This blog is for gardeners above, beyond, and below the surface. For those interested in botanical names, inventories, collection and else.

Not recommended for gardeners depending only on nurseries for the practice.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

SOIL POST II

THIS is part two of what could easily could be the next General Hospital. Same reference as before.

FUNGI

MOST fungi resemble a mass of tangled threads (hyphae) called a mycellium.  Fruiting bodies grow from mycellium.  These bodies release spores that may be considered the 'seeds' of fungi.  Some fungi grow to become quite large-the common mushroom is a fungues. The mushroom is the fruiting body of a fungus whose hyphae feed on decaying material in soil.  However, much of the fungi in the soil must be examined under a microscope.  Up to 450,000 fungi may reside in a teaspoon of soil.

While fungi are less numerous than bacteria, because of their larger size, they generally make up the largest microbial mass in the soil. Fungi are entirely heterothropic and  aerobic, and occupy larger pore spaces. Fungi tend to dominate in acid soils.

Along with bacteria, fungi act as the main soil decomposers.  Fungi can attack matter that resists breakdown by bacteria, partly because hyphae can grow into the material.  Many fungi are plant parasites, such as with the fungus (Verticillium spp) that attacks potatoes, several landscape plants, and other plant species.  A group of soil fungi called "damping-off fungi", like Rhizoctonia, attack seeds and seedlings and cause root rots, particular problems for  greenhouse and container nursery growers. 

A few odd fungi are predators.  For instance certain fungi  capture and consume nematodes (a microscopic worm)These fungi trap nematodes either by growing rings that can tighten around the body
of a nematode or by growing knobs covered with a sticky substance. After the nematode is trappec, hyphae grow into its body until it is consumed.

EDITORIAL

I received some feedback from one of those Florida people gardening as they only can. Her comments? How deep/interesting.

The information above and the rest  to come, may seem irrelevant to most amateurs.  However,  in Puerto Rico, where I live, some con artists have been promoting edible gardens left and right, for  $125 USA dollars a pop.  They advertise edible gardens as a solution like sustainable agriculture and food sovereignty.

But Josy Latorre and Douglas Kndelabro, (among others) prophet/ess respectively,  of this fad, never mention that any intelligent, echologically correct  gardening requires  solid notions
about soil, pests, and diseases.......not to get into irrigation.

As if any fool, overweight, unable to bend, to  pull some weeds,
could have AN garden edible or not.   

The intelligent solution to solve this matter would be to do a street by street inventory of what people have planted in their backyards, 
fruits, herbs and such as they do in California, swapping this for that.
If you have arthritis, heart problems  to name a few, edible gardens are not for you, unless you have high beds, preferably on tables.   

that is that

   

2 comments:

  1. Gusto de regresar por aquĆ­ para ver cosas interesantes de los hongos y esa aclaraciĆ³n del huerto en casa.


    Un abrazo.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Saludos Chomp,
    Un placer tenerla de vuelta...Ahi nos miramos....

    ReplyDelete