yogurt as a source of soil microbes?
tex_jas
16 years ago
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Soil microbes for air quality?
Comments (20)nancy_pnwzone8(OR zone 8) ps here are some links if you're interested. Wolverton Environmental Services http://www.wolvertonenvironmental.com/ Plant Air Purifier http://www.plantairpurifier.com/ Andrea http://www.andreaair.com/ Inside Urban Green - What did Bill Really Say? http://www.insideurbangreen.org/2009/11/my-entry-1.html Phytophilter Technologies http://www.phytofilter.com/ Plants are the Strangest People - Indoor Plants as Air Purifiers http://plantsarethestrangestpeople.blogspot.com/2008/04/indoor-plants-as-air-purifiers.html Kamal Meattle: How to grow fresh air http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmn7tjSNyAA (i would be remiss for posting this link without providing more info. in this TED talk, it sounds like they just added some plants to a big office building, like you would see in a typical cubicle farm, and - shebang - the air was cleaned. what he doesn't show is that they have a full on indoor grow op with high intensity lighting and full hydroponic plumbing. the grow rooms are tied into the building's HVAC. there was another video that showed the set up but i can't find it now.) I would add these links: 1. Wikipedia Houseplants together with the medium in which they are grown can reduce components of indoor air pollution, particularly volatile organic compounds (VOC) such as benzene, toluene, and xylene. Plants remove CO2 and release oxygen and water, although the quantitative impact for house plants is small. Most of the effect is attributed to the growing medium alone, but even this effect has finite limits associated with the type and quantity of medium and the flow of air through the medium.[25] The effect of house plants on VOC concentrations was investigated in one study, done in a static chamber, by NASA for possible use in space colonies.[26] The results showed that the removal of the challenge chemicals was roughly equivalent to that provided by the ventilation that occurred in a very energy efficient dwelling with a very low ventilation rate, an air exchange rate of about 1/10 per hour. Therefore, air leakage in most homes, and in non-residential buildings too, will generally remove the chemicals faster than the researchers reported for the plants tested by NASA. The most effective household plants reportedly included aloe vera, English ivy, and Boston fern for removing chemicals and biological compounds. Plants also appear to reduce airborne microbes, molds, and increase humidity.[27] However, the increased humidity can itself lead to increased levels of mold and even VOCs.[28] When CO2 concentrations are elevated indoors relative to outdoor concentrations, it is only an indicator that ventilation is inadequate to remove metabolic products associated with human occupancy. Plants require CO2 to grow and release oxygen when they consume CO2. A study published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology considered uptake rates of ketones and aldehydes by the peace lily (Spathiphyllum clevelandii) and golden pothos (Epipremnum aureum.) Akira Tani and C. Nicholas Hewitt found "Longer-term fumigation results revealed that the total uptake amounts were 30−100 times as much as the amounts dissolved in the leaf, suggesting that volatile organic carbons are metabolized in the leaf and/or translocated through the petiole."[29] It is worth noting the researchers sealed the plants in Teflon bags. "No VOC loss was detected from the bag when the plants were absent. However, when the plants were in the bag, the levels of aldehydes and ketones both decreased slowly but continuously, indicating removal by the plants".[30] Studies done in sealed bags do not faithfully reproduce the conditions in the indoor environments of interest. Dynamic conditions with outdoor air ventilation and the processes related to the surfaces of the building itself and its contents as well as the occupants need to be studied. While results do indicate house plants may be effective at removing some VOCs from air supplies, a review of studies between 1989 and 2006 on the performance of houseplants as air cleaners, presented at the Healthy Buildings 2009 conference in Syracuse, NY, concluded "...indoor plants have little, if any, benefit for removing indoor air of VOC in residential and commercial buildings."[31] Since high humidity is associated with increased mold growth, allergic responses, and respiratory responses, the presence of additional moisture from houseplants may not be desirable in all indoor settings.[32] sourse: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indoor_air_quality#Effect_of_indoor_plants 2.Critical Review: How Well Do House Plants Perform as Indoor Air Cleaners? Dingle et al. (2000) reported on a field study of three portable office buildings in Perth, Australia to test removal of formaldehyde by plants. Five plants (five species) were added to each room every two days to a maximum of 20 plants (at 2.44 plants per m2) after nine days. Two adjacent portable office buildings were used as controls with no plants. The mean formaldehyde concentrations were about 850 ppb, except with 20 plants. The authors state that the results show “no change in formaldehyde concentrations with the addition of 5 or 10 plants in the rooms and only an 11% reduction in formaldehyde concentrations with 20 plants in the room.” They did not indicate that this reduction was statistically significant.... With this caveat firmly in mind, it is hardly surprising that the HBI study failed to find any effect on pollutant removal by plants, despite a reasonably strong study design in terms of using controls. The study by Dingle et al. found only an 11% reduction in formaldehyde with the highest loading of plants (20 plants in a room or a loading of 2.44 plants per m2), which is not feasible in the real world and is probably not statistically significant. ... Sourse: http://www.buildingecology.com/articles/critical-review-how-well-do-house-plants-perform-as-indoor-air-cleaners/ I think people overestimate the ability of plants to clean the air. That's why EPA don't write about plants as cleaner at all: Epa wrote about Mechanical air filters, Electronic air cleaners, Gas-phase air filters, UVGI cleaners , PCO cleaners, Ozone generators , Portable air cleaners but EPA don't write about plants as cleaner at all.Sourse: http://www.epa.gov/iedweb00/pubs/residair.html If you use plants as cleaner You need to test air inside your house or flats. You need to use complex devices to test air otherwise you may find that you don't have any benefit from plants at all. And this is only placebo. You can spend your time for nothing. Only complex devices to test air inside your houses or flats can help you. Please don't trust so much NASA or Wolverton. Be critical. To read Critical Reviews too. Сheck the air in your homes with complex devices....See MoreFungal soil, bacterial soil - Tiffy
Comments (21)Hey Marshall. :) Not much to tell, really. Just the anecdotal evidence from one casual experiment, and a few guesses. When I grew the alfalfa sprouts (indoors) I soaked the seeds for a day then drained them, rinsed them once, then put them in a tall clean glass jar with holes drilled in the plastic lid. Once a day thereafter, I'd fill the jar with water, let it stand for five minutes or so, then drain. After a few days of growth in indirect light, the sprouts grew big enough to eat. Whatever sprouts didn't get eaten were put in a blender with a small amount of water and turned to mush. This slurry was poured over the garden bed soil, covered lightly, and left for the next spring. All of the sprout soaking & rinse water was also poured on the surface of the garden bed. Now, the following is pure speculation on my part, but it might help explain the boost in growth. Someone I knew years ago -- a very bright and idealistic person -- actually lived for a while on a diet of various kinds of seed sprouts. This person didn't like the ways animals and plants were raised, didn't approve of the politics and economic inequalities of food distribution, and wanted to avoid contributing to those systems. They told me it was possible to get all the necessary human nutrients, including proteins, by eating a variety of sprouted seeds. Apparently sprouts contain all that people need to survive and be healthy. However, they said it was crucial to eat a wide variety of seeds -- and eat them at different points in their sprouting cycles. (I'm sure most people reading this have their eyebrows raised and are thinking "whatta flake" or similar. Let me quickly note this person was eccentric -- but also genuinely idealistic, hardworking, and damn smart. I worked alongside them on multiple projects and never once doubted their word. I thought what they were doing was unusual, but entirely believable.) Anyway... back to using sprout water and sprouts in the garden. It may be there is something in the root exudates from the sprouts which provides helpful nutrients, or in the sprouts themselves. I have no idea. As well, alfalfa supposedly contains triacontanol which I gather is a natural growth stimulant. I don't know if this chemical is present in significant quantities in the seed/ sprouts, or not. Finally, I wonder if there is some kind of growth stimulant or special nutrient which is released by sprouting seeds. I haven't been curious enough to repeat this experiment with any controls. Perhaps this summer I'll try an A-B test on plants in the garden, or beds side by side. A pound or two of alfalfa seed for sprouting isn't real expensive, be interesting to see what difference it makes. All the best, -Patrick...See MoreTop soil vs Potting soil in quality control
Comments (20)Hmmm. No one ever talks about the microbes. Microbes make top soil unique - definitely not the same as sub soil. Microbes act as the interface between the organic material in soil and the plants. Plants will suffer in sterile soils, not matter how rich the soil is, without microbes - unless of course, the soil is treated with synthetic fertilizers and/or hormones. Plants in soil without microbes (and no fertilizers) will essentially starve. Dirt is not an appropriate synonym for top soil. The two are quite different things. Top soil is almost impossible to store, as the microbes require oxygen. The oxygen only penetrates a few inches in the best of soils, to about 8 inches max. Heavy soils can have top soils that are only fractions of an inch deep, or even none at all. Deprive the microbes of oxygen, and the microbes die in hours. Plastic-bagged, manufactured top soil, will not have appropriate conditions for microbes to survive if they were ever present. Even true top soil, if harvested through grading and stored in piles, will only be true, healthy top soil on the top few inches of the mound. Within hours all of the microbes below the top layer of the mound will have died. True top soil is a living thing. Top soil needs to be harvested and properly placed in a very short period of time. Take a yard of dirt (or at least a good pile) from below the top soil, mix it with fertilizer-free compost, mound it up in a remote area of your yard and watch what happens - nothing. Nothing will grow on that pile, even though it is dirt amended with compost, because it essentially sterile. After one to two years, the microbes will begin to permeate the top layer of the pile and plants will start to show up. With true top soil, the mound would explode with plants after the first rain. Manufactured mixes "cheat" by stuffing the created mix with fertilizers. This works, but is lousy for the environment in many ways, and "hooks" your plants on synthetic fertilizers like drugs. When you hear such names as Monsanto, Miracle Gro, etc. think "pusher". Microbes do not like synthetic fertilizers, so once using fertilizers, you are stuck using them unless you do a lot of work to fix the situation, or wait until the soil regains a proper ecological balance. Plants will grow well in many types of media, even water, if given proper aeration and proper nutrition, i.e. fertilizer. But this is needlessly expensive and again, potentially problematic for our environment. True top soil is magic. It's ecology is wonderfully complex and is only barely beginning to be understood. No manufactured mix will do what true top soil can do for your garden. Growing plants really needs to be thought of first as growing your soil. True top soil, air, and water are vital to most life forms on Earth. We would all starve without true top soil, unless we were able to subsist on fungi. Labeling requirements for growing mixes are virtually non-existent. Those ingredients that might be listed will be very vague. Notice that no synthetic fertilizers are listed, even if they are there in quantity. Anyone can sell any dirt as topsoil, and people often do as a means to avoid disposal fees for dirt. Get top soil from people removing their raised beds, those who have graded the top few inches of an area, people taking out lawns, etc. or from your own backyard. If there are unused areas of your yard that support a dense mat of weeds, at least during wetter, warmer months, then that is true top soil. Yes there will be weeds, but a good mulch will take care of most of that problem. My advice to any gardener is to start with good top soil, nurture that soil by continually adding organic material, worm castings and compost tea, and use a good mulch. These items are 80-90% of the battle for the vast majority of plants....See Moreare Beneficial Microbes in plant food better?
Comments (8)Beans, legumes, have the ability to work with certain bacteria to fix Nitrogen and in gardens the Soil Food Web is needed to feed the plants growing in that soil. If the gardener provides a good healthy soil the Soil Food Web will be there, be active, and grow. But the environment needs to be such that it encourages them and like other living organisms they have certain needs, food and moisture being essential. Container growing is somewhat artificial, a soilless mix which does not provide the environment these soil microbes need to live and grow, so adding them to a soilless mix is probably a waste of time, energy, and money. Plants do grow in unhealthy soils, but not well and not healthy and are more prone to plant diseases and insect pests and require the use of more synthetic materials to contain those problems as well as larger inputs of "plant foods", or "fertilizers". Generally, the sales of plant foods containing "beneficial microbes" is more hype than anything beneficial. kimmq is kimmsr...See Morercnaylor
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