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TÉMA: Dr. Elaine Ingham - Soil food web

Dr. Elaine Ingham - Soil food web 10 éve 3 hónapja #9444

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Reply to #9436
I am not sure I get this right..
There is absolutelly no need to work any kind of OM in to the soil?
I thought something like... if i'm always top dressing I'll only build a thin topsoil...
So not the actual pieces of compost or humus have to be distributed evenly in the soil but the different materials made by bacteria and fungi (eg. humic acids)?

If soil contains the proper mix of organisms, then nematodes, protozoa, microarthropods, earthworms and other larger soil-mixing organisms will be present. They turn and mix and move organic matter through the soil. But it has to be organic matter, not un-decomposed plant material in order for these organisms to move it through the soil. Decomposition has to occur first. That corn cob has to be chewed on and decomposed by fungi most particularly in order to turn that plant material into soil organic matter. Then the organic matter can be moved deeper into the soil

Without the larger soil critters, then the organic layer remains only at the surface of the soil. Consider most of our native worms......how far down into the soil can they go? I'm not talking Lumbricus or night crawlers, not red wrigglers, not plant litter worms. I'm speaking of the true, deep-dwelling, "old growth" worms.

How deep do the long-lived worms go into the soil? How far down to they move organic matter into the soil surface? Read Charles Darwin's treatise on earthworms...... 3 to 4 meters deep into soil. If you have the full food web of life in your soil, why would you need to till your plant residues and debris into your soil?

Ok, maybe you don't have worms..... what else mixes and moves organic matter deeper into the soil? Protozoa....... nematodes.. spiders....... enchytraeids..... dung beetles.....and more.

Only if these organisms have been destroyed in your soil will these processes not happen on their own, and then you will have to do their work instead of them doing it. Why do the work that these organisms were put on the planet to do?

When your plants aren't growing in a healthy fashion, that's Nature trying to send you a message. Nature begs you to learn how to properly interpret these messages. And if you learn what these messages mean, then you don't have to work so hard to grow food.
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Dr. Elaine Ingham - Soil food web 10 éve 3 hónapja #9445

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Reply to #9438
there are strong proponents of the EM1 (the anaerobic effective microorganism mixture by Dr Higa) in my neighborhood. They used to inoculate compost and manure piles with EM1 and also apply it to bare farmlands during cultivation.
The classic anaerobic benefits are clear, like waste water, septic treatment or odor management of animal facilities.
I try to find the place of this product in the soil food web, however I see no benefits of the EM1 microorganism in an aerobic environment, beside using as a disease suppression spray.
Also using the product in low pH, low fertility dirt should deteriorate the conditions further by the acidic byproducts of the lactic acid bacteria and yeast.
Would you give me a professional advice about it or share your experience with this particular product using in especially in compost management and crop farming?

EM, or Effective Microorganisms, developed by Dr. Higa, provides a first step in changing dirt into soil. When dirt is highly compacted, it may be very hard to establish aerobic organisms in that anaerobic environment. Dr. Higa found that by using these facultative anaerobes that will out-compete human pathogens and other disease-causing, anaerobic "bad guys", that the conversion to soil can be hastened.

But just using EM, you cannot achieve all the benefits of a healthy soil food web, EM may help start things moving in the right direction, but then you need to add the actual food web set of organisms once t hings get started.

How do you know if you have soil or dirt? Microscope ---- simple, inexpensive shadowing microscopes. Someone already asked for the information to get those microscopes. I have trained people who would love to come to your country and teach people there to identify the life in your soil, make good compost, extracts, teas. Once a few people there learn this,then they teach others. By having a method to assess the life in the sol, by knowing what these different organisms do, then it is easy to see what needs to be fixed, and how to fix it. Patience, taking the steps to build soil, and not make dirt, is critical.
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Dr. Elaine Ingham - Soil food web 10 éve 3 hónapja #9446

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Reply to #9439
So I only have to keep attention to be a little fungal dominant around bluberries? What is anyway important because bluberries are perennials.

I've looked at what life is present in soil for every major crop on the planet, I think, and there is a clear pattern to the need for fungi versus bacteria. Highly disturbed soils that grow weeds very well contain almost strictly bacteria, and nothing else except for occasional bursts of protozoa. Nutrient cycling is limited,and weeds are selected for these pulses of nitrate availability. No desirable crop plants do that well in these conditions.

But weeds have structural materials in them, which are mainly only decomposed by fungi, and thus eventually fungi will arrive and start to decompose that plant material. Thus the soil now has a very different set of interactions happening, and this sets the stage against weeds,and more for mustards, brassica, Bromus and bermuda grasses. These plants shift the life in the soil just a little more fungal, and with time, a little more fungi will build up. This helps to build better soil structure, shift soil pH, increase nutrient cycling of certain types of nutrients, and ultimately, shift the plant species that grow best in this higher fungal soil.

Each step in the successional process increases the fungal foods,and thus increases the amount of fungal biomass and fungal diversity. given time, vegetables are now selected for when the right fungal-to-bacterial ratio occurs Then when fungal and bacterial biomass are equal, and both above 300 micrograms per gram soil, then row crops are selected for.

Fungal biomass continues to build and the soil will become fungal dominated, then shrubs, then deciduous trees, then conifers will be the selected.

So, how do you exit weeds from your life? Shift the life in the soil, change from a bacterial alone soil to the right ratio of fungi to bacteria for the plants you want to grow.

What is the right ratio for the plant you want to grow? Go to the place where the plants you want are growing without disease, without pests, without weeds, without chemical applications, inorganic fertilizer amendments, etc needed. In other words, where the plants are healthy all by themselves, in the natural system. Take a soil sample from the ROOT SYSTEM of the plant you want to grow, and see what ratio of fungi to bacteria is present, what protozoa, nematodes etc are present.

Now you know what your plant needs. Look at the life in the soil is where you want to grow that plant. What's missing? Fix i

Blueberries are shrubs, perennials. Perennials require fungal dominance, shrubs need around 5 times more fungal biomass than bacterial biomass, up to 10 times more fungal biomass than bacteria. Blueberries also need ericoid mycorrhizal fungi.. They need more fungal-feeding nematodes and / or microarthropods than protozoa or bacterial-feeding nematodes.

Find a place where the kinds of blueberries you want to grow are growing in a healthy fashion, not needing any inorganic fertilizer applications, no pesticides, no weeds, etc. Look at the life in that soil. Look at the life in your soil where you want to grow blueberry. What do you need to improve? Make compost that you get those missing organisms to grow in. Apply that compost to your soil......
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Dr. Elaine Ingham - Soil food web 10 éve 3 hónapja #9447

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Reply to #9440
I recently heard (again) your CD lectures where you are talking (among other things) about orchard cover crops. As I understand you say we have to choose cover crops with the right B:F ratio to complement the trees. Is there a list or spreadsheet somewhere with common plants B:F preference?

There area couple publications where I have lists published. Check
Nature Technologies International LLC website for a place that sells my books. Or check Amazon.com for my books.

As I recall, the book that has the best list is: Ten Steps to Gardening with Nature, by C.A. Rollins and E.R. Ingham
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Dr. Elaine Ingham - Soil food web 10 éve 3 hónapja #9456

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Dear Elanie 9435 please. :)
Utolsó szerkesztés: 10 éve 3 hónapja Beküldte: kovibali.
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Dr. Elaine Ingham - Soil food web 10 éve 3 hónapja #9459

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Norbert's post with a bit improved english and some additional information:

Dear Elaine,

In our area we have sandy soil. If we get 1-3 mm rain the soil behaves like a "water repellent sandy soil": the water stays on the surface and evaporates without penetrating deeper. However when we get about 10-15 mm or more rain the soil behaves like a "non wetting sandy soil" and in about 4-5 days the upper 5-8 cm dries out. We try to grow grains, like triticale and sunflower. Last year we harvested 2 tons/ha wheat in average with 70 kg Nitrogen input. I think the biggest problem is the water.
My soil looks like this (except the color, mine is light brown not red): www.grdc.com.au/Research-and-Development...-on-soil-constraints
What is your advise how can I achieve bigger yields?
I appreciate your help!
Utolsó szerkesztés: 10 éve 3 hónapja Beküldte: kovibali.
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