Teaming with Microbes: The Organic Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web

Fertile soil is more than finely ground rock with some shredded peat moss and some roots and a worm or two sprinkled with some water and chemical fertilizer. Organic gardeners know that compost often holds a variety of visible lifeforms, but this book explains all the orders and families of lifeforms that can be found in a synthetic chemical free soil, with the most being microscopic in size. These tiny things are a food web, similar to what we call a food chain, which during their lifetimes contributes to the health of large plants like tree, and small like vegetables. However, I learned trees tend to benefit from fungal life forms that break down "brown" material like leaves and twigs, while vegetables and other soft stem plants prefere the bacterial forms that break down "green" material. There is much more explanation and detail of the life forms in a good composted soil, with some excellent photographs. It is easily read for such a complex subject, and get right down to the "how tos". One can open this book at any point and grasp what the authors have written. I have started a compost heap this spring, and I'm looking forward to seeing some of these forms under a microscope, and towards strengthening my drought stressed trees and shrubs. I got the hardcover because it's one of those subjects where I can look up a topic faster than searching on the internet. I am not knew to the concept of the vast kinds and amounts of organisms in the soil, but I still have learned useful facts. I think for anyone who is seriously into "organic" gardening, that is total avoidance of the synthetic chemicals, this is a useful reference.

I found this to be the best book I've read thus far for getting close to genuinely Understanding soil and therefore successfully knowledgeably gardening and farming in it. I recommend this book to people who want to know How and Why and are willing to dig deep so to speak in order to think bigger (sometimes by thinking smaller!). I do not recommend this to people who want Google to hurry up and tell them a simple answer. Because of this book I learned that Google's answers can easily be incorrect: Google will still tell you to Kill your Earth and the important Microbial Life within it with fertilizers that burn all your precious earthworms and Microbes away, making you 100% reliant on company's chemicals instead of the Earth. I am grateful to this book for opening my eyes, and I am now reading "Teaming With Fungi" to learn more.

I think most gardeners who are serious about the sport/hobby/obsession of plant growing and nurturing will enjoy this book. It adds a layer of "why" to the things we all do. You know you fertilize, but understanding the microbiology helps you understand WHY this plant might want this type and others might like another. It also takes the art/science of composting to a much more interesting (to me) level. As some other reviewers pointed out already, the first half of the book does get a tad boring, (but still densely packed with useful information!!) but I dealt with that by skipping to the back half of the book and then coming back to the portions I skipped and taking them in smaller does broken up by more zippy reading. I do not want to give the impression the first half of the book is badly written or anything, it is just information dense, and like a text book it gets a little boring here and there if you do not take a break. At least for me. I am eagerly anticipating making my gardens some lovely compost tea this spring, inspired by this most excellent book. I had been composting for years, and was not really sold on the need to go the extra mile and make tea, but these authors have sold me on taking the time for a garden tea party.

My wife bought this three-book series Teaming with Microbes, Nutrients, and Fungi. I have studied a lot of material about gardening, plant physiology, chemistry, microbiology, etc., I am an engineer. This book, and all this series appeals to that. If read in the recommended order, you’ll find there is a ton of information that a person should know about. I especially love what I consider, “The New Frontier" in using the electron microscope. The pictures are really awesome. It has proven a lot of theory and adds real knowledge to old-world thinking, that of formula-based gardening. Does it help you plant a plant? Simply put, no. It assumes the reader is a practicing gardener. There is no magic formula in these books, only the background knowledge that every farmer, and gardener might want to learn about. I took this information and blended it with all of my other experience, and now my garden has exploded into a wonderfully healthy model of nutrient dense plant life, yeah, including some flowers for the wife. But I am into the plant health, and how it relates to my own health, that is really the bottom line. Read this series of comparably cheap books (costs about as much for a good hamburger) and take it in as information, as education that most gardeners seem completely ignorant of, and grow a little bit.

I have read this book through, and am working on my second time now, it's great, and ... did I mention that it's great! Maybe it's just me, but I thoroughly enjoy the step by step from bacteria, archeae, fungi, to worms and more! This book tells you how to join the team of the microbes and make them do the work for you in your organic garden. It's the WHY behind why go organic in your gardening. There's a why out there now, but it's only describing the benefits, this book delves into the details, and makes you understand WHY each part of the microbe world benefits the soil, and HOW, and it teaches you BUNCHES of great information. Like what are Archaea(sp?), and what are mychorrhizae (ok, I spelled that right...!) Anyways, this makes gardening and composting more enjoyable for me, as I am able to understand things like PH, and ammonium versus nitrates, and fungi vs bacteria dominated soils. Must read for any organic gardener or nursery! Hope this helps.

Just apt

Kitabın baskısı ve kapağı kaliteli. İçerik olarak da oldukça zengin bir kitap

This book is a game-changer for anyone who wants to truly understand the magic happening in the soil. As someone who is a professional sustainable gardener, I found this book to be an eye-opener as it delves deep into the soil food web and explains how fostering healthy microbial life leads to thriving plants without the need for synthetic fertilizers or chemicals. The book breaks down complex scientific concepts in a way that’s accessible to everyone, even if you're not a biologist. The authors do an excellent job of showing how soil biology works and why it's so crucial for the overall health of your garden. Whether you're growing vegetables, flowers, or maintaining a lawn, the information here will completely change how you approach soil care. If you’re interested in making your garden more organic and sustainable, this book is essential. I couldn’t recommend it more!

mi sono sempre sentito un minorato per quanto riguarda la cura delle piante o dell'orto. le mie prove sono state sempre negative. vangare, rivoltare la terra: tanto lavoro e pochi risultati. ora ho una speranza: capire bene la biologia del suolo (batteri, funghi micorrizie, .....) forse si puo' sostituire la conoscenza e l'attenzione ai dettagli al duro lavoro il sapore dei prodotti dell'orto e il sentirsi in armonia con la natura sono impagabili.

This book is all about things living in the soil, what they do and how they do it. It's a book to really concentrate on, just about every page so far has something which has made me think "ah, so that's why..." The science is there and explained in a way to make it accessible: I'm a gardener with a technical background but no no biology at school. It's helping me to understand soil life, and how I can be helping and supporting it.