Perfect Gardens Organics Thread

Thanks JJ, +REPs for that one. Not gonna read it just yet, but definitely will add it to the secret library!
 
Great Thread JJ!!! Here is a video that will be very helpful for anyone that wants to understand soil biology.

[video=youtube_share;eGxjcxVMbsg]
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Wanted to throw this information into the thread, I also posted this in the Science section of the forum.

What Are Salts?

80% of people who think of salts think about what we use on our foods. That is known as sodium chloride.

However when we're talking about our plants and getting salt build-up or flushing salts we are talking about a variety of salts. This salt we have stuck to our definition has been forced upon us. Think of people who say I can't eat salt, that's because they have too much sodium chloride in their system. Anyway onto gardening!

According to Salt (chemistry) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In chemistry, salts are ionic compounds that result from the neutralization reaction of an acid and a base. They are composed of related numbers of cations (positively charged ions) and anions (negative ions) so that the product is electrically neutral (without a net charge). These component ions can be inorganic such as chloride (Cl−), as well as organic such as acetate (C2H3O2−) and monatomic ions such as fluoride (F−), as well as polyatomic ions such as sulfate (SO42−).

The ionic compounds are elements which we get from our fertilizer, such as calcium, magnesium, nitrogen, phosphorous etc. The acids used that I've seen most are phosphoric acid, sulfuric acid, and EDTA which are attached to the elements. This is what makes some thing a "magnesium phosphate" or "magnesium sulfate".

To sum it up, when we reference salts in garden we mean minerals.
 
Wow was this thread amazing and informative!!
Soil food web is a great read. And the mineral additions being far more effective than composts and maures. Thanks for compiling and sharing all the info JJ.
 
love to learn here with fun and your participating or laghing! peace

I've reviewed THE REPS ARE RIGHT and found it to be entertaining & informative alike. I think it's something every member should participate in at least once. I know I will this Sunday. Join us Sunday through the 1st link below.


Join us :party: this Sunday at 9:00 PM PST
 
Thanks @JJ Bones! Made it through all the literature and a couple of the shorter videos in one sitting!
Will have to come back to some of the longer videos when I can find the time!
As of now I'm just discovering the place!
Feel free to pop in and comment as you will in regards to my organic journal!
My Small Time 100% Organic Multi Strain Tent

I'm just getting into the swing of things, but we know how quickly that changes!
I could use you around and learn a lot from you I'm sure!
Thanks again for your time and energy put into this thread!

:peace:
 
JJ Bones said:
Something I'm just about to watch after I post this reply:

Jeff Lowenfels Soil Food Web Lecture - YouTube
Click to expand...

Just wanted to say that I thought that this video was worth every 67 minutes of it!
If you haven't read Teaming With Microbes before, this video is essential the synopsis for it, and definitely one that you should make the time to watch!

:peace: & Blessings!
 
Mineralization & Immobilization

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The 3LB's Molasses Manual! A VERY NICE Read Regarding Molasses!

The 3LB’s Molasses Manual - A Marijuana Growers Guide To Soil Sweeteners

Like manure, this subject is another one of those “magical” organic goodies that contributes to plant health in more than one way. It’s also like manure in that it’s a waste or by-product, but when we think about it, this topic really is the “other end of the stick”!

Now it’s time to move on to a much much sweeter topic . . .

Molasses . . .

like the boy’s on South Park are sometimes known for saying - “That’s what I call a sticky situation!” . . .

Sweet Organic Goodness - Magical Molasses

There are a number of different nutrient and fertilizer companies selling a variety of additives billed as carbohydrate booster products for plants. Usually retailing for tens of dollars per gallon if not tens of dollars per liter, these products usually claim to work as a carbohydrate source for plants. A variety of benefits are supposed to be unlocked by the use of these products, including the relief of plant stresses and increases in the rate of nutrient uptake. On the surface it sounds real good, and while these kinds of products almost always base their claims in enough science to sound good, reality doesn’t always live up to the hype.

The 3LB are pretty well known for our distrust of nutrient companies like Advanced Nutrients who produce large lines of products (usually with large accompanying price tags) claiming to be a series of “magic bullets” - unlocking the keys to growing success for new and experienced growers alike. One member of the
three_little_birds grower’s and breeder’s collective decided to sample one of these products a while back, intending to give the product a fair trial and then report on the results to the community at Cannabis World.

Imagine, if you will, Tweetie bird flying off to the local hydroponics store, purchasing a bottle of the wonder product - “Super Plant Carb!” (not it’s real name) - and then dragging it back to the bird’s nest. With a sense of expectation our lil’ bird opens the lid, hoping to take a peek and a whiff of this new (and expensive) goodie for our wonderful plants. She is greeted with a familiar sweet smell that it takes a moment to place. Then the realization hits her. . .

Molasses!

The “Super Plant Carb!” smells just like Blackstrap Molasses. At the thought that she’s just paid something like $15 for a liter of molasses, our Tweetie bird scowls. Surely she tells herself there must be more to this product than just molasses. So she dips a wing into the sweet juice ever so slightly, and brings it up to have a taste.

Much the same way a sneaky Sylvester cat is exposed by a little yellow bird saying - “I thought I saw a puddy tat . . . I did I did see a puddy tat . .. and he’s standing right there!” - our Tweetie bird had discovered the essence of this product. It was indeed nothing more than Blackstrap Molasses, a quick taste had conformed for our Tweetie bird that she had wasted her time and effort lugging home a very expensive bottle of plant food additive. Molasses is something we already use for gardening at the Bird’s Nest. In fact sweeteners like molasses have long been a part of the arsenal of common products used by organic gardeners to bring greater health to their soils and plants.

So please listen to the little yellow bird when she chirps, because our Tweetie bird knows her stuff. The fertilizer companies are like the bumbling Sylvester in many ways, but rather than picturing themselves stuffed with a little bird, they see themselves growing fat with huge profits from the wallets of unsuspecting consumers. Let us assure you it’s not the vision of yellow feathers floating in front of their stuffed mouths that led these executives in their attempt to “pounce” on the plant growing public.

And the repackaging of molasses as plant food or plant additive is not just limited to the companies selling their products in hydroponic stores. Folks shopping at places like Wal-Mart are just as likely to be taken in by this tactic. In this particular case the offending party is Schultz® Garden Safe All Purpose Liquid Plant Food 3-1-5. This is a relatively inexpensive product that seems appealing to a variety of organic gardeners. Here’s Shultz own description of their product.

“Garden Safe Liquid Plant Foods are made from plants in a patented technology that provides plants with essential nutrients for beautiful flowers and foliage and no offensive smell. Plus they improve soils by enhancing natural microbial activity. Great for all vegetables, herbs, flowers, trees, shrubs and houseplants
including roses, tomatoes, fruits, and lawns. Derived from completely natural ingredients, Garden Safe All Purpose Liquid Plant Food feeds plants and invigorates soil microbial activity. Made from sugar beet roots! No offensive manure or fish odors.”


That sure sounds good, and the three_little_birds will even go as far as to say we agree 100% with all the claims made in that little blurb of ad copy. But here’s the problem, Shultz isn’t exactly telling the public that the bottle of “fertilizer” they are buying is nothing more than a waste product derived
from the production of sugar. In fact, Schultz® Garden Safe 3-1-5 Liquid Plant Food is really and truly nothing more than a form molasses derived from sugar beet processing that is usually used as an animal feed sweetener. If you don’t believe a band of birds, go ahead and look for yourself at the fine print on a Garden Safe bottle where it says - “Contains 3.0% Water Soluble Nitrogen, 1.0% Available Phosphate, 5.0% Soluble Potash - derived from molasses.”

The only problem we see, is that animal feed additives shouldn’t be retailing for $7.95 a quart, and that’s the price Shultz is charging for it’s Garden Safe product. While we don’t find that quite as offensive as Advanced Nutrients selling their “CarboLoad” product for $14.00 a liter, we still know that it’s terribly overpriced for sugar processing wastes. So, just as our band of birds gave the scoop on poop in our Guano Guide, we’re now about to give folks the sweet truth about molasses.

Molasses is a syrupy, thick juice created by the processing of either sugar beets or the sugar cane plant. Depending on the definition used, Sweet Sorghum also qualifies as a molasses, although technically it’s a thickened syrup more akin to Maple Syrup than to molasses. The grade and type of molasses depends
on the maturity of the sugar cane or beet and the method of extraction. The different molasses’ have names like: first molasses, second molasses, unsulphured molasses, sulphured molasses, and blackstrap molasses. For gardeners the sweet syrup can work as a carbohydrate source to feed and stimulate microorganisms. And, because molasses (average NPK 1-0-5) contains potash, sulfur, and many trace minerals, it can serve as a nutritious soil amendment. Molasses is also an excellent chelating agent.

Several grades and types of molasses are produced by sugar cane processing. First the plants are harvested and stripped of their leaves, and then the sugar cane is usually crushed or mashed to extract it’s sugary juice. Sugar manufacturing begins by boiling cane juice until it reaches the proper consistency,
it is then processed to extract sugar. This first boiling and processing produces what is called first molasses, this has the highest sugar content of the molasses because relatively little sugar has been extracted from the juice. Green (unripe) sugar cane that has been treated with sulphur fumes during
sugar extraction produces sulphured molasses. The juice of sun-ripened cane which has been clarified and concentrated produces unsulphured molasses. Another boiling and sugar extraction produces second molasses which has a slight bitter tinge to its taste.

Further rounds of processing and boiling yield dark colored blackstrap molasses, which is the most nutritionally valuable of the various types of molasses. It is commonly used as a sweetner in the manufacture of cattle and other animal feeds, and is even sold as a human health supplement. Any kind of molasses will work to provide benefit for soil and growing plants, but blackstrap molasses is the best choice because it contains the greatest concentration of sulfur, iron and micronutrients from the original cane material. Dry molasses is something different still. It’s not exactly just dried molasses either, it’s molasses sprayed on grain residue which acts as a “carrier”.

Molasses production is a bit different when it comes to the sugar beet. You might say “bird’s know beets” because one of our flock grew up near Canada’s “sugar beet capitol” in Alberta. Their family worked side by side with migrant workers tending the beet fields. The work consisted of weeding and thinning by hand, culling the thinner and weaker plants to leave behind the best beets. After the growing season and several hard frosts - which increase the sugar content - the beets are harvested by machines,
piled on trucks and delivered to their destination.

At harvest time, a huge pile of beets will begin to build up outside of the sugar factory that will eventually dwarf the factory itself in size. Gradually throughout the winter the pile will diminish as the whole beets are ground into a mash and then cooked. The cooking serves to reduce and clarify the beet mash, releasing huge columns of stinky (but harmless) beet steam into the air. Sometimes, if the air is cold enough, the steam will fall to the ground around the factory as snow!

As we’ve already learned, in the of sugar cane the consecutive rounds of sugar manufacturing produce first molasses and second molasses. With the humble sugar beet, the intermediate syrups get names like high green and low green, it’s only the syrup left after the final stage of sugar extraction that is called molasses. After final processing, the leftover sugar beet mash is dried then combined with the thick black colored molasses to serve as fodder for cattle. Sugar beet molasses is also used to sweeten feed for horses, sheep, chickens, etc.


Sugar beet molasses is only considered useful as an animal feed additive because it has fairly high concentrations of many salts including calcium, potassium, oxalate, and chloride. Despite the fact that it’s not suitable for human consumption and some consider it to be an industrial waste or industrial by-product,
molasses produced from sugar beets makes a wonderful plant fertilizer. While humans may reject beet molasses due to the various “extras” the sugar beet brings to the table, to our plant’s it’s a different story. Sugar beet molasses is usually fairly chemical free as well, at least in our experience. Although farmers generally fertilize their fields in the spring using the various arrays of available fertilizers, weed chemicals (herbicides) are not used for this crop due to the beet plant’s relatively delicate nature.


There is at least one other type of “molasses” we are aware of, and that would be sorghum molasses. It’s made from a plant known as sweet sorghum or sorghum cane in treatments somewhat similar to sugar beets and/or sugar cane processing. If our understanding is correct, sorghum molasses is more correctly called a thickened syrup rather than a by-product of sugar production. So in our eyes sorghum molasses is probably more like Maple Syrup than a true molasses.


In the distant past sorghum syrup was a common locally produced sweetener in many areas, but today it is fairly rare speciality product that could get fairly pricey compared to Molasses. Because sorghum molasses is the final product of sweet sorghum processing, and blackstrap and sugar beet molasses are simply
waste by-products of sugar manufacturing, it’s pretty easy to understand the difference in expense between the products. The word from the birds is - there isn’t any apparent advantage to justify the extra expense of using sorghum molasses as a substitute for blackstrap or sugar beet molasses in the garden. So if you find sorghum molasses, instead of using it in your garden, you’ll probably want to use it as an alternate sweetener on some biscuits.

That’s a quick bird’s eye look at the differences between the various types and grades of molasses and how they are produced. Now it’s time to get a peek at the why’s and how’s of using molasses in gardening.

Why Molasses?

The reason nutrient manufacturer’s have “discovered” molasses is the simple fact that it’s a great source of carbohydrates to stimulate the growth of beneficial microorganisms. “Carbohydrate” is really just a fancy word for sugar, and molasses is the best sugar for horticultural use. Folks who have read some of our prior essays know that we are big fans of promoting and nourishing soil life, and that we attribute a good portion of our growing success to the attention we pay to building a thriving “micro-herd” to work in concert with plant roots to digest and assimilate nutrients. We really do buy into the old organic gardening adage - “Feed the soil not the plant.”


Molasses is a good, quick source of energy for the various forms of microbes and soil life in a compost pile or good living soil. As we said earlier, molasses is a carbon source that feeds the beneficial microbes that create greater natural soil fertility. But, if giving a sugar boost was the only goal, there would be lot’s of alternatives. We could even go with the old Milly Blunt story of using Coke on plants as a child, after all Coke would be a great source of sugar to feed microbes and it also contains phosphoric acid to provide phosphorus for strengthening roots and encouraging blooming. In our eyes though, the primary thing that makes molasses the best sugar for agricultural use is it’s trace minerals.

In addition to sugars, molasses contains significant amounts of potash, sulfur, and a variety of micronutrients. Because molasses is derived from plants, and because the manufacturing processes that create it remove mostly sugars, the majority of the mineral nutrients that were contained in the original
sugar cane or sugar beet are still present in molasses. This is a critical factor because a balanced supply of mineral nutrients is essential for those “beneficial beasties” to survive and thrive. That’s one of the secrets we’ve discovered to really successful organic gardening, the micronutrients found in organic amendments like molasses, kelp, and alfalfa were all derived from other plant sources and are quickly and easily available to our soil and plants. This is especially important for the soil “micro-herd” of critters who depend on tiny amounts of those trace minerals as catalysts to make the enzymes that create biochemical transformations. That last sentence was our fancy way of saying - it’s actually the critters in “live soil” that break down organic fertilizers and “feed” it to our plants.

One final benefit molasses can provide to your garden is it’s ability to work as a chelating agent. That’s a scientific way of saying that molasses is one of those “magical” substances that can convert some chemical nutrients into a form that’s easily available for critters and plants. Chelated minerals can be absorbed directly and remain available and stable in the soil. Rather than spend a lot of time and effort explaining the relationships between chelates and micronutrients, we are going to quote one of our favorite sources for explaining soil for scientific laymen.

“Micronutrients occur, in cells as well as in soil, as part of large, complex organic molecules in chelated form. The word chelate (pronounced “KEE-late”) comes from the Greek word for “claw,” which indicates how a single nutrient ion is held in the center of the larger molecule. The finely balanced interactions between micronutrients are complex and not fully understood. We do know that balance is crucial; any micronutrient, when present in excessive amounts, will become a poison, and certain poisonous elements, such as chlorine are also essential micronutrients.

For this reason natural, organic sources of micronutrients are the best means of supplying them to the soil; they are present in balanced quantities and not liable to be over applied through error or ignorance. When used in naturally chelated form, excess micronutrients will be locked up and prevented from disrupting soil balance.”

Excerpted from “The Soul of Soil”
by Grace Gershuny and Joe Smillie

That’s not advertising hype either, no product being sold there. That’s just the words of a pair of authors who have spent their lives studying, building, and nurturing soils.

Molasses’ ability to act as a chelate explains it’s presence in organic stimulant products like Earth Juice Catalyst. Chelates are known for their ability to unlock the potential of fertilizers, and some smart biological farmers we know are using chelating agents (like Humic Acid) to allow them to make dramatic
cuts in normal levels of fertilizer application.

One way to observe this reaction at work would be to mix up a solution of one part molasses to nine parts water and then soak an object which is coated with iron rust (like a simple nail for instance) in that solution for two weeks. The chelating action of the molasses will remove the mineral elements of the rust and hold them in that “claw shaped” molecule that Grace and Joe just described.

As we’ve commented on elsewhere, it’s not always possible to find good information about the fertilizer benefits of some products that aren’t necessarily produced as plant food. But we’ve also found that by taking a careful look at nutritional information provided for products like molasses that can be consumed
by humans, we can get a pretty decent look at the nutrition we can expect a plant to get as well.

There are many brand’s of molasses available, so please do not look at our use of a particular brand as an endorsement, our choice of Brer Rabbit molasses as an example is simply due to our familiarity with the product, one of our Grandmother’s preferred this brand.

Brer Rabbit Blackstrap Molasses
Nutritional Information and Nutrition Facts:
Serving Size: 1Tbsp. (21g).
Servings per Container: About 24.
Amount Per Serving: Calories - 60;

Percentage Daily Values;

Fat - 0g, 0%;
Sodium - 65mg. 3%;
Potassium - 800 mg. 23%;
Total Carbohydrates - 13g, 4%;
Sugars - 12g,
Protein - 1g,
Calcium - 2%; Iron 10%;
Magnesium 15%;
Not a significant source of calories from fat, sat.
fat, cholesterol, fiber, Vitamin A, and Vitamin C.

The How’s of Molasses

Undoubtedly some folks are to the point where they are ready for our flock to “cut to the chase.” All the background about molasses making and the various kinds of molasses is good, and knowing how molasses works as a fertilizer is great too, but by now many of you may be thinking - isn’t it about time to
learn how to actually use this wonder product?! So this section of the “Molasses Manual” is for our birdie buds who are ready, waiting, and wanting to get going with bringing the sticky goodness of molasses into
their garden.

Molasses is a fairly versatile product, it can serve as a plant food as well as a an additive to improve a fertilizer mix or tea. Dry molasses can be used as an ingredient in a fertilizer mix, and liquid molasses can be used alone or as a component in both sprays and soil drenches. Your personal preferences and growing style will help to decide how to best use this natural sweetener for it’s greatest effect in your garden.

We will try and address the use of dry molasses first, although we will openly admit this is an area where we have little actual experience with gardening use. We’ve certainly mixed dry molasses into animal feed before, so we’re not totally unfamiliar with it’s use. Folks may remember from our earlier description
of the various kinds of molasses that dry molasses is actually a ground grain waste “carrier” which has been coated with molasses. This gives dry molasses a semi-granular texture that can be mixed into
a feed mix (for animals) or a soil mix (for our favorite herbs). Dry molasses has a consistency that was described by one bird as similar to mouse droppings or rat turds, (folks had to know we’d fit a manure reference in here somehow).

The best use we can envision for dry molasses in the herb garden is to include it in some sort of modified “super-soil” recipe, like Vic High originally popularized for the cannabis community. As we admitted, the use of dry molasses in soil mixes isn’t something we have personal experience with, at least
not yet. We are planning some experiments to see how a bit of dry molasses will work in a soil mix. We believe that moderate use should help stimulate micro-organisms and also help in chelating micronutrients and
holding them available for our herbs. The plan is to begin testing with one cup of dried molasses added per 10 gallons of soil mix and then let our observations guide the efforts from there.

Another option for molasses use in the garden is it’s use alone as a fertilizer. The Schultz Garden Safe Liquid Plant Food is a perfect example of the direct application of molasses as a plant food. Garden Safe products are available from a variety of sources, including Wal-Mart. Although we consider them overpriced
for a sugar beet by-product, Garden Safe products are fairly cost effective, especially compared to fertilizers obtained from a hydroponics or garden store, and they can serve as a good introduction to molasses for the urban herb gardener.

Here are the basic instructions a gardener would find on the side of a bottle of this sugar beet by-product -

Mix Garden Safe Liquid All Purpose Plant Food in water. Water plants thoroughly with solution once every 7-14 days in spring and summer, every 14-30 days in fall and winter. Indoors, use 1/2 teaspoon per quart (1 teaspoon per gallon); outdoors, 1 teaspoon per quart (4 teaspoons per gallon). 32 fluid ounces (946ml). Contains 3.0% Water Soluble Nitrogen, 1.0% Available Phosphate, 5.0% Soluble Potash derived from molasses.

In our own experience with Garden Safe Liquid fertilizers, we’ve used a pretty close equivalent to the outdoor rate on indoor herbs with some good success.

Our best application rate for Garden Safe 3-1-5 ended up being around 1 Tablespoon
per gallon ( 1 Tablespoon = 3 teaspoons). Used alone it’s really not a favorite for continuos use, since we don’t see Garden Safe 3-1-5 as a balanced fertilizer. It doesn’t have enough phosphorous to sustain good root growth and flower formation in the long term. It’s best use would probably be in an outdoor soil
grow where there are potential pest issues. Animal by-products like blood meal and bone meal are notorious for attracting varmints, so Garden Safe sugar beet molasses fertilizers could provide an excellent “plant based” source of Nitrogen and Potassium for a soil that’s already been heavily amended with a good slow release source of phosphorous, our choice would be soft rock phosphate.

Blackstrap molasses could also be used in a similar fashion, as a stand alone liquid fertilizer for the biological farmer who needs to avoid potential varmint problems caused by animal based products. But, we really believe there is a better overall use for molasses in the organic farmer’s arsenal of fertilizers. Our suggestion for the best available use, would be to make use of the various molasses products as a part making organic teas for watering and foliar feeding.

Since many of the folks reading this are familiar with our Guano Guide, it will come as no surprise to our audience that molasses is a product we find very useful as an ingredient in Guano and Manure teas. Most bat and seabird guanos are fairly close to being complete fertilizers, with the main exception being
that they are usually short in Potassium. Molasses is turns out is a great source of that necessary Potassium. As we learned earlier, molasses also acts as a chelating agent and will help to make micronutrients in the Guano more easily available for our favorite herbs.

A good example of a guano tea recipe at the Bird’s Nest is really as simple as the following:

1 Gallon of water

1 TBSP of guano (for a flowering mix we’d use Jamaican or Indonesian Bat Guano - for a more general use fertilizer we would choose Peruvian Seabird Guano.)

1 tsp blackstrap or sugar beet molasses

We mix the ingredients directly into the water and allow the tea mix to brew for 24 hours. It’s best to use an aquarium pump to aerate the tea, but an occasional shaking can suffice if necessary and still produce a quality tea. We will give you one hint from hard personal experience, make sure if you use the shake
method that you hold the lid on securely, nobody appreciates having a crap milkshake spread over the room.

Some folks prefer to use a lady’s nylon or stocking to hold the guano and keep it from making things messy, but we figure the organic matter the manure can contribute to the soil is a good thing. Using this method we feel like we are getting the benefits of a manure tea and a guano top-dressing all together
in the same application. If you prefer to use the stocking method, feel free to feed the”tea bag”leftovers to your worm or compost bin, even after a good brewing there’s lots of organic goodness left in that crap!

We also use molasses to sweeten and enrich Alfalfa meal teas. Our standard recipe for this use is:

4 gallons of water

1 cup of fine ground alfalfa meal

1 TBSP blackstrap or sugar beet molasses

After a 24 hour brew, this 100% plant-based fertilizer is ready for application. Alfalfa is a great organic plant food, with many benefits above and beyond just the N–P-K it can contribute to a soil mix or tea. We do plan to cover Alfalfa and it’s many uses in greater detail soon in yet another thread. We prefer to mix our alfalfa meal directly into the tea, but many gardeners use the stocking”tea bag”method with great effectiveness, both work well, it’s really just a matter of personal preference.

The alfalfa tea recipe we described can be used as a soil drench, and also as a foliar feed. And foliar feeding is the final use of molasses we’d like to detail. Foliar feeding, for the unfamiliar, is simply the art of using fine mist sprays as a way to get nutrients directly to the plant through the minute pores a plant”breathes”through. It is by far the quickest and most effective way to correct nutrient deficiencies, and can be an important part of any gardener’s toolbox.

Molasses is a great ingredient in foliar feeding recipes because of it’s ability to chelate nutrients and bring them to the “table” in a form that can be directly absorbed and used by the plant. This really improves the effectiveness of foliar feeds when using them as a plant tonic. In fact it improves them enough that we usually can dilute our teas or mix them more “lean” - with less fertilizer - than we might use without the added molasses.

Of course it is possible to use molasses as a foliar feed alone, without any added guano or alfalfa. It’s primary use would be to treat plants who are deficient in Potassium, although molasses also provides significant boosts in other essential minerals such as Sulfur, Iron and Magnesium. Organic farming guides
suggest application rates of between one pint and one quart per acre depending on the target plant. For growing a fast growing annual plant like cannabis, we’d suggest a recipe of 1 teaspoon molasses per gallon of water.

In all honesty, we’d probably suggest a foliar feeding with kelp concentrate as a better solution for an apparent Potassium shortage. Kelp is one of our favorite foliar feeds because it is a complete source of micronutrients in addition to being a great source of Potassium. Kelp has a variety of other characteristics
that we love, and we plan that it will be the topic of it’s own detailed thread at a future date. But, for growers that cannot find kelp, or who might have problems with the potential odors a kelp foliar feeding can create, molasses can provide an excellent alternative treatment for Potassium deficient plants at an affordable price.

That looks at most of the beneficial uses of Molasses for the modern organic or biological farmer. Just when you think that’s all there could be from our beaks on the topic of molasses, that molasses and it’s sweet sticky goodness surely have been covered in their entirety, the birds chirp in to say, there is one more specialized use for molasses in the garden. Magical molasses can also help in the control of Fire Ants, and perhaps some other garden pests.

Molasses For Organic Pest Control

One final benefit of molasses is it’s ability to be used in the control of a couple of common pests encountered in gardening. The most commonly known use of molasses is it’s ability to help control Fire Ants, but we’ve also found an internet reference to the ability of molasses to control white cabbage moths
in the UK, so molasses could be an effective pest deterrent in more ways that we are aware. As we said before, there are several references we’ve run across refering to the ability of molasses to control Fire Ants. Since we’re not intimately familiar with this particular use of molasses, and rather than simply
re-write and re-word another’s work, we thought we’d defer to the experts. So for this section of the current version of the Molasses Manual, we will simply post a reference article we found that covers topic in better detail than we currently can ourselves.

Molasses Makes Fire Ants Move Out

By Pat Ploegsma, reprinted from Native Plant Society of Texas News, Summer 1999

Have you ever started planting in your raised beds and found fire ant highrises? Are you tired of being covered with welts after gardening? Put down that blowtorch and check out these excellent organic and non-toxic solutions. Malcolm Beck1, organic farmer extraordinaire and owner of Garden-Ville Inc., did
some experiments that showed that molasses is a good addition to organic fertilizer (more on fertilizer in the next issue).

When using molasses in the fertilizer spray for his fruit trees he noticed that the fire ants moved out from under the trees. “I got an opportunity to see if molasses really moved fire ants. In my vineyard, I had a 500 foot row of root stock vines cut back to a stump that needed grafting. The fire ants had made themselves at home along that row. The mounds averaged three feet apart. There was no way a person could work there without being eaten alive! I dissolved 4 tablespoons of molasses in each gallon of water and sprayed along the drip pipe. By the next day the fire ants had moved four feet in each direction. We were able to graft the vines without a single ant bothering us.”

This gave him the idea for developing an organic fire ant killer that is 30% orange oil and 70% liquid compost made from manure and molasses. The orange oil softens and dissolves the ant’s exoskeleton, making them susceptible to attack by the microbes in the compost, while the molasses feeds the microbes
and also smothers the ants. After the insects are dead, everything becomes energy-rich soil conditioner and will not harm any plant it touches. It can be used on any insect including mosquitoes and their larvae.

Break a small hole in the crust in the center of the mound then quickly!!! pour the solution into the hole to flood the mound and then drench the ants on top. Large mounds may need a second application. Available at Garden-Ville Square in Stafford, it has a pleasant lemonade smell. According to Mark Bowen2, local landscaper and Houston habitat gardening expert, fire ants thrive on disturbed land and sunny grassy areas. “Organic matter provides a good habitat for fire ant predators such as beneficial nematodes, fungi, etc. Other conditions favoring fire ant predators include shading the ground with plantings, good soil construction practices and use of plants taller than turfgrasses.” He recommends pouring boiling soapy water over shallow mounds or using AscendTM. “Ascend is a fire ant bait which contains a fungal by-product called avermectin and a corn and soybean-based grit bait to attract fire ants. Ascend works slowly enough to get the queen or queens and it controls ants by sterilizing and/or killing them outright.”

Malcolm Beck also did some experiments with Diatomaceous Earth - DE - (skeletal remains of algae which is ground into an abrasive dust) which confirmed that DE also kills fire ants. He mixes 4 oz. of DE into the top of the mound with lethal results. According to Beck, DE only works during dry weather on dry ant mounds. Pet food kept outdoors will stay ant free if placed on top of a tray with several inches of DE

1Beck, Malcolm. The Garden-Ville Method: Lessons in Nature. Third Edition. San Antonio, TX: Garden-Ville, Inc., 1998.
2Bowen, Mark, with Mary Bowen. Habitat Gardening for Houston and Southeast Texas. Houston, TX: River Bend Publishing
Company, 1998.

As we had also mentioned earlier, while researching the uses of molasses in gardening, we also came across a reference to it’s use in the control of white cabbage moths. Here’s what we found on that particular topic.

“I came across this home remedy from the UK for white cabbage moths.

Mix a tablespoon of molasses in 1 litre of warm water and let cool.. spray every week or every 2 weeks as required for white cabbage moth..they hate it..and I thinkit would be good soil conditioner as well if any drops on your soil.. It works for me...but gotta do it before white butterfly lays eggs...otherwise
you might have to use the 2 finger method and squash grubs for your garden birds..

"nutNhoney" wrote in message
news:10eb7o36vst8r1b@corp.supernews.com...
> To the kind soul who posted the tip for spraying members of the cabbage
> family with a molasses solution, thank you so much. Today, I noticed a
> white moth hovering around my brussel sprouts. I quickly made up a
> solution of molasses and rushed back to the garden to spray. The moth
> did not land! It seemed to be repelled by the molasses. I sprayed the
> broccoli too for good measure. I think I will spray again for the next
> few days. If it keeps the cabbage caterpillars off, I will be so happy.
> Thanks again!”

So there you have it, not necessarily straight from our mouths, but simply one more potential use we’ve discovered for molasses, with at least one testimonial for it’s effectiveness. As we said before, the use of molasses as an foliar spray, in addition to it’s potential use as a pest deterrent, would also serve
to provide some essential nutrients directly to our plants, and would especially serve as an effective boost of Potassium for plants diagnosed with a deficiency in K. Healthy plants are more resistant to the threat of pests or disease, so molasses really is a multi-purpose organic pest deterrent.

Last Bird's Eye Look At Molasses

You’ve heard a lot now about the sweet sticky goodness of Molasses in the garden, but have we mentioned yet that some folks even view Molasses as a health food?

One of the 3LB’s had a grandmother who would take a swig of molasses twice every day as a part of her health regimen. We don’t add that as a random fact, but mention it because there’s an interesting little story attached . . .

Grandma was driving down the road one day, oblivious to her surroundings, when she was struck with the remembrance that her morning molasses had been forgotten. Most folks wouldn’t have had a solution for this problem at hand, but we have to tell you that this is a lady who traveled with a small bottle of molasses
in her purse!

So Grandma grabbed the brown bottle of molasses from her purse, and proceeded to uncap it and take a gulp as she drove somewhat uncertainly down the road. Chance would have it, that as she performed this somewhat delicate action, she was observed by an officer of the law weaving down the road. Officer LEO
observed Grammy directly as she lifted the small brown bottle to her lips. Of course in that day, beer didn’t come in an aluminum can, but instead was distributed in little brown bottles that looked quite similar to the molasses bottle Grandma had just swigged. We don’t need to tell you where the law enforcement officer’s mind went.

Putting two and two together to equal an apparent and immediate danger to the community in an act of wanton disregard for the law, Officer LEO flipped his vehicle around in a 180 turn, flipped on his lights, and began to pursue Grandma. This was a lady we never were quite comfortable letting children ride with, but it was also a day and age before there were many laws allowing intervention to remove the license of an elderly person no longer competent to drive.

So, we will just say it was a little while before Grandma noticed the red flashing lights in her rear view mirror. After all she’d been busy putting her molasses away in her purse and watching the road ahead of her, not looking back behind. It probably didn’t help that Grandmother’s first instinct was also to believe that the flashing lights behind her were really meant for someone else.

It certainly didn’t occur to Grandma that all of her actions worked to confirm in Officer LEO’s mind that he was dealing with an intoxicated old crone with an apparent total disregard for the not only the law, but also other’s safety. And we probably don’t need to tell you that he wasn’t feeling particularly kind or generous when Grammy finally did pull to the road’s shoulder. As the officer finally approached her car, prepared for trouble from some kind of inebriated old crone, Grandmother came hobbling from her own vehicle a bit unsteadily due to her advanced arthritis.

Fortunately we can report that the final ending was happy, without too much unnecessary drama. After verbally demanding the officer’s intent, and then producing the offending brown bottle for the officer’s inspection, grammy was supposedly heard to say, “Good lands officer, do you really think a woman of my standing in the community would EVER imbibe an alcoholic beverage while driving? Well I NEVER! . . . And didn’t your mother ever tell you that molasses is good for you?”

Well folks, there you have it, the “Molasses Manual” by the three_little_birds. If your Mother’s or Grandmother’s didn’t tell you about the sticky goodness of molasses, you’ve heard all about it now from the three_little_birds. Like our Guano Guide was designed to be a fairly comprehensive look at manures, we hope this look at soil sweeteners gives folks a thorough look at the uses of molasses in their garden. Hopefully now everyone knows the how’s and why’s of the uses of this sweetener for the soil.

It looks like the last thing to add is the where’s. If you are of the theory that your local hydro shop owner isn’t rich enough yet, then please by all means go and purchase an expensive carbo load product, but don’t complain that the three_little_birds didn’t warn you that it’s likely little more than Blackstrap Molasses. Hey, spending it there keeps the money recirculating in the economy and is preferable to burying it in a hole in the backyard. However, if you are a grower who wishes to be a little more frugal, there are certainly cheaper alternatives.

We’ve been known to recommend the complete group of Earth Juice fertilizers as a convenient and effective line of liquid organic fertilizers for home herb gardeners. We’ve grown using all thier products including: Bloom, Grow, Meta-K, Microblast, and Catalyst (Xatalyst in Canada! ) Many other’s here at CW
also report great success and satisfaction with their products. Well, if folks look at the ingredients in Catalyst, one of the first things they will see is molasses. There are some other goodies in there like kelp, oat bran, wheat malt, and yeast, but we’re thinking that molasses is the main magic in EJ Catalyst.

Another choice for obtaining your garden’s molasses is Grandma’s source. It’s pretty likely you can find molasses on the shelf of your local grocery store. For folks living in an urban area this may very well be the best and most economical choice for molasses procurement. But if the folk reading this live
anywhere near a rural area, then the best and cheapest source of all will be an farm supply or old fashioned animal feed shop. Your plants don’t care if your molasses comes out of a bottle designed for the kitchen cupboard, or a big plastic jug designed for the feedlot, but your pocketbook will feel the difference. Blackstrap molasses for farm animals is the best overall value for your garden, and it is the molasses option we most strongly endorse for your garden.

Although we do our best to post accurate and complete information, we also know that our collective intelligence on a topic far outstrips our individual knowledge and experience, and therefore the collective knowledge and experience of the entire community here at CW is greater still. We also know there are always questions we haven’t anticipated. So we welcome your questions, we encourage comments, and we sincerely hope for useful additions. We even welcome criticism, as long as it’s constructive.

We’d like to remind folks to be careful out there . . . happy harvests from the 3LB!
 
The 3LB's Guano Guide! All About Manures, Brown And Green!

The 3LB's Guano Guide- The Scoop on Poop

"Birds love the oil rich seeds of this fruitful plant and in their ecstasies of eating have swallowed many seeds whole. Throughout the ages Cannabis has flown here and there in the bellies of birds and then found itself plopped down on the earth in a pile of poop, ready to go."
Bill Drake
Marijuana - The Cultivator's Handbook - 1979

Some ancient Italian in a proverb-making mood observed, "Hemp will grow anywhere, but without manure, though it were planted in heaven itself, it will be of no use at all." How lucky it is for Hemp to find Heaven in a pile of birdshit. How fortunate for the birds to find themselves high. How fortunate for the first men and women to notice how the little singing creatures became euphoric after eating the seeds of the tall, strong smelling plant. The planet is tight."
Bill Drake
Marijuana - The Cultivator's Handbook - 1979

Growing up on a small family farm, one of the three little bird’s childhood memories include complaining to her father about being surrounded by the terrible smell of wastes from the livestock they were raising.

"Sweetheart, that's not stink . . . That's the smell of money," was Dad's reply.

She certainly understood the value of the livestock her family was raising for profit, which was where Daddy's money came from. Early on, she also made the connection between the farm animals and the tasty meat on their own table.

She understood another ironic meaning for her Dad's statement when one of her first paying jobs came shoveling stock barns at a State Fair. And finally, one day as she appreciated the fine aroma of some beautiful blooming wildflowers growing in a recently grazed pasture, she also began to understand the role manure plays as a fertilizer in making our soils rich and productive. Her Father’s saying about manure smelling like money was a few simple words, but, as was often the case with his wisdom, it held many meanings.

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The use of manure in agriculture is an age-old and time-honored tradition. Manure has been used as a soil amendment and fertilizer since before mankind first began recording words and symbols in writing. Scientists as prominent as Carl Sagan have suggested that the very first cultivated agricultural crop was likely cannabis. It’s possible that the mingling of manure and marijuana goes all the way back to the very beginning of mankind's attempts to grow crops for a purpose, rather than surviving by simple hunting and gathering.

Under the influence of some fine herb, it becomes simple to imagine going back in time. Looking back, in the mind’s eye we can see a tribe of nomadic people looking similar to modern man, but leading a primitive hunter-gatherer existence. We can imagine the clan following available game while taking advantage of locally available fruits and nuts. These men (and women) were not necessarily bigger or stronger than the wild animals they competed against for survival, but they were smarter. And during those seasonal migrations, one of those very distant ancestors likely noticed that their favorite herb plants were thriving especially well in areas where their nomadic tribe disposed of wastes near their seasonal camps.

They may have realized that the very herds of animals their clan had been following helped to distribute and nourish the plants they favored. Perhaps, as Bill Drake suggests, it was a discovery from a pile of birdshit where it all began. Regardless of where it started, with a little more thought, our ancestors realized that crops could be fertilized, and even grown with a purpose. Some speculate that this is how agriculture was born; that it all began with a fortuitously placed pile of shit.

In the end folks can call it what they like. Whether it's a fancier name like castings or guano, or one of the more common names like crap, poop, manure, or dung. In the end it's all just shit! The three_little_birds want you to know, however, that it can be very good shit. We want you to know that manures are one of the keys to unlocking the awesome potential of organic gardening.

In the immeasurable time prior to the invention of agriculture, before man began to till the soil, dead and rotting vegetation naturally returned to the earth as rich and fertile humus. In traditional forms of farming, our ancestors learned to use the components of animal dung and bedding wastes in a sustainable fashion. Before the discovery of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, manure was used as a resource, not a waste product. Natural humus, built up during the ages before agriculture, was replaced by manure, rich in nitrogen and other elements that plants depend upon. Today, that is no longer true.

From an environmental perspective, manure is a resource that is being wasted at a terrible rate. In some agricultural areas where a large number of livestock are concentrated and raised, manure is not a resource, but rather, it has become an environmental hazard. Consider, for instance, that a single hog will produce 3000 pounds of manure in under a year. It’s easy to see then how the large concentration of wastes found in corporate factory farms can rival a good-sized city for the total volume of organic waste produced.

According to one estimate, the USA alone has something in the range of 175 million farms animals. That multitude of animals excretes over two billion tons of waste per year. Due to mismanagement, misuse, and ignorance, very few of the potential nutrients from these wastes are returned to the land, less than 20% according to some estimates. Instead, this incredible mass of manure threatens to pollute river, streams, lakes, and even the subterranean groundwater that supplies many folk with their drinking water.

Therefore, finding proper solutions for the treatment and disposal of all that manure, in an economically feasible fashion, is an absolute necessity of modern agriculture. In the end, good stewardship requires sustainable farming practices that concentrate on finding a balance on the farm. So, as long as humans raise and consume animal livestock, as long as we keep animals such as horses for purpose or pleasure, it is wise to properly use manure to build and sustain our soil.

As a side note, one advanced form of gardening, vegan organics, does offer hope for budding organic gardeners who will have nothing to do with the use of manures and guanos. We mention this since some folk might be dismissive of the very thought of handling animal dung, and some indoor gardeners might be repelled by the thought of bringing it into their homes or grow areas. Perhaps for some folk this will be enough reason to decide this particular form of organic gardening is not for them.

We hope not because working with manures in your garden does not have to include large messes or smells . . . it's just a question of knowing your shit!

For a simple definition, manure is the dung and urine of animals. It is made up of undigested and partially digested food particles, as well as a cocktail of digestive juices and bacteria. As much as 30% of the total mass of manure may be bacteria, so it should be no surprise that dung can serve as excellent inoculants for a compost pile. Mixing manure in your compost can provide all the necessary bacterial populations to quickly and efficiently break down all the other materials common to the heap.

Manures can contain the full range of major, minor, and micronutrients that our plants need for strong health and vigor. Most manure will contain these nutrients in forms that are readily available to plants. The organic components of manure will continue to break down slowly over time, providing food for plants in the longer term as well. When composted with even longer-lived rock fertilizers such as Rock Phosphate or Greensand, manures can be used for true long-term soil building.

In addition to providing excellent service to gardeners as a potential fertilizer and soil builder, guanos and manures can also both be effectively applied as teas. Manure and guano teas act as fertilizers, providing available nutrients in forms easily assimilated by plants. They also serve as very effective inoculants of many beneficial bacteria

The nutrient value of manures can vary significantly from species to species, due to different digestive systems and feeding patterns. Even within a species, the fertilizer content of dung will vary depending on factors such as diet, the animal’s general health, as well as their age. Young animals devote much of their energy to growth, so their manure will be poorer in nutrients than that of mature animals. A lot full of baby pigs on starter feed will deposit wastes with a different nutrient value than the wastes produced by a lot full of swine ready to go to market.

An animal’s diet certainly plays a factor as well. The Rodale Book on Composting (an excellent resource) uses the example of an animal fed only straw and hay. The waste from that animal will be significantly different in nutrient content when compared to a sibling fed a diet including more nutritious feed such as wheat bran, cottonseed meal, or gluten meal.

The purpose an animal is used and bred for can even cause the nutrient value of a manure to vary. Dairy cows serve here as an excellent example. Milk production is somewhat taxing, even to a dairy cow. In addition to large amounts of calcium, milk also contains high levels of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, the three primary plant nutrients. Since so many nutrients are being used to produce milk, less actual plant fertilizer will be available in those animal wastes for soil building.

Another factor that will change the fertilizer value of manure is relative age and the way it has been handled. Manures left exposed to the elements will quickly lose their nutrient value. Rain can quickly leach soluble nutrients from manure. A thin pile of crap can lose as much as one half of its fertilizer value in under a week. To fully capture the nutrient potential of manure, it’s necessary to compost the shit quickly while it’s still fresh.

With the exception of guanos (which are mined fossilized waste deposits) and castings (which are mild and well digested), it is generally advisable to compost wastes and manures before direct use in your garden. When added directly to soil, fresh manures can act in a similar fashion to chemical fertilizers. The Nitrogen in fresh manures (ammonia and highly soluble nitrates) can burn delicate plant root systems and even interfere with seed germination.

Another good reason to compost manures before use is the fact that some animal manure can be full of weed seeds. Proper high temperature composting techniques can kill those unwanted guests as well as many potential soil pathogens. Used alone, animal manures may not be completely balanced fertilizers. However, once the manures have been properly amended and composted, any imbalances can be easily corrected and the manure itself can be broken down and digested into nutrients that are both balanced and available for our favorite plants and herbs.

Proper composting will actually increase nutrient value in manure. Some types of bacteria in a compost pile will “fix” nitrogen. This preserves this essential nutrient by preventing escape as gaseous ammonia. If the conscientious composter prevents leaching, all of the original phosphorus and potassium can be preserved. As an added benefit, the composting process will increase the solubility of these nutrients.

We want to continue our discourse with a simple listing of manures that can be used to good effect by budding gardeners. But, we would be remiss if we did not begin by first discussing the few manures we believe are NOT suitable for use in gardening.

Human wastes, as well as the wastes of domestic cats and dogs, are considered totally unsuitable for use as fertilizer. DO NOT GARDEN WITH THESE WASTES! With these sources, too large a potential exists for the spread of deadly parasites and disease. Just say no to any suggestion for the use of those few manure sources.

That said, there are a great variety of guanos, manures, and castings that are safe and available for use by the enterprising horticulturalist. The list includes but is not limited to:

• The Manures

1. Chicken Manure
2. Poultry Manures (including Duck, Pigeon & Turkey Manure)
3. Cattle Manure
4. Goat Manure
5. Horse Manure
6. Pig Manure
7. Rabbit Manure
8. Sheep Manure

• The Guanos

1. Bat Guano - (including Mexican, Jamaican, & Indonesian bat guanos)
2. Seabird Guano - (including Peruvian seabird guano)

• Miscellaneous Wastes / Manures

1. Earthworm Castings
2. Cricket Castings
3. Aquarium & Aquatic Turtle Wastewater
5. Green Manures

The Manures

Now it's time to describe the various manures and their unique attributes.

Bird Manures - are treated separately from animal manures since fowls don't excrete urine separately like mammals do. Because of this, bird manures tend to be "hotter". Overall they are much richer in many nutrients than animal manures, especially nitrogen. Because of their higher nutrient content, some growers prefer birdshit to the other animal manures.

Chicken Manure (1.1-1.4-0.6) - is the most common bird shit available for farmers. It's high in nitrogen and can easily burn plants unless composted first.
Feathers (often included with chicken manure) tend to further increase available nitrogen - an added bonus. A small amount of dried chicken manure can be used as a top-dressing or mixed in small concentrations directly into soil. Chicken manures are probably best used after complete composting. Chicken droppings are often composted with other manures as well as green matter, leaves, straw, shredded corncobs, or other convenient source of organic carbons. Chicken manure is also a common ingredient in some mushroom compost recipes. One potential concern for the budding organic farmer, is the large amount of antibiotics fed to domestic fowl in large production facilities. It is also suggested that some caution should be used when handling chicken droppings, whether fresh or dried. Dried chicken shit is very fine and is a lung irritant. Caution is also counseled since bird (and bat guanos) can carry spores that cause human respiratory disease, so please wear a mask when handling bird and bat guanos and fresh foul waste.

Poultry Manures (1.1-1.4-0.6) - are often simply chicken shit mixed also with the droppings of other domesticated birds including duck droppings, pigeon poop, and turkey turds. They are "hotter" than most animal droppings, and in general they can be treated like chicken shit.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Animal Manures vary by species, and also depending of how the animals are kept and manures are collected. Urine contains a large percentage of nitrogen and potassium. This means that animals boarded in a fashion where urine is absorbed with their feces (by straw or other similar bedding), can produce organic compost that is richer in nutrients.

Cattle Manure (0.6-0.2-0.5) - is considered "cold" manure since it is moister and less concentrated than most other animal shit. It breaks down and gives off nutrients fairly slowly. Cow shit is an especially good source of beneficial bacteria, because of the complex bovine digestive system. Cow digestion includes regurgitation (cows chew their "cud") and a series of stomachs, all evolved to help cows more fully digest grasses. Since cow manure is more fully digested, it also is less likely to become a source of weed seeds than some other manure. Depending on your location, many sources of cattle manure can be from dairy cows. Recent expansion in the use of bovine growth hormones to increase milk production certainly could become a concern for organic farmers trying to source safe cattle manures. The healthier the cow, and the healthier the cow's diet, the more nutrients its manure will carry.

Goat Manure (0.7-0.3-0.9) - can be treated in a similar fashion to sheep dung or horse shit. It is usually fairly dry and rich and is a "hot" manure (therefore best composted before use).

Horse Manure (0.7-0.3-0.6) - is richer in nitrogen than cattle or swine manure, so it is a "hot" manure. A common source of horse manure is rural stables, where owners usually bed the beasts very well. Horse manures sourced from stables, therefore, may also contain large amounts of other organic matter such as wood shavings or straw with manure mixed in. Some sources of mushroom compost contain large quantities of horse manure and bedding in their mix. So from one standpoint, horseshit's use in herb growing is already fairly well documented. Horseshit, because it is hot, should be composted along with other manures and higher carbon materials, and in some cases wet down, to prevent it from cooking too hot and fast which destroys potential plant nutrients. As is true with all the different manures, healthier, well maintained animals will produce more nutritious and better balanced fertilizer. Since horses are usually well tended, this means horse manure from stables is usually a pretty good source for those in search of shit. Unfortunately, horse crap also contains a higher number of weed seeds than other comparable manure fertilizers.

Pig Manure (0.5-0.3-0.5) - is highly concentrated or "hot" manure. It is less rich in nitrogen than horse or bird crap, but stronger than many of the other animal manures. Swine crap is wetter overall than other mammal manures, and is often stored by farmers in the form of liquid slurry, that is mostly water. When allowed to dry, hog shit becomes a very fine dust, which can be a lung irritant. Pig shit is less likely to have nutrients "burn off" in the compost pile than horse manure, but is best used when mixed and composted with other manures and/or large quantities of vegetable matter.

Rabbit Manure (2.4-1.4-0.6) - is the hottest of the animal manures. It may even be higher in nitrogen than some poultry manures. As an added bonus it also contains fairly high percentages of phosphates. Because of it's high nitrogen content, rabbit crap is best used in small quantities (as a light top dressing or lightly mixed into soil) or composted before use. An excellent fertilizer by itself, some folks combine rabbit hutches with worm farms to create what is a potentially very rich source of nutritious worm castings. As with other animal manures, healthier animals fed a nutritious diet will produce a superior manure fertilizer.

Sheep Manure (0.7-0.3-0.9) - is another hot manure similar to horse or goat manure. It is generally high in nutrients and heats up quickly in a compost pile because it contains little water. Sheep and goat pellets, because they are lighter, are easier to handle than some other manures. Sheep shit contains relatively few weed seeds but more organic matter than other animal manures. As a side note, sheep farming is generally more destructive to the environment than cattle farming (or many other grazers). Sheep have a "split lip" allowing them to graze closer to the ground, so they tend to strip grass bare to the root. This heavy grazing kills many grasses, leaving earth more prone to destructive erosion. While it’s hardly considered environmentally friendly, cattle grazing is less heavy on the land than sheep farming.

The Guanos

Bat Guano

"There are, in Cuba, a great number of caves providing a considerable supply of the richest fertilizer. In these caves, where bats shelter, a fertilizer has accumulated, a true guano, the result of a mixture of solid and liquid excrement, the remains of the fruit that fed the animals, and their own carcasses. All these materials, sheltered from the sun, air and rain, form a rich mix of nitrogenous, carbonaceous and saline elements. They contain uric acid, ammonium urate, nitrates, phosphates and calcium carbonate, alkaline salts, etc. The huge quantity of guano amassed in some caves can be explained by the number of beasts that have sheltered there for so many years".

Bat and seabird guanos are some of the most wonderful, extraordinary, versatile, naturally occurring organic fertilizers known to man. They are not considered to be a renewable resource, and they are sometimes mined in an environmentally destructive fashion, so environmentally conscious growers sometimes avoid guanos.

Bat Guano - Bat guano is found as deposits in some caves that have been inhabited by these little flying mammals. Bat crap can sometimes also be found in smaller quantities in other places bats inhabit (old or abandoned buildings, trees, etc.). Bat guano has many horticultural uses. Its presence can help to guarantee efficient soil regeneration. When used as a fertilizer or tea, bat crap fosters abundant harvests of a high quality, making it an invaluable agricultural fertilizer for producing outstanding organic herbs, fruits, and vegetables. Many dedicated organic farmers insist that bat guano brings out the best flavors in their organic herbs. The bottom line is bat guano has many excellent properties that give it great value for growing an organic product of the highest quality. It may very well be possible to justify the boast that bat guano is "superior to all other natural fertilizers".

Bat Guano consists primarily of excrement of bats (no surprises there - eh?) It also contains the remains of bats that lived and died in that location over many long years. Bat guano is usually found in caves, and bats are not the only residents. Therefore, bat guano almost certainly contains the remains and excrement of other critters such as insects, mice, snakes and (gasp!) even birds. And, guano is by no means just collected excrement and animal remains, as guano ages it can undergo a array of complex decomposition and leaching processes.

The fertilizer quality of any particular bat guano depends on variety of factors. These can include: the type of rock in which the guano cave formed, the feeding habits of the bat species producing the guano, the guano’s age, and the progress of mineralization in the guano (which undergoes an endless transformation through chemical and biological processes). Guano can appear in a wide range of colors including white, yellow, brown, hazel, gray, black, or red, but color does not indicate or influence its quality.

One of the factors that can determine the fertilizer quality of bat guano is the dietary habits of the different bat species who inhabit a cave. Some bats are vegetarian, eating primarily fruits. Other bats are carnivorous; their diet usually consists of insects and similar small critters. As an example, the specific form of nitrogen in guano will depend on the feeding habits of the bats living in the caves. Bats that feed on insects eject fragments of chitin, the main component of insects' exoskeletons. Chitin resists decomposition, and contributes a long lasting form of nitrogen that appears in many older guano deposits. Obviously, chitin from digested insect remains is not likely to be found in any quantity in the guano of fruit eating bats.

Even a cave’s location will effect the composition of guano deposits found within. Different chemical reactions during the actual cave making process result in different nutrient characteristics in the various guanos. Over time, guano combines in various ways with the actual rock and minerals from the bedrock of their region. Ultimately, minerals may be deposited throughout layers of guano by a variety of means. Minerals that have been dissolved in water filtering through porous rock from above can fortify guano deposits as they drip from cave ceilings. In caves where water filters through the guano, soluble elements will likely be washed out, so the composition of the guano changes in other ways as well.

In addition to minerals deposited by leaching water, another factor in guano composition is the huge amount of particulates that fall from the cave ceilings and walls where the bats sleep and hibernate. The release of their liquid excrement at high-pressure pounds cave walls, and the physical presence of the bats as they constantly flit about, both combine to cause erosion. Chemical reactions caused by the bat crap (as well as many natural cave making processes), also work to break down cave ceilings and walls. All of these factors result in an invisible rain of minute solid mineral particulates. All of these mineral particulates are mixed into the copious quantities of bat crap (and other matter) deposited on the floor. As a result, bat guanos have a wide range natural / organic source mineral nutrients that are immediately available for plants, called chelates.

Another large component of bat guano deposits is the “fauna” within, the great collection of microorganisms that work as decomposers. Their main function is to accelerate the process of breaking down organic matter in the guano. These beneficial bacteria populations work to increase the guano’s wealth of essential nutrients, and can provide their own benefit to gardeners as a soil innoculant.

Once bat guano is deposited, it begins and endless process of transformation. From fresh deposits, nitrogen is the essential element that is usually released first. This is partially as ammonia, with its characteristic strong smell, which is omnipresent in fresh guano. The rest of the nitrogen oxidizes and forms nitrates that are often dissolved and leached by water. The phosphorus contained in guano comes partly from bat excrement, but is generally from skeletal remains (it may also come from mineral elements in the cave.) Many of the decomposition processes work to concentrate phosphorous levels in bat guano deposits as they age, and this provides some of guano’s greatest value to gardeners. Potassium is often the least represented of the three essential macro-elements, due to the solubility of its compounds, which are usually washed out of guano deposits by natural cave conditions.


During decomposition the actual proportion of the different fertilizer components of the guano change. As the guano breaks down, the levels of organic matter, nitrogen, and potassium will fall. At the same time, the relative levels of calcium, phosphates, sand, and clay levels will rise. The actual excrement and remains of bats are the main source of the elements nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium in guano. The organic compounds in the excrement contain sulphur, phosphorus, and nitrogen. After decomposition and oxidation, these combine to form sulphuric, phosphoric, and nitric acids.

Over time, those acids react with mineral elements from cave rock to form a variety of mineral salts - including sulphates, phosphates, and nitrates. Leaching washes out most of the soluble compounds including the nitrates, sodium, and potassium compounds. At the same time, the insoluble phosphates and sulphates build up in larger proportions. These include calcium phosphate, iron phosphate, aluminium phosphate and calcium sulphate. .

As we have already said, bat guano is an ecological fertilizer, obtained naturally from the excrement and physical remains of bats living in caves. This product is rich in nutrients, outclassing all other existing organic fertilizers, with a better balance of essential nutrients (N-P-K), a wealth of micro-organisms and much higher levels of organic matter. Its chemical and biological composition vary according to the bats' feeding habits, type of cave, age of guano, etc.

A great variety of different agrochemical analyses have been carried out on bat guanos through the years. All the different analysis show that the nutrient and micro-organism content of bat guanos are high, but it varies according to the type of guano. Because the chemical, physical and biological composition of bat guano (and other organic fertilizers) will naturally vary, it is impossible to set a specific single value for any nutrient. The table below is copied from internet research and is a summary of the variety of results obtained from bat guano analyses.
Source: Omar Páez Malagón, January 2004

Total Nitrogen(N) 1.00-6.00%
Phosphorus Oxide (P2O5) 1.50-9.00%
Potassium Oxide (K2O) 0.70-1.20%
Calcium Oxide (CaO) 3.60-12.0%
Magnesium Oxide (MgO) 0.70-2.00%
Iron (Fe) 0.70-1.50%
Copper (Cu) 0.20-0.50%
Manganese Oxide (MnO) 0.40-0.70%
Zinc (Zn) 0.40-0.65%
Sodium (Na+) 0.45-0.50%
Organic matter (OM) 30-65% pH (in H2O) 4.3-5.5
Ratio C/N 8-15/1
Humidity (Hy) 40-30%
Total humic extract 25-15.00%
Microbial flora 30 - 45x107 u.f.c./ gr

Note:

These values are not always uniform, but provide useful data for calculating doses of nutrients or micro-organisms and analyzing the product's physical properties for agricultural or industrial use. These indicators are for intermediate guano, in the natural state of transition between fresh guano and old or fossil guano.

Seabird guano-contains an equivalent percentage of plant nutrients, helps bind soil particles, aids in nitrogen fixation and greatly enhances beneficial bacteria. A great all around nutrient with quite a history. The most famous of all seabird guano's was that used by the inca's, the word guano actually originated from Quichua, language of the Inca civilization and means "the droppings of sea birds". The guano was collected on the rainless islands and coast of Peru. Where the atmospheric conditions insured a minimal loss of nutrients, leaving the Legendary fertilizer of the Incas. Seabird guano can be used as an soil amendment or as a tea at 1-2tbsp per gal. Because of its balanced npk ratio, an average of 10-10-2.5,seabird guano can be used as a base when making tea's (throughout the grow)

Green Manure

Green Manure is a crop grown for the purpose of supplying the soil with nutrients and organic matter. It is called a “cover crop” when the green manure is grown for the added purpose of reducing soil erosion. Green manures are usually legumes or grasses, and they are grown with the simple intent that they will be turned back under the soil. Cover crops and green manures are certainly cost effective for large-scale farmers, but many backyard gardeners have no idea how simple and effective they are to use. And, as we mentioned earlier, they do offer a “manure” option for growers who choose vegan organics.

Green manures improve soil in a variety of ways. Green manures add significant amount of organic matter into the soil. Like animal manures, the decomposing of green manures works to enhance biological activity in the soil. Green manures can also diminish the frequency of common weeds, and when used in a crop rotation, they can help to reduce disease and pests. When turned under, the rotting vegetation supports beneficial bacterial populations. As those decomposers do their work, nutrients stored by the cover crop are returned to the soil.

Alfalfa roots regularly grow to depths of five feet or more, soybeans and clover can reach almost as deep. Since their roots go deeper than folk would commonly cultivate with a rototiller or plow, a green manure crop can bring subsoil minerals up to where even shallow rooted plants can reach them. Green manures also help to improve overall soil structure, because those deep reaching roots leave behind minute channels deep into the soil. When these deep roots decay, they provide organic matter that promotes long-term soil building.

Except for buckwheat (a member of the rhubarb family) and rapeseed (related to the cabbages), all commonly used green manures are either legumes or grasses. Rye and oats are two good examples of grass family members that are commonly used as green manures. When we think of legumes, beans and peas are the “classics” which come to mind, but the legume family also includes relatives such as clover and alfalfa. Members of the legume family can be particularly valuable as green manures, due to their ability to “fix” nitrogen from the atmosphere.

In the legume family, a very specific type of bacteria works in league with plant roots. These microorganisms, called nitrogen fixing bacteria, form nodules on the plant roots where they work in a form of partnership with their host. Functioning in concert with the plant roots, nitrogen fixing bacteria transform atmospheric nitrogen (which plants otherwise can’t use), into ammonia, which plant roots can easily absorb.

If one of these plants is uprooted, the small nodules become visible as white or pinkish bumps the size of a large pinhead. The more nodules visible the better, since more nodules equals more nitrogen fixed. To assure that enough of these bacteria are present, commercially sold legume seeds are often treated with a bacterial innoculant. Make sure to get the appropriate innoculant for your specific legume crop if it’s necessary to inoculate your own soil or legume seed stock.

Each kind of legume requires a specific species of bacteria for effective nitrogen fixation, and each innoculant works for only a few species. It’s usually possible to buy an innoculant mix designed for all peas, snap or dry beans, as well as lima beans. Soybeans will require their own specific innoculant. A totally different innoculant will be needed to serve the needs of the vetches (as well as fava beans.) Still another nitrogen fixing bacteria will work with all the true clovers, but sweet clovers will require yet another innoculant.

With careful stewardship, a legume cover crop can enrich the soil with enough nitrogen to supply most of the following years crop nitrogen needs. Commonly used legumes for cover crops include: alfalfa; fava, mung and soy beans; a whole variety of clovers; cowpeas and field peas; common or hairy vetch; the lupines; and finally our favorite name among the legume cover crops - Birdsfoot trefoil.

Although the grasses and other non-legumes do not have the ability to fix nitrogen from the atmosphere, they still provide all the other benefits of green manures. Other non-legume crops grown for green manure include; barley, bromegrass, buckwheat, millet, oats, rapeseed, winter rye, ryegrass, grain sorghum, and wheat.

Seed for cover crop and green manures doesn’t need to come from fancy little packets at the garden center. Purchase grass and legume seeds by the pound, if you can, to save money. Farm and agricultural supply centers, what we call “feed & seed” stores, usually offer the most economical source. If your garden area is small, a single pound of seed may go a long way. With the smaller seeds, a pound could be expected to last through a couple of plantings. The larger seeds of legumes, like beans and peas, don’t store as well, so it’s advised to purchase them fresh annually.

The use of green manures and cover crops is relatively simple, the primary necessity being the time to grow the plants. Some preplanning is always helpful to make sure the correct crop is selected to best meet the grower’s needs. So, for example, if enriching soil nitrogen levels is a goal, then it’s best to choose a cover crop from the legume family due to their ability to fix nitrogen.

Some green manure plantings tolerate poor soil quality better than others, so some cover crops may be chosen because they tolerate particularly acidic (or alkaline) conditions. If a grower needs to break up hardpan soil and improve drainage, some cover crops grow very strong and deep roots. Such conditions call for green manures like alfalfa and birdsfoot trefoil that can thrust their roots through anything but the most dreadfully compressed soils.

As stated earlier, deep-rooted plants can also bring up essential nutrients from the subsoil. And, some do even more; they actually accumulate nutrients, concentrating them. Growing these green manures can produce a measurable (although not huge) increase in soil nutrients. Some legumes, especially red clover, can help to increase phosphorus levels. Buckwheat also increases phosphorus, as well as helping to supplement calcium. Vetches are also accumulator plants, working to increase levels of both calcium and sulfur.

Buckwheat and Rye are examples of crops often grown as green manures that also function to control weeds. Winter Rye is actually a natural herbicide; it produces chemicals that are toxic to many weed seedlings. Buckwheat works by outgrowing its weedy competitors. The large leaves of buckwheat effectively shade out many common annual weeds.

It’s also necessary to consider the seasonal needs of your garden when planning a green manure planting. Some green manures are early season crops, while others do better when planted during the heat of summer. Winter rye and winter wheat are usually planted in the late summer or fall and then turned under in the following spring.

Another key to getting the most from a green manure planting is to turn them under at the proper time. Winter cover crops of rye and wheat, for instance, should be turned under as soon as the spring soil is dry enough to work. It’s best when turning under a winter wheat to allow at least two weeks for the green manure to “work” in the soil before beginning any spring planting.

In order to assure good germination rates, it’s necessary to wait even longer for winter rye manures to be ready for replanting. A three to four week wait is suggested after turning under a winter rye crop before sowing seeds of another crop. This is due to the same herbicidal quality that makes winter rye effective in the control of weeds. In general with most grass cover crops, the best timing is to turn them under before they form mature seed.

Turning under legumes at any time will enhance the organic matter in soil and promote an active population of beneficial soil bacteria. But, to get the full benefit of a legume plantings ability to fix nitrogen, they should be allowed to grow a full season. Perennials like alfalfa, red clover, and birdsfoot trefoil can produce additional soil enriching nitrogen if allowed to grow for a second season. If allowed those two years of growth, they can be mowed multiple times, providing a high quality source of compost or material for mulching. An alfalfa cover planting can serve as a gardener’s own sure source of fresh materials for the manufacture of alfalfa teas.

Miscellaneous Wastes / Manures

this space reserved for further information on Miscellaneous Wastes / Manures

1. Earthworm Castings
2. Cricket Castings
3. Aquarium Wastewater

Finding Manure

As we’ve stated, one of the best reasons to use manures in growing is the fact that society (as a whole) has a surplus of animal shit. The disposal or dispersal of animal wastes is a real problem for areas where large agricultural operations produce copious excesses of waste. Even Vegans who might avoid pure animal products like bone meal or blood meal, might do well to consider using manures in growing, because the use of manures is beneficial to our planet's environment.

The best advice we can give for finding good sources of shit is to look around! We suggest you simply contact people who raise the various cows, horses, pigs or chickens that make this fertilizer. If you are lucky, they'll probably let you take a load home for free. Stables are usually listed in the phone book, and state fairs and travelling circuses can also serve as great sources for free manure. For the hopelessly urban farmer, the local zoo may also offer free crap. As an added benefit, zoos can offer some pretty exotic shit, like crap from critters like lions and tigers and bears, (oh my!) Some folk claim that manure from predator species like these can help to deter garden pests, such as rabbits and deer.

If none of these manure sources are available, or if you just prefer your shit pre-packaged, just head off to the local nursery or home-and-garden center. Wal-Mart, Lowes, and Home Depot are all examples of large outlets which will carry packaged manure products, usually cow and steer crap. Often these are at least partially composted and come labelled as "humus and manure". Nowadays, even many grocery stores carries manure products like humus and manure or mushroom compost. The budget conscious shopper can often wait until late in the season when stores are "closing out" such products before winter, to grab these items at increased discounts.

Garden centers or hydro shops are usually better sources for the more exotic ingredients like worm castings and the various bat and bird guanos. Ingredients for green manures can often be found in rural animal feed stores, or other similar agricultural supply center.
 
Soil Microbiology FAQ's via Texas A&M University!

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David A. Zuberer
Over the years in my position as a soil microbiologist at Texas A&M University working with beneficial soil microbes and teaching soil microbiology to a very diverse audience of students I have been approached by many people with countless questions regarding the nature of soil microbes and their normal functions in soils, both cropped and uncropped, including turfgrass soils. The questions have been as diverse as the audiences with whom I have had the pleasure of addressing. Nevertheless, certain questions seem to come up over and over again.

In this brief article I will pose some of these questions and try to answer them against the framework of what is currently known about the functions of microbes in soils and what factors govern their activities


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Normal, fertile soils teem with soil microbes. In fact, there may be hundreds of millions to billions of microbes in a single gram [about 4 hundredths of a pound and about the size of a navy bean in volume)(See Table 1)]. The most numerous microbes in soil are the bacteria (unicellular cells lacking a true nucleus) followed in decreasing numerical order by the actinomycetes (a specialized group of bacteria which contains many members that produce valuable antibiotics), the fungi (singular: fungus) which produce long, slender filaments nicely adapted for exploiting the three-dimensional pore network of the soil, soil algae and cyanobacteria ("blue-green "algae") (photosynthetic microbes which can add small amounts of carbon to soil and which also can be a nuisance in turfgrass golf greens) and soil protozoa (unicellular soil organisms that decompose organic materials as well as consume large numbers of bacteria).

Table 1. Numbers of Microbes in Soil
Microbial GroupNo./Gram of soil
Bacteria100,000,000 - 1,000,000,000
Fungi100,000 - 1,000,000
Algae and Cyanobacteria1000 - 1,000,000
Protozoa1000 - 100,000
Sylvia, Fuhrmann, Hartel and Zuberer, 1998. Not only are the numbers of soil microbes generally very large, their combined mass (i.e. the soil microbial biomass) is also usually quite substantial. It can range from several hundred to thousands of pounds per acre of soil (Table 2).

Table 2. Microbial Biomass in typical fertile soils
Microbial GroupWet wt. (lbs/ac)Lbs/1000'sq ft.**
Bacteria300-3,00012
Actinomycetes300-3,00017
Fungi500-5,00035
Protozoa50-2008
Algae10-1,5003
Data from Nelson, 1997b. In addition to the microbes, there are numerous species of soil animals that inhabit soils. These include nematodes (microscopic roundworms which are generally beneficial but some of which are plant parasites of agricultural crops and turfgrasses), microarthropods (mites, springtails, etc.) and larger animals such as the earthworms, burrowing insects, etc. These larger organisms can exert beneficial effects through improved soil structure and improved aeration and drainage due to their channeling activities in the soil. Soil microbes are important for soil structure also but their effect is more subtle. Soil microbes produce lots of gummy substances (polysaccharides, mucilages, etc.) that help to cement soil aggregates. This cement makes aggregates less likely to crumble when exposed to water. Fungal filaments, called hyphae, also stabilize soil structure because these threadlike structures ramify throughout the soil literally surrounding particles and aggregates like a hairnet The fungi can be thought of as the "threads" of the soil fabric. It must be stressed that microbes generally exert little influence on changing the actual physical structure of the soil. That's the job of the larger "earthmovers".

Thus we see that a normal soil contains enormous numbers of microbes and substantial quantities of microbial biomass. This translates to an enormous potential for microbial activity when soil conditions (available carbon sources, moisture, aeration, temperature, pH, available inorganic nutrients such as nitrogen) are favorable. I stress potential for activity because under normal situations, the microbial population as a whole does not receive a constant supply of readily available substrates to sustain prolonged high rates of growth.

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In addition to their role in cementing soil aggregates mentioned above, soil microbes are of paramount importance in cycling nutrients such as carbon (C), nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and sulfur (S). Not only do they control the forms of these elements [e.g. specialized soil bacteria convert ammonium N (NH4+) to nitrate N (NO3-)], they can regulate the quantities of N available to plants. This is especially critical in systems relying on organic fertilizers. It is only through the actions of soil microbes that the nutrients in organic fertilizers are liberated for plants and use by other microbes. Soil microbiologists call this processmineralization [the conversion of organic complexes of the elements to their inorganic forms, e.g., conversion of proteins to carbon dioxide (CO2) ammonium (NH4+) and sulfate (SO4=)]. It is perhaps the single-most important function of soil microbes as it recycles nutrients tied up in organic materials back into forms useable by plants and other microbes. In fact, the so-called Principle of Microbial Infallibility (popularized by Dr. Martin Alexander of Cornell University) states that for every naturally occurring organic compound there is a microbe or enzyme system that can degrade it. Note that this applies to naturally occurring compounds. It is obvious that some our persistent pesticides did not conform to this principle and even some naturally occurring compounds are fairly resistant to microbial attack. It is through the process of mineralization that crop residues, grass clippings, leaves, organic wastes, etc., are decomposed and converted to forms useable for plant growth as well as converted to stable soil organic matter called humus. Herein lies another important role for the larger soil animals like earthworms. The large organisms function as grinders in that they reduce the particle size of organic residues making them more accessible and decomposable by the soil microbes. The soil microbial population also further decomposes the waste products of the larger animals. Thus, the activities of different groups of soil organisms are linked in complex "food webs".
One beneficial process carried out exclusively by soil microbes is called nitrogen fixation, the capture of inert N2 gas (dinitrogen) from the air for incorporation into the bodies of microbial cells. In one well-known form of this process, symbiotic nitrogen fixation, soil bacteria such as Rhizobium and Bradyrhizobium actually inhabit specialized structures on the roots of leguminous plants (soybeans, cowpeas, beans clovers, etc.) where they fix substantial quantities of nitrogen that becomes available to the host plant. Unfortunately, the root nodule system is not found in the grasses so we cannot rely on it for "free" nitrogen. Nevertheless, free-living (nonsymbiotic) nitrogen-fixing bacteria do associate with roots of grasses where they fix small quantities of nitrogen using carbon compounds (root exudates, sloughed root cells, etc.) produced from the roots as energy sources to drive the energy-expensive nitrogen-fixing enzyme system. Another factor limiting the utility of free-living N2 fixers is the fact that they will not fix N2 when exposed to even very low levels of fertilizer nitrogen. Thus in fertile turfgrass soils this process is of limited importance whereas in unfertilized prairie soils the 10 to 25 pounds of N fixed per acre per year is ecologically relevant.

Another benefit of soil microbes is their ability to degrade pest control chemicals and other hazardous materials reaching the soil. Thus through the actions of the soil microflora, pesticides may be degraded or rendered nontoxic lowering their potential to cause environmental problems such as ground and surface water contamination. Of course, there is a "downside" to this microbial capability. In some instances, soil microbes have been shown to degrade soil-applied pesticides so rapidly as to reduce the ability of the chemicals to control the target pests. This phenomenon is known as enhanced degradation and usually results from repeated applications of a chemical to the soil. One way around this problem is to vary the use of pest control chemicals.

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This is an excellent question because an understanding of what it takes to support the growth and activity of soil microbes enables one to make decisions about soil management. In general, microbes need what all living things need to prosper: air (oxygen), water, food and a suitable habitat to live in (Table 3.).
Table 3. Principle environmental factors affecting soil microbes

  • Organic carbon - grass clippings, crop residues, organic wastes, etc.
  • Moisture - 50-60% of water holding capacity
  • Aeration - balance of air and water filled pores
  • pH - near neutral (pH 6.0-8.0)
  • Temperature - 10 - 40 C
  • Inorganic nutrients - adequate N,P,K,S, etc., and trace metals
Interestingly, some soil bacteria (the anaerobes) do not even need air to grow and some are "poisoned" by exposure to oxygen. Generally, soil microbes grow best in soils of near neutral pH (7.0) having adequate supplies of inorganic nutrients (N and P, etc.), a balance of air- and water-filled pore space (about 50-60% of water holding capacity) and abundant organic substrates (carbon and energy sources). When any one of these parameter gets too far beyond the normal range some segment of the population will likely be stressed. For example, aerobic (oxygen requiring) bacteria will be at a disadvantage when a soil becomes waterlogged and available O2 is depleted through respiration of roots, microbes and soil animals. Conversely, anaerobic organisms may predominate leading to unique problems such as the formation of "black layer" caused, at least in part, by the anaerobic sulfate-reducing bacteria. Similarly, if soils become too acidic (down to pH 4 or 5) bacteria and actinomycetes usually decline and fungi assume a more dominant position. Except at cool and warm temperature extremes, the soil microbial population is usually not severely stressed. Most soil microbes grow best at temperatures between 15-30 Celsius (about 60 to 85 F) and their growth rates increase with increasing temperature up to a point. This is why it is harder to maintain soil organic matter in warm climates. Interestingly, some cold-loving microbes (called cryophiles) can actually grow and cause disease under blankets of snow cover. Such is the case with the so-called snow molds which can damage turfgrasses extensively during winter months. The opposite extreme is found in thermophilic microbes ("heat lovers") that thrive in composts reaching temperatures as high as 65 C (150 F). It is the biological heating of composts that actually reduces levels of pathogenic microbes, weed seeds and insects during the composting process.

Without a doubt, the most important limiting factor for microbial growth in soil (assuming moisture is adequate) is the abundance of available organic carbon sources. The vast majority of soil microbes require organic carbon compounds (these are called organotrophs) to oxidize for energy and to build the organic constituents of their cell bodies. Only a few types of soil bacteria get their carbon from CO2 (autotrophs) and they contribute little to the overall organic matter content of a soil with the possible exception of the cyanobacteria on the surface of closely mown turfs where they may accumulate as dark slippery films. Organic inputs in turfgrass soils come mainly from the grasses themselves in the form of root exudates, lysed root cells, decomposing roots and any clippings returned to the soil. Of course, organic amendments may contribute some useable carbon as well but bear in mind that amendments such as compost, which is essentially microbially decomposed organic materials, do not contain high levels of readily available carbon. Rather, they provide slowly useable substrates and contribute directly to the soil organic matter pool. Also, as a general "rule of thumb" about one third of the organic carbon added to temperate soils remains in the soil as humus and microbial biomass whereas about two thirds of this carbon is returned to the atmosphere as CO2 through microbial respiration. The microbial decomposition of grass clippings is the basis of the "Don't Bag It" programs of lawn maintenance which rely heavily on mulching mowers and the subsequent decomposition of clippings in the soil.

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Frequently turf managers ask what can be done to increase microbial activity in soil. No doubt this stems from a desire to capitalize on the known benefits attributed to the soil microflora. This question can also be turned around on the person asking it, i.e., Why do you want to increase microbial activity? Another way of phrasing this issue is “Can there be too much of a good thing"? Remember, increasing microbial activity increases organic matter decomposition, which can be good or bad. It might also be clear at this point that FAQ's #2 and #3 bear strongly on this question. The short answer to this question is relatively straightforward. To increase microbial activity in a soil one must make the environment optimal, or at least more favorable, in terms of aeration, moisture, and pH, and above all provide the organic substrates needed to fuel the population. It has been known for more than a century that the abundance of microbes in soil is directly proportional to the organic matter content. Thus soils receiving large amounts of organic residues support a larger microbial population. Generally there is an explosion in microbial numbers following the addition of available substrates. However, as the substrates are consumed microbial tissues are formed and CO2 is given off so there is a loss of carbon from the soil with some storage in microbial biomass. Microbial cells themselves become food for other microbes and they too are decomposed through microbial activities. Eventually, microbial activity returns to a low level when substrates have been consumed or converted to compounds that are difficult to degrade that end up in the humus fraction. Thus we see that the increase in activity is transient. The normal state of affairs in soils not receiving large amounts of carbon on a regular basis is a microbial population subsisting on limited resources and metabolizing only very slowly. To effectively increase organic matter content in soil we must add more carbon than the microbes can decompose over a season. Regrettably, adding small amounts of organic materials like molasses to soils cannot do this. Soil microbes quickly use up substrates like these and little if any lasting effects are observed.
Another factor of great importance for decomposition of carbon in soil is the level of available nitrogen. When large amounts of available carbon are added to soils low in N, nitrogen becomes tied up, or immobilized, in the cells of the degraders. The net effect here is to induce nitrogen deficiency for plant growth due to swamping the system with available carbon. Careful attention should be paid to the carbon to nitrogen (C/N) ratio of organic materials added to soils for this reason.

Probably the most significant thing a turfgrass manger can do to sustain soil microbial populations is to maintain a vigorous, healthy turf. We know that grasslands are excellent microbial habitats and they can accumulate substantial microbial biomass. The same is true of well-managed turfgrass environments.


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Frequently we see statements in the lay literature about chemical fertilizers killing soil microbes or, worse yet, statements indicating these management inputs "sterilize" the soil. Statements such as these should be viewed with much skepticism! Remember that as we learned in FAQ #1, the soil can contain tons of microbes. Short of incineration its hard to imagine a stress in a soil that would lead to complete extermination of the microbial populations. It is true that some inputs, e.g., anhydrous ammonia, cause reductions in microbial numbers in the immediate vicinity of the application. After all, ammonia is a toxic gas. However, it quickly equilibrates with the soil solution in the form of ammonium ions and the toxicity subsides. Certain pesticides have been shown to cause similar transient reductions in selected microbial population. But remember, in some cases the microbes simply view these chemicals as food and degrade them fairly quickly.
Organic fertilizers circumvent the criticisms leveled at "synthetic" fertilizers but it should not be forgotten that plants take up nitrogen in the form of ammonium (NH4+) or nitrate (NO3-) ions regardless of whether it was mineralized from an organic source or applied as in inorganic fertilizer like ammonium nitrate. An advantage of using organics, where practical, is that nutrients are liberated slowly as the microbes mineralize the organic materials. Thus there is low risk for fertilizer burn on plants and less risk for environmental problems due to runoff and leaching. Another potentially negative effect of long-term use of ammonia-based fertilizers is soil acidification due to ammonia oxidation by the nitrifying bacteria. Soil pH can drop below 5.0 after prolonged use of ammonia-based fertilizers and this can cause marked reductions in populations of bacteria and actinomycetes and simultaneous increases in the relative abundance of fungi. Such changes might favor the development of certain fungal plant pathogens. On the other hand, the potato scab disease is reduced by the low pH because the actinomycete which causes it is eliminated. These changes are easily reversed with applications of lime to the soil. Thus we see qualitative changes in the soil populations due to some management inputs but this is a long way from "sterilizing" or "killing" the soil.

With the advent of high-sand golf greens questions have arisen about the need for applying microbes during green construction and thereafter. Sand because of its lack of organic matter supports little microbial growth. However, when mixed with peats, composted rice hulls or other organic amendments it gains the microbial populations associated with those materials. Turfgrasses established from vegetative sprigs also bring their root-associated microbes with them! Once the turfgrass begins growing in the rooting medium of the green, microbes already present will colonize roots and the mechanics of soil organic matter formation will commence. A reasonable practice would be to add a small amount of normal pathogen-free soil to the greens mix as an inoculum. Thus far, there is little scientific evidence indicating the need to inoculate golf greens with selected microorganisms. The newly constructed green does afford us the possibility of customizing the soil population to some extent. Once we know what we want in these mixes it may be easier to add them "up front" than to add them into an established population already adapted to the prevailing conditions of a particular soil. As our knowledge of soil microbial biodiversity and the factors that control it increases we may find ways of tailoring microbial populations in given environments. At this point, we are limited in what we can do to this effect.

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Considerable research has been done on applying various microbes as inoculants for various purposes including their use as agents to control plant diseases, (including turfgrass pathogens; Nelson, 1997a), to stimulate plant growth (the so-called plant-growth-promoting rhizobacteria; PGPR) and more recently their use in various forms of bioremediation processes. Perhaps the most outstanding example of beneficial use of a soil bacterium is the practice of inoculating legumes with bacteria such as Rhizobium and Bradyrhizobium. Some crops are nearly self-sufficient in meeting their nitrogen requirements through this process. The process is so successful because the plant essentially selects the bacterium and builds a habitat, the root nodule, where conditions for nitrogen fixation are optimized. However, even with this remarkable symbiosis there are failures for one reason or another. Thus one of the nagging problems of using organisms as inoculants is the tendency for erratic control of pests or failure to observe any benefit from inoculation. Reasons for inconsistencies in response to inoculation can be manifold. What are some biological reasons for the failure of these types of products? There are many reasons why introduced bacteria do not become established when added to the soil in very low numbers. Some biological factors are listed in Table 4. Here we see a number of problems that an introduced microbe must overcome in order to establish itself among the normal population. These include inhibition by toxins, predation by other soil microbes such as the protozoa and a bacterium called Bdellovibrio, lysis by viruses called bacteriophages, and a simple inability to compete with the native organisms.

Table 4. Some biotic factors responsible for the elimination of introduced microbes:

  • Microbially produced toxins
  • Predatory protozoa
  • Lysis by bacteriophage (bacterial viruses)
  • Lysis by Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus
  • Lysis by microbial enzymes
  • Inability of introduced microbe to compete
Compounding our problems with introducing microbes to the soil is the fact that soil environmental factors (Table 5.) often contribute to the demise of added cells. For example high or low soil pH, toxic concentrations of metals, extreme temperatures, etc., can cause failures in establishment of introduced microbes.

Table 5. Some abiotic factors responsible for the elimination of introduced microbes:

  • High or low pH
  • High concentrations of Mn, Al, etc.
  • Extreme heat or cold
  • Many others
It is well to recall that each soil has an indigenous microbial population that is selected by the prevailing biotic and abiotic factors unique to that soil. Typically it is difficult to add or displace microorganisms to or from a system in such an equilibrium. An axiom of microbial ecology often referred to as Beijerinck’s Rule (Beijerinck was a Dutch microbiologist who is often considered the "Father" of microbial ecology) states that "Everything (microbes) is everywhere and the milieu (i.e. the environment) selects”. Thus each soil is endowed with a stable community of microbes uniquely selected by and adapted to the prevailing physical, chemical, and biological conditions of that soil. Minor perturbations have little effect on this balance.

From the above discussion, one can see that there are many factors, both biotic and abiotic, that can come together to foil our attempts to use beneficial microbes in practical applications. It is because of these inconsistencies that biological alternatives are often met with reluctance by users. There is a greater comfort factor in using a chemical formulation that delivers more consistent results when applied as directed. However, as research progresses and we gain a clearer understanding of the characteristics that make an organisms successful in the soil or rhizosphere environment it is likely that we will see the development of useful microbial products for a number of purposes including increasing plant growth, protecting crops from disease, organisms for use in bioremediation or for enhancing the cleanup of pesticides in rinsates etc. However, one thing will be reasonably certain, those that come to the forefront will be based on sound biological principles and will be backed up by substantial research demonstrating the efficacy of the product in meeting the claims of the manufacturer. In the meantime a few pointers for testing new products should be considered (see Table 6). Testing new products is an expensive proposition. However, without well-designed, replicated field trials useful information about the effectiveness of a product cannot be developed. After all, the proof is in the performance of the product under normal user conditions whether it be for turfgrass management, agricultural production or some other specific application. Microbes can and do indeed accomplish wonderful things. However, our abilities to harness and successfully manipulate beneficial microbes remains a "work in progress".

Table 6. Testing Microbial Fertilizers and Soil Activators (Biostimulants)

  • Testimonials should be viewed with skepticism. Ask to see original data.
  • Test products in replicated plots with valid statistical designs
  • Test products across multiple soil types
  • Test products across locations, climate, etc.
  • Minimally: test product in strips in fields and measure yields, turf performance, etc.


Suggested readings:

Alexander, M. 1977. Introduction to Soil Microbiology, 2nd. Ed. Krieger Publ. Co., Melbourne, FL.

Christensen, P.D. 1977. Soil Medicines. Bull. EC378. Coop. Extension Service, Utah State University, Logan Utah.

Nelson, E.B., 1997a. Biological control of turfgrass diseases. Golf Course Management. July, 1997.

Nelson, E.B. 1997b., Microbiology of turfgrass soils. Grounds Maintenance. March, 1997.

Sylvia,D., J. Fuhrmann, P. Hartel and D. Zuberer. 1997. Principles and applications of soil microbiology. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, N.J.

Turco, R., 1992. Soil Microbiology. Golf Course Management. March, 1992.

*Original Source Welcome to Soil & Crop Sciences at Texas A&M University
 
This article is called "Justus von Liebig and the Birth of Modern Biochar" and traces the origins of modern agriculture based on chemical fertilizers including very interesting overview of previously widespread organic farming based exclusively on guano, manure and biochar.

A short extract:

Liebig was very astute in another observation that was connected to some larger criticisms he had of the European system of agriculture. In contrast with China and Japan, where every bit of nutrient was returned to fields as human waste, Europe fertilized its fields with cattle droppings and dumped the waste from cities in rivers or other unproductive places. The problem was not just the loss of nutrients from sewage. Liebig realized that the cattle droppings came from pasture that would eventually become depleted because the deep roots of pasture grasses took minerals from the subsoil, and the minerals were transferred to the fields to grow grain that was exported as food to cities. Liebig put it this way: “The more fodder, the more flesh; the more flesh, the more manure; the more manure, the more grain.” (Letters on the Utilization of London Sewage.) While this practice might work for a long time, eventually, the subsoil would become exhausted of minerals and the animal manure would no longer suffice to fertilize the grain.
 

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