Not All Bugs Are Bad!

by Vicki Parsons

As a long-time grower of neem trees, I’ve become somewhat of an expert on what governments require before manufacturers can say anything about how their products work. Luckily for readers of Garden & Greenhouse, I’m also an expert on using soil micro-organisms – and since I don’t sell them, I can share my experiences freely.

Soil microorganisms get a bad rap when people read about events like the spinach contaminated with E. coli last winter. That’s misleading, because most microorganisms are either benign or necessary for life. In fact, without microorganisms functioning in soil, air and water, life as we know it on this planet would come to a screeching halt. And even with nearly unlimited access to neem, soil micro-organisms or the catalysts that boost them are a critical part of my garden and greenhouse success. In some ways, it goes back to the original Rodale thesis: feed the soil, not the plant. That obviously doesn’t 100% apply in hydroponics, but the results in my yard have been amazing and new technologies promise to make the micro-organisms even more effective.

I first started using microorganisms when I became chemically sensitive and had to figure out how to garden – and live with multiple dogs – without using anything toxic. An organic mentor suggested I sprinkle the yard with a soil/compost activator. He said sprinkling the “good bugs” or soil microorganisms would make the soil come alive and that the good bugs would start competing with the bad bugs that had taken over.

I did, and almost immediately noticed a decline in the number of insects, including pests on plants and fleas on dogs. I sprinkle soil microorganisms every spring, and have had a totally flea-free yard for nearly 15 years without spraying anything, even in the worst Florida weather. Six years ago, a large oak started to die after it was struck with lightning. The highly stressed tree attracted the ugliest bugs I’ve ever seen, some kind of borer that laid eggs in the damaged wood and then grew to be nearly two inches long. The tree shaded our patio and I did everything I could to save it, including spraying with toxic pesticides.

It was easy to kill the individual borers, but the larva lived deep inside the tree. Nothing was working, even neem, until I started spraying a product called Medina that functions as a catalyst for soil microorganisms. Against all professional diagnoses, the tree is still alive and bark is slowly but surely covering the damaged sections. I’ve also learned – the hard way – not to use Medina or other microorganisms on butterfly larval food. I had gorgeous milkweed one year but I really wanted monarch caterpillars.

While the disease-fighting abilities of soil microorganisms aren’t written into scientific fact (yet!), researchers do agree that the beneficial bugs stimulate vigorous growth and help plants resist pests.

The newer technologies include a personal favorite — Rapid Rooter from General Hydroponics (www.generalhydroponics.com) is a soil media that contains large populations of beneficial microorganisms that colonize the roots of seedlings or clones. I’m also seeing great results from Plantacillin from Plant Life Products on plants that are consistently plagued by soil fungus – including fusarium and pythium — during hot, wet Florida summers.
Unlike earlier products, both Plantacillin and Mayan MicroZyme from A Fertile World (www.afertileworld.com) contain a guaranteed analysis of living microorganisms, 55 trillion per gallon in the Plantacillin. All of these new products are designed for either hydroponic or traditional gardening methods.

By the Numbers
A cup of soil can have as large a population of bacteria as there are people on earth and the bacteria found in an acre of soil can weigh as much as the cow grazing on it.  Common organisms found in 1 gram (1/5th teaspoon) of soil include:
3,000,000 to 500,000,000 bacteria, up to 50,000 different species in a single gram of soil.

1,000,000 to 20,000,000 actinomycetes, creatures which resemble both bacteria and fungi and give soil its earthy smell.
5,000 to 1,000,000 fungi, which recycle nutrients and protect plants by consuming damaging and insects.
1,000 to 500,000 protozoa, which help control bacteria by feeding on them.

10 to 5,000 nematodes are predators in the soil; they control bacterial population, as well as the protozoa and other organisms. Nematodes, in turn, are the prey of fungi. GG

An award-winning journalist with more than 20 years experience as a business, environmental and garden writer, Vicki Parsons is also a fifth-generation farmer who owns Neem Tree Farms in Brandon, Fla. You can visit her website at www.neemtreefarms.com .