Mar 25, 2018
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7 Ways to Kill Soil Microbes:
and why this is a bad idea….
https://chelsiesquared.wordpress.com/2017/12/31/7-ways-to-kill-microbes/
This is the World Organic News
for the week ending the 26th of March 2018.
Jon Moore reporting!
As I discussed last month with
the new vision statement for the podcast and blog, “Decarbonise the
air, recarbonise the soil.”, in mind I’m calling on my listeners to
put forward ideas for an interview episode once a month. If you
know anyone who is doing either part of the vision, I’d love to
hear from them or, indeed, from you if you are on the front line
doing the work.
This week we continue our
journey through the soil with a post from CHELSIESQUARED
entitled: 7 Ways to Kill
Soil Microbes: and why this is a bad idea….
The author Chelsie Anderson
comes to this post from two separate events which we adverse for
her worm farm. In one case the worms went walkabout when too many
coffee grounds were added to the worm bin. The second was a result
of using chemical laden potting material from “off farm”.
Earthworms make great canaries, in the sense that miners used to
keep canaries to check for poison gas in mines. If the earthworms
are leaving, we have a problem.
They will, naturally enough, no
pun intended, move away from things that will kill them. And they
are sensitive to changes in their homes. They require bedding and
food. Should either be out of their comfort zone, they will
decamp.
Keeping earthworms has many
benefits but as canaries in your soil might be one you hadn’t
thought of yet.
Top the seven
killers:
- Chemicals
-
- This
one would seem self evident. We too can be poisoned by chemicals so
it’s not surprising earthworms and other soil biota suffer the same
consequences. Now chemicals can cover anything from excessive
amounts of coffee to artificial fertilisers. The dose is, of
course, important. This is why earthworms and other soil biota can
survive low levels of NPK fertilisers. As directed by the
manufacturers, they are lethal to soil biota.
- The
apocryphal tale of the Romans plough the field of Carthage with
salt gets the message across. As does sea water inundation in low
lying island in the Pacific. Salt will kill soil biota. Salt is
also suggested as a “natural” herbicide. Yes salt is natural, yes
it will kill weeds and snails and beneficial plants and soil biota
and earthworms. It has no place in the soil.
- Salt
- Quote: This is another weed killer. If you buy a
horticultural grade vinegar (7-20% vinegar) and spray this on young
weeds in the spring, they will die back, at least temporarily. The
problem is - vinegar kills indiscriminately, so it will kill other
plants if accidentally sprayed, as well as the critters of the
soil, including microbes. End Quote So it is again “natural” but
not something to used.
- Vinegar
- This
one is a dosage matters with poison situation. Chlorine gas was
used in WW1 to kill humans. It is used in swimming pools to kill
microbes. It is in public water supplies for the same reason.
The key words there are kill microbes. Garden hoses from the mains
water supply will contain chlorine. I smell the stuff if I have the
first shower in the morning. To avoid this peril in the garden will
require some form of rainfall harvesting. I understand this is
illegal in some parts of the world. This is to control mosquito
breeding places, apparently. The other solution, as suggested by
aquarium owners is to let the water stand, uncovered overnight to
allow the chlorine to dissipate. Best advice, try to avoid
chlorine.
- Chlorine
- This
one is difficult to see, obviously with microscopic biota, but
earthworms again act as a canary in the mine. I’ll quote from the
piece again: Quote: In a
not-so-obvious, but simple way, dehydration kills microbes. You
want to preserve those summer berries? Dehydrate them and they will
not rot. Soil microbes are no different. While very wet conditions
cause anaerobic conditions (smelly and not-so-good bacteria and
nematodes to thrive), drought also kills. This is one more reason
to use a mulch in summer. Natural mulches prevent top soil from
drying right out, also preserving those beneficial
bacteria! End Quote
This seems so obvious once said out loud. Some soil biota are
capable of surviving droughts by sealing themselves off and waiting
for rain but that’s not much help if you’re trying to grow things.
For that matter, neither is dry soil. I like the mulch idea, it
fits in with the No Bare Soil principle from last week’s
episode.
- Dehydration
- Another of the principles from last week. I
don’t think I can paraphrase better than Chelsie for this point so
here comes a longish quote. Quote: The no-till garden has gained in popularity
over the past decade or so and with good reason. Myccorhizal fungus
is an invisible-to-the-human-eye web in the soil that literally
feeds your plants the nutrition they need in exchange for the
sugars that plants can produce through photosynthesis of the sun.
It’s a pretty great mutually beneficial relationship. Plants that
have abundant amounts of myccorhizal fungus are less susceptible to
diseases, pest problems and also grow stronger, since they are
being well fed. Parent trees can share nutrition with baby saplings
using this web as well, in a way nurturing them just as any other
living being does its young. When we till the soil, we break up
this invisible web, meaning our plants are left with fewer body
guards. Only dig when it is necessary (ie- to harvest your potatoes
or to plant a seedling. Otherwise, simply top dress your garden
with all of the goodies including worm castings, and the microbes
will travel to where they want to be in the soil food
web. End Quote. I
think we have more than sufficient evidence available to support
this idea. By the way I happen to have a No Dig Gardening book for
Sale at Amazon and the website. Links in the show
notes.
- Tilling
- This
is a thing which becomes second nature once we change our mindsets
from feeding plants to feeding the soil. Organic matter and the
correct level of moisture will keep our soil beasties alive and
well. Mulching, no bare soil and no tillage will all work together
to ensure their dietary requirements are met. Again to quote the
piece. Quote: Microbes,
like anyone else need carbohydrates. Naturally they’d get them from
plants (photosynthesis produces sugars) to keep them going. If you
have a bare patch of soil with no plants, then there will be no
food. You can artificially add carbs to their habitat through
sprinkling the ground with finely milled flour for example, or by
mixing molasses into water and applying this. Or you can simply
allow plants to grow as they will feed the system naturally. Does
this help explain why bare ground doesn’t stay bare for
long? End
Quote.
- Starvation
So in summary these are the
things to avoid to keep your soil microbial community happy,
thriving and alive.
- Chemicals
- Salt
- Vinegar
- Chlorine
- Dehydration
- Tilling &
- Starvation.
And with that I’ll draw this
episode to a conclusion. Remember: Decarbonise the air, recarbonise
the soil!
As a podcast listener you may be
thinking of producing your own podcast but you’re not sure where to
begin, drop over to mrjonmoore.com and check out my course. I have been teaching
this at Community Colleges around town and have developed an online
version. There’s a link in the show notes. Classes start whenever
you’re ready, I’d love to help you into this way of
communicating.
A transcript of this episode is
available at worldorganicnews.com
Thank you for listening and I'll
be back next week.