ROOT OF THE MATTER

By Wes Duren, Landscape & Construction Supervisor

When hiking through a woodland or enjoying a picturesque landscape setting, it is difficult to connect what is taking place below the ground with the beauty we see in plants above ground. Our lawns and gardens are teeming with billions of complex life forms, interwoven with organic debris and roots, which together, are the driving force behind plant health.

Life under the soil may rarely get the attention that flowers, fruit and foliage receive, but plant roots and their host of helpful companions work tirelessly, day and night, to help nourish, support and protect their more attractive plant counterparts above ground. Roots are the stitching that binds our earth together. They can improve environmental health by reducing soil erosion and increasing water infiltration while lessening ground water contamination and alleviating soil compaction. We can boost the health and vitality of our lawns, landscapes and vegetable gardens and simultaneously help to green our planet by promoting root growth with safe and natural gardening techniques. If you have been rooting for answers on ways to optimize performance of your yard and gardens, then let us get to the root of the matter.

Have you ever had a tree or other planting that seemed very slow-growing, despite having seen it grow much faster at another location? Under healthy soil conditions, a trees roots can stretch as far as three times the distance of the trees branching structure. Compacted and malnourished soils, heavy clay, chemical pesticides and synthetic fertilizers can all restrict root and soil organism growth.

Anhydrous ammonium is a common chemical fertilizer ingredient that was first used during WWII to compact runways on jungle islands, and now inadvertently works to compact our lawn and garden soils. Soluble salts are often used in synthetic fertilizer compounds to expedite nutrient delivery to plant roots, but have a tendency to wick moisture from plant roots and surrounding soil, often burning the very roots it is intended to help.

Most suburban properties have been stripped of all valuable topsoil, and excavated clay from basement construction is typically applied as the final topdressing for lawn and garden beds. Chemical lawn companies and homeowners alike douse both lawn and garden with toxic pesticides, treating the symptoms of plant maladies, rather than getting to the root of the problem: unhealthy soil.

Plant roots thrive in oxygen-rich soils that are naturally loosened with organic matter, making it easy for them to penetrate deep in the earth where they can pump trace elements, minerals and water to nourish the plants above. Sixty to eighty percent of all nutrient energy produced by photosynthesis (sun energy) goes directly to feed and colonize billions of beneficial microorganisms in the root zone of plants through the excretion of simple sugars, proteins and carbohydrates.

Studies indicate that individual plants can control the numbers and the different kinds of fungi and bacteria attracted to their roots by the excretions they produce. Some species of bacteria help to mineralize (break down) soil nutrients for easy uptake by plant roots, while other bacteria affix themselves to the roots of plants, and help to store atmospheric nitrogen for roots. Fungi have the ability to break down organic matter for easier root absorption similar to the way a mother bird would chew up and regurgitate food for its chicks. Other fungi, better known as mycorrhizal fungi, attach themselves to the fibrous feeder roots of plants and act as a pipeline for faster and more affective nutrient uptake. Larger soil creatures such as cicadas, earthworm and beetles help to naturally loosen and aerate the soil around plant roots, but this action can be improved by topdressing our lawns and gardens with a half inch of well-aged compost annually. Fungi and bacteria utilize compost and organic fertilizer as a food source, and when they excrete waste (poop), the plant roots can easily access and take in the digested nutrients. Soils deeply enriched with organic matter encourage deep root growth. If you are preparing a vegetable garden or landscape bed, it is best to build your bedding area with 8”-12” of high quality compost, followed by an application of mulch. Roots chase water, so when watering your yard and gardens, water deep but infrequently to stimulate deep root growth.

Getting back to our roots, ancient civilizations from around the world have long taken advantage of plant roots for both food and medicine. Root crops are planted and harvested from spring through fall, and have an amazing shelf life, often storing for months at a time. Many of these root crops are available for purchase at Marvin’s Organic Gardens in the form of tubers and seed, while others need to be wild collected. The list of root crops below can be used to provide you with ideas on which roots you may be interested to grow in your vegetable bed this year, or to try your hand in wild collecting.

At Marvin’s Organic Gardens, we are rootin’ for the roots! We want to help you promote healthier and more abundant roots in your yard and garden this year with safe and natural gardening products and techniques, as well as an abundance of certified organic root crops and other edibles for your garden. Whether you are interested to learn new ways to keep your family healthier, garden organically or just optimize plant health in your yard, please give us a call or email us to set up a free appointment to discuss tried and true methods that will help make 2010 your best gardening season ever! Go Organic. It’s Only Natural.