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Soil Food Web has Catch 22

Nancy and I certainly agree with Jeff, Doreen, Lon and the others that the
soil food web will become a major factor in gardening techniques in the next
ten years.  There are several serious barriers or problems however.  First,
it is difficult to find uniformly instructive references that are easy to
understand so we as garden writers can learn the basics.  Elaine Inghram is
a fantastic speaker, but she writes like the scientist that she is.  There
is no easy source of information about how pesticides impact on soil
biology, each product one by one.  It is very hard work to pull out an
understanding of the biology of the soil and in my view most garden writers
don't have the time nor the inclination to take that much trouble.
Solution?  We need to find a way to inform ourselves and our colleagues.
The second problem is communicating the magic of soil biology to the average
homeowner and gardener in a manner and form that they will accept and begin
to utilize.  A single article about soil biology does not do the job in my
view.  We as garden writers have to incorporate soil biology into most of
our writing at least where it is appropriate and relevant.  Jeff's ten year
prediction is probably a good one; it will take us 10 years to get the story
out in sufficient volume and value to have Americans change their behavior.
Finally, the Catch 22.  There are an increasing number of companies trying
to bring biological soil amendments to the consumer marketplace.  They are
finding a major dilemma in that the Garden Center managers don't know about
soil biology so are generally unwilling to take on the product.  Then if the
product is taken and displayed the customer has no clue as to what the stuff
does because you can't tell the story on the label.  If the garden writer
wants to get the consumer excited about using biological soil amendments,
the products need to be available, but if the stores won't carry the
products, and like that..........
Kelp or seaweed products and humic acid products have been on the market for
20 or 30 years, but they have never become mainstream products because we
garden writers were not able to get the story out in a broad enough scale to
have the gardeners understand the true value of those products in the soil's
biologic health.  Trying to convince a gardener to buy some powder that
allegedly contains a billion bacteria in a tablespoon is definitely a
challenge to our communication skills.
Elaine has an article in the Grandiflora magazine ( published in Virginia
for the mid-Atlantic region) just published.  She complicated the compost
tea story, in my opinion, by including the need to add kelp, rock dusts, and
humic acid to the compost tea process because now she knows that you not
only produce gadzillions of beneficial bacteria in bio-activated compost tea
using molasses, but with those other three additives you get gadzillions of
beneficial fungi in the soup at the same time.  While this may be exciting
to the scientist and the commercial grower, I feel that adding that
complication to what I had felt was a relatively simple recipe for compost
tea will deter folks rather than encourage folks to move into this new world
of soil biology.  We can't get the whole story out in one fell swoop.  It
takes little steps.  We have to pique the curiosity.  We have to get the
reader to start to ask their own questions.  In my view the basic story is
this - finding ways to improve the soil life in the soil reduces the stress
experienced by plants.  Plants with less stress have fewer insect and
disease problems.  End of story.  I think that if we use the plant stress
issue, and teach people how to reduce that plant stress without getting into
every technical detail, we can start them on the road to learning about
gardening with the soil instead of using the soil to simply hold up the
plants.
The problem becomes one of marketing and advertising a very complex concept
in terms that bring people along slowly but firmly to change their ways.
The task is not an easy one for any of us.  Elaine may be a true guru, but
she is not the only guru.  We all need to work together to first get the
basic facts together so we can at least begin to understand and use soil
biology ourselves.  And then we have to share ways to get the story out,
over and over and over again.
So endeth the rant for today.
Happy Holidays Folks
Jeff Ball

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