In February Mechas attended a class to learn about soil biology. The class was taught by a very respected and well known leader in soil microbiology and researcher of the soil foodweb, Dr. Elaine Ingham. What an incredible class! Dr. Elaine Ingham is brilliant teacher. If you get an opportunity we highly recommend taking the Dr. Elaine Ingham’s class, it will solve many of your garden problems.
Who knew that the nematodes, fungi, protozoa, bacteria, arthropods are the little critters that make the soil come to life? Without the biology of these critters we can’t grow nutrient rich food or plants. Mechas learned so much about soil biology in just one week and of course there is a still a lot more to learn.
So when we have the right biology we have soil and when we don’t we have dirt.
When you have a diversity of microorganisms in your soil the plants are healthy because of the balance of beneficial microorganisms and insects. Another added benefit is less water is required because the roots are stronger and they go deeper into the ground to gather nutrients and water due to the soils ability to absorb more water. Dirt is not so good. It does not hold water and requires the continued use of fertilizers that kill fungi and nematodes and other beneficial organisms. Dirt is not great for growing food.
The key to all of this is making rich compost to bring in the good microbiology. Check out this link to Dr. Ingham’s compost making: http://www.soilfoodweb.com/Thermal_Compost.html
To learn more about Dr. Elaine Ingham visit these sites:
http://www.soilfoodweb.com/Home_Page.html
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