Mobile Lab

Green Team Management now has a mobile lab that allows us to test your soil while in the field and inject microbes when needed.

Click here for a quick one minute tour

Is Organic really Healthy?

As you'll see reading this blog, the correct answer really boils down to truly knowing if the plant was grown in an environment with the living organisms in the soil needed to transfer the minerals and vitamins into our food. Organic usually means no chemicals. Chemicals do kill these needed organisms so it is definitely taking the right step, but it is just one small step if you want healthy food that builds our immune system and makes us healthy.

The difference between dirt...and SOIL

This illustration helps us see the process of; rock, to dirt, to grass supporting soil, to soil that can support a plant as large as a tree.

A flood plain has little to no oxygen to begin with. There is nutrients in the form of composite rock there (just as our compact Idaho clay has), but to begin with, it's just dirt. Plant something in bare ground, with no vegetation, and you'll struggle to keep it alive. Why? Because the living organisms that function with plants are not there, or in too small a quantity.

Plant roots are a network that are seeking the micro-organisms often referred to as mycorrhiza (click for good photos and an explanation)  Good soil, is growing these organisms so there is a natural organic loop happening.

In the above illustration, weeds (tumble and move their seeds easily) will grow best in that first level of dirt after the flood plain (or burn or anything that created bare ground). This is their job, to get the process started from bare ground. Now, when we till the ground heavily, we moved our soil back down to the dirt level didn't we. See NO TILL link here.

What we really want is the end level that can grow any plant well. This happened in a process of organic matter breaking down, and millions of tiny organisms eating and moving that material into a form the plant can uptake. As described in other posts on this blog. We commonly call this compost, but we need to know how to work with this process to move dirt, into the form of soil.

That is what this blog is all about, how do we make dirt...living soil.

What is in the soil?

If we want nutrients in our plants, we need the living organisms.

I heard a professor say it best, "we can't see them without a microscope; but they have the power to break down rock...iron, magnesium, zinc,...the nutrients we need to survive."

They break down this rock, inject themselves into the plant root, and trade in a symbiotic relationship, the minerals, for the carbon atoms of photosynthesizes, the plant has created.

These are actual pictures of what we see when we put healthy soil under the microscope.

It's actually really amazing to see the millions of little guys running around in a healthy soil sample, I like to call it the wild wild west because it is just so amazing what is happening.

We can actually identify the good guys helping our plants, and the bad guys that are attacking plants, and know what we need to do to make our soil work for us.

                                                         Photos from Tim Wilson here (AKA Microbeman)

Chemicals, over watering, soil compaction, heat; all of these things can kill these critical living creatures we are so in need of for healthy soil. A raised bed cuts off the Hyphal Mycorrhizal network, so we need to add them in the spring and middle of summer, see the post who is Green Team Management.

By taking soil samples we can know for sure what is in there.

Never purchase soil, organic tea, or any other product with claims of living organisms without taking a look through the microscope and seeing what is really in there.

There are organisms that need oxygen, that attach to the roots of the plants and transfer nutrients into the plant. If the product is in a plastic bag...there is no oxygen and anything alive is now dead.

How to make Healthy Soil

The process of making healthy soil has to be viewed in the same way as you would growing any living thing.

As discussed in this blog, we are dealing with microscopic organisms that need the same basic things any living being needs; water, food, oxygen.

How much depends on the organism.

The anaerobic creatures require more water and food than oxygen as their name implies. So they multiply and thrive in environments such as the middle of our compost pile and as they multiply they increase heat.

We need these guys because they speed up the composting process  by breaking down the cell tissue to a food source for our aerobic organisms.

The aerobic organisms are more about attaching to the plant and transferring nutrients into the plant. We often call this microryza. Click the link for detail here.

One way to think of this in the natural environment...
I work with trees a lot, so, we have all seen a tree in the forest on the ground. The bottom is compacted tightly where there is no oxygen; this is where the anaerobic guys are breaking down the cell structure very quickly. 
On top we may even see some grass growing out of the top or at least mushrooms and moss - this is aerobic (has oxygen). As the bottom of the tree disintegrates down by the anaerobic bacteria working, the two come together as the tree dissolves, and the end result is a very fertile environment for things to grow in.

When we layer compost with the brown and green (see link), we are actually creating that environment to create fertile soil.

SO WHY CAN'T I JUST PUT A BUNCH OF MANURE ON MY GARDEN AND CALL IT GOOD?
When you put the brown and green on your garden...your garden becomes the compost pile.
The compost environment is NOT where plants grow well. The process of that tree breaking down has to be completed for the best results in soil for the next plant to grow in. Several things are happening in the way of bacteria breaking down the cell tissue and microbes using heavy amounts of nitrogen that are going to create problems when trying to grow plants in rotting manure and garden waste.

To do it right, you build the soil in the composting process...then...put that soil in your garden for your plants to grow in.

This is done with composting. There is a lot of information on composting and most of it is pretty accurate however never estimate that time is essential to help the organisms get the job done.

Who is Green Team Management?

        Tree/Garden/Pest management
is the focus of Green Team Management.


In order to do that with minimal pesticide use we have to build up the micro nutrients, and, the microbiology in the soil.

This is done with education and application of the building blocks of soil management as discussed in this blog.

Three ways we do this:

One is to build the soil on the farm dedicated to Organic principles by the Fry Family Trust located in Eagle Idaho. This is where we gather the materials needed to create the composting - literally farming the micro biology.

This is a long process (view video for details of how it is done); at which time we have a custom enclosed trailer that transports either a food source or the actual living organisms to your property, and inject it into the ground, in your garden or around your trees as shown. This is done with a process where we use water and air (as seen in video) to move the living organisms into aerated water solution so it can be transported and injected through a pump moving the most organisms at the least amount of cost.

The other option is to take the composted material and bring it to your location and either put it around your trees or into your garden bed. This is best when you want soil ready to go in your garden.

We don't guess though, like other companies often do; we use the microscope to make sure we actually can see and quantify the living organisms being delivered.

The third option is to teach you how to do it yourself.
If you have the room, we will help you design a system and a program to do it yourself. We always encourage this if you possibly can because we want you to recycle your garden, kitchen and leaf waste to establish an organic loop on your property. This does take time so often we do the initial soil build up by injecting the garden beds and or bringing in organic soil, then help you with your own system. An evaluation is $39 and includes books on the subject which we give to you free at the time of the evaluation and go through with you to analyze your specific situation.

Why do we need to build soil?

Organizations and events such as the one pictured are bringing a ever increasing issue to the forefront. We have to start looking down at what our plants are growing in if we want to truly be healthy.

This blog is an attempt to help make it simple for all of us to understand how to get the nutrients into our food and where we can find the information.

My company, Green Team Management pretty much is just me, you can view my history and back ground at www.gtm-llc.com for more detail. And I do everything from Tree to Garden to Pest Management.

However the soil aspect and getting nutrients into the soil is so important, I have had to find a way to help people get the information and now that you have the information, share it with family and friends.

Disease and cancer is effecting every family, and although gardening isn't the cure all, it is the first step to getting the nutrients into your body to help make it healthy.

If you want a yard consultation please contact me in person at greenteam.ted@gmail.com.