Soil Health # 2: Applying Class # 1 1. Intro: Food Not Lawns.

Goal of the class is to teach basic techniques for how to manage your soil incorporating what we have learned in the first class. 2. Recap: understanding basic soil biology 3. Recommended reading: Teaming with microbes with Jeff Lowenfel and Wayne Lewis. a. The Soil Food Web: interconnected species that make up soil and soil health. Required for nutrient availability, soil structure, and disease control. 4. Census: Getting an idea for what your soil food web looks like. a. Dig a hole: approximately 12 inches square and look at try to identity what is there. Worms excellent sign, means that there are a lot of organisms present. They are food for larger animals and need smaller organisms to eat. Identifies the presence of soil life. 5. Maintenance and Restoration Tools: Using these three tools greatly reduces the amount of work that you have to put into the garden. The idea is to do a lot of work initially, and lets the rest work for you. a. Soil Improvement i. Water retention ii. Drainage iii. Nutrient cycling b. Compost: we have talked about how to make compost at the last class i. Variation: compost composition will vary depending on what you put in it 1. Bacterially dominated: nitrogenous support bacterial domination because it is more easily digested by them. 2. Fungal dominated: supported by carbonaceous brown materials. ii. Manipulation: you can therefore manipulate your pile by changing the ratio of carbon to nitrogen iii. Chemicals: make sure that your components are chemical and pesticide free, remember that the point of a compost pile fosters bacteria and fungi, both of which are killed off by many chemicals. iv. Innoculation 1. Working into the soil: after each crop cycle, an inch or more of compost can be worked into the soil 2. to 1 inch can be applied as a top dressing around plants. Drastic changes can be seen in 6 months, as evidenced by new life in the top 6 to 15 inches. Can go to 18 inches in a year. c. Mulch: A material placed on top of the soil. 1. Purposes: a. Reduce evaporation: mulch keeps moisture in the

soil extremely well the thicker you mulch, the better the retention to the point where you can almost stop evaporation entirely. b. Weed prevention: weeds need sunlight to thrive a thick enough mulch can smother weeds entirely. c. Plant insulation: can keep a soil warm longer. Conversely can keep a soil from thawing or warming up. Can also keep a soil cooler in hot summers. d. Prevent Soil Compaction: provide a buffer from heavy rains e. Nutrients and Home for soil food web organisms: i. Worms pull it into the ground and shred it ii. Home for macro and micro anthropods: adds organic content to the soil and attracts more nutrients. f. Establishing Bacterial and Fungal Dominance i. Just like with compost, mulch can be used to establish bacterial or fungal dominance through the manipulation of carbonaceous or nitrogenous materials. 2. Negative Impact: mulches can create a frenzy of feeding activity tying up fungi and bacteria that are needed below the soil 3. Strategy: a. 2-3 inches thick: any thicker and you can block moisture and air, which smothers myccorrhizal fungi. b. Leave Room around the plant stems to avoid causing decay on the stems of the plants themselves. c. Keep in mind bacterial vs. fungal preferences of plants. d. Protozoa are needed to cycle the nutrients through the mulch. If you do not have these, the nutrients cannot be unlocked. d. Compost Tea: i. What it is: Aerated Compost Tea is a different class altogether, but we will talk about some of its advantages and what its goal is 1. Aerated compost tea is designed to explode bacterial or fungal populations through providing them with a medium in which they can grow rapidly. This mix is then used to inoculate soil and plant surfaces with billions of beneficial bacteria. This is done through adding compost to

dechlorinated water, adding enough food for a bacterial population to explode, and aerating the mixture for one to two days. ii. Application: 1. Soil soak: mixture is poured onto the soil around plants. 2. Foliar feeding: coats the surface of the plants,