Micro-organisms

[amideutch]

dcarch, here is a short and sweet about beneficial microorganisms and how they work. Ami

http://biosa.dk/England/micro%20life...0jord%20uk.pdf

[dcarch]

Because of many trees around my house, my roof gutters need cleaning every year. The leaves in the gutters are well composted by teeming microorganism activities and many weeds grow in them. I am amazed that the frequently I even find earth worms in them; where are they coming from?

I read the article you linked. Thanks. I do understand the whole thing about beneficial organisms in the soil and how they help the plants. My point is, if you have good soil, then you don’t need to introduce any new or any more microbes. Insects and other microorganisms will find their way and thrive in healthy soil. They are pervasive, they are everywhere.

I know this is not recommended, I do it because lack of time and lazy. I don’t even compost leaves. I just grind them up fresh and tilt them into the soil, I bury diseased tomato plants right in the same spot every year. I have no room to rotate. I also bury kitchen scrap, meat, fat, bones, etc. direct into the soil.

I have been lucky these many years, including this year with the major outbreak of Late Blight in my area. Only lost a few plants and everything else is growing crazy. One of my best years even the weather has been bad.

dcarch

[dice]

I don’t even compost leaves. I just grind them up fresh and tilt them into the soil,

I used to do that. I would trim a laurel hedge a couple
of weeks before planting and then just turn the leaves
under without even shredding them first. They probably
did not release much nutrition that first year, even used
up a little nitrogen maybe, but they did provide air space
in the soil and a friendly haven for earthworms.

I was using fertilizers back then like 10-20-20 sidedressed
down a row, so nitrogen drawdown from microorganisms
digesting turned under fresh organic matter was not much
of an issue.

(When I more recently added a lot of partially composted
oak leaves to fill a raised bed, I added alfalfa meal and
flax seed meal with it, so that there was enough nitrogen
for the needs of both beneficial bacteria eating the leaves
and the tomato plants growing in it. Plants did fine.)

[Barbee]

I read the article you linked. Thanks. I do understand the whole thing about

beneficial organisms in the soil and how they help the plants. My point is, if you have good soil, then you don’t need to introduce any new or any more microbes. Insects and other microorganisms will find their way and thrive in healthy soil. They are pervasive, they are everywhere.

I agree that when you have good soil with plenty of OM, you shouldn't need to add anything other than what you take from it each year.

But it can take years to get your soil to that point and in the meantime, adding the micro organisms just might be a way to get a good yield out of a less than ideal soil. And then you have container growers who start out with sterile soil. This can only increase their yield I'd think.

[amideutch]

And then you have container growers who start out with sterile soil. This can only increase their yield I'd think.

Barbee you hit the nail on the head. Especially for container growers who need to supplement with ferts you want to get symbiotic relationship between the plant roots and rhizophere working the sooner the better. And as some of these organisms will protect the plant against disease all the better (Actinovate for one). Ami

[habitat_gardener]

The following article reminded me of this thread...


Zero waste policy: Green hero's home now a must-visit
Bishwanath Ghosh, TNN
17 November 2009, 04:03am IST

- *Chennai* <http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topics.cms?query=Chennai>
- *S Indra Kumar *<http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topics.cms?query=S%20Indra%20Kumar>
- *Zero Waste* <http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topics.cms?query=Zero%20Waste>

CHENNAI: For S Indra Kumar, a machine operator-turned-environment activist,
charity begins at home. No chemical, save the soap he uses, enters his home.
And no waste is ever let out. This makes his modest dwelling in Pammal, the
southern suburbs of Chennai, a "zero-waste home".

He didn't have to read rocket science to turn his residence into an "green"
home. He is inspired by the simple, age-old chemical process that every
housewife in India is familiar with. "If you leave a bowl of milk behind for
five days, how will it smell when you come back? Rotten, right? But if you
put a drop of buttermilk into it before you leave, you'll find fresh curd!"
beams Indra Kumar (59), whose 1986-built house has now become a pilgrimage
for those wanting to do their bit for the environment ╉ be it farmers from
Arakkonam or school students from Chennai.

"Here, smell it," says Indra Kumar, as he opens the lid of the septic tank
in his garden. One instinctively recoils, but its contents look as harmless
as accumulated rain water. "Is there smell?" No. "Do you see any
mosquitoes?" No. "That's because I treat sewage with a certain bacteria," he
declares. The bacteria, Bacillus subtilis, neutralise the sewage to turn
waste into manure for plants in his garden.

Then, the earthworm takes care of the liquid waste from the kitchen. Under
the drainage pipe, Kumar has buried some worms which not only digest the
organic matter but also feed on mosquito eggs. And at the spot where water
from the bathroom drains out, he grows cama plant, whose roots treat the
soap water.

Solid waste from kitchen is collected in an earthen pot and dried cowdung
sprinkled on it periodically. "Any smell?" Indra Kumar asks. No. "Any fly?"
No. "In 60 days this will turn into beautiful compost," he exclaims. He
treats leaves from the garden similarly: collects them in drums and
sprinkles dried cowdung on them till they turn into compost. "This way, you
give back to nature what it gives you. People often burn dry leaves, which
only causes pollution."

Indra Kumar's fascination for composting is understandable because in 2004,
he took voluntary retirement from Areva (formerly the English Electric
Company, where he worked as a machine-man and then as a purchase supervisor)
to take up vermi-composting. Today, as the president of Home Exnora, he is a
sought-after man who is called by universities and citizens' group to speak
on waste management. "If you control pollution at the micro-level, it
doesn't require any money or the government's involvement. People only think
about what they eat or what they drink. But what about the air that you
breathe non-stop, right from the time you are born?" Kumar asks.

[igarden]

thanks for posting that article habitat. very interesting!