Teaming with Microbes, Book Review by Judy Huckaby

Teaming with Microbes, The Organic Gardener’s Guide to the Soil Food Web (Revised Edition) by Jeff Lowenfels and Wayne Lewis. Timber Press, 2010.

Unseen, plants are as busy underground as above ground.  The authors of this book show that underground, the roots sweat (exudate) as a result of photosynthesis.   The rhizophere, the area around the sweating roots, attracts and feeds fungus and bacteria, which in turn are consumed by larger organisms, and on up the food chain. All of these organisms, fungus, bacteria and the critters that eat them and the critters that eat them, excrete wastes.  This is what is taken up by the roots as nutrients. All of this activity keeps nutrients from draining from the soil because the nutrients that plants need are bound up in the bodies of the soil life.  This is called nutrient immobilization.
An empty, ‘new’ garden becoming populated with plants favors bacteria.  As the plants age, more fungus appears.  It is interesting to note that the bacteria count in a sample of soil over time remains the same, but the fungus count becomes more abundant. 

Garbage Can Roses by Judy Huckaby

Ronald Regan Tea Rose

One of the truly excellent experiences I had last summer was the benefit of an unintentional act of generosity.  In July, I found two roses someone had put out in their trash. The soil in the containers was completely dried out, pulling away from the sides of the black plastic pots. All of the leaves, while green in color, were dry, crinkled, and crispy. One label read “Iceberg”, a floribunda (four foot or so tall bushy rose with many white blooms).  The other rose was a Ronald Reagan Tea.  Wait, what?

I quickly scooped up this find before it disappeared, returning home, dunked first one and then the other completely under water, weighing down the root ball with stones until air bubbles stopped.  I use this dunk and drain technique whenever I buy something from a nursery and again, directly before planting.

A Word on Hypertufa by Judy Huckaby

When a hypertufa class was offered through the Jefferson County Master Gardener program, I immediately signed up to become an instructor.   I learned that tufa is compressed volcanic ash that has been mined for centuries in order to be carved into watering troughs and sinks.  Gardeners began to covet these containers for their rugged looks and soon the troughs became expensive and rare.
Somebody somewhere down the line had a flash of brilliance and came up with a recipe to make garden containers that look and are waterproof like tufa, but are lighter in weight.  Called hypertufa, the prefix “hyper”  can mean excess, exaggeration or above and beyond.  Regardless of the meaning, hypertufa containers are usually planted with “alpine gardens” because they leech alkalinity and these plants can take it.