Teaming with Microbes, A Gardeners Guide to the Soil Food Web was reviewed in an earlier post Teaming with Microbes – In-depth Book Review and in Teaming with Microbes – A Close Look, part 1. In this post I’ll look at more content of the book and discuss their validity and the validity of the soil food web. A gardener can learn a lot by looking at these topics in some detail.
Teaming with Microbes, A Gardeners Guide to the Soil Food Web was reviewed in an earlier post Teaming with Microbes – In-depth Book Review. In this post I would like to delve into some of the contents of the book in more detail and provide a different perspective on the soil food web. A gardener can learn a lot by looking at these topics in some detail.
Bacteria are a vital part of soil and the health of plants, so it is no wonder that there is a lot of talk about keeping soil bacteria healthy, increasing their numbers, having the right kind of bacteria, and so on. It only makes sense that if bacteria are important for plants, gardeners should (a) know more about them and (b) learn to manage them properly.
Unfortunately, along with good practical information, you will also find quite a few soil bacteria myths. The one I’d like to discuss today deals with the idea that you can figure out which type of bacteria you have. Armed with this information, you can then manage the populations to increase the ones that are most beneficial for your plants.
