This is my understanding of what she is saying. The microbiome shifts in concert with the plants growing in it. There are complex symbiotic relationships constantly forming and evolving, much more than just the well known nitrogen fixing. Grasses are in an early phase of plant progression and the microbiome that thrives in a grassland is quite different than what thrives in a later stage of deciduous forest. So by bringing in the food sources of fungi and suppressing the growth of grass it’s creating an environment where a forest can thrive.
Dr. Elaine also talks about trying to find a native deciduous forest in your region to gather a little soil from. It doesn’t take much apparently. I think she said a teaspoon or tablespoon. They don’t want people digging up the forests. I think she says to mix it in water and spread it that way. I’m thinking a pinch here and there in some damp shady spots would also work. She doesn’t generally agree with buying commercial biotics. I think because it’s unreliable as to what you are actually getting. She wants microbes that are adapted to the local conditions. She also cautions against making foliar sprays and such without proper training. There’s important things to know like how to make sure the microbes you grew are aerobic types and not anaerobic for example. Safer to spread a little dirt and let nature keep things in balance.
Korean natural farming techniques like Indigenous Micro-organism (IMO) collection is a good strategy to “farm” the bacteria/fungi from those areas with minimal disturbance.
It makes perfect sense that the fungi and microbes thriving in a prairie, a savannah, or a forest may be different species. Hmm, that makes me think that if you’re trying to grow a prairie (like, say, an edible lawn), it may be a good idea to go scoop up a spoonful of soil from an undisturbed area of wild grass in your area, too. We have oodles of feral rye growing wild next to our freeways, almost in a monoculture. Any soil microbes there are likely to be friendly to grains.
Thinking about it, local wood chips are quite likely to have a few handfuls of soil with a tree-friendly microbiome already in it, too. I’ve noticed that when I get a ChipDrop, the arborist company has generally scooped up all the sawdust and leaves from around the tree stump and thrown it in with the branches. Some of the soil from around the tree is bound to have gotten scooped up with those.
The local wood chips sound great with the soil and leaves and all. I don’t know how it is where you are but here I shy away from anything growing near a roadside or a typical lawn. Back in the day I used to bring home lots of bags of grass clippings and leaves and made awesome compost with it. A few years ago I did that here and I’m pretty sure I got some herbicide residue mixed in.
Also they spray heavily along the roadside in front of my house. I checked into it and the toxic mix they use is upsetting. They put me on the no spray list but you can still smell it in the air when they spray on the other sides. Probably a small amount of that dirt wouldn’t do much harm but I doubt it has much biology in it.
If you like to listen to podcasts here is one I found interesting and upsetting. About 10 minutes in they start talking about glyphosate (Roundup) and it’s impact on the microbiome. I wouldn’t know how to summarize except to say I was stunned to hear they have known about this for years and no one stopped it’s use!
I’ve done it long time. Not just forest, but striking healthy trees, and not a spoonfull. I take a hori hori, thank the tree and tuck in. Rabbits make a lot bigger hole. I fill it up with compost or cowdung. Where I live 0% anybody else would do similar. I bring half a bucket three times a year.
I watercan it around my garden at trees. And in the permaculture project at all trees. This year I decided to make aerated compost tea with some bucketloads, multiplying many collected microcosms a millionfold. After 12 hours bubbling I collected mainly microbes after 24 fungi and after 36 flagellates. Carrying it to all gardens and plants
God knows what stuck in my soil life for real and everlasting. But I’ve done my upmost to give my trees, shrubs and crops maximum diversity to chose a microbiome that suits itself.
Sharing my seeds far and wide might even broaden other growers microbiomes with microbes that would take a hundred years to travel there naturally.
I’m willing to take that risk spending some time and energy for a percentage point of my imagined success.
A few years ago a similar mallow species (Malva sylvestris) showed up in my garden. I have been propagating it, cause it has everything I love about dwarf mallow, but of enhanced size, making it easier to harvest and eat.
Dwarf mallow doesn’t out-compete the vegetable garden. Common mallow might!
very very interesting, what would happen if brix was 20+ or even 100? Would humans eventually not be able to digest them? I comprehend no such thing as too much sweetness, it litterally doesn’t compute for my taste buds & personally can’t feel what others talk about (Even tho I know they experience too much sweetness).
Of course humans can digest super high brix levels. Humans can guzzle supersaturated sugar water (which actually has a brix higher than 100, which is only possible in a supersaturated solution, because brix is a measure of percentage of dissolved solids, in this case sugar, in a solution).
High brix isn’t gonna stop any mammals. It’s gonna bring them flocking like crazy!
Oooh, Malva sylvestris is a species I’ve been wanting. The flowers are beautiful, and I’m sure it’ll be great to eat. I like its vertical growth habit and the size of it, too. Do you ever save seeds from your volunteers?
Which are the three species of Claytonia that live near you? I only know of two plants in that genus:
Spring beauty (Claytonia virginica)
Miner’s lettuce (Claytonia perfoliata)
I’m sure there are more, and I’m very interested if you’ve found something local that’s tasty that I haven’t heard of.
I completely agree with you that sego lily (Calochortus nuttallii) is begging to be domesticated. Mariposa lily (in the same genus) sounds very similar in both flavor and growing conditions, and would be great to work with, too.
Brigham tea (Ephedra viridis) and all its siblings in the Ephedra genus have definite potential. The drought tolerance is highly desirable, and what particularly intrigues me is that the fruits (as well as the stems) are edible and said to taste sweet.
Have you ever tried eating it? I’ve heard it’s astringent, which doesn’t enthuse me, and I’m pretty concerned about the ephedrine content (although apparently it’s very mild in the North American species; it’s only extremely high in the Chinese species, Ephedra sinica, which doesn’t grow wild around here).
I’m pretty interested in Ephedra nevadensis, which is apparently supposed to not contain ephedrine at all, but my only source for that is Wikipedia, so there’s a strong possibility my source is unreliable about that.
Which biscuitroots do you eat the leaves from? I’ve read from multiple sources that the Cymopterus biscuitroots are tasty and the Lomatium biscruitroots aren’t, so I’m wondering which kind you have volunteering near you.
