I agree with both. Lots of bugs in the soil, and when properly "fed" with
green or composted manures, good things happen (including lower soilborne
diseases). One must be careful to not just throw any old crop on the land then
till it in as green manure. Microbes are very good at utilizing and
sequestering nutrients that plants need. If a plant is used as a green manure
with a high C:N ratio, then less nitrogen will be available to plants in the
following cropping season.
As for the products listed in previous posts. . . There is an old saying "If
it looks like a duck, and smells like a duck, it's probably a duck." I'd think
the same holds true for disinfectants (if it doesn't smell. . . ). If I were
you Douglas, I'd run a test (or at least have the compound tested. Any
environmental lab could test it for iodine). Good luck with the protectant as
well, but also be careful. . . If it does produce antimicrobials then it may
fall under the umbrella of the FDA, and you don't want to mess around with
them. OTOH, you could sell the bug to a pharmaceutical company!
Type to y'all later. . .Russ
--------------------
Russ Bulluck
Visiting Post-Doctoral Scholar
Department of Plant Pathology
1 Shields Ave
UC-Davis
Davis, CA 95616
lrbulluck@ucdavis.edu
-------------------------------------------------------------
The soil population is so complex that it manifestly cannot
be dealt with as a whole with any detail by any one person,
and at the same time it plays so important a part in the soil
economy that it must be studied.
--Sir E. John Russell
The Micro-organisms of the Soil, 1923
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