Life in the Soil - Elaine Ingham

SHUMEI

Elevating Our Spirits Through HoshiElevating Our Spirits Through HoshiSensei eugene imai with ophelia tong

In Remembrance of Hashimoto SenseiIn Remembrance of Hashimoto SenseiSensei eugene imai, Sensei Joe amanai, Sensei Seiji tajima, eriko welsh, Jim (Keiji) Kashiwagi, Francois Kuwata, & Satoru nakano

Life in the SoilLife in the Soilelaine ingham, PhD

Shumei'S engliSh language Quarterly magazine

Vol. 299 winter 2013

Shumei magazine \ winter 2013 19

The following article derives from a presentation that Dr.Ingham gave at the Natural Agriculture Conference onJanuary 21, 2012, at Shumei Hall in Pasadena. The text hasbeen edited for use in this publication. This is the first andsecond of a four–part series.

In March of 2011, just aer starting as Chief Scientist at Ro-dale Institute, I toured the Shumei garden at the Institute andbegan to understand the principles that embody NaturalAgriculture. It was wonderfully enlightening to find people

who share a similar attitude that natural processes must be the ba-sis for agriculture. My expertise is focused on the sets of organ-isms that exist in soil, and the processes these organisms performin natural soils. Looking at what happens to these organisms incurrent conventional agricultural systems is extremely depressing.We need to understand what life is necessary in soil, how theseorganisms function, and what conditions must be present for soilorganisms to perform their beneficial jobs.e more we maintain the proper conditionsfor the workers in the soil, the better wemimic nature, and the higher the quality inour foods.

How does nature grow plants? Conven-tional agriculture does things differently thanthe way things are done in natural systems.We need to understand how those differencesinfluence and affect the soil, plants and thequality of plants. We need to understand thedamage conventional practices cause. Weneed to learn how to maintain our plant pro-duction systems as naturally as possible, real-izing that short term gain in yields costs too much to the long–term health and balance of the system. What are the constraintswe impose? What are the sets of organisms that need to be there?How do these organisms behave in a natural system and how canwe use them in our agricultural systems?

The soil food web is comprised of the different organismgroups in soil: bacteria, fungi (including mycorrhizal fungi),

giving Shumei natural agriculture a scientific basis would have beenunthinkable when Shumei's founder, Mokichi okada, firstpioneered this agricultural practice.It was initially a spiritual practicebased on a good deal of commonsense. Yet, today, the art, spirit,and science of natural agriculture'sapproach seems to be coming into accord.

Here, dr. Elaine Ingham lendsscientific insight unto a spiritualpractice of food cultivation.

parts III & IV of dr. Ingham's articlewill appear in the Spring 2013edition of SHUMEI Magazine.

Life in the Soila WoRd on SHUMEI naTURaL agRIcULTURE

Elaine Ingham, PhD (USA) Chief Scientist, Rodale Institute

(paRTS I & II)

Dr. Elaine Ingham

20 winter 2013 / Shumei magazine

protozoa, nematodes, microarthropods, and larger organisms.These organisms interact to perform the functions needed byplants in the soil: disease suppression (around roots andaround aboveground parts of plants), nutrient retention (soleaching loss of nutrients does not occur), nutrient cycling(making nutrients available to plants but mainly just in the rootzone), decomposition of waste materials, and building of soilstructure so roots can grow as deep as the plant requires.

Food web structure varies with season, climate, soil type,age of the ecosystem, etc. The existing food web will select forthe growth of certain plants, and against the growth of others.Thus, defining health of the soil must be done relative to thedesired plant. Is this food web healthy for this plant? To pro-mote health, we need to understand soil as nature designed it.Plants have existed on this planet for at least the last billionyears, meaning that the linkage between certain plants beingselected by certain sets of organisms in the soil, and vice versa,has had plenty of time to develop.

To understand this system, then, we need to start at thebeginning. The process of photosynthesis in plants uses sun-light energy to bond carbon molecules together and formsugars. Plants store sunlight energy by bonding one carbonfrom one carbon dioxide molecule, with another carbon froma second carbon dioxide molecule. Depending on what theplant needs, and its physiology, additional carbons can bebonded to the chain, storing energy in that sugar for future use.The sugar formed can be used to grow the plant, or it can besent to the root system to escort nitrogen, in the form of anamino acid or protein, for example, to where the plant needsit. These sugars will bond with phosphorus, sulfur, magnesium,calcium, potassium, sodium, or any other nutrient in order tomove those nutrients to where the plant needs that nutrient tocontinue growing.

All nutrients, except CO2 and sunlight, are provided to theplant through the soil. Soluble, inorganic forms of nutrients,move into the plant by simple diffusion into the roots, but the

inorganic nutrients have to be converted from the ionic form,into carbon–bound forms once, inside the root, in order to pre-vent harm to the plant. Thus, once the soluble nutrient is in-side the root, the plant uses enzymes to attach the nutrients tothe carbon backbone of sugar from photosynthesis.

How many necessary nutrients are required for plants togrow? When I was a child, scientists talked about only threenecessary nutrients: nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, orNPK. All that was needed to grow a plant, right? Wrong! By thetime I was in high school, scientists realized more than NPKwas needed to grow a plant. By then it was twelve importantnutrients, including Na, S, Ca, Mg, B, C, O, Fe, and Zn. By thetime I was in graduate school, the number of important nutri-ents jumped from 12 to 18. Today, scientists would say 42.And will we discover more necessary nutrients? Probably. Sci-ence continues to discover more essential nutrients all thetime. In fact, probably all of the nutrients found in soil are nec-essary in some amount.

Consider the fact that all the nutrients plants need arefound in soil. They are present in excess in the rocks, pebbles,and particles of sand, silt, clay, and organic matter. Inorganicfertilizers are not needed, as the farmers and horticulturalistsof Shumei Natural Agriculture have taught for many years.But it is the organisms in soil that convert those nutrients in thesand, silt, clay, rocks, and pebbles from non–plant–availableforms into plant–available nutrients. It is critical to have the or-ganisms that perform these jobs present in adequate number,and balance, to be able to grow healthy plants.

If the beneficial organisms in soil are killed through in-appropriate management, plants cannot get mineral nutrientsfrom the soil. If plants cannot get mineral nutrients, then theywill either die, or humans will have to take over providingthose nutrients as inorganic fertilizers. Humans are not goodat knowing what inorganic nutrients plants require at anygiven instant, and so we put on too much, in the wrong places,at the wrong times, and soil is harmed even more. Those excessnutrients also leach out of the soil and destroy soil further

The rural spender of the Rodale Institute's grounds in Kutztown, Pennsylvania,where Dr. Elaine Ingham works as the institute's chief scientist.


down the hill. Ultimately those excess inorganic nutrientsharm water and destroy the quality of our ecosystems all theway to the ocean.

All agricultural soils, from young soils to ancient soil, con-tain all the nutrients needed to grow plants. Why is it, then, thatyou are told by fertilizer salesmen that your soil is poor, that itdoes not contain the nutrients needed to grow plants? Be care-ful, a trick is being played on you by people trying to sell youa product. Your soil has the nutrients in it, but if your plantsshow signs of poor fertility, what are lacking is the organismsto change nutrients that are present in the soil from a plant–un-available form into a plant–available form. What you lack is thebiology, the organisms, to convert the nutrients that are pres-ent in your soil into a form of nutrient your plant can use.

We need to have a full diversity of all these organisms inour soil. Each group of organism performs different basicfunctions. Disease, insect pests, and weeds are all actuallymessages from nature trying to tell you exactly what's presentor missing in your soil. Just because human beings have paidno attention does not mean that nature gives up trying to getour attention. Disease, weeds, pests, and poor plant growth aresigns that you do not have the right sets of organisms presentin your soil. However, you were taught by people who want tosell you a product, that you should pick up a toxic chemical tokill the organisms, or to fix the lack of nutrients. Neither of thechemical approaches fixes the problem in a sustainable fashion.Use a chemical and most likely you will need to use morechemicals. Perfect for the salesman. Not so good for your soil,your health, or your pocketbook.

When a disturbance occurs, such as a landslide, flood, or fire,all the organic matter that was present may be lost either as aresult of being burned or buried deep in the earth. Regardless,nature immediately starts to build soil again. The first thingsthat return after a catastrophic disturbance are photosyntheticbacteria. These bacteria gain energy from sunlight, fix nitro-gen from atmospheric sources, and solubilize all other neededminerals from rocks, sand, silt, and clay. Photosynthetic bac-teria do not need organic matter in order to function. Insteadthey release waste products, which are the organic materialsthat other organisms require. Lichens and algae will colonizeas well, but all these organisms hold the mineral nutrientsthey solubilize in their biomass. Plants cannot grow yet, be-cause no soluble nutrients are being released from the bacter-ial, lichen or algal biomass. Nutrient cycling has not yet begunto occur.

However, all these photosynthetic organisms release or-ganic waste products, which give non–photosynthetic bacteriaand fungi something to consume and grow on. As bacterial andfungal diversity increases, and more organisms become pres-ent to solubilize mineral nutrients from rock, sand, silt and clay,their biomass reaches a critical threshold that will supportpredator populations. When protozoa arrive, they can surviveand flourish. Protozoa eat bacteria, and release plant availablenutrients. With the arrival of predators, nutrient cycling begins.At first, only enough nutrient cycling occurs to maintain bac-

terial, fungal and predator populations. But as their numbersincrease, eventually a rooted plant will be given the nutrientsit needs, and plants will begin to germinate and grow.

To keep nutrients in soil and prevent them from washingaway when plants are not growing, bacteria and fungi must beactive and growing. Bacteria and fungi eat significantly differ-ent kinds of materials. Fungi are better at using lignin, cellu-lose, and other woody kinds of materials. Bacteria are better atusing simple materials like sugars, structurally simple carbo-hydrates and proteins—not the more complex, woody things.Both bacteria and fungi hold the full range of nutrients neces-sary to support life in their biomass. So if you have a good soilfood web, there is no need to worry about nutrients leachingfrom the soil.

But if your soil lacks diverse microbial life and livingplants growing on the surface, then the soluble nutrients pres-ent in your soil will leach downstream to damage any ecosys-tem they encounter. Chemical fertilizer salesmen will tell youto put inorganic fertilizer on in the fall. But plants are not grow-ing in the fall. As fall rains occur and the first few snowfallsmelt, if there is poor microbial life in the soil, there will benothing to hold that fertilizer. In that case, there is a cryingneed to add the required soil organisms to prevent leaching.

So, let us say you have a good level of bacteria and fungiin the soil. Nutrients are being held in the bodies of the bac-teria and fungi. But now you put the seeds for your plants inthe soil, and you want plant–available nutrients to be re-leased. You want just the right amount of nutrients to bemade into plant available forms to support your young plants,but not too much in order to avoid loss of those soluble nu-trients. How does this work in the real world? How does na-ture make it work? Cannot we mimic this system, if we un-derstand what it is?

Predators are needed to eat bacteria and fungi and releaseplant–available nutrients of all kinds. Protozoa and bacterial–feeding nematodes eat bacteria. Fungal–feeding nematodeseat fungi! Microarthropods eat fungi for the most part, andmaybe a few nematodes and worms too.

Most people have heard about the bad nematodes that eatroots. Not until people start learning about soil life do they findout about beneficial nematodes. If a nematicide, or a nema-tode–killing toxic chemical is applied, all nematodes, not justthe bad guys, are killed. We want the good guy nematodes to beleft alone, because they make nutrients available to your plant.But we kill the good with the bad via the toxic chemical ap-proach. And once killed, it will be bad guy root feeding ne-matodes that recover faster than the beneficial nematodes.This means if a toxic chemical is used, the exact things that youwanted to kill or suppress will actually be the first to come back.This helps the chemical pesticides sellers to make more moneyas they sell you more, and more, and more toxic chemicals.And all the while, as you spend more and more money, theproblem is becoming worse. When pesticides are reused, thevery organisms that suppress and control the problem organ-isms are killed. As the organisms that control the pest are lost,the worse the problem becomes.


Can we get rid of root–feeding nematodes? It is the goodguy nematodes, the bacterial–feeding nematodes, the fungal–feeding nematodes, and the predatory nematodes along withmicroarthropods that suppress, inhibit and consume the bad–guy nematodes.

How did populations of root–feeding nematodes, or anyother problem organism, increase in your soil? Nature buildssoil, but disturbance destroys soil. Every time soil is disturbed,via plowing, digging, or compaction, some portion of the lifein the soil is harmed. Consider the disturbances common inagriculture. When plows and tillage are used, fungi, protozoaand nematodes will be crushed, sliced to shreds, poundedinto dust.

Can we replace the life killed by tillage, inorganic fertilizer, ortoxic pesticides and herbicides? Where can we find the wholeset of organisms required to make our soil healthy? The easi-est and simplest source is good compost. The most importantfactors in making good compost are:

■ Keep it aerobic at all times.

■ Include plenty of good fungal and bacterial foods.

■ Maintain good moisture levels through the entire composting process.

■ Maintain adequate but not too high temperature for correct amount of time to kill weed seeds and human or plant pathogens.

If making worm compost, weed seeds have to be killedfirst by high temperature before adding to the worm bin, butthen the beneficial aerobic organisms in the worms take careof the pathogens.

How do you tell if your compost is aerobic? It shouldsmell like good forest soil. The just before rain smell is not whatyou want; actinobacteria make that material and while good forbrassicas, it is not desirable for any other crops.

Anaerobic conditions result in the growth of the organ-isms that produce the bad smells. For example, only underanaerobic conditions can ammonia be produced. If in doubtabout what the ammonia smell is, go to the grocery store andbuy a bottle of ammonia. Open it, and carefully waft a littleof the gas escaping from the liquid by your nose. If soil, com-post, or lake or pond water smell like ammonia, then nitro-gen, one of the most vital nutrients needed to grow plants, isbeing lost. The ammonia smell indicates that nitrogen is be-ing lost as a gas.

Similarly, a rotten egg smell can only be produced whenconditions are anaerobic. That smell occurs when any inor-ganic, soluble sulfur compound is reduced to hydrogen sulfide.Sulfur is needed by plants, and its loss as a gas can reduce yields.There are many other examples of toxic anaerobic compoundsthat harm plants, and most of these materials are only pro-duced in anaerobic conditions.

Where do the organisms in compost come from? Both thebeneficial and harmful ones come from the surface of theplant material put into the compost pile at the start. The con-ditions that develop in the composting process select for thegrowth of the beneficial (aerobic), or the harmful (anaerobic)microorganisms. The organisms that live in the habitats sur-rounding a living plant are present on that plant material whenit is added to the compost pile, and they grow when conditionsin the pile are right for them. If the conditions are not right,then the organism stays dormant or becomes dormant.

Thus, if you disturb your soil by tilling or digging in it, youneed to replace the soil microorganisms that were damaged bythe management you did. Is it unnatural to put back what wehave harmed? As long as we make compost that contains thebeneficial organisms of that place of its origin, that compostwill maintain the set of organisms that should be present. Weneed to consider and discuss these things, especially becauseNatural Agriculture practice suggests that compost can behighly beneficial. When compost is considered to be bad, I sus-pect the reason it is considered bad, is because of a particularsituation where the compost used was not really compost at all,but rather an anaerobic, smelly, black organic matter thatwould harm plants.

part II

Having briefly explained how we replace the complex set of or-ganisms that need to be in soil, let us make sure to cover all theimportant points regarding a healthy soil food web. If all of thesoil microorganisms are in the proper balance, disease will besuppressed because plants put out specific exudates to grow ex-actly the right bacteria and fungi around every part of the rootsystem, protecting all the roots.

What is an exudate? Exudates are mostly sugars from pho-tosynthesis, a little bit of protein and some carbohydrate. If Isent you into your kitchen and asked you to make a recipe ofmostly sugar, a little bit of protein and a little bit of carbohy-drate, what would you end up making? Cakes and cookies.Thus, root systems of plants release different cakes and differ-ent cookies depending on which bacterial or fungal species theplant wants to have working for it at any point in time. Theplant may put out one type of exudate in order to grow thosebacteria and fungi that prevent the growth of fungal diseases.In another part of the root system, the plant may put out foodsthat grow those bacteria that solubilize iron because the plantneeds more iron. Because there are billions of bacteria andmiles of fungal hyphae around that root, the plant is protectedfrom disease organisms. No disease causing organisms cansurvive in that root area because there is no space left and nofood left for something un–friendly to consume.

Predators are attracted to the root system, bringing nutrientsand eating the harmful organisms, as well as the other bacteriaand fungi present, and thus releasing plant available nutrients.Like pizza delivery guys, predators deliver precisely the nutrientsyour plant needs right to the surface of the root.


Is not nature amazing? If we just get the proper microbial lifeback into our soil, then there is no need to apply inorganic fer-tilizers. Hopefully, you begin to understand that the managementyou have been doing in Shumei Natural Agriculture has a scien-tific basis.

So soil amendments are not needed if you have the right setsof organisms in the soil to do the work. ink about the fact thatyour plant puts out the foods to grow billions of bacteria onevery bit of its surface and supports miles of fungal hyphae grow-ing around its root system. Bacteria and fungi form a castle wallto protect your plant from disease and pests.

How many species of bacteria and fungi are in that wall?Every species of bacteria or fungi grow best in one particularset of conditions. One species grows best at zero degrees, onegrows best at five degrees, another grows best at ten degrees,and so on. Some species grow better at low moisture, while oth-ers grow best at higher moisture. Each species also needs dif-ferent levels of calcium, or CO2 concentration, or iron, orboron, and the list goes on and on. There are an unfathomablenumber of factors that will cause one species to do better andanother one to die out.

When you start thinking about all those factors, how manyspecies of bacteria are needed in soil? Research is being done atmany institutions all over the world, such as the Center for Mi-crobial Ecology at Michigan State University, Cornell University,Auburn University, UC Davis, and so forth, using DNA analysisto determine that there are a million species of bacterial in oneacre of woodlot soil in Michigan, along with five hundred thou-sand species of fungi, thousands of species of protozoa, and hun-dreds of species of nematodes. And that is just in one woodedacre in Michigan. Imagine other woodlots in Colorado, or Cali-fornia, each with its unique cast of millions of species from allthese different organism groups.

If we destroy that life, how can we replace it rapidly and eas-ily? e answer is: Make compost. If your soil lacks anything, youcan put it back with good compost. If you do not disturb your soil,then the life in that soil will not be lost. If you disturb your soil,then you may need to help remediate the damage that you havedone. e goal is to help nature's organisms get back to theproper balance so that the natural nutrient cycling processes canoccur at the rate they need to occur.

Disease suppression depends on having all these speciesfunctioning, so that every second of every day, the roots, leaves,flowers, fruits, and stems are protected by this castle wall, no mat-ter how environmental conditions change.

With this massive set of organisms growing on all surfacesof the plant, and all these organisms needing the proper balanceof nutrients in their bodies, nutrients will be taken up, held, se-questered, and retained. ese nutrients will not leach or be lostthrough water movement, because the bacteria and fungi areglued and bound to plant surfaces, organic matter surfaces andsand, silt, and clay surfaces.

But then, how are all these nutrients turned back into plantavailable forms? When bacteria and fungi are eaten by predators,nutrients are released in plant available forms. Given that plantsare most demanding of nutrients in the springtime, most pred-ators need to be most active during that time.

How does your plant make sure that this nutrient–cyclingsystem is rapidly providing all the nutrients that the plant needs?When your plant needs lots and lots of nutrients, it puts out lotsand lots of cakes and cookies through its root exudates so bacte-ria and fungi grow rapidly and take up all available nutrients fromsoil water, organic matter, soil particles and rocks. Beneficialpredators are attracted into the root system, which then eat thebacteria and fungi and release plant available nutrients rightthere at the root surface.

When the plant's growth slows down and it does not needas many nutrients, an example would be when the plant startsto make seed, then the plant directs more of its energy to theflowers and the seeds. When that happens, less energy is be-ing released in the soil, so fewer cakes and cookies are released,the bacteria and fungi no longer grow rapidly, and the proto-zoa lose interest in the root system. The protozoa, bacteria,and fungi may go into dormant phase as the soil nutrient cy-cling system slows down.

Another really important function these organisms perform is tobuild soil structure. Fungi produce threads, or strands, as theygrow. A dead brown leaf can be decomposed by fungi rapidly, andwithin a few days that leaf changes from mostly cellulose andlignin to fungal biomass and humus. Bacteria cannot use deadbrown leaves as food, because their nutrient concentration ofeverything from nitrogen to zinc is too low.

When fungi start to consume plant material, however, theyrelease sugars that bacteria can use. So leaf decomposition is atwo–step process. Fungi have to come first to start breaking upthe leaves, and bacteria can then scavenge the sweets that thefungi do not use.

e beneficial fungi we want to see always look like strands orthreads of uniform diameter tubes growing from their tip. Fungican be black, tan, red, golden, or clear, and can be narrow, undertwo micrometers, or wide, greater than three micrometers.

EXAMPLE ONE: typical Beneficial Soil Fungi

Bacteria are much smaller than fungi, on the order of one to five mi-crometers. ey can be round, rod–shaped, corkscrew shaped, andC–shaped. Each of these shapes can have small diameters or verywide diameters. Some species can move under their own power, al-though at least half of bacterial species cannot move by themselves.Bacteria can clump in various patterns; such as chains of individu-als, filaments that grow around themselves, colonies, picket fencepatterns, V–shaped pairs, or just as chains connected end to end.

We train people to identify these different organisms in soil.A sample can easily be analyzed for microbial populations infive to ten minutes, once you get good at identifying organisms.

ere are great videos of roots growing through soil show-ing the castle wall of bacteria and fungi surrounding the root. Asthe root develops root hairs farther along its length, protozoa ar-rive to start nutrient cycling processes for the plant.

When roots grow through soil, the soil needs lots of spaces,hallways, airways, and passageways so the root can grow withoutexpending energy to push its way through the soil. A better ag-gregated soil makes it easier for the root to reach the sites, nutri-ents and water it needs.

Soil aggregates, which are clumps of smaller soil particlesbound together, are built by all of the organisms in soil workingtogether. Sand, silt, and clay are pulled together by bacteria thatooze glue–like exudates to bind the particles together. Aerobicbacteria make copious amounts of glue to hold themselves on tosurfaces so they do not wash away from their food source. ebacterium then glues some organic matter into place, then somesilt and clay, then more organic matter, then a sand grain, and soon. is process creates a soil micro–aggregate.

A macro–aggregate that can be seen with the naked eye re-quires fungi to bind its particles together, just like rope arounda group of packages, or micro–aggregates, made by the bacteria.

As all these material get pulled together, airspaces appear be-tween the aggregates in areas that were once filled with bits andpieces, creating space for oxygen and water to move very easilythrough the soil.

How many of you see water puddling on the soil's surfacein the springtime or after a rain? Through these puddles, na-ture is trying to send you a message. Puddles indicate areaswhere there's poor soil structure and the needed bacteria andfungi are not present. No hallways and passageways are avail-able to allow good infiltration of water or air or roots. Com-paction layers are likely present and soil life is lacking. Learnto read all the messages that nature is trying to send. How doyou prevent puddles or compaction? Put organisms back inthat soil.

Once micro– and macro–aggregates are built, larger organismsneed to move the particles around and form larger spaces. Pro-tozoa, nematodes, and microarthropods rearrange the macro–ag-gregate furniture and make bigger spaces appear. Does soil havefeng shui? Absolutely, and it is built by the organisms that live inthe soil. No life: no feng shui.

e name of the above nematode is Alaimus, and she eats bacte-ria, then releases the nutrients previously held in the bacteria'sbodies in a plant–available form. How do we tell that this is a nem-atode, and how do we figure out she is Alaimus? We identify or-ganisms based on morphology. e mouthparts show us thatthis is a bacterial–feeder. We want to know whether we haveenough of these beneficial nematodes in a teaspoon of soil. us,we may need to scan through several drops of a slightly dilutedsoil looking for these organisms. Typically, all this scanning workis done under a microscope at 400X magnification. is lowmagnification is easy to work with, making the soil analysisprocess quite easy for people to learn and master.


EXAMPLE TWO: Soil Bacteria

EXAMPLE THREE: alaimus nematodes

A root crosses the lower part of this picture, while the top area isoccupied by a ciliate. Note the hairs coming off the ciliate's body.ese are cilia, for which the group of organisms is named. Withinthe root, note that you can see quite a number of different cells,and so it is easy to distinguish it from a hypha of a fungus. ereare aggregates made by bacteria all around the root; note the lit-tle round bacteria and the rod shaped bacteria in high number.

e color of the aggregate tells something about conditionsin the past. e tan color denotes fulvic acids, while the darkbrown to nearly black color denotes humic acid formation. eseare both highly condensed, very beneficial foods for aerobic fungi.ese forms of organic matter are a way to save foods in complexforms so no microbes attack them too quickly.

e ciliate indicates that the sample is, or recently was, anaer-obic. In the past, this soil may have been in good shape, based on thehumics, fulvics, and aggregates, but the material is or recently wasanaerobic, indicating that the soil may cause harm to plants. epresence of the ciliate says that attention needs to be paid, and im-mediately, to this agricultural field to establish a better set of or-ganisms, or face probability of diseases and pests or poor fertility.

With all of these organisms, we need to understand the bal-ance of each organism for each plant, climate zone, soil, and con-dition. e relative biomass of fungi versus bacteria seems to bean important determinant of pH, nutrient retention, and soilstructure, while the balance of protozoa and nematodes indicatewhether nutrients will be cycled rapidly enough to maintain nu-trient concentrations in the root zone.

Consider how the nutrients needed by an old growth tree cometo be in the root zone of such trees. No one applies inorganic fertil-izer to old growth forests. Yet, the increase in biomass and nutrientsstored in plant biomass is greater than that of any agricultural field. Ifnature manages to grow old growth forests where more carbon, ni-trogen, sulfur, phosphate, and so on are sequestered each year, thanare removed from agricultural fields in crop yield, and yet no additionsof N, P, K, or any other nutrients are needed, then we need to pay at-tention to how these old growth systems manage to do this.

e secret is to have the right balance of biology in the soilto hold and release nutrients in exactly the right ways.

e largest organism on this planet, or at least the current winner,is in Washington State. Paul E. Stamets1 has shown this fungal in-dividual is possibly 20 miles wide, and goes from a couple inchesbelow the soil surface to as deep as 25 feet, creating a single indi-vidual fungus the size of a herd of blue whales. is organismholds and retains nutrients in the soil on a massive scale. But comespringtime, the microarthropods, flying squirrels, earthworms, andother predators in the old growth forest system wake up and feaston that fungal tissue that grew without predators all winter long.ese predators almost entirely consume the fungal tissue, almostwiping it out. ink of all the nutrients released and cycled! Butcome fall again, when the predators go to sleep, the fungus growsand reaches the same size, and sometimes growing even larger.

Trees, on the other hand, do not release the nutrients theytake up until they are decomposed. ose nutrients are stored inthe tree's wood, branches and roots and will not be released to becycled for hundreds or even thousands of years.

So, from where do all the new nutrients for old growth treescome? Nobody is out there putting inorganic fertilizer into thatforest and yet each year, old growth forests increase the nutrientsheld in old growth tissue. Each year, more plant material contin-ues to be stored in that forest than in any agricultural crop we har-vest. How is this possible?

Where do the nutrients constantly come from? Both bacte-ria and fungi have the ability to solubilize nutrients that are in thesoil's parent material, sand, silt, clay, and organic matter. ere arethousands of years' worth of mineral nutrients in sand. All min-erals that plants need are in rock, except for nitrogen. Nitrogen gasis found in the atmosphere, carbon, drawn from carbon dioxidein the atmosphere, and energy, which is sunlight.

Bacteria and fungi have the enzyme systems to pull theseplant–unavailable forms of nutrients from rock and convert theminto their own biomass. en bacteria and fungi are eaten by theirpredators, resulting in the release of plant–available nutrients.Bacteria and fungi contain the most concentrated forms of N, P,K, Ca, Fe, Zn, and other nutrients of any organisms on the planet,so they hold and retain nutrients in an organic form. Predators re-lease those nutrients in a plant available form.

Fungi in an old growth forest hold nutrients and then are al-most completely eaten by predators in the spring and summer.When the predators go to sleep in the dry, dry summertime, orin the cold, cold winter time, the fungi start to re–grow. Comenext spring the fungi are completely re–established, and ready togo again. ink of how dynamic a forest is! We need that fast a cy-cling system in our agricultural fields, and we can get it just by im-proving the soil microbial life in them.


EXAMPLE FOUR: roots and Ciliate

1. Paul E. Stamets (b. 1955) is an American mycologist, author of numerousbooks and papers. He is a strong advocate for bioremediation and medicinalmushrooms. He is on the editorial board of The International Journal ofMedicinal Mushrooms, and is an advisor to the Program for IntegrativeMedicine at the University of Arizona Medical School.

SHUMEI MAGAZINE \ SPRING 2013 15

The following article derives from apresentation that Dr. Ingham gave at aNatural Agriculture Conference on January 21, 2012, at Shumei Hall inPasadena. This is the second of a two-partseries. Part III is based on the conclusion ofDr. Ingham’s presentation. Part IV is drawn from a question and answer sessionthat followed the presentation. The text has been edited and abridged for use in this publication.

Part III

In March of 2011, just aer becoming Chief Scientist at Ro-dale Institute, I toured the Shumei garden on the Institute’sgrounds. It was then that I began to understand the princi-ples of Natural Agriculture. It was enlightening to find peo-

ple who share the attitude that natural processes must be the ba-sis of agriculture.

My area of expertise is focused on organisms that live inthe soil, and the processes these organisms perform in natu-ral soils. Looking at what happens to these organisms in cur-rent conventional agricultural is depressing. We must under-stand what life forms are necessary in soil, how theseorganisms function, and what conditions are necessary forthese organisms to do their jobs and benefit the soil. Themore we maintain the proper conditions for the workers in thesoil, and the better we mimic nature, the higher the quality ofour foods becomes.

How does Nature grow plants? Conventional agriculturedoes things differently than the natural systems do. We needto understand how those differences influence and affect thesoil and the quality of plants. We need to understand the dam-age conventional practices cause. We need to learn how tomaintain our plant production systems as naturally as possible,realizing that short-term gain in yields costs too much to thelong-term health and balance of the system. What are the con-

Giving Shumei natural Agriculture a scientific basis would have been unlikely after Shumei’sfounder, Mokichi okada, pioneered this approachto agriculture. It was and still is primarily aspiritual practice, based on unbiased observationsof nature’s workings, as well as a good deal ofcommon sense. Yet, today, as science andspirituality evolve, an accord between them seems at hand in the art of natural Agriculture.

Here, Dr. Elaine Ingham lends scientific insight into a spiritual method of food cultivation.

This is the second and final installment of a four-part article. The first and second parts can befound in the Winter Edition, 2013 issue of SHUMEI Magazine.

Life in the SoilParts III & IV

A WoRD on SHUMEI nATURAL AGRICULTURE

Elaine Ingham, PhD (USA)Chief Scientist, Rodale Institute

Elaine Ingham

16 SPRING 2013 / SHUMEI MAGAZINE

straints we impose? What are the sets of organisms that need tobe there? How do these organisms behave in a natural systemand how can we use them in our agricultural systems?

ere is a very beneficial fungus in the picture above. Weknow this because of its wide diameter and color. Colored fungiare almost invariably beneficial. So the dark brown hyphae withthe diameter of about 3.5 micrometers is very good, as is the tan-colored strand of slightly narrower diameter in the bottom le.ere is a clear, colorless hypha a bit below midfield, but its di-ameter of five micrometers sets it in a beneficial category. Finally,there is a strand of fungal hyphae that is clear, narrow diameter,a bit out of focus, nearly parallel to the strand of brown fungusabove center field. A narrow diameter and clear color almost al-ways means that fungi are pathogenic, or disease causing. us,we can say something about the fungal community in this soil byobserving its morphology.

In this particular case, the bad fungus is Pythium, which is awhite rot fungus that can attack and destroy root systems. If we

plant in this soil, should we be concerned about disease? No, be-cause competition from the good fungi will prevent the bad fun-gus from growing. What if we had used a fungicide, meant to killall fungi in the sample? All the beneficial, disease-competing fungiwould have been killed in the soil, and most likely the disease-caus-ing fungi would survive in the soil at a level deeper than the fun-gicide penetrates. If that happens, be very worried, because the dis-ease will be able to destroy the plants in this system. By maintainingfunctioning beneficial organisms, in the proper balance in your soil,we can let the organisms do the work for us.

Below, to the le is an example of soil at a golf course in theUnited Kingdom. When we first started working there, massiveweeds, insects, fungal diseases, root-feeding grubs and nematodesinfested their soils. en the proper biology was put back into thesystem. ese nice white fungal hyphae started to grow, indicat-ing that a good healthy food web had been reestablished. Disease,pests, and weeds were gone as well.

When fungal strands like this appear, it indicates that the soilis healthy. e soil is no longer bacteria dominated, and the ratio offungi to bacteria has shied from a strictly bacterial system to a well-balanced system—the proper amount of bacteria to fungi. Whenthat happens, weeds, fungal diseases, and root and foliar diseases dis-appear. e soils no longer are compacted. Nutrient cycling is es-tablished, setting the stage for growing the grasses the groundskeep-ers want to grow. ey do not have to use toxic chemicals anymore.

It only took about six weeks to create this conversion. So thelife that is supposed to be in the soil can be put back very quickly.Can this kind of understanding of biology help the Shumei Nat-ural Agriculture process?

In Tasmania, where the government is giving grants for peo-ple to test concepts that shi from conventional agriculture tomore sustainable practices, an onion farm had been managed withconventional chemical practices for perhaps 60 years. e con-ventional field had two applications of herbicides already ap-plied, but weed numbers remained very high. Roundup1 was notable to kill the weeds, as the genetic resistance to Roundup hadbeen transferred to many plant species.

e field next to the conventional field, which had been previ-ously managed by conventional means, two applications of composttea2 were applied instead of Roundup, and no weeds to speak of ger-

Beneficial fungi are typically colored and have wide diameters.

Beneficial fungi in a golf course’s soil.

1. Roundup: The Monsanto Company first brought glyphosate, an herbicidethat kills a wide range of weeds and grasses, to market in the 1970s. Itsbrand name was Roundup. Because of relatively low toxicity, it was adesirable alternative to other herbicides. Later, Monsanto introducedRoundup Free, a range of crops resistant to glyphosate poisoning. Thisallowed farmer’s to kill weeds but not their crops, thus increasing Roundup’ssales and Monsanto’s profits. However, because of Roundup’s heavy usestrains of glyphosate resistant weeds have naturally evolved. Whileglyphosate is used widely throughout the world and is approved by manyregulatory bodies, both its long-term effectiveness and its impact on humanand environmental health are still a major concern.

2. Compost Tea: Compost is decomposed organic matter that is used as anutrient for plants. It is a key ingredient in organic farming. Making compostusually involves piling moist organic matter such as vegetable food waste,leaves, and dead plants and leaving it to decompose until it becomes nutrientrich humus. The process could take weeks or months. Compost is used ingardens, landscaping, horticulture, and agriculture. Additional benefits ofcompost are weed and erosion control, and warmth.

Compost tea is a liquid extracted from compost. It can be made bysoaking compost in water for three to seven days. Its original use was tocombat fungal infections on foliage.

minated or grew there. Several thousand dollars were saved beforethe crop was even planted because compost and compost extractwere used instead of the expensive herbicide and inorganic fertiliz-ers. Onions were planted on the same day in both fields, and at thetime, a third application of Roundup was applied because the weedswere clearly bad in the conventional field. A third application ofcompost tea was also applied on the biological field. Extremely fewweeds were present in the biological field, and the onions werelarger and roots deeper than in the conventional field.

e grower showed that when the soil in the biological fieldwas not treated with organisms to suppress weed growth, theweeds were worse there than anyplace else. is proves that weedswere indeed suppressed by compost tea application, since with-out compost tea, the weeds were extremely dense.

What are composts and compost teas? Compost is made bythe oxidative decomposition of a mixture of organic materials.Oxidative decomposition means that good levels of oxygen, oraerobic conditions, are maintained throughout the compostingprocess. Aerobic microorganisms are allowed to grow rapidlyenough to produce heat in the organic matter. is heat should behigh enough for a long enough period of time to kill thepathogens, pests and weed seeds in the compost pile. e pileshould be turned if the compost temperatures reach higher than65 to 70 C (149 to 158 F) or if the pile smells bad, shows a layerof actinobacteria growth, or if moisture needs to be added into thepile. As the bacteria and fungi consume all the easy-to-use mi-crobial foods within the pile during the composting process, thepile will cool back to ambient temperatures. Once cooling occurs,the pile is considered to be finished.

Finished compost can be extracted using water to pull solu-ble nutrients and beneficial microbes out of the compost. e ex-tract then can be added to water to simplify spraying over a largearea. Typically five to 20 liters (about 5.3 gallons) of compost teaper acre can be applied, depending on the concentration of or-ganisms needed to change the soil’s biology.

us, by altering the biology in the onion field’s soil, weedgrowth was suppressed. If the biology in the soil is maintainedsuch that adequate bacterial, fungal, protozoan, and nematodenumbers are present, weed, disease, and pest problems will remainsuppressed. Fertility will also be improved as nutrients are cycledby bacteria and fungi being eaten by protozoa and nematodes.

If we follow Nature’s principles and put the proper biology backinto the soil, then onions will grow in a very healthy fashion.

Growers need to understand that different plants (weeds,crops, trees, and so on) have very different requirements for thebalance of fungi and bacteria. We can all see that different plantcommunities occur in different places, but many people do notunderstand why this occurs. What allows this set of plants to dowell here, but not over there? Why do these plants grow in thisplace now, but did not grow here 20 years ago?

To understand this, we need to first recognize and under-stand the normal course of plant community succession, why onetype of plant community follows a different plant community.Succession starts with sterile, bare dirt. Everything on this planetwas once sterile, without life, but then photosynthetic bacteriaevolved and rapidly took over the planet, developing into many,many different species. us the earliest successional stage is

strictly bacterial. But as these bacteria release wastes, true bacte-ria grow, saprophytic fungi appear, and then predators of bacte-ria and fungi develop. Not until a basic food web has been estab-lished can plants of any kind grow. e first types of plants areones that put little energy into the root system, grow very rapidlyfor short periods of time, and produce high numbers of offspring,usually seeds. ese plants thrive best with lots of bacteria aroundtheir roots, and not much fungal biomass. us, these plantsprefer their soil to contain lots of nitrate and little ammonium.

But when green plants grow, the residues they leave whenthey die provide more fungal foods in the soil because of thelignin and cellulose that plants contain. This transition will be-gin to increase the amount of fungi in the soil to a point wherethe balance of fungi versus bacterial shifts only slightly to theside of fungi in the weedy species. Slowly but surely, the shiftcontinues to occur and fungi catch up a bit with the bacteria,and then plant species shift as a result. True weeds phase out,


PLANT SUCCESSIONWhat plants will thrive in soil as its ratio of fungi to

bacteria increases.

Conifer & Old Growth ForestsF:B = 100:1 – 1000:1

▲

Deciduous TreesF:B = 5.1 – 100:1

▲

Shrubs, Vines, & BushesF:B = 2:1 – 5:1

▲

Late Successional Grasses & Row CropsF:B = 1:1

▲Mid-grasses & Vegetables

F:B = 0:75

▲

Early Grasses, Bromus, & Bermuda F:B = 0:3

▲

Weeds(High NO3, lack of oxygen)

F:B = 0:1

▲

Cyanobacteria, True Bacteria, Protozoa, Fungi,Nematodes, & Microarths

F:B = 0:01

▲

Bare Parent Material100% Bacterial

PLANT SUCCESSIONWhat plants will thrive in soil as its ratio of fungi to

bacteria increases.

Conifer & Old Growth ForestsF:B = 100:1 – 1000:1

▲

F:B = 5.1 – 100:1

▲

F:B = 2:1 – 5:1

▲

F:B = 1:1▲

F:B = 0:75

▲

F:B = 0:3

▲

(High NO3, lack of oxygen)F:B = 0:1

▲

F:B = 0:01

▲

Bare Parent Material100% Bacterial


and some early grass species, brassicas and wetland plants be-gin to appear. Eventually, these more fungal loving plants willdevelop a larger fungal component in the soil, with morespecies of fungi, creating a plant community shift to more veg-etables and mid-successional. Nature keeps increasing thatfungal component. Thus plant species shift to later succes-sional grasses and plants that have more and more woody com-ponents, eventually leading to forest development.

Mature grasslands will give way to shrubs, vines, and bushes,which in turn will develop even more fungal dominated soilcommunities. ese woodier, more fungal food containing plantsput more fungal foods into the soil, shiing the soil balance awayfrom bacterial food, increasing the fungal component more andmore, and shiing plant species into conifer and old-growth for-est systems. In the late stages of succession, bacterial biomass re-mains the same with respect to numbers, but its diversity keepsincreasing. is is how Nature does it. Can we use this informa-tion in agriculture?

Part of the explanation for these shis in plant species is that,early in succession, bacterial dominance generates a lot of nitratein the soil, making it the predominant form of nitrogen. As fungibecome more dominant, they shi the predominant form of ni-trogen in the soil to ammonium, Nh4. In soils where bacteria andfungal populations are balanced, then nitrate and ammonium lev-els will be about equal. When the vegetation shis to woodyperennial plants, changing with the soil’s shi to fungal domi-nance, the predominant form of nitrogen will become ammonium,which is what trees require.

So Nature drives successional changes by increasing the fun-gal component of the soil more than the bacterial component. Ifwe want to truly mimic Nature in our agriculture fields so to gen-erate a successful crop with no weed, pest, or disease problems, wehave to generate the same fungal and bacterial balance in the soilas that found in the natural system.

So why is not this planet covered entirely in old growth for-est? Because disturbance re-sets systems to earlier stages of suc-cession. A severe disturbance will set things back to very earlystages of succession, while less catastrophic disruptions will pushthings back to intermediate stages.

If there is a fire, what happens to old growth forests? If wholetrees burn and all the organic matter on and in the soil burn, suc-cession may return all the way back to bare soil, with no plants atall. e system has to start again from the beginning. And ofcourse, nature does exactly that.

If a pasture system is tilled, how far back in succession willthe system be driven? is depends on how intense the distur-bance is, how much of the life in soil was destroyed, and howmuch organic matter was lost. A rototiller will cause a great dealmore damage than a moldboard plow because rototillers slice anddice and crush more organisms living in the soil, leaving only bac-teria to rule, whereas moldboard plows only flip the soil surfaceover, leaving more organisms intact. When the first rainfall or ir-rigation occurs aer rototilling, the soil will collapse and compact,because there was no life in that soil le to form the structureneeded to build and maintain aggregate structures. Rototillers alsopress down on the soil at the depth of the metal blades, com-pacting the soil at that depth. Without any decent life in that soil,

water is held at that compaction layer, causing anaerobic condi-tions to develop. is process, coupled with a lack of oxygen, setthe stage for growing weeds, and only very early successional, dis-turbance-requiring weeds.

Be aware what is destroyed when any management prac-tice is performed. Consider the effects of disturbance of anykind on life in the soil. Will that alteration result in successiongoing the way you want it to? How many of you have had ex-periences with a rototiller? After tilling, what comes back inabundance? Weeds. What if we disturbed the soil less, or notat all? Can we plant crops without disturbing the soil? Can wecause less damage?

Consider no-till methods, rolled cover crops, direct drilling,or planting into an existing living mulch, or permanent short-growing cover crop mix. Or as the practice of Natural Agricultureshows us, plant back into undisturbed soil where that plant wasgrown the year before.

If we have to damage our soils in order to prepare seed bedsto grow our crops, then perhaps we could reduce the damage bycoming back immediately aer the disturbance and replacingthe organisms we have killed. is is what Nature does, overtime, to improve productivity in that soil. So, perhaps we can findways to make these improvements more quickly.

By understanding what these organisms do in the soil, wecould allow our agricultural soils to match what Nature does in-stead of destroying natural processes. When disturbances hap-pen, we can use these principles to reduce the harm done, andmore rapidly return our soils to healthy conditions to growfood for people.

Over the last 100 years of doing intensive chemical agricul-ture and intensive urban landscaping, humans have developed avery warped and incorrect view of how roots exist in soil. entilling, we fluff the surface layer of the soil, but we also pushdown on the earth below the plow blade, causing compaction at

that depth. Because water will not move very rapidly from thatfluffy layer into the compacted layer, an anaerobic layer develops.en toxic, unhealthy bacteria grow, producing toxic materialsand releasing major nutrients as gases. Plant roots will be re-stricted to just the top few inches. is is not natural. at is notthe way plants are supposed to grow.

The compacted area in this crosscut of a field can be seen just below theblack anaerobic layer.


How far down into the soil do roots go? Over the last 100years of doing intensive chemical agriculture and intensive urbanlandscaping, humans have developed a very warped view of howroots exist in soil.

The compaction layer and the black anaerobic layer areseen in the picture at left, above. They are the consequences ofhuman management. As a result of this poor management ap-proach, the roots of the plants have been killed at the anaerobiclayer. The plants are forced to fight each other in that shallowlayer of soil at the surface.

ere are hundreds of papers in the arboricultural3 literaturethat suggest that trees only put their roots systems down aboutthree feet into the soil, and then go sideways. Just like the tree inthe picture above. Many, many examples of this type of rootgrowth have been shown. But this does not mean this pattern ofroot growth is natural. What we see here is the same problem thathumans impose in agricultural fields. Compaction was imposedon the soil by human management such as tilling to aerate the sur-face soil, but imposing compaction where the blades of the plowpushed down below the surface of the soil. People compact soilaround houses or buildings to prevent the foundation from mov-ing, but they pay no attention to the damage they are causing tothe landscape trees. e tree in the above picture suffers from dis-eases, pests, and poor fertility because the roots are preventedfrom growing as deep as they should. But humans, instead of un-derstanding the damage they cause, blame disease, pests, andpoor growth on the soil being poor. When instead we shouldproperly point the finger at ourselves for destroying the aerobiclife that should be in the soil.

How far down can roots go? If you go out into natural systemsand look at how far down roots of trees can go, the first thing to noteis that those roots are not restricted to the top two or three feet ofsoil. Instead, tree roots can go from 100 to 200 feet deep, perhapsdeeper. Go to a cave, and look for the roots of the trees growingthrough cracks in the rock down 50, 100, 200 or more feet.

If the soil has no compaction layer imposed on it by tillage, grassroots will easily grow four to six feet deep within a few months. erye grass in the above picture was planted as seeds in healthy soil,and then dug up three and a half months later. Note that the rootswere four and one-half feet deep in the soil. is is normal forgrasses. Roots restricted to the top inch or two of soil are not nor-mal, but the consequence of damage imposed by humans.

Nature sends messages to us about the harm caused by com-paction and oxygen deficiency through diseases, weeds, and pests.We have to learn to listen, understand the message being sent, andtake appropriate action.

How can productivity, nutrient cycling, soil structure, and allthe other functions of a healthy soil be brought back? How do weget the organic matter back?

Most of us have seen the posters from the United States De-partment of Agriculture (USDA) telling us it takes a hundredyears to build an inch of soil. But, we should understand that it ismicrobial life that builds soil structure. Without microbial life, wecan never build soil and it will take forever to bring back healthy

Compaction in the landscape prevents grass, flowers, trees, and shrubs from being healthy.

Three month old, common lawn grass roots grown in healthy soil.

3. Arboriculture is the planting, cultivation, and study of trees, shrubs, vines,and other perennial woody plants. It is both a practice and a science.


soil, with all its beneficial functions and processes. Soil functionsand processes require soil microbial life. If we nurture the properset of microbial life in the soil, then building soil happens con-tinuously in a healthy cycle.

How fast can an inch of soil be built? Work done by JamesSottilo shows how rapidly soil can be built. To get the same re-sults in your systems, you have to do what he did. For example,take engineered soil. (Actually engineered soil is just dirt, as

there was no life and practically no organic matter or foods forthe organisms in it.) Engineered soil was spread in the park fea-tured in the above photo. Before the sod went on. en, theproper set of biology for the grass was applied, using compost tea.Aer the sod was placed, another round of compost tea with theproper biology was applied to the plot. Notice that the sod wascompacted, because you can see the puddles of water forming onthe sod surface. at was not healthy sod, and so we were notstarting with good microbial life in the soil.

How rapidly can this problem be fixed? By doing exactlywhat Mother Nature would do, only faster. It might take Natureyears to do this in the middle of a New York City park. But we canbuild soil rapidly by some simple management methods. We

might question whether humans have the right to speed theprocess of succession. Nature would normally have to go throughyears of a weed stage of succession, given the damage that has beendone to this park. But one way of looking at this is that humansdid the damage and therefore they should restore the soil to itspre-damage state. We destroyed the grassland that was there be-fore construction started, so we have the responsibility to Natureto return the system to productivity as rapidly as possible.

So, by applying the set of soil microorganisms that wouldhave been present in a healthy grassland, we jump-started thesuccessional process straight back to a healthy grassland system.

Note the dark brown color of healthy rich soil and thedepth of the roots after just six weeks in the above picture.The root system is already down to six inches. Give this sys-tem a month or two months and those roots will be evendeeper. There are no weed problems or root-eating insects,because we brought back the microbial components of ahealthy soil system.

Take a look at these yards in a neighborhood of Boston in thepicture, above to the right on page 21. e yard with the red cir-cle around it is green and healthy and has not had any irrigationthe entire summer. A year earlier, this yard looked like all theother yards in the neighborhood. How did this yard change froma dormant yellow patch of grass, full of weeds and disease, to averdant patch of green? e owners of these houses were water-ing their yards of dormant grass and weeds in the late summerevery chance they had. But the lawn that was not artificially wa-tered still looks green and healthy. How can that be?

e answer is that aer the owners had damaged their lawnsso badly, we put the soil organisms and foods required for Na-ture’s nutrient cycling and soil building back into the soil.

Soil microbial life builds soil structure that will absorb andhold water. As such, in this lawn water use was reduced by be-tween 50 and 70% as compared to the toxic chemical-main-tained soil systems of the other yards. In the middle of a drought,it is important to reduce water use. You can also reduce your wa-

In this city park, James Sottilo treated sand with compost tea and then laid sodover the sand. Then, a second dose of compost tea, as seen here, was applied to the freshly laid sod.

Roots grew from less than a half-inch to six inches deep into the soil in six weeks.No erosion, no weeds, no disease, reduced water use, no inorganic fertilizer usedwere some of the benefits of the replacement of biology in the soil. Courtesy ofJames Sottilo, www.elmsave.com


ter bill by at least 50%, perhaps as much as 70%. Make sure themicroorganisms you need to support the plant you want to groware present in the soil. In that way, you can build the soil struc-ture to hold water and nutrients.

Exactly what did we do to achieve this water-savings, andstop using inorganic fertilizers and toxic chemicals? We replacedthe soil biology by applying aerobic compost in the fall of the pre-vious year. e next spring, compost was applied in a liquid

form three times. We had to make sure the right sets of organismsto support grass or flowers or shrubs or trees were present in eacharea to see all the problems go away.

By returning the right sets of organisms to the soil, we hadno need of chemicals. Whether you work in agricultural fields,gardens, or lawns, the soil’s microbial life is what is important.is is exactly what you have been doing in Natural Agriculture.But we can reduce the time it takes for you to return to the mi-crobial life that Nature had in the soil before these human-in-duced disturbances started.

If we start to understand the biology that is in our soil andif we know what our plants need, then we can increase the speedof recovery of our plant production systems and our planet.

PART IV

Dr. Ingham Answers Some Questions

Question: Are you suggesting that instead of tilling we should putproper biology into the soil?

Elaine Ingham: Exactly. Because we did not understand thattillage slowly but surely destroys life in the soil, on which crop pro-duction depends for good yields, we tried to use the quick fix ap-proach. Of course, quick fixes seldom address the underlyingproblems. Tilling fluffs the soil and air is put back in that shallowband of soil. But deeper, where the tiller’s blades pushed down on

the soil, the compaction gets worse. It takes time for the damagefrom each insult to soil’s health to build. e organisms that arenot killed try to recover, but with time the constant damage fromtillage does takes its toll. Eventually, when the damage to thesoil’s life reaches the critical point, rain will cause compaction. Andso, we think we have to till even more to get fluff back into the soil.

Quick fixes end up being exactly the wrong thing to do.People might put organic matter back in the soil and see perhapssome short-term benefit, but they do not stop tilling. Water sit-ting on a compacted layer tends to move downhill, and with nolife holding the soil together, it moves with that water. is isknown as erosion. Where there was once living soil, now has noliving organisms to hold it in place or retain soluble nutrients. esoil moves with the water and becomes sediment.

Root systems coming into contact with the anaerobic layer willbe killed by alcohol dissolving them or through a lack of usable ni-trogen, phosphorus, or sulfur being lost because they were con-verted to anaerobic gases. Disease organisms grow well in anaer-obic habitats, and thus attack any roots that grow into the area.

How do you fix this problem? Till deeper? No. Where willthe compaction layer form? Till even deeper. How do you get ridof a compaction zone that is even deeper? Till even more deeply.at is exactly what we have done in modern agriculture.

Back in the early 1900s, we did moldboard plowing wherethe plowshare pushes down on the soil at about four to six inches.How do we break up compaction at four to six inches? eUSDA developed chisel plows, which till down to one foot. Howdid we fix a compaction zone at 12 inches? Disc plows, which goto 18 inches. How can the plough pan4 at 18 inches be dealt with?Till the subsoil down to three feet. How do we get rid of com-paction at three feet? Deep rip. en compaction forms at fourfeet down into the soil. How can we deal with that? We do nothave tractors large enough to pull a plow through compacted soilfour feet deep. We are at the end of the mechanical approach tofixing the problem. Tillage is a quick fix. It does not in fact fix any-thing. It just keeps delaying the inevitable.

So, how can we get away from ever having to till again? Returnthe proper sets of organisms to the soil. If we must till once a yearto put the seeds into the ground, then apply the organisms to theseeds, so when planted, the seeds already have organisms to healthe disturbed soil. However, leave the rest of the soil intact.

ink about what nature will do with bare, disturbed soil. Ifno beneficial sets of organisms are present and functioning,weeds will grow. Whatever weed seed is in your soil or that mayblow in is what will grow there. But if we plant seeds for livingmulch, which is permanent, short growing, and has the same bi-ology needs as our crop plants, then the weeds will be outcom-peted. e living mulch fulfills its function by preventing weedsand keeping the right food web happy and functioning in the soil.

When planting, it is best to either direct drill the crop intothe living mulch or till a narrow strip out of the cover just wideenough to allow planting crop seeds. en any need to deal withweeds is over. In the Shumei Garden at the Rodale Institute, thatis part of our plan for the garden’s expansion.

A healthy green lawn in Boston, amongst parched neighboring yards.

4. A hardpan or plough pan is a hard layer of compacted subsoil or clay thatforms in agricultural fields by plowing at the same depth every year.


ere are several questions that need to be settled. For ex-ample, permanent understory5 plants need to be identified. Weneed to test them to make sure they survive in the gardens at Ro-dale. We need to collect seeds of the ones that work. We need tomatch them to the crop or herb, or desired overstory6 plant wehave been growing.

Jay Fuhrer in North Dakota has been working for the last 15or more years to develop a mix of species, called a seed cocktail,that are all low growing. Some are nitrogen fixers, some are morefungal, some a little more on the bacterial side, and some well bal-anced fungal to bacterial. In the first year those seeds wereplanted, three species of plants came up and did a beautiful jobof covering the soil. e crops were strip tilled into the soil andgrew very well indeed, because the organisms were maintainedand nurtured by the living mulch. It was not necessary in somecases to use compost. Some places did add compost to bring thesoil back to a full set of soil organisms however. In the second year,different species of the original set of seeds grew, because of dif-ferent weather conditions in the second summer. But in somecases, compost was not needed in the second year, because theplants maintained the proper biology.

Could we do this in Natural Agriculture? When crops areharvested, and the residues are on the surface of the soil, we wantthose residues to decompose rapidly. If the soil has good biology,the residues should decompose in a month. If they do not de-compose, compost should be spread over the surface of the bed.at means that during the winter, under the snow, if the com-

post has beneficial organisms, theresidues will decompose and improvethe organisms in the soil.

e next spring, if any residues fromthe year before are still present, addcompost on the soil surface to improvethe life in the soil. Seed in ten springgerminating understory plants. Add liv-ing mulch and the plant seeds. enwatch to see which understory plantscome up.

We could look at the organisms in thesoil, and see if they are the balance wethink is best for the crop. If they are not,more compost goes on the soil surface.

In Australia, where we work withgrowers on 300-acres plots, the growersreturned life to the soil successfully.Their costs were reduced by $200,000in the first year. So, minimizing tillageis important.

We may need think-groups to figureout the most effective ways to achieve

this within the Natural Agriculture paradigm.

Q: We learned that food labeled organic might contain only1%organic produce. We look for labels that say “100% organic,” yet,still do not know whether to trust labeling. I wonder if there areany countries that do not use industrial chemicals in foodproduction. I heard that China uses massive amounts andsomeone else told me that Mexico does not use chemicals at all.Is this true?

E.I: e answer depends on what aspect of agriculture you assess.Large industrial farms in Mexico are very chemically based. Butwith small farms of less than 10 acres the farmers do not haveenough money to buy chemicals. So, Mexicans generally eat or-ganic food. e food from the large industrial farms goes to theU.S., Europe, or Asia.

Many European countries have legislated that the farms intheir country shi to organic production. eir goal is that alltheir farms will be organic by 2020. Why are we not doing thisin the United States? Because the U.S. is pesticide central. Whenyou understand how much control big business has of the UnitedStates government, you begin to understand the problem.

No matter where you are in the world, it is best to know thepeople and the farm that you buy your food from. This is trueeven in the world of organic farming. When I walk into mostgrocery stores that offer an organic section and look at the or-ganic produce, I think, “Ewww! I would never buy this!” I ex-pect that it is organic by substitution. All the growers havedone is substitute Rotenone,7 which is allowed to be used on or-ganic farms, for DDT. Although Rotenone is a natural product,in the high concentrations needed to kill insects, it is any-thing but natural.

The bounty of the living soil, producecollected from a Shumei Natural Agriculturegarden in Crestone, Colorado.

5. The term understory refers to an underlying tier of vegetation, such asshrubs and small trees, that grow under the canopy of a forest’s taller trees.

6. The term overstory refers to the uppermost layer of foliage that forms aforest canopy. Both understory and overstory are terms that are now usednot only in the field of forestry but also in agroforestry, which involvesthe cultivation and use of trees in farming and many forms of integratedland management.

7. Rotenone is an odorless, colorless, crystalline chemical compound that isused as a broad range insecticide and pesticide. It is naturally generated inthe seeds and stems of many plants.


So you have to know the person doing the organic growing.ey have to have their heart in the right place and not use tox-ics that might be allowed in the organic world. Are we allowed inShumei Natural Agriculture to use those toxic chemicals, even ifthey are natural products? e answer is no. If given a choice,would you choose Natural Agriculture or organic food? Again,know the person growing your food.

Q: You clearly state the advantages of biological over conventionalfarming. Could you tell us how long it would take the UnitedStates to convert to biological farming?

E.I: We could do most of this within a year because the first stepis to make good compost. For us to rapidly convert, compost isjob one. All the organic material going into landfills should in-stead be turned into good compost. Organic matter of any kindshould not be allowed to putrefy into disgusting, stinky, horriblesmelly dark slime.

e proper biology would have to be put into every acre. Forexample, in Australia they are already looking at making propercompost nationwide. If all of the arable land in Australia got com-post put on it, we could keep in control all of the elevated carbondioxide in the atmosphere within three years.

What if the United States did the same? How fast couldglobal climate change be reversed? Consider that historic lev-els of organic matter in the Great Plains of the United Stateswere at one time upwards of 15 to 25%. Today the Great Plainscontains less than 1% organic matter. Elevated carbon dioxidein the atmosphere comes from where? It comes from burningpetroleum. Can all of that CO2 in the atmosphere be put backinto the soil as organic matter? Yes, we can do it, and we cando it rapidly.

But we must have the will to do it. We have to stop politi-cians from playing games and being greedy. The chemicalcompanies need to stop protecting their sources of income atour expense.

Month aer month, other scientists, many scientific journals,and people that I work with publish more and more papers con-cerning this. At a recent conference, my husband heard anotherspeaker say that well over 1000 papers are published each year inthe scientific literature that show that what I have been talkingabout for the last 30 years is true. Also, they show that what Nat-ural Agriculture has been trying to do for the entire time it hasbeen in existence is true.

More documentation, and more evidence gathering is the di-rection we need to be going in. All of you need to demonstratethat this approach to agriculture works.

Q: So, I am proud of my yard, which has all kinds of weedsgrowing in it. But you claim that with proper biology, weeds canbe gotten rid of. How do you define weeds? To my understand-ing a weed is just a plant that is growing out of its proper place.

E.I: Plants growing out of place is the chemical company’s defi-nition of weeds. Every plant on the planet is, sometime or another,from a human point of view, out of place. So, that means allplants are weeds—not a very useful definition.

Q: A vegetable growing on a golf course can be a weed?

E.I: An ecological definition of the term weed, would never in-clude vegetables. However, from the chemical industry’s point ofview, a vegetable could be a weed.

Let us go through a little history. In the early 1980s, a chem-ical company representative was sent out to ask people whatthey thought a weed was. at person noted that thistles, corn,and oak trees where considered by some to be weeds, and thatsome people could consider almost any kind of plant a weed. atis where the definition of a weed as a plant out of place developed.But it is not a useful definition. Who would be best served by thatsort of definition of a weed? Herbicide salesmen, so they couldsell you herbicides. So let us not fall into a trap meant to sell prod-ucts that are not needed. You do not need these herbicides if youunderstand which organisms you should use to prevent weedgrowth in the soil.

An ecological definition of weeds is what is useful. Weedsgrow in conditions where serious disturbances have occurred.Weeds require very high levels of bacteria, and almost no bene-ficial fungi. Protozoa should be present, but their numbers fluc-tuate wildly. Highly bacterial soils result in large pulses of nitrates,followed by almost no nutrient availability. Very low levels of am-monium, and either alkaline conditions or very acidic conditionsare typical of conditions that set the stage to grow weeds. Weedstolerate poor soil structure.

When fungi begin to be an important part of the soil foodweb, ammonium becomes a significant pool in the soil, inhibit-ing the growth of weeds.

Weedy species grow very rapidly, take over, and try to rulefor a short time. Because their purpose in life is to suck up all thenutrients, turn it into billions of seeds that then disseminateeverywhere, weedy species such as thistles, Johnson grass, andnutsedge8 are wide dispersing plants and have very rapid growthand production rates. Corn and vegetables are not weeds becausethey do not grow that fast, they need more than just nitrate as asource of inorganic, soluble nitrogen. ey do not produce a hugenumber of seeds that disperse wide and far. ey do not do wellin soil that is compacted close to the surface. Most mid-succes-sional plants can put their roots down several feet or more, andthus are clearly, not weeds. Plants that make tap roots can be con-sidered one step further along in succession, possibly becausethey try to break through the compaction layer and help movesoil to the next stage faster than true weeds.

Corn and vegetables might be classified as volunteers, inthat if you grow corn one year, the next year when you grow soy-beans, corn will volunteer in the soybean field. But being a vol-unteer type plant does not make it a weed.

Weeds require a disturbance of the soil. e soil might havebeen compacted and is likely to be anaerobic, requiring high nitratepulses. It might be a highly bacterial-dominated soil with almostno fungi. Weeds have rapid growth and produce lots of seeds.

Q: Can a garden or farm free of weeds still have healthy and goodquality soil?

8. Nutsedge or nutgrass is a perennial weed, a member of the sedge familythat superficially resembles grass. Varieties of nutsedge are aggressive andtenacious weeds that commonly infest vegetable and flower gardens, andhome landscapes and lawns.

E.I: Actually, no weeds and healthy soil go hand in hand. Butthink of this in another way. We could also define a healthy weedsoil, because if the soil grows weeds really well, then is it not ahealthy soil for weeds?

However, most of us do not want this kind of soil. Most ofus want a good healthy soil that is going to grow tomatoes,mustard, cabbage, kale, potatoes, zucchini, carrots, blueberries,and maple trees. We should know what our different plantsneed, so that we can grow a specific plant in the healthiest soilfor that plant’s species.

What is the biology in the soil where strawberry naturally ex-ists? What is in healthy strawberry soil? Consider what kind ofsystem strawberries grow in naturally. Where do strawberriesgrow in nature? ey are understory species in forests. e properbiology to help strawberries grow without disease, pests, or fer-tility problems is five times more fungi than bacteria on up to a100 times more fungi than bacteria.

Now, let us consider how a conventional strawberry field isprepared? First, methyl bromide is applied to the field to kill thediseases, pests, and weeds that have gotten out of hand in con-ventional soils. However, strawberries growing in sterile dirtsuffer from disease. e lack of soil structure, the lack of oxygenand water does not allow their roots to move deep into the soil.And, there is a lack of nutrient cycling, so the plants suffer fromnutrient limitations. Healthy strawberry soil needs to be fungal-dominated, with at least 300 micrograms of bacteria, 50,000 pro-tozoa, and a few beneficial nematodes. With unhealthy conditions,the strawberries produced generally have a poor flavor. Whobenefits from this sterile dirt approach to growing plants? osewho sell inorganic fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides.

How can we fix the soil when using the Natural Agricultureapproach? First, do not kill the life in the soil by using toxicchemicals like inorganic fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides. Sec-ond, enhance the diversity of organisms by planting the sameplant species in the same soil to always increase and improve theorganisms the plant needs. Let the plant choose exactly what soilorganisms to feed on and increase that soil organism. Use com-posted plant material from your garden to constantly put back thefull diversity of life that is needed. We need to stop killing soil lifeand start enhancing diversity of the beneficial organisms. If weknow what needs to be done to improve things, we can make Nat-ural Agriculture even more successful.

Q: Do you have to test the soil to determine what nutrients areneeded? What plants would be used to help revitalize the soil?

E.I: You do not need to do a chemistry test because all agriculturalsoils have the needed nutrients in them to grow plants. Everythingexcept carbon dioxide, sunlight energy, and nitrogen are in thesoil. If there is a fertility problem, what is lacking is the correct setof soil organisms to do nutrient cycling.

If a plant does not have enough boron,9 what is to be done tofix that problem? Pump exudates—cake and cookies—into theroot system to feed precisely those bacteria or fungi that solubi-lize boron straight from the rocks, pebbles, sand, silt, clay, or or-ganic matter. ose bacteria and fungi hold that boron in theirbiomass. Protozoa, nematodes, microarthropods, and earth-worms then consume those bacteria and fungi, and release theboron in a chelated form so that your plant can say, “ank you!I got the nutrients I needed!”

So testing for soluble, inorganic nutrients is not the testingthat we need to do. e testing that we really need is finding outwhether we have the adequate biology in our soil. If you alwaysadd good aerobic compost every so oen, then you might noteven need to do that testing. Or, why not get a microscope or en-courage someone in your neighborhood to do the microscopicwork? Buy a $300–$350 microscope and spend a day with us atthe Rodale Institute, learning how to do this.

To sample your soil or compost, take a number of smallsamples from the area you want to know about. Mix that com-posite sample, then remove one teaspoon and dilute it with fourteaspoons of water, gently shake the soil/water mix, put a drop ofthat on a microscope slide, put a cover slip over that drop and thenlook through the microscope. Right away you should be able tosee if you have life in the soil or not. If not, then get good com-post, and apply those organisms to the soil. Does the soil or com-post have the right balance? You can see for yourself.

Q: I heard that you were the one that revived all the trees andlawns in New York City that were covered by dust and ash aerSeptember 11. How you did this?

E.I: I was working with the Park Conservancy in New York Citywhen 9/11 occurred. We had already started the people at the Con-servancy on the process of making their own compost and makingall their own liquid extracts from the compost. So, they had alreadybeen applying all this good biology and the soil was already ingood shape when 9/11 happened. ere was a gradient from the siteof the World Trade Center that stretched out to the tip of Manhat-tan. e debris covering the plants ranged from somewhere around45 feet deep to only about three inches deep at the end of the island.

Everything was impacted by the debris and salts, which werecalcium carbonate (lime) and calcium sulfate (gypsum). It startedto rain not long aer 9/11, and all that salt started to move into thesoil. e number of trees in the area that were not killed by bull-dozers taking them out so that debris could be removed numberedaround 6,000. And the salt negatively impacted all of them.

Conventional wisdom would have had us cut down all thosetrees, replace all the grass, and replace all the flower beds, becausethere was no way to rescue them. But because we had been work-ing with the Park Conservancy, and specifically with T. Fleischer


WHAT GROWS BEST IN WHAT SOIL BIOLOGYBare – Weeds Vegetables Grass Land

Bacteria: 10µg 100µg 600µg Fungi: 0µg 10µg 600µg

Shrubs Conifer,Deciduous Trees Old Growth Forrest

Bacteria: 500µg 700µgFungi: 800µg 70,000µg

9. Boron is one of seven essential micronutrients vital to fertilization, fruitand seed production. Boron deficiency is the most widespread of all cropdeficiencies, affecting almost all major crops grown around the world.

of the Conservancy, he said, “Don’t touch those plants. We willbring them back.” With applications of the right biology, in otherwords compost, compost tea, and extracts, all except six out of the6,000 trees were resuscitated and brought back to health.

If you go to Battery Park City at the end of Manhattan Island,to Rockefeller Plaza, then to the street trees in that area where theWorld Trade Centers used to be, you will see healthy, mature trees.Everything was brought back with no toxic chemicals at all.

e Irish Famine Memorial was buried in the debris from theWorld Trade Center and all of it was rescued without using chem-icals. ere was no need to replace any of the plant material.Adirondacks Park also was resuscitated by these methods. It is im-portant to understand that the plants in these specific areas re-quired soil organisms that were specific to those plants. Compostneeded to be made from material from the Irish Famine Memo-rial to maintain those plant species. In the Adirondacks Park,compost was made from that plant material. It is important tohave indigenous material to make compost. Is not this also aprinciple of Natural Agriculture?

So yes, we were capable of bringing back all of the plant life,not just the trees but all of the plants, without having to take outand replant all of Battery Park City, the Rockefeller Plaza, thestreet trees, and so forth. Most likely it would have taken years toreplace the vegetation in this large area if conventional wisdomhad held the upper hand.

Q: You tell us the same thing about crop rotation as those who prac-tice Natural Agriculture; it is not that good and continuous croppingmakes more sense. It makes sense because it helps bring a field tothe ideal state for growing a particular crop. However, natural dis-asters such as severe storms and droughts can retard the soil’s ad-vancement toward an ideal state or even reversing the process.

Within Natural Agriculture there is another component to cre-ating an ideal relationship between plant and soil: the seed. Seedsare kept from a harvest and used in the next planting season. isis done because, throughout the years, seeds adapt to the soil. ispractice seems to insolate Natural Agriculture’s crops from most ofthe damage caused by natural disasters. e crops that grow yearaer year from such seeds seem more drought and flood resistant

than their counterparts grown byconventional methods. Do you haveany thoughts concerning this aspectof Natural Agriculture?

E.I: Locally adapted seed is really im-portant because the other choice isgoing to the store and buying some-one else’s seeds from whatever soil ithas adapted to. Maybe it was adaptedto the soil of Alaska or Mexico orsomeplace else. So you are more likelyto have problems getting this new anddifferent seed to do well in your bed.

If we save our own seed, weknow what conditions the seed was raised in. All plants put outspecific exudates and improve the set of organisms that helps theplant. e more we maintain the seed that was harvested fromthat site, the better the relationship gets to be with the biology inthe soil. at is very important.

If there is bad weather, if a disturbance occurs, the specific bi-ology the plant needs might be destroyed. In that case, we mightwant to try to bring back the life that was benefitting our plantsinstead of having to wait for the whole process to occur all overagain. Maybe we could return the soil to that really good condi-tion more rapidly if we have compost ready that has the same bi-ology that needs to be put back in the soil.

Q: What if we do not add anything to the damaged soil, becauseit has the resilience to create the same conditions again? Do youthink that by not adding anything succession will take placegradually, within a few years, reaching the same level it was be-fore the soil was damaged? You say that by applying compost, theprocess speeds up. But if you do nothing, the soil will still followthe same succession. I think that is what many people working inNatural Agriculture have been doing. Some Natural Agriculturefarmers do put compost to cover crops and others do not.

E.I: I would like to know when it is not necessary to do anything, andwhen something has to be done. Do we need to do something tohelp move things toward an improved condition for our plants, orwill existing processes get things back to that point without our help?Can growers depend on natural processes to get back to the bestconditions fast enough? We need the ability to assess biology in soil,so we will be able to answer that. e question is when can we relyon natural processes and when will the soil need help?

Q: In Natural Agriculture we observe Nature and learn from her.at is basically what Natural Agriculture is. You do your ob-serving with a microscope, we only use our eyes. Your method ismore scientific, ours more of an art. Do you think that scienceeventually will prove that Natural Agriculture works?

E.I: Yes, this science proves Natural Agriculture works. Now, howdoes Shumei want to use this knowledge? I think this will lead tosome very interesting further discussions.


As with many of Manhattan’s trees andshrubbery in the vicinity of ground zero,those that line the Battery Park CityEsplanade survived the aftermath of the9/11 terrorist attacks in part due to theinfluence of Dr. Elaine Ingham.

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Life in the Soil - Elaine Ingham