SOIL FOOD WEB GARDENING

 Our Soil Food Web Journey began Here and we would highly recommend following the link below to get you started. 

Credit for these rules of gardening goes to Jeff Loewnfells, Teaming With Microbes 

The Organic Growers Guide to Mycorrhizae. Timber press 

"No copyright infringement is intended” intended for educational use only

Most vegetables,annuals and grasses prefer their nitrogen in nitrate form and do best in bacterial dominant soils.

Most tress, shrubs, and perennials prefer their nitrogen in ammonium form and do best in Fungally dominated soils

Compost can be used to inoculate beneficial Micriobes and life into soils around your garden and introduce, maintain, or alter the soil food web in a particular area

Adding compost and its soil food web to the surface of the soil will inoculate the soil with the same soil food web

Mulch laid on the surface tends to support Fungi;

Mulch worked into the soil tends to support Bacteria

Coarse, dryer mulches supports fungal activity

Compost teas are very sensitive to chlorine and preservatives in the brewing water and ingredients

Aged Brown Organic materials support Fungi;

Fresh Green Organic materials Support Bacteria

If you wet and grind Mulch thoroughly, it speeds up bacterial colonization

Sugars help bacteria multiply and grow;

Kelp, Humic and Fulvic acid, and Phosphate rock dust help fungi grow

By choosing compost you begin with and what nutrients you add to it, you can make Teas that are heavily fungal, bacterially balanced or balanced

Most vegetables, annuals, grasses, shrubs, softwood trees and perennials from mycorrhizae with Endomycorrhizal fungi

Rototilling and excessive soil disturbance destroy or severely damage the Soil food web

Stay away from additives that have high NPK numbers

Follow any chemical spraying or soil drenching with an application of compost tea

Most conifers and hardwood trees (birch, oak, beech, hickory) from mycorrhizae with Ectomycorrhizal fungi

Always mix Endomycorrhizal fungi with the seeds of annuals and vegetables at planting time or apply them to roots at transplanting time

Application of synthetic fertilizers kills off most or all of the Soil food web microbes