Soil microbes in a garden live in high to low population cycles related to moisture, temperature, and fresh organic matter, and together they drive decomposition, nutrient cycling, and plant health.
They are knocked back by acidic man-made fertilisers, chemicals such as chlorine in tap water, herbicides, chemical fungicides and insecticides.
The following are the types of soil life which are vital for healthy plants and gardens and what they do for you and your plants.
Bacteria: are abundant (up to billions per gram near roots), they first respond on new residues, and can build up populations very quickly with ideal conditions. (A bit of warmth and ample moisture)
They break down simple compounds, transform nitrogen, and many form beneficial relationships with roots.
Fungi: are slower acting and live longer as decomposers which handle tougher material like lignin and help build soil structure via hyphae and glues.
Mycorrhizal fungi extend root systems and improve nutrient and water uptake, and often increase stress tolerance. They connect with the plants roots effectively increasing the root system by about 800% gathering nutrients and moisture which they give to the plants in exchange for carbohydrates.
Most beneficial microbes and mycorrhizae prefer roughly pH 6–7.5; where a strong acidity or alkalinity suppresses diversity or favors specific pathogens.
Organic matter: Microbes depend on carbon-rich inputs; low-residue soils have low activity, while regular compost, mulch, stimulate populations and functions.
Wet soggy soil and drought conditions can change from beneficial soil life to aerobic microbes harming your plants health and promoting diseases.
Cold soils slows activities in the soil as does very high soil temperatures around 30°C plus.
This is likely to be another reason why many plants are not growing as well as they should in February because of the strange unseasonal cold temperatures we are having.
No dig gardens complement soil life and where ever able should be used for better results.
I recall days gone by when black plastic film with scoria on top was used in gardens which over time, as the soil could not breathe, it became anaerobic and plants growing there would die.
The key to having great gardens is in a soil which is humming with soil life.
A New Zealand product was manufactured years ago for the purpose of building up microbes quickly to break down organic material making it available for plants to grow.
Initially used commercially on pasture to break up the debris, thatch and manures and given moderate conditions it could convert 6 inches of thatch to food for the pasture grasses in 6 months.
When I learnt about this product I saw it would have some very valuable uses for the home gardeners.
The first would be its original intended use and that is breaking up thatch in lawns.
Thatch in lawns is the debris that builds up on the soil surface which become harmful to the grasses.
It is easy to tell when you have a one or more centimeters of thatch in your lawn as it becomes spongy to walk on.
The thatch acts as a sponge and collects the rain or your watering and thus the grass’s feeder roots grow up into the moist thatch because thats where the moisture is.
Thats the same problem when you do not deep water in your gardens the plants feeder roots raise up near the surface to gain the water the plant needs.
All good and well when there is ample rain or water applied but when it drys and the thatch dries out very quickly killing the feeder roots and resulting in harm or death to the grasses or plants.
To solve this problem without having to do the hard work of scarifying the lawn; which is ripping the thatch out with a special scarifying rake and ending up with wheel barrow loads of debris.
Instead we simply mow the lawn using a catcher then we take Wallys Thatch Busta at 100 mils per 10 litre of water and apply that to 100 sqM of lawn area.
The easy way to do that is use what is Called a Lawn Boy which many garden centres have available or from some Hire Centres.
If you don’t have a Lawn Boy then a boom type nozzle on your back pack sprayer to give a good wetting of the Thatch.
Without either of those adjust the spray nozzle to get the best flow without being a jet.
The Thatch Busta provides rich food for the microbes whom multiply so quickly that they can eat up an inch of thatch in a month. That gets rid of the debris in the best possible manner making food for your grasses.
In your gardens when you have applied nutrients for your plants a spray over the soil at the lawn rate of 10 mils per litre of water (Same ratio as 100 mils in 10 litres of water)
It can also be applied with a fine rose watering can, over the foliage of lower growing plants and then a light watering with hopefully non chlorinated water for best results.
Chlorine is in tap water to kill bacteria which is there in preventing tummy ache when you drink the water.
Which if you stop to think about it we also have gut bacteria that aid our digestion and the harm that drinking chlorinated to our health and the harm it does to our kidneys filtering out the chemical is certainly not good.
You can easily solve the chlorine problem with a filter and housing that we have available to go on your outside tap.
Being a handy supply of filtered water you can fill up flagons to take inside for drinking water and cooking. See here.
After applying Thatch Busta to your gardens the just keep area moist as with the lawn application of one or two light waterings a day when it does not rain.
If you make compost then once again Thatch Busta will help make better compost faster by just spraying it over the compost material before you aerate (turning compost) and again after wards with a light sprinkling of Garden Lime to help keep things sweet.
Autumn and leaf fall is coming up and you can use Thatch Busta to help break down the leaves faster.
You can chop up the leaves with a rotary mower by laying them on a part of the lawn and running the mower over them with a catcher on.
Then start filling the black plastic rubbish bags with the clippings, spraying them as you go with Thatch Busta at 10mils per litre of water.
When the bag is full and the contents compressed a bit (not too much) tie the bag off and then with a nail or small screw driver punch small holes all over and then put in a sunny spot to let nature do its work.
Every few weeks lift the bags give a shake and after a few months you should have some top grade material you can use in containers or garden.
Products mentioned are from Wallys Range of products and can be found in some garden shops or by Mail Order on www.0800466464.co.nz
Problems ring me at: Phone 0800 466464
Garden Pages and News at www.gardenews.co.nz
Shar Pei pages at www.sharpei.co.nz
Mail Order products at www.0800466464.co.nz
