Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
The Weed Connection with Soil
The best weed manual in the world can only hint at solutions to the
many problems related to weeds. Unfortunately, those who have taken
the weed situation by the nape of the neck and the seat of the pants over
the past fifty years have done little more than shake out poisons, not res-
ults.
There are many mansions in the house of weeds. For example, there
are swamp weeds, the cattails and the rushes. There are desert weeds.
There are weeds that grow in sand and weeds that grow in silt, and there
are weeds that grow in gumbo so tight it resembles modeling clay. Fox-
tails grow in gumbo, but they also grow in sand when such soils are out
of balance and the electrical tension on soil particles is so tight that even
sand can build clods and restrict air in the soil enough to set free the hor-
mone process that wakes up foxtail seeds.
There are subsoil weeds. There are weeds that grow in acid conditions
and — in the West — there are weeds that like alkaline conditions. Up in
Wisconsin and Minnesota there is a weed called devil's paint brush by
the locals. This one joins the daisy in having a love affair with sour soils.
Almost always, such soils have an excess of iron and flush out a lot of
trace minerals and rock minerals that support the hormone processes that
give permission to live for these weed species.
— Charles Walters in Weeds, Control Without Poisons
Weeds heal the soil. Each weed can grow in different imbalanced soil conditions and
work to bring the soil into balance. It is a common myth that weeds and more desirable
plants like the same soil conditions. In
Science in Agriculture
, Arden Andersen says, “the
belief that healthy soil grows weeds equally as well as the desired crop is based on the mis-
conception that the soil in question is healthy.” In reality, most of the really pesky weeds
get sick in balanced soil conditions. Like insects, they thrive on imbalance. Here are just a
few ways weeds help out.
Weeds:
• Bring minerals and water up from deep in the soil and down from the air, and sub-
sequently make them available to microbes and plants.
