Homeowner Forum / Lawn and Garden / July 2008

In article
<b2forewagner-1F63D2.15443001072008@sn-indi.vsrv-sjc.supernews.net>,

I think you're preoccupied with your patient ;o)) We've been throug this
before. Anyway, take a look at
www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/pdf1993/misra93a.pdf

Think "Teaming with Microbes", Chapter 1, where they write about plant
exudates.
. . .
Root exudates are in the form of carbohydrates (including sugars) and
proteins. Amazingly, their presence wakes up, attracts, and grows
specific beneficial bacteria and fungi living in the soil that subsist
on these exudates and the_ cellular material sloughed off as the plant's
root tips grow. All this secretion of_ exudates and sloughing-off of
cells takes place in the rhizosphere, a zone immediately around the
roots, extending out about a tenth of an inch, or a couple of
millimeters (1 millimeter = 1/25 inch). The rhizosphere, which  can
look_ like a jelly or jam under the electron microscope, contains a
constantly changing mix of soil organisms, including bacteria, fungi,
nematodes, protozoa, and_ even larger organisms. All this ³life"
competes for the exudates in the rhizosphere, or its water or mineral
content.

At the bottom of the soil food web are bacteria and fungi, which are
attracted to and consume plant root exudates. In turn, they attract and
are eaten by bigger microbes, specifically nematodes and protozoa
(remember the amoebae, paramecia, flagellates, and ciliates you should
have studied in biology?), who eat bacteria and fungi (primarily for
carbon) to fuel their metabolic functions. Anything they don't need is
excreted as wastes, which plant roots are readily able to absorb as
nutrients. How convenient that this production of plant nutrients takes
place right in the rhizosphere, the site of root-nutrient absorption.

<snip>

Soil bacteria and fungi are like small bags of fertilizer, retaining in
their bodies nitrogen and other nutrients they gain from root exudates
and other organic matter (such as those sloughed-off root-tip cells).
Carrying on the analogy, soil protozoa and nematodes act as ³fertilizer
spreaders" by releasing, the nutrients locked up in the bacteria and
fungi ³fertilizer bags." The nematodes and protozoa in the soil come
along and eat the bacteria and fungi in the, rhizosphere. They digest
what they need to survive and excrete excess carbon and other nutrients
as waste.
-------

Is sugar water good for hummeres?

My latest book is "The fatal harvest reader : the tragedy of industrial
agriculture", edited by Andrew Kimbrell. Only just started and already
the book is into the fact that from 1982 to 2002 food production
increased faster than the population but that hunger increased by 11% in
the world. Fifty percent of antibiotics used in the US are used for live
stock and drug resistant bacteria are the 11th leading cause for death
in the US. Farmers who use standard agrichemicals have a seven fold
incidence of non-Hodgkin lymphomas in comparison to people who don't use
them.

Time for the "happy hour".

I don't think there will be much carbon in wood ash after all that's
pretty much what was burned away to make the ashes.
All the sugar does is let the microbes in the soil go into a riot of
growth making excess soluble nitrogen less soluble.
If you haven't gone nuts with fertilizers it shouldn't much matter.
As for the expense? the original poster has 2 tomato plants not 200
acres!