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Dr. Elaine Ingham-March E-Zine



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Dr. Ingham's Talks on the Soil Foodweb
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E-Zine Issue #5    March, 2000

Greetings folks!

Here's Dr. Ingham's E-zine for March, 2000



IMPORTANT NOTES FOR MARCH:
___________________________________________________________
1.)  DR. INGHAM LIVE INTERACTIVE TALKS ON THE SOIL FOODWEB:
***********************************************************
Well, the first SFI Live Webcast went off with nary a gliche!  A few 
small problems that were easily solved and we were underway...People
from all over the States joined us for Dr. Ingham's Introductory
Talk on the Soil Foodweb...Pretty Exciting!

Now you've got another chance to be apart of this new medium:


When:
Thursday, March 30th at 1pm
Pacific Standard Time (USA)

Subject:
Dr. Elaine Ingham Talks on the Soil Foodweb:

"A Plant Production Overview"

Dr. Elaine Ingham explores the effects chemically intensive agriculture has had
on soil life, why pesticides are effective intitially but with continued use, result
in the destruction of beneficial soil life, with direct negative impaces on
sustainable agricultre. 

Dr. Ingham will speak for approximately 1 & 1/2 hours on this subject as she walks
you through the visual component of the seminar...a slide show containing visual
records of her 20 plus years of research! After the main body of the lecture, we
will open up the session to Q &A...ask the Doctor your questions in real
time via email! 

How:
Listen via Real Player over your normal dialup in real time
from anywhere in the world!

You'll need to log in at http://www.unisun.org 

Or you can jump to us through
Soil Foodweb's website at http://www.soilfoodweb.com


Length of Program:
Aprox 2 hours depending.... Dr. Ingham plans an hour and a half
talk on the Soil Foodweb, then we'll open up the discussion to
YOU!  You'll have the opportunity to email her your questions and
even request visual aids... Our tech folks will respond to your 
requests in real time and post applicable info on the website as
well as ask Dr. Ingham your questions...

Cost:
Only $20.00


FOR MORE INFORMATION and to ORDER:

You'll need to visit http://www.unisun.org/events/march2000/sfi.html
 for more info....Or you can follow the links from Soil Foodweb's site
at http://www.soilfoodweb.com

There is complete info, an order form to print and mail and of course
you can always order online via our secure server!

REGISTER EARLY PLEASE:
We only have a limited amount of bandwidth to push which means a finite number
of people can actually be streaming live at one time...  So if you're interested,
act now and get your registration in...We'll then reserve your stream and 
send you a unique password that you'll need to log in. 

See http://www.unisun.org/events/march2000/sfi.html for more info.





__________________________________________
2.)  Dr. Ingham's Slide Collection on CDR
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Due to popular demand, we at Unisun have finally compiled
a complete collection of Dr. Ingham's Slides...If you've 
seen her speak live you've probably viewed many of these
slides.  Thanks to Kirk at SFI and the good Doctor herself
for helping us catagorize and detail these photos.

Now, they're available to the public on CDR shipped directly
to your door!  Very soon, we will make a multi-media presentation
available for you download over the web at a very reasonable cost.

We began compiling Dr. Ingham's entire slide collection last month 
due to the increased interest in these items.  It's been a big job...
but, finally, it's done!   We've decided that the best and easiest way to
go about making them available would be to make the entire collection
available at once rather than making "custom" CD's for individual requests. 
 
There are 69 medium rez-images at 250 dpi and 69 high rez images as well and the
entire collection comes on 1 CD and contains a complete legend and thumbnail 
directory describing each image.   As an added perk for PC users...There's a 
protype "interactive" slideshow that will play on your PC!   Not available for
Mac Users yet and it's really not the final product.. think of it as a BETA version.

But all the info and raw images will be available and readable through any computer format.

The cost of this collection is only $50.
 
There's very simple licencing agreement that comes with the unit which
will allow you full use to distribute and print for educational/PR purposes
with due credit given.   Real simple.  
 
You can order via phone by calling:
 
Unisun Communications
541-367-8980
 
As of this weekend, I'll have it available on the SFI website.

Get More Info at:
***********************************************
http://www.soilfoodweb.com/multimedia.html
***********************************************

I'd wait til Monday to give us time to get it all up.







____________________________________________________
3.)  March Compost and Turf Systems Workshops at SFI
****************************************************

Speakers:
Dr. Elaine Ingham 
Michael Alms 
Keith Hopkins 
Frank Wann 


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Full Day Workshop
Compost and Compost Tea
Friday, March 24, 2000

and

Full Day Workshop
Turf Systems
Saturday, March 25, 2000

*************************

Location:
Soil Foodweb, Inc., Corvallis OR
Take I-5 to Hwy 34 West, turn north on 2nd Street Hwy 20 N off of =
Harrison Street (Hwy 34)
Proceed 1/2 mile, turn left at Rivergreen Office Park.
1128 NE 2nd Street, Ste 120

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For Details and the Agenda:
****************************
Visit:
http://www.soilfoodweb.com/seminars/marchseminars.html


COST: 
$100 for each seminar if paid in advance 
(check or credit card) 
$125 for each seminar at the door 


*****************
Regustration Form
*****************

Name: _______________________________________________________

Address: _______________________________________________________

City:______________________________ST___________Zip_____________

Phone:______________________________Fax________________________

Email:_______________________________________________________


Make Checks payable to: Soil Foodweb, Inc.
Registration is limited to 30. Please register by mail or fax, at least
one week prior to the workshop to make sure that there is room! Location
map and lodging information will be mailed to you.


****************************
Mail or Fax Registration to:
****************************
Soil Foodweb, Inc.
1128 NE 2nd Street, Ste 120
Corvallis, OR 97330
Fax: (541)752-5142
Phone Numbers:
Stacy @ Soil Foodweb, Inc-(541)752-5066



That's it for me this month... As always, you have our full permission to 
forward this E-Zine and spread it around as you see fit.


Peace,
Samuel A. Ettaro II
Unisun Communications
Dr. Ingham/SFI Publisher
http://www.unisun.org
sam@unisun.org
(541)367-8980




****************************************
Now for the March Newsletter:
****************************************
This Month's Topic:

Getting Started with Soil Foodweb Technology

By E.R. Ingham


Many people have asked how to get started in the process of assessing their foodweb.
The following outline should help.

If the following is not clear enough, please tell me and I’ll update the outline.  
It all seems perfectly clear to me, but I’ve worked on this for the last - well, 
long enough, anyway!  


1.	Define what you want to ask questions about -

	1.1.	Typically people want to know if they have a healthy foodweb in
		their soil, sediments or compost, or on their leaf surfaces.  
	  	
		1.1.1.	The first time you send a sample from a place in, you should
			do the whole foodweb.  That is:
					Total Bacterial Biomass, 
					Active Bacterial Biomass
					Total Fungal Biomass
					Active Fungal Biomass
					Protozoa
					Nematodes
					Mycorrhizal Fungi (if you have roots for
					the plant you are interested in)

		1.1.2.	With follow-up samples, you only need to check what you
			are trying to get back into balance.

	1.2.	Where do you take samples from?  Past plant growth will typically tell
		you this.  You probably suspect something is wrong with the soil when
		the plants aren’t doing as well as they should be, so check the biology
		in your - is it the right set of organisms to grow your plants?    
	
		1.2.1.	If you have disease problems, figure out if the reason you have
			disease problems is because the foodweb isn’t right for your plants.  
	
		1.2.2.	If plants look unhealthy but aren’t diseased, you probably have a
			micro-nutrient problem, soil pH, or unbalanced chemical condition. 
			Send a chemistry report with the soil sample for biological assessment.
			Often, the biology is so out-of-balance that the plant can’t get the
			micronutrients it needs.  
		
		1.2.3.	Sometimes, a soil micronutrient is too low even for the biology to help.  
			A nutrient addition is required.  Send the chemistry report with your soil
			biology sample, and we’ll help you figure that out.  But we don’t know every
			situation yet, so we may have to work with you to figure out the problem.   
		
		1.2.4.	Look at the weeds, they often provide information on what is out-of-balance
			with your soil.  Read the message that Mother Nature is trying to tell you!
	
		1.2.5.	If plants aren’t growing at all, chemical residues from past pesticide
			applications, salts or heavy metals that were in manures, biosolids or
			mulches are indicated.  You have to add the biology that can decompose
			the residues, tie-up the salts or sequester the heavy metals.  Usually,
			food to feed the organisms is required as well.  It takes a great deal
			of energy for the microorganisms to deal with those toxins.
  
2.	Take 5 to 10 small cores (3 inch depth, 1 inch diameter) from the defined area. 
	
	2.1.	 Define the field, orchard, vineyard, area, etc that you will take samples from.

	2.2.	Typically, pick the “sickest” places on your land to take samples from - if you
		fix the foodweb there, and do the same applications to the other places you grow that
		plant, you have repaired the foodweb in the not-so-bad-places as well.  To know for certain,
		you should sample everywhere, but that can be quite expensive to do, so figure how to fix
		the worst places and the less-than-worst places will benefit as well.
	
	2.3.	Consider that you want to assess what the plant of interest is subjected to - not what is
		going on in the wheel row!
	
	2.4.	See the “Sampling” section on the SFI website for more details.



3.	Mix all the cores together well to get a representative sample of each place you want to know about.
	
	3.1.	Break up the chunks, remove pebbles and stones.  If the soil is highly clay-ey, take lots of
		bits from all of the cores and put together in the bag. We sub-sample from that material.
	
	3.2.	Use a clean container for mixing EACH TIME.  Wipe the bucket out in-between samples so you
		don’t contaminate all your samples with the worst area.

4.	Send by overnight mail.

	4.1.	As soon as you remove the cores from the rest of the field, the organisms start to respond to the
		changed environment.  Since we assess active and total biomass, we have some time before this changes
		significantly.  If we were assessing species composition however, for example, we’d only have about 6
		hours before significant changes might have happened!  Luckily, we aren’t working at that fine a level
		of resolution!

5.	Include the soil sample submission form if you are doing soil or sediment, the compost submission form for compost,
	or the leaf assay form for leaf material.  The more detail you can give, the better relative to the CURRENT situation.

6.	Read over the SFI report.

	6.1.	Compare the desired range for each organism group (shown at the bottom of the report) with the
		results found in your sample.  
	
	6.2.	Lower numbers than the desired range mean you need feed those organisms.  IF the numbers are a lot lower,
		an inoculum should be added as well.  Compost or compost tea might be indicated.

	6.3.	If numbers are higher than desired, it might be ok, if ALL of the organisms are proportionally higher too.  
		Check ratios of fungi to bacteria, and active to total values.  IF these are ok, then don’t worry!


7.	E-mail or phone your questions back to SFI
	
	7.1.	If you feel the recommendation provided wasn’t clear, too minimal, not one that you can do,
		then tell us!  We’ll be happy to work out what will be best to get the organisms you need back
		into the soil or on the foliar surfaces.

8.	Apply the “fix”.


9.	Did the treatment work? 
	
	9.1.	Take another sample, from the place you applied the treatment, and perhaps a comparision area where you didn’t
		apply the treatment.  But this time, only have the “out-of-balance” organisms checked. 
	
	9.2.	How long after applying the treatment do you test?  IF you want to know the direct effect, take soil samples 
		immediately after applying the treatment, within hours.  

	9.3.	IF you want to know what effect the treatment had on the plant, take samples within 2 weeks to 1 month.  
	
	9.4.	Mycorrhizal fungi take at least a month to give a detectable response.


10.	Further adjustments

	10.1.	Sometimes, the management applied doesn’t push the system in the right direction
		far enough or fast enough.  It may be necessary to re-apply.  This is why we need
		to do a second test on just the organisms out-of-balance about 2 weeks after
		applying the treatment.
	
	10.2.	Alternatively, what works someplace else, may not work the same way in your
		unique conditions on your land.  We may have to work with you on something
		unique for your unique situation.

11.	Annual monitoring
	
	11.1.	Typically people choose the spring or fall to annually monitor their fields.  

	11.2.	Spring samples are taken usually at least three weeks before planting, so if sometimes 
		is out of balance because of a harsh or unusual winter, regaining balance can be
		implemented before the plant is negatively impacted.

	11.3.	Fall samples are taken after harvest, just after moisture of some kind is returned to 
		the soil.  This is best for situations where management will be needed, since the entire
		winter or fallow period can be used to manage to bring back what is needed.


Product assessments

Many folks want to find out what a product will do on their land, in their specific soil type, past 
management practices, specific plant species grown, and micro-climate as different from the standard
“greenhouse” test conditions where most product manufacturers test their products.  How do you do this?

1.	Choose one or several areas to run the test
2.	Apply everything EXCEPT the product to the control, apply everything PLUS the product to the treatment.
3.	Sample after the time the product should have had an effect
4.	Assess plant yields




That's it for this month.... Happy Growing!

E.R. Ingham




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Unisun Communcations is proud to announce the release of....

Dr. Elaine Ingham Talks on the Soil Foodweb---An audio CD Lecture Series.

The first in the series of 8 lectures is "An Introduction to the Soil
Foodweb" and is now available!  We hope you decide to purchase this
first CD.  If you have an interest in helping us distribute this line
of products we'd love to chat with you further... Please read on!


********************************************
DR. ELAINE INGHAM's CURRENTLY PUBLISHED WORKS
********************************************
Compact Disc:   Dr. Ingham Talks on the Soil Foodweb
Speaker:        Dr. Elaine Ingham
Lable:	    	Coyote Hill MultiMedia
Distributor:    Unisun Communications
Format:         Double CD Set

These are not live recordings.  All of the CD's are recording in a state
of the art digital recording studio and are of the highest quality.
Diagrams accompany the CD on the inside jacket.

*****************************************************************
CD Series #1--"An Introduction to the Soil Foodweb" NOW AVAILABLE
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Elaine Ingham discusses the important functional groups of organisms
that live in soil, how and why they enhance plant growth and production.
This is the introductory talk about the Soil Foodweb. All other CD's assume
an understanding of this introductory material.

Included in this Double CD set:
        -The seven benefits of a beneficial soil foodweb.
        -Who starts the process? Soil organisms or plants?
        -Disease suppression: Working together.
        -Nutrient retention: Bacteria and Fungi
        -Production of plant available nutrients: Protozoa, nematodes
         and microarthropods
        -Getting rid of toxic compounds.
        -Soil structure: Bacterial bricks, fungal walls, protozoan,
         nematode and microarthropod engineers.
        -Some considerations about plant health


For more information, to order, and to even PREVIEW her CDs please
visit http://www.soilfoodweb.com or visit us at http://www.unisun.org/artists/ingham

If you wish more to get information on distribution, wholesale/reseller
pricing, and press opportunities with Dr. Ingham and other Unisun Communications
& Coyote Hill Multi Media Products please let us know and we'll give you
a direct phone call!

Peace,

Samuel Anthony Ettaro II
Unisun Communications
http://www.unisun.org
(541)367-8980