Teaming with microbes
There are plenty of microbes in the soil, if it was not chemically treated. The microbes build a food-web amongst each other.
Bacteria and fungi are mainly interested in the exudates from the plant roots, which are carbohydrates and some minerals. These microbes are eaten by nematodes and xyz who then proceed to poop what they don’t digest. These excrement are in turn taken up by the plant roots, since they contain valuable micro-nutrients and minerals.
- Bacteria and fungi are part of why soil keeps structure through bacterial slime and fungi hyphae
- Soil life keep nutrients in the sign through locking it up in their own bodies
- Soil life diversity keeps diseases and bad actants from overtaking
- Nitrogen can be found in the soil in the form of ammonium or nitrate. Fungi prefer ammonium while bacteria prefer nitrate.
- Because chemical fertilisers and other add-ons cater mainly to bacteria and disturb the food web the whole balance of the soil is disturbed
Only about 10% of the surface of earth is soil. Soil is more or less made out of 45% minerals, 5% organic materials and the rest is hummus. What the meaning of micro particles and molecules come into being through physical and chemical processes by which larger rocks are decayed. The important thing about hummus is that it consists of a chains of carbon molecules. These molecules allow water or air to be attached to them. Both of which are essential for soil life.
- There is a thing called soil profile and horizons. These indicate layers in the soil, which can be distinguished for example, by the amount of organic matter that they contain and in which state this matter is.
- Soil colour is often an indicator of the composition of the soil. Four as gardeners soil should have the colour of dark coffee.
- Soil texture is defined by clay, silt and sand. These three categories indicate particle size but not what element the particles are made of. A good soil should be a more or less equal mix of the three categories. They are important because they have different surface areas and can hold water and air in different ways.
Exercise: take the top 30 cm of soil mix them with 2 cups of water and a tablespoon of water softer noon. Shake vigourously, and wait for 24 hours until the particles settled in their respective layers.
- Cation exchange capacity: particles in the soil can have negative charges that attract positive loaded ions. These are often things that plants need for food. These exchange their own negatively charged hydrogen ions with what they need for growth. In turn creating a more acidic milieu by lowering the pH. The CEC is the possible amount of exchange of positive ions. Silt and clay has a higher CEC.
Microbes
- There is an enormous amount of bacteria in the soil
- They produce a variety of enzymes to break down fresh organic material in order to access their sugars proteins carbons and ions. Bacteria’s are amongst the primary decomposers but they do not decompose harder stuff like cellulose. de leave that to fungi.
- There are two different main groups of materials those that need air and those who don’t. The first one is called anaerobic bacteria and the second one is called aerobic bacteria
- Materials are super important in a process called element cycling. That is a process in which carbon, sulphur nitrogen are broken up, made accessible to the plants, consumed by thise and given back to the soil.
- Another important function of materials is, as mentioned before, the production of biofilms which gives structure to soil
- And last but not least bacteria’s are involved in a process called nutrient retention in which they bind nutrients in the soil and especially close to the plants roots.
Archaea
They were thought to be bacteria but are actually not. Archaea are what we usually know as extremophiles. Other than that, they’re doing mostly the same things and carry the same importance to gardeners them soil bacteria.
Fungi
Fungi also do mostly the same things as bacteria in the soil. The feed, break up nutrients and immobilise them in the soil. There are two main things that set them apart from bacteria.
The first is that they can kind of build their own transport infrastructure and move much farther to find and collect the nutrients than bacteria. The second thing is that they can go into symbiosis with plants by growing close to the roots or inside of the roots, or even inside of the plans themselves. Both partners, the plants and fungi, profit from such an arrangement as they exchange nutrients that they would not get otherwise.
Of course there are also fungi which bring diseases or even death to plants which is why gardeners are often not too fond of mushrooms.
Algae and Slime Molds
both are present in the garden but play a minor role in the soul food web.