This introductory presentation explains the partnership between soil microbes and plants. It dives into the carbon economy that runs the world!

1. The Living Soil
Presented by
Kassie Brown
Renaissance Soil
May 19th 2018

2. Renaissance Soil’s mission is to promote soil regeneration
through education, outreach, and action opportunities.
Soil is not dirt. It’s dirt plus a whole ecosystem of living
creatures that make above ground life possible.

3. Soil VS Dirt -
Dirt = the parent material
(sand, silt, clay, rocks…)
Soil = dirt plus microbes,
organic matter, and abiotic
factors (wind, water…)

4. Creating Dirt: The Chemical Approach to Food

5. Building Soil: The Biological Approach to Food
Healthy soil is built by a thriving ecosystem of extremely
diverse organisms known collectively as a soil foodweb.
- An intact soil foodweb will:
○ Make nutrients available to plants
○ Suppress disease
○ Increase water retention
○ Decompose toxins, ETC…

6. The Power of Soil Microbes -
Building healthy soil (structure, water…)
Growing strong plants (disease resistance, nutrition…)
Sequestering Carbon
But who are these microbes?

7. One Teaspoon of Healthy Soil -
75,000 Bacterial Species
Yards of fungal hyphae
Thousands of Protozoa
Hundreds of Nematodes
A Few Micro-Arthropods
Billions of Living Creatures!

12. Sugars = Energy = CARBON
● Carbon is the currency of life
● Carbon bonds are stored sunlight
energy
● Plants are primary producers;
everything else follows:
○ Root exudates are carbon-based molecules
of varying complexity
○ Different “recipes” for different microbes
○ Symbiosis = microbes get carbon energy
in exchange for other nutrients and water

13. Summary: Putting Plants Back In Control -
Land plants evolved with the soil food web…
Plants use sunlight to convert carbon dioxide into sugars and oxygen…
They use those sugars for energy,
And they also pump out a lot of those sugars into the soil to feed microbes.
In exchange for delicious energy-rich sugars (carbon), microbes supply other
nutrients (and water) to the plant.
The rhizosphere (root-zone) is therefore crowded with beneficial microbes, protecting
plant roots from pests and pathogens

14. Image Courtesy of https://sites.google.com/a/g.coppellisd.com/blackland-prairie/climate-and-seasonal-changes

15. How NOT to Care for your Microbes:
● Disturbance
● Pesticides
○ Insecticides
○ Fungicides
○ Herbicides
● Synthetic fertilizers (salts)
● Leaving the soil bare
● Compaction

16. The Importance of Fungi -
● Bacteria consume simple sugars (green
material, food waste…)
● Fungi consume complex sugars (lignin,
cellulose = brown material)
● “Wood chip mulch ties up nutrients”
○ Only true when fungi + soil food web are
diminished
○ Healthy fungal populations keep ammonium
in the soil
● Enzymes to break down rocks and
minerals
● Hyphae = Carbon Storage

17. The Importance of Fungi Cont’d -
● Soil fungi hold particles of organic
matter and mineral matter together,
creating structure and passageways for
air and water
● When present in a healthy soil foodweb,
fungal-feeding nematodes liberate
nutrients from fungal cytoplasm - cycling
vital plant foods throughout the soil

18. Beneficial
Fungal
Hyphae

19. Mycorrhizal Fungi -
● Mycorrhizal fungi form symbiotic
relationships with about 90% of
terrestrial plants
● Endo (Vesicular-Arbuscular
Mycorrhiza) - fungi forms arbuscles
inside plant roots; expands root system
up to 6 inches in all directions
● Ecto - forms Hartig Net around the
outside of plant roots; common in
perennial and conifer systems - can
expand root system’s reach many
yards!

20. ● Carbon Sequestration
○ Glomalin production - sticky substance that
doesn’t break down easily, almost pure carbon!
● Nutrient availability
○ Phosphorus mining by fungi - critical in age of
peak P
● Drought Protection
○ Mycorrhizal fungi store water and readily share
with plant partners in scarcity
● Castle wall effect
○ Protects roots from pathogens and also supplies
nutrients and other compounds to build plant
health
Mycorrhizal Fungi -

21. -
How TO Care for your Microbes!
● Ensure Diverse Living Roots
● Reduce Disturbance
● Inoculate with spores of mycorrhizal
fungi
● Plant Cover Crops
● Mulch, leave OM
● Integrate Livestock
● Apply Bio-Diverse Aerobically
Produced COMPOST
Microbe
Food!

22. Making Good Compost -
Three types:
1. Thermophilic - Uses heat-loving
microbes to decompose organic matter
2. Static - Doesn’t requiring turning;
oxygen and carbon are key!
3. Worms! - Sometimes combined with
thermal; harnesses worm power to
produce super bio-diverse compost

23. Worm Composting -
● Excellent microbial biodiversity
● Humus - nutrient retention
● Enzymes and plant growth hormones
● Water retention
- Easy to DIY
- Can be done indoors
- Recomposes food waste
- Recomposes old newspapers, cardboard
- Livestock for the urban dweller

24. Setting up a Vermicomposting Bin -
● Worms do best in shallow bins with lots of surface
area (air flow, leaf litter conditions)
● Bedding:
○ Shredded newspaper mixed with cardboard
○ Coconut coir
○ Leaf litter, woodchips
○ Composted manure
○ Wood shavings (rabbit bedding)
● Additions:
○ Grit (handful of soil, rockdust)
○ Calcium (crushed eggshells, oyster shells)

25. Using Worm Castings -
● Most worms are not native to North America
● Many species are great in gardens, but do
extreme harm in native forest systems
● Most worms used for composting can’t survive
our winters, but release should be minimized
● Recommendation: Make Compost Extract
○ Harvest castings by the handful and remove any
tag-along worms
○ Place in a clean 5 gallon bucket with some sea kelp,
biochar, small amount of fish hydrolysate, etc
○ Fill with good quality water
○ Stir into a vortex for a couple of minutes and then
apply liberally

26. Biological Soil Testing -
● We can see soil foodweb microorganisms at
400X total magnification - anyone can do it!
● In order to get the benefits of the soil food web,
all organisms must be present and in the proper
balance
● Light microscope method used for completing
bio-assays

27. Healthy Soil = Diversity of life
Rule: there are more good guys than bad
guys (1400 human pathogens, Millions of beneficial or neutral microbes)
Therefore: Treat your soil well (and your
gut too!), you will not need bio-icides

28. Upcoming Events -
June 2nd - Composting with EarthWorms Co-Hosted with Giving
Tree Gardens 10-11am @ Gandhi Mahal Restaurant
June TBD - Thermal Compost Making Demonstration
July 20th - Soil Life at The Tiny Diner 2-4pm

29. Thank you! Questions?
Kassie Brown > revivesoil@gmail.com