© 1997, 1998 Streamline Publications

In the world of plantlife there are no loners—at least not for long. Organic interdependence is at the root of every thriving, robust ecosystem. As a modern agricultural and horticultural society we are beginning to rediscover, to prove scientifically, what the ancients saw as givens.

"I hear the microbial soup here is excellent, Harold—it'll grow grass on your chest."

How We Got Here
Following the Great Depression and World War II a revolution in agriculture began. The goal of ever-increasing production to feed the world was at the forefront of agronomy and soil science research. United States farming methods soon became the envy of the world. Modern "scientific" farmers were out-producing traditional growers by 300, 400 or even higher percentages. The magic ingredients in this boom were hybrid seeds, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides and modern farm machinery.
The new practices spread to other areas—flower production, turf, ornamentals. If a bug showed his head he was quickly dispatched with the latest pesticide—fungus was battled using fungicides. Grass that dared to go dormant was hit with a truckload of nitrates to extend the green part of its normal cycle.

What's Been Created
The golf course greenskeeper isn't happy. Red thread fungus disease has attacked his turf. So he orders more fungicide to be delivered with his next pesticide and fertilizer shipment.
A recent Associated Press story on the new popularity of chili peppers in the American diet chronicles the farmers' woes. The chilis are disease prone, affected by 144 virus strains and subject to a root-destroying fungus. Farmers in New Mexico are buying acreage in Arizona to escape the "...disease problems stemming from insufficient crop rotation..."
Economic pressures have forced use of more and more artificial methods. The result can be that the mycology (biologic activity of fungi) of a golf course, chili farm or vineyard is altered or destroyed—the natural balance is upset. The chili farmer and the greenskeeper continue to fight fungus problems. But what have fungicides done to the mycorrhizal fungi that is essential for healthy plants, for promoting water and nutrient uptake? And what about other friendly fungi that protect plants from disease pathogens by producing antibiotics or competing for the nutrients the pathogens need to survive? Combating one problem too often results in generating still more problems. There may be times when judicious use of chemicals can help serve a rebalancing function, just as medicines can help restore the balance of health in humans, but both will suffer from overdose.
Like fungi, certain soilborne bacterias have beneficial effects for biocontrol of plant diseases but may not be able to survive in soils treated with high levels of fertilizers.
Plant diseases are best avoided by plants that have strong resistance to them, and therefore, reduced susceptibility. Unlike the germ theory of disease that has a foreign microbe arriving and attacking the organism, for the most part, such diseases exist everywhere in the plant's natural environment. The disease microbes become destructive only when they are allowed to take hold. This occurs when the natural anti-disease elements are weakened or the plant's disease resistance is low.

Chicken Soup For Sick Plants
The "rhizosphere" is the soil and all its constituents surrounding the plants' roots; fungi, bacteria, nitrogen and the many naturally-occurring chemical elements. Even the disease pathogens are essential to the mix. Without their limiting influence on, for example, a beneficial fungi, it can become uncontrolled, attacking, rather than protecting the plants—like a human autoimmune disease in which the body attacks itself.
The rhizosphere can become unbalanced for a variety of reasons: erosion, drought, excessive water that leaches nutrients or denies oxygen—and the growers' chemical arsenal. Even removal of turf grass clippings will deplete the soil of organic material. Returning to natural balance is not easy, especially when economic forces are brought to bear, but it can be done—will have to be done—as pressure increases to avoid methods that pollute.

Microbial Topsoil Soup
The real value of topsoil is not only its ability to deliver nutrients and water to the plant, but its ecological balance of microbial activity. Plants could not have evolved on earth had there not been millions of years of earlier and concurrent soil mycological evolution. Science has only recently begun to recognize that plants cannot exist alone, or be intelligently studied, without considering the rhizosphere—the soil soup that nourishes and protects. One need only taste a hydroponically-grown vegetable to appreciate the importance of living, healthy, balanced soil.

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