“A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself.”
It’s crazy to think that the 4th is already behind us. July is here. The snow in the high country is retreating, hill sides are starting to take on a purple coloring as the Lupines come in, Crested Butte is filled to the brim with summer tourists, and many of us gardeners are starting to taste the early fruits of our labor. Lettuce and spinach are coming in. The first round of radishes are getting ready to come out of the ground, and our gardens are starting to really fill out with happy vegetables, but let’s make sure that they are staying happy. If you have not already thought about fertilizing your garden, you should, and if you have thought about it, you might want to think about how you are fertilizing it.
Soil is one of the most amazing things that there is on this planet. More than just mere dirt, soil is a world of its own, and the world that our world is built on. Just 1 teaspoon of soil can have over 6 billion microbes living in it. The complexity of this world can be donting, but soil health is just as if not more important than fertilizer for plants. To help bring some focus to this microscopic world, I talked to Adrain Fielder, the man who first introduced me to the massive world of microbes.
Adrain is the Assistant Dean of Instruction at Colorado Mountain Colleges Carbondale campus. When I was studying there, Adrain opened my eyes to the vast world of Microbes. After I called him up and told him about the Victory Garden Revival, the first question that he ha for me was about what I am telling my gardeners to use to fertilize there gardens. He then discussed with me multiple practices that he teaches in his permaculture class to create thriving symbiotic relationships between plants and the soil.
Dynamic Accumulators
The first topic that we discussed was dynamic accumulators. Dynamic accumulators are a group of plants that have a deep tap root that brings up minerals from deep in the soil up the surface. At first this sounds like it might be problematic, that these plants are depleting your garden of its nutrients, but they are not. The dynamic accumulator engage in a process that is called phytoaccumulation, or the collection of metals in plants. As the dynamic accumulators suck up the minerals from deep in the soil, they bring them into their own biomass, that then can be used as compost or mulch to release these minerals back into the shallow soil.
Many dynamic accumulators can make great compost tea by submerging them in air rated water for a week or two. Compost filler, by adding bulk (and nutrients) to your compost, and chop and drop compost, or mulch by just simply chopping them up, and scattering them around the garden. Be carful not to do this with the roots, because many dynamic accumulators spread through their roots. Here you can learn more about dynamic accumulators, and a list to learn more about them.
Legumes
Another plant that was a topic of discussion was legumes. Legumes are a magical family of plants that include beans, peas, lentils, and some nuts. The reason that Legumes are so fantastic, is because they are one of the few species of plants that put nitrogen back into the soil. Despite nitrogen making up over 70% of the atmosphere, nitrogen is actually a hard nutrient for plants to get, sense they can only use nitrogen in the form of NH4, not nitrogen in its gasses state. But Legumes have found the work around in the form of Rhizobium bacteria. A bacteria that lives in the legumes root structure that converts gasses nitrogen into NH4. This symbiotic relationship is great for the bacteria, the legumes, and any other plants near by.
This is why Adrain told me that he surrounds every plant he plants with a circle of pea seeds. As these peas grow, he will chop them down so that they don’t compete with the main plant that you are wanting to grow. He said that this he does not care about the growth of the pea plant above ground, as much as he cares about its root structure growing down, and introducing the Rhizobium bacteria into the soil. He also informed me that a trick he uses to save some expense is he will buy dried peas in bulk from the grocery store. Because a pea seed is a pea seed whether it comes from a seed pouch or a bulk bin.
Mycorrhiza Fungi
Mycorrhiza fungi was the last topic of our discussion. Mycorrhiza fungi, are fungi that live within the root structure of plants. Like the fiber optic cables that build the internet, the mycelium of the Mycorrhiza connect the plant roots together in a web of shared nutrients and water between the plants. If you were to look at soil as a living organism, the Mycorrhiza would be the vanes that connect everything. Similar to the rhizobium bacteria that live in the roots of the legumes, the mycorrhiza live within the root structures of the plants, and extend out into the soil. In exchange for room and board in the plant’s roots, the mycorrhiza provide the plant with nutrients, by extending the reach of the plants roots, as well as breaking down organic matter in the soil into a usable form for the plant.
Adrian informed me that when ever he is planting anything he will always dust the roots of it in Mycorrhiza powder, that you can get at any gardening store. This will help foster the symbiotic relationship between the plants and the fungi. to the Don’t worry if you forgot to do this at the beginning of the season, or this is your first time hearing of this. There are still excellent ways that you can introduce mycorrhiza into your garden without digging anything up. The best way that I would recommend doing this is to coat some pea seeds with the mycorrhiza and plant them next to your other plants. this way you are getting the benefits of both the legumes and the mycorrhiza. another way that you can do this is to add the mycorrhiza powder to some compost tea right before you water your plants with it. You don’t want to add the mycorrhiza until right before the watering, because the spores can drown if left in the water for too long. Both of these techniques will help to the spores of the mycorrhiza down to where they can bind to the plants roots, and start growing.
These are just a handful of techniques used in permaculture to increase nutrients in the soil. There are a variety of benefits to these vs traditional fertilizer that I will not go to deep into her. There will be another blog post looking at that problem, but one that I will talk about here is what is called burning your plants. Like medicine for people the helpful properties of fertilizers comes down to the dose. Too little and it does nothing, too much and it becomes poisons to the plants. It can be easy to turn your concentrated fertilizer into a poison for your plants if you are not careful, but with all of the techniques that I mentioned above, it is impossible to over due them. These techniques also add to the biodiversity of your soil, and the over health of your garden.
I understand that this blog post flew through a bunch of information. Please if you feel like you need clarification on any of this don’t hesitate to reach out to me. Sean@mountainrootsfoodproject.org