Biotic Life in the Soil

Editorial Note: This is a rewrite of an article from the May 1962 issue of Natural Food and Farming by Joseph A. Cocannouer. I am republishing these articles in the form a blog. These articles are full of insight that we have lost touch with. I hope to rejoin us with our ecological umbilical to our food and our life by sharing these writings. It amazes me what they knew then still applies today. Enjoy!

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Constantly, either by letter, phone, or word of mouth, the persistent question pops up: Exactly what do you mean when you speak of the soil’s Biotic Life?”

A Rational Question

And it is a rational question, for without some knowledge of the life in the soil, one’s concept of at true soil is vague. In a short article we can merely give the highlights of what a living soil actually consists of: what that dynamic life which is ties so intimately to the very existence of all of us really is and what it does.

Therefore, as a start — just what is your soil concept? When you think of soil do you merely call to mind an inanimate mass of sans and silts and clays, possibly with these materials in a measure bound together by organic threads? If that is your idea of soil, then your soil concept is considerably awry.

Comparable to a House

Let us illustrate. At the roadside stand and magnificent mansion. The architecture of this huge structure is superb and all the embellishments beyond compare. Yet the mansion stands there cold and empty. Nobody would think of this mansion as being a home. The mansion is solely the framework or locale in which organic life — human life, if you wish — is able to operate, either harmoniously or otherwise, largely depending upon what kind of other factors are present.

A true soil is much like the mansion in many respects, though the framework of the soil does provide some nutrients, which is not the case with the framework of a human house. The sands and silts and clays and organic fibers constitute soils skeleton as it were. It is the vital living things within which this skeleton which really constitute the true soil. Naturally, the framework of skeleton is essential, for how could you have a home without a framework within which to house it? So, whenever we think of a nature-approved soil, our minds should call up first of all those busy workers which must be abundant and strong in all food-producing earth.It is they which constitutes the heart of a nature-approved soil.

Basic Law of Nature

Let us never forget one of natures’ most basic laws: It takes organic life to develop and sustain organic life. And this, too, we need to keep in mind always: the organic world of which we are all a part is governed by one overall Law which we choose to call the Togetherness Law of nature. Now this great Law operates through the Biotic life in the production of normal plant growth. Incidentally, Biotic is just as short name for biological– and biology and organic life come very close to being synonymous term.

*** Editorial Note: Biotic and organic life may be better know as symbiotic life today.

In the three-link chain which makes up the organic world–the soil, the plant and the animal which feeds upon that plant–if things are as nature would have them, the Togetherness Law operates harmoniously. But–and here is another fundamental truth of nature–unless the Law operates harmoniously in the soil or anchorage link, it cannot operate harmoniously in the plant growing on that soil, nor in the animal whcih feeds upon that plant–simply because the nutrient factors are incomplete wherever the operations of the Togetherness Law are hampered.

(*** Please do not hamper the operations of the Togetherness Law ***)

Strong Biotic Life

It should ow be easy to see that is we expect to produce high-quality, health-carrying foods , our chief job is to see that our soil’s biotic life is string and vigorous, Our major task is to see that the environment of the biotic life is as near correct in our soil as we can make it. Then we need to feed this life according to natures’s pattern. Right there is where so many farmers and gardeners go astray. They pour materials into the soil which are incompatible with the needs of the biotic life–and what the results? Likely, falsely-stimulated growth giving high quantity but low quality production. Such soil treatment, though promising at first, will gradually destroy the productivity of the land.

Now shall we have just a peek at some of those soil workers,  some members of that biotic life? We have space for little more than a glance, but even this much can be thrilling.

Dominating Worker

Of course, the domination member of that biotic family down in the soil is the earthworm. Not that the old worm is more important than other members of the biotic family, but it is always so evident in a really good soil. The earthworm’s work can be so easily measured and it’s worth to us is so enormous. The great English scientist, Darwin, who spent much of his life studying the earthworm and it’s varied activities, often declared it to be the most valuable living creature, and that did not exclude man himself. There are ample reasons for agreeing with Darwin completely. Wherever plant life is found on the land, there you will find the earthworm, nature’s constructive scavenger,on the job, forever salvaging plant roughage and giving it the first steps in its transformation into usable plant food. Due to this worm’s habit of prowling through the lower soils and then bringing back to the surface indispensable nutrients, the earthworm may well be called the prime soil balancer of nature. Give it a reasonably good soil home to start with and it will pay back that cost many fold.

Then there are the numerous groups of bacteria,or valuable soil germs, which take over where the worms leave off in the transforming processes. Volumes have been written about these invisible biotic workers and still much remains to be discovered and written, the number of valuable bacterial groups in the soil is large, and each group according to the pattern of nature has a different task to perform.

The Nitrogen Fixers

Probably the most challenging group of soil bacteria is the nitrogen-fixers–the germs which are essential for the building of protein, our food of foods. How many nitrogen-fixers groups there are, we still are not sure. The free or raw nitrogen gas, which makes up about 78% of the air we breathe, passes down into a nature-approved soil where the different groups of nitrogen-fixers pounce upon it and change it into what we call fixed-nitrogen, or the nitrate form. It is essential to state here that the soil must be right to contain all the bacterial groups with power to work effectively. After the fixing process is completed, the now-conditioned nitrogen is carried by the plant’s water streams up to the green leaves where it is built into the protein molecule. And if farm and garden practices are correct, no more nitrogen is ever needed for top crop production in both quality and quantity.

And now to our valuable soil fungi. After many years of careful study, Sir Albert Howard, English scientist, was able to declare these valuable soil fungi indispensable for the production of complete, health-carrying food. These fungi, distant relatives of the common toadstool, are found abundantly in every nature-approved soil and are so important that we plan to discuss them more fully in a later article. Suffice to say here that they rank close to the top as a member of the soil’s biotic family.

Sign of Soil Health

In the first six inches of a really good soil are found tiny, one-celled green plants in great numbers. These little plants are called algae, and they are able to build protein right there in the soil and likely do far more good than they are given credit for. The feeding roots of plants collect this protein and send it up to the food factory in the leaf where it is made available to us.

In other words–there you have the soils’ Biotic Life! There you the most important groups of that life. There are also other groups in this biological family, when conditions are normal, all working for us and all other plant and animal life and under the guidance of nature’s sublime Togetherness Law. Some non-colony ants carry a great deal of organic matter into the soil and consequently are valuable in the vast organic scheme of things. There are other valuable insects too, like some species of ground beetles, and a few worms other than the old earthworm, all of which do their parts in building and maintaining a fertile soil.

So you want nutritious, high-quality, health-carrying food… The Biotic Life of the soil is the key which opens the door to that kind of food, and absolutely no other key will fit the lock.

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I think there’s something to be said about this Togetherness Law. I may do a follow up blog on this later as more thoughts were provoked because of this article. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below or find me on Facebook or Twitter to share ideas.

Do You Want Early Tomatoes?

Editorial Note: This is a rewrite of an article from the May 1962 issue of Natural Food and Farming magazine. I am republishing these articles in the form a blog. These articles are full of insight that we have lost touch with over the years. I hope to rejoin us with our ecological umbilical to life by sharing these writings. It amazes me what they knew then still applies today. Enjoy!

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By: Ruth Stout

In the march issue of Organic Gardening & Farming (1962 as well I presume) there is an article by John Krill titled “Does All-Season Mulch Slow Ripening of Tomatoes?”. If you grow tomatoes, it would be a good idea for you to get hold of this copy of the magazine and read the whole article,but for fear you won’t get around to doing this, I will give you a quick sketch of it.

Mulcher’s Tomatoes Late

Mr. Krill says he has been a mulch addict for many years and his tomato plants thrived under the constant deep mulch, but that his neighbor, who doesn’t mulch, always gets the first ripe tomatoes. Having read that far, I continued on with growing interest, for I have a very dickens of a time getting ripe tomatoes early in the season. I had thought that the fact that my garden is in a frost pocket, with freezing temperatures two or three times a year after the middle of June, accounted for this. But Mr. Krill went on to say that he tried an experiment. In Spring he set out three rows of tomatoes, covering the first row with mulch, applying no mulch at all to the second row, and the third row was also left unmulched until blossoms appeared; then he covered this section with straw. And he noticed that the first row was ten or fifteen days behind the other two in producing blossoms.

Results of Experiment

The row which hadn’t been mulched at all produced the first ripe fruit, but almost at the same time the tomatoes ripened on the row which had been mulched after the blooms appeared, and the fruit in the latter section was heavier, juicier, and better-shaped than the other rows as far as ripe fruit was concerned, although the plants were loaded with fine-shaped green tomatoes. Mr. Krill’s conclusion is that the mulch had insulated the soil against absorbing warmth from the sun and air, and since the tomatoes like plenty of heat, this performance retarded the setting blossoms and ripening of fruit.

Longer Production

The row which hadn’t been mulched at all gave up about the muddle fo august, he said, but the other two sections produced good tomatoes until frost. So, now, Mr Krill applies mulch only when the flowers are profuse, or he says, he may even wait until the fruit sets. But for late-ripening tomatoes he mulches heavily when he sets them out, for in his opinion tomato plants which are mulched from the beginning produce juicier, better flavored fruit. All this sounds reasonable and gives me hope of getting early ripe tomatoes this year.

Organic Matter Balances Soil Fertility

Dr Albrecht points to the real key to soil fertility

Soil Testes, attempting to measure plant nutrition have demonstrated that the high quality of crop depends on what may be called  a “balanced diet” offered to the plants by the soil. In its first aspect, that diet consists of the required insoluble, but available, inorganic elements. The amounts of several of those have now been specified within fairly reliable ratios for balance. Those specifications hold more particularly for the ash-rich and protein-rich crops, like the legumes.

Clay and Humus Responsible

The clay and the humus are the parts of the soil responsible for the concept of “insoluble, but available” nutrients. Of those, the calcium, magnesium and potassium have been fairly accurately determined as desirable amounts required in a soil t prevent deficiencies of them. Sodium, as the alkaline elements, and hydrogen, as the acidic one, have been listed as tolerable amounts of rations, above which they would be injurious.

These are the positively charged elements. They are held as insoluble, but available, ones by the colloidal (glue-like) humus and colloidal clay. By means of their adsorbing capacity, those two parts of the soil filter those soluble elements out of solutions. The hold them as “insolubles”, much like the water-softening compound takes soluble “hardness’ out and holds it.

Soil-Root Exchange

But those first four essential, adsorbed elements are given up to the plant root when it comes along and exchanges hydrogen, or acidity, for them. The hydrogen does not serve as a nutrient from that source. These elements are “insoluble” in rain water going down through the soil, yet they become available ones, so far as the plant nutrician is concerned.

The soil’s capacity for holding positively charged elements or cations, is measured by soil tests. That property is called the “cation exchange capacity”. It is abbreviated, “CEC”. It is specified in terms of “equivalents of the hydrogen”. The amounts of each of the five elements (calcium, magnesium, potassium, hydrogen and sodium) held by the exchange capacity, are also measured. They are specified as their percentages of that total capacity.

Balanced “Plant Diet”

The desirably balanced “plant diet”, according to experience to date in soil testing related to plant nutrition, would have the available calcium represent 60-75% of the soil’s exchange capacity; magnesium, 10-20% and potassium, 2-5% –all so balanced to prevent deficiencies. Then it would have sodium take up 0.5-3% and hydrogen less than 10% to avoid excesses of these two. Trace elements are significant for plants in such small amounts that our measures yet designed are too unreliable to warrant specifications of them for either soil or crop.

In its second aspect, the plant diet includes organic compounds. The organic matter is Nature’s main means of giving the “balanced” property in the soil for growing plants as contrasted to growing them in the highly diluted solutions of salts and the nutrient elements used in the practice of “hydroponics”. Soil tests of farms in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, the home of the Garden Spot of America Organic Club, give the evidence for the truth of that statement. For years, that county has practiced using both barnyard and green manures for building up the soils in organic matter. Much use has baleen made of limestone, rock phosphate, glauconite (green sand marl), granite dust and other natural mineral applications to the soil. Those practices are showing, according to the soil test data, that organic matter is the safety factor against excesses of elements in soil treatments, or upsets and imbalances in the plant diets resulting in low quality of the crops as feed and food.

Excellent example

The soil test data from the more than eighty-acre farm of Mr. and Mrs Willis K. Killhefer of Manheim, Pennsylvania, may well be one of the several that could be taken as examples. They grow wheat , corn, tobacco, red clover, soybeans, grasses and an excellent garden with vegetables and flowers in wide variety, but high quality, they market their crops via cattle and chickens to give human food products mainly as milk and eggs.

Such a plan of management calls for purchase and import of concentrates to supplement the generous yields of forages, ensilage, hay and bedding. But all those result in the larger amounts of manure managed carefully to maintain fertile fields, but particularly a more fertile garden considered “so essential for the health of the family”. It is the garden, managed by machinery insofar as possible like the fields. That speaks for organic matter to balance plant diets for crop quality.

Key to Balanced Fertility

Its soil tests tell us that one builds balanced soil fertility successfully by using generously  of organic manures and natural mineral fertilizers, and enough so to be satisfying even where the crop quality goes under critical taste inspection regularly by the entire family.

The garden lies alongside the road as “front” to the house and farmstead . There are fields on either side of the garden with suggestions, in advance of soil inspection that all three are of the same soil type. Consequently, differences in the values found by soil tests for the garden and fields must be due to the generous manuring and treatment with minerals. The test results exhibit the two fields as very much alike but they show that the garden is decidedly higher in all the values measured by test, yet those are well balanced as plant nutrition. This is true even after the soil’s total exchange capacity (CEC) in the garden has been increased during the years of organic manuring by 40% over that of the adjoining fields. That has increased the available fertility in the garden accordingly.

Test Results

Figure I

The test results, or measured amounts of the available fertility as pound per acre, i.e. per two million pounds of soil, are shown in Figure I. The different elements are listed along the base line. Their pounds per acre are shown along the left  margin (going upward). It is significant to note that the values for the garden soil (solid line) are far higher than those for the two adjoining fields. They are particularly higher for phosphate and the potassium.

At first sight, the curve for the garden as pounds per acre appears a bit erratic, especially the potassium. But when one considers (a) that the organic matter of the garden soil was increased by nearly 70% above that of the fields, and (b) the mineral treatments were separate applications, should one not anticipate possible imbalances? Yet, quite contrary to such anticipations, the test values in Figure II, reporting the percentages of saturation by the elements of exchange capacities of the three soils, show that they are each in like balance according to desired standards as we now have them. Even if the values of the total exchange capacity for the garden went up 40% over that of the fields, because of its increased organic matter, each of the elements increased accordingly and none went out of balance. Nature’s balance by organic matter transcends man’s by soluble means.

According to the report, there was little that the professional soil tester could specify as deficiencies or necessary treatments.

Figure II

About all he could recommend was to keep on with the past natural practices as this farmer in the Garden Spot of America had been using them for many years. He had followed Nature’s methods of providing balanced diets for growing nutritious crops and had not fallen into any error s as far as man’s knowledge to date could determine.

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Note: This article was originally published in February, 1963 in Natural Food and Farming.  The author, Dr Albrecht, as well as many others in this era new the importance of organic compost fertilizer. I hope to be able to carry on the lessons they were teaching.