mix of compost tea and the right kind of mycorrhizal fungal spores to coat the sides and bottom of the holes before filling them with the compost-sand mix.
Be cautious of feedlot manures; some have documented levels of 1,000 ppm or more of salt, which will prevent most good sets of organisms from growing.
Prematurely yellowed, veined, spotted or wilted plants indicate a lack of activity by certain sets of organisms in the plant’s root system, specifically protozoa, beneficial nematodes and microarthropods. Make certain the full diversity of plant-surface protective organisms is present and functioning.
Initially, organisms will need to be added to get them established, but after mixing the organisms throughout the soil, water or hydroponics medium, thermal or worm compost can be placed on the surface or in the liquid used for watering. Just remember that a thick layer of compost should not be placed on the stem of a plant as this will restrict air flow.
When potting plants, the initial compost application is dependent on the potting material being used. Generally, mix compost into the sterile potting material at rates between one and 10 per cent by weight of the final material. If excellent compost is used, it can stand alone. Once the plants are potted, place 1⁄4 to 1⁄2 inch of compost on the surface of the solid medium, or add liquid compost (compost tea) to the watering reservoir to maintain the needed diversity of organisms.
An initial assessment of the system must be made to determine whether organisms need to be mixed into the soil, or whether the biology in the soil is good enough that surface applications will be adequate to re-establish health.
Beware of compost made with feedlot manure. When animals are fed materials containing a great deal of salt, antibiotics or preservatives, these substances can come through in the manure and cause problems. Some feedlot manures have documented levels of 1,000 ppm or more of salt, which will prevent most good sets of organisms from growing. When in doubt about compost quality, call the manufacturer and ask for test results on salt levels (EC), or ask for documentation on the sets of micro-organisms most sensitive to high salt levels. Protozoa, beneficial fungi and earthworms can serve as your canary in the coal mine; if the material lacks these organisms, be suspicious.
Even if chemical fertilizers are being used, the growing conditions for plants, and therefore their health, can be improved. Organic matter, specifically humic acids, can tie-up salt from chemical fertilizers. The addition of organic matter, or humic acid, must occur before adding any microbes. If soil contains organic matter at levels above three per cent, then medium to low salt concentration impacts will be reduced. In general, for every three per cent of organic matter in the soil, another two pound bag of inorganic chemical fertilizer could be used with little initial detectable impact on the organisms.
Remember, however, that for organic matter to be useful, it must be aerobic. Thus high organic matter in swamps where the soil is water-logged and anaerobic may not prove beneficial to microbial life. If soil is compacted, and water and oxygen cannot move into the medium, the organic matter will not have the ability to hold salt the way it can in aerobic conditions.
Answer: b) If trees are not doing well, perform the same tasks directed in 4a, drilling the holes as deep as possible, preferably below any compaction layer you might encounter. More than one ring of holes should be made; put one ring of five to six holes halfway between the drip line and the trunk, and another set of six to 10 holes at the drip line, if the tree is big enough to have that extensive a root system.
Answer: c) Start using gardening products that work with nature to feed beneficial organisms, which will release the nutrients your plants’ need, when and where they need them. By creating an environment that sustains aerobic microbial life, those microbes will, in turn, provide food and nutrients for your plants. Bacteria and fungi hold minerals in the medium, while protozoa, beneficial nematodes and microarthropods change nutrients from unavailable forms into plant-available forms. Without the full set of microbes in your growing system, you could use the best organic products available on the market but not achieve all the benefits you want. This is the reason many people switching to organic are not successful. The addition of the full set of beneficial microbes to the system is critical.
Both growing conditions and additives play important roles in determining the success of your plantings.
How do I prepare my soil for new plantings?
Answer: The goal is to achieve a soil composition with a minimum of three to five per cent organic matter, with a good set of organisms, and to allow those organisms to build excellent structure. With this amount of organic matter, adequate water will be held through most seasons, and the diversity of nutrients will be adequate to maintain a healthy set of highly diverse micro-organisms. As these organisms grow, they build airways and passageways to allow good root growth. Correctly made, aerobic compost with the full diversity of organisms will provide the source of foods, nutrients and organisms. Testing using direct microscope methods is recommended to check microbial diversity periodically to ensure that nothing has been lost through seasonal changes or outside influences on your system.
How do I plant new flowers, shrubs and trees?
Answer: a) When planting in a hole or a pot, gradually mix about a 50/50 ratio of the soil that was taken out with high-quality compost. Vary the compost concentration so that nearly straight soil is near the edges of the hole and increase the amount of compost until the root ball or roots sit in a 50/50 mix, or maybe a little higher in compost.
This way, the roots will be encouraged to grow deeper into the soil and not be root bound where the sides are like a clay pot. Roots don’t want to grow into hard, compacted, low-oxygen soil. A gradual adjustment to the site soil, which may not have good organic matter, will be made easier if the change is not abrupt.
While the plant is recovering from transplanting, it would be a good idea to add a handful of food to the mix, helping beneficial fungi grow and establish around the root system of the plant. The amount isn’t absolute, although if you know what is lacking, you can be more precise. In general, add about a handful of organic microbe food, such as dried fish, kelp, fish flakes, ground oatmeal, bran, barley or other grain material, to every five gallons of potting mix.
Make certain that you disturb the planting medium as little as possible, as mixing and tilling will slice and crush many of the best organisms. Tillage certainly disrupts the ability of oxygen and water to move through the soil normally. Since the organisms build the hallways and passageways that allow air and water to move normally, any disruption that destroys the organisms will cause problems down the line with plant health.
Answer: b) Roll seeds in a mixture of mycorrhizal fungal spores and compost tea before planting. Dip bare roots in a mixture of mycorrhizal fungal spores and compost tea just before planting. You can also put the mycorrhizal fungal spores out in your planting rows and drench the soil with compost tea and other organic nutrients.
How often should I spray nutrients and microbes on plants?
Answer: a) If microbial life has been established in the soil, and the plants are not free of disease, the transition has not occurred. Until the balance of micro-organisms is established, compost - in solid or liquid form - should be applied once a week. Once the balance of micro-organisms has been established, and the plants are showing a return to health, the soil becomes open and soft again. Then applications can be reduced to twice a month for a few months, and then to once a month. Eventually, applications should decrease to three or four times per season. Possibly, in situations where little disturbance occurs, applications can decrease to once or twice a year.
But watch your plants. If the beginnings of any problems are seen, then apply microbes every few days, until the problem goes away; afterward, resume the regular schedule.
If 70 to 100 per cent of your plant surface is covered with beneficial microbes, then non-beneficial microbes (disease organisms) will be outcompeted for food and space. Don’t forget to spray microbes on your plant stems too!
Answer: b) If you have established microbial life in your soil; you have improved organic matter concentrations to five per cent; and no environmental disturbance has occurred (pesticide drift, high salts or heavy metals in water), then your plants will obtain all the nutrients they need from the soil, resulting in healthy plant growth.
In our modern world, however, there are many insults and injuries to the environment that are out of our control. Most people need to jump-start Mother Nature with the addition of microbes to get natural nutrient cycling processes going again. Re-establishment of the normal populations of organisms to plant surfaces is necessary, as well.
Given ongoing air pollution, it may be necessary to plan on a compost application to the soil surface once or twice a year, depending on disturbances and air pollution contamination. Once again, depending on pesticide drift, air pollution and other factors, it may be necessary to apply compost tea three to four times in the growing season to maintain the beneficial organisms on the leaves, stems and fruit of the plants.
Answer: c) When you use organic nutrients in conjunction with compost teas, you can usually reduce the recommended amount of inorganic fertilizers by at least 1⁄3 to 1⁄2 in the first year, and then by another 1⁄3 to 1⁄2 in the second year.
As the microbes become established, inorganic nutrient additions are no longer needed because, as in any natural system, those nutrients are cycling from the soil and from the sand, silt, clay, rocks, pebbles and organic matter.
Answer: d) Use five gallons of top-notch, properly made, aerobic, highly microbial compost tea per acre for every five feet of tree height of the canopy.
How often should I put nutrients in the planting medium?
Answer: Whenever the biology in the soil has been harmed and is not functioning correctly, inorganic fertilizers may be required. Plants may need to be fed directly if the organisms are not present or working properly.
However, if the diversity of organisms has not been harmed, if organic matter is present and if sand, silt, clay or other mineral nutrients are present in non-toxic forms, there is little reason to add inorganic nutrients.
People will often become convinced that their planting materials have no nutrients at all, based on the soil test they have done. Be aware that you are only getting a miniscule amount of information about your soil from that test. So-called soil tests, or chemical analyses of the soluble pool of nutrients, give information usually less than 0.1 to one per cent of the total nutrients in soil. Soil tests only tell you about the tiny amount of any nutrient that is in the soluble pool of nutrients, that is, only the nutrients that are dissolved in water. Most of the nutrients present in any planting mix are not dissolved in the water, but rather, are present in solid forms - in the rocks, sand, silt and clay, in organic matter and in micro-organisms.
Micro-organisms transform nutrients from unavailable forms into plant-available forms. Different nutrients are transformed by different species of microbes. Different conditions will select for the growth of different organisms. We don’t need to know the specific name of each organism present; we just need to know that there are adequate amounts of each type of organism so that the jobs get done, no matter what the environmental conditions.
So how much inorganic nutrient should you add to your soil? If the correct set of organisms are present, three per cent organic matter or more will allow the organisms to have the food they need to function. More is better. When nothing is protecting the roots, that’s when disease, pests and lack of fertility will occur. When these problems are evident, it’s time to add compost or liquid compost tea.
Enough compost or liquid compost should be used to re-establish the organisms that are needed and to get them active and functioning. Some testing using direct microscopy is recommended to determine what is lacking and when the problem is fixed.
Another approach is to add nutrients and microbes into mulch, compost or worm castings that have dried out or have been sitting for a long time without adequate moisture. This will allow nutrient availability to increase through microbial action. Test using direct microscope methods to ascertain when the dormant bacteria have become active again. For example, if the plan was to apply 100 pounds of humic acid directly to your soil, you could reduce that amount to 10 pounds if a good diversity of micro-organisms was previously applied to a humic acid–compost mix. Once the organisms have woken up and are functioning, apply humic acid to the soil surface or lightly mix it into the soil that needs resuscitation.
What should I do in the fall to prepare for winter?
Answer: Use 20 gallons of good-quality compost tea per acre as a soil drench each fall. If there were disease problems in the plants during the summer, the organisms growing on that diseased plant material have to be outcompeted, consumed or otherwise prevented from having a place to live. Decomposition of the dead plant material will destroy the habitat that would otherwise let those disease organisms multiply through the winter.
What should I do in the spring to prepare for summer?
Answer: Use 20 gallons of good-quality compost tea per acre as a soil drench in the spring. Monitoring of the organisms should be done to make certain the needed set of organisms is present. If any group is low or missing, then additional applications are needed. If the amounts and balances of organisms are adequate, then no further additions are required.
Enjoy Your Garden!
Other articles by Dr. Carole Ann Rollins and Dr. Elaine Ingham
