Technical
nutrients from the soil, refine them, and either store it in their bodies or concentrate it in and around the roots where the plant takes them up. In return, most plants excrete or exude sugar back into the soil for microbes to feed on. This symbiotic relationship is a natural process and is to the advantage of both: microbes feed the plant, and the plant feeds the microbes. Aerobic organisms collect or colonise in the soil and refine both naturally occurring nutrients and inorganic fertilisers, making it available to the plant. Bacteria are largely
responsible for the refinement of nutrients. These organisms eat, store and release more nitrogen than any other organism known on this planet; when they have the correct food, moisture and temperature they split and divide, on average, every twenty minutes Temperature, pH, sunlight and moisture play a vital role in plant growth throughout all life stages from germination to harvest.
The identity and function of living organisms in soil and rootzone micro environments has remained largely unrecognised until more recent times. Replenishment of soil nutrients has, traditionally, been addressed through the widespread use of chemicals and organic fertilisers. Soil has often been treated as a mere inanimate medium to harbour plant life, without due recognition and understanding the identity, role and the dynamic and complex assortment of micro flora - a critical underpinning for plant growth.
As important as bacterial
organisms are, they do not do it all on their own. Fungi are the large tubular-like organisms, whose job it is to transport the nutrients to where they are needed - at the plant’s roots.
These tubes, in scientific terms, are called hyphae and can extend from a few inches to over a hundred feet in length. As the fungi grows, nutrients that are beyond the reach of the plant are transported to it as needed, and exchange for sugar is given off by the plant. The interaction of bacteria and fungi are essential to the health of the soil. These interactions provide the basis of the food supply for all other soil life, and a protection mechanism for the plant from predators within the soil.
For instance, grasses and herbivores eat roots but, when a healthy fungi population exists in the root structure, they act to kill these root feeders which, in turn, creates food for the fungi and bacteria. Burrowers, such as earthworms, also live here, creating larger tunnels that aerate and allow water to seep deep into the soil. This supplies roots and soil life with much needed moisture, which is stored for future need by other soil life - even in drought conditions. Nematodes and protozoa also have an essential role in maintaining soil health. As the bacteria refine nutrients, specifically nitrogen, the nematodes and protozoa, in turn, eat the bacteria. Since these predators do not require all this nitrogen, they deposit the excess back in the soil, making it readily available to the plant.
All of these organisms ultimately become food for each other and, when ingested, certain ones retain some of the other microbes' nutrients, whilst others excrete the excess nutrients back into the soil.
All of the organisms described so far are classified as aerobic organisms, meaning that they need oxygen to survive.
A healthy plant absorbs most of the oxygen it needs through its leaves, but the root system and the beneficial aerobic microbes also need oxygen below the surface. As the oxygen levels go down, microbial populations are reduced and the soil begins to ferment. With reduced oxygen availability, anaerobic organisms, those that don' t need oxygen, begin to multiply. Anaerobic organisms for the most part are
pathogenic or disease causing to plants.
Compaction in the soil and
rootzones reduces the amount of air, limiting the soils ability to absorb water and reduces the beneficial life in the soil. It is so easy to dismiss what we don’t see because we think it does not affect us, or at least we have no visual knowledge that it is affecting us. Our soil is much the same.
Sometimes, without the
proper intervention, it becomes too late and our soils and rootzones die, and are reduced to little more than dirt.
Jimmy Kidd is Global Development Director of The Great Turf Company. Email:
consultgolf@msn.com
TWENTY Questions
Jimmy Kidd - loyal and supportive and grudge free, but woe betide you if you drop litter!
Who are you? Jimmy Kidd, Director of DMK Golf Design.
Family status? Married forty- four years to wife June, children David and Tracey.
Who’s your hero and why? My father, who went to Burma at the age eighteen to fight for our freedom, cannot comprehend today what that must have taken in terms of courage at such a young age.
What is your dream holiday? Peaceful time on the deck of our second home on The Mull of Kintyre - a sheltered Atlantic Ocean beach site. Or Bellochantuy, at a small bar and conservatory restaurant right on the ocean front.
What annoys you the most? Litter louts who care little for the environment of their own surroundings, or those of others anywhere in this wonderful world.
What would you change about yourself? ‘Listen a little better’. I am sure this will be confirmed by those who really know me!
Who wouldn’t you like to be? Might seem strange to say, but Tiger Woods right now!
Favourite record, and why? Showing my age with this one I expect? A Nightingale Sang in Barclay Square by Nat King Cole. For reasons of the beauty of the song and the fact that you can find beauty anywhere if you truly look for it.
Who would you choose to spend a romantic evening with? Of course it would be my wife, but Sophia Loren still holds a fascinating older beauty, which is hard not to want the opportunity to appreciate first hand one evening.
If you won the lottery, what is the first thing you would do? Pay off my daughter’s mortgage.
If you were to describe yourself as a musical instrument, what would you be and why? When I was young I like to think I might have been a lead violin. Today, definitely a double bass with expanding waistline; less influence in the orchestra, but still playing a part.
What’s the best advice you have ever been given? Never judge anyone by the clothes they wear, and never hold a grudge.
What’s your favourite smell? The sheer beauty of my sleeping grandchildren after a bath and just before bed.
What do you do in your spare time? I walk, play golf, garden and read books; not mainstream, but those which appeal to me.
What’s the daftest work related question you have ever been asked? When I had reached an administration position on the golf business - after twenty five years raking bunkers after heavy rain - the editor of a trade magazine asked me if “I missed it!!”
What’s your favourite piece of kit? An excellent pair of waterproofs.
What three words would you use to describe yourself? Loyal, high integrity and supportive.
What talent would you like to have? Musical.
What makes you angry? People who do not take a sensitive approach to
youngsters in our business who are trying their best, and need support instead of criticism.
What law/legislation would you like to see introduced? Golf courses and sports field maintenance should exhibit a more natural approach to their operations to restore the balance and protect our futures.
DECEMBER/JANUARY 2012 PC 125
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