Teaming with Microbes: A Gardener’s Guide to the Soil Food Web

Teaming With Microbes enlightens readers in two important ways. First, in clear, straightforward language, it describes the activities of the organisms that make up the soil food web, from the simplest of single-cell organisms to more familiar multicellular animals such as insects, worms, and mammals. Second, the book explains how to foster and cultivate the life of the soil through the use of compost, mulches, and compost teas. By eschewing jargon, the authors make the text accessible to a wide audience, from devotees of organic gardening techniques to weekend gardeners who simply want to grow healthy, vigorous plants without resorting to chemicals.

Rating: (out of 65 reviews)

List Price: $ 24.95
Price: $ 15.00

Teaming with Microbes: A Gardener’s Guide to the Soil Food Web Reviews

Review by Deirdre NYC:

I’ve always known that there was more than meets the eye in all that dirt, and now I know what it is. It’s life. Between the tiny pieces of rock (minerals) and the decaying plant matter, right next to the roots of plants and the above the clay level, lives billions of organisms. Each one, be it bacteria, fungi, nematodes, protozoa, worms, grubs or rodents, has a function in the soil.

Teaming with Microbes: A Gardener’s Guide to the Soil Food Web by Jeff Lowenfels and Wayne Lewis is bursting with information helpful to gardeners. Using a science-based approach they characterize the roll of each inhabitant and component of soil and explain its contribution to the “soil food web.” They even include 19 helpful rules to keep your soil fertile without fertilizers and to recover the life in damaged soil.

Questions about the type of compost (brown or green) needed to rebuild damaged soil are fully answered. They make a compelling argument against rototilling soil have step by step recipes for producing healthful compost teas.

I loved their thorough approach and because I’ve only been gardening for a few years, I finally feel like I have a place to go for definitive answers that eluded me before. My veggie garden needed something and I hope that the I can boost my soil and my output this year based on the information in this book. Time will tell, but this was a great book to point me in the direction that I hope fills my freezer and my stomach with food from my garden this summer.

Review by M. Pulse:

This book is revolutionizing the way I garden. I have learned so much about how to work with the soil and not be concerned about the bugs I see there. I am composting with knowledge and a purpose instead of composting just because. Highly recommend this book for beginners or long-term gardeners. This will challenge the way you have gardened…in a good way.

Buy Teaming with Microbes: A Gardener’s Guide to the Soil Food Web now for only $ 15.00!

The Garden Organic Guide to Making Compost

Getting to the heart of compost—the making, baking, and using of this magic material—is the objective of this invaluable handbook for the modern gardener. Featuring step-by-step photographs throughout, growers seeking nutrient-rich soil for their plantlife will find pages packed with practical advice and helpful information for producing more colorful fruit and vitamin-dense vegetables. Additional advice is offered for maintaining healthy patio and house plants with their own magical compost mixture. By taking the mystery out of the composting process and simplifying the terminology, gardeners will learn how to brew a successful “heap” for growing stronger, sturdier, earth-friendly, and chemical-free plants.

• ISBN13: 9781844484652
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

List Price: $ 15.95
Price: $ 7.65

Compost (Rodale Organic Gardening Basics)

Designed to provide beginning gardeners with everything they need to know about organic methods, the Organic Gardening Basics series organizes the best information from six decades of Organic Gardening magazine into convenient and accessible single-topic volumes. Each guide contains a fully illustrated calendar that takes readers through each process day-by-day and allows them to chart their progress. While the main purpose of this series is to teach the basics, the last chapter of each volume goes a step further, giving readers more creative and challenging alternatives. Each region is covered in detail, making Organic Gardening Basics perfect for novice gardeners across the country.

Compost is the foundation on which every successful organic garden is built. This beginner’s guide includes clear, concise instructions on how to build a compost pile and how to use compost, a discussion of why compost is so integral to organic gardening, information on regional compost-making materials, and a month-by-month compost care calendar. Written in layperson’s terms, it reduces compost-making to simple tips and techniques that are unintimidating and easy to follow.

List Price: $ 9.95
Price:

Nitrogen and phosphorus limitations of microbial respiration in a tropical phosphorus-fixing acrisol (ultisol) compared with organic compost [An article from: Soil Biology and Biochemistry]

This digital document is a journal article from Soil Biology and Biochemistry, published by Elsevier in . The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
We studied the nutrient limitations of microbial respiration over time after the addition of glucose (G), glucose+nitrogen (G+N) or glucose+phosphorus (G+P) to a phosphorus-fixing tropical acrisol down to a depth of 80cm, compared with those from compost. In the acrisol, the initial rate of respiration increase was higher when P was added together with glucose than when P was excluded. Without N, respiration reached a plateau faster and at a lower level than when N was added in excess. With glucose alone, the respiration kinetics followed the lower of the curves with G+N or G+P at any given time. Thus, nitrogen limited the maximum level of microbial respiration in the acrisol if ample carbon was available, but the initial respiration rate was limited by phosphorus. In contrast, for compost respiration was always lowest when N was not added. In conclusion, microbial respiration depended on the P-fixing properties of the soil, the time scale and the carbon availability.

List Price: $ 4.95
Price: $ 4.95

Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) as a parameter of compost maturity [An article from: Soil Biology and Biochemistry]

This digital document is a journal article from Soil Biology and Biochemistry, published by Elsevier in . The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
Despite numerous investigations of the maturation process of composts, a simple and straightforward parameter which can predict plant response upon compost application has yet to be defined. In light of results accumulated over a decade, we examined simple, chemical parameters of three composts from three types of source materials (municipal solid waste (MSW), separated cow manure (CSM), biosolids (BS)). These materials were composted using different procedures and facilities. The chemical parameters were correlated to the growth response of cucumbers or ryegrass sown in potting media amended with the composts sampled at different stages of the process. The dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentration of all composts decreased rapidly within the first month, then, towards the end of the process, stabilized at concentration below 4gkg^-^1. DOC correlated highly and significantly to the absorbance at 465nm in all composts, and also to the C/N ratio. Nitrate evolution was similar in all composts, but the final concentrations differed among them. Plant biomass increased with composting time. For CSM and BS compost maximum biomass was reached when the DOC reached levels below 4gkg^-^1. DOC concentration is suggested for use as a simple method of determining maturity, with 4gkg^-^1 recommended as a threshold level indicating maturity. Absorbance at 465nm can be used instead of DOC concentration after appropriate calibration.

List Price: $ 8.95
Price: $ 8.95

Winning the Organics Game: The Compost Marketer’s Handbook

Winning the Organics Game assists green industry professionals in using, marketing and selling organics and compost-related products and service in a wide variety of market sectors. Over 140 charts, tables, and graphs provide This book is essential reading for anyone interested in learning more about the rapidly expanding-and profitable-organics market.

List Price: $ 59.95
Price: $ 69.99

Chemical and biological changes during composting of different organic wastes and assessment of compost maturity [An article from: Bioresource Technology]

This digital document is a journal article from Bioresource Technology, published by Elsevier in . The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
Changes in organic C, total N, C:N ratio, activities of cellulase, xylanase and protease, and microbial population were determined during composting of different organic wastes such as mixture of sugarcane trash and cattle dung, press mud, poultry waste and water hyacinth biomass. There were losses of N in poultry waste and water hyacinth with the effect an initial increase in C:N ratio was observed which decreased later on due to decomposition. The activities of cellulase, xylanase and protease were maximum between 30 and 60days of composting in various wastes. Similar trend was observed with respect to mesophilic bacterial and fungal population. Various quality parameters like C:N ratio, water soluble C (WSC), CO”2 evolution and level of humic substances were compared after 90day composting. There was statistically significant correlation between C:N ratio and CO”2 evolution, WSC and humic substances. Significant correlation between CO”2 evolved and level of humic substances was also observed. The study shows that no single parameter can be taken as an index of compost maturity. However, C:N ratio and CO”2 evolved from finished compost can be taken as the most reliable indices of compost maturity.

List Price: $ 8.95
Price: $ 8.95

Make Compost in 14 Days By the Editors of Organic Gardening Magazine

Paperback. 63 pages. Rodale Press, Inc. 1990 edition.

Price: