Grow Soil, Not Plants © 2010 - 2011 by C. Darren Butler Do not publish or distribute without permission Note to Master Gardeners

Thanks for attending my talk at the 2011 Statewide MG Conference. This version doesn’t include images for which I don’t (or may not) have the rights to publish. The scientific information is widely available and much of it is based on Elaine Ingham’s work, so please credit her when appropriate. The approaches, philosophy, phrasing, and almost everything else are my work, so please credit me if quoting or referring to them. Photos with no credit are my own. Portions of this material are expected to appear in books and/or articles. This is for your use and reference only; please do not republish or distribute without permission. It was a pleasure getting to know many of you and I look forward to reconnecting when we have a chance. Please feel free to contact me but be patient with response time and try again if you don’t hear back within a week or so.

Let’s start with . . . A QUIZ

Image Credit; www.Discoveryschool.com By Mark A. Hicks

How do we think about dirt?

What comes to mind first about dirt? Did anyone say . . . • The fundamental system upon which all terrestrial life and all of our lives depend? • The foundation of all civilization? • An unimaginably vast reservoir for the building blocks of life and our shared lifeforce, and for life itself in all of its conflict, interactions, death, and rebirth? • Us? Our bodies are soil in temporary human form.

Let’s imagine . . . • A floating ball with a magical gooey surface • Unique living organisms constantly rise up from the goo and fold back into the goo • With an endless variety of species and individuals • In which all the living organisms are interrelated and mutually interdependent • This describes Earth • The magical goo is soil

Is soil more biotic or more abiotic?

Is soil biotic or abiotic?

• If you are the California public school system, apparently it is abiotic, like a brick. • For almost everyone else, especially gardeners, soil is biotic, like us.

Which are there more of in soils, bacteria or fungi?

Photo credit: zakwitnij/flickr Photo credit: byr105063/flickr Are there more bacteria or fungi in soil? • It depends: bacterially and fungally dominant soils • Ratios of bacteria/fungi indicate what is growing or what will grow well aboveground • Grasslands, garden, and agriculture soils bacterially dominant • 1:1 ratio in gardens/agricultural soils, less fungi possible • Forest soils fungally dominant • 5:1 to 10:1 fungi to bacterial in deciduous forests and up to 1000:1 in coniferous forests • Soil succession

Name five kinds of soil microorganisms.

Soil Microorganisms

• Bacteria • Actinomycetes • Fungi and Mycorrhizal Fungi • Algae • Protozoa • Nematodes

Name five kinds of soil macroorganisms.

Soil Macroorganisms • Earthworms and other worms • Arthropods (insects, arachnids, crustaceans, springtails) • Gastropods (slugs and snails) • Reptiles and amphibians (lizards, snakes, toads, salamanders) • Mammals (mice, bunnies, ground squirrels, gophers)

Feelin the Blank

Healthy soil will contain _____ pounds of belowground life per acre. 7240+ pounds • Several pounds of mammals. • 133 pounds of protozoa. • 900 pounds of earthworms. • 900 pounds of arthropods. • 900 pounds of algae. • 2000 pounds of bacteria. • 2400 pounds of fungi. (Doesn’t include some kinds of soil life, such as nematodes.)

Source: Teaming with Microbes, Lowenfels and Lewis, from Elaine Ingham’s research. Living Systems:

• Biological systems comprised of many kinds of organisms including plants, animals, bacteria, and fungi in an interconnected web that is dependent upon and cycles resources such as food, energy, and water

What is accomplished by living systems that depend on soil? What is accomplished by living systems that depend on soil? • Capturing of sunlight and recycling of nutrients to allow the vast abundance and complexity of life on Earth • Production of food for uncountable terrestrial organisms. Some estimates are of 1018 (one quintillion) individual arthropods and 10100 (one googol) total individuals of all species on Earth) • How much have we thought about how amazing it is that Earth’s systems produce food, habitat, and other needs of all life on the planet?) • Providing habitat and useful materials for all species • Creating mutually support systems (food web, environmental, chemical, etc.) for using resources and maintaining life (Nature conserves species, not individuals) • Processing waste/returning to resource What is accomplished by living systems that depend on soil?

• Ecological succession: moonscape to old-growth forest • Provide ecological balance with predation, pests and diseases and control of predation, pests and diseases • Death-based vs. life-based gardening, landscaping, agriculture, and cultural systems • The unimaginably vast natural systems on Earth provide each of us everything we love (the 3 degrees of interdependence) • And much more

Defending our Soil . . .

. . . doesn’t require guns. Landscape living systems start with soil. Trophic level = number of steps from the start of the food chain. My Biases

• Life-based rather than death-based • Use living systems (Why do we perpetuate death-based systems?) • Focus on soil • Low tech with minimum inputs (vs. plastic-crap gardening) • Natural and human efficiencies • Achieve goals by observing and cooperating with natural systems rather than battling them

Compare infertile, dead clay soil ...... to loamy, living soil.

SOIL • The place of death and rebirth in landscapes; where sunlight is removed from organic matter (decomposition) so molecules can return to new life as part of another organism • Microscopic transformation: everything turning into everything else; everything eating and being eaten • Healthy soil is dynamic, full of life and millions of ongoing interactions we can’t see • Our bodies are soil in temporary human format; our bodies contain stardust, recycled molecules from the entire myriad history and fullness of life on Earth

SOIL • Powered by organic matter • Contains/stores nutrients and water • Habitat for micro and macroorganisms • Provides air to plant and tree roots • Holds seedbank (not just weed seeds) • Healthy soil ecologies mitigate plant and tree diseases, provide nutrients to plants in exactly the form and amounts that are best for plants • In healthy landscape systems, soil ecologies are determined by plant exudates (plants are in control)

How do living soil systems and good soil structure improve plant health? • Microbes communicate with plants and take care of their needs on cell-by-cell basis and at a microscopic level much better than we can (mutualism for water, nutrients, preventing uptake of toxic metals) • Decomposition and elimination of unsuitable individuals • Oxygen and nutrients more available • Creation of habitat for further soil life • Biodiversity in soils provides natural control for pathogens and pests (competition, predation, diseases for pests)

Photo Credit: Meg Glasser Photo Credit: Meg Glasser Photo Credit: Meg Glasser Photo Credit: Jessica Nešič

How does healthy soil increase sustainability

• Local microbes may have evolved for thousands or millions of years to suit the exact local conditions and fulfill exact local needs • Reduce inputs/outputs because fertilizer needs met by the soil; soil life is fertilizer in healthy soils

• Reduce or eliminate need for disease and pest treatment • Increase yields • Bacteria and other soil life function as rain cisterns

How does healthy soil increase sustainability

• Healthy soil a foundation for resilient human communities • Hold nutrients for next generations of human and other life • Living soil systems integrate with larger bioregional food web, watershed, and climate systems • Soil living systems co-evolve with aboveground life as an ecosystem matures, becomes more complex and resilient

What Lives in the Soil to Create Living Soil Systems?

Soil Life

• Bacteria • Actinomycetes • Fungi and Mycorrhizal Fungi • Algae • Protozoa • Nematodes • Earthworms • Arthropods • Mammals

Microorganisms

• 7 billion living organisms per handful of fertile soil • In healthy ecosystems, they coat every part of the plant or tree and prevent access by pathogens • Fragile, specialized • Compaction/anaerobic bacteria • Decomposers • Are themselves food • Hold nutrients; in healthy soils, the soil life itself is fertilizer (especially Nitrogen) • Store water that is released under stress • Fulfill broad array of functions • 95%+ aren’t harmful to humans, plants, landscapes

Bacteria (2000x) (and algae)

Photo Source: SecretDisc/Wikimedia Bacteria (5000x) (and algae)

Photo Source: SecretDisc/Wikimedia Bacteria • Earliest known form of life on earth • Decomposers • Food source for protozoa, nematodes, earthworms, and other organisms • Wide range of functions in soil • Early succession soil (alkaline) • Unable to break down complex, woody materials • 4,000 to 10,000+ species in a given area of soil • Source of nitrogen in healthy soils • Store water and provide to plants by dying when soil ecosystem is stressed

Actinomycetes

Photo Source: CDC/public domain Actinomycetes

Photo Source: CDC/public domain Actinomycetes • Eubacteria that act like fungi, forming filaments and spore-like bodies • Decomposers • Produce the “earthy” odor of compost and rich soil • Capture N from air to form ammonium (soil-available nitrogen)

Mycorrhizal Fungi

Photo Source: Flickr/AJC1 Arbuscular Endomycorrhiza (penetrates cells of vascular plants)

Photo Source: public domain Fungi and Mycorrhizal Fungi • Primary agents of decay; facilitate rebirth of dead organic matter to new life • A single teaspoon of soil may contain several yards of fungal hyphae • Symbiosis with plants, and arthropods; transport nutrients and water • Knit soil; repair forests and other ecosystems • Eat nematodes • Food source for other soil organisms • Wide range of functions in soil • Mid/late succession soil (acidic) • Break down complex, woody materials: lignins, waxes • Thousands of species in handful of healthy soil • Only about 5% of 1.5 million estimated species described

Practical Starting Places and Nuts-and-Bolts Methods: Methods for Bringing Dirt to Life Nuts and Bolts Methods: Soil Testing

University of Massachusetts • $9 for the basic test and $13 for the basic test + heavy metals • http://www.umass.edu/plsoils/soiltest/ • Best value, about 2/3 of factors in private lab tests

Wallace Laboratories, El Segundo • Standard Agricultural Suitability Analysis • About $75 • www.bettersoils.com

Timberleaf Soil Testing • Standard and Trace Mineral Tests • About $65 plus $39 per metal • www.timberleafsoiltesting.com

Other labs? Nuts and Bolts Methods: Feed the Soil

ORGANIC MATTER: “OM” • Powers the soil; fuel and energy for all soil life • Source of nutrients for soil organisms and eventually plants, and eventually . . . us. • Protect the soil with mulch; avoid compaction • Compost, worm compost, aerated compost tea inoculates soil • Apply compost/mulch/organic matter regularly

Prepare the Soil

• Single and double digging • Sheet mulching • Least invasive methods to avoid disturbing specialized microorganisms

I know some of you use rototillers

But are you serial tillers? Rototillers

• Use only once at most to break up concrete-like, dead soil • Shred and destroy or put into dormancy virtually all soil life, leaving primarily bacteria • Open all niches, set the stage for pest and disease problems Nuts and Bolts Methods: Sheet Mulching

SHEET MULCHING: • Newspaper if planting soon, cardboard if three or more months away • Plant fruit trees through cardboard • Avoid organic matter that might attract rodents • Water thoroughly before layering newspaper or cardboard

Nuts and Bolts Methods: Sheet Mulching

SHEET MULCHING: • Horse manure • Grass clippings • Yard waste • Bark mulch • Leaves • Straw • Avoid food scraps that might attract rodents

Nuts and Bolts Methods: Sheet Mulching

SHEET MULCHING:

Nuts and Bolts Methods: Sheet Mulching

SHEET MULCHING:

Nuts and Bolts Methods: Eliminate Chlorine • Chlorine is a poison put into our water to protect pipes and infrastructure by killing microorganisms and plants • What does chlorinated water do to soil life when dumped onto gardens and landscapes? • May be one of the great unrealized, unpublicized devastators of soil, plants, gardens, and human health

Nuts and Bolts Methods: Eliminate Chlorine • Quality hose-end chlorine filters • Full-system house water filtration • Fill bins with water that stands 24 – 48 hours before using • Sock “teabag” with organic matter (or stray leaves) • Chloramines more difficult

Nuts and Bolts Methods: Eliminate Chlorine • CHLORINE FILTERS: http://pwgazette.com/gardenhosefilters.htm • The filters I'm personally using are : http://pwgazette.com/gardenhosefilters2.htm (I have product GH200 with filter FC201 on each hose) • I recommend putting a y-splitter below the filter so you can have two or more hoses running from each filter (to minimize the number of filters you have to buy and install).

• ALSO DRINKING-WATER-SAFE HOSES: If you search "drinking water safe hoses" on the internet you'll see lots of options.

Nuts and Bolts Methods: Avoiding Chemicals

AVOIDING CHEMICALS: • Use appropriate plants • Compost, sheet mulch • Design for and allow leaf litter • Chop-and-drop pruning • Practice pest acceptance • Aerated compost tea

Nuts and Bolts Methods: Avoiding Chemical Fertilizers, Especially Nitrogen

AVOIDING CHEMICAL Fertilizers: Why are chemical nitrogen and other fertilizers so bad? • Toxicity • Nitrogen often limiting element in microbial reproduction • Rapid reproduction of microbes burns out soil organic matter, then humus • Destroys soil ecology • In healthy soil systems, soil life is fertilizer • Runoff to water systems creates algal blooms and destroys aquatic life; large dead zones in oceans, lakes, and rivers

Growing Food/Living Systems Methods for Growing Food • Living Systems Edible Landscaping • Naturalizing Edibles • Urban Ecosystem Agriculture • Food Forestry • and better yields, reduced water and pest/disease problems with living soil systems

What is a food forest?

• A forest-like system that produces food and useful materials • Edible landscaping in tune with nature, local climate and bioregion so at maturity requires less work • Theoretically sustainable agriculture with few inputs and outputs (eventually)

What is a food forest?

• Companion planting¹º • Permaculture gardening • Human-designed system that depends upon natural systems to produce food • Perhaps most importantly, a way of thinking, perceiving, and understanding agriculture and nature

Photo Credit: Milkwooders/flickr

Three Sisters: Corn, Beans, Squash Ten Sisters: Corn, Beans, Squash plus?

How many sisters can we add? • A plant to attract pollinator insects • A primary local pollinating insect • What tree would benefit from and compliment the three sisters? Autmatically mulch for winter or summer? • What native or other berry plant would call in what birds to fertilize early to midsummer to encourage heavy bearing of corn and Photo credit: oceandesetoiles/flickr squash later in summer? When you don’t have living soil systems, gardening and landscaping is a lot like convalescent care. Gardening and Landscape Maintenance as Convalescent Care • Much of our maintenance work in gardens serves the same function for plants as hospital professionals do for people • Many of our plants/landscapes in state of constant illness, to the point that we are so used to it that it seems normal • For hundreds of millions of years before humans maintained landscapes, this was not normal • In healthy ecosystems, when a plant has a disease or insect infestation, it has been selected by Nature for elimination

Gardening and Landscape Maintenance as Convalescent Care • Nature’s ongoing efforts to eliminate so many parts of our gardens and landscapes show us how much room we have for improvement in our practices • Nature bats last; constantly reminding us with weeds, insect pests, and plant diseases that she wants to start over • Grubs in lawn, aphid infestation, all pest problems are nature telling us that living systems have broken down or are damaged • Biodiversity and healthy ecosystems repair themselves

Creating and caring for plants, gardens, and landscapes as though they are separate from soil results in sick plants, addicted or unproductive gardens, and broken landscapes. SOIL MARRIES • life and death • energy and matter • organic and inorganic • animate and inanimate • waste and resource • all terrestrial life to all other life • and spiritually joins us to all past and future life on Earth

As gardeners, teachers, parents, and volunteers, we can be the medicine to treat the ills and problems of our society and planet. As nurturers of soil, we receive the privilege and accept the responsibility of stewarding our shared lifeforce and the dynamic, powerful, complex living systems that surround and connect us to the larger systems of the planet, and that give us life.

Ode to Soil • Love the soil and it will renew you • Work with the soil and it will reward you • You may think you’re the one transforming and healing the soil but actually it is transforming and healing you • Create living soil systems and soil will transform and bring fullness to your life • Restore the soil and you will reverse the destructive dynamics in your personal life, community, and society • Soil fertility is the greatest legacy we can leave to our children and millions of generations of future life on Earth

Mailing List Reminder! More Topics

• Soil and plant/animal coevolution • Humans, soil and food coevolution • Soil-borne diseases (phytopththora and verticilium)

• Soil floculation

Contact Me

• C. Darren Butler, Ecological Landscape Designer, Consulting Arborist and Landscape Consultant, Horticulturist • www.EcoWorkshops.com • [email protected] • (818) 271-0963 • Facebook: C Darren Butler • Emailing list