In researching soil I have stepped into the past. The early appreciation of soil predates the written word; look at China and India with productive soils for thousands of years. The obvious importance of natural cycles centers on humus. Without the cycling of organic matter there is not an efficient soil organism population to cycle the nutrients. The evidence is observable in clearcuts cropped without return of organic matter. The humus reserve are depleted and crops decrease in quality and quantity; starved, impacted by diseases and pests. "An Agricultural Testiment" by Sir Albert Howard was written based on observation spanning years. It is a good read. Another observational and scientific effort was that of Lady Eve Balfour called "Towards a Sustainable Agriculture -- The Living Soil." Locate the report on the 'Haughley Experiment' for results of one the best, and earliest localized comparrative studys of organic versus chemical (conventional). Appreciate that there was clear understanding in simple terms amongst the earliest of farmers. It was only when Nature was ignored that soils and systems failed. The Balfour experiment analyzed soil throughout the growing season to show that nutrients actually peaked when most needed by crops. The plants actually exuded materials from the roots to support specific biological activity to obtain desired nutrients. Think of it as the kid asking for more potatoes... or another piece of pie. "Farmers of Forty Centuries; Or, Permanent Agriculture in China, Korea, and Japan" is another excellent read. Google the titles and find the full texts available for online reading or download. These early reading may not have the exact particulars but you can understand that ways and means (technology) has improved. Too much of our modern scientific research is tainted by the sponsors and lobbiests. The Soil Foodweb is real. The network does require the humus (organic matter in all stages of decomposition) and the organisms (large to small) for life to continue. Chenicals and synthetics cannot replace Nature's recipe of ingredients.

Those vegetables you had for dinner may have once been protected by an immune system akin to the one that helps you fight disease. Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy�s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the Netherland�s Wageningen University found that plants rely on a complex community of soil microbes to defend themselves against pathogens, much the way mammals harbor a raft of microbes to avoid infections. The scientists deciphered, for the first time, the group of microbes that enables a patch of soil to suppress a plant-killing pathogen. Previous research on the phenomenon of disease-suppressive soil had identified one or two pathogen-fighting microbes at work. But the Berkeley Lab-led team found a complex microbial network. After analyzing soil from a sugar beet field that had become resistant to a pathogen that causes root fungus, the scientists found 17 soil microbes fighting to suppress the pathogen. They also determined that all of the microbes work together to reduce the incidence of fungal infection. Their discovery that plants use a tight-knit army of soil microbes for defense could help scientists develop ways to better protect the world�s food crops from devastating diseases. "Individual organisms have been associated with disease-suppressive soil before, but we demonstrated that many organisms in combination are associated with this phenomenon," says Gary Andersen of Berkeley Lab�s Earth Sciences Division. He conducted the research with fellow Berkeley Lab scientists Todd DeSantis and Yvette Piceno as well as several scientists from the Netherlands including Wageningen University�s Jos Raaijmakers. Their research is published in the May 5 issue of Science Express. The Berkeley Lab and Dutch scientists analyzed soil from a sugar beet field in the Netherlands. Something in the soil suppressed the presence of the pathogen Rhizoctonia solani, which causes root fungus in beets, potato, and rice. The sugar beets� health followed the typical arc of plants in disease-suppressive soil: they enjoyed a few good years, then they succumbed to disease, followed by healthy beets again as pathogen-fighting microbes were activated and the soil became hostile to R. solani. To return the favor, the sugar beets funnel about a fifth of their photosynthetically captured carbon through their roots into the soil to fuel the microbes. New research reveals that it takes a community of soil microbes, not just one or two, to protect crops. The top image is a healthy sugar beet field. The bottom image is a field of sugar beets that is infected with root fungus. Disease-suppressive soils are quite common, and scientists have identified some of the microbes involved in this underground immune system. But they don�t know all of the microbes that participate. To find out, the scientists used the PhyloChip, which is a credit-card sized chip that can detect the presence of 59,000 species of bacteria and archaea in samples of air, water, and soil without the need of culturing. It was developed at Berkeley Lab to rapidly identify not only the most common and abundant organisms in an environmental sample, but also very rare types that are present in extremely small numbers. It does this by comparing a DNA sequences unique to each bacterial species with over one million reference DNA targets on the chip. The PhyloChip has shed light on many environmental mysteries, such as what�s killing coral reefs near Puerto Rico and what degraded much of the oil from the Gulf of Mexico�s Deepwater Horizon spill. In this case, soil samples from the sugar beet field were modified to exhibit six levels of disease suppression. DNA was isolated from the samples and sent to Berkeley Lab for analysis. The PhyloChip detected more than 33,000 bacterial and archaeal species in the samples, with all six having more or less the same types of bacteria. But when the scientists looked at the abundance of bacteria in each sample, they found that each had a unique fingerprint. All of the samples in which disease was suppressed had a greater abundance of 17 unique types of bacteria. These included well-known fungal fighters such as Psuedomonas, Burkholderia, Xanthomonas and Actinobacteria. In addition, other types of bacteria that have no demonstrated ability to fight pathogens on their own were found to act synergistically to suppress plant disease. Based on this, the scientists believe that an uptick in several bacterial types is a more important indicator of disease suppression than the presence of one or two bacteria that are especially good at killing pathogens. "We now see that the complex phenomenon of disease suppression in soils cannot simply be attributed to a single bacterial group, but is most likely controlled by a community of organisms," says Andersen. Their research will help scientists pursue unanswered questions about disease-suppressive soil: Do plants actively recruit beneficial soil microorganisms for protection against infection? And if so, how do they do it? It will also help scientists elucidate the mechanisms by which groups of soil microbes work together to reduce the incidence of plant disease. The research was supported in part by the California Environmental Protection Agency�s State Water Resources Control Board and the Rathmann Family Foundation. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory addresses the world�s most urgent scientific challenges by advancing sustainable energy, protecting human health, creating new materials, and revealing the origin and fate of the universe. Founded in 1931, Berkeley Lab�s scientific expertise has been recognized with 12 Nobel prizes. The University of California manages Berkeley Lab for the U.S. Department of Energy�s Office of Science. For more, visit www.lbl.gov.

Haven, they are pets. I love to watch them and hear them calling. But I may have to make a decision soon between an established hosta garden and their exotic look and sounds. We actually have guineas, chickens (mostly bantams), ducks, pygmy goats, dogs, a cat, a 4000 gal goldfish pond and 2 turtles that have their own pond in the summer. Here is the peacock we call Mr Big Here is the turtle pond where Myrtle and Meg spend their summers Not a zoo, but more like a menagerie. den, Luckily in the spring they are busy courting and not so interested in the hosta garden or anything else. I have a heavy mulch and we are surrounded by open fields of CRP, so they have lots of room to wander and pick and dust. The minis so far are untouched as well. *sigh* Ken, I am gonna start calling these peafowl India Blue Glaucous, rather than just India Blues! Tell ya what, to continue the research process, how about I send you a couple of my taste testers so they can sample at your house?? John, you know I am a hosta tramp. I just can't say no!!! But as I ponder this, I ask myself.....Can peafowl read tags?? What do you think Teresa? Do you think they can tell the named ones from the unnamed? What if I just hid the tags? Oh, my mind is spinning with all sorts of future research possibilities... Bunny, I plan to keep that Blue Mammoth in 'lock down' until it rattles the cage demanding release! LOL Thanks Janice and Koi. My elderly neighbor was an avid junker and recycler. He passed away 18 months ago and all his sheds and outbuildings are still bulging and the property is falling into greater disrepair. His family told us we could have anything we wanted that caught our eye on the property. They thought I was nuts when I asked for this huge rusty cage! I love it!

When I first moved to Florida people warned me about biting ants... I thought right.... wrong.... oh so WRONG.... these things are awful.... their bite is worse than a bee sting.... and some people are allergic to them just some people are allergic to bee stings.... When my husband and I bought our house we use to have them something fierce... haven't seen them in a long time... I wonder if it is because I have been amending the soil.... they always seemed to be in the sandier part of the yard......