Download Ever wonder why we talk so much about soil here at Soils Alive? Or

Ever wonder why we talk so much about soil here at Soils
Alive? Or why the word “soil” is in our company name when we
care for your lawn and landscape? Well, that’s what it all
comes down to: The soil.
Soil is not dead: It’s a living organism. Soil is full of life, even
if it’s not visible to the naked eye. Did you know there are
more living organisms in one teaspoon of healthy soil than
there are people living on planet Earth?! There are billions of
beneficial bacteria, fungi, nematodes and more that make up
the composition of healthy soil.
It’s these critters that do the work of breaking down organic
matter in order to make it available to your plants. You can
think of it like your digestive tract: Beneficial bacteria are
necessary to break down food and make nutrients available to your body.
The soil beneath your lawn is teeming with life, most of it invisible to us but all of it vital to
growing thick, healthy grass.
Consider this: There are more living things in a teaspoon of healthy soil than there are people on Earth.
These billions of bacteria, protozoa, fungi, and wormlike microscopic nematodes are the base of the
food chain in soil. Like the microbes in your digestive tract, soil’s food web breaks down fertilizer so
grass can absorb its nutrients. Let’s dig in and get to know the players and how to keep them serving
your lawn’s needs.
Classic Decomposers
Key job: Each of the dozens of different types of bacteria in the soil have a unique role. The one that is
especially crucial to your lawn is breaking down decaying plant matter into nutrients that grass can
take in most easily.
Critical need: Bacteria thrive on a constant supply of fresh organic matter: grass clippings, shredded
leaves, and most of all, compost. Spread a half inch of finely sieved compost on your lawn in fall and
spring to keep the bacteria activated and feeding the grass.
Know this: Plants’ roots release compounds into the soil that attract the bacteria most beneficial to
the plant; in effect, the plants are farming bacteria for their own needs, say soil scientists at the
United States Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service.
Plant Partners
Key job: Mycorrhizae (pronounced “my-core-rise-ah”) are important fungi that colonize grass’s roots,
help it metabolize phosphorus, and bring other nutrients to the roots.
Critical need: Protect the fungi in your soil by using only organic fertilizers. Synthetic plant foods tend
to be high in salt, which dehydrates the soil and fungi.
Know this: Scientists have found a fungus in Oregon that covers 2,200 acres and may be at least 2,400
years old. It is thought to be the world’s largest living thing.
The Proto Types
Key job: Protozoa are one-celled organisms that prey on bacteria, keeping the good bacteria
population in balance and fending off pathogens, those bacteria that cause plant diseases.
Critical need: Protozoa require oxygen to keep eating and reproducing, but it’s often in short supply in
lawns at recently built homes, where heavy clay soil has been compacted by construction equipment.
Introduce air pockets with a core-aerating machine, allowing air and water into the soil for the
protozoa and plants’ roots.
Know this: The vampyrellid amoebae, a kind of protozoa, got its name because it makes two perfectly
round holes in the cell walls of its prey, like the puncture marks from a vampire bite.
Middle Managers
Key job: Nematodes, often called roundworms, feed on bacteria and fungi, and are food for larger
nematodes. They occupy a middle niche in the food chain, but their most crucial function may be
helping to move smaller microbes, which cling to the nematodes, through the soil.
Critical need: Nematodes are among the most adaptable creatures, tolerating extremes of heat and
cold, drought, low fertility, compaction, and many other conditions that keep grass from growing. But
they won’t survive long where other soil fauna have been wiped out by toxic chemicals, such as
herbicides.
Know this: Root-knot nematodes are pests for many vegetable gardeners, but another species of
nematodes preys on grubs that damage lawns.
Tough Shredders
Key job: Tiny arthropods, insects with jointed legs and a hard exoskeleton, shred large chunks of
decaying plant matter into pieces small enough for bacteria and fungi to consume. Beetles and
millipedes are familiar soil arthropods, as are mites and ants.
Critical need: When arthropods don’t have sufficient fresh organic matter to shred, they turn their
appetites to plants’ roots. Always recycle clippings onto your lawn to keep arthropods from chewing up
your grass.
Know this: A small arthropod that lives in the soil, a springtail looks like a tiny scorpion. Springtails use
their rear appendage not to sting but to catapult themselves away from danger—as far as 3 feet in one
leap.
Big Excavators
Key job: The tunnels dug by earthworms allow air, water, and fertilizer to reach deep into the soil for
all the other soil-dwellers to consume. Burrowing by earthworms also mixes together all the many
different components of the soil.
Critical need: Decaying leaves are just about the favorite food of earthworms. Rather than raking up all
the autumn leaves from your lawn, run them over with your mower and allow them to fall back into
the grass, where earthworms will feast on them.
Know this: You can buy bags of nutrient-rich earthworm castings (manure) to feed houseplants, but
they are too pricey for fertilizing lawns.
REMEMBER: The soil-dwellers work together to break down fertilizers into nutrients grass’s roots can
take up. Synthetic fertilizers are high in salts, which dehydrate the soil and the hard-working soildwellers. Keep your soil life healthy and the microbes active with organic fertilizers.
www.soilsalive.com P. O. Box 823165 Dallas, TX 75382Ph: 972.272.9211