Ch. 14 What Does Your Soil Food Web Look Like?

[The Helpful Gardener]

IN this chapter Jeff wants you to get down and dirty...

No not like that... this is a family site! It's time to assess your own soil and see how you are doing. Jeff gives us some basic tools liek a soil trap and a Berlese funnel, and my favorite tool for assessing soil biology, an SFI bioassay (sure it's more expensive, but the other ways won't give me half the info, and I might get dirty... )

In the bioassay, notice how much lower the active bacterial numbers are compared the the thermophilic compost. But it's not just worms doing that. Look at the flagellates and amoebae numbers. Off the chart! Think about the nitrogen looping as those guys munch the bacteria...remember, each one eats ten thousand bacteria a day... Nice!

HG

[garden5]

These methods for checking out the larger biology in the soil sound pretty cool, too bad there is a half a foot of snow out side or I'd give them a try . Well, this will have to go on the summer to-do list.

The soil sample test at the end was pretty interesting. I'd certainly like to have one of those done sometime.

I remember in the ACT thread, we couldn't come to a conclusion on whether finished, or partially finished compost was better for an inoculate. In the soil test, it mentioned that the unfinished compost sample was preferable for making tea. I kind of suspected that since compost that is still in the process of decomposing must have more decomposes than compost that is already finished.

I'm surprised no one's tried the test yet and posted their results . C'mon HG, let's see your SFW report .

[The Helpful Gardener]

No SFW report on my soils; still seat of the pants and no issues yet.

Having done this a few times I feel pretty confident I am on the right track, and so far the plants seems to agree...

We can get very complicated and do tons of testing and studying, but in the end a natural system makes it's own selections, so if we work within that system (my raised straw covered rows are pretty much on their own except for the shot of compost or fish or alfalfa now and then), then Nature does what she does, and that is almost always for the good.

We can observe with science, but our technique is Nature. Fiddling with the knobs makes us feel better, but doesn't make the picture better for long. Trust...

HG

[garden5]

That is a good, point, HG.

In the end, the plant's growth and bloom is the ultimate indicator if we got things right--er--helped nature right.

[gershon]

No SFW report on my soils; still seat of the pants and no issues yet.

Having done this a few times I feel pretty confident I am on the right track, and so far the plants seems to agree...

We can get very complicated and do tons of testing and studying, but in the end a natural system makes it's own selections, so if we work within that system (my raised straw covered rows are pretty much on their own except for the shot of compost or fish or alfalfa now and then), then Nature does what she does, and that is almost always for the good.

We can observe with science, but our technique is Nature. Fiddling with the knobs makes us feel better, but doesn't make the picture better for long. Trust...

HG

I'm only about halfway through the book which I bought yesterday. I think all the information on microbes, fungus and all those other things working together is good information. But I can also see working hard to adjust all the knobs could get expensive and time consuming. I might adjust A when the soil really wants B and adding A makes things worse.

One thing I've found is what's possible on 100 sq. feet isn't so possible on 2,000 sq. feet which is about what I have.

At the same time I'm reading "The Natural Way of Farming" by Masanobu Fukuoka which is a little more laissez-faire in its approach. It would be a great book to study and it's available free online.

Perhaps this book will come around to a "let things be" approach after going through the science. It is an interesting read.

[The Helpful Gardener]

I want to point out here that Fukuoka-Sensei and Jeff are talking about the very same processes, just from very different paradigms. I'd agree that the science can be a little overwhelming but on the other hand I think F-san ran away from science a little too much (a recurrent theme to One Straw Revolution).

I think the middle ground is most stable; where you understand the biological processes that transform and build soils and use these as tools to naturally maintain fertility, then it does not matter if it is 100 sq.ft. 1000 sq. ft. or a thousand acres. You find a method (like F-san's One Straw) that fit's the scale of what you are doing...

To me the underlying message of biological fertility in Jeff's book is much like my old Japanese gardening teacher's answer to his client, when, as he was explaining feng shui, she informed him she didn't believe in it. Val told her...

"That's fine. It works anyway."

Should you do nothing at all, these processes continue. Whatever small additions or manipulations you do have effect, and gradual changes are the tendency of nature. While Jeff is more of a "doer" than F-san, his organic style eventually leads to less work, less inputs and more sustainable gardens.

I find a melding of both paradigms to be the style that works best for me, and suggest you find your optimal path through more reading, chatting, and most of all, gardening.

HG

[gershon]

I guess I'm a little discouraged as a lot of seeds have low germination rates this year. Still, I got enough from the garden for a nice salad for breakfast and there is plenty more where that came from. And the volunteer peas are getting flowers on them so we will have peas soon. The onion tops are anywhere from a foot to 2 feet high.

This morning, I went and planted all the skips putting 3 seeds in each hole and I'll thin later. (Something I don't like to do, so I usually put one seed in a hole.)

For some reason none of my Black Valentine seeds sprouted, so I'll plant more in another spot where the weeds are doing well. The last time, I planted seeds I saved, so that may be the problem.

There is really no reason to be discouraged. Passover was late this year, so the planting season doesn't really get going until about now. And when I look at pictures from last year, things were about the same now.

Since the garden is way to big, I know we will get more than we can eat.

Off to plant the beans.