the squirmy worm

THE SQUIRMY
WORM
Master Composter/Soil Builder E-Newsletter, Summer 2013
IN THIS ISSUE:
The Wonders of Mycorrhizae ............................................... 1
Why Mycorrhizae is Important...................................... 2
Where Has MC/SB Been this year? ..................................... 2
Thank You Carl Woestwin—we will miss you!...................... 3
A Little History of MC/SB ...................................................... 3
Biodynamic Composting....................................................... 4
Compost Facts ..................................................................... 6
Volunteer Recognition .......................................................... 7
The Wonders of Mycorrhizae
Jamie Felton, Master Composter/Soil Builder
Mycorrhizae works tirelessly beneath the soil and is often undervalued in favor of its fruiting body, the mushroom. But what
makes mycorrhizae so phenomenal is that it acts as a network
of arms (or "hyphae") reaching from the root zone or
rhizosphere of a plant and out into the soil. It is my favorite part
of the soil ecosystem.
This network of hyphae is reaching for water and nutrients for
plants, and in return the mycorrhizae get a constant source of
carbohydrates. These carbohydrates, or mucigel, is a gelatinous substance created and excreted by plant roots. This mutuPhoto from J.R. Leake University of
Sheffield United Kingdom 2001
alistic form of symbiosis between the roots of the plant and the
fungus allows both the plant and the mycorrhizae to get the things they need in a highly efficient manner.
Around the roots of our vegetables, there are areas called Nutrient Depletion Zones that quickly become devoid of nutrients as the vegetable sucks up available water, phosphorus, carbon, nitrogen, and
other minerals in the immediate area. Without mycorrhizae to extend the surface area of the root, there
would be a lack of nutrients for the plant to absorb.
One type of mycorrhiza can actually grow on the inside of rocks where it aids in mineral weatherization.
The nutrients gathered here would be impossible for a plant to have access to without the help of mycorrhizae.
Not all vegetables or plants can benefit from mycorrhizae. Here is a list of which plants need it and
which ones do not (see References and Resources bottom of page 2). One other consideration is that
there are two types of mycorrhizae. endomycorrhizal and ectomycorrhizal. One indicates a relationship
formed outside of the plant's roots (ecto). And one indicates a relationship formed inside the plant's root
cells (endo). This is important to note if you decide to inoculate your garden with this valuable fungus.
You may need to inoculate for both!
Why
Mycorrhizae
is important
Mycorrhizae are present in all
healthy soils, but they can be
reduced or entirely absent
when soils are over-tilled, allowed to lie fallow, allowed to
become overrun with weeds,
eroded, or compacted. So it's
important to plant a cover
crop, to turn your weeds under or pull them out, and to
build up your soil over-time
instead of tilling.
Mycorrhizae help reduce your
need to water . Because the
network of hyphae can extend
for miles, it is not necessary to
water as frequently if your soil
is healthy and full of this
beneficial fungus.
It also cuts down on your
need to amend soils with fertilizer. The presence of mycorrhizae will help prospect
the soil for nutrients that are
normally inaccessible to your
plants. This doesn't mean
don't build up your soils or
amend at all, but it does mean
that if you inoculate and care
for your soil, you shouldn't
need to use as much fertilizer
or amendments as you have
in the past.
MC/SB class of 2013 making compost. Photo by Graham Golbuff
Where can you find MC/SB?
We’ve been to 95 events as of July 31st, 2013
including the following:
 3 elementary school science fairs
 4 health and environment fairs
 13 P-Patches
 4 community gardens
 5 Farmers Markets
 4 Earth Day Celebrations
 11 Woodland Park Zoo ZooTunes
 UW Street Fair
 Fremont Fair
 SPU’s Natural Yard Care Classes
 Folklife
 4 Multi-Family residences around Seattle
 4 garden clubs
You can purchase inoculants
at most nurseries. But you
can also create your own by
cultivating a healthy compost
pile and amending your soil.
References and Resources:
http://mycor.nancy.inra.fr/Wiki/en/index.php/Main_Page, http://www.mycorrhizas.org/, http://mycorrhizas.info/index.html
http://www.mycorrhizae.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Plant-List-11-08.pdf
2
Happy Retirement, Carl!
Carl Woestwin started out as a groundskeeper at the Good Shepherd Center in 1977, when Tilth was formed. He helped build the demo garden,
demonstrate the viability of community composting, and eventually was
part of the first team of educators to teach MC/SB. His vision for Seattle
Tilth: To show the viability of urban agriculture in a scientific way; to support local food systems; to help reduce waste. In June he retired from SPU.
We will miss him but hope to see him biking around Seattle.
A Short History of Master Composter/Soil Builder Program
Sheri Hinshaw, MC/SB Coordinator
The city put out a Request for Proposal, (RFP) in 1985 to develop curriculum and deliver what was then
called the Community Composting Education Program. The first class met in 1986, taught by Craig
Benton, Jeff Gage, and Carl Woestwin. It was the first Master Composter program in the country, with
40 hours of training and 40 hours of outreach.
As part of the RFP, the Compost Hotline was created, which has turned into the Garden Hotline we
have today.
Jeff Gage went on to start the ZooDoo program at Woodland Park Zoo. Craig Benton sells compost
systems worldwide. And Carl Woestwin just retired from 24 years of service at Seattle Public Utilities.
Before MC/SB...
In the late 70s the Tilth Garden property was managed by the Seattle Parks Department. With the input
of neighbors, Parks set aside ½ acre space for a community garden.
Before the p-patch, before the beautiful and rich demonstration garden and greenhouse, there was asphalt and concrete. Tennis courts and basketball courts at the Good Shepherd Center had to be removed and hauled away. In 1980 Parks brought in heavy machinery to remove the pavement (in winter
– think compaction!). It seemed impossible to grow anything other than weeds that first year.
In 1981 an old gardener’s cottage on the GSC grounds was moved to the new community garden
space. With a grant of $15k from Department of Neighborhoods Seattle Tilth was lined up to fix it up as
a greenhouse, cooking demo area and caretaker’s loft, but arson took the cottage. The existing greenhouse was built instead.
The Love Family’s contribution of a truckload of composted manure was the first addition of organic
matter to the new demonstration garden (see http://seattletilth.org/about/abriefhistoryoftilth for more information on the history of Tilth).
Six two-yard bins were built to compost on site. Fresh material was brought in weekly, and Carl Woestwin was making 1 yard of finished compost a week by 1981. That same year Seattle Tilth received a
$5k grant to demo cold frames and to explore food gardening in a scientific way using a public demonstration garden. The SPU/Seattle Tilth partnership began with the Master Composter Program.
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Biodynamic Compost
Soledad Claveria, Master Composter/Soil Builder
When ancients cultures, such as the Mayans,
looked to the sky, they felt the infinite connection between us and the nature in all their expression. The Sun, the Moon, the Planets, all
of them profess an invisible force above us. If
the moon, product of the gravitational attraction, as Newton explained, is capable of producing a tide, and if we and the plants are
mostly water, it is evident that there are influences that we are not recognizing at all. Biodynamic Agriculture is about this connection.
Biodynamic is a spiritual and ecologic way to
sustain and enhance health and fertility of food
production in harmony with the environment.
Its founder, Dr. Rudolph Steiner (1861- 1925),
was an Austrian writer, educator and social activist who life’s mission was to bridge the gap
between the material and spiritual worlds
through a philosophical method called Anthrosophy. In 1920 a group of farmers alarmed by
the loss of soil fertility, poor quality of food and
an increase in animal diseases called Dr.
Steiner to obtain a practical solution to their
problems that didn’t involve chemical fertilizers
or pesticides. After years of study (conceptual
and experimental) in 1924, he published the
foundation for the development of biodynamic
agriculture.
The principles of biodynamic are sustaining the
forces of nature, the relationship between the
moon, the planets and the stars with planet
earth. The essence of biodynamic considers
the earth as a living system which is related
with the lunar and cosmic rhythms. In this holistic view, the soil is not only a substrate that
support life, indeed it is an organism by itself.
In this context, Steiner used to say almost a
century ago that “the plants themselves could
never be disease in a primary sense, they suffer rather from diseased conditions in their environment, especially in the soil”. (From a lecture given by Rudolph Steiner in 1924, Koberwitz.) One of the most important things we can
do is to keep soil healthy and in particular to
develop a healthy soil microbial population.
Compost helps to achieve this.
Continued on page 5
4
From our Friends at
Washington Organic Recycling
Council
Love decomposition? Got 7½ minutes?
Check out this great video on
anaerobic digestion
from WSU Extension:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ei49Z4oeUtY
Continued from page 4
What is the difference between Organic Compost and Biodynamic Compost?
The difference between organic and biodynamic compost is simply the preparations (BD-preps)
added to the heap. These BD-preps are going to give energy to the pile, generating ion exchange
that contributes to the balance into the pile, improving the natural fermentation process that helps to
break down the organic materials. The herbs that Steiner designated for the preparation, also frequently used in medicinal remedies, are: Yarrow (Achillea millefolium), Chamomile (Matricaria recutita), Nettle (Urtica dioica), Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale), Oak bark (Quercus robur) and Valerian
blossom (Valeriana officinalis). These plants hold in their structures, elements in the best possible
form and/or ratio to be used by the soil. The preparations made with these amazing wild plants, facilitates transference of cosmic forces into an organic connection. These preparation made with the
herbs must be inserted in small holes in the compost pile. The final preparation made from Valerian,
is watered in liquid form over the whole pile.
Some scientific facts about biodynamic preparations (BD-preps)
Since the only difference betweem BD composting and traditional compost is the addition of the BDpreps, it is necessary to understand the primary modes of these preparations. In general, these
modes of operation are related to nutrient addition, microbial inoculation, plant immunity stimulation,
plant hormones, and microbial signaling. BD preps change the plant or soil microbial population directly, through inoculation, or indirectly, by changing the habitat or by stimulating microbial growth. A
change or increase in microbial population cause either detriments, such as disease, or benefits,
such as increased availability of nutrients from the soil. (Dr. Lynne Carpenter-Boggs, Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources, Washington State University). In 2012, Jennifer Reeve,
associate professor of organic and sustainable agriculture at University of Utah, studied a compost
of grape pomace and manure mixture with and without BD preps. The results were conclusive, BDtreated mixtures had significantly greater dehydrogenase activity than did untreated (control) mixtures during composting, which proved that the microbial activity on BD compost was 10-20% higher
than the traditional compost. (Reeve, J. R., Carpenter-Boggs, L., Reganold, J. P., York, A. L., &
Brinton, W. F. (2010). Influence of biodynamic preparations on compost development and resultant
compost extracts on wheat seedling growth. Bioresource Technology, 101(14), 5658–66.
doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2010.01.144)
From cosmos to the Earth, from healthy
soils to healthy plants, from healthy food
to the people. With healthy people, we
are capable of creating a healthy society.
Steiner said in 1924, “The most important
thing is to make, the benefits of our agricultural preparations, available to the largest possible areas over the entire earth, so
the earth may be healed and the nutritive
quality of its, produce improved in every
respect.” I hope this little review make you
feel curious about Biodynamic, and also I
invite you, the next time that you go to
your garden, to observe and feel the difference among the moon cycles, and I assure you that you are going to be surprised.
5
Compost Facts
Compiled by Ellie McDermott, Master Composter/Soil Builder. Good facts for tabling!
Question
Answer
Where does the word “compost”
come from?
The word compost comes from the http://whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/
Latin, “to put together.”
compost/fundamentals
Want to stimulate worm reproduction?
Add crushed eggshells to your
worm bin.
What about heavy metals?
Compost can bind heavy metals,
http://www.epa.gov/wastes/
thus preventing them from being
conserve/composting/benefits.htm
absorbed by plants or entering our
waterways.
How do worms chew?
Since they don’t have teeth, they
use grit in their gizzard to chew
food.
http://
www.redwormcomposting.com/
quick-facts-about-wormcomposting/
http://www.nyc.gov/html/
nycwasteless/downloads/pdf/
materials/tipsheet-worm-facts.pdf
How much does organic material
As little as a 5% increase in oraffect the water-holding capacity of ganic materials can quadruple the
the soil?
water-holding capacity of soil.
http://whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/
compost/fundamentals/
benefits_benefits.htm
How many organisms in soil?
There are about a billion microscopic organisms in one gram of
soil.
“How to Make and Use Compost:
The Ultimate Guide” Nicky Scott,
2009
Too Much Rain on your compost
pile?
Make a rounded top on your compost pile. This will help rain run-off
of your pile.
http://whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/
compost/fundamentals/
needs_climatic.htm
Can you turn your compost pile
when it’s pouring down rain?
It’s better to let the pile become a
little dry instead of waterlogged.
http://whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/
compost/fundamentals/
needs_climatic.htm
What are some other names for
red wiggler worms?
Tiger worm, manure worm, brandling worm, and more!
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are
-red-wiggler-worms.htm
What percent of food waste is
made of water?
80-90%! By adding food waste to
“Worms Eat My Garbage” Mary
your worm bin, you are also adding Appelhof, 1997
water. If you have excess water in
your bin, add more bedding.
What is the difference between
Worms excrete worm castings.
worm castings and vermicompost? Vermicompost refers to a mixture
of worm castings, other organic
materials, living organisms, and
worm bin bedding.
What exactly is leafmould?
6
Reference
“Worms Eat My Garbage” Mary
Appelhof 1997
When leaves break down (primarily “How to Make and Use Compost:
by fungi), they create a humus-like The Ultimate Guide” Nicky Scott,
source called leafmould.
2009
VOLUNTEER
RECOGNITION!
The following volunteers have all completed their
outreach commitments so far in 2013:
Amber Casali
Rob Jordan
Mia Devine
Diana Law
Maryellen Hearn
Dara McClary
John Iglesias
Christin Voytko
Ashley Wilson
And a big THANK YOU to all the
Master Composters who volunteered
from January—July 2013:
Evonne Aguirre
Joseph Anderson
Sue Bell
SylviaBengisoy
Meg Brown
Ed Bugarin
Ryan Burgett
Dorothy Chambless
James Christensen
Soledad Claveria
Don Comstock
Jody Crowe
Jamie Felton
Ray Fitzgerald
Neha Gandhi
Russ Goedde
Graham Golbuff
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Shoham Goldberg
Molly Harris
Matthew Hartter
Susan Helf
Joe Hiller
Angie Hinh
Chris Hoffer
Jack Hopkins
Samuel Israel
Uli Johnson
Sara Kittleson
Melissa Knapp
Lisa LeDoux
Claire Makins
Stephanie McAlexander
Megan McCain
Ellie McDermott
Elisa Melfi
Beau Morton
Tasha Mosher
Judy Naegeli
Narcissa Nelson
Ali Parizer
Margaret Pinson
Cecilia Roussel
Shannon Serier
Becca Shim
AaronSilverberg
Cheryl Sitko
Larry Smith
Johanna Striar
Burcu Tunca
Liz Wilhelm
Margot Wise