It's Alive! The Soil in Your Garden

The soil in your garden is a community of organisms that generate plant nutrients. Use a Berlese funnel to observe these organisms.

What a difference a week makes. It is hard to tell if it is winter or spring. Fortunately at our elevation of 1300ft we did not get a freeze. But it is very cold and wet outside,  a good time to write about soil and the nutrients plant need in your garden. 

Soil is not Dirt in Your Garden

Think of soil as a gigantic collection of organisms. Some are too small to see such as the numerous types of bacteria and fungi. Dirt is what you find in a barren desert or Mars (we think!). Dirt is lifeless. In a teaspoon of healthy soil there are more micro-organisms than people on Earth. Others are easier to see when you turn the soil with your spade, such as worms, nematodes, mites, and insects. 

Having trouble seeing life in the soil?

In 1905 the Italian entomologist Antonio Berlese created a method for extracting and observing organisms in soil using desiccation. It is easy to setup at home or school if you are interested. All you need is a funnel, a strong light, and a mason jar. 

from: https://maqsalina.blogspot.com/2016/06/entomologi.html

Here is a pdf describing a creative method for setting up a Berlese funnel from the Harvard Arboretum

Here's my own attempt at making a Berlese funnel. 

I drilled holes in a mason jar lid. I add a little water to the jar (gin works too). The funnel stood up on the lid with no problems. It is the same funnel I use for canning. The hardest part was finding an incandescence bulb to heat up the soil. LED bulbs will not work.

Soil is a complex web of life with decomposers feeding on organic material, and prey, and predators.The interactions of these creatures with the organic and inorganic material in the soil generate the nutrients required for plants to grow. 

Conclusion

The soil in your garden is more than just roots and dirt. Think of it as a community of creatures. If you apply pesticides or herbicides to your garden you risk destroying this community. 

If you want to investigate further...

Here is the setup I use to investigate the creatures both on my garden and in the soil beneath. It is a simple digital microscope I purchased on Amazon. The focusing and alignment can be frustrating but the result are great.

Post continues after advertisement

Frugal Science/Good for the Classroom too

Another microscope to try at home with a young student is the Foldscope. It is a a fifty-cent microscope that can be used anywhere in the world. Here is a Ted Talk by Manu Prakash describing this revolutionary microscope. This, along with his paper centrifuge can be used to diagnose malaria.